Greetings from the Other Side of the Hard Parts

 

Since the announcement of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple in April of 2020 (and for months before the announcement actually), my family and I have been on quite the journey.

In the last 5 years, I have been serving with all my heart as Communication Director for the Pittsburgh North Stake. Through all of this, I came to understand that the Lord sees to every detail of the building of His temples, and I have grown and changed in so many ways under His tutelage.

I have worked closely with many awesome people in our town, and I've been humbled to work side-by-side with amazing people from every faith and organization in my area. 

I developed photography as a personal hobby and have taken thousands of photos of the temple, its construction from start to completion, special visitors, and my favorite, landscape photos that include the temple.  It has been amazing for my soul to watch how the temple has blessed our family.  I am in awe of all of it.

During that time, I have not blogged. 

As technology moved away from blogging, and as my son became a very controversial online presence with literally millions of followers, I just focused on sharing my testimony in my own life and on my personal social media circles. That has fed my need as a journalist to express myself and fostered many close relationships with people of all walks of life, for which I am so grateful.

As of right now, I am just recovering my blog, as my previous domain name (www.wetalkofchrist.com) got scooped up by someone else (probably when my payment method expired, and I didn't notice).  

Because of trolls online who want to "beef" with my son and what he stands for, I and my blog have been periodically attacked, which at first I found deeply hurtful and unfair. And since the content of this blog and the memories of my kids when they were younger and the lessons that I taught them are so well-documented on this blog, I am protective of it. Given this, I am contemplating just what to do with my blog.

I realized when my blog was unexplainably down for a while, that I rely on this site as a reference for recipes, thoughts, and lessons I have shared. I found it annoying when I couldn't easily access it. And periodically, I still receive very kind emails from people thanking me for certain posts.

So, that is the update. I am still here.  Still in the faith. STRONGER THAN EVER....despite difficult challenges that are just part of mortality, challenges that have seasoned me and brought me depth and wisdom that comes when children become teens and teenagers become adults.

Since it relates to this blog, I will share one more thought.

This blog was founded on one scripture: 2 Nephi 25:26, which says:

And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

As I have watched my children move from that innocent, pre-baptism season of life, to the season of accountability and of trial and error, this scripture, that always guided my efforts as a parent became even more vital to me.

And I realized that I didn't fully understand it when they were little.  

When my children were small and incapable of committing sin, I focused mainly on the joy that talking of and preaching about Christ with them brought me.  And the last bit of this scripture, frankly, didn't seem to match the rest of this joyful passage.

But when my kids started making their own choices, I finally understood that the last lines "that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins," was not out of place at all. It was not mistakenly "tacked on" to the end of the passage...it WAS the point.

The point of decades (now) that my husband and I spent "talking of Christ" with our children was so that when the time came, we could have faith that our children are in God's hands now and that they would KNOW to what source they CAN look for a remission of their sins.

I am so grateful for this understanding that has taken me about a decade of difficult experiences to truly grasp. But my faith in Christ has grown, not waned.  

And through it, my new Mom-mantra has become: 

"I raise them. Jesus Saves them."

I don't try to do His job, because that would be very frustrating and frankly impossible. But I can keep doing my job and increase my faith by remaining calm and waiting and watching as His great plan for all of HIS children unfolds over time.

I trust that the Creator of us all, has the ability to bring ALL of His Children Home...in His time.

I am grateful for every woman, sister, and friend I have made over the decade of blogging that I did here. 

Thank you for supporting me with your comments and friendship and helping me grown spiritually as well.

XO, and Merry Christmas, Friends!

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A Cousin Baptism

 

So, my husband's nephew Henry got baptized last Saturday and were actually able to make the trip to Toledo, Ohio to be there!

It was a really sweet baptism, and felt almost normal (plus masks!)  But the spirit was there, and I always love spending time with my sister-in-law Renae, who is sweet, gentle, and funny, and always kind.

And look at our kids!  They've grown so much.  It was just a really nice weekend away.  We drove all the way there and back with me reading a book aloud to everyone (that one of my blog friends recommended, actually!)

