Watching the Professional

At the Hong Kong Temple

When I was called to teach seminary earlier this month I attended a training meeting in Springfield, and the CES coordinator for the area, Bro. Lawson, suggested that we find the time in the next two months to observe other teachers because it is in observation of others that we can often find insight to help us improve our own teaching.  I was all for that idea, and so I have been looking for opportunities to make that happen.  I happen to be living with one of the best resources for improving teaching skills.  Herman is a seminary enthusiast of the highest order.  At one point we felt inspired that he was to teach seminary full time for the Church, so Herman really immersed himself in the training program for seminary and worked his tail off to be the best seminary teacher that he could be.  It ended up that our lives went down a different path, but the knowledge that Herman gained while preparing to be an excellent seminary teacher is something that has proven valuable with the work he does helping to train teachers through our businesses.

So anyway, I have been looking for an opportunity to watch him teach seminary, and it worked out with his schedule that he could do this today, so I invited him to teach my class while I watched.  All I can say after watching him for an hour is -- Holy Cow!  There is noooo way that I could ever teach that way!  The whole time I was watching him teach I was looking for ideas of things that I could incorporate into my lessons, but all I could think was how disappointed all the youth were going to be tomorrow when they showed up for class and I was the one teaching.  Of course, part of my problem is just a lack of confidence in my own abilities as a seminary teacher.  Herman has been doing this for over fifteen years, so he has a bit of practice in the best ways to teach seminary.  In addition he has spent his entire career helping teachers to find the best ways to help their students learn.  So I have a bit of a disadvantage in life history in this department.  But all of that is okay.  I'll get more confident and gain better understanding the longer that I teach.  The main thing that worried me as I watched was that there was so much enthusiasm in Herman's delivery style.  He was just so dynamic.  You just have to see it to understand what I mean.  It may have been 6 am, and he may have been teaching groggy high school students, but the energy level in that room was through the roof.  Absolutely amazing!

And yet as I watched I just couldn't stop trying to figure out how I could ever do this type of teaching.  Herman and I have personalities that total complement one another, but anyone who knows us can easily see that we are very different in the way that we interact with the world.  Herman is the outgoing ball of fire who approaches everything with energy and enthusiasm.  I am more circumspect and reserved. I feed off energy but do not really create my own.  So we have different teaching styles, to say the least.  I don't believe that seminary absolutely has to be taught in the way Herman teaches, but it is very effective.  He has a way of getting the kids excited to be searching in the scriptures.  It can seem as if the atmosphere is just full of fun and humor, and then, before anyone really knows what is happening, he can drive home a gospel point so strongly that half the class is in tears and making plans on how they are going to change their lives for the better.  It is just incredible to watch this.  Of course, it is easy to be the guy who comes in for one class and presents a lesson of power.  Seminary is an every day event, and I'm sure that if he was coming in to teach every day every lesson wouldn't be just like this one -- but I'm sure they would be close.

As I watched I hoped to learn something that I could bring into my lessons to make me a better teacher.  I have to be honest with myself, though.  There is no way that I can reproduce his energy.  That is just who he is.  He approaches everything he does with that kind of enthusiasm.  But I can add a bit more enthusiasm to my style I think -- gradually.  If I showed up tomorrow and started teaching just like Herman the kids would like I was off my rocker.  But what I really appreciated as I watched was how he was able to always turn the kids back to the scriptures.  It wasn't just a Herman show that he put on to the delight of the students.  He was showing the students how the answers can always be found in the scriptures.  I can do that.  I know I can do that.

So today I was privileged to see a true professional teach my class.  Herman has a gift for teaching that he has used throughout his life and career, and I'm lucky to have his support as I learn my way around this calling.  Every day when I come home from teaching he sits with me and asks me what went well and then what I can improve on.  He sits with me and tries to come up with solutions to problems that I face.  Even when I feel as if he is so much more talented in this area than I am, I never feel as if he is talking down to me or judging my effectiveness.  Despite my insecurities in this calling he is always quick to compliment me on how well I am doing and how he believes I was absolutely prepared and talented enough to do exactly what I am needed to do at this time with these students.

