September 2011

So this year, a goal may be to keep the blog up to date.  So, months of highlights it will be.

September was our Primary program.  The kids were phenomenal.  I love being part of this organization.  I love the opportunity Heavenly Father has given me to use a talent He has blessed me with.  If nothing else, it makes me practice and has definitely helped me become a little more comfortable with playing in front of people.

I got to hear my favorite words following my eye exam: "No change."  It only took me about sixteen years to here it.  I love it when I don't have to spend my money on new contacts or glasses.    That's definitely a highlight of my year, even though I always feel like I am failing big time when they do the eye exam.

I attended the first of two Time Out for Women programs in September as well.  This was actually part of Mom and Dad's Christmas to me last year - I love being sent to Time Out!  Mom, Shauntell, and I met up for a temple session prior to Friday night's session.  What a way to start a great weekend!

Laurel Christensen:

• Our Father in Heaven is a Father of high expectations.
• Pray with Faith
• Think with Faith
• Live with Faith.
• Don't you dare be the one thing standing in your way; keep going.

Dean Hughes:

• Improving ourselves and making us better than we were is great.
• Make the most of the talents we have - it's about competing with ourselves, not with others; we have to find ways to be who we want to be.
• There are a lot of frustrations in this world: tell yourself "this is one of those times"
• Other people having wonderful whatever doesn't take away from us.
• 

Mercy River(they were actually the musical guests on Saturday, but this is how things uploaded so we'll go with them)

• We all need saving sometimes; we all go through difficult times, but the Lord does not expect uss to go through them alone.
• He doesn't love us because we are perfect, He loves us because He's perfect.

Emily Freeman:

• He knows you.
• This is a process.
• Learn to serve the Lord with all humility and be fully committed.
• Why write the name of the Lord on your heart? (The journey will be hard; Turn to them for your testimony; settle in your heart to be a witness of the Lord)
• The promise given is "You're worth it" - He has engraven us in the palms of His hands, never to be forgotten.

Linda Eyre/Shawni Pothier:

Finding Holiness in the Havoc:

1. Take a little instance in your day, and figure out how to change it.
2. Survive children.

 Remember:

1. Who your children really are (Five facet review: physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, spirituality)
2. Who you really are (we are comically over committed)
3. Remember who the Savior really is.



Macy Robinson

Mariama Kallon:

1. God can answer prayers.  (Not at the time, maybe not in the way we would want Him to, but always in the way that is best for us)
2. Give our lives to Heavenly Father through service.
3. Forgiveness (Forgive others so they can forgive you.  Heavenly Father does things knowing what our needs are and what He wants to bless us with).
4. Holding fast to the Iron Rod.  (It is a privilege and not a sacrifice; everybody has something they need to deal with; She who is too busy to pray is busier than the Lord intends us to be.)

Merrilee Boyack:

B.E.C.O.M.E. U.

• Be Bold (we are valiant women; each of us is a leader in our own way.)
• Be Eternally Thoughtful (Set your mind and your heart on things of eternity - Satan will give you messages of worldliness)
• Be Creative (We were made to be creative; you are spirit daughters of the most creative - it's in our DNA)
• Be Outward Focused (Believe in women; Follow your own path)
• Be Meek (Do people know you love them?)
• Be Enlightened  (Stand for the family)
• Be Unique (What you need to become is completely unique to you)

S. Michael Wilcox:

• The key to becoming is knowing, learning the truth.

What keeps us from knowing?  What stops us from reaching for the truth?

1. Never compare your best to their worst.
2. Always learn from someone who lives and loves it.
3. Leave room for holy jealousy - there are going to be somethings they do better.

This month I also went Desert Star for Hunk-ules I'm Too Sexy For My Toga.  It may be sad to say, but I may have enjoyed the title more than the play.  It still had it's laughs and I still enjoyed it, but it just wasn't my favorite ever.

And that brings us to this month's book club books.  The best part of the whole book club thing is getting to read books I may have never heard of, let alone read.  That's how it was for Star Girl.  It makes you think about who you really are and how you let other things and people influence you - for good or bad.  Atonement was alright, but I must say, I never felt like the characters went full circle and made full forgiveness, etc.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Daring to Be Different
In a moving and highly engaging tale about the vagaries of adolescent peer pressure, Newbery Medal winner Jerry Spinelli tells the story of Stargirl, a high school student who is startlingly different from everyone else. The need to conform -- and unabashed curiosity about those who don't -- are at the heart of this touching tale, which aptly demonstrates the peaks and pitfalls of popularity.

Borlock knows how to fit in at Mica High School. He plays the game like everyone else but is more enthralled than most when a new girl comes to school. Stargirl Caraway is her name, or at least the name she is using for now. And after 15 years of homeschooling, she is decidedly different from even the oddest high school students at Mica High. First there's her unusual name, one in a long line of odd names that she has chosen to go by, ignoring her given name of Susan. Then there's the way she looks, shunning makeup and wearing long granny dresses. But all of that is small potatoes when compared to her behavior, which is as weird and bizarre as any of the students at Mica High have ever seen.
Stargirl carries a pet rat around with her and lets it sit on her shoulder whenever she serenades her fellow students with her ukulele. She leaves cards and small gifts on students' desks and in neighborhood doorways. She somehow knows the birthdays of everyone at the school and makes a point of singing "Happy Birthday" to them in the lunchroom. She often laughs when there is no joke and dances when there is no music. She is outspoken and friendly, yet has no friends of her own. And during basketball season, when asked to join the cheerleading squad, she cheers for every basket made, regardless of which team made the score.

There's no doubt about it, Stargirl marches to the beat of an all together different drummer. At first, the other students at Mica High are suspicious of her and think she might be a plant, someone placed in the school as a spy or as part of some bizarre psychology experiment. But Stargirl's whimsical ways and optimistic spirit eventually prove to be irresistible and before long, paranoia gives way to utter fascination. And the most fascinated of all is Leo, who is falling head over heels in love with this quirky girl.

The tide turns swiftly, however, and just as Leo and Stargirl are becoming an item, the student body suddenly decides Stargirl is a freak and a menace. She is shunned by nearly everyone as curiosity turns to disgust. While Stargirl seems blissfully unaware of this shift, Leo sees it, hates it, and starts pressuring Stargirl to try to conform. Solely to please Leo she does so, dressing like everyone else, behaving like everyone else, and even taking back her given name. But in the process of trying to make everyone like her, she loses the very magic and mystery that Leo has come to love in the first place. What's more, despite the changes, she is still shunned. In the end, Stargirl goes back to her old ways and her individuality will prove to be a key turning point in the lives of many, especially Leo's.

Spinelli has crafted a tale as magically appealing and fascinatingly offbeat as is its title character. He aptly captures the poignant excitement of young love, the bitter agonies of peer rejection, and the incredible cruelties teenagers all too often inflict on one another. Amid it all is this wondrous generosity of spirit that is Stargirl, a character who proves to be both enthralling and inspirational. Her story is a celebratory, albeit cautionary, tale about being openly accepting of others while remaining true to oneself.
—Beth Amos

Atonement by Ian McEwan

On a summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century