A Dream Come True

Ever since I was a preteen I had a dream. You see I used to attend the church choir every Sunday by myself. Sometimes I would get a ride home from various members of the choir, and when my cousins moved into the ward I would often get a ride home with them. I used to feel sad that my mother didn't sing in the choir with me. I used to try everything that I could think of to get her to sing with me. But, alas, nothing worked so I decided to dream. I dreamed that one day I would have daughters and they would love to sing and I could sing in the choir with them.
Well, yesterday my dream came true. Now that Abby is 8 years old and can read I feel that she is old enough to sing with me in choir. She is currently singing in the school choir and I am excited to have her join me in the church choir. Abby's voice is quite deep and so I decided that instead of making her sing soprano (which is the easiest for her to hear), I would teach her how to sing the alto part. I had her sit between me and another woman who is also a strong alto and we worked on the alto part together.
Abby did great! She picked up the notes really quickly (and there were some tricky harmonies in there as well!) and she sang beautifully! I was so proud of her. I am really excited that Abby is going to be singing in this choir with me. I think that it will be good for her musically and I am excited to FINALLY not be attending choir by myself. I finally have a reason to enjoy going to choir again!

Chapped Knees

I have a feeling that I am going to get chapped knees this year. Why? Well because I have a feeling that I am going to be spending a great deal of time kneeling on them in prayer! I just got asked to serve in my church as a 2nd counselor in the Primary Presidency in our ward. Yikes! I am very nervous! I have never been called into a presidency before! I have been a leader several times, but never in a presidency! I was both shocked and humbled by the calling when it was given to me.
As soon as I was called I thought about what would be the important things that I would want to teach the children. Here is what I have come up with:
I want to teach the children who they are
- I mean how important is it in this day and age to really know who you are and where you came from? When I was a teenager I know that knowing who I was kept me out of a lot of trouble. It also helped me deal with all of the pressures of teenagedom that I went through and I know that it has shaped me into the person that I am today.
I want to teach the children that they are loved
- Who doesn't want to feel loved? Isn't that something that we all need in our lives? I have always felt that children who feel that they are loved are happy children and happy children grow up to become happy, successful adults. I honestly think that this is something that is greatly underestimated in our society, and if I can just succeed in making one child feel as though there is someone out there who really and truly cares about them and what they are going through then I will have succeeded.
I want to teach the children to love the gospel
- I have always had a testimony of the gospel. I can honestly say that I have never had a huge bright light AHA moment, I have just always known that the gospel is true. This knowledge has lifted me from the depths of despair and it has strenghtened my shoulders when I have felt that my burden is too heavy to bear and it has kept me free from the bondages that come with addiction.
As I look around at the children that I see everywhere I always wonder to myself what they will be like when they are older. I wonder what I can do to help them to grow up to be happy and to be able to look back on their lives and to be proud of themselves. If I could help every child in the world, I would! But, alas, I do not have that opportunity. All I can do is help the children that I get the priviledge of knowing and if I can help them in some small way then I will be happy.
So, you see, I cannot bear this responsibility alone. I need help. And if I want to be able to help the children to learn to love the Lord then I will need His help so that I can know the best way possible. The Primary President that I am working under is someone who I have loved for a long time. She is an amazing and very talented person (who happens to be an elementary school teacher) and I know that she is going to do great things for these children. I hope that I will be able to help her with the things that she needs help with and that she knows that I would do anything for her. I am excited to work with her and I am excited to be able to spend tons of time with my own kiddies on Sundays as our whole family will now be in Primary together!
Tomorrow I will go out and buy myself some nice, thick lotion to rub on my knees, because I know that they will get chapped with all of the time that I will be spending on my knees in prayer. But if chapped knees are the sacrifice I will have to make. . . so be it!

Activity Days

I have the BEST calling in the whole wide world!! I am the Activity Days leader for the older girls in our ward. We have 25 girls in Activity Days and we generally don't seperate them into their age groups. The ladies that I work with in this calling are amazing and I love working with them.
Tonight we are having a Daddy/Daughter Fall Festival for our Halloween party. I am in charge of it and I have had a busy week so I haven't really been able to work on it until last night and this morning. We are having a dinner (we start at 5:30 and so we figure that the dads will be racing to get to the church so we decided to feed them) which will be pumpkin chili in a bread bowl with caesar salad. I know that pumpkin chili sounds weird, but it is my FAVORITE!!! It is also really healthy and a little bit sweet and spicy. . . . a combination which I LOVE! We are then playing the mummy wrap relay race where the dads will have to completely cover their child in toilet paper from head to toe! After that we are having a donut eating contest where everyone will have to eat hanging donuts without the use of their hands. We are finishing off the evening with a cute little halloween riddle game and dessert. By the time everyone goes home they will be full of food and hopefully they will have had fun.
I love working with this age group of girls. I can't wait until my girls are this age so that they can go to Activity Days. Abby will be able to come up in April and I hope that I still have this calling at that time. I remember when my mom was my Merry Miss leader and I have used some of the activities that we did when she was my leader with these girls. The only part that I am not that appreciative of is the fact that right now my house smells like delicious pumpkin chili and I can't eat any of it because it is not done. . . and because I should probably save some for the girls!