New blog: Tale of Two Sisters and Their Kitchens

Yep, that's right...

I've started yet another new blog! This one is inspired by my friend's blog RecipeShoebox. I wanted to have a blog devoted to my successes (and probably some failures) in the kitchen. My little sister thought it would be fun, too, so together we've created a blog to swap recipes and share kitchen stories.

I'm so excited!

Please check out Tale of Two Sisters and Their Kitchens. If you like what you see (remember, it's just getting started), go ahead and leave us a comment. We love comments. Almost as much as we love followers. Why not do both?

Nurture the Rising Generation

I wanted to share some thoughts that I had about this month's visiting teaching message.

As my companion and I were visiting with one of our sisters, we had a great discussion about nurturing the rising generation. Neither my companion nor I nor the sister we were visiting have any children, so in the beginning this was kind of a tough lesson for me to share.

We began by talking about how serving in our callings can be very instrumental in nurturing Primary children and the youth. Right now, I am the only one of the three of us who have such a calling, so we discussed how we didn't need a calling to befriend a child or a teenager. We can still have an impact. We may never know what kind of an influence we might have, so it's important for us to continue to be friendly and kind.

Then our conversation went to defining the rising generation. This is where the true inspiration came for our lesson. I remembered being told I was a part of this rising generation when I was a youth. We speculated that the rising generation probably began with the restoration of the church...and had continued with each generation.

What does this mean? Well, we came to the conclusion that every sister in Relief Society is also a part of this select generation. Every sister in Relief Society was chosen to come forth in these last days! As a sisterhood, we ARE the rising generation, too!

As childless sisters who do not hold callings in Primary or Young Women, it became much clearer for us on how we can nurture the rising generation. We can nurture each other! We can take an active role in caring for each other. We can make a concerted effort to make each sister who enters the church building feel welcomed and wanted and appreciated! By being kind and sincere to our sisters, we ARE nurturing the rising generation. Even the simplest actions can bless their lives and the lives of their families.

A New Start

One of the things that I've really enjoyed about being a student again was the flexibility that I have with my sleep. I don't have to set an alarm! I can get up whenever I wake up! I can stay up late and sleep in late!

This past weekend, I came to an epiphany that maybe this isn't the best thing in the world.

I have way too much studying and other things to do in a day that I rarely accomplish all of my goals. This does not lead to positive feelings of self-worth.

So...

This week, I decide to try out something new. My dog, Sallie, generally wakes me up several times throughout the night. I can't give in to her all the time, so I choose to ignore her until after 6am - breakfast time. I used to barely open my eyes, turn on as few lights as possible, quickly put her food in her dish, and crawl back into bed. This week, I decided I'd try staying up after I feed her. Today's my first day; I stayed up WAY too late Sunday night in order to start this new habit Monday morning. :-)

Right now, my eyes are feeling quite heavy, but I'm hopeful of my day. After doing a little blogging, I plan to get my exercising out of the way before Jeff wakes up. That should wake me up and give me the boost to do what I need to do today, right?!

Dr. Oscar Kashala

Ok, so obviously, this is not a picture that I took, but I did attend this very fascinating lecture tonight. Lots of people were snapping pictures, but I didn't bring my camera because I didn't think taking pictures during a speech would be allowed.

To read more about my experience at the lecture, visit my other blog.

Settling In...

We've moved into our new apartment, and it's slowly becoming our new home. I'll probably post more pictures later as our decorating progresses, but this one showcases my favorite new toy! I've wanted a piano for a very long time. Regular pianos are such a pain to move (and we move a lot), but I've really been enjoying this keyboard. It has weighted keys like a regular piano, plus I can plug in headphones, so my practicing doesn't bother anyone else in our building.

This isn't a very artistic photo, but it does provide a little glimpse into our new home...music and books. :-)

Let's begin this journey again...

My last attempt at keeping a photo journal didn't last very long, BUT I'm in a new apartment now, so I thought I'd start it up again. Hopefully it will last much longer and my photographs will get better.

Today's photo features my cutie-pie, Sallie Sue, sporting her new fall coat. We mostly bought it to help her keep dry when it's raining or snowing outside.

This morning it was snowing! It's actually the 2nd snow of the season already; we woke up to snow this past Saturday as well.

Most will say that it's too early for snow, but I think it's beautiful!!