I am grateful for sweet experiences like watching an 8 year old get baptized.  It lightens my heavy days.

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Autumn's First Talk in Church

 

Isn't it amazing that our Church it taught by the membership?  And that by invitation, regular members are asked to deliver messages called "talks" to the entire congregation on Sunday  mornings??

I mean, it really does amaze me.  We can be taught by the young and the old, the new members and the long-timers, the learned and wise, and everything in between.

This past Sunday, my daughter Autumn (age 12) was given the chance to speak in Sacrament meeting for the first time.

I was really impressed by how composed she was, and she wrote her own thoughts, her entire talk by herself.  Now, she's kind of a quieter girl.  Because of this her composure while delivering her talk impressed me even more.

I am so grateful I was able to watch my girl shine brightly as she testified of her faith in Jesus Christ and the blessings of making righteous choices.  I hope she will always have the glow that I saw on her today:

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The Love of Christ on Easter

 

One of my favorite lines from General Conference yesterday was that unlike social media, Jesus Christ knows all of our flaws and loves us still. Knowing this makes me happy.

Every sacrifice I have ever made to follow Him has been worth it, because He is the only truly fair, constant, reliable, and just thing in this life.

His sacrifice was made for each of us. He lives and loves us and sees what we can become. He inspires me to be a better person and gives me (and each of us) the power to do so.

That is why, for me, it truly is a Happy Easter! Enjoy this day, friends!

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Grateful for His Grace #StartingToday

During the last year, my little children have been my sunshine and the Savior has been like this umbrella, sheltering me from the very worst or at least lightening my load when it felt like the very worst.

I am so grateful for His love and kindness as I've passed through difficult times.  I don't feel put-upon, because I know He has taken-upon Himself all of my worst times and hardest struggles already.  And for that I am most grateful!

 

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I Got My Vaccine!

 

St. Patrick's Day 2021 was a great "come and get it day" for me--a day when the sun is shining, and it feels like angels are guiding my every step.  And the best step of all was getting my first covid vaccine!

It's basically been exactly one year since our schools closed down for quarantine, so this just felt right.  

I'm feeling lucky, grateful, and blessed to even be able to get the vaccine, since it's not open to many people yet in my state.  I realize how blessed I am to be able to receive this vaccine, and I just want to publicly thank my Heavenly Father for watching over me and my family during the last year especially.

The whole experience was amazing for me.

It's been a long road for us in many ways, but I still trust and know that God is in charge and guiding us through all things.

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Welcome Spring!

 

It's Spring!  Things are going to start coming alive again.  Spring is so joyful to me...with General Conference, Easter, and the chance to celebrate my son Val's arrival in the world.

But before the buds emerge I wanted to share this photo of Lake Erie that I took in February.

It doesn't matter what time of year I visit home (which is right on the shores of Lake Erie outside of Cleveland, Ohio), the Lake is always beautiful.  Stormy or calm, day or night, Summer or Winter, the Lake is all of my family's favorite place to seek solace.  The rhythmic sound of the waves alone is so soothing.  It's a great place to think...and it's right across the street from my parent's home.

It is also one of God's creations that is always there...a constant, but it is never the same place twice.

I am so grateful for the Lake and other spots that God created that feels so personal to me.

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Something Unimaginable

I told my kids in the fall to expect this year to unfold exactly the opposite of last year (mostly at-home learning, then go back 5 days in the spring) and so far it has. It's funny how through it all our children have never stopped growing. I heard Elder Uchtdorf say this today: "...even though this pandemic is not what we wanted or expected, God has prepared His children and His Church for this time.

We will endure this, yes. But we will do more than simply grit our teeth, hold on, and wait for things to return to the old normal. We will move forward, and we will be better as a result.

In a way, we are seeds. And for seeds to reach their potential, they must be buried before they can sprout. It is my witness that though at times we may feel buried by the trials of life or surrounded by emotional darkness, the love of God and the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring something unimaginable to spring forth." Something unimaginable is springing forth. I see it in my kids, in the closeness of my neighbors, in myself too, I suppose. The pandemic didn't come as a surprise to God and he has and is providing ways for us to come through it new and better versions of ourselves. But like seeds sometimes we have to be buried by trials in order to grow. God Will Do Something Unimaginable 

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The Ingredients of a Testimony

 

We went to church today, and we actually got to sing the hymns together as a congregation for the first time in a year!  It was a sweet surprise, but today I want to talk about a different sweet thing that happened during our season of at-home church.

