Dang peas!

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.  No.  Seriously grumpy all. day. long.  What makes us start out days like that, I wonder?  Because I'm pretty sure I was grumpy even before Lydia got crayon on my couch and before Russell spilled my $15 night cream all over the carpet in the hallway.  Yes, I was ornery even before Russell wouldn't take his nap and grumpy still even after mine.

Then it was time for dinner.  Spaghetti and meatballs.  Luckily the meatballs were frozen leftovers from awhile ago so all I really had to do was cook some noodles and warm up the meat and sauce.  Wonderful.  And then I had to pick a side.  We're completely out of fresh vegetables right now so I decided we would have to have frozen peas.  My kids like peas; I, however, not so much.  And in my current state of mind I thought, "I'm not going to even eat these dang peas!"

Unfortunately, I remembered something our Sunday school teacher had said in class a few weeks ago.  The lesson was on the word of wisdom and he was talking about a healthful diet.  He said he always had to eat his vegetables growing up even under force.  Most of the time he didn't mind them except when he had to eat peas.  To his surprise, he recently found out that his mother also detests peas.  He couldn't believe it.  He'd seen her eat thousands of peas over the years and he never once knew she was eating them to be an example to her children, not because she liked peas.

As I pondered this, I felt a little guilty.  Funny that I had been not-nice-at-all to my children all day long and the thing that made me feel guilty was the thought of making them eat their peas while I ate none.  "I'm still not eating any." I thought.

We sat down to dinner and I found that I had robotically scooped peas onto my plate without really thinking about it.

I ate them.  But only a few.

God's Work

Over the weekend, our stake had a two-day women's conference.  It was wonderful.  I received so many insights and renewed energy of spirit. One of the things I've decided I want to work on is this blog.  I want to post more often, and I want to post more thought-provoking...ahem...thoughts.  I often think I should blog, but then think that I have nothing to blog about.  Yet, while I was in college I had to have 1500 words written every week for just one of my classes, and I always found something.  I remember always having my eyes open and being more aware of the world around me so that I wouldn't miss the opportunity to be inspired to write.

Well, I'm starting today.  I had an "aha" moment in church yesterday (see, I told ya the ball was rolling).  Here is what I learned:

The lesson was on work.  Well, it was more about loving your work, which, face it, when it comes to mopping the floor, I'm not always on board with loving it.  But as most of you know, my work is that of a full-time mom which means diapers, messes, laundry, potty accidents, and endless hours preparing food, serving food, and cleaning up food.

We all know how the world tends to view stay-at-home motherhood.  It gets a big thumbs down.  They say it isn't fulfilling to the woman, it doesn't use her talents, it doesn't allow her to make her own money, or have her own career, or be all that she can be.  I realized yesterday that the world is missing a huge part of the equation when it comes to moms.  We have a scripture that the world doesn't have and this scripture holds the key to what it is really all about.  Mosiah 2:17 in the Book of Mormon reads:

When you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Well, aren't my children and my husband my fellow beings?  You bet they are.  So everything I do to serve them, also serves God and that means that what I do all day, everyday (for the most part. I'm not sure my avid novel-reading counts) is God's work!  That is what the world doesn't see.  They don't see stinky diapers and long nights with sick children as God's work.  They see it as stifling drudgery.  Admittedly, it isn't very pretty a lot of the time.  They see women walking around with snot all over their shirts and think "count me out," so we can see why it would be easy for the world not to recognize the Godly side of it.  But the world also misses those precious moments when your children smile at you, say a new word, reach for your hand, or come to you for comfort.  And those moments make it absolutely worth it all.

If you ever finding yourself wondering if there is something more out there, something more important, or more fulfilling, just remember that what you do is God's work and no one can do that for your family the way you can!

"Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power it work is a blessing, that the love of work is success" (President David O. McKay)