So now I am off to spend an hour (probably more like two) getting ready for tomorrow's lesson.  I have some good ideas in my head of how to improve.  I figure that that's a good thing.  If I ever get to a point where I feel like I don't have need to improve, then I won't be succeeding in this calling.  I'm so thankful to have such a talented yet supportive prince to lift me higher each day so that I have some chance of meeting my own potential!

One More Gotcha Day Video I Love

I finally got around to uploading the pictures that Spencer took with my iPhone during Gotcha Day, and I found another video that I absolutely love!  So, here's another video of this very special day for the Blau family.  The video quality is a bit shaky at times, but you can still see the amazing personality of our little Eliza!

Enjoy!

Invasion of the Ickies

Minsy got her first real illness this week as a little flu bug hit our house.  Spencer started the week out with a temperature that kept him home from church and then home from school on Monday for good measure.  It seemed to pass the rest of us by, thank goodness, but then in the middle of the night on Tuesday Minsy woke up with a high fever.  We should have known something was up when she headed straight into her bed without issues the evening before.  Usually our nighttime routine involves getting her into bed, having her lay there for a few minutes, Minsy crawling out of bed to see where we are, us putting her back in bed over and over and over, and then finally having her lay down with us for a bit until she falls asleep and we can move her back to her own bed.  For now that routine has worked okay.  We'll have to do a bit better about having her stay in her own bed eventually, but I've been giving her a bit of leeway in order to provide some extra comfort and assurance to her after the adoption.  But, anyway, on Tuesday night she just headed straight to bed and didn't get up to check on us one bit.  When she awoke with a fever we gave her some medicine, and she headed back to bed immediately, sleeping through the rest of the night.

Well, the fever continued on and on and on.  It was never horribly high -- around 101, and it did go down each time we gave her ibuprofen.  She didn't seem to be in much pain or discomfort.  She just had this annoying fever that kept her energy down, causing her to sleep the days away.  It has gone on for the past three days.  I think that today she is doing much better.  If it was the same I was going to take her to the clinic to get checked out, but I think that we are on the downhill side of things.  I think that this is her first real exposure to a good old-fashioned American flu bug, so her body is figuring out how to fight it the right way.  It just takes a little longer for her to get it under control than it did for Spencer.  Hopefully it won't spread to any of the rest of us.  It isn't a really bad sickness, just annoying.

Minsy has proven to be the world's best sick patient.  I have never seen any of my children so willing to take medicine.  I don't have to administer it to her.  I just pour the proper amount into the cup and hand it to Minsy.  She tips it up and swallows the whole amount.  She makes sure that she gets every last drop and even comes to us when her fever begins to show up and points to the closet door where the medicine is to let us know that she believes it is time for another dose.  There have been no tears, only a little sleepiness.  I just hope that this doesn't go on for too much longer.  It is hard to see her have to deal with the fever.

On another medical note -- last week Minsy had her first physical therapy appointment.  I was a bit worried because I read in her file that she didn't like the physical therapy in China.  Well, this ended up being a ton of fun for her.  They did some massage on her feet to loosen up the muscles and tendons that were tight in the wrong position.  Loosening those muscles will help her feet to maintain their correct position eventually.  A lot of the exercises that they had her do involved playing games.  She needed to kick a ball so that she could practice balancing on each of her feet.  Right now she toddles in a weird way as she walks because she is trying to compensate for lack of balance due to the positioning of her feet.  She also had to work on a balance board and walk up and down stairs.  She loved it, especially when her therapist brought out her favorite thing in the whole wide world -- BUBBLES!  She'll need to get some therapy from us at home along with clinic therapy once a week.  She will also need to be fitted for some orthotics (plastic positioners) that she will wear to help her feet maintain proper position.  Hopefully all of these things will work so that she won't need any sort of surgery or casting to correct her feet problems.  The therapist seemed to think that her muscles were loose enough that they would correct themselves without anything drastic needing to be done.  I hope so.

So we end our week as we began it -- with a sick kiddo.  Hopefully that will be it for us this year.  I sure hope that it doesn't just hit all of us one by one.  At this rate someone will be sick for the next month and a half here.  Fingers crossed that we'll have a sickness free zone soon!

