As I have been writing these emails for the past month, I keep thinking, "I really should do this on my blog. I'm getting very behind."
So.
Here I go.
As of April 2, I am now officially in a book club. I real one. A friend of mine invited me to join a quest with her. I love what she wrote and her purpose, so I wanted to document it.
Hi Gals,
I wanted to invite you all to join me in a book club. I have never started one myself but I have been involved in several over the years. I have enjoyed them for many reasons some being- the chance to be around other women I admire, a chance to discuss good books and ideas, and as an opportunity to continue learning myself.
Some book clubs have just been an excuse to get together and socialize for a few hours about any topic. I have really enjoyed those as well. My hope for this book club is to have a great time together while we seek out principles of truth through a variety of books. We are told in a book of scripture called the Doctrine and Covenants to "seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom". I don't know about you guys but I felt like when I left school it gave me permission to leave learning and for a number of years I did that. In the past year Ben and I came across a great quote by one of our modern day prophets named David O. McKay, this is kind of long but so good, and he said,
“Gaining knowledge is one thing and applying it, quite another. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge; and true education—the education for which the Church stands—is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and Godlike character.
“A man may possess a profound knowledge of history and of mathematics; he may be authority in psychology, biology, or astronomy; he may know all the discovered truths pertaining to geology and natural science; but if he has not with this knowledge that nobility of soul which prompts him to deal justly with his fellow men, to practise virtue and holiness in personal life, he is not a truly educated man.
“Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting.
“True education seeks, then, to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, combined with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love—men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life”
This quote caused me to realize that many of these past books clubs have given me a chance to read a lot of good books but not necessarily challenged me to pull out principles of truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, self-control and more. So, if you are interested, I would like to invite you to join me on a journey to seek these principles of character. We can look in all kinds of books: mathematical books, political books, economic books, fantasy books, classics, biographies, histories, mysteries, you name it and we can find principles there. I think it will be fun and challenging to think deeply about books and ask questions that will lead us to understand and then apply this kind of character.
I was impressed my her desire and her email, so I have joined her in the quest.
As of April 3, I finished my very first quilt. That I quilted. Yes. I said quilted. I actually, really enjoyed it! I really need to take pictures, but I still have yet to bind it so...here we wait.
On April 6, we had another appointment with Cooper's endocrinologist, or thyroid doctor. We have officially taken him off of his medication to do more tests. He will be off for 6 weeks and then we will have blood drawn again.
On April 14, we had our belated Relief Society birthday dinner. I invited my neighbor friend, who works with Stephen, to come to the dinner with me. She said yes! After the dinner they had us get in to groups of three. Stephanie, my neighbor, said she wasn't brave enough to go on her own, so we got another person and we were good to go. We were given 30 seconds to answer questions about ourselves. Example: tell life story in 30 seconds. Brag about yourself for 30 seconds. Tell us a weakness you have, only 10 seconds. Tell us your favorite visiting teaching moment in 30 seconds....This is when the 3rd partner in our group realized that Stephanie was not a member. She answered the question really well! Then we were asked to tell our testimony of Jesus Christ in 45 seconds. This is when I really learned about Stephanie. So much so that when I dropped her off at her house that night it wasn't hard to ask her if she had a Book of Mormon. And it wasn't even hard to testify and of it's truth. That was a really awesome experience.
With the 'throwing out' of the TV, there have been times that things have been a little rough, but I am so grateful for the other things that we have done to enjoy ourselves. Stephen and I have started a new tradition because of it. Once a month we invite a few couples over for a big group date night. Our first one was awesome! We had three other couples and we played games and ate food. On April 17th we did our second group date night. Having invited four other couples, I'm glad at least one couple did not bail on us. We still had a ton of fun!!
April 20 was a big day. Digging officially commenced!!!!
Monday pictures:
Friday pictures:
I. AM. SO. EXCITED!!
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