Thursday, May 29, 2008

The End of All Things

I love the end of May. It signifies the end of the school year, the end of seminary, the end of dance lessons, the end of baseball, the end of trapshooting, the end of piano lessons, the end of endless chauffering of kids from here to there and everywhere. Right around the middle of May I get tired...very, very tired. I start thinking about next year and trying to figure out how I can stop the endless running around. I wish I lived on a farm, way out in the country, away from all the "life enriching" activities that I think my kids need.

I've been taking an online class where we read, study and discuss great literature and inspiring documents. The first document we discussed was Your Refined Heavenly Home, by Douglass L. Callister. I love this speech. Actually, I don't love this speech. Well, I do and I don't! It's an amazing speech that has caused me to take a closer look at the environment of my home. I love it because it has caused me to really think about my home and how conducive it is to cultivating the type of refinement that he talks about. And I don't love it because taking a closer look is painful! I so desire to have a "Refined Heavenly Home", but I have a looooong way to go!

I believe the first step to having a home where refinement can grow is to have a home that is ordered. I grew up in a home without order. There was constant clutter everywhere. I craved order, but did not know how to get it. Sometimes the only place in my home that was clean was the bathroom floor. I would take my book into the bathroom and sit on the floor to read. When I grew up I determined that I would have an ordered home. However, I was not taught good habits and consequently it has taken me years to understand how to order my home. In fact, I am still trying to figure it out. My problem, well one of many, is consistency. I start something, but can never follow through to completion.

One of my favorite scriptures is from Abraham 4:18. After completing their creations on the fourth day, “...the Gods watched all these things which they had ordered until they obeyed.” First the Gods put the elements in their place, then they watched them to see that the elements stayed. This does not mean they just sat and watched the elements, it also does not mean they forced the elements to obey. They would have had to keep making corrections and fine tuning things until the elements completely understood their place. The Gods prepared a place of order before introducing flesh on the earth. They created a beautiful place that refinement could then take place in.

See, that's what I'm not good at. The fine tuning. My world would have been one of chaos because I would have gotten everything in place and then...well actually it wouldn't have even gotten to that stage. I would have planned everything, had it written up on paper with umpteen charts, graphs, and illustrations...and then stopped.

But I keep trying. I can give myself credit for that. This week I have been going through my house area by area, purging and organizing; putting everything in place. I have such a strong desire to change. Over the past year I have been changing and learning and growing...minutely, but still progressing. I will perservere!

Go read the article and then tell me what you think.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Pass the tissues please

"Slowly he took out the clothes in which ten years before, Cosette had left Montfermeil...he was remembering...he arranged the little things on the bed, the scarf next to the skirt, the stockings beside the shoes, the bodice beside the dress, and he looked at them one after another...She was no taller than that...she laughed, they walked along holding hands, she had nobody but him in the world.

Then his venerable white head fell on the bed, this old stoical heart broke, his face was swallowed up, so to speak, in Cosette's clothes, and anybody who had passed along the staircase at that moment would have heard irrepressible sobbing." (Um yes, irrepressible sobbing...beginning on page 1384 and lasting until the end of the book...)

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Decorating 101



Well, I've got all my wheat...now, where do I put it? Does anyone have any ideas of how I can incorporate 30 white buckets into my decorating scheme?

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Who are you?

Just little ol' Mindyluwho. My husband calls me that. He gives all his favorite people funny monikers. Mindyluwho is, of course, a take off of Cindy Lou Who (who is no more than two) from Dr. Suess's, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love the version with Boris Karloff as narrator. My husband's favorite book by Dr. Suess is The Sneetches. (That reminds me of when I was driving down the street once and I saw a girl walking by with a star tatoo around her belly button. All I could think of was "The Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars, but the Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars!")

I'm rambling.

Anyway... this post was to tell you that I'm changing the name of my blog back to Mindyluwho. I'm tired of being Under Construction...on so many levels. I want to move myself past the construction phase and into...another phase. Actually I'd really like to be under construction on my new house, but it's looking like that may never happen, or at least not for a long time...sigh...and the name Under Construction just seems to harsh for me with roses on my background and all. I've been trying to think of a new name, but haven't hit on one that describes me yet.

Tomorrow (or rather today, since it's past midnight) I'm going to see this movie.

Since I'm rambling...I stayed up until 3am reading Les Miserables on Monday. I'm now at the last book, Jean Valjean. I love this part of the novel. It's heartwrenching but extremely moving. Last time after I finished reading it I sobbed off and on for days.

After we finish Les Mis, we're going to read Alas, Babylon. I love this book. I read it several years ago. It's set during the Cold War and depicts how a community survived after a nuclear war set their civilization back 200 years. It will make you want your food storage! (I just had to get a plug in there somehow!)

Signing off now!