On Saturday, we let Henlie have another go at the Pop-Its and sparklers.  We started earlier so she could actually play for a bit.  She did hold the sparklers, with some help.  She also helped me clean up the Pop-Its from Friday and Saturday :)

Independence Day is kind of a lame holiday for us because of parades.  Since Matt's current band is located in Bountiful, they do northern parades.  Also, being a national holiday, there are a whole lot of parades around the state.  So Matt left early on the 4th to head to Centerville for a parade.  I didn't really want to head to the Provo parade just the two of us, so we stayed home.

We went over to Mapleton later in the morning for me to get a massage.  A pipe band acquaintance had borrowed my small pipes awhile ago, so I went to pick them up.  As repayment for her hanging onto them for awhile, she gave me a massage (she's a massage therapist, so I promise it wasn't weird haha).  Henlie did really well for most of the hour, so that was nice.  On our way home, we stopped by Kmart because they had a sale on flip-flops, and they had baby flip-flops (which my Walmart does not have. Rude.)



After Henlie's and Matt's naps, Matt had to go to the Sandy parade, and we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's for an impromptu family BBQ.  My cousin Elisabeth was there, so it was entertaining haha.  Love her!  Apparently Grandma has a Kindle now, and I showed her some things about Facebook to help her navigate it a bit better.  She also let Grumpy have the Kindle for apparently the first time ever, so he could look through the pictures from our Malad trip.  So, I taught both of them some Facebook.  Good times.

We couldn't go to Koreen's house without seeing the chickens.  Mocha has fits every time we do, though.  She gets to come outside with us, but she can't come into the garden, which you have to go through to get to the coop.  We helped Koreen gather the eggs, got a new dozen, and headed home for the evening.

Henlie had a nap on the way home, so we let her stay up a little later to play with some Pop-Its and light sparklers.  She wasn't so sure about the sparkler.  After our "fireworks," it was time to put her to bed.  Thankfully, there wasn't much fireworks noise around.  Maybe part of that was her getting to stay up later.  There were some squealy ones, but she wasn't yet asleep.

As part of her bedtime routine, we sing songs.  Being Independence Day, I threw in some patriotic songs.  My highlight?  Singing The Star-Spangled Banner while some fireworks were going off outside.  It really made me think about the words I was singing and the environment surrounding the creation of the poem.  

We had an enjoyable holiday (well, I did. I don't know about Matt haha).  Low key, just the way I like it.

We had some fun over the Independence Day holiday and surrounding days :)  There isn't a lot to tell, but there are kind of a lot of pictures, so I'm breaking it up into parts.

July 3rd, Jackie and Christopher were down for a family reunion (they've been in Utah, but up with her family in Plain City). She came down to Payson to visit with everyone for a couple of hours.  It was fun to see her and Chris. :)  Mostly, we hung out and let the kids play.  Then we went outside where the kids played some more :) They sure do love the swings and slide!  Aunt Lynell also came over and showed the girls Pop-Its.  They enjoyed those :)


Henlie loves her cousin Charlie so much.  Whatever Charlie does, Henlie wants to do.  It's pretty cute.  It doesn't work out well when Charlie wants to go downstairs, though, because Henlie doesn't do stairs on her own, and I rarely want to go down lol.  They're a couple of troublemakers, those two.

After chatting a bit, getting a snack, and playing some more, everyone went their respective ways.  I'm excited for later in the summer when we get to see more of Jackie, Christopher, and Curtis!

Can we all take a moment and agree that God is good? 

I know, cliche.  But true.  Today seems to be a real culmination of things since Sunday.

Sunday was fast Sunday.  To be honest, I don't typically fast.  I learned through personal study years ago that it is actually a commandment to fast (not necessarily on fast Sunday, but in general).  I was researching what it really means to fast and how to actually "fast."  Anyone can skip a few meals, but that isn't fasting in the religious sense of the word.  The problem with fasting, is it seems to be a very personal thing, even if lots of people are fasting for the same reason, so it's hard to really gain a good example (at least in my upbringing) of a proper fast.  I don't bother skipping the meals usually because I'm not really "fasting," so what's the point of going hungry? :)  Usually I don't know what to fast for.  Not every month is there someone I know of who could use that extra divine help in their lives.  What do normal people fast for?

