Why I visit teach each month

As I was eating my dinner tonight, I reflected on church today, especially on the lesson in Relief Society (for those of you that don't know, Relief Society is the hour of church where the women come together to teach each other from the scriptures and words of the prophets).   The lesson today was on Preident Monson's message on seeing others as they may become.  As we discussed ways that we can show others that we love them, visiting teaching came up.

Visiting teaching.  What is it?  Is it simply going out to visit the two or three sisters you've been given stewardship over to make sure they're not in a crisis and to share a brief spiritual message with them once a month?  Yes and no.  The goal is to minister like the Savior ministered and continues to minister to us through the Spirit.  The other goal is to make friends in the gospel.  But the goal is not to just have one more thing on your check off list.  Sometimes that might be what you need to make sure you make time to do it, but ministering isn't an item on a to-do list.

Ministering is keeping others in your thoughts and prayers and serving them in any way you can and that they need.  Right now I'm finding that my biggest acts of service are simply being consistent in going each month to visit, inviting them to church, and answering questions.

But why do I go visit teach every month since I've been assigned to be a visiting teacher?  It's because of two people: my mom and my sister.  I've seen the difference that my mom has made in others lives and I want to be like that.  With my sister, I've seen how she hasn't been visited very much, ever. And it makes me sad.  So I visit teach each month because I wish someone would do that for MY sister.  I wish someone would care enough about MY sister to visit her each month and to keep her in their prayers.  Because I care about my sister that much,  I figure there are other sisters and moms out there who hope the same for their sister and daughter, and so I go.

Me, my sister, my Mom

I go and over time I become friends with these amazing women I am blessed to visit. I go and I am blessed by interacting with these women.  I go and pray that sometime soon someone will do the same for my dear sister,  that they'll become friends and they'll realize just how amazing she is.  THAT'S why I go visiting teaching.

A few more things to cross off my list...

Cleaning update:

DONE with
kitchen (see previous post)
general (dusting, windows)
bedroom (underneath bed and closet)

NEED TO DO (probably my FHE activity on Monday)
bathroom
outside

GOING TO ADD
"detail" the car--windows, dashboard, vacuum, clean out trunk, new air freshner

AFTER CLEANING IS DONE
I guess I'll have to finally work on school stuff like reviews for after spring break, my Portfolio goal to look at different assessments that I want to try out fourth term and apply to next year, plan for after spring break (since I've already planned pretty well up to spring break)

I also found one last envelope and card part of stationary my Mom gave me in high school to write an annual letter to myself. So maybe I'll write a letter to myself again and look at it in a year.

And I think I will give watercoloring a try sometime this next week.

Spring Cleaning Early

After getting up at 5:25; driving to the airport; hanging out at my sister's house, talking to my brother-in-law and playing with my nephew, I decided that when I returned to Provo that I would get started on the list I made last Sunday of cleaning jobs I could do.

Here are the jobs:
Bathroom-ceiling, curtain, shower/tub--more than just a regular Saturday cleaning
Kitchen-stove, oven, floor, fridge
General-dust, windows
Bedroom-underneath bed, closet
Outside-sweep front porch and get rid of spider webs on door

Well, I was able to get all of the kitchen jobs done and dusting.  I may get to cleaning underneath the bed tonight and I already cleaned the closet (on Wednesday).

This house is going to be so clean!  I'm glad I don't clean for four hours every week, only once a year. It's really tiring.

(Note: I know my fridge, stove, whatever don't seem the dirty, but they haven't been deep cleaned for a year so it was time. And I thought they were dirty, so they were dirty enough.)

Before                                                                                                                                                After

A fabulous day!

Today was great! The weather has been so warm and sunny and happy!  After working really hard all day (and still not getting their last class point for their reward), I decided to reward my class with a few extra minutes of recess at the end of the day. I feel like it's the beginning of spring when being outside is treasured the most and I want my students to feel it because I sure love being outside in weather like this.

I've been trying to amass a bunch of projects to fill this next week starting on Saturday.  I have a bunch of cleaning coming my way, probably studying for the Praxis, maybe watercoloring, and possibly a movie night.  My spring break in three weeks will be very empty since I'll be doing everything in this next week that I did during spring break last year.  That's okay though. Maybe I'll hang out on campus in the sun more this spring break.

Headaches have still been pretty regular for the past two weeks, despite plenty of sleep, water, vitamins, and still exercising a bit each week.  I'm hoping it's just the change in air pressure.  Cody and I did finish Downton Abbey season 3 this past Sunday.  Now I can easily wait till season four comes out in a year, unlike with season 3--because I knew someone would have season 3 and I would find it.

Term 3 ends this week. It's so crazy that the school year is 3/4 of the way done already!!  I only have 9 more weeks with my students!! Well, I'll try to make the most of those 9 weeks.

