It’s Official

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When Paul was newborn, I ran a poll asking you who Paul looks most like. The final vote was for Mommy, although Grandma Peggy mentioned that she thinks he’s a perfect blend of both of us. I think she wins the prize on that one. Here’s the result from when he was newborn.

Here’s the result as of last month, which is what I’ve been saying all along.

Paul looks most like Daddy, but Mommy comes in as a close second!

FYI, according to a similar test, he looks 10% more like Grandma Peggy than Papa Paul and he looks equally like Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson.

(P.S. Thanks to my sister for finding this fun link!)

Lesson 7: What Happens after Death?

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It takes a nonmember 12-year-old to put a lesson about life after death in perspective for a teacher: by having a nonmember in my class, I learned how to be a better teacher.

I’ve been concerned about keeping the attention of my easily distracted class, as I mentioned last week. This week, I followed some suggestions from my mother, who happens to be a teacher, as I taught my lesson — word strips for each scripture, scripture summaries for each student, and so forth. In some respects, none of those teaching methods made any difference. What made the difference was my attention to the subject matter and trying to bear testimony to each class member.

When I walked in to class on Sunday, there was a visitor.

For our lesson, I was going to show them the analogy of the glove: after we die, our bodies go in the earth but our spirits live.

Because there was a nonmember in the room, I went back to the beginning with the analogy. Before we were born, we were only spirits (ungloved hand). Then we were born and received a body (glove goes on the hand). When we die, the body goes into the earth (glove on floor) and our spirits return to God (ungloved hand). Then we are resurrected, and our spirits and body are reunited (glove goes back on the hand). As I asked the class to demonstrate with the glove, we had a great review of the basics of these concepts. It helped me realize how important it is to understand and review the previous lessons before going on to the next lesson.

Then we read scriptures to learn about the Spirit world (our bodies are in the earth; our spirit lives with God). Each person in the class had a summary for a scripture, and after reading each scripture, I’d ask them who had that particular summary. (I think I need to give everyone all four summaries, though, because after their summary had been discovered, they’d not pay attention as we read.) I realized that all of these summaries were fairly new concepts to the nonmember. I ended up talking about a lot of background with the class.

  • The spirits of dead go to God. (Alma 40:11)

We talked about how everyone goes back to God. It’s not just the “good” people.

  • After death, the righteous are happy and the wicked are unhappy. (Alma 40:12-13)

We discussed how we are going to feel — what will our personalities be like after death? Here is where it makes a difference if we’ve been wicked. We’ll still be wicked, plus we’ll feel horrible about it!

  • Christ preached to the spirits in the spirit world. (1 Peter 3:18-20)

We talked about Noah, who is mentioned in verse 20, and what happened to those who died in the flood that didn’t have an understanding of the gospel. This was a good example of why there is a place to learn the gospel after this life. The nonmember in the class seemed to like the concept that there is a chance for those who have died without the gospel to learn the gospel.

  • Missionaries on earth also are missionaries after they die. (Doctrine and Covenants 138:57)

We discussed that our work, as believers and members of the gospel, continues after our time on earth. We’ll always bear our testimony to friends, just as one person in our class did by inviting her friend.

Because baptism is so essential to our progression, we must do baptisms by proxy for those who have died. The discussion seemed to follow naturally, and I felt the spirit as I bore my testimony to the class and to the nonmember.

Then we talked about how we will all be resurrected, judged, and assigned a kingdom of glory (body and spirit are reunited). We read 1 Corinthians 15:40-42, the JST version. (We talked about what the JST is by playing telephone and talking about why modern revelation is important). After reading those verses, I showed pictures of the sun, moon, and stars, and I bore testimony that Heavenly Father has glory for each of us. He wants us to return to Him, and He will help us. We didn’t have time to talk about the Celestial Kingdom of glory, why it is so important, and how to get there. That will be the subject for next week — and the rest of the year!

