This Side of Invisible

After a crazy back-to-school week, I really needed this reminder.  Enjoy! This video is a short overview of a sermon given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints given in October 2010. If you would like to read, listen to, or watch all of Elder Uchtdorf's sermon, please visit lds.org .

Published on the Liahona Project, link here Recently, Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers sent me a complimentary copy of "My Life Without Limits" by Nick Vujicic to read and review.  And I will admit, when I first started reading it I was skeptical.  It was a little too upbeat, a little to cheesy for my tastes.  But what I came to realize is this: Nick isn't selling cheesy feel-good motivational fluff.  Nick is speaking from the heart, telling the world about his experiences with real trials and heartache and how he has learned to overcome.  Nick isn't selling anything; he's spreading the truth about the power of hope. The author asks, "What is hope?"  What follows is his answer (which I love):  "It is where dreams begin.  It is the voice of your purpose.  It speaks to you and reassures you that whatever happens to you doesn't live within you."  This statement struck such a cord with me.  I love this principle that your experiences do not

It’s like being adrift at sea, constantly having to fight the waves and current so that you don’t slip under. Occasionally a piece of drift wood might float by and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch it. But even at that, it being drift wood, water-logged and rotted, after some time it starts to crack and break apart under your weight. You cry out in panic as it begins to disintegrate in your hands, leaving you floundering, trying to recover, coughing and spluttering, gasping for air, praying someone will save you or that maybe, you can figure out how to save yourself. photo credit here You know land is out there somewhere. Once or twice you’ve caught a glimpse of it. You thought you even saw a small group of people there. They were partying, gathered around a fire and possibly dancing. Damn them! While you’re trapped out here, treading water, completely exhausted. You start praying another bit of drift wood will come along, you’re always praying for

I recently saw a post circulating on FB that said something to the effect that Back to the Future had lied to us because we don't have dryers that fold our laundry for us yet.  And while I do have a wish for the future of technology, it doesn't involve laundry that comes out of the dryer folded or dishes that wash themselves.  Let me explain. FB status update, January 27, 2012: T his is why Geoff and I were inspired to get liability insurance: my 3 dear sons just shot up the missionaries car with their bb guns while trying to chase off a skunk that was roaming up and down our street. Driver's window ruined and about 10 bb dings up and down the driver's side from bumper to bumper. Oh, and let's not forget the scratch down the side where someone ran into the car with the ir bike. Did I mention it was a 2012 chevy malibu... a 2012. Go big or go home, we've taught them well. Now, maybe we should invest in shooting lessons and work on their aim? In

Here's another little snippet of my WIP.  Seriously, putting it out there that I'm desperately trying to finish this thing has actually helped me stay focused.  And thanks to all of you that offered your kind support.  It's extremely encouraging. In this snippet, having gotten lost on her first morning in a new school and now running a few minutes late, Dee has just walked into her very first public school class ever--high school English.

Do you ever have those moments when you realize you are just a dog chasing your own tail? How about, ever have a moment when the world as you know it falls out from under you, or crumbs around you? Ever thought you were ascending the stairway of heaven and discovered that it's a stair master and you weren't actually going anywhere... and in the meantime you are sweating to death and your thighs are on fire? Yeah, I have those moments a lot. Life is just disgustingly hard sometimes, isn't it? Murphy and his notorious law--"If anything can go wrong, it will"--follow me everywhere... even in my sleep. Now I don't want to sound like a total cynic, but it truly has been my experience that, "If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what the hell is going on." Thanks again, Murphy, you're awesome. There are times when I feel like Alice in Wonderland, befuddled and confused, falling through a never-ending hole, never sur

Normal : noun the  usual , average,  or   typical  state or condition  Normal :  adjective conforming   to  a  standard ;  usual ,  typical ,  or   expected   According to my dictionary app: Most  people want to be regarded as  normal , an adjective that implies conformity with established norms or standards and is the opposite of abnormal ( :  a normal body temperature; normal intelligence ). Regular , like  normal , is usually preferred to its opposite (irregular) and  implies  conformity to prescribed standards or established patterns ( :  their regular  monthly  meeting ; a regular guy ), but  normal  carries stronger connotations of  conformity  within prescribed limits and sometimes allows for a wider range of differences. photo credit: here What do you think?  Do you buy into this definition?  Do you think normal is such a rigid concept.  I'm not sure I do.  Here is why:  This is a definition of all the normalness in my life.

