Oil Pulling

Remember when I had an inversion headache for like two weeks? And how desperate I was to get rid of it?

In the throes of my headache, I did some research on alternative remedies. The Cokes and pills were working, but not all the time, and not well enough. I was getting too reliant on Coke last year to keep me awake, so I weaned myself off of it. I'm not about to get addicted again! Plus it makes me feel jittery and sluggish after about an hour....not to mention all that sugar. Not good.

I found a remedy called oil pulling. Have you heard of it? You can find out what it is here. Basically, you swish  oil (I used coconut) around in your mouth for 20 minutes a day and it's supposed to detox your body. It can relieve headaches, whiten your teeth, help you lose weight, and give you more energy. I already had the coconut oil, so I decided to try it. Apparently it takes a few weeks of doing it daily to see some results. The people who love it say it can make you feel better in a lot of ways. There are still a lot of skeptics, but I figured it was worth a try.

Keep reading to see how it went:

The True Meaning of Christmas: A Babe, born in Bethlehem

It's Christmas Sunday! I'm so excited to go to church and listen to the story of Jesus' birth and life. I've been reading up on him here, and it's getting me really excited for Christmas. I love having a reason to learn and think more of my Savior. To get you in the Christmas mood, here's a quote on the true meaning of Christmas, and a short movie of the nativity. Enjoy your Sunday! 

"The Christmas season is a time to celebrate the priceless gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His birth, which we commemorate during this season, is more than the symbol of a holiday. He is the Son of God, the Redeemer of all mankind, the King of kings, the Prince of Peace, and our joy and salvation. This Christmas season will have greater meaning as we seek to follow His example and live His teachings."

-found here

Pants

I'm sure by now you have heard about the renegade call for LDS women to wear pants to church this Sunday. I have read a few articles about it (go here for more context. I especially loved cJane's take on the subject) and I don't entirely know how I feel about the whole situation. This is what I do feel...

I believe that church is a time to worship God, learn more about the Gospel, and build community with fellow LDS members.

I believe that God does not care about what we wear to church as long as it is our best and we are fully clothed.

I believe that pants are not the thing that make men and women equal.

I enjoy femininity and the spirit that comes with being a woman. (edit: I'm not saying that wearing pants to church makes you less feminine. I'm just saying that I enjoy being feminine, and I also enjoy being a strong woman, and those are not mutually exclusive.)

Skirts are more comfortable than pants. Pants can be just as dressy as skirts. Neither alone will secure my place in the Celestial Kingdom.

Women and men were created to work together as partners. Men are not above women. Women are not above men. We have equally important roles, and clothing does not change that.

What do you think? Just as on my Facebook, I welcome all opinions as long as they are respectful and in a spirit of discussion, not bashing.

And whatever you do, please just don't wear these to church...or ever:

A Quote

Sunday

"The Lord knows who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we really are becoming." - David A. Bednar

Eternal Things

I have been thinking a lot about eternal things lately. I am trying to study the Gospel more (read scriptures, ponder + attend the temple) and understand my eternal purpose. By trying to spend my energy caring about eternal things like family, personal progress, God and my marriage, I feel like all the little insignificant things have started to fall away. Life is hard, tedious and frustrating at times. But it is also full of joy, wonder and amazing moments. I am trying to focus on the latter. 

Speaking of Christmas (wait, what?), I am trying to make this my most spiritual Christmas yet. I do love posting holiday gift guides, but I am also planning some fun December activities for my family to build up some awesome Christmas memories. In 10 years, we will all remember how we felt instead of what we got, anyway.

Here is a great website to get you into the true spirit of Christmas! You can read the Christmas story, quotes from some very inspired men, and listen to some srsly great Christmas music.

Happy Sunday! 

Jim LePage made a poster for every book in the Bible.

Found here. I've become pretty intrigued with visual interpretations of scripture. I'm such a visual person, and sometimes straight reading isn't enough for me to grasp what's going on. Sometimes even listening to an audiobook of the Bible or Book of Mormon make them easier to comprehend than reading. What do you do to supplement your scripture reading?