Even though the class was still chatting with each other and there was still a lot of distraction in the room, I was paying attention to the spirit I was feeling. I was trying to make sure that the nonmember understood what we were talking about. He was nodding through the lesson. The others in the class were getting it to, distracted as they were. And I realized that that is what matters. It’s not about getting through everything I want to talk about (we didn’t).

I realize that my class needs review and testimony throughout the class more. I need to worry less about keeping their every attention and more about each particular member of the class. For instance, did ____ feel the spirit today? That will be my goal as we begin the next lessons.

Lesson 7 and part of lesson 8 out of 45 (I’m still three lessons behind.)

How’s Your Math?

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I’ve added the ability to comment without logging in. You must answer a simple math question. (The problem is if you answer the question wrong you lose your comment! I’m looking for a better spam guard, but in the mean time, here you go.)

You can always comment while logged in as well. I think I’ve fixed the email problems.

1+1+1+1+1=5 Months Old

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Birthday Blues

Yesterday, Paul turned five months old. He celebrated his day by sleeping: I had hoped he wouldn’t get the family cold that is going around, but yesterday he apparently succumbed. The poor little guy! He can’t understand why he can’t breathe, and he is very annoyed by it. It must be hard to be five months old.

Here’s a video from yesterday morning. He wouldn’t laugh and giggle, but here are a few smiles for you.

How’s your math?

Now you can leave a comment without logging in! In order to prove you are a human, however, you must answer a math question (it’s just addition…). I’ll experiment for a few weeks and see how this works. If you hate it, let me know by either leaving a comment or sending me an email at wordpress at [my-last-name] hyphen family dot org.

Note that if you answer the math problem incorrectly, you lose your comment. I don’t like that feature, so I’ll look for a different plugin that might work better.

Site Update

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My sister gave her site a makeover, so I decided it was time to do the same, my way.

I have finally officially upgraded this site to WordPress 2.3.3. You probably don’t notice the change–it is an internal change that makes it easier for me to manage the blog. But in the process, I’ve added some new functions for you, too.
Here are the features:

  • Subscribe to comments

Check the box when you post a comment, and get the subsequent comments mailed to you. I previously had some email problems, but it should be working now. Note that you can also subscribe to the RSS feed for comments to all posts. (If you are currently subscribed to the feed, I apologize for all of the test comments I posted today. They were kind of annoying.)

  • Add formatting to comments

Click just like in Word to add bold, italics, underline, and links. Note that the icons look funny in Firefox, but they work fine.

  • Check spelling as you type a comment

If the word you type is not spelled correctly, hover over the word for suggestions.

I’ve confirmed that the email functions work now, so there shouldn’t be any error messages. But if you do get an error message and you feel like helping me out, send me a note at wordpress at my-last-name hyphen family dot org (or at any other email of mine that you have).

I’m looking for more plugins to make the site work more smoothly. If you have any requests, let me know and I’ll see what plugins are available.

The Ethics of Bribery

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I am facing a dilemma in my Sunday school class. I prepare good lessons. I love the gospel and I have a testimony of it. But my class just doesn’t want to listen.

I guess that means that I’m a boring teacher, so my lessons must not be as good as I think. But I assume a 12-year-old can sit still for 35 minutes, read the scriptures with me, and get something out of it. Is that asking too much?

I talked with Sister C, who taught them last year. She said she had an agreement with the most talkative girl in the class: she’d give her something if she behaved each week. I don’t know what the reward was, but I assume it was edible.

Now, I have qualms about feeding my class, as well as bribing them. The FAQs page online for Primary even says not to bring snacks:

What is the policy for food in Primary? Food should only be provided when it is included as part of a lesson or as a snack for the children in the nursery class. Be sure to consult with the parents of each child about any dietary restrictions that may be caused by conditions such as diabetes or allergies (see Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, 239).

This isn’t primary. This is Sunday school. They are even older. Besides, the physical facilities rules should say not to have food in the classrooms. Yes, people do it all the time, but shouldn’t we know better?

