Pursuing Excellence

Our Relief Society Presidency (actually, they just got released) found some old "Pursuit of Excellence" pamphlets in their closet and encouraged us to participate in the program this year. It is basically a grown up, spiritually focused Personal Progress program. For those who "a desire for excellence in {their} personal lives."

I think as women, and maybe in the church specifically, we do have that desire for excellence. We want to do the best we possibly can, at everything. I found a talk by Janath R. Cannon (then 1st Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency) that was given at the time this "Pursuit of Excellence" program was instituted (it is quoted above and below). The points I found most beneficial to me 1~ We have much good to do, but we can't do it all at the same time; and 2~ That we can't do it all perfectly.

The principle of free agency and choice is laid upon us by the Lord. Every day he sets before us choices—not only choices between good and evil, which are easy for most of us to make, but choices between good and good. “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.” (See A of F 1:13.) But sisters, we cannot seek after all of them at the same time. To everything there is a season.

We’ve also been brought up with the maxim “If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well.” But Richard L. Evans once remarked that some things were only worth doing if they didn’t have to be done so well that they interfered with more important things. The setting of priorities is the key to a successful pursuit of excellence.

I learned awhile back, from one of you dear blogging friends, that while I can have a full plate, I may not be able to eat everything on it. What I mean is, I can take some of everything at the proverbially feast, but some things may only have a bite or two taken from them. Maybe I'll take some turkey, some mashed potatoes, some jello, a roll, green beans, stuffing, and even some pie. But I'm going to have to choose which of those things I actually want to finish because its not physically possible for me to eat everything on my plate.

Of course, this is all symbolic of things in life. I have a feast of roles to be filled and jobs to be done to put on my plate. I can take some house cleaning, some extra teaching mommy, some nutrition and exercise, some creative therapy, and maybe even some awesome wife, but the fact remains that its not physically possible for me to do all of these things perfectly. I can choose 2-3 on which to especially focus, and the others will have to wait until I can shift my focus their way.

I have a problem with prioritizing. I want to seek after everything "virtuous, lovely, of good report, {and} praiseworthy" and when I am unsuccessful at doing it all, I get discouraged. I have a tendency to take a few bites of everything on my plate and not actually finish any of it.

This is where the "Pursuit of Excellence" program can be helpful to me. Although, when I first went through and was choosing my goals I wanted to do it all immediately, I soon realized that I needed to choose a couple to focus on "finishing" (or at least getting good at) before moving on to the next one. The challenges/goals are divided into categories of Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, Service, and Character. Some of the challenges are ongoing, like "Establish a physical fitness program, tailored to your needs, to help you reach a higher level of health." Others are things that come up every so often, but don't take a constant effort, such as "Attend the Temple at least once each month." The program encourages you to select a challenge and set goals, develop a plan to achieve those goals, account to Heavenly Father regarding your progress and "discuss your goals, plans and progress with an understanding and trusted friend."

I have taken the challenge to participate in this program for 2011. I'm really excited at the things I've been able to accomplish so far. I plan on sharing many of my experiences, and will probably even need your help with some of them. Below I've listed a few of my goals. These are the challenges that either require someone else's participation or I'd like suggestions on. If you have any ideas, or would like to help me with any of them, please leave a comment.

• Design and undertake a one-year program of extensive Church reading (Books by Presidents of the Church and other General Authorities or similar major gospel studies may be considered.) I would love your recommendations.
• Within your own family or another group, participate in a structured study of other countries. Prepare and present material about different countries and cultures. I think this could definitely be done online via blogging. Anyone want to do it with me? The timing can be discussed...
• Plan and undertake a reading program of uplifting, outstanding literature. The selection of books may reflect a variety of interests or may emphasize one particular theme. Again, looking for your suggestions... keeping in mind the words "uplifting" and "outstanding."

My Monday

While I wasn't quite at the "Excruciating.... horrific.... rather have shards of glass in my eyes" level of pain, I was in a load of pain yesterday and I actually went to the ER. Thinking of this bit kept me laughing, despite the complete waste of time my trip to the ER was.

