Super Saturday Sneak Peek

I spent today working on these crafts for our upcoming Super Saturday activity!

Sunday Cans- we originally got the idea from this article, although this article that came out recently was good incentive to keep it!

New Sew Baby Bows- we got the idea for bow ties from this tutorial, and the baby girl bows from this tutorial. Both are way easy, and I was able to make all 6 fairly quickly.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Family Proclamation Roundup

There's an empty space on my front room wall that is waiting for a framed family proclamation. Unfortunately, I haven't decided how I want to frame it yet. Here's a roundup of some of my favorite formats:

Family Photo behind the Proclamation

Temple behind Proclamation

Family photos on matte around the Proclamation-
Another option is a family history family proclamation,
where the photos are of ancestors.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Baby Blessing

Since Matt's family was in town for his sister's graduation, we figured we would bless Dash while they were still here. We were so grateful for all our family members* who were able to make it!

Baby Blessing Brunch

Lund Grandparents

Lund Great-Grandparents!

Hiatt Grandparents

Hiatt Aunts and Uncles

*Not pictured is my lovely cousin, Ally, as Dash was worn out and I didn't want to post of picture of him crying with her. 

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

What I've Been Up To

I swore I'd never be one of those bloggers that let my baby take over my blog, but...(see January). However, I thought last month's blog posts were a pretty accurate description of how my life has been. Nevertheless, I thought I'd give an update of the non-baby things I've been doing.

SCHOOL: I'm in two classes this semester- Trusts and Directed Research. I'm being lazy and including generic course descriptions below: 

• Trusts examines the legal framework of private and charitable trusts as vehicles for the donative disposition and management of personal wealth, both inter vivos and testamentary, with emphasis on the nature of the fiduciary obligations of trustees and the rights and obligations of trust grantors and beneficiaries.
• Directed Research requires that a student submit to their faculty supervisor a completed draft of a research paper or memorandum of law containing either criticism of the law relating to the topic area. I'm required to do 100 hours of work in researching and writing the paper- the area I'm focusing on is the Indian Civil Rights Act. 

BOOKS: Matt and I have been reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" this month. I've read the book before, but it's interesting reading it again because Morrie was a psychology professor, just like Matt wants to be. It's also an interesting read now that I'm married, as many of the topics in the book have new meaning now. I'm also looking forward to the sequel of "To Kill a Mockingbird"



MOVIES: We recently rewatched the 90's classic, "Cool Runnings."Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you're not enough without one, you'll never be enough with one.
• When you need something from me, you don't have to hand me a bunch of lines. All you have to do is look at me in the eye and say, "Sanka, you are my best friend, we've been through a whole heap together, and I really, really need you."
• Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! Cool Runnings!

DATES: My mom has been helping out a lot with the baby, which has given Matt and I the opportunity to get out a few times! We did sealings at the temple and I cheered Matt on during one of the Stake Basketball tournament games (he's #5).

GAMES: I've played Risk before, but it's been years, so we pulled it out this month and did the two player version. Unfortunately, Matt forgot to tell me all of the rules, so we had to have a rematch later on. 




Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Family Communication

Communicating with a newborn is hard. He only has one oral form of communication (crying) and he can't understand my oral form of communication (English). While already tenuous, communication lines break down even further when I haven't gotten enough sleep and I don't have the patience to figure out what he's trying to tell me.

Today was especially hard because Dash decided he only needed 7 hours of sleep for the whole day--midnight to midnight. Which meant that I only got 3.5 hours of sleep last night. I was very frustrated and not really in the mood to go to church. But I went to Sacrament meeting anyway, and I really felt like the talks were meant for me.  

They were both based on older church articles about Communicating Love in Families:

Family Communications

This talk gave seven recommendations for helping family members feel loved when you communicate with them. In applying this to a newborn:
1. Sacrifice the Time (I think I got this covered)

2. Set the Stage (I realized I could do better at setting a better stage so that baby isn't overstimulated)

3. Willingness to Listen (I also can improve on overcoming my personal frustration so I will be more willing to listen)

4. Vocalize Feelings (I need to tell Dash I love him aloud)

5. Avoid Judgement (I think I judge the baby by blaming my lack of sleep on him- even though he can't help it)

6. Maintain Confidences (Not really sure how this one applies...)

7. Practice Patience (Self explanatory)

Expressing Love within the Family

I loved the following quotes from this talk:

- "The best time—the easiest time—to start expressing love to our children is when they are infants." 