Like I said, I assume a 12-year-old can listen to a teacher for 35 minutes. They’re old enough to respect the scriptures. These kids have been members their entire lives and their parents are active. They should know better. I say I shouldn’t have to bribe them.

However, that still leaves me with a dilemma: a rowdy class. What are your thoughts on bribing the class with food? I hate the idea, but if everyone in the cyberworld agrees that it is the only way, maybe I need to reconsider.

Presto Pesto Pizza, Cookies Revisited, and Chicken Soup for the Cold

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We got back from our trip two weeks ago and I haven’t gotten into the swing of cooking new recipes each week. I’ve been relying on comfort food, like my Super-Easy Pork Chops and Macaroni and Cheese. Yesterday was a comfort food day. I spent all afternoon in the kitchen.

My husband has a sore throat and a cold, so I wanted to make some chicken soup for him. When I was looking at the supermarket for produce for the soup, I saw fresh basil, so I decided to make pesto.

Pesto is a great base for pizza, and since we can’t get decent pizza, I make it. I still miss deep-dish Chicago pizza, but this is a good second best. Making the pesto is the most time consuming part of making this pizza. Now I’ve made it, so pizza, here I come! To make a yummy pizza, I put the pesto on the store-bought pizza crust, put on some chopped sun-dried tomatoes and some fresh Roma tomatoes, put on some cheese (mozzarella, shredded Parmesan, and crumbled goat cheese, which adds a nice flavor), and maybe some other toppings (dried figs, soaked in water, taste really yummy!). Put it in the oven for the allotted time given on the store-bought pizza crust, and presto! We have pesto pizza. See below for the pesto recipe.

Then I needed to make a treat for mother’s group today, so I made the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the world again. They turned out better than ever! So good, in fact, that I’m going to buy cookies to take to mother’s group and keep the homemade ones for myself and for my sick husband who insists they help him feel better. (We may not stay at mother’s group anyway since my throat already has a tickle and Paul keeps sneezing and moaning.)

(By the way, I have changed the metric equivalence on the recipe: it should be 225 g of butter instead of 250 g of butter. They were much “fluffier” and not as greasy with a little bit less butter. I assume that is still equal to 1 cup of butter, but if it’s not or if your cookies seem greasy, put in less than 1 cup of butter.)

I made chicken soup, too. I didn’t put in enough chicken, but overall, the broth ended up quite yummy. The recipe I (sort of) followed said to put the following in a cheesecloth sachet: thyme, celery, parsley, black peppercorn, and bay leaf. I couldn’t find cheesecloth, so I put those things in the broth and simmered for a little while before beginning the rest of the soup. After simmering for a while, I strained out the solids and set aside the broth. I sauteed some onions, garlic, carrots, and celery, added the broth again, then threw in some potatoes and some chopped chicken. The recipe called for 6 ounces (170 g) of chicken for that much broth (about 5 litres), but it was not nearly enough chicken. Next time I’ll put in twice as much. Oh well. At least the broth was tasty! Hopefully the leftovers will help my sore throat when I come down with a cold, too. I already feel a sniffle coming on.

Here’s the pesto recipe if you want to try making pesto pizza:

Pesto Sauce

Yield:1 cup

Ingredients

2 cups fresh basil leaves, stems removed, about 2 ounces (60 g)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts
1 tablespoon peeled and coarsely chopped garlic, about 3 large cloves
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon hot water

Directions

Rinse and pat dry the trimmed basil leaves.

Put the basil leaves in the container of a food processor or blender. Add the oil, pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, and salt and pepper. Blend to a fine texture but not a smooth puree, stopping the motor once to scrape down the sides of the blender container and to force the ingredients down to the blades.

Add the Parmesan cheese and water and blend just a few seconds more. Chill until served.

Serve with pasta, use as a pizza base, or spoon over broiled fish or chicken.

The Millionaire Next Door

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At my mother’s suggestion, I listened to the abridged version (144 minutes) of this book rather than the 18-hour version. In some ways, it still was too long. You get the main idea from the beginning.

