17-days-til-Texas!

We're filling our countdown days with fun activities like this spy-maze we put up for the kids... it took much longer to create than it did to destroy... I mean, to enjoy!

And here's a blog post I came across that's important enough to include.  So profound. I think someday from up in heaven we'll all chuckle about how much time we spent thinking about our waistlines...

3 Gloves  by Natalie Brown (http://ldwmagazine.com/2011/09/21/3-gloves/)

I held up 3 gloves to my 12 and 13 year old young woman’s class asking them what the differences were, “puffy, warm, lots of strings, only 2 fingers” referring to my ski mitten. “Skinny, thin, white, stretchy, cold…” describing my latex glove. And then the last one, “soft, furry, black”, which was my knitted glove. I then put on 2 of the gloves and asked what they had in common. The answers varied from “they both keep your hand warm” to “they can move.” After I told them that the gloves all represent bodies they realized the hand was the spirit. We talked about the worth of each spirit and how our bodies are just the covering though some may be “black, white, puffy, skinny or even fuzzy” it is what’s on the inside that really matters.  Why do we as women judge our bodies so harshly when the real substance comes from within? I think every woman knows that feeling of insecurity all too well, anywhere from fleeting thoughts of not being good enough or pretty enough to feeling like you look fat in those jeans and your nose is too big. So how do we overcome these stabs of doubt in ourselves, the lack of confidence chipping away at our inner peace? We get to know who we really are, come to respect our spiritual self and know that the “worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (D&C 18:10).  One quote my mother used to tell me when I was in high school was “do all you can in front of your mirror in the morning, but when you leave forget yourself.” So my challenge to you is 1.  To “forget yourself”, not yourself as in who you are but forget what type of glove you are wearing! and 2. Learn something new, whether it’s a new recipe, or a skill or craft. Our “gloves” are lifeless without a “hand inside” so love yourself and then love your body.