Goodbye January

It's the last day of January. I thought I would just wrap things up with a few things I forgot or wanted to blog.

The other night Emily was sitting on Nate's lap talking with him. I said "Dad is such a sucker for little girls." We continued talking for a bit and Nate was playing with Emily. I said "Dad's nice." Then Emily responded. . ."Yes, but Dad is not a lollipop." At first Nate and I looked at each other wondering where she got that until we recalled the sucker statement. We had a little giggle.

We always do our family home evening on Sunday nights. Tonight we played a game that Nate used in his primary lesson today. Since Nate is in the Bishopric he had to come in and teach the 5th Sunday Sharing Time for primary. It was really good. He talked about service. He shared how when he was a kid his mom made he and his brothers learn to sing and dance together so they could perform for the old folks. He talked about how he hated it at the time. . . but how it taught him so much about service.

(Can you guess which one is Nate?)

Then he played a game with the kids. They had a spoon hooked onto a dowel. They had to figure out how to eat M and M's with the super long spoon. Of course, the answer, was to serve others by feeding someone else. The kids loved the game and so we played it again for family home evening.

Nate got the idea from a thought book he kept from his mission. The story talks about a man who dreams about hell. He gets there and there are people surrounding a table set with a delicious meal. But the only utensil they have is so long they can't eat. Then he goes to heaven, and sees the same scene, only this time the people are happily enjoying their meal because they are feeding each other. Clever.

So, February will start with me truly getting into my new job. I go to Salt Lake tomorrow for a training meeting. I also get to pick up my laptop. . . hehehe. . . a laptop no one can use but me. Exciting. I am liking this job already. I still have a lot to learn but hopefully within a week I will be going full speed ahead.

I am not sorry to say goodbye to January. It is always a long and cold month. Actually, it went by fairly fast. . . but it was cold and gloomy. Only one more month and then we will start seeing some signs of spring again. I was thinking about it today. Although I hate winter, nothing beats those first moments when the snow melts and everything is reborn. It is a reminder to me of the constancy of the human spirit. How, even when we are beaten down, seemingly to the bottom, rebirth and continued growth are an absolute fact. True life. . . the divine spirits within every one of us, can never be beaten.