Roses are Paper, Light is Truth...

News flash! In case you're wondering, I didn't die! I'm still very much alive, I just kind of dropped off the face of the blogging planet for a little while...or a long while depending on how eternal your perspective is... I could make a ton of excuses and all of them would be quite valid (except for the one where I ended up looking at cat pictures for a few hours and watching Star Wars on Valentines Day...we won't get into that) but let's just say "It's Cleopatra and Caesar and they brought a salad!" wait-- what? Now that I've distracted you with my clever Aladdin reference we'll get down to the good stuff.
I've got to come up with a name for this mental condition I think I've acquired... Maybe "Blograzy Disorder"...It's symptoms mostly involve talking to yourself in "blog" language... I make up these fantastic blog posts in my head and I quite often find myself commentating on my life in real time as if I'm blogging it...It's a little creepy but hopefully it helps me give you something worthwhile tonight!
I have so many things I could tell you about, hopefully I can narrow it down to something interesting!

So I wanted to come up with something significant and profound to write about on the blog this week and looking back I've realized that most of my posts could come off as really preachy and self-righteous. I never meant for them to come off that way so if any of you got that impression, I'm really sorry! I am nowhere near perfect and I have a long way to go. My only hope is that I can share bits and pieces of that journey with you so perhaps it can help you come closer to Christ.

After that horribly long (and hopefully not boring) intro, here it is! For real!

This morning when I woke up I had one of those mornings when you wake up in the perfect position and you think "if I move I'm going to ruin it! I just need to stay right here forever and everything will be okay!" Well when the alarm is going off, you don't stay in that position for long! I got in the shower and the water was the PERFECT temperature! I thought "if I just stay in here forever my life will be dandy" but then you know what really happens, you just get pruney and late. So, regretfully leaving the shower behind, I did a short morning yoga routine, put on my "new" shirt (pretty sure I got it for 5 dollars at Goodwill...shhhhh) and did my makeup. By the time I ate my breakfast and had my lunch all set and I looked at the clock, I was over 20 minutes late to seminary! It was 6:43 and I hadn't even tried to start Suzy (my car) yet! I grumbled to myself and ran out the door.
When I finally did get to seminary, it made the whole morning (even leaving my bed and shower) sooo worth it! We were talking about Doctrine and Covenants Section 88. I walked in, to my teacher asking "What is light?" He did that funny thing that teachers do when they are looking for a certain answer so even though the fifty answers you come up with are right, they're not what they want so they're all wrong. Until one kid finally said "Truth!" and the teacher pointed at him and said "yes!" as if that's what we all should have known from the first time he asked, right!? Silly teachers! Anyway, he went on to talk about real light and how it extends infinitely, even if it's eventually infinitely faint. It's kind of a mind boggling concept that light continues forever and doesn't stop, until you look at it with a spiritual perspective rather than a worldly and logical one. On the board he drew a circle representing the Son (which in verse 7 says: This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun... I've always loved that those words are the same Son and sun) He drew the earth in the infinite light of the Son, demonstrating that Christ's light is EVERYWHERE! Verse 12 states: "Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space." I'd read this before but I hadn't dug into this concept as deeply as my teacher did this morning. (Sorry this is long, hold on! It gets even better!) Christ is light and truth and so, Christ fills the immensity of space! My mind is officially boggled by thinking about the whole "everywhere at once" thing, but the Holy Ghost confirms to me that it's so true!
He went on to talk about how God created our Spirits from intelligences, which he explained to be God's basic building blocks for creating the world pretty much. What makes God so powerful is his power over intelligence, which always obeys Him because he ALWAYS acts in light and truth. I know I'm getting kinda deep here, just bear with me! I feel like this is explained in verse 13 which says: "The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon His throne, who is the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things." Oh there are SO many more amazing things in this section, I highly encourage you to read it while pondering and praying about this concept! So intelligence is governed by God and God created our Spirits from intelligence, should we not also obey God? Well we should, but he gave us AGENCY! I'd like to believe that agency is more than the ability to choose, but to temporarily govern the intelligence of our Spirits. He allows us to use this power, knowing that we will make mistakes and betray Him and His light. What a precious gift this is! As His children, we wield the power over our own intelligence! Perhaps that is the light of Christ that God gave every man, the glory in this light and truth that we are literally made of. We can follow Him in light and truth, as our Spirits want to, or we can follow the natural desire to sin that comes from the effects of the Fall.
Back to this morning, after the lesson I was definitely spiritually enriched! I went to school and I had a free first period, so I went into the library and pulled out my triple combination and my Preach My Gospel to study it further. It was fascinating and exciting! I surprised myself too! If you had told me a year ago I would be sitting in the middle of the library at school with my scriptures in plain view I may have lovingly punched your shoulder and said you were crazy. Crazy how much strength and courage Christ can give you over time. I could be doing so many more "amazing" things like that if I depended on Him more. So as I pondered this business with intelligences and light and truth, a scripture I had heard many times came to mind: "The glory of God is intelligence..." I searched it (thank you gospel library app!) and found it in D&C 93:36- "The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth." As I scrolled up and down the section I saw that it was ALL about light and truth and intelligence! I kindof wanted to do a little happy dance but I didn't (you're welcome world...) I looked it up in my paper scriptures and started reading. God is so good! The scriptures are amazing!!! I thought of yet another scripture: Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." This just made another connection that "the glory of God is intelligence" or "the immortality and eternal life of man." They are connected, or even one in the same.
Anyway, I learned a few more things from section 93 (another VERY HIGHLY recommended read!) but I won't share all of them. I don't know if anyone out there needed this message, but I know it sure re-sparked my testimony today! I love this gospel and all the connections and analogies we can draw from it! It is so extensive, it makes it so that you are NEVER done learning about the gospel! Sound daunting? No! Try, exciting! You'll never run out of little gospel treasures! What a quest to embark on!