- "To express your love, you can hold him, cuddle him, gently squeeze him, kiss him, and whisper thoughts of love in his ear."

- "How would we react if each time a child was born our Father in Heaven made this kind of introduction to the parents: Thank you for preparing this little body for the spirit I have created. Now, I present him to you for a season to care for. Please teach him of me and of my Son. I so much want him back with me some day. … Remember this: He is loving. He will respond to teaching. He wants to learn. Please treat him with respect. The road will not be easy. Some of the time it will be most difficult. I want to help you raise him. Please call on me often for advice and counsel. Together we can help him fulfill his purpose in the earth."

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Women and the Priesthood

After many many months, I've finally finished "Women and the Priesthood" by Sheri Dew.

Some of the insights (either quotes from her or others) I liked from the book were:

• Although women are not ordained to the priesthood, they "have countless opportunities in the Church to lead, pray, teach, preach, and expound doctrine, including as full-time, proselyting missionaries...many privileges that require ordination in other churches."
• Considering the circumstances under which the Relief Society Organization was formed, "it was in stark contrast to the conventions of the day for the leader of an organization--any organization, not to mention the leader of a religion--to give women significant time and attention."
• "For every woman, the challenge is one of discerning the Lord's will for her and then following the promptings of the Spirit. None of our divine errands are exactly the same."
• "Jesus honored womanhood when he came to this earth as a little child through the sacred and glorious agency of motherhood."
• "Mothers go missing in movies because leaving them in the lives of characters in crisis makes sustaining conflict difficult. Mothers listen and understand, solve problems and resolve conflicts. They are selfless and love without conditions. You want to stir up a heap of trouble and make it believable? Better keep Mom out of it."

This book gave me a lot to ponder about, and I appreciated many more quotes than the ones I listed above.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Meet the Mormons

Messages I got from the Movie:

- there are many misconceptions about mormons (I loved the clips they showed from popular media/ interviews with strangers in NYC demonstrating this point)

- you can be mormon and still have a good relationship with family/friends of different religions

- you can be mormon and still be respectful to cultural norms/customs

- mormons live worldwide

What I liked from the Movie:

-the music

-the aerial shots

-the variety in the stories

My one criticism:

-since all of the previews were religious, I couldn't tell when the movie had actually started...for a minute I thought it was just another preview

What did you think of "Meet the Mormons"?
Rhetorically,
Rebekah

General Conference

We love general conference!! It's apparently become a tradition to go to the BYU Law General Conference Reception in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building between sessions on Saturdays. I think I've made it to the last 6 receptions or so. Free food and networking, right?

Selfie attempt to take a picture of the four of us. I wish you could see Matt's name tag, because it mentions our "company": Legally Insane, LLC.

Thank you, kind stranger, for taking this picture, since the selfie angle wasn't working out

Matt called me on the way home from priesthood and asked me to pull up the last two minutes of the session online. Turns out, they made it on TV! 

My family always had doughnuts for breakfast during general conference, so I've decided to carry on the tradition with Matt and I...except with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I would highly recommend the pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese pumpkin doughnuts. Sadly, they were devoured before I remembered to take a picture. *I blame the baby.*

Sunday between sessions we drove to the Provo temple and walked around. As we were coming back to the car, we noticed a horde of missionaries crouching around Matt's car, taking pictures. There were only three possible explanations: the NC license plate, the BYU-I Alum license frame, or the fact that it looks like the letters on the plate spell "BOM" (Book of Mormon). Turns out it was the first--they are all headed to NC next week to start their missions! Matt and I reminisced about the different places we have been during conference time in the past. As a sampler: Korea, Washington DC, Utah, Dominican Republic.

We are loving the fall weather! The mountains are finally starting to change colors. Here's hoping it lasts through November. 

What are your conference memories?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

General Women's Conference

Now that Angela is back, we celebrated by going to the General Women's Conference as a family!

