Shine the Light- Ogden Temple and Tabernacle Rededication and Commemorative Community Cultural Celebration Youth Choir and Cast

That's what we just finished. Actually, I don't know if that's it or not, but all those words are in there--in some order or another. ;-)

Does it seem confusing? Believe me, I can empathize. 'Confusing' is a large part of the experience I just had.

Don't worry. It is not my intention to spend a lot of time whining about the hard parts of this experience. But there have been frustrations. How could there not be?

The scale of this thing just astounds me. 2 separate casts of 8,000-10,500 kids performing 15 songs complete with dancing, costumes, scenery, props, and a full choir. And all of this being designed and put out--start to finish--in under 5 months, by a handful of amazing people, but mostly amateurs, none-the-less, and volunteers to boot.

It is a fact that this never would have worked without divine help. It's humbling to think that our offering was worthy of heavenly supplement. But my hat goes off to the hundreds of committed earth-angels too.

I'm stalling. Can you tell? I cannot figure out how to sum up all of the positive points of this experience in one blog post. There's just too much. But to quote one of my assistants, "[A] simple phone call, three months ago, changed my life."

He texted that too me shortly after we arrived at the Dee Events Center for our only dress-rehearsal on Saturday morning. Stage crew were hustling all around. Sound guys were doing mike checks. The choir turned out to be larger than expected, so we were being shuffled across seating sections. And all the youth were doing what youth do--talk, talk, talking.

However, in spite of the noise and bustle, I don't remember ever feeling that palpable "temple" spirit in a secular building the way I did that morning. My feelings were (and still are) so tender about it all, so when my friend texted me and said, "This place is bursting with the spirit of Christ. I need a box of tissues." I felt I had to verify his sincerity.

After he made the statement about the phone call, I replied, "This has been a great experience for me too. These kids have done more to restore my faith in humanity than most anything I've encountered in recent years. They don't even have a clue about the power they carry with them. But I feel it."

His reply, "No they don't. They are pure like I don't remember experiencing before."

I know we've all been told similar things as youth, too. We've all heard about being part of the chosen generation and how much stronger we were than our predecessors, but I believe it now. And I get it. As we move through this life we draw from the support of those who came before or us, then we reach back to support those coming up behind us. The support we received makes us more capable than we would have been alone, so we have more to give those who follow. We build on each other and make the chain of our generations unbreakable.

And it's not just about families. It's about wave after wave of volunteers in God's service. The generations of this church and this work. Pioneers to settlers to farmers and so on up through our respective times.

I'm the kid who is just now figuring out about the power that is in me, that I didn't have a clue about. And banded together with hundreds of others who were raised to be willing and capable, we were able to do something amazing for the current youth of our church, who will take this and build on it for those who come behind them. That's the power. Generations of giving to each other.

So, evil forces that be, good luck. We actually are gathering strength and closing ranks.

Our Ford Truck Collection

This summer, Ben has been running a hospice and care center for Ford trucks in all states of health.

Sweety couldn't be happier about so many outlets for his imagination.

I'm happy to report that this summer's RV-box removal surgery, on the white truck, was a complete success. 

But I'm secretly--or rather, not so secretly--hoping that the care center will undergo a period of downsizing soon. I guess I'm just not that much of a giver when it comes to these old-timers.

Intense Summer Fun

This summer, as a cure for idleness and boredom, Ben got us into a really cool project. His goal was to make and deliver 30 treats, to 30 friends, in 30 days.

That equates to a LOT of time in the kitchen, a LOT of time chasing people down, and a LOT of crap food around my house (my expanded waistline will prove that last point).

But we had a LOT of fun doing this too! Our kids got to see--firsthand--how fun it is to make other people happy with a gift and/or visit, and they learned a thing or two about food preparation as well.

Would I recommend this project for your family? Definitely! Especially if I'm on your list of receivers. ;)

Will we be doing this again? Yes! But I'm going to require the full year to recover, so don't even look for us until next summer!

Smarty's First Stab at Composing

Smarty wrote our bedtime song last night. This is his morning-after version:

"Warrior"

(Verse 1)
He's strong and he's brave.
And he fights for freedom.
The other soldiers help him.
He runs and runs and runs and runs
He climbs up the mountains and jumps down
JUMP-JUMP-JUMP-JUMP!

(chorus-chant)
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!