SOOOOO...since the glory of God is intelligence and "if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience..., he will have so much the advantage in the world to come" (D&C 130:19) I decided to learn something new. I've been seeing things on Pinterest for paper flowers for a long time, but after my experience with the nails (oh my goodness what a nightmare!) my faith in Pinterest was definitely wavering! Nevertheless, with Valentines Day coming up I decided to try it a couple of weeks ago. My experience was as follows...
Monday afternoon. Thinking "dude! You're such a loser you haven't posted on the blog for forever! You need to do something RIGHT NOW!" (because that's how I talk to myself...maybe I didn't need to tell you that). So I saw the flowers and became determined to give it a whirl! I am proud to report that my trust in Pinterest has been greatly heightened! It was a success!
I made my very own paper rose!

This is how you can do it too:

 "If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it! Tell yourself it's easy and it's true! You can learn to do it too!!!" (if you sang that in your head- may I give you a virtual high five and say well done)

This isn't the best picture of them, but I was up past 1am writing this post so I didn't want to find a better one...

~Step by step Paper Rose Tutorial~

 

Gather materials:

paper (colored, newspaper, sheet music, scrapbook paper etc. Get creative!)

glue stick

scissors

wire, floral tape and 2 small beads (1/8'ish diameter) (these are for the stem on your flower)

First cut the desired paper into three 4' by 4' squares

I used a paper cutter to make it perfect but you really don't have too I'm just a little OCD:) They can also really be any size, but I found 4' to be the best size to work with and it turns out looking the best too.

Then fold them in half, corners across-ways to make a triangle.

Then do it again! (The triangle is 1/4 of what the original paper was if that makes sense)

Then do it AGAIN! If you're paper were a pie you should have a 1/8 slice of it.

Then, just like we used to do when we made snowflakes in elementary school, cut the top off so it's a rounded shape. You don't want it too drastically curved but you definitely don't want it straight across! It should look like a tear drop shape.

Repeat with all three squares so you have 3 "tear drops"



Use the first one as a template to make the other curves the same

Then unfold all of them so you have 3 little scalloped "pies"

From the first "pie" cut out 1 slice out of the 8. Keep the slice! You'll use it!

From the next "pie" cut out 2 slices or wedges so you have a pie with 6 wedges and a 2 wedge piece. Once again, keep the 2 wedge piece.

Then, you guessed it! Cut out a 3 wedge piece from the remaining pie.

SO! Now you have 6 different pieces: a 7 wedge piece, a 6 wedge piece, a 5 wedge piece, a 3 wedge piece, a 2 wedge piece and a 1 wedge piece!

Try and cut right along the lines

Roll the wedges and glue the ends together so you have 6 cone-like things

You can have a good amount of overlap on the larger ones, I'd say up to a 1/2'

Next, trim a teeny tiny bit off of the bottom tip of the cone. Just enough that you can fit the wire through.

Then, curl the edges of your scalloped cones. Each wedge-end scallop will be a petal so you should curl it down a little to look like a petal. This will also cover the awkward gaps between layers of your flower (you'll understand in a second)

Now it's time to make your stem. Take about 8' of wire and take your little bead and put it about  3' down. Bend the wire back and twist it around the itself so the bead doesn't move around.

Then, take your smallest cone and put the stem through the bottom hole. "Thread" the second biggest cone onto the wire and under the first one so they kindof fit into each other and start to look like a flower! Add on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth layers in order of size. You can rotate the layers so the petals are staggered to look more realistic.

Then, once you've got everything in place, (if it moves, don't worry, it's easy to shift back when you're done) take another bead and put it on the short end of the wire sticking out of the bottom. Twist this wire around the longer strand and until it is securely holding the layers up. If you want to, you can take the bottom end of the wire and bend it up and twist it around itself to make the stem a little thicker and sturdier.

You can then cover it in floral tape by twisting it tightly around the wire. This makes your stem green and hides the bead and wire twisting. This is kinda hard and takes some practice. My first flower didn't look that great either...

I can speculate that you could use washi tape or frog tape on the bottom, but I'm not sure

And voila! Now you have a fun craft to share with family and friends and for gifts or cards. Sorry it wasn't in time for Valentines Day! Like I said, you can do it with all kinds of paper! I made a newspaper-ish one with some pages from my old Driver's Manual because I didn't have real newspaper. I believe in being resourceful :P

I taught my family how to make them for FHE one night and that was...an adventure. Not all of them are quite as crafty- or patient- as I am... But it could be a fun activity! Pinterest didn't fail me this time! Yay!

clearly James didn't enjoy this activity as much...

