Extra help for his work

church callings......

 Sometimes they force you out of your comfort zone and make you face your inner teenager insecurities like when I was the YW president. 

 Sometimes the call comes after you sub in Primary and watch the couple that is teaching your child and the other 7 year olds look so depressed and annoyed at wiggly 7 year olds and think this class needs me. I have learned a thing or two after 20 years of experience in Special Ed amongst some hard kids and could really help the moral of this group.   Someone up above transferred the message because within a few weeks I got called to be this wiggly classes primary teacher.    I know I should be more humble but I can't help but be proud that I'm really making a difference .   I went out of the way to befriend one girl in the class who always went with her mom to Relief Society because she "hates primary so much."   I convinced her to give my class a chance and now she comes every week and I get updates on her baby gerbils she got for Christmas.   I use to sub pretty regularly for an older class and befriended a smart, sassy ADHD kid that drives most adults crazy.  Now he continues to ask me every week if he can come to my class even though I tell him sorry your too old.   I think it's because I believe in "flexible seating, meaning sit where and how you want, don't get too wrapped up in being "reverent"  and tie games like "keepy uppy" (where you keep the balloon up in the air and not let it touch to ground) into the lesson about awake and arise from a spiritual slumber because we have to be alert for the spiritual balloons Heavenly Father is sending down to us and we don't want to let them get by us and pop.   The only problem is Aaron informed me last week that he could hear our class all the way down the hall into his Deacon's quorum room.    

Sometimes callings come with a bit of humor from Heavenly Father.   Right after I was released from being the YW president I heard an announcement about a Relief Society evening activity.   Having been out of the loop for a few years with YW, working and hauling 4 kids around to all their activities I thought "Who in the world has time to go to those activities?"    Not soon after I met with the Bishop and got called to be the Relief Society Activity Chair and quietly and with a bit of sarcasm the spirit said "Apparently you do now"

Luckily we were slowly coming out of covid lock down so I only had to plan an activity every few months so the calling wasn't too overwhelming.   The crowning jewel activity each year is our Gratitude Dinner in November.   Planning those kept me up a few nights.   Big extended family camp outs and parties prepared me for cooking for a crowd.   I'm blessed to have had lots of tutoring sessions like the time I showed up for Labor Day with only a few packages of hamburger to feed the crowd.  Brooke taught me that you should plan on 1/3 pound of hamburger per person possibly 1/4 if you have lots of kids.     I had a great committee and plenty of help to set up and complete the activity.  The only 2 stresses were decorating and making the night inspirational.  

 Then the miracles happened.   

It was conference time Oct 2021 and we were in Pocatello staying with Joe and Sarah's family to go through the temple open house across the street from their house.  I had been thinking and over thinking who I could ask to come speak.  I wanted someone not in the ward because a new face adds a new feeling.  I also felt strongly the nights theme should be  Gratitude for theTemple.   I was talking to Joe about my calling and mentioned I wished I knew some general authority or LDS influencer that could come and speak.   He said why don't you ask Mary she's an insider into the church.   I wanted the theme to center around being grateful for the temple and I realized that Mary has travelled around the world with the church reporting on  Temple dedications and it was the perfect suggestion.   I immediately called Mary and she said she would love to.   Mary did a magnificent presentation.  

I received such wonderful feedback that the next year I was even more stressed about finding the inspirational speaker because I knew expectations were high.  So there I was again fall of 2022 stressing and praying about who to ask.  I was scrolling  instagram one day and saw a post from Brooke Romney shared by a family friend Adie Mitchell about making your circle of friendship a horse shoe so you can include everyone.  I knew this needed to be the theme but perplexed about who to ask.   I talked it over with Allyson who saw the same post and said why don't you just ask Adie to come present on this.  She's an extremely friendly extrovert.   I honestly thought Adie who travels a lot and lives a busy life wouldn't have the time to come but was relieved and surprised when she said she would love to.   She came and gave an energetic and touching speech about knowing who we are and our own divine mission.  She then related it to reaching out to each other in love.  I'll never forget her example of being a "spastic" extroverted teenager in high school.    She had tons of friends at the large Clearfield High School but noticed this boy who always sat at the back of the room in Math and never talked to anyone.  Being the way Adie is she turned around and found out his name was Brad and she said in in a silly sing songy voice and made sure to call him by it when she sat down for math.   She then started noticing that she passed him everyday in the hallway after 5th period.  She would go out of her way to say Hi Brad in her silly way.   After some time she noticed his awkward shy face would be looking for her at the same time each day to hear her say hi to him.    Fast forward a few years and Adie was home from college for the weekend.   Her mom answered the phone and said Adie it's for you and its a Booyyyy!!  Adie answered it and a confident voice said Hi Adie this is Brad.   Adie said she immediately thought of a few Brads she knew and couldn't place which one he was.  He then said this is Brad from your math class in High School.   Instantly Adie said Hi Brad in her sing songy voice and then braced herself thinking he was going to ask her out.   Brad then said Adie I wanted to call and tell you that in High School I was very depressed and friendless.   I was at my lowest and wanted to end my life when I started the math class and you started saying hi to me everyday.   I looked forward to being called by name and it was the only reason I stayed alive for a long time.   After high school I went on my mission and am happy and healthy now but wanted to call and thank you for saving my life. 