China Pictures Finally -- Part Two (Wuhan)

Here are the links to our entries about our time in Wuhan with pictures and some videos as well!

• China Day Nine -- On to Wuhan!
• China Day Ten -- Gotcha Day! And Then There Were Nine
• China Day Eleven -- Administrative Junk and Another Blau Adventure
• China Day Twelve -- Karaoke is Totally Awesome
• China Day Thirteen -- A Day Full of Grand Adventures

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year!  I really feel like I should have done something a bit more awe inspiring for our first year as a multi-cultural family, but, alas, it wasn't in the cards for this year.  I did have it on my calendar, and I had great plans to do something awesome to commemorate the occasion, but it just didn't end up happening.  But, this is only Year One.  I have lots of years to get better and better, and since this year ended up falling a bit flat in the planning at least I can say that our celebrations can only get better.  We've set the bar pretty low. 

In the future I do want to do a bigger celebration so that Minsy can appreciate her Chinese heritage.  I especially want to put together some school presentations so that her classes in school can celebrate with her when the time comes.  But that won't be for a few years at least, so for now we need to celebrate with her as a family.  We did break out one of the traditional Chinese dresses that we bought for her in China.  It is a purple silk dress that looks absolutely beautiful on her.  When she wears the dress and pulls her hair into two little pony tails she really looks like a China doll.  So gorgeous!  Unfortunately for her first celebration of the year of the dragon Minsy has a scratched up face.  Last Monday when the weather was so gorgeous the younger kids were outside flying (or more accurately, trying to fly) kites.  Hyrum was chasing his kite and accidentally ran headlong into Minsy and she went flying down the driveway, ending with a horrible face plant.  It was quite a traumatic event for all involved.  By the end of the evening Minsy looked a lot like Rocky did at the end of Rocky I.  The left side of her face was puffy and totally scraped up.  Her nose was bleeding on both sides.  She was a mess.  Luckily after a couple of days of looking pretty bad she began to heal, and so far (knock on wood) she doesn't appear to have gained any lasting scars.  Still, today she got to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a giant reminder of her accident on her face.  Still, she is beautiful!  She did have a ball today dancing with her big sisters to some kicking jazz piano riffs

The only other thing that we did was not horribly authentic, but we did take the entire family out to eat some Chinese at Chopstix.  It was neat to see all of us using the chopsticks to handle our food.  That is a big change from our pre-China travel days when we would come here to eat.  Hyrum was even convinced that he had devised the perfect way to eat pudding with chopsticks.  Maybe, but it was a bit messy.  The food here just doesn't compare with the stuff we ate in China.  I still liked it, but it isn't quite the same sort of dining experience.  But it is as close as we are going to find in Waynesville.  

So that was our ultra lame Blau Family celebration of Chinese New Year 2012 -- The Year of the Dragon.  We'll do better next year!  

Either way . . . we are super glad to have Minsy in our family this year!  She is a sweetheart!

Katie and Minsy in their Chinese
dresses

Goodbye Clutter! Hello Sanity!

About every year or so I get the declutter bug.  I find myself completely overwhelmed with all that I have to do and unable to see any way out of my dilemma.  Usually that leads to some sort of breakdown with loads of tears followed by a Herman giving me lots of extra love and encouragement and an evening out to relax.  These episodes are usually preceded by my frustration at being unable to locate some important piece of information and being greeted by mountains of STUFF everywhere I look.  I finally feel the need to declare war on my disorganized chaos.

Well, this week I didn't end up breaking down in tears, thank goodness, but I did just get a bit antsy while I was heading into our office area of the house and had to do a bit of gymnastics to just make it across the room.  If it were just that room I would be okay, but this is a household situation that has gotten out of control.  Seriously.  Our dog, Max, is a super duper opossum hunter, and he often finds them wandering the property.  He puts his dormant wolf skills to the test and kills the nasty things before trying to keep them as pet chew toys.  Well this week he killed one and decided that our living room was a perfect place to keep his chew toy.  On evening I was sitting in my room and I heard Hyrum scream like a girl from the front door.  That was followed by every other child joining in.  It sounded like we were under siege.  It turns out that they met Max at the door holding his new, very dead, best friend in his jaws.  Luckily they were able to scare him enough that he didn't enter the house, but I am convinced that his little doggy brain told him that there would be nothing wrong with adding one more piece of junk to our growing pile.  I became convinced that it was time to take some serious steps to simplify things.  