Anyway, I've been struggling a little lately.  Actually, in terms of doing things I'm supposed to and not doing things I shouldn't, I've been doing pretty well.  However, I have been struggling with sorting out the difference between my own thoughts or feelings and actually receiving revelation.  Specifically, this has been in regard to coming up with names to recommend for callings in church.  This hasn't been a strong point for me, even when I've prayed about them.  

This fast Sunday, I decided to fast to be able to better discern when I'm receiving actual revelation, especially in regard to some names we have been considering.  I didn't get anything earth-shattering, but I did notice some things happen in church that I don't know I would have picked up on or done had I not been fasting with this in mind.  I actually opened myself up to the Spirit more so than maybe I have in awhile.  I felt good about a couple of names and called it good.  

But let's talk about since then, shall we?  Now, I'm not still holding fasts this week regarding this, and I haven't been praying about names a whole lot this week, either. (Note to self, it might be a good idea to do that :))  This week, I've been reminded of a talk, I think it was Elder Bednar gave about feeling the Spirit.  Now, shocker, I haven't been a perfect angel my entire life ;)  I have had occasions of deep, moving spiritual moments when I knew it was the Spirit and I cannot deny them.  But those usually come when you've not necessarily had strong companionship with the Spirit.  The difference in feeling is striking.  It truly is undeniable.

But what about when you're doing what you're supposed to?  When you probably do have the Spirit with you a majority of the day, every day?  Are these thoughts and feelings just me or are they divine revelation?  Now, this isn't really a state I've lived most of my life in, so I'm still trying to figure things out.  Anyway, Elder Bednar (I think) says we should take it as a good sign that we don't necessarily need the big spiritual moments because it shows we've become more gradually in tune with the Spirit.  We don't need signs or angels to get through to us.  This was comforting (although, not entirely helpful to my situation lol).

Along with fasting on Sunday, when Henlie wanted to watch TV before church, I actually pulled out one of my Living Scriptures videos (that I bought ages ago with my ex) to watch.  We learned about Abraham and Isaac :)

My scripture study has been pretty consistent since I started again.  I'm further into the Old Testament than I ever have been. (To date, I've only entirely read through The Book of Mormon like twice and The Pearl of Great Price like once.  Scripture reading is another not strong point of mine :))  Consistent reading and studying I think has brought me closer to the Spirit.

On Tuesday, I was searching through my Netflix to find something to watch and found a mini-series I'd added called The Bible.  Henlie and I watched the first episode (so did Matt since we were watching it when he got home lol).  There were some things I didn't recall happening, so I had to run get my scriptures and follow along, haha.  (After episode 1, I'd recommend it :))  My visiting teacher also came over on Tuesday and we had a good little chat.  We also held our first ever family home evening since being married that night.  I think things are at a point in our lives that we will be able to hold fairly consistent family home evening.  It's a happy thing.

Today, Henlie helped me with a prop for Sharing Time this Sunday.  We have been listening to the Mat Kearney station on Pandora, and there has been two definitely Christian songs, and some others that I don't know if they were actually Christian because I wasn't fully paying attention, but with the state of mind I'm in, I took them to be Christian :).  

I've been sorting my "Church stuff" board on Pinterest and found a wonderful blog post on Eve being an help meet to Adam (here).  She also wrote a post in 2009 about women and the priesthood (here).  It is so applicable now. (Side note, Kate Kelly is appealing her excommunication.  I'm actually happy about this since she is following the proper procedures.  I'm not happy with things she has said and done surrounding it, but I'm working on just letting go.)

Also, it's raining.  (Okay, I realize it rained last night too, but I was inside at work.)  Sometimes I'm like, "Meh. Rain," or, "Ugh. Why is it raining? How depressing," but tonight?  Tonight, I needed this rain.  It has been so cleansing for me.  It has cooled the temperatures tonight, so I was able to have the door and windows open (until the rain. Then the windows had to get closed...)  It has been awhile since I've appreciated a rain storm this much.  The air smells wonderful.  The cooler temperature is a definite nice break from the nearly 100 degree weather we've been consistently having.  

