Articles of Faith #2

2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

Agency is one of the greatest gifts a person can have. I know I am responsible for my choices and their consequences. Heavenly Father has given me all the information I need to get back to His presence. My purpose on earth is to learn to be like Him. When I make mistakes, I can repent and be forgiven.

In order to truly have agency, I know there must be opposition. It is an essential part of life on earth that helps me be a better person. I am glad that Adam and Eve chose to know both the bitter and the sweet by partaking of the fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Thank You, Uncle Sam

Every year we get a pretty big tax return. To say it's a "return" is a misnomer because we don't make enough money to actually pay income tax. The amount given to us is for child credit (times 3) and earned income credit. So no, it's not our interest-free government savings account. Anyway, I am grateful for these returns. We generally have some needs like medical bills and car repairs that aren't possible to pay for on the monthly paycheck. The tax return helps us catch up. We then each get a small amount (usually about 2% of the return) to spend on whatever we want. The last of the state money came today, so I ordered myself a bunch of stuff on Amazon. Hooray! It feels good to not have a wish list anymore. What did I buy?

a few items for Asian cooking that I can't find anywhere in Vernal
supplies for latch hook rugs
a rotary cutter and mat
a digital thermometer with remote sensor and timer
a new grain mill (since I killed my other one :( )
a belt for my sewing machine
a phone case
rennet, so I can make my own cheese

I am so excited! It's like Christmas again!

Articles of Faith #1

I want to use social media for good and not just entertainment. To partly fulfill that purpose, I want to do a mini series on the Articles of Faith. When anyone asks what I believe, I recite those articles to them. I think they are the most succinct way to express what I believe as a Mormon. I will try to make these articles short as well. There is a lot more information at https://www.lds.org/ and some nice infographics on my Pinterest board. (I will add a lot more in the future.)

The 1st Article of Faith talks about the Godhead.1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

I know that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are separate people but function as one in purpose. Jesus is the literal Son of God who came to dwell among men and show them the way back to the Father. God loves each of his children and knows them by name. I can become like him. I am trying to have a personal relationship with my Father in Heaven through prayer. Knowing God blesses my life every day because I know who I am and where I'm going.

Changes

I suppose the only real changes around here right now are in the weather. We've reached the melty, muddy, windy part of the year. Today is also rainy. I love the sound of rain falling and of snow melting. My favorite thing to do is curl up with a book in the semi-dark house.

I finished my faith project. I wrote a poem about faith and composed music to go with it. Since it didn't take up the whole 10 hours, I worked on the song for Joseph's baptism with my boys. (It just happened to be about faith!)

Other than that, it's life as usual.

Baptism

We took a sort of last-minute trip to Idaho for James's brother's baptism. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not, not because of seeing people, but because I've been feeling stressed out and grumpy. It was a pretty good trip. We left Friday after school and picked up Anna on the way.

Saturday was the baptism. It was a nice service, even though it felt like sitting through sacrament meeting with the kids. My boys and their uncle Joseph sang the closing song, "I'll Stand Tall" and did a great job! Kenny starting singing during the intro, but he started over with the other boys and did a great job. Katie ran up right at the end yelling, "My turn!" since she loves to be the center of attention. It was really cute.

We had a luncheon right after and dinner with the Lees. All afternoon we pretty much sat around and ate Milano cookies. Those things are addicting. We stopped in at Cabela's in I.F. after the dinner, but it was small and pretty disappointing.

Sunday was church, then dinner (finally!) with Christian and Rachel. It was Fast Sunday, so it was a long day. The only way I make it through is to sleep through part of it.

We headed home on Monday and got back into the swing of things. It's never fun to go shopping at night or do mountains of laundry, but I'm all caught up now. The missionaries came over for dinner last night, and the kids were so cute. They answered all the questions correctly and paid attention.

This weekend is 4 days long. It would figure that it's a week after we go out of town and had to miss a day of school, but that's just how it works sometimes. I can't wait for my Valentine's date. I planned it!