So today I'm beginning a brand new declutter chapter to my life.  Granted, I've done this before, and it doesn't always last long.  After all, we are a family of nine, and our things add up.  But if I keep doing this every once in a while I hope that I will be able to keep the mountain of junk down to at least a small hill.  At least I will be able to know where things belong again.  This is going to take a bit of time, but I'm planning on devoting at least a half hour a day to getting things accomplished in this area.  Hopefully I'll feel more organized and less overwhelmed.  Fingers crossed!  I'll catch up . . . eventually!

We Knew This Was Coming, But Still . . .

Almost all callings in the Church are temporary.  When we are called we know that we will eventually receive a release.  It is just part of the process.  So when Herman got called to be Bishop of the St. Robert Missouri Ward four years ago we knew that he would be serving in this capacity for around five years, give or take.  When Herman got called to be a counselor in the stake presidency last month we knew that his release as a bishop would occur sooner than we expected.  It was only a matter of the new stake presidency submitting a name for a new bishop and getting approval from Church headquarters before Herman would be released.  Well, today the day came when Herman was released.  It is almost surreal to think about it.  I shared this in my testimony this afternoon, but I'll say it again.  When Herman was first called I was pretty nervous about the whole thing.  My first thoughts were that I would never, ever see him again because he would have to be pulled in a million different directions, keeping him away from home often.  I was also concerned because I just knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to keep a perfect bishop sort of house, whatever that was.  I was never going to be able to keep my front room clean enough to meet visitors who could pop up at a moment's notice, needing to see Herman for bishop type things.  Then I was also worried because I once heard a woman complain about a bishop's wife once when the man was called. She thought the woman was too snooty and unfriendly.  I could just imagine people saying the same sort of things about my social phobia infused self.  And then there was Herman.  To me he just seemed so not bishop-like.  I mean I know that he is absolutely amazing in every way.  He has always impressed me with his spirituality and ability to seek out the will of the Lord in all of his actions.  But he just seemed like he had too much enthusiasm for being a bishop.  I know.  It probably sounds wrong and weird to say that.  Those were just my thoughts as he was called.

Well, I have found through these four years that the Lord really does qualify those he calls.  He took an already amazing guy and made him exactly what was needed for our ward at this time.  I have always admired his ability to inspire others to really be more than they thought that they could be.  It has been amazing to see how so many people have grown in their service while they have worked with Herman.  Our ward grew and grew and grew until it was split into two units last fall.  Our new ward has been steadily growing since then.  There has always seemed to be an enthusiasm in the ward that made coming to church a very exciting and vibrant thing to do each week.

This calling has really been a family calling as we have had to support and sustain Herman through his many duties.  There have been a few times when we have had to sacrifice some Dad time as he has headed off to meet some need that showed up with a church member.  Most of the time this has not really caused any problem.  Instead, I have found that we have been blessed for our sacrifice as a family.  I feel as if the children have gained stronger testimonies as they have seen their daddy sacrifice because of his willingness to serve.  We have been blessed as we have seen Herman grow through his calling.  It is really interesting to see just how much the weight of the ward was on his shoulders.  He would often mention to me that he felt as if he needed to see a member of the ward because he just felt as if they were in need, and he needed to see what was going on.  So many times I would hear people talk about how they were struggling, but unwilling to really seek out help, and then they would open their door and see Herman standing outside.  I don't think I will ever forget one night about six months ago when Herman woke me up at four in the morning to tell me that he felt as if he was getting a strong impression that he needed to go visit a family right then.  I looked at him like he was completely nuts.  After all, it was four in the morning!  What family was going to be ready to see people show up at four in the morning?  He asked me what he should do, and I told him to go if he felt like he was supposed to.  So, at four in the morning he headed out across town to see this family.  It ended up being a really neat experience in the end, although he didn't end up seeing the family that morning.  That was just an example of the times where Herman listened to the Spirit whisper to him when there was a family in need.  I'm sure he wasn't perfect in this, but I know that he truly did his best to help those in his care.