Henlie and I had some time communing with nature on our porch.  It was lovely.  I recounted the story of Noah, the ark, and the symbol of the rainbow to her.  We sang When I am Baptized. Okay, I sang it.  (It's the "I like to look for rainbows" song.)  We called Grandpa Erdmann, and she had a lovely chat with him.  We got her ready for bed (Oh, she totally "brushed" her own teeth tonight, haha.  Cutie.) and sat together on the patio for a bit before going to bed.  In our night time prayer, I prayed that Henlie wouldn't cry in going to bed (she has been for me for awhile.  She must really love me or something because she never wants me to let her go at sleepy time - nap or bed.  Matt says he doesn't have such troubles...)  What happened?  We sang Old MacDonald with lots of verses, and she was mostly asleep.  I started singing I Am a Child of God, which usually puts her into fits because she knows it's time to go to bed after it, and she didn't complain.  I couldn't get Good Night, Gorilla out of her hands, but I put her to bed, made sure she knew she had Piglet, got her cup for her by request, and tucked her in.  No crying.  Not entirely out, so I could give her loves goodnight.  And then those blog posts.  And more rain.  Oh, and the bird that totally flew in our house this afternoon and met Munchkin got out safely and seemed unharmed as it flew away. (That was a fun and interesting maybe 30 seconds haha).

I did yoga while the Mat Kearney station played, window open, rain falling.  So perfectly relaxing.  I stood on my patio, arms outstretched, feeling the rain fall on my arms and the (now) gentle wind brush my face.  Heaven.


So, yes, definitely feeling the Spirit today.  Feeling grateful.  Feeling happy.  Feeling stuffy because emotion makes me cry, haha.  Anyway, I had to share.

God is good.  God lives and He does love us.  I know it.  He is aware of us.  All of us.  

All of this extra spirituality helps me feel love for more of the people around me and less afraid of saying the "L" word.  We need to love.  Heck, even Daniel Tiger today was about service (look up the episode Neighbor Day).  So, go forth and love and serve.  I love you all, even if I haven't met you.  I love you because He loves you.  We all have worth.  We need to do more loving and less judging.  Then, the world will be a happier place.

Matt and I never had FHE.  I didn't grow up with a consistent FHE, so it was never something I really pushed or was super comfortable with.  Matt apparently never pushed it, either ;)  Then, we work opposite schedules and don't see each other much.  He works days, and I work nights.

But now, Matt is done with school and I work part time.  Matt is still gone on Thursday nights for band rehearsal, but we are now both home on Tuesday nights.  Since Family Home Evening doesn't necessarily have to be on Monday night, we decided to start having FHE with Henlie on Tuesdays.  This week was our first.  It's nice because Henlie is little, so our lesson is like 2 minutes long.

This week, we learned about Heavenly Father and Jesus, and that They love us and we love Them.  "Heavenly Father" was a bit much for Henlie to say, but she could say "God." She already knew Jesus in our picture :)



After our mini lesson, we had some cinnamon swirl cake out on our patio.  Matt and Henlie started singing Elmo's Song.  Then, Henlie kept singing Elmo's song for us :)

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Henlie definitely has opinions nowadays.  Here are some of her favorite things.

Grandma Biggs gave us Good Night, Gorilla for Christmas last year.  Lately, it has become one of Henlie's favorites.  She always asks, "Gorilla?"


She loves music.  She loves to play the piano, sing, and dance.  She loves it when you play or sing for her, too.  And she is always excited to have you dance with her!



One of her favorite pastimes is coloring.  She asks, "Color?" a lot.  Coloring can hold her attention for quite awhile.  She loves to make us draw hearts, too.

Since they split our ward, we lost a few primary teachers and our chorister.  Our first Sunday since the split, we had Brother Newman sub for music.  He brought his ukele for a couple of songs.  It was fun :)  (Side note, I also sang in sacrament meeting that day. :))

Henlie likes to play piano.


One day, she pulled out a box from the stack in our hallway and climbed right in!  She really did have fun, but this was the clearest picture I had lol


A cute twist on her hair one day.



This past Sunday, July 6th, Matt wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home from church.  Henlie was pretty tired, so she was leaning on me.  Matt may or may not have received a picture text while I was in sacrament meeting.....


Henlie also loves to color, but she wasn't too interested in doing the actual coloring herself on Sunday, so I colored for her.  I sent another picture to Matt.  I felt pretty good about myself when Henlie knew what I had drawn.  She figured out three out of four.  (She didn't get the duck. :( But for me, who isn't very drawing and painting inclined, I was pretty proud that she could tell what I'd drawn on the first three!)


Yesterday, I made us some Pasta-roni for lunch.  I let Henlie feed herself.  She is so cute!  Also, she loved it.  She asked for seconds and ate all of it.