 I don't think there was a dry eye in the crowd after hearing this story and I knew it was inspiration once again that Allyson gave me the idea to ask her to come. 

My ward is full of very talented women who are next level at so many things.  One of these is decorating for ward parties.  Unfortunately I do not have a knack for wedding decor.   My fabulous committee members felt the same way.   The first year, I I reached out to Pauline asking her if she still had the table cloth squares she made for my wedding.   Of course Pauline being next level herself said she had something even better, this beautiful fall fabric that she could make some for me.   I also contacted my neighbor knowing she has collected many glass table centers from helping with tons of weddings.   Things were coming together but I still didn't know how to frame the podium.   Then another very talented neighbor came up to me and said she had this beautiful balloon arch left over from a wedding or baby shower she hosted and wondered if we would like to use it.   She then offered her talents to put the whole thing together.  It turned out perfect and so did the night.  

I regret not taking any pictures of the 2nd year Gratitude Dinner night.   Once again my committee and I were at a lost of how to decorate.  I'd already used up all the ideas and help from the many talented sources from my ward so we all decided we would come together, bring whatever fall decor we had and make it work.   I didn't realize how unprepared we were until a day or 2 before the night and I started stressing that it was going to be a modge bodge show.   Literally the day before I got a text from a lady in the ward Tasha who said I hope I'm not stepping on any toes but I have this strong impression that I should call you and offer to help decorate.   What a miracle because I had no idea this sister loves decorating and has a garage full of just about everything ward party decorating related.  I happily gave her the reins and it turned out so lovely.  

This last Gratitude dinner involved a different Relief Society Presidency and a few different committee members.   The old R.S. President offered to ask her cousin who is the curator for the BYU art museum.  She has a whole presentation of feeling the spirit through art.   My new committee had lots of ideas of exactly how to decorate and asked the sisters in the ward to contribute works of arts that have a special meaning to them  or help them feel the Spirit.   I was so happy for all the decorating ideas but soon my idea of a simple "funeral" style meal of ham, potatoes and salad wasn't fancy enough.   The New R.S. Presidency really wanted as much of the meal to be donated from the sisters.   One of my new committee members wanted Pork Loin and volunteered to cook it herself even though she was knee deep in organizing the decorations.  I'm not a control freak so I was easily influenced to change my dinner ideas unthough I couldn't shake the uneasiness about the whole thing and finally called her up a week or so before the dinner and found out she was still recovering from a surgery that wasn't suppose to take that long to recover from.   So I took over the pork loin cooking despite feeling inferior to my fierce meat smoking relatives on Bart's side.   I called Pauline for a tutorial, borrowed her roasters, thermostats and seasoning and spent the better part of the day prepping and cooking 4 large pork loins.  I followed the directions and cooked to the exact temp but felt it turned out dry and gross.    I've been spoiled from too many yummy sunday dinners at Paulines with smoked Pork that I forgot that an oven baked pork roast is gross.   I also learned that having a pot luck for the other food really isn't a great idea unless it's only cold salads because all the potato and veggie dishes were cold by the time we served them.   Everything is a lesson and next time I'm in the situation I'm not going to let anyone high jack the dinner idea.   The only salvation was the yummy homemade rolls Becky from the committee made and the cheesecake bar turned out amazing! Oh well that the dinner was mostly gross,   the decorations were unreal and one of my new young committee members took all these pictures and said "This is nicer than my wedding."   The speaker was nice and I had so much help this year that the set up and clean up was a breeze.   It was a nice way to end the era of R.S. activity committee chair.    

A few other noteworthy activities for me to remember that we had a fun time doing.

 

Aaron's first Priesthood Ordination

Aaron was ordained to the officer of a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood on January 7, 2024 by his father Bart Richards with his Grandpa John Richards standing in the circle. 

 

Mean Girls the Musical

Emily has loved every minute she was involved in the school musicals and this year was no exception!    I was saddened to find out the photographer this year only focused on the leads and missed everyone in the background but Emily seemed to not care because when it comes to the musical it's the things in the background that make the best memories.   

 I asked Emily what her favorite memory was and she replied getting ready all together with her friends in the make up room.  

During tech weeks (the two weeks leading up to the performance) I'm exhausted watching Emily burn both ends of the candle spending every waking moment at the school.   Emily on the other hand can't get enough of how fabulous it is to spend every waking moment surrounded by her friends!

I use to expect Emily to be relieved after the final performance but I've learned that's when her eyes swell up with tears and she holds on a little tighter to her friends for the night because soon the "family bond" has to be broken.  This year being the last was an exceptionally emotional time! 