I recently made a pact with a dear friend of mine, my BWBE (best writing buddy ever), Becca.  We have both been working on a book for nearly two years.  We both want to finish.  We decided to vow to each other we would finish within six weeks, making our finishing date September 17, 2012.  I need too stay focused and not get to lost in details of what I've already written so that I can just push through to the end.  I'm getting closer and closer everyday, but I need a little more push behind me.  So I've decided to share with the world my goal in the hopes that having it out there will help push me through to the finish line.  I'm really trying to keep myself accountable to the goal I've set. I am posting right here, right now, I will have this book finished (the first draft, mind you) on or before September 17th!!!!   To keep me excited and maybe (hopefully) to gain more people to cheer me on, I've decided to share just a few bits and pieces of my work here

Triumph Truth Prevails                                 When Hope Prevails You should all know that means writing.  My kids are too old to blame my few hours of sleep on them. A good friend and I recently made a pact that we are GOING TO FINISH our WIP's (works-in-progress) in 6 weeks... that was about a week ago, so we have 5 weeks left.  Hold me to it, please! I have lost a ton of sleep over my WIP the last 2 weeks, but last night, I lost sleep over this: "What is this?" you say.  This is Spine Poetry.  I found the contest on  LibraryThing.com.   So I thought I'd try it.  Here are the rest of what I've been playing with.  Tell me what you think.  I can enter as many times as I'd like, but I want to put in the best entries that I can.  I started to get really frustrated.  I really wanted to go to the library to check out books so I'd have more to work with, but... I decided to do the best I could with my own library.  Not all of the

 I was recently involved in a discussion about ADD and tips for getting yourself back on track when distracted or daydreaming.  And I'm trying not to let it go to my head that the blog author, Josh Weed, picked my comment as one of three from 100+ to mention in his follow-up post.  Who am I kidding?  I'm FAMOUS!  Almost.  I mean, at least some random people from somewhere who don't know me from Eve are seeing my name in print on blog today. p.s. If you are looking for a quick fix of the good stuff, meaning laughter, head over to The Weed .  Josh's humor is very medicinal. If you want, click here to see the original post that I commented on.  And click here to see the follow-up post where I became famous! I was actually feeling like a bit of a fraud posting any comment because I was thinking, 'I'm not ADD and my children aren't either'.  But then after about 2 seconds of contemplating the validity of that statement, I realized that actually I am q

Published on The Liahona Project, link here Being a mother is hard.  It's mentally and emotionally taxing in unimaginable ways.  Having a child with special needs multiplies the difficulties tenfold.  As the mother of multiple children with special needs... there are many, many days when insanity reigns and tears flow like the River Nile. And I wouldn't have life any other way. As I met with a Parent Advocate today to discuss how to approach the school, and what laws I needed to be aware of, and what jargon I needed to be familiar with and what paperwork I should never give them outright (things I will always need my own copies of), I was so appreciative that someone understands how hard I fight for my children.  How much I love them.  How very much I want what is best for them.  My Parent Advocate was my hero today.  She saw me, a simple mother, that is often overlooked and belittled by professionals, both academic and medical, and she understood that I know.  I know my

Some days my life seems to revolve around medication schedules, either for myself or one of my children or several of us.  This weekend it's pain meds and heavy-duty antibiotic eye drops for my son, Thing 1, who had eye surgery on Friday.  In the past we've had days and sometimes weeks and even a few months were it's been round-the-clock medication for a plethora of illnesses: asthma, eczema, pneumonia, swine flu, tonsil/adnoidectomies (we've done 4 for these in the past 5 years or so), ear infections, fungal infections (on the skin, so much fun), allergies, back injuries, and countless other surgeries... not to mention the other things like depression, anxiety and ADHD.  Anyone else feeling exhausted?  (and people wonder why I homeschool... imagine packing up half this cabinet to send to the school... and actually this is less medicine than my children required when they were in public school, so...  also, I really love to use ellipses when writing...  see?) Our me

Sometimes there's simply no if, and, or buts about it, there is no other way to get things done than to put your shoulder to the wheel and push the cart along yourself as sweat runs down into your eyes.  And today, at my house, we've been crackin' the whip and getting things done.... even when it appears that we weren't. Wednesdays are mid-week chores at our house.  We've been working the 'new' chore charts since getting settled in TX about 9 months ago.  It's taken months of near hellish Wednesday mornings to finally get to today: the day 4 out of my 5 kids got their Wednesday chores accomplished without being reminded, and they even did competent, maybe even, dare I say it, great work.  Victory #2 for the week!  Lesson learned: diligence has wicked pay off.  Good things come to those that work for it.  And not just to the parents of the world working unceasingly to teach life skills, but to the kids that are working, sometimes less than tirelessly, l