We match the choir

So close to the front!

Look who's photobombing in the background! (Elder Holland)

I loved the music at the session- it was incredible. If you missed it (or if you didn't watch last night because you are male) you should watch it here.


Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Provident Living

I gave a talk today about Provident Living. One of the things Matt and I have been working on over the past year is building our food storage based on this easy list:

We modified it to fit our needs (for example, as grad students in a tiny apartment, we really don't have room for all the flour and sugar it recommends) but it's been great to get into the habit of buying something extra with every shopping trip and building our own food storage. We've also worked on our own 72 hour emergency kits, which are also almost complete.

My first real-life encounters with emergency preparedness came when I was on my mission. In the Dominican, you don't have electricity all the time, you may not have running water all of the time, and there is a higher likelihood of emergencies and natural disasters. Through experience, I learned to always have candles, water, food, and extra money on hand. You never know when the mission president would call and tell you about a hurricane warning, where you have to stay inside for several days and survive off of what you already have. I hope that even though I'm living in a 1st world country, I can still remember that sometimes disaster can leave us living in 3rd world conditions, and that it's important to store up what we can to be self-reliant.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Over the past four months, Matt and I have memorized a few lines from the family proclamation every week for FHE. Every day, we would recite the current week and the past week's lines, and then once a week we would recite everything we had memorized up to that point. We finally completed memorizing the whole document this week!

Jan 13-          WE, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

Jan 20-         ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

Jan 27-         IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.

Feb 03-          The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

Feb 10-          THE FIRST COMMANDMENT that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.

Feb 17-          We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

Feb 24-          WE DECLARE the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

Mar 03-         HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3).

Mar 10-         Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.

Mar 17-         Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations. THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan.

Mar 24-         Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mar 31-         Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

Apr 07-         By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.

Apr 14-         In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

Apr 21-         WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God.

Apr 28-         Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

May 05-        WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

I've become a lot more aware of my capacity to memorize, as well as the power of memorization. We would frequently remember lines when hearing Conference or Sunday talks and I realized how integral this proclamation is to everything we teach.

Rhetorically, 
Rebekah

Easter Appreciation Post 1

Welcome to the "spiritual" Easter post!

Matt and I went on a walk to the local cemetery on Easter afternoon. The sunny weather was appropriate for the holiday- representing joy in the Resurrection. Did you know that in Russia, during the Easter season, they great each other by saying "Christ is Risen!" and respond with, "Indeed, He is Risen!" How cool is that? What a great way to remember the purpose of the season.

complimentary bunny picture from cemetery

I remember in the Dominican Republic, Easter would be a full-week celebration. Schools usually timed their spring vacations around it. It was a time for traditional Easter foods, such as "habituelas con dulce" (sweet bean soup), a time to spend with family, and especially a time to remember the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Good Friday was almost as big as Easter Sunday. One of the best experiences on my mission was having dinner with a family and seeing "The Testaments" come on their Television- in Spanish!

I sang this song in Spanish when I gave my missionary report in church two years ago. It is one of my favorite Easter hymns:

What do you do to remember the purpose of the Easter Season?
Rhetorically,
Rebekah

General Conference

Who loved General Conference? I did!!
Some talks that I thought I would mention:

• A Priceless Heritage of Hope: How great is family history? I really liked this example in showing how a heritage of faith is more important than a heritage of wealth. 
• What are you thinking?: More importantly, what is the other person thinking? I loved the story Elder Zwick shared about understanding viewpoints. 
• Following Up: A lot of times, I think once a new session of Conference starts, we immediately forget all of the proceeding sessions. I thought it was great that Elder Ballard followed up with us. 

What was your favorite talk at general conference? Or what themes did you see?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

"I'm a Mormon" Movies

So yesterday I spent a good portion of the morning watching "I'm a Mormon" youtube movies. I have to say, I'm really impressed with the variety they have now.  After watching many of these movies, I came away with the following themes:

1. Mormons go through trials (death of a child, abandoned by parent, addiction, divorce, illness, etc)
2. Mormons live in a lot of different places (apparently there are quite a few in NYC, as well as different countries throughout the world
3. Mormons have a variety of professions (artist, doctor, violin maker, aerial dancer, comedian, etc)
4. Mormons focus on the family. Even if the person isn't married or a parent, they still have siblings, nieces, parents, etc, that helped shape their life.