 

Fabulous Fall Photo Shoots

I sometimes look back at me in the 90's and  my frizzy hair and  think,  straightening irons were a straight up gift from Heaven.   Then I cringe a little bit because I hated my picture taken and even more so hated to look at pictures taken of me.   I wonder if my confidence would have been better in this world of instant selfies and good quality photos.  Or maybe my Heavenly Parents thought we better send this girl down before iphones and social media to give her confidence a chance.  

Anyway I love that my girls are so comfortable and confident in front of a camera.   I love all the memories they make and share with me.  Both of them this fall went with their friends up to the mountains when the leaves were at their peak for some fun pictures.  

 

Influencers

 In a world where everything is at your fingertips we have to be careful what we allow to influence us.     For instance Aaron likes to watch you tube reels.  If I go to you tube reels all I see are dumb tricks, how things are made and a ridiculous amount of basketball.  It's obvious an 11 year old boy is watching it.  

I use to just scroll through reels watching anything and everything that interested me.  I once shared what I thought was a funny reel making fun of husbands and didn't realize I had offended Bart until it came up in an argument.  I found a funny "kids in band reel" that I shared with my girls only to discover my feed thought I was a band teacher and sent me tons of content about teaching band.  One time my curiosity took me down a worm hole watching reels about someone's story about why she left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   Soon I discovered that a lot of my feed became mostly anti-mormon,  and husband bashing content.  I couldn't stand it anymore so   I took a break from social media. It felt refreshing to not waste my energy on mindless stupidity but I also missed some of the motivational posts from people like Come follow me Daily, a good parenting parenting influencer, new recipe ideas or Elder Holland posts that keep my perspective grounded on the important things.  

So I made a decision to be intentional about what I was watching and I was amazed at how quickly my feed switched to what I am interested in watching and feel more uplifted and inspired doing it.  I still can't figure out why instagram thinks I'm into mountain biking or obsessed with Disneyland but I just keep scrolling past those and maybe they will disappear.

I've taken my new intentionally being influenced approach a step further.  I only share positive teenager vibes posts/reels with my girls on their instagram message and occasionally slip in "math hacks to prepare yourself for the ACT" with Jane to clog her feed up with math, (insert evil laugh here).  

While raising teenagers, one thing is for sure, I feel so blessed for all the many great influences in my girls lives!!!!  They have so many voices to listen to and research shows that as a parent you take a side or back seat to being able to influence them the older they get.   Thank heavens for good people who take time out of their busy life to influence my kids life.  

My girls are so blessed with a ward and especially great young women leaders!   In September they arranged a super Saturday temple day where they started at 7 in the morning and got home at 9pm and did baptisms in 5 different temples.  

First  was the new Saratoga Springs temple.  (Emily told the Merinda the advisor she would love to get Wifed up here)

Then they went to the Provo City CenterTemple.  (Jane fell in love with the beauty of this temple)

Next up was the Payson Temple

Then the Provo Temple (which they commented looks like a birthday cake)

And lastly was the Timpanogos temple 

Emily bore her testimony about how she didn't want to spend an entire Saturday going on the temple tour but during it she felt inspired to encouraged to get her friends together and do baptisms so she could share her love of the temple with them.   Jane spoke in church a couple Sunday's after the temple day about how it was a long day and by the time they went into the Timpanogas temple she drained and tired yet she gained a greater love the temple and the work that happens there.  

When I grew up the Bishop to me was just another man in the ward who conducted sacrament meeting.  My kids love the Bishopric.    Emily says she's besties with the Bishop and Lee.   They are kind to my kids and don't take Spencer's honest yet slightly inappropriate boldness to heart. Even if Bart and I are dying when they stopped by our house on assignment from the Stake to get input from the youth about how they can help them as a Bishopric and after a while Spencer flat out said "When are you "jerks" going to leave?" They turned to us and said "Every family has that one who says it like it is, we definitely both do".   I'm not sure what Spencer meant by jerks but he laughed when Brother Camblin came up behind him at Sams Club and scared him and another time after Bishop Sackewitz came into Primary Spencer turned to me and said he's the "G.O.A.T".  I'm guessing that "jerks" to Spencer is not the same thing that "jerks' are to me.  

Here's a picture of the Bishopric and leaders when they disguised themselves for a mall youth "Where's Waldo" activity

President Hinkley used to say everyone needs a friend at church.  My girls are so blessed with the best of friends and good influences at church.    Even last Sunday as we were leaving church  Jane got a call from Ella saying "Your coming with me to Mission and Life Prep"  I heard Jane protest that she was hungry and didn't want to go but Ella then said come with me and we will stop by my place get something to eat and then go.  With that Jane went. 

Since birth my kids have always looked up to Max as someone who is obedient and steadfast in the church and also someone who's fun to be around.    There was never a doubt he wouldn't serve a mission and now my kids look forward to hearing about his mission adventures from his weekly emails.