Seriously, I just laughed each time someone new walked into my room and asked, "How are you today?" or some such small talk question. Um, really? Would I be here if I could answer that with a generic "fine"? And Ethan did drop me off, but it was better than driving myself.

I have no idea what was/is (I'm not in as much pain, but still hurting a little) wrong with my gut but I no longer have a fever and the ER ruled out "anything that would be an emergency." I left feeling more frustrated than in pain because they were rude, acted like they didn't care or didn't believe me that I was pain, and they didn't give me any information. I was told my lab work looked normal, hopefully it would go away on its own, and maybe "that fast was behind it." (Seriously, the doctor got really hung up on the fact that I had had a 24 hour fast Sat/Sun~ actually saying the words, "Why would you do that?" and "Ugh, I hate that.") When I asked the nurse what they actually checked with the lab work, she started flipping through papers and said a whole lot of nothing. But I'm not pregnant. I did get that much out of her. Sometimes, I just wish I could wear a sign that says, "College Graduate~ You don't have to treat me like an idiot." Anyway, it was a bad, bad day...

At least I had Brian Regan to help me through.

Hey Tooth Fairy!

Bryant lost his first tooth!!! We're all super excited for the Tooth Fairy's arrival... I wonder what she'll bring him.

A Before and After: Kitchen

He worked like crazy yesterday and got all the walls up... now I just need to tape and mud so we can get to work on the rest of it!

In honor of all the hard work we've (mostly Ethan) been putting into our bathroom, I figured I revisit another project of ours... the kitchen.

This is what it was like when we moved in. I posted about it once before, but can't seem to find that post. No biggie. Its strange to remember all that honey colored wood in our before:

The first picture above shows these barstools as they were when we bought the house, this one below is the first transformation I concocted for them. A big improvement if for no other reason than that they were now wipeable with a plastic cover.

And this is their current state. Painted and recovered to match our new look...

This wall before was plain white with nothing on it... oh, except our garbage can, can't forget that! We painted the walls this lovely shade of gray. Hung these floating shelves which add SO much dimension to the space. I even spray painted my ceiling fan (though the knobs are still wood grain, I need to take care of that!)! I also made the roman shade for the window. It isn't perfect, but its much better than those cheap blinds we had before. The table has our recycling bins under it and adds a little extra space when I need it.
This is probably my favorite remedy we came up with... check out our new faucet and light fixture! Major upgrade!
The only thing I would change is the appliance color. I really didn't think painting the cabinets white was a great idea since it would might clash with the appliances, but I needed to change those cabinets and we were quite limited with what we could do, due to our lovely vomit pattern counter tops. I really love the change. I love the hardware we chose. We got a good deal too, check ebay if you're ever buying hardware for your cabinets, its a lot less expensive than Home Depot or Lowe's.
There are still some minor things to do, but for now, this is the after:

Question: Chores

We are trying to implement a more organized system to get our kids more involved in taking care of the house, so I'd like to pose this question to all you blogging friends...

What chores do your kids do?

I feel like I need an addendum to the question, do they do it well? do you have to supervise the entire time? are mine the only kids who complain about having to do even the tiniest bit of work? ;) Do they have daily, weekly, monthly chores (how often do they rotate)?

It seems like just like me, they need something new to motivate them every now and then... I would LOVE to hear what works for you. Or maybe what you remember from when you were a kid, what worked for your parents...

The Phantom Menace

Last Sunday we (finally) watched Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace for our family movie night. The kids were very excited and have been ever since. Some of that excitement has made me giggle:

When the movie title appeared on screen and we all read The Phantom Menace, Jonas shouted out in his silliest voice, "OH! Like Dennis the Menace! Get it?" And laughed and laughed and laughed.

We told the kids that for spring break we were going to go up to Nauvoo. Jonas and Levi were super excited that we were going to Naboo! "Maybe we'll see Padme!"

