[Please excuse the fact that this post is several months late. Life happens.]
Merry Christmas!!
This year we received a homemade advent calendar - the first we've had for our little family. Each numbered ornament on the felt tree was a pocket for, well, some treat of the day. But these pockets were tiny and not that suitable for candies or chocolates.
But then I came across this: 25 Ways to #LightTheWorld This Christmas. I printed off the advent calendar service idea cards and put each one in its pocket. Perfect fit!
"Many of our memorable and enduring Christmas traditions include different kinds of lights—lights on trees, lights in and on our homes, candles on our tables. Indeed, light has significant meaning as we commemorate the humble birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
. . .
"May we increasingly learn and more fully understand that Jesus Christ is the “light which shineth in darkness.” In every season of our lives, in all of the circumstances we may encounter, and in each challenge we may face, the Savior is the light that dispels fear, provides assurance and direction, and engenders enduring peace and joy. May the beautiful lights of every Christmas season remind us of Him who is the source of all light."
Now I want to share what we did each day to try to "light the world" during this Christmas season. We definitely were not perfect, but we I think we all enjoyed the daily challenges.
[click the images to enlarge]
Sometimes we are only able to serve the world within the walls of our own homes. That was the case for us since Tevia was sick with a cold. I served her by taking care of her (like usual but with extra attention). Lucas served us by washing the dishes, making sure we had dinner to eat, and bathing Tevia. I asked Tevia how she could serve others (ie. make others happy) and she decided to serve us by smiling - her own idea!
Normally she doesn't smile like this but she insisted that this was her smile. Poor, sick girl.
I honored my parents by chatting with them through Skype. (If I could have seen them in person, I would've hugged my dad and helped my mom with a chore.) Lucas honored his parents by taking the time to do some family history work. (Tevia refused to participate and also doesn't agree that we are parents or that she is a daughter.)
Lucas helped set up the lighting booth for the Nativity set so people will be able to "see" the pageant. I tried to help Tevia "see" what it's like to "not see" by playing a game where she had to identify objects while being blindfolded (though she didn't like the blindfold and often took out objects before naming them). Then we watched a short Bible video about Jesus healing a man born blind.
We served God by worshiping Him at church and later by watching the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional.
The irony of this day's theme was that Tevia and I were sick with colds. Fortunately, this provided an opportunity for others to serve us and it taught me to be patient in that trial. A friend took care of our errands and also brought me some wonderful pho (Vietnamese soup) to help with my cold!
I guess I served by continuing to take care of Tevia (to a small degree, since I wasn't feeling good either) and Lucas served by being there for us before and after work.
Jesus read the scriptures and so did we with family and individual scripture study. I also watched some short videos for The Book of Mormon Reader on the iPad with Tevia of Christ's birth and visiting the Nephites.
"For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
"And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
"And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
"And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
"I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world."
The rich have a responsibility to give to the poor and needy, mainly for the reason that God has given us so much and what we have actually belongs to Him.
"And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
"And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received."
"I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give," is the mentality to have if you are in a position where you barely have sufficient for your needs. If you are greedy or would still "deny the beggar" even if you had substance, that is a sin. Perhaps also wishing to be the one receiving more is also a sin here...
"And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.
"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."
We are to serve our fellowmen temporally and spiritually - but to be sure we are not overdoing it. Be wise: give where it is needed and wanted.
I need to keep in mind for myself that if I'm not in the position to give of myself, whether temporally or spiritually, that I must do what I can to stabilize my situation and work on gaining a surplus until I can go and help others - and to not feel guilty about it!
We helped to feed the hungry by putting a donation in a "Feed the Need" box in Lethbridge. This is a cupboard of sorts next to the sidewalk of a busy street where food, toiletries, and hats/mittens are within easy access of anyone in need. I heard about this a few months previous but hadn't had a chance to do anything about it, and I'm glad we did! There was hardly anything in the one we went to. Our donation did contain food, but it was mostly hats and mittens, etc. It was a very cold day (around -20 degrees Celsius)!
Other than the typical meal time and family prayers, we tried to be more prayerful. I tried to remember to pray for others' difficult situations and more faithfully for myself to get through my own trials.
Some more irony here: due to many circumstances, we weren't able to visit the lonely and I ended up feeling lonely myself.
