Moroni

I've been reading the latter half of Alma lately. I love Moroni! What a great man, leader, prophet, captain. He is passionate about being righteous. He's anxiously engaged in preparing his people, both spiritually and temporally, for the inevitable fight with their enemies.

Alma 48
11 And Moroni was a ^astrong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect ^bunderstanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;

12 Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the ^awelfare and safety of his people.

13 Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had ^asworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.

14 Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught ^anever to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.

15 And this was their ^afaith, that by so doing God would ^bprosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;

16 And also, that God would make it known unto them ^awhither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the ^bshedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.

17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto ^aMoroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the ^bdevil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

As I received the November Ensign this month with the talks from General Conference I was impressed that we have our own Moronis ~ prophets and apostles who have given us the directions and guidance we need to prepare spiritually and temporally for our own battles with the enemy.



I'm grateful for to have the words of prophets, from other ages, and from our own time, to guide me in my life.

One Reason I Love Computers

Just a few minutes ago Laura called and said that Andrew kept saying "Nana" and wanted to show me his flu shot and pointed at the computer. So we got on ichat and I had a lovely little visit with these three cuties:

How wonderful is that?!

Help! I Can't Stop Painting!

Well, I guess I can stop. But two more quick projects yesterday:

I learned about this cool magnetic paint and decided to try it so that I could take down this white board and just put the magnets on the wall itself.

The magnetic paint is this black primer; it takes 3 coats with 30 minutes drying time between each coat.
(During the drying time I worked on another long-overdue project to be revealed at a later date ~ I've got to give my readers something to look forward to:)

And the final result:

Not all of my magnets would stick to the wall. The ones I made with scrapbook paper modgepodged onto clear stones would not stick; I guess I should try to find stronger magnets. But I still think it is fun to just have a magnetic wall!

While I was in painting mode I repainted the railing in the garage and touched up the walls.


Brian's been helping me, too. He painted the trim around all the outside doors and the outside of the shed. I guess every five years or so you have to touch up paint!

I'm really grateful for paint.
It's so easy to make things look clean and fresh and so many colors to choose!

Today I'm Grateful For . . .

~ Doctors and the influenza test (think strep test but up your nose!) that showed that I don't have influenza A or B (just the regular old miserable flu) so the CDC isn't really interested in me.

~ Jenny and Trevor who have been SO helpful in taking care of Sophie and Ayden, which was to be my job while Mary had her surgery. They are cheerful and loving helpers.

~ A kind husband to took off work to take me to the Dr and brings me whatever my heart desires.

~ Sophie : "Nana, you're happy to me. " (I don't know exactly what that means, but you're happy to me also, Sophie)

~ Ayden: "Nana, I know I can't kiss you 'cause you're sick, but I can still kiss you on the cheek, right?"

~ Michael is a serious student and I don't have to prod or pressure him, he just does what he needs to. I love that!

~ Ibuprofen and tylenol! Every four hours when they wear off and every cell in my body hurts I'm so grateful for their existence!

~My dear friend, Heather, who brought me an orange julius and took Annie for a walk.

~ The recognition that I really love my healthy body and it only takes a few days of illness to be grateful for the good times!

Thank You for the Thank You

Jenny and Trevor gave us this basket, hydrangea plant, fragrance diffuser, red square plate and yummy caramels as a "thank you" for their wedding. How CUTE are they?
Jenny obviously knows me well choosing perfect gifts that I love!
Thanks!

Gifts

On Labor Day we went to Williams-Sonoma so Jenny could use a gift card she got as a wedding gift. I don't usually frequent that store for a couple of obvious reasons: I don't really like to cook, and everything is a bit on the pricey side. But while browsing there I came across this beautiful bowl - okay, I'll admit it caught my eye first because it was blue and second because it's made of gothic arches! But then I read the fine print and realized it was also quite functional, as a fruit bowl, and it can be heated in the oven and will keep napkin-covered rolls warm on the dinner table. I didn't buy it then, but kept it in the back of my mind. Well, I wasn't the only person who remembered. Last night when my dear husband and I went to Maglebys for dinner and had a 30-minute wait he said, "Let's walk over to Williams-Sonoma and get you that bowl." What a sweetie!

Speaking of gifts, I never posted a picture of this most beautiful Nativity set that my dear husband got me last Christmas. It's so lovely I can't bear to put it away, so we have a bit of Christmas all year long.

I'm one lucky girl to have such a kind and generous husband.