It has been difficult seeing Herman in many situations that came up because of his bishop duties.  The hardest thing is to see him in the middle of emotionally wrenching circumstances.  I could see that he was feeling down because of things that he was dealing with, and most of the time these were things that he couldn't share with me because of confidentiality issues.  So all I could do was to give him a big hug and tell him that I supported him.  It seemed like a pitiful kind of support to offer, but I think that he appreciated it.  But luckily these events only occurred rarely.

So today our time as a bishops family officially ended.  There really is a bittersweet quality to the day.  Part of me thinks that it will be a relief to lighten the load a bit.  But part of me feels like there will be a bit of a hole in our life when Herman in no longer a bishop.  It has been such a huge part of the last four years and in many ways has driven our family to do better.  It will be strange not to have that any more.  Like I explained earlier today, this is not a calling that I would ever seek out as a family, but it is not an experience that I would give up for the world.  It has been an absolutely choice experience for our family.  I mentioned that I saw tremendous growth in Herman during his tenure as bishop, but I also saw the same sort of growth in the kids.  We have grown as a family because of this time.  I feel closer to Herman than I ever have.  It's hard to explain exactly what I mean here.  I just know that the blessings we have received through this calling have greatly outweighed the sacrifices.  So today ended one era in the Blau family life, but I have total confidence that more blessings and adventures are in store for us as we support Herman in his newest calling in the stake presidency.  The lessons we have learned in these past few years will last us a lifetime and beyond.

And the Marathon Begins . . .

Day One Seminary Report . . . I did it!  It wasn't that bad at all.  No one cried or screamed.  No one ran out of the class in anger or sadness.  No one rolled their eyes at me or snickered at anything I said.  They all laughed at my super lame jokes.  They followed along with me as I pointed them through the scriptures.  They made insightful comments.  I couldn't believe it.  In fact nothing that I worried about really happened.  Phew!  

I expected that I would end the day in tears because I would be rejected by the class, but in fact I ended up worrying more about the pace of my lesson.  That bodes well.  If I am focusing more on the content of my lessons and how I am reaching the students rather than worrying about personality conflicts then I am headed in the right direction.  

I taught from 1 Samuel, Chapter 16 about how Samuel finds David, talking about how the Lord finds his chosen leaders.  It is a great story, and I think I spent a little too much time setting the story up because I didn't get enough time to really help the students see the real world application.  In a perfect seminary setting the students would be prompted to figure the application out on their own because it would mean more if they discover it than if I just toss it out at them.  Today I found myself with only a few minutes left in class, so I ended up telling them how our lesson applied to their lives.  Oh well!  I'll do better tomorrow.  

Yesterday I was preparing and preparing and preparing, and Herman kept stopping me to point out that seminary is not a sprint to the finish.  It is a marathon.  It isn't a one time moment that will stick with the students, but it is a series of small steps that lead them to grow and make good decisions.  That's how I'm going to approach things.  Today wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the right direction.  If the students are patient with me -- and I think that they will be -- then we can all march forward together, eventually getting where we are headed.  

Today was an important first step for me, building a bit of confidence that I can do this seminary calling.  I've still got a long way to go, but that knowledge will keep me on my toes and prevent me from getting lazy about things.  Tomorrow -- David and Goliath.  Classic!

Finally! Minsy Visits a US Doctor

Dr. Jeffrey Karls
The BEST

Oh how we LOVE our doctor!  He is the absolute best doctor in the world for our family, and the best thing ever is that we don't have to leave the area to find him.  And the double best thing ever is that his nurse is one of my very favorite people and best friends on the planet.  Bonus!  We have had Minsy home for over a month and a half, but we have not been able to get her in to see a doctor yet because we were unable to get her added to our insurance until right after Christmas.  I promise not to make this post a diatribe against the evils of our US health insurance system, but I will simply say that this system is not the best system to navigate as an individual insurance purchaser.  Insurance was a piece of cake when Herman worked for the schools.  They have their own full time lady to figure out insurance premiums, copays, problems, whatever.  Now, because we are small business owners, we have to figure the whole thing out on our own.  Let me just say . . . it is a complete mess.  We really are easy people to insure because we hardly ever go to the doctor or hospital, and yet we get hassled right and left when working with insurance.  Erg!!!!