The sweet thing was that we got to hear my girls' testimonies quite often and it filled our home with the Holy Ghost.

I recently stumbled on the testimony that my daughter Autumn gave one Sunday as she had written notes to help her say it the way she wanted to.  Here it is:

"Testimonies are like baking cookies.  We practice baking them for our whole lives until they are perfect.

We start our testimonies by gathering all of the ingredients, like going to church and getting baptized.  Then we start mixing the ingredients together, which is like reading scriptures daily and learning in church every Sunday.  And then we put it in the oven and your testimony rises and gets stronger, because you are obeying the commandments and getting personal revelation.  When you are ready, you will have a spiritual and a strong testimony.

And when they are done cooling, you can share them with your friends, so they can have the same experience that you had.  But if you put the wrong ingredients in your cookies, they won't turn out as the cookies you wanted to make...

I know that as we do the right things and be like our Heavenly Father, we will have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, and we can live with God again.  I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I was really touched by the testimony of our resident baker.  I know that the Lord sent us to earth to learn spiritual lessons in a physical world. Autumn's testimony is just one example of that!

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Temple Experience FHE

As I've mentioned, we're working our way through the Family Proclamation this month, and this week we are focusing on temples.  

The Family Proclamation says, "Sacred covenants and ordinances available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."

As I planned out our study of the Family Proclamation, I felt inspired to create a "temple experience" for my kids in our home.  I hoped this would be more of a sacred learning experience for them, and I'm so pleased that it worked out well.

I unfortunately didn't stop to take very many pictures of it, so I'll just try to describe it.

Using dining room chairs, we set our living room up sort of like an endowment room--with chairs in rows for us to sit in, facing our  wall-mounted TV screen.

As each child went into Dad's office for a "temple recommend" interview, the others sat in the rows of chairs and watched a slideshow that I made of pictures of our family visiting various temples There was soft hymns playing during the slideshow, and it created a nice, calm mood.

Each family member (who participated) came out of Dad's office holding an index card that both Steve and the child had signed.  The little kids, Honor in particular, seemed really pleased to get their faux-recommend.

We then had each child present their recommend to me, and I welcomed them to the "temple".

We then watched the video of Elders Bednar and Rasband giving us a virtual tour of the Rome, Italy temple.  In this video, they do a wonderful job talking about the role of Christ in all aspects of temple worships and explaining the process and purpose of each area of the temple.

The Rome temple is so beautiful!  I can tell that it touched my 4-year old Vall, and it brought a wonderful spirit to our home.  At one point, Val turned to me and asked if Jesus ever went there, and he kept referring to the magnificent chandeliers as "icicles"!

When the video ended, we discussed what we saw, how we felt, what we learned, and fielded questions.  We talked about how everyone dresses the same in the temple and how that promotes unity.  I thought it was neat that they point out that every bride gets to dress in the same beautiful bride's room.  No matter your worldly status, all are equal in the temple.

We then showed one more video.  This one explains and shows the temple ceremonial clothing and the temple garments worn by adult members of the church who have made sacred covenants in the temple.  

I like how at the beginning of the video they mention the sacred clothing worn by religions the world over.  Our sacred clothing is simply worn privately, under our clothing, but serves a similar purpose, to remind us of the promises we've made with God.

Recently, we've been taught (see Elder Bednar's talk here) that we need to teach our children more about the temple in our home.  These videos really make it easier for us to know how to appropriately share what we know and love about the temple and about making and keeping sacred covenants.  In the home and in the family is a beautiful setting for these discussions.

One question that was asked was what happens if someone is upset that they can't enter the temple (except during the open house)?  We talked about how the Lord allows each of us to learn and grow at our own pace.  We are expected to keep God's commandments before we enter his holy places and make sacred covenants.  If we enter before we're ready it really wouldn't help us at all, because we wouldn't appreciate it or hold it sacred.