Service is not necessarily meant to be convenient or comfortable. Mother nature made sure of that with the frigid temperatures and blowing snow. We intended to visit someone lonely but the weather combined with other circumstances made that impossible. My mom said we could count her as being lonely though when we Skyped my parents, so... check!
The irony doesn't stop there. Then, the morning of the day that we were to help others to walk, Tevia and I slipped outside and hurt ourselves - not too badly for her, but very painful for me. I was helping Tevia to walk on ice and snow so she wouldn't slip... when I slipped. So I had trouble walking for much of the day (and on and off since then because I keep re-injuring myself).
But on the spiritual side of things, I noticed a post on Facebook that said, "Jesus Christ healed those who could not walk and helped them rise physically and spiritually," which reminded me of the song, "I Will Rise" by Alex Boye. It talks of us being resurrected with Christ and of the removal of pain and sorrow when that day comes.
As parents, ministering to children is an everyday thing. We try our best to be good parents for Tevia and to make sure she is heard and played with... and rescued from locking herself in her room!
That night we went to Handel's Messiah and two women sitting on either side of us commented afterwards about how well behaved Tevia was for her age, how we are so gentle with her and that it is so wonderful to have another one on the way since we are such good parents already. I felt honored to hear such words, especially since we considered leaving early because Tevia was getting fussy (in our opinion).
No specific teaching or learning was undertaken that day, but I know we are Tevia's parents and primary teachers. With the increase of tantrums and interactions with other young children who are learning to share, we've had to teach her how to handle internal and external conflict. Emotions are hard to deal with, even as an adult. And once again, it's not just a one day thing.
I couldn't think of anything specific to do to be humble (especially since that is a difficult trait to identify in oneself) but I did ponder the necessity of being humble in order to serve others. I realized that all service requires humility or else it isn't service. It lacks love otherwise, which is essential. "Charity ... seeketh not her own," and, "if ye have not charity, ye are nothing" (Moroni 7:45-46). After all, "are we not all beggars?" (Mosiah 4:19, above). Aren't we all in need of something we can't give ourselves? When you serve, do you have the mindset of: "I can't believe you can't provide that yourself, but here you go anyway -- and you better return the favor!" or: "I'll help you until you can do it yourself and not ask for anything in return"?
This day was about clothing the naked. We did part of this when donating to a "Feed the Need" box because we also included hats, mittens, etc. We also dropped off a bag of clothing to Value Village. Easy.
We took the time to worship through song by singing some Christmas hymns as a family before Tevia went to bed. She really enjoyed that. Now "O Come, All Ye Faithful" must be her favorite Christmas song because she kept asking us to sing it everyday afterwards for a while.
I also want to share a song I love (though a slightly different arrangement) called, "He Is Born" by BYU Vocal Point. Lucas and I have been working on a duet arrangement to sing at church hopefully next Christmas. (We would have tried for this Christmas if circumstances had been different.)
I talked to Tevia about compassion being a form of love where we help others to feel better. So I asked her what she could do to help someone else "feel better"; she listed: lay down in bed, go to sleep, and sing "Twinkle, Twinkle." I didn't realize until the next day that we showed compassion the previous night by getting to know a young couple (new in our area) with a girl Tevia's age.
Although the day was about loving our mothers, Tevia kept talking about our entire family being together forever and that we can love each other by singing "Ring Around the Rosie." I printed off and mailed a postcard to my mom of three things she did for me and why it matters. And Lucas... I don't know what he did for his mom.
We honored the Sabbath Day by going to church, focusing on fulfilling our callings, kept ourselves from watching TV and playing computer games, spent time with Tevia, and then I went to a special women's Christmas devotional that evening.
Lucas "calmed the storm" by being an on-call volunteer for CASARA (Civil Air Search And Rescue Association), although he wasn't needed for anything that day. I think he is also the main peacemaker of the home, sometimes trying to put out two fires at once (when Tevia and I have simultaneous meltdowns).
I wanted to work on putting together emergency 72-hour kits, but that didn't work out. I think I help to calm storms by being aware of others around me, especially of their social, emotional and mental states, to see how I might be of help to them.
I made a card for a friend, expressing the blessing of having such a person in our lives. I also always encourage Tevia to do many good things and praise her good work and effort.
I tried to be forgiving by holding my tongue when interacting with Lucas (sometimes I just say more than needs to be said or get too picky about something). It was an eye-opener for me to see where I stand in our relationship. Lucas didn't notice the difference, but loves me more for it. This is definitely something I need to continue working on.