Since, like most people, I wouldn’t mind being a millionaire, I found it interesting that those with million-dollar salaries (sports figures, etc.) are rarely millionaires: although they live a “high life,” they have very little “wealth.” In other words, millionaires don’t live the lifestyles we might think we’d want to live if we earned a high income.

The premise of this book is that lifestyle that makes a difference to whether or not one becomes a millionaire (one with lots of wealth), and anyone making $60,000 a year can become a millionaire by adjusting lifestyle.

Here are the common factors that millionaires (those who “successfully build wealth”) share (I’ve merged those that I think relate):

1 and 3: They live well below their means and they believe financial independence is more important than displaying social status.

Obviously, living well below one’s means is easier to do with a high income. But even with a high income, most millionaires function on a well-thought-out budget. Most millionaires also live in a house in an average neighborhood, drive a four-year-old used car, shop at Sears and Penney’s (not Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom) and live unassuming lives. Most millionaires only wear suits they purchased at a discount and eat low-cost food (rather than expensive wine).

2: They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.

For example, they do not waste time “playing the stock market” but carefully figure out what they know about and invest in that. Here’s another example that they didn’t give but that I assume: they don’t waste their time and money with the lottery or gambling.

4: Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care (i.e., parents did not provide substantial cash gifts to their children).

Hmmm. No help from parents? Darn.

5: Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.

In other words, they know what they do to live frugally and were able to teach frugality; they’re kids don’t expect to live a high lifestyle, funded by their parents.

6 and 7: They are proficient in targeting market opportunities and they choose the right occupation.

I didn’t actually pay much attention to these sections — it was the end of two hours of listening. But obviously, some occupations have more promise than others (although I think it’s also important that one chooses an occupation that he or she enjoys).

In all, I enjoyed this reminder that a high income and winning the lottery are not guarantees to wealth: slow and steady wins the race. Maybe there is hope for the rest of us!

East of Eden: Good versus Evil

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John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has been banned before. I’m not surprised. It deals with attempted fratricide, prostitution, and murder. One character, Cathy, is described as a monster. But as I read it and recognized the obvious references and echoes of Genesis, I was overcome and enlightened. Combining the plot with the incredibly well written descriptions of the characters, the Salinas valley (California), and five decades, this is a novel I want to reread.

I am reminded of Mosiah 3:19.

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

When Adam and Eve left Eden, they, for the first time, had wickedness within them. They were able to give in to temptation. But they had the choice to choose the good. In Genesis, Cain chose evil and was sent “East of Eden” (see 4:1-16). Nevertheless, Cain had the choice to choose whether he would follow good or evil throughout his life: he was not condemned straight away.

In this novel, what makes Cathy and others evil is that they don’t “choose” the good. They don’t put off the “natural man.” And that makes all of the difference. On the other hand, other characters in the novel seem to completely miss the “natural man” and are thus overwhelmingly “good.” Ultimately, though, Steinbeck’s point is that we all must choose what we will do: the crux of agency is that we are free to choose. Everyone is!

I don’t know how many reading this review will want to read the novel. Some of the situations and characters are downright evil. But I think a key to reading literature is finding how it relates to your own life; part of what I gain by reading East of Eden is a better appreciation of what it means to have agency.

Unphotographable

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This is a picture I did not take of Daddy in pajamas during the early Saturday morning hours, sitting on the couch under a blanket with Paul in his arms, reading “AKLAT NI MORMON BABASAHING-AKLAT” (Book of Mormon Stories, in Tagalog), and showing him the pictures. Paul is staring at the book with interest and probably wanting to rip and eat the pages, and Daddy keeps reading in a loud and excited voice, all about Joseph Smith and the brother of Jared, who is called ang kapatid ni Jared.

(How I love that man and that baby!)

I got inspiration for this from www.unphotographable.com, which is written by a photographer who has missed some great shots either because it was against the law to take a picture or he did not have his camera or taking a picture would not have been appropriate or he just did not take the picture.

Your turn: what great picture did you not take?