Eli

My five-year-old nephew, Eli, and his brother Enoch came over to play with us Thursday night. They are so energetic and fun! And they both love to eat. I had made some black bean soup just for me (no one else in my house will even try my cooking half the time, and when they do, I just feel disappointed because they don't really enjoy it.). Anyway, Eli said he was hungry - as always - and I told him to smell my soup to see if he wanted some. He said he would try it, so I gave him a little. He started to make the perfect sounds, "Mmm, this is good! I wish my mom and dad were here to try this!" I gave him some more. He said, "Wow. I wish I had the recipe for this soup!" Oh, how one small child can make my day.

Sewing Machine Maintenance 1

Watch all five of Pam's videos on sewing machine maintenance to make sure yours is running great. Save yourself hundreds of dollars by doing this yearly!

Common Sewing Machine Tension Mistakes - Part 1

Thank to the wonderful videos on YouTube, I have found the solution to my problems!

Happiness

I just finished reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. It was a really enlightening read. She said that she posts six days a week to her blog. Wow! I might post six times a year. But then again, I'm not a professional writer. Maybe one day.

So this week I got out the sewing machine, because Gretchen, in her book, said to make time for your passion. I love creating. I love sewing. I've been trying to get myself to make a slipcover for my couch for years. I have the best material, and I've even started on it, which is supposed to be the most difficult part. But I have a hard time getting everything out of the shelves and on to the table, because I know I won't have a lot of time to work on it. I like to get things done in one sitting, though that rarely happens. So I was was inspired and decided to just set apart some time to work on it.

I pulled out everything and got it all set up. I started to sew a zipper onto the fabric. Unfortunately, the zippers that I had found and repurposed were broken. So I'm stuck on finding zippers for the cushions again. I know. I will find them if I just go to eBay or amazon or some online store. But at the moment, I had just gotten everything out, and I wanted to sew.

I had some old blue jeans that were just dying to be turned into a project, so I started cutting to see what they wanted to be. It turns out they really wanted to be a bag. Someday it is going to be a really cute bag, but not today. As I started sewing, and as I went through a really thick part, the needle broke, and apparently the machine broke. I took off the face plate and dusted everything out, but even with all the cleaning and replacing the broken needle, the machine will not sew.

I think maybe I should give up this passion. Not sewing all together, but sewing with a machine. Hand stitching takes forever, but maybe not as long as getting a machine repaired. If I gave up machine sewing, I could get rid of all the material cluttering up my attic. There will never be enough time in my life to go through it all, even if I do get my machine fixed. So, maybe now's a good time to spend some time on decluttering, which was step one in the book.

Thanks, Happiness Project!

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Talk for Reyna's Baptism

I'm preparing a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost for Reyna's baptism today. I just read the most interesting talk by LeGrand Richards. This is the line that enticed me to read the talk:
To me, the gift of the Holy Ghost is as important to man as sunshine and water are to the plants. You take them away, and the plants would die. You take the Holy Ghost out of this Church, and this Church would not be any different than any other church. And it is manifest in so many ways in the lives and the devotion of the members of the Church.
He tells how the general authorities have left profitable businesses and professions to serve the Lord because of the Holy Ghost.

Some other possible ideas for my talk:

My brothers drove me crazy growing up. I felt that one was too controlling and bossy and another was so gross that he ate with his mouth open! They would spend hours in the bathroom and then make ME late to school or church. I would voice my opinion, and my parents would get mad at ME, can you imagine? Why me, when they were the awful offenders? I found a scripture that may explain why my parents were so adamant that I keep my opinions to myself:

Mosiah 4:14-15
14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

I believe that we can feel the spirit in our lives more abundantly as we follow God's commandments and serve and love one another. The Holy Ghost is a comforter, a teacher, a protector and He will guide us if we keep the commandments.

While on our trip to Mexico, Emilia designed her wedding dress - this is the one she wants me to make for her. She specifically asked for puffy sleeves. Isn't it amazing how our daughters want exactly the opposite of what we want? I'm sure I drove my mother crazy specifying that I never wanted any lace on any dress ever. No puffy sleeves. No decoration of any kind. So I guess Emilia makes the perfect granddaughter, huh?

Adrian has graduated to a high chair. He has tried several different solid foods - I think his favorite is banana so far. He is cutting a tooth on top.

Levi loved playing with the pumpkins. He is so loving - he says, "Mommy?" and when I answer, "Yes?" He says, "Te quiero." (I love you.)