Showing gratitude is an everyday thing for our family as part of our Family Devotional: the Thank You Jar... except we didn't actually follow the routine that day! But we often talk and pray about the things we are grateful for throughout the day, so I wasn't so concerned about missing just one day.
I think overall we all did a good job of being peacemakers by reducing contention in our home that day. Tevia didn't even have a tantrum (though she did do some things to spite Lucas).
Lucas and I cared for our loved ones by taking care of Tevia (as usual). We arrived in Calgary that day to be with my family for Christmas, so we also showed love for them. Lucas helped my family with a snow shoveling route and I folded some laundry while they were out.
I think this advent calendar helped me commit to reading the scriptures and writing in my journal on an almost daily basis. I noticed the Spirit throughout the day as I pondered how I could serve others. I really liked having a goal each day to try to serve someone else. That's why I'd like to do this (or a very similar thing) next Christmas (at the very least).
What a fun Christmas season we had! Tevia is still telling us, "We forgot about the advent calendar!" She really enjoyed the routine of reading each day's assignment at breakfast time. I suppose we'll have to figure out another "advent calendar" to do outside of the holiday season...
Merry Christmas from the Ogrins Family!
Bumpity, bump, bump, bumpity, bump, bump...
Do you have any ideas of other "advent calendars" to do during the year? What kind of advent calendar do you have for Christmas?
I'm sure you can tell by now that I am a lover of family history. I love digging through virtual and authentic records to learn about an ancestor's past, where they grew up and moved on to start families of their own.
But, just in the last few weeks, I realized that I need to make sure I know the basic details about my own living relatives. What if tomorrow, or even today, something happens in which I lose contact with a large portion of my family? What valuable information might I never know? What if my posterity will one day rely on meonly to pass along that information? I can only imagine how disappointed they would feel if I didn't have the answers to their questions.
I must sound like a grandmother with those kinds of thoughts. Isn't it only for grandparents to be concerned about passing on their heritage? Or someone who knows they will die soon of some fatal disease?
Thank goodness, I'm still young and I don't know of any fatal disease withering me away! (Of course, that never takes away the possibility that I might not be alive tomorrow or next week.) I am also still full of the kinds of questions that young people might have about their family's relationships.
So... "I'm my own grand[ma]"?
The Challenge
I am currently adding to my family tree any details I can about my living relatives, especially of those I may never meet in person. I've added most living relatives to my tree that are older than my parents, but not many cousins or younger posterity of my parents' generation. I have access to, but I really should list full names, birth dates and places, spouses and marriage or (so commonly now) divorce dates, and children's names for those people so that I have the information for myself. I suppose updating phone numbers, addresses and even email addresses would be useful in case I want to stay in contact.
I know it'll be easy (just time-consuming) to gather and add information for my dad's side of the tree, but it'll be a little more difficult when doing my mom's side. My mom hasn't see her family much since most of them live in the United States and she isn't up-to-date with children born into the family and who's doing what where. If I can, I'd like to actually get to know her family. That's my challenge.
Do you need to do this too? What difficulties have you come across?
In the summer of 2010, my parents left my siblings and I at home for a few days while they went on a trip by themselves. I had just graduated high school; April had finished grade 10; William, grade 7; Douglas, grade 5.
My mom remembers coming home to a clean house, the table set, and dinner and dessert ready to be served. I don't remember anything but the silly skits we did.
Shakespeare Meets Cavemen
The first video is a rough edit of two takes. The script was written by some friends and I for an English project in high school. The assignment required us to have some large number of Shakespearean insults made from a combination of words in a list we were given and then perform the skit in front of the class. For whatever reason, my siblings and I decided it would be fun to do a video of it ourselves.
To outline what you will see, two girls travel in time and come across two cavemen. The girls are disgusted by the cavemen and the cavemen are frightened by these intruders. Insults inspired by Shakespearean texts are tossed back and forth between all four characters as the book, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is passed around.
The Time Machine
The following video is an improvisation inspired by the previous skit. A nerdy girl builds a time machine and travels through time to find oddly behaving cavemen who get the chance to try out the time machine.
Have you done any silly things while your parents went away? What did you do?