(verse 2)
He's tough and he's brave.
And he helps all the people.
His group is all the helpers.
He wrote a letter to his family.
He flies an F-16 high in the sky.
He dives down and shoots his missiles.
FLY-FLY-FLY-FLY!

(chorus-chant)
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!
Go warrior, go!

Still Potty Training...

Big boys who put their poops in the potty, around here, get to drive Dad's truck around the back yard. Does this smack a little desperate to you? 'Cuz we are.

Sweety absolutely loved this. He was so into it! It was fun to watch him acting so grown-up.

I wish he'd earn another trip.

Ok people. Do you have any ideas for motivating an extremely content little guy to make pooping in the potty a priority? We would LOVE to hear them.

We've upped the anti higher than this before, but he just gives up if the stakes are too high.

Ah well, we'll get there eventually.

A Place to Hang Your Hat

I LOVE my new house! I'm so happy here!! But one flaw in my home is that the coat closet is in the back of the house, approximately a mile or so away from the front door. And, to boot, there's not enough room in the entryway for a coat stand or some such. So we made this:

We were hoping to use cute old doorknobs, but actual antique doorknobs are astronomically high in price (something like $25-$30 a whack), so we just picked out some cheap but interesting drawer-pulls and hooks at Lowes and mounted them on a crate lid. It now hangs on the wall beside the door, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

New Hair

What do you think?

I hope I can muster up enough coordination to style it on my own!

Tumblin' Sweety

Sweety had a fantastic time with his tumbling class last fall--even though his face in the below pic would suggest otherwise. As this is an outdoor class, we can't wait for the sun to come out so he can tumble some more! Thanks Anna and Natalie, for all the fun!

How to Prune a Cherry Tree

Want to prune your own cherry tree this year, but need some advice? My boss at the Ogden Botanical Gardens says cherry trees require only one cut, near the base of the trunk. (apparently they're not his favorite)

Ben took pruning classes from my boss a while back and clearly learned well. Grandpa Moody is modeling Ben's work on his cherry tree below. I'm sure my boss would be proud.

'O Tannenbaum

I love my Christmas tree. I love all Christmas trees. They're so beautiful and loaded with meaning and history. Being a sentimental fool, they just make my holiday.

I've been looking for years for a star I liked, with no luck. So this year I gave up and made one. I grabbed up a couple of big star ornaments from the dollar store and put a string of cool temp. LED lights inside. I think I like how it all turned out.

Space Saving Solutions

We live in a pretty small house and storage space is minimal. Consequently, one of my favorite pastimes is surfing the net for creative storage ideas (I'm a dork. Don't worry, I know this). I haven't come across new ideas in a while, so I figure it's probably time to do a post of my own.
So in no particular order, here are some of the ingenious storage ideas we're currently using:

• We store wheat buckets under the end tables in our living room:

• We store other food items under the edge of the kitchen table, next to the wall.
• Our water storage boxes take up most of the space under the boys' bunk-bed (it's kind of nice that nothing gets lost under there).
• We've even been known to pull beds a few inches away from the walls and hide 72 hour kits or whatever behind the headboard.
• My tiny little kitchen doesn't even have a cupboard big enough to hold this platter, so we pretend like it's art instead:

• This casserole dish (in the dark, on the right) is one of my favorites, but it's long and skinny and difficult to stack with other dishes. Instead we hide it behind Sweety's picture in the top of our DVD cabinet:

• The closet in the front bedroom is like 3 feet deep, but having the closet bar set traditionally across the back of the closet made it difficult to take advantage of all that floor space. Ben moved the bar over to the side, and now we fill it with boxes, chairs, table-leaves, the vacuum and broom, etc. It's great!

• This was my Christmas present this year. I. Love. It. No more shoes all over the living room floor for us! I swear it always looks this neat and orderly, and we never, ever try to shove 40 pairs of shoes in here; even though you'd be surprised at how well this shelf holds them all! ;)

• This magnet board was made by my sweet sis-in-law, Millie:My hubby built a very simple rack to go behind it, with a separate door for medicines. Before this we had medicines and spices stacked in the breadbox, the pantry, and all through our cupboards. As far as I'm concerned, this is revolutionary!

I wish I could take credit for dreaming up all of these ideas, but any that originated from our house came from our resident creative genius, Ben. The rest we've borrowed from wherever we could find them.

So what am I missing in this list? What are your favorite creative storage solutions?