She would have been 97 Years old today! Elizabeth Jane Hickey Lambert 1925-2009
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, and lessons in life.
I guess that when things get boring during church you find yourself looking around to see what others are doing. Apparently Brother Fife found his distraction as he watched Graham and Duncan in a fierce battle or a fierce hug and now we have a meme!
His story touched my heart and gave me a gospel perspective that I have thought of ever since. There is so much available to us and sometimes we go out searching for something that we feel is of importance. Sometimes we find it and sometimes it isn't to be found. In our desire to discover we often forget that ofttimes what we seek is right in front of us. We don't have to go far to find inspiration and instruction. We are only required to look and to see. Answers to our prayers often come to us in quiet moments. A scripture verse can clarify a question or give us direction. Sometimes it is as simple as seeing things that are right in front of us.
I love Valentine's Day! Of course as you probably know I say that about every holiday. Since moving back to Arizona I have had the opportunity to participate in the Whitney tradition which was our tradition when your parents were growing up in our house. Elder Featherstone gave a sweet talk about his daughter making bags that hung on each door the week previous to Valentine's day. He talked about how each day he was so excited to come home and see what was in the bag. They were Valentines that his daughter had made for each of her siblings and parents. He commented to his wife how sweet she was to do this. Then his wife taught him a valuable lesson. She said that each day their daughter also looked in her bag to see what Valentine's she received and often found it empty. He was so saddened that he had thought only of himself and so he went in and sat down and wrote lots of Valentine notes to go into her bag. At the time I was very touched by that story and decided that we would also decorate bags for our bedroom doors. It was so fun watching the different things the boys and Amy did to make their personality come out on the bags. Now so many years later I loved sharing in a tradition started in our home and seeing it done at the Whitney's house. The bags were amazing and I had a great time copying ideas from Pinterest so I could contribute to a week of recognition. I don't think we can say enough about how much we love and admire each other in our homes. The world would dismiss our value but in each home we can celebrate in such simple ways. I've included a cute Valentine box that with help from Ruth and Aunt Amy, Eden made for her class party. I thought it turned out really cute! I also had a Valentine dinner last night and thankfully the Whitney's came! I had more fun decorating the table than making the food. Thank you Aunt Angela! She set a high mark for quality presentation and I am trying to embrace her vision when I put a party together!
I attend an institute class sponsored by our Stake on Tuesday mornings. We were talking about Abraham and the challenges he faced. Sister Madsen shared this quote by Neal A. Maxwell that I loved. I thought I'd pass it on to all of you. Something to think about!
On Friday Uncle Bill and Aunt Cathy took Will and Abby and went bird hunting (not to shoot--just to admire). Apparently, eagles migrate from Canada and the northern United States to areas where their water source isn't frozen and they are able to feed themselves. As you can see in this picture they found them in southern Utah.
The way the program works is that the assigned cook for that day picks something from the list (they each have an assigned sticky note color so the skill level is appropriate for the budding cook). The sticky notes are not removed until the food item has been prepared on two different occasions. It has been fun seeing the enthusiasm of each one of them. I've have even benefited from some of the creations and I will attest that they are getting pretty good! Good job Aunt Amy!