Due to some disturbing policy changes in Alberta schools regarding gender self-identification, I have written a letter to the Minister of Education of Alberta, Mr. David Eggen, stating my opinion on the matter. Many other parents (and their children) across the province have done the same. (Links are provided below.) This is the letter I emailed this morning:
-----
Dear Mr. Eggen,
I fear the consequences that will
come if the Guidelines for Best
Practices: Creating Learning Environments that Respect Diverse Sexual
Orientations, Gender Identities and Gender Expressions is implemented in
Alberta schools. It literally shakes me
to the core of my being.
Perhaps
you do not realize just how biased and disturbing this proposal is.
In the acknowledgements, you
express appreciation for “everyone who is committed to creating welcoming,
caring, respectful and safe learning environments across Alberta.” Please accept my plea for safe learning
environments everywhere.
I am a
caring mother of a 17-month-old
daughter. My husband, a protective father, works with me in parenting our
little girl. No matter what each of us may say, we are
still the gender and sex we were born as and ever will be so. As well, if not for our difference in gender
(which is based on sex which is based on anatomy), our daughter would not be a
part of this world.
Even
before we were married, I decided I wanted to homeschool our children. My reason was simply that I felt like there
was a lot of wasted time in school compared to what could have been
accomplished if I was able to learn at my own pace. I want my children to have the opportunity to
excel in whatever area they choose at the rate they are capable of learning –
but they will have the choice to learn at home or in a public or private school.
By Kristin Olsen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Another reason my husband and I
discussed was regarding what is being taught in the schools about sexual
education to the young people around us.
I believe that sex is good and appropriate, but only between a married man and woman. Any other sexual associations taught
otherwise degrade the purpose and sanctity of the family relationship. Else, what purpose is there to having a
family?
Now, if these so-called
“Guidelines” are enforced in Alberta schools, there is no way ever that I will let my daughter go to
public or private school if we continue to live within the province. I would not have peace of mind for any child
sent off to school. The “Guidelines”
contain loopholes that allow for potential sexual harassment, abuse and/or rape
to happen within school limits or on fieldtrips – without informing the parents
of the victim or abuser. Where, then, is
the safe haven for any child of any
gender-identity within Alberta schools?
The acceptance of either gender
to use any gendered bathroom, the elimination of gender-segregated activities,
and the opportunity to self-identify as either gender (or none) at any time
will not stop bullying of students
with different sexual preferences. These
“best practices” only cover up the problem of bullying and avoid dealing with the
serious mental, emotional, and sexual consequences of gender confusion in
children.
I do hope that, if these
“Guidelines” are enforced, those parents and families who choose to homeschool
their children or move outside of the province in response to the “new rules” will
not be punished in any way – whether financially, emotionally, educationally,
etc.
Please do not enforce these “best practices” in Alberta! I stand with many other caring and loving
parents in this.
Today is Family Day in the province of Alberta, Canada.
Since I don't actually know how this holiday came to be, I just did some Wikipedia research. This is what I learned:
celebrated by Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI), British Columbia (BC) and Saskatchewan
on the third Monday of February (except in BC on the second Monday)
coincides with Presidents' Day in the USA
first celebrated in 1990 in Alberta
"Premier [Don] Getty said it was important for all Albertans to take time for their families, and that this holiday would emphasize the importance of family values." [source]
So, to celebrate, here is a list of things you can do with your family today (or, really, any other day).
Tell each family member what you admire about them. If doing this verbally is too difficult (and all members know how to read and write at least a little), try this:
Each individual needs a piece of paper and a writing utensil.
Everyone writes their name on one side of the paper and places it in front of them.
Sitting in a circle, each person passes their paper to the person next to them.
On the back of the paper, each person writes 1-3 things they like about the person whose name is on the paper and flip it back over when done.
Continue passing papers until all family members have written on each other's paper.
why Heavenly Father decided to place us on the earth in families
Pick a family from your family tree to learn more about. Search for birth, death, marriage, war, and census records to find as many details as you can about each individual. Read journal entries, obituaries, biographies, compiled family genealogies, and look at family photos (if possible). Track family milestones (births, deaths, marriages, moves) on a map. Visit their grave sites if possible.
Although the day was about loving our mothers, Tevia kept talking about our entire family being together forever and that we can love each other by singing "Ring Around the Rosie." I printed off and mailed a postcard to my mom of three things she did for me and why it matters. And Lucas... I don't know what he did for his mom.