To end the night, we answered a few more questions about the ceremonial clothing.  Scarlett said that our discussion made her more excited to go to the temple.  

We talked with Autumn about her relationship with the temple. Autumn became eligible to attend the temple over a year ago, but because of the pandemic, still hasn't gone!  What is neat about her story is that when it was time for her temple recommend interview back in January 2020, she showed great seriousness in preparing herself for the interview by studying President Nelson's General Conference talk where he shares just what those interview questions are.  We know that more than going to the temple, our willingness to be worthy to attend the temple is what matters most to the Lord.  The change in who we are is the goal, not just the act of attending His temples.  I expect that when Autumn finally is able to attend the temple herself, it will be a very special experience.

To end our special night together, I reminded our family that Jesus Christ is the center of everything we do and learn in the temple.  

In the temple, we learn that Christ's Atonement is the central act of all earth life and all eternity. It is the purpose of everything and brings purpose to all that we do.  It brings light and hope to our lives.  I also reminded then that if they ever find themselves in a position where they can't enter the temple, because of their own choices or if life just starts to get really hard, Jesus Christ is the way back to the temple.  He is the way to overcome sin.  He is the way to overcome every problem.  Jesus Christ is the way back to our heavenly home.

It was just a wonderful experience to help our children understand the temple more.  And in a time when we cannot enter the temple, for one evening, the temple entered our home.

For anyone who might not have a father in the home full-time, I encourage Mothers to conduct the temple recommend interviews.  To my friend who was worried that her rowdy boys couldn't sit still, I encouraged her to take each boy aside starting with the oldest to do this activity one on one. There is definitely room to adjust this to our different family dynamics and make it work for us!

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Val, Charity, and Friendship Ripples

 I have been blogging for about 12 years now.  I blogged daily for about half of those years, but the last few years I've blogged less, choosing/needing to focus on my family more as our family has doubled in size since I started blogging among other changes! (As you can see, I am slowly getting back into it as I could use the outlet!)

But some of you, dear readers have been here since the start.  And some of you I've even gotten to meet, running into you randomly in the Philadelphia temple, and then when I moved some of you welcomed me here to Pittsburgh, which has been so nice.

I want to share today just one more of those "ripples of friendship" that crosses even the Atlantic Ocean and ended up helping me with a problem that I was having.  

Some years ago a longtime blog-friend named Kayla befriended a stranger who was kind of out of her element and definitely out of her country at the time.  Kayla went out of her way to help this person and her children while they were traveling/living in Ireland.

This had a big impact on this young mother.  Fast-forward some years later, and this young mother went out of her way to befriend ME and my family when we moved here to Pittsburgh, very distraught over having to abruptly move! She has baked me birthday cakes, attended my home-study General Conference groups, and brought me small gifts and words of encouragement over the last four years.

Recently, it was this friend's birthday, so I decided to run a small gift over to her house (yes, it was actually a very late Christmas gift, but those are details!)  Anyway, I went over to finally do something nice for this friend on HER birthday, but once again she ended up helping me.  

I was having a problem helping my son learn his letters.  And it was really worrying me.  My friend ended up suggesting, then loaning me a letter-learning video for Val, and it has actually helped him a lot.

This might not sound like a big deal, but it really helped me, because I was really worried about it.  And I can't help but see the connected between my friend Heather, my friend Kayla, and me.  And that connection is not blogging, it is friendship.  It is kindness.  It is charity (which is the pure love of Christ). And I am on the receiving end of the charity that was shared first by Kayla to Heather and now Heather to me. 

So thank you, Kayla.  And thank you Heather.  And thank you to the Lord for sending your sweet spirit to inspire these lovely friends to love one another.

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Prognostication & Popcorn Recipes

Today is the day that the country looks to Pennsylvania's most famous groundhog for weather predictions.

Groundhog Day is one of those odd holidays that's always, unexplainably on the calendar, and if you don't know, it stems from the Christian holiday called Candlemas, which is situated right in the middle of Winter and is a celebration of Light and Christ.  