7 Thing I Love About Christmas

However Late You Think You Are

However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don't have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have NOT traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's Atonement." -Jeffrey R. Holland

Waiting

Today's lesson in Relief Society was about waiting on the Lord. We talked about having patience and faith in the Lord's timing while hoping so desperately for a specific thing to happen in our lives. The whole hour, I wanted so badly to raise my hand and comment about my most recent experience with waiting; to stand up tall and pontificate about the wonderfulness and the despair that comes with waiting. I wanted people to see that I had a trial that was very hard for me, and I feel like I learned to endure it with faith and grace. After all, my trial was literally to wait. In waiting for a missionary, I put on hold a temple marriage, children, and a more comfortable life (because he has yet to start college). I'm a pro at waiting! I was the perfect example of waiting! So why did the Spirit stop me from raising my hand and sharing my story?

I don't really know. But I have a guess.

Because my story of waiting, no matter hard it was for me, was not that hard.

Standing up and sharing my story of literally waiting for a missionary while others are quietly waiting for children to bless their homes, or enduring life after their spouse died, or surviving cancer, or waiting for a wayward child to return to the Gospel, seems trivial. I waited for my blessing for two years, but others wait lifetimes for theirs. 

Yes, I waited in a literal sense, and I used the Lord to get me through it. I had faith that I was doing the right thing, and I turned to God in times of doubt and weakness to lift me up. I waited on the Lord. But there are other, more significant ways to wait on Him. And supposing that my trial trumps all the other ones in the room is not fair. 

So I formulated what I would say if I were to stand up and give a speech, and then I listened to others tell their stories. 

I learned so much more by listening than by speaking.

Friday Favorites

What even happened this week? Here are a few of my favorite things from around the Interwebz. Czech it out!

An artist hung a living tree in the middle of an abandoned church.

This website turns your kid's art into a real-life stuffed toy! 

Tina Fey on the female body.

Make your own Harry Potter wand in time for Halloween! 

The perfect bridesmaids' gift on your wedding day. I stole this idea from this website for my wedding and loved thinking of things to put inside!

The most hipster thing I have ever seen.

I've been trying to figure out small ways to make teaching less monotonous/more enjoyable/awesome for my students. I have started doing short exercises in the middle of my 30-minute presentations with my students. The small ones love pretending to be seeds that grow up towards the sun to turn into a tree. We're basically doing yoga! It gets their wiggles out and is a nice break for me from talking. They love me because I don't just talk at them, we do fun things!

Check out this adorable theme park in Beijing.

I am obsessed with the street art movement going on lately. This project is amazing.

Have you ever wondered what an old b+w picture would look like if it were taken today? Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Anne Frank, etc, colored in.

This week I have...

been thinking about the universe 

and trying to live my religion more

and keeping positive thoughts in my heart

and looking at pretty art

and having quiet thoughts

and maybe planning my future baby's room (not yet)

and wishing I had her swag

and loving this Zooey quote

and trying to be so quietly awesome at life that people can't ignore me

and doing things that make me happy (which, this week, is sleep because I have been sick)

and trying to make my corner of the world better with a good attitude.

What did you do this week?

Home Away From Home

It took me a long time to consider Utah home. I have been living here for over six years and still consider myself a true Californian. Once I realized that I might be spending the rest of my entire life here (ok, maybe just like four or ten more years), I figured I better start stay-cationing my new home! BTW, stay-cationing is what delusional people call vacation. I am in that category. It's a great way to feel awesome about not having any time or money to go somewhere far, far away and forget your real life for .5 seconds. Luckily, my real life is pretty great + my adventurous husband and my job allow me to see a fair share of this state. 

Rachel and I have started taking advantage of our long trips together. We have made a goal to visit every LDS temple in the state. When we have an overnight trip somewhere far away, we try to schedule a temple session if there's a temple nearby. 

I have loved the peaceful feelings the temple brings. I learn new things every time I go. It's also nice to visit somewhere that feels like home when we are three or four hours away from our real homes. It makes heaven seem so much closer, and I am always in a great mood every time I leave! It's a great time to feel close to God and ponder my purpose here on earth.

We were on our way home from Logan, so we stopped to see the new Brigham City temple. 

Rachel didn't have a skirt because this was an unplanned stop, so we tried to walk somewhere to buy her one! Brigham City may have a temple, but they are apparently not up on the skirt scene. We went to the only dece store in walking distance, and it was being renovated... and the store owner pulled skirts out of a cardboard box in this unfinished loft area. Plus the skirt didn't fit, so we pulled a Liz Lemon and shut it down. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go inside soon when we're more prepared! 

I don't have pictures, but so far we have gone to sessions at the Logan + Manti temples. 