Missing and Not

I'm missing France and French today. I know I do a French Club every week at school, but it's different from learning it and being immersed in it. I hope that I'm helping my French Club students gain a love of French so that they'll want to take it in junior high and high school. But mostly it's so that I don't forget everything. And I've forgotten a lot of the more complicated things. One day I hope that I'll be able to take some more college level French courses.

                                         

I'm missing art. I really miss my ceramics and drawing classes I took at BYU.  Taking the time to create was something I loved and struggled with and loved all the more for that struggle. I checked out a watercolor book at the library yesterday with the half-formed plan of trying out watercolor again, especially when Cody's gone on his trips in the next few months.

I'm missing energy. I had a horrid migraine (or what I refer to as a migraine since the doctor obviously says it isn't unless it's diagnosed) last night.  I couldn't sleep for a few hours and I've been lacking in energy most of today.


I'm missing the love of teaching today. This is probably absent from my life today because 1) it was there yesterday, 2) I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I am sooo affected by the amount of sleep I get, and 3) it seems like a lot of the teachers are just as exhausted as I am at school lately and no one is doing the cheering up and rallying. If I had the energy I would try, but I've just been so stretched lately.

I'm missing my memory.  I've been having blank stretches in my memory, they only last for about a minute but there is no memory whatsoever in my mind of certain things in my life.  I'm sure it's just because I've been tired lately, but I really don't like forgetting things.

I'm not missing unwelcome memories. While I've been forgetting certain things, a lot of other memories have been crowding my brain and making it hard for me to sleep and focus.  Sometimes those memories are unimportant, like thinking about how one of my students moved around the classroom. Who cares? But it can play back and forth in my memory. Other memories are more potent and lead to comparisons and I wish they would stay in the back room so I could fully appreciate the present and find ways to make the best of where I'm at now, instead of wishing for more efficient days or more harmonious days or days when I felt more intellectually stretched.

I'm not missing having an unreliable car. It's been so wonderful having our Mazda 6 this winter.  I've never had to really wonder if the car would be able to make it anywhere. And while the Saturn lives on, it's so nice having a car that is comfortable, classy, and reliable.

I'm not missing homework assignments for a college grade.

I'm not missing single's ward drama, especially in February.

I'm not missing being unemployed.

I know life isn't always the ideal and I know it probably won't ever be exactly what I thought I wanted, but I will get lucky sometimes and get something better. Sometimes it'll be worse, but if I just do the things I can control--sleep, exercise, eating right, telling my husband I love him every day, talking with my family often, keeping my testimony strong, and paying tithing (BIG testimony builder moments with that one lately)--then I know I'll be blessed to be able to endure and make it through.

Felt like an update...

Cody and I found out last week that he had been selected by OFAC for his summer internship.  He accepted the internship yesterday after prayer and discussion with his program leader.  Now he knows where he'll be working!

I've been chugging away at school. This time of year I feel like I have less patience and have been trying to be aware of that as I interact with others at work, especially my students.  They are getting ready for a fifth grade only writing test at the end of the month and I've been trying to maintain my patience with the students who can write well but don't like the topic so they don't write anything during our practice times.

January was an eventful month with my last two great-grandmas passing away within two weeks of each other.  I got to see my parents twice and spend a bunch of time with them and my sister and her family.  And oddly enough, today is the four year anniversary of the funeral of my Great Grandma Yates.

I've begun reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It was a treat to see my students eyes when they saw I was reading a book---for fun!--that was over 1200 pages. They thought I was crazy.

I realized this morning as I stood outside my classroom door greeting everyone that I am grateful to not teach sixth grade because there were two couples holding hands walking down the hallway.  Oh young love! How it never works out and they don't even know.  I'm glad I don't have to deal with that kind of drama in my class.

My work on my crochet blanket is coming along nicely (thought I should update on that since that was my last post).  Cody and I have begun exercising using some free apps I got on my iPad and it's been good but hard--especially to do abs straight for ten minutes. We've only done that twice.  Well, I'll be watching the State of the Union address and trying to be an informed and good citizen, especially since I missed the Inauguration on the 20th.

Crocheting

After being inspired by my visiting teacher, Kensie,  I decided that I wanted to learn how to crochet sometime in my life, preferably sooner rather than later.  This Christmas break, I noticed that my mother-in-law can crochet and does so often, so I asked if she would teach me.  After the first few rows of stumbling my way through and trying to find a rhymthm, I realized it would probably look better if I stopped, took it out and started again.  As I was doing so, I ran into a snag and had to cut the yarn.

So then I was REALLY starting from scratch.  After working on it for about four hours Saturday and a little bit of time yesterday morning, this is what's I have so far.

 Then I worked on it a bit after church and through the evening. This is what it looks like now:

And I am so proud of it, messed up stitches and all.