I have to applaud the group of people who not only started this tradition of looking to a groundhog to predict future weather conditions, but who managed to make it a national holiday.  As a PR person, I see what an incredible job they've done to keep the lore alive and make it a fun event that people flock to at 3:00 am every February 2nd.

But seriously, as a Mom, I do the same thing...look for ways to make the ordinary celebratory...especially in the dead of winter...and most especially during a pandemic.

Today, we were guaranteed 6 more weeks of winter weather, and we're kicking that off with snow storms this week and single digit temps next week.

So, to warm our lives up a bit today, we whipped up some yummy popcorn and delivered it to friends.  Here are my kids looking various degrees of happy to be out of the house to deliver said popcorn:

Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, PA is just 1 hour and 45 minutes from our house, and while I've never been there in person, this video (which was a virtual replacement for the yearly in-person celebration because of COVID) is a fun one to watch to get the full experience without actually being there!

Here are two recipes for the popcorn treats that we made today:

Valentine's Popcorn:

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter

12-14 oz mini marshmallows

10 cups of popped popcorn

valentine's Day sprinkles

10 oz Valentine's Day M & Ms

Small pretzels broken up into pieces

Instructions:

You make this similarly to rice crispy squares.  Pop the corn and add broken up pretzels. Melt the butter in a pan on the stove, then add marshmallows and stir to melt and combine with melted butter. Pour over popcorn.  Mix.  Add M & Ms and sprinkles and more of each ingredient to your liking.

Lucky Charms Popcorn:

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter

12-14 oz mini marshmallows

10 cups of popped popcorn

10 oz Lucky Charms cereal

Small pretzels broken up into pieces

Instructions:

You make this similarly to rice crispy squares.  Pop the corn and add broken up pretzels. Melt the butter in a pan on the stove, then add marshmallows and stir to melt and combine with melted butter. Pour over popcorn.  Mix.  Add more of each dry ingredient to your liking.

Now it's time for me to go watch "Groundhog's Day!"...THE MOVIE!

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More Social Distancing Activites: Look at the Moon

 

January and February of a any year are usually the hardest for me. I have good coping mechanisms for living in such a non-sunny locale, but yesterday and this week I (and a lot of people I know, including my kids) have been slightly off kilter.  It's been nothing but grey, grey, grey since last week, when the sun shone brilliantly on the afternoon of the temple announcement!  

I always know when I get that feeling like the greyness is going to close in on me, that I need to get outside of myself and do some service.  The "Who" and the "What to do" came easily.  As I was getting ready for the day a few times this week, the names of specific people came to my mind.  I ended up texting those people and checking in on them.  Yesterday, a few more nudges came, and although it was a terribly dreary day, I found a way to get out and do something about the nudges.

It didn't lift the fog completely, but it felt good and it helped.

As I was driving back to my house after running some service errands, I saw the moon.  It was a full moon.  But it was so hazy in my night sky that it was literally almost unrecognizable as a moon!

I looked up stuff about moons today, and it turns out that every full moon has a name and a meaning assigned to it.  I guess I knew that, I just never paid much attention to it. January's full moon is named the "wolf moon".  As it is the first full moon to come after the winter solstice and the days are getting longer, it is thought to celebrate LIGHT winning over darkness.

I thought that was interesting.  Here I am trying to push back my own winter/pandemic-onset blues, and here is this moon reminding me that light has already conquered darkness, that no matter what dark things we are facing, Christ has conquered it for us and will walk with us, even if we only see him occasionally as the clouds part and even if we have to go by faith that, yes that is the moon I am looking at or yes God is with me.

I'm grateful for the reminders the He is there, that we can find in the world around us if we look with eyes to see.

Here is a calendar of the full moons for 2021.  This site outlines the names of the moons with interesting facts and gives the fun idea to do some full-moon-watching social distanced gathering.  Check it out!

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All Together Now

 

Whenever it's time to change the drawing/phrase on my kitchen chalkboard, my kids all jump at the chance to be the one to create something for the board.

This one was created by my 8 year old Honor at the beginning of January, and I just thought it was an appropriate reminder for all of us during the politically charged day/week/season.