Random Things I'm Grateful For . . . continued

The Morning Sky. One of the first things I do each morning is check the sky. If I'm up early enough I even go outside in my jammies to look for constellations, the moon and other planets. But I always look out my bedroom window to the south and note the color of the sky, sometimes pink if I catch the sunrise, sometimes a great shade of periwinkle (my favorite) and sometimes sky blue (pun intended) with white clouds shaded in gray. My least favorite is cloudy and gray. I just love checking out the morning sky and soon birdsong will add an audio portion to this part of my day.

My bed. We have a beautiful king oak sleigh bed with a pillow top mattress. This is topped with a featherbed and then 100% cotton sateen sheets in "river run blue" (yes, I matched the paint color to my sheets!) Next is a down comforter and down pillows - at least two. Finally we have my beautiful Liz Claiborne (the one designer I almost always love) pieced quilt in shades of blue and tan. This bed is soft on so many levels and I just love climbing into it every night. I love waking up in it ever so slowly each morning. And I love getting up and making it first thing so I can enjoy looking at it each day.

My scripture desk. Not to be confused with my work/computer desk in my star room. Anyone who reads my blog probably has heard me talk about my favorite habit from my mission. Morning Sacred Grove. It's a time of journaling, scripture study, prayer and pondering. I love this place and space in my day when inspiration comes and I remind myself of what's most important. To make it a complete sense experience I have scented candles (my current favorite is Sweet Amber Musk from Salt City) and instrumental hymn music and a great view out my window as well as all the little things on my desk and windowsill that remind my of people and thoughts and words that I love. Plus, I also do my hair and make-up here.


Hot showers. I love a hot shower; it's just such a delight to stand there with hot water streaming over your body, so relaxing, and yet energizing at the same time. I think about all the people who lived on the earth who never got to have this simple pleasure and I'm just grateful to have a hot shower every day!

It's all good!

Random Things I'm Grateful For

I've been thinking about some of the daily things in my life that I am so grateful for. In no particular order:


I love it when my house it tidy and the kitchen is clean and the laundry in some state of having been started. I can put off dealing with dust and dog hair on the wood floor and less than sparkling bathrooms if I feel like the kitchen and laundry are where they should be.

I love being home alone. After twenty years with a preschooler by my side, even though my baby is sixteen and now drives himself to school, I'm still not used to being alone and I love it! I have long said that being a mother means that the only way to be "off duty" is to be alone. I love my peeps, but I also love being alone, especially in my very own home.

I love puttering, which is related to being home alone. Puttering while alone is optimal, but it can be done quite well on a Saturday when others are home, if they also are puttering and not requiring your attention. Puttering may consist of the following, but of course, is not limited to: entering receipts into Quicken and balancing the checkbook - which generally leads to checking email and blogs, changing light bulbs that you have noticed were out, same for battery-operated devices, manicure and pedicures and face masks and tweezing eyebrows, any general grooming acts are fair game for puttering. There's also cleaning out the pantry, doing a little laundry, but not taking it too seriously - ironing may also be involved, but not those week-high piles, just a few items! Cleaning out your wallet, purse, and playing with your planner are always welcome putterings. You can do any or all of these while enjoying episodes of "Clean Sweep," "Take Home Handyman" or "What Not To Wear" episodes on TLC. Yeah for Saturday mornings!

Last, but definitely not least for this post is the fact that my husband cooks his own breakfast everyday (Korean Ramen noodles with added veggies) and as part of this ritual of his, he empties/loads the dishwasher and tidies up the kitchen. Did you know that an empty dishwasher is an aphrodisiac!

Note: I had four more things with pictures, no less, then when I hit publish I somehow lost them!#@? - so frustrating. I'll try again later

Wife of One

As mentioned in my profile, I am the wife of one. Richard Carlos Rife, to be exact. It is difficult to put into words my deep feelings about my husband. I fell in love with him because he is kind and understanding and truly cares about my happiness, and these are all the same reasons that "I love him more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow." Over the past 31 years (this November 19th) we have had so many happy and joyful times, and the difficult times really have been few and far between. He is a wonderful and generous provider. He's happy and cheerful and loves to make me laugh, which unfortunately for him has gotten harder through the years as I've become a more difficult audience. He has a gift with words, both written and spoken. I love to listen to him give a talk or read something he has written; it is always profound and elegantly worded. It is true that opposites attract: we don't really like the same food, the same movies or music, the same leisure time activities, but in the things that really matter we're on the same page. We love God and our family and want to follow Jesus. It is such a joy to share this adventure called life with a truly great man. I love you, Rich!