Once again, if you have any questions, comment below and I'll try and help as best I can!
Also, follow me and the Pinterest Perfect Sisters on Pinterest to get links to blog posts and the original inspirations!
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If you have any comments or anything you would like to see on here in the future, (things you've seen that you want to see how they REALLY work out?) let us know in the comments!
Thank you for reading! If you've made it all the way to here, I salute you! And thank you from the bottom of my heart.

NEXT WEEK look for another AMAZING recipe for Gluten Free Pancakes and hopefully something else really awesome that I'll come up with before then :)

Newlywed Life & a DIY Word Necklace

Precious, aren't we?

As a follow up to Lauren's post last week, yes I love the Christmas gift she made for me! It was really the only thing I actually got to open Christmas morning since Jared gave me my gifts early and we did late gifts for everyone else in our family.  It's absolutely adorable and I use it every day!  (I was going to take a photo of it, but I'm super duper lazy and I always forget when I'm home!)

Married life has been fantastic so far!  Getting to spend every day with your best friend really can't be beat.  I do find it funny that we can agree on some things (like how original spaghettios are the only good ones, and if we ever have twins they'll be named Luke and Leia hands down) and not on others (chocolate or vanilla shakes, and which kind of pizza we prefer).  But overall, this first month has been great and I'm told it only gets better.  Those of you who may be "old timers" will probably just chuckle at my giddy gushing, but I can't help it! ^_^

So now I've got another craft for you!  We're all so crafty shmafty around here.  These necklaces I made were my gift for my bridesmaids to wear at the wedding.  I almost bought them for $17 a piece from an Etsy shop until I realized there was another shop that sold all the supplies to make them!  Here's what you need:

• Necklace chains
• Pendant trays
• Glass stones
• Mod podge
• An old dictionary or encyclopedia (or any other book you're willing to cut pages from)

*You could also use pictures instead of words from books!!!

They're SUPER simple to make.  I found a word to describe each of my bridesmaids in an old dictionary and cut out a little circle around the word using the glass stone as a template for size.  Oddly enough, not all of the words I originally had in mind were in the dictionary! Who knew!

Once you've got all your words cut out, use a small foam brush to put Mod Podge on the inside of your pendant tray and put the paper circle on top.  I let mine dry for a couple minutes before adding another layer of Mod Podge and the glass stone.  BOOM! Done!

 All in all, it cost me less than $20 to make all six of my necklaces, although I bought enough for ten just in case I messed one up.  They were so easy and turned out so cute!  And now I even have extra supplies to make more if I ever wanted to. :) 

So there you have it!  I've finally posted again...I started to feel like a bum after Lauren's last two posts!  Slowly getting better....very, very slowly. :)  Thanks for reading, all you lovely people!

Traffic Light Music Makers

I love my group of friends here in this small town!  We do so many fun things together with our young kids.  One of the many things we do is a "Music Makers" group every Monday morning where we sing songs, dance, read books, do an activity, and even have snacks.  We switch off hosting in our homes every month, and leading every week.  Today just happened to be a day in which it was held at my house, and I was leading.  Our theme for the month of September has been transportation, so I whipped out my Pinterest app and went searching for a craft and a treat to go with the theme.

This is what I found:

 And here is how mine turned out:

SUPER CUTE, right???  Just graham crackers, nutella, and M&M's.  They were totally easy to put together.  And the kids loved them!!! Definitely a quick and easy Pinterest WIN!

I didn't find a craft that I could get put together in time, so what we did was make some paper traffic lights...

Most of our kids are between 2 and 4, so I tore the colored paper and drew circles on the black strips ahead of time.  All they had to do was glue!  It was a fun project.  I love doing things like this with my kids!  Learning can be so fun.  My kids enjoy the projects, and I enjoy finding them, setting them up, and watching them as they learn and grow.  There's something so magical about it!

Now, do I find cool projects and have a new one for my kids everyday?  No way!  I am just like anyone else.  I have good days and bad days.  Pinterest mom days and monster mom days.  I'm not perfect.  But every day is a new beginning!  A chance to be better, and do better, than the day before.  I hope that is one thing that I teach my kids through my imperfections: there is always a chance to change for the better, as long as you have a sincere desire!  I want to be the best that I can be in all I do.  I don't care whether I'm better or worse than anyone else at a particular skill (although, I will admit that I do sometimes catch myself in those thoughts of, "I wish I could be as good as _____", or "I'm a terrible mom.  I'll never be like _____"...if you hear those thoughts in your head....STOP IT!  It isn't worth your time).  What's really important is being better than yourself.  It's not always easy to remember...but when you do, it can feel so freeing!  Just be your best self!

Sorry if this post is a little boring today.  But I'm snuggling a sick baby as I write, so I'm a little distracted.  But next week I will be sharing my first experiment with freezer meals!  I'm super excited to share this with you!  So tune in next Monday to hear how it's been going.