Ultimately, we're all in this together.  WE have so many challenges to face, and we will certainly only beat the terrible things in our lives, when we do it together.

I wanted to also take a moment to thank those of you who have reached out to me and offered words of support, encouragement, and advice in my parenting woes.

I definitely needed that.  I needed to not feel alone.  And you, dear long-time readers, have done that for me, and I appreciate it.

We're all in this together.

In church this week, someone quoted the scripture that has always been the theme of this blog: 2 Nephi 25:26:

And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins.

...and I was reminded how much that scripture has meant to me and guided my parenting in the past.  And I silently pondered to myself, "Do I really believe in this scripture?  Am I still willing to let this scripture be my guiding light as a Mom?  Because I've done the talking of Christ and the prophesying of Christ part for my kids, but am I ready to focus on the part where I just stand back and point them to Christ as the One who can help them with the remission of their sins part?"  Because that's the part of parenting that I'm now at....the part where I let my past last 15 years of teaching speak for itself and I stand back and let them rely on Christ for the rest.

Anyway, I think I have enough faith, and you guys have helped me to be braver and lean a little/lot more on His merits this week.  And I thank you.  We're all in this together.

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the Lord's Hand to Revealed

This is me reaching out longingly toward this blanket that I started crocheting back in January. Lately I've been so busy with my calling that I haven't had time for this little creative hobby.

But I'm an so grateful for this calling of Stake Director of Communication. This weekend was an "emergency" Stake Conference, in which we had a new Stake Presidency called because our other recently called Stake President is moving away.

In preparation for this Stake Conference we invited lots of local government leaders to attend. We met with them and invited in person or over the phone. And basically they all said yes!!

I mean, that's to be expected when the person doing the asking is a former Pittsburgh Steeler with two Super Bowl rings, however, I am still amazed.

Perhaps the persecuted Joseph Smith might have been amazed. I think possibly the visiting Elder Montoya (whose great grandfather was killed by soldiers in Mexico 105 years ago for being "Mormon") was slightly amazed.

But it was indeed a remarkable show of support, one we haven't seen in this area previously, and I could see the Lord's hand in it.

I was worried when they called me to this position. Being a SAHM, fairly new to this area, and not having government connections, I wondered how it was to be done?

Wouldn't you know, the Lord already had set a plan in motion?  As it turned out my daughter's homeroom/health teacher is one of the Township Supervisors for our local government.  A way was already provided before I was even called.

Other things to note: the person who held this calling before me only held it for three months. He didn't know me, but my name came to him as the person to call to the committee. After I had been called, I asked him if he knew anything of my background. He said that he didn't. He had no idea that I had worked at CNN, was a journalist and did some PR in my career.

And Chris Hoke, that Pittsburgh Steeler, and member of the Stake Presidency who has been my "missionary companion" as we have gone out visiting government officials for the last month or so has been instrumental, using his name and connections to open doors that would not have opened to me. Now, he is our new Stake President, an excellent choice for a leader. But he was 2nd counselor long enough to guide our Committee and jumpstart these community relationships again.

I told Pres. Hoke yesterday in a text how much I respect him, however not because of his worldly fame. After all, unlike most other Yinzers, I have never seen him play a minute of football in my life!

But I have seen him take the field for the Lord, and I have been most impressed with his willingness to repay the Lord for his success by using his name, fame, time, and all of his amazing talents to Serve the Lord and Build His kingdom. I have all the respect in the world for that.

So if Chris Hoke can do it, I guess I can put down my crochet hook and cast in my sickle for the Lord.

It's much more exciting than crocheting anyway!

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Some People are Just Magic

I know I'm a little late with this post, but I just have to give a shout-out to the Santa at the Pittsburgh's Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens this year.  

He was warm and sincere and did an amazing job of sparking joy and a sense of wonder in my children when we visited with him.

I absolutely adore people who are so much like children themselves that children accept them as an ally pretty readily.  This is how this Santa was for us.

Just so amazingly sweet and kind.

For this Mom who spent much of the entire holiday season tending a sick household, watching him interact with my babies was a treat in and of itself.

Thank you, Santa!

  

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