Author Archives: S.D. Sorensen

They didn’t get Michael Jackson Memorial Service tickets, but they’re still winners!

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Just a little business, folks…

First of all, congratulations to Melanie J, the winner of our Diapers and Divinity Summer Poetry Contest.  She won our hearts with her sweet summer haiku:

Melanie J

melanie

A soft, fuzzy head
Whiffs of coconut sunblock

Gold skin and freckles

Cute little white bums

Peeking out of swimming trunks

I smile. It’s summer.

Congratulations, Melanie!  As soon as I remember how to change my sidebar, I’ll put you and your poem in a place of honor.  Email me your address too, because I’ll send some kind of prize your way… to be determined by my creativity and budget (both severely limited).

And, the winner of the Jumpstart Online computer game giveaway is:

ELLEN

(See folks?  It pays to come out of blog comment hiding.  She went from IP blip to one lucky chick! : ) )

Ellen, send me an email, and I’ll hook you up, okay?

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Thanks to all for your fun participation.  Coming soon… (like after my kids are all in bed tonight)… Adventures from our latest trip to Urgent Care.

General Conference Book Club Week 13: Elder Ballard

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02_04_ballaI have noticed, even as I’ve observed my own immediate and extended family, that it is so easy to repeat the past, even when we didn’t like it the first time around.  I love that the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about finding the strength to do what’s right, notwithstanding our traditions or culture or long-time habits.  There are many righteous traditions and predecessors upon which we can build our futures.  Elder Ballard of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles spoke about this topic in the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference.  He stated, “”Learning the lessons of the past allows you to build personal testimony on a solid bedrock of obedience, faith, and the witness of the Spirit.”

We’ll study his talk this week for General Conference Book Club.  You can find the text here:

>>Click here to read “Learning the Lessons of the Past” by Elder M. Russell Ballard.<<

If this is your first visit to the General Conference Book Club, click here to learn more about it. You’re welcome to join us at any point along the way, and we’d love to welcome back many of you that we haven’t heard from in a while.

And if you didn’t get the chance to watch this video, it’s worth your time.

Recovery, and one tiny deep thought.

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

My birthday is over.  You people are awesome.  I now have to figure out a way to burn about 4,327 calories.  Oh, the brutal gluttony.  I’ll do the giveaway drawing this weekend when I calculate the Haiku winners, too.  (If you got so wrapped up in the joy of wishing me a happy birthday and telling me about yourself that you forgot to actually enter the computer game giveaway, go back there and enlist yourself in the drawing . . . if you meant to in the first place.)

Excuse me while I write down a few things that I need to print out and hang on my forehead for tomorrow.

1.  No.  (answer to the question, “Can I have a snack?”)

2.  No.  (answer the question, “Can I watch a TV show?”)

3. Not yet.  (answer to the question, “Can we go to the swimming pool now?”)

For the record, sometimes the answer to those questions is “YES,” but just not when they’re asking over and over and over again.

And this may seem random, but it’s been on my mind a lot lately.  Why do we so often assume that we are not worthy of greatness?  Elder Maxwell always talked about “not shrinking,” and I think we moms do it way too much.  We kind of crawl into spiritual fetal position instead of spreading our spiritual wings.  I wish we were better at claiming and embracing how great we are.  Marianne Williamson wrote:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

So shine on, ladies, and don’t be afraid to be as good as you really are.  Because you really are.  Really.

It’s my birthday, and I’m giving you a present. (You can drop off yours in the comment box.)

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birthday_candlesIt always bugged me that my mom would never tell us her age.  So I’ll be honest, I’m old.  For the first time in my life, I feel old.  I figure maybe I shouldn’t say my actual age because then all you internet information predators could do the math and steal my identity and walk away with my amazing credit potential.  So let’s just say that I am now a lot closer to 40 than I am to 30, and that is INsane.  I am the “old people” in young people’s minds.  I have been out of high school for longer than it took me to complete elementary school, junior high and high school combined.  I have been through so many different stages of life that I have a bra drawer with about 12 different sizes in it.  (I should really get rid of them, because truth be told, I only need a very small drawer now.)

I’ll concede that older does mean wiser.  I now get it that all those boys that took up volumes of pages in my journals never liked me.  I was a dork.  I also know that a person cannot live on Pringles and bubble gum alone.  Plus, life has taught me many other important lessons like what not to do if you are a) mugged in China, b) cat-called in Argentina, or c) going outside too often in your pajamas in your own hometown.  So, yeah, one year older and wiser too…

old ladySo, I’ve got this whole blog birthday party thing worked out in my mind.  First a present for you.  