But that is not the point of this post.  The point is that Minsy was FINALLY able to be seen by a doctor.  Poor Minsy does not like doctors offices.  I wondered if she would even recognize it was a doctor's office because in China the doctors we saw wore those giant light bulb contraptions on their head.  Seriously!  Like this . . .

And the nurses looked like they were straight out of the 50s.  Like this . . .

So I thought that the experience today would be enough of a difference that Minsy wouldn't freak out.  Well, Minsy didn't freak out, but she really doesn't do 'freak out.'  I would almost describe her reaction as shutting down.  She sits super quietly and doesn't really move.  That's what happened today.  She sat during the exam and just quietly took it in.  If I hadn't known her as well as I do I wouldn't have thought much about it. In fact, I might have said that she was amazingly well behaved.  But although Minsy is not the most outgoing of our children, she does bounce around a little bit or try to talk to us somewhat.  Today she just sat there.  

Dr. Karls checked her out and found that she was doing great for the most part.  The very best news that he gave was that Minsy does not have was could be called classic club feet.  He said that she would need to have physical therapy to fix the pronounced inward turn of her foot, but she would probably wouldn't need surgery or casting.  Yea!  He will schedule an appointment with the physical therapy department here in town (hurray for that!), and then if things don't improve sufficiently we'll head to a specialist to see if she will need something like casting.  As for now, Dr. Karls thinks that she is doing well enough that it won't come to that.  

He did talk about her size a lot.  He asked a radiologist if an x-ray would be able to help determine her true age.  The radiologist said that he could accurately find her age within 18 months.  Well, that isn't going to help us much.  We know that her age can't be more than 18 months off, so the radiologist would be making a guess about as accurate as ours would be.  He instead will be sending us to a pediatric endocrinologist.  This doctor would be able to look at her size and see if there is some sort of hormone treatment that might be warranted.  It could be that the doctor will simply say that she appears to be younger and not do anything.  But if she is truly four we may need to help her growth a bit.  I'm still going to do some research on this because I don't want to mess with hormones unless it is absolutely necessary.  But at the same time I don't want to have Minsy suffer because of enormous growth delay due to possible malnutrition or even some sort of underlying hormonal issue.  So we'll wait until we get our appointment with a specialist, and then we'll go from there.  Funny how we traveled to China believing that we would primarily be dealing with problems associated with club feet, and now today it appears that the main problem will be with a slow growth rate.  Either way, we're ready to handle things as they come!

Poor Minsy held in her fears until the very end.  Then as we were leaving Herman stopped to talk to the head of the clinic who also serves with him on the school board.  My friend and Dr. Karls's nurse, Amanda, took Minsy around the corner to pick out a sticker.  I think that really freaked Minsy out because when Amanda returned she had a little tear falling from each eye.  She wasn't crying.  She didn't look like she was sad at all.  But she had those two tears going down her cheek.  She did the same exact thing when we went to do her medical exam in Guangzhou while we were in China.  At the time I thought it was an allergic reaction of some sort, but now I realize that it is her nervous crying -- no sound, only a tear or two.  But she made it through and has earned a seriously huge ice cream cone.  Hopefully she'll get more comfortable with doctors since she'll be seeing them often in the next few years or so.  At least it doesn't appear that she will have to be seeing any for surgeries.  Hurray!

One more time, I have to say it . . . We have the best doctor in the world.  We love Dr. Karls!

Hello Face, Meet Your New Best Friends.

Mary Kay Soothing Eye Gel
for my tired eyes

Concealer
for the obvious

Targeted Eye
Revitalizer
to shrink
undereye bags
(hopefully)

Why would my eyes be in great need of a pile of creams and gels to fight undereye baggage?  I am the newest early morning seminary teacher for the St. Robert area.  I will be teaching fifteen youth who are mostly juniors and seniors as they come to learn about the Old Testament at 6 am every day before school.  That's right.  6 am!  I am not a morning person.  I have never been a morning person.  For the first two years that Laney attended seminary I would get up early to drive her there, but I never showered and got dressed for the day.  I would wake up ten minutes before we had to go, throw on a pair of sweats, and head out.  But as a teacher I have to get up, shower, and get dressed in church dress so I can be prepared to start teaching on time.  I'll have to wake up each school day around 4:45 or so.  I have never, ever, woken up like that on a daily basis.  The thought of that fills me with a bit of horror.  And yet my girls have been doing this all year.  Laney has been doing this for the last three years.  And so have their teachers.  So why should I whine about doing the same thing?  