Despite our efforts to clarify, last night at dinner we had the funniest conversation... we were eating orange chicken and rice (yum!) and Bryant was saying that we should move to Japan because then we could have rice for every meal (he really likes rice). Jonas responded that maybe we'd go through Japan on our way to Naboo.

The conversation followed a winding course through the globe (and star systems?) that reminded me of that scene in While You Were Sleeping where the family is all around the dinner table and talking about the most random things, "

Alan Ladd wasn´t tall. Marshal Dillon was six-foot-five. Well, we all know who Lucy´s type is. These mashed potatoes are so creamy. You like brunettes. I could never make a good pot roast. You need good beef. Argentina has great beef, beef and nazis. John Wayne was tall. Spain has good beef. Cesar Romero wasn't tall."

You should definitely go watch that movie this weekend, one of my favorites!!! Anyway... our conversation went a little something like this,

Levi: "And I could dress up like Padme!"

Jonas: "Is Navoo, I mean, Nauvoo, an island?"

Bryant: "If we went to Puerto Rico that would be scary. That's where the Chupacabra lives."

Mom: "No, Jonas Nauvoo isn't an island."

Bryant: "Its in Illinoi. I mean Illi-noise. That's in the United States. New Jersey would be scary too. The Jersey Devil is there."

Mom: "Isn't there a pro sports team that is the Devils?"

Dad: "The Red Devils. Is that where they're from?"

Levi: "I don't ever want to go to Old Jersey."

Mom: "Oh I wish we had a video camera rolling to record this conversation!!!"

Happy Valentines day to one super girl.

I just wanted to hijack the blog and let my wife know in a very public setting that I love her a ton.

She's the best.

Love you girl.

eta: I tried to capture the screen shot of Ethan's surprise hijacking so it can be immortalized. :) Thanks again babe. I love you.

Demo Baby

I realized how much my man needs to work during our lovely February Freeze (see below) and what better project than ripping out a bathroom?

The before:

Lovely, right? I'm not sure if anything will be able to live up to our old, ugly white painted paneling lined walls and our brownish tile. The whole room used to be lined with big white rope, it was beyond words.

He doesn't look it, but he really is much happier than he was just sitting around reading about the Jazz and playing wii. :)
This is what we found under the paneling...

Awww... nothing beats demolition. Give me a hammer, a pry bar, some safety glasses and I'm a happy camper.
Now we have a big project on our hands, but we're excited with our plans! It should turn our beautiful, though if it doesn't we won't be posting pictures. We've never tiled before, any pointers? We've heard reports of varying degrees of difficulty, some say its terrible and a shower surround is a terrible first project, others say its a piece of cake. I'm hoping we at least feel like its somewhere in the middle. :)

To be continued...

I realized that I haven't put any of my after pictures up of my house... I'll try to get it clean so I can take some pictures to post. We've done a lot of work around here.

February Freeze

I'm happy to report we have a week of 70+ degree weather here in A-town! Although, who am I kidding? We loved being iced in for the week.

For those of you thinking, "'Iced in' in Texas?!" Let me tell you, 6 inches of snow and a week of well below freezing temperatures is enough to shut down most of our fair city. We had at least an inch of ice covering the entire road, yes, all of them. The city only owns 3 trucks for snow removal/ice melt! Those 3 trucks worked around the clock on two roads all week! The rest of us were lucky enough to stay home.
They even closed the base down all week. We were lucky enough to have this guy to keep us company!

We played way too much computer and wii, but had so much fun doing it.

We did go a little stir crazy, which resulted in many wrestling matches, but what do you expect with a house full of little boys?
Oh, and Dad was awesome and built us a fire... he even braved the roads (just a very short way) to buy some marshmallows and hot dogs for roasting.
Some of us didn't feel confined enough, so we looked for more drastic measures.

70 degrees, we'll take it. But what a fabulous time was our February Freeze!

Happy Together

Does anything bring more happiness to your heart than spending family time happily together?

Ya, me neither. Its the best.