Create and Compassion

So what has happened to me? ... Well I have been over my head in school stuff and knee deep in reading All the "Harry Potter Books"! We, that is Jack and I, have been reading these books for the past three weeks. This has been quite a tiring feat. Jack is a task master. I don't think he realizes that my life is busy even when he is in bed. Every night it is " Mom, please read at least 10 chapters tonight." So I read and read .... then I think I should be reading my scriptures this much. More on Harry Potter later!

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Tonight, I attended the General Relief Society Broadcast. It was wonderful. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a very powerful talk on what brings the Lord happiness.

Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

He taught that the Lords gains his happiness through us, his creations and thru the compassion he has for us. He said that we can find a measure of great happiness by following his example.

To create, To bring something into existence that wasn't there before; a smile, a garden, a painting , a meal, an idea, an empty space, ... a life. He told us we should create. We all have talents and we should use them to beautify this world. I wish I knew where the quote he gave by Brigham Young came from. He basically said that we should create and beautify our world so that angels would want to dwell with us. I Loved this!

He also taught about our Saviors compassion for mankind. His life is the definition of compassion. It struck me when he said, "The Savior did not bother to compete,{ I am very competitive} or seek after worldly honor or goods, but rather sought to help the needy, uplift the poor of heart, and heal the sick. Everywhere he went his charity was the first thing on his mind. Another thing he said, That it might not be the number of prayers we say, but maybe the number of prayers we are able to answer. This was so powerful!

The whole boadcast was so uplifting. Sister Becks talk really inspired me too. I will comment on this tomorrow. If you missed this you should go to http://www.lds.org/ and listen to it!

Time To Read

I am trying to read more, more books that I would enjoy. I do read quite often. Most books that I read are children's books at bedtime and nap time and here I highlight two that I just bought. I also read middle school books to keep up some what on what Jack is reading.

I discovered Children's Author Jon J. Muth {I didn't discover him personally but his work} while researching books for our unit on Ancient Asian studies. They are fiction and heavily influenced on the Buddhist way of thinking including Zen. They made for great discussion on life ,religion, and how each one of us responds to the world around us. Great for essay writing.

I am reading "The Red Badge of Courage" with Jack. I read it many years ago. I forgot how tedious it is. He was hailed as a giant in literature in the late1890's. I guess for me the language is a little hard to follow and I find myself having to make a running commentary to Jack through out. We are enjoying reading together. We hope to see several Civil War sites this spring. I thought this book would give us a good backdrop.

I just finished the book " The Nine" by Jeffrey Toobin last night. It is a look at the Supreme court Judges life, background and case load over the past fifteen years and how it has shaped our world. I found it quite fascinating. The author is obviously a liberal and the book probably takes this as bias. He does have an affection for Judge O'Connor, which I found interesting. He is an entertaining writer. I love non-fiction and haven't read anything for sometime. I was watching C-Span, they have book TV were they review different books I thought the interview was intriguing , so I read it.

I am reading and studying "Overcoming Dyslexia" By:Sally Shaywitz. Skips mom recommended this book and sat down with me to highlight some of the helpful sections of the book. I am so grateful to her. Sam is struggling with this issue. This book has been a tremendous help for me in changing the way I approach teaching for Sam.

The next two books, I did not read in their entirety. One is on the code HTML and the other on using Photo Shop. The HTML book has been extremely helpful, especially when doing my BLOG. the Photo Shop book gave me some helpful hints on how to edit my pictures.

As I read and understand more about life, I feel really good inside. I haven't really taken the time to read other books for my own enjoyment besides the scriptures{ which I love to read and you can see my thoughts on the side bar of this BLOG} and books for school. I am so glad I am putting time aside for this. I forgot how much I love non-fiction and books on history. I hope someday to go back to school. This might not happen for a while, but it is on the long term goal list.

Claire's Favorite Book

Claire was reading while I got ready for the day. Her favorite book "The Big Hungry Bear" Claire loves Strawberries. She can eat them by the carton full. Anyone know any other good books about strawberries?