We go to a lot of small towns. We have driven through Nevada, Arizona, and now Wyoming to get to some towns! We see a lot of old buildings on our way...

 We went to a school that was right across the street from a farm. We had some time, so I took a walk to say hi to the cows and they just stared at me.

I realize that farms and cows and being in the middle of nowhere are not new things to some people, but I still can't get used to it. I think I will always prefer cities to small town life, although it's fun to visit.

 My BFFL Jeannette is on a crusade to save the world, one folk opera at a time! Matt and I hosted a sleepover last weekend so she could have a flyer party for her upcoming show. We got up "early" on Saturday and walked around Provo posting flyers for all to see! Hopefully it worked. Matt and I walked around putting flyers on each and every door until we realized we could just post them in big complexes on the mailboxes. Sometimes being smart and lazy go very well together.

Matt hates pictures of himself. I think his biggest fear is that I will turn into one of those blogger wives who takes pictures of her food at every meal and whatnot. And to that, I say, I do what I want! 

The sleepover was a great time to catch up on old Jacob Lake stories. We may not see them a lot, but our JL people feel like family. 

Amy + Steve are having their baby girl soon! I told Amy that I am going to be the first person to hold her baby. She wasn't happy, Bob.

Game night at the Hardin house! Another home away from home. We are so lucky to have family in the same town. If only my mom could convince my dad to move up here, we would never have to leave! OK, on second thought Mom + Dad, stay there so we can go visit you! 

I may or may not be temporarily addicted to MacDo's Monopoly. I got obsessed for a minute and FOR SURE thought I was going to win a million dollars, if not, a fancy trip or some fries or something. I even got everyone on our road trip to St. George in on the game and convinced them to give me their winning pieces. The jig was up once I realized I would have to ingest the products I bought (because I cannot see food go to waste). My grandmother trained me to pour cereal, then milk, and eat what was there, then only put more milk in if I needed it, so the milk wouldn't go to waste. Morgan Spurlock has also ruined me. My Mata and Morgan Spurlock are officially the reasons why I am not a millionaire. Once I had that epiphany, the game was over. Unless anyone wants to trade... :) 

For more information on why Mormons build temples, go here, or watch this video. 

I am grateful that the most important thing about a place is that it feels like home. And I'm lucky that I have a lot of people (our friends, Matt's family, my family) and places (California, Utah, the temple) that make me feel at home! 

I See You

Lately I have had the opportunity to see a glimpse of maybe how God sees me. I think there are three ways to see a person:

1. How the world sees you

2. How you see yourself

3. How God sees you

I think the way God sees us is the most accurate. The other two seem to be more ambiguous depending on how emotionally stable I am haha. Sometimes I wonder if I see myself correctly. Confidants have been telling me that I am being extremely hard on myself lately, because all I see is flaws. Even during the times when I feel simply imperfect and unloveable, I see this image of myself as being irrational. Of course I'm flawed! I'm human! Humans are imperfect, but always deserve love. I have this out of body experience where I want to snap myself out of a pity party and move it along. At those times, I realize that my perception of myself is not accurate, and maybe the people around me (maybe who know me the most) see me more for who I really am. But sometimes it's the other way around, where you feel like no one realizes who you are, because they only see the first impression or base their image of you off of that one time you were running off of 5 hours of sleep and weren't having the greatest day. At that point, I hope that people who don't see me correctly have the patience to wait out the bad impression and the grace period to find out who I really am. The people who put the most effort into knowing me obviously like me enough to stick around (most of the time), so I guess their opinions are the only ones that truly matter.

And then there's God. I think God sees us without bodies, with perfect clarity and knowledge of who we started out as and how far we've come. God sees how much we try and fail and try again and loves us for who we can become. He sees the talents we don't see as well as the flaws we magnify. He knows our heartaches and sends us angels when we can't function, to strengthen us to be angels for someone else later on when they can't function, either. I think God is merciful and forgiving and wants us to love ourselves as much as we preach about loving our neighbor. He made us to thrive and find joy in sorrow and become like Him amidst heartache and happiness. When I try to see myself as He sees me, with an eternal perspective, I feel beautiful inside and out.

I realize that this blog does not have pictures, or cute anecdotes or even edited paragraphs. Writing my thoughts down stream-of-consciousness style helps me figure out my life and my brain and makes me remember things. If you want to see all those things I'm not, go find a married person's blog to follow! Love ya.