A Madera Christmas

Lately I've been working for the church, editing videos from home about their humanitarian work. It is astounding how far reaching it is and how much they rely on the development of a culture of caring to make it work. I personally think resources are used more effectively on both ends when the relationship between those who are giving and those who are receiving remains close. When government largely takes over the responsibility to care for the poor and needy I think we lose our culture of caring, take on debts to be paid off by future generations, and see feelings of entitlement develop. As a family we try to work with our communities and teach our kids to serve others. We serve because it's the right thing to do, and because any of us may need to be the recipient of these programs at some point in the future. Our ward is very active in serving as well, a few months ago we participated in our annual tradition of making 1,000 lunches and delivering them to homeless people downtown, our Relief Society is making blankets for an orphanage in Mexico on Friday, and we're organizing a blood drive with three other wards for the Los Angeles Children's Hospital in April, and in June will volunteer at the Los Angeles Food Bank.
Who is responsible to help the poor and needy? It's a complicated answer, and I believe the government may have a small role, but ultimately, we are the ones responsible. And while people are selfish and unreliable when it comes to such an important thing, there are those who, when given the opportunity, will rise to the challenge, such as in this video.
REMOVED

If At First You Don't Succeed... Embracing Challenges

Last year we planted young fruit trees at my in-laws house with so much enthusiasm and excitement thinking about it now still makes me giggle painfully. The salesman at the nursery told us to expect more fruit than we could handle that first summer: I could almost feel the weight of the gorgeous fruit in my hand and taste the sweet juicy peaches, nectarines, plums and pluots. A couple months after the trees were planted they were flowering promisingly
Every story as a 'one day', and here's ours: One day, totally out of the blue, hungry deer entered the ungated yard, found the little trees and feasted on the beautiful blossoms and tender bark, ripping into them like chainsaws and choking off new growth. Without the nutrient-transportation functions of the bark the trees would certainly die.
The shredded little trees

For several months we figured that the whimsical experiment had failed, like so many whimsical experiments do. That summer the sad little trees, barely twigs now, were almost a pitiful reminder of the bounteous harvest we weren't enjoying except for the fact that they were so emaciated you couldn't even see them. Everyone was just too put out or too busy or too whatever to do anything and the trees were on their way to withering away and finding themselves in the green garbage container.
Ian and I visited Sacramento for a long time over Christmas this year and we decided to try again and replant the trees in a fenced area of the yard. Ian's family got some more things too, blackberry bushes, a cherry tree and a fig tree and they dug up the trees and replanted them. Will they survive? Will they ever reach their potential or were the setbacks just too much? I have no idea if this is going to be a good sacrament meeting talk someday or a waste of time. All we have is hope to go off of, but even that is kind of nurturing in itself.


I'm trying hard to not sink into frustration over the setbacks that life gives us- A couple weeks ago I felt like howling in despair as I searched and searched for the super cute album cover with the Tim Holtz letter monogram on it I was working on and had disappeared from off my craft desk. I'm rationed to just a couple hours a week here and there spent in craf-bliss. Naptime was coming to an end, and I had spent the entire time searching instead of finishing the project. I felt like tossing everything in the garbage- why try? Why? Why bother trying to make or do anything for the next eighteen years?! I also took Julian and Caleb to their first gymnastics class and it was a real challenge for them, consequences of their early births will likely be with us for the rest of their lives. But when I want to toss everything in the green garbage container I try to take counsel in this quote from Joseph Smith's dad in a letter he wrote when his grandkids were first being born: "Above everything avoid a Melancholy Disposition, that is a humer that admits of any temptation and is capable of any impression and Distemper. Shun as death this humour, which will work you to all unthankfulness against god, unlovingness to men ...to your Selves and one another." Sometimes it doesn't always work, and it doesn't always work even after I try again, but I still try to try ;) Because that's what we're supposed to do when at first we don't succeed, right?
Also, just a random p.s. Since I don't post as much as I used to I just wanted to add some photos of my Project 365 book. I finally finished it and gave it to Ian for Christmas. He loves it, I'm really glad that I wound up going digital with it. I got the hardcover book published on www.blurb.com and they are awesome. It's so wonderful to have a chronicle of our first year with four kids. It had its hardships, I laugh at the photos of us crawling in through the back door of our car to lift the two infant seats over the back, but overall it was absolutely amazing.