What do mommy bloggers need and appreciate the most?  Quiet time.  I’d like to introduce you to JumpStart computer games to shut up educate your children while they have fun at the same time.  My boys love the JumpStart computer games, and we actually owned two of them before the company contacted me about doing a giveaway on my blog.  Just today they played the 3D Virtual 1st Grade game while I blogged did laundry and lots of important things.  They really are very clever games that incorporate math, reading and critical thinking skills into fun arcade-like games and activities.  And now they have an on-line version of their games at http://www.jumpstart.com where your child can create a “Jumpee” (kind of like an avatar) and travel all around in a virtual world of learning adventures.  My boys have spent a little time playing around on it and they were quite smitten by some of the fun things they can do there.  Anyway, without further ado… you can win a three-month subscription to the JumpStart online world! (In other words, three months of built-in, guilt-free quiet time for you.)  You’re welcome.

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Now, for my present.  I want to know who my readers are.  There are many of you who are regular commenters and I absolutely adore you, but there are so many strangers that pass through that I never get the chance to meet, except as random IP addresses on my statistics tracker.  I average about 1,000 hits a week on this little ol’ blog (which I know is small potatoes to some folks), and I’d like to thank those of you who really just reload my page over and over again every day to make me feel good when I look at my stats, but there are so many of you I don’t know.  I think Ordinary Mom made this request on her birthday, and I filed it away in my brain as a good way to satisfy my own curiosity.

So here are your birthday party instructions (I’m old; I can be demanding and crabby if I want to be.):

1.  Leave me a comment and tell me something about yourself.  If you don’t want me to know your name, that’s okay.  You can be “anonymous,” but still tell me something about you.  (Where you live, what you do, etc.)  If you’re a regular commenter, tell me something about you anyway– I’d love to know you better.

2.  If you want to be entered in the computer game giveaway, just stick the word “(Giveaway)” at the end of your comment.  Or the beginning.  Or the middle.  I’m not picky.

3.  If you haven’t voted for your favorite entry in the Diapers and Divinity Summer Poetry Contest, go do that here.  The haikus are worth reading.

4.  Pretend that you’re really at my party and that I’m giving you a hug at the door and saying “Thanks for coming!”  Really.  All joking aside,

“I believe true friends not only make life more enjoyable, but they help each other become worthy of the greatest friendship of all [with the Savior]… —to bring out the best in each other and help each other live righteous lives.”  (Monte G. Brough)

Happy Birthday, indeed.

Why I have decided to ignore my children

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

woman with appleYou know how we are often told to turn away negative thoughts and voices that make us question our self-worth and potential?  Well, now I am faced with a moral dilemma.  On the one hand, I should nurture my children and be a good listener.  On the other, I should ignore voices like this:

 

 

Grant:  Um, Mom, let me look at your teeth… (invasion of personal space) … Your teeth are brown.

Me:  What?  They’re not brown!

Grant:  Yeah, they are.  They’re brown.

Clark:  Let me look.  (in my grill)  Oh, yeah. … Maybe the other day at the baseball game some dirt flew in the air and got on your teeth.

Me:  (blink, blink, stunned silence.)

Natalie:  I wanna look.  (3 children on my lap, staring disgustedly at my now-faded smile)  Oh.

And you can see that, clearly, I should no longer listen to my children if I want to keep any shred of dignity or warped acceptance of my own appearance.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton said (and I tweaked):  

In the world, where there are often voices of pessimism and negative feelings [my children], the voice of gladness is welcome indeed. Some seem to live with doubt, fear of the future, and sorrow for the past [or renewed shame in their less-than-gleaming-white teeth]. If it is our nature to criticize or demean, we can cause the voices of gladness to be silenced [and one’s desire to smile to be eliminated]. We need those who bring gladness into our lives. We need those who give encouragement and reflect optimism.

Sincere yet simple words of praise can lift souls and bring gladness. Mark Twain remarked that he could live two months on one good compliment. In the words of the biblical proverbs of Solomon: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” (Prov. 25:11.)

Encouragement can be quick and simple, but it is a voice of gladness that is needed by everyone.

So, I made a few decisions today:

1.  Ignore my children.

2.  Remember to say nice things to other moms because their children probably sucked all of their self-worth out of them.

3.  Call Matt to find out if our Health Savings Account covers any kind of cosmetic dentistry.  (I did. It doesn’t.)