So here are some of my favorites from yesterday:

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

General Conference

Every 6 months, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints get to hear to the current apostles and prophets speak. Each speaker has given significant time and energy to ponder and pray on what they should speak about.

Ever since I was in Junior High, my dad and I have had competition to see who can guess the titles to each General Conference talk. When I first started, I would get so distracted by the first story, that I would rarely get the topic of the talk right. Over the years, I've learned the art of listening to the various stories and scriptures and boiling them all down into a two to five word title that sums up the speaker's intent. Taking a few public speaking classes also helped me to identify how a talk is organized and presented.

The "talk title" competition aside, I always look forward to General Conference. It's almost like a "self help" weekend, where you learn how to cope with and overcome your trials, strengthen your relationships with your family members, and share the gospel.

While I have something good to say about every talk, I especially liked the opening talk by Elder Hales. What better way to start conference than by explaining how conference works?

If you missed conference, or want to know more, visit this site for video, audio, and written recordings: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2013/10?cid=HPFR100413105&lang=eng

Testimony

So I'm back posting, but it ties together...

In institute this week, the teacher challenged us to share our testimony of Jesus Christ with someone else, and since I didn't share mine on Sunday, I will do so now. We were only given a minute to write things down, so I made the following list:

• Son of God
• Head of the Church
• Atonement
• Jehovah
• Priesthood
• Brother

Most of this ties back to my mission, but I'd like to briefly expound. The message that I shared for 1.5 years was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. While not the same person as God, He and our Heavenly Father work together to bring about our salvation. Christ's church has been established on the earth today. Through the restoration of priesthood keys (an authority that can be traced back to Christ), we have another witness of Him, the Book of Mormon.  Christ is Jehovah of the Old Testament. All of the scriptures we use come from him. This is His gospel and His church. Through his atonement, we can be healed and return to live with Him.

I feel like this clip sums up the rest of it: 

Jesus Declares: I Am the Light of the World, the Truth Shall Make You Free

Sincerely,
Rebekah

Forgiveness

One of the best speakers we had at the Law School this semester was Darryl Burton. We were given a flyer that explained his situation: "in 1985, in St. louis, MO, Darryl Burton, age 22, was arrested and convicted of Capital Murder and Armed Criminal Action. Darryl spent 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. On August 29, 2008 Darryl was exonerated and released." 

What impressed me about Darryl is that his message was one of forgiveness. He talked about the years he spent angry for being wrongfully convicted and how through the Atonement and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, a man who was also wrongfully convicted, Darryl was able to forgive those who were responsible for sending him to prison. 

This lecture has stuck with me through the rest of the semester. Forgiveness isn't easy, but it isn't impossible. I'm grateful for those who set an example and testify of the peace they feel after they forgive. 

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Welcome

Once upon a time, in 2010, I started a blog. I think I put up about 3 posts. Mostly, I hated it. Why, you ask? The domain name. In a moment of pure insanity, I decided the IP address should be "defy labels". Then, if that wasn't confusing enough, the actual title of the blog was "i dream in fairytales". I was supposed to post various short stories or excerpts from chapters I was writing, but I always felt pressured to have each post defy some sort of label. And who needs that extra stress? 

So, in preparation for 2013, I created a new blog. I hope you like it. You can expect book reviews, movie reviews, my various musings, and anything else I feel like posting. While there may be some journal-like posts, it won't necessarily track my day to day life. I'll try my best to post visual aides, due to the fact that I strongly belief in the idiom "a picture says 1000 words."

In the interest of introducing the blog properly, I offer the following background information:

• I hope to publish at least one book in my lifetime. I wouldn't mind if I won an award for that book. So far, I have several options in mind, none actually written.
• I am a First Year Law Student.
• I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the Dominican Republic, which might be the topic of several posts in the future.

Other information will come with time, but I write these in particular so I don't have to repeat them later on. 

Rhetorically,
Rebekah