The reality is that the early morning schedule is only one of the things that completely freaks me out about this calling.  The biggest thing that worries me is my own imperfections.  This calling is for me to teach the youth gospel principles from the scriptures, and I have never been a huge scriptorian.  Herman can pull scriptures from memory that fit almost any situation he encounters.  He can find a story in the scriptures that can relate to any life dilemma that might come his way.  I cannot do that.  I know that having that sort of knowledge of the scriptures is not necessary to fulfilling this calling, but it sure wouldn't hurt too much.  Yesterday I headed to Springfield to attend my first seminary training meeting (which was awesome by the way!).  One of the teachers did this activity where she handed us a sheet of paper with five life situations that a youth might be facing, and we were supposed to come up with an different story from the OT that could help this youth find an answer to his/her problem.  We were given five minutes to write down our answers.  I seriously just sat and stared at my paper.  The other teachers who were there had the advantage of having taught the OT since the beginning of the school year.  I am a mid-season replacement, so I didn't have the advantage of a semester of teaching/learning behind me.  No.  I felt like a complete moron.  I'm not sure that I have really studied the OT in years.  I sat there in my seat praying that no one would call on me.  I got by without problems, thank goodness.  So I have some catching up to do.  Luckily, I'm a pretty fast learner.  As long as the youth have a bit of patience with me, we'll get by okay.  It isn't about how much we know; it's about being able to use the scriptures to find the answers to our questions, and I can definitely do that.

The biggest advantage I have in this calling is my marriage to Herman.  Herman is a seminary enthusiast, to say it mildly.  He has loved everything about seminary for the past twelve years at least.  I have heard him talk about teaching theory for every one of those twelve years.  I have heard all of the seminary talks that he constantly listened to for years.  I understand the theory of teaching seminary.  Now I have to see if I can transfer that into practice.  It is a blessing to have been able to talk to him about all of my fears, and he has calmed a lot of them.

I keep writing a lot about my feelings about this and then going back and deleting it all.  It is hard to really describe all that is floating around in my head.  The bottom line is that my experiences in the past have given me a firm testimony in the ability of the Lord to take things that seem impossible and make them possible.  I know that even though I have significant weaknesses that I bring to this calling, He can make those weaknesses into strengths.  I know that.  This morning I was preparing my primary lesson, and I came across this scripture from the Book of Mormon:

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will. (WofM 1:7)

This really touched me for some reason.  In this verse Mormon is talking about adding Nephi's plates to his record.  He didn't know why he was asked to do this, but he trusted that it would all work out because the Lord asked him to do it.  I feel the same way.  I may not exactly know why I would be called to do this, but I have faith that the Lord will make it work.

I am a bit sad that I won't be heading up Girls Camp any more, and I'm sad that I also will not be teaching my nine year-olds on Sundays or working with the 8-12 year old girls on Tuesday nights.  This morning poor Katie cried and cried because she didn't want me to be released as her teacher, but I was able to talk to her about how the Church is organized and how we all eventually get released from our callings so that we have the opportunity to grow with new challenges and opportunities.  This is my new challenge for the next few years, perhaps.

So . . . no more late nights.  I'll have to adapt.  But I think this will work out okay.  I hope.  I just hope I don't drive any of the youth too crazy.  Tomorrow is the beginning.  Fingers crossed!

Blau Conversation Starter for the Day

Sometimes I find myself in the middle of interesting, and sometimes completely irrelevant topical conversations with my daughter Savannah.  I'm not sure how our brains take us to these islands of "what if . . ." conversation starters, and yet we end up there.  Today the questions was "If you could invite any celebrity over to dinner, who would it be and why?"

My answer:

Benedict Cumberbatch!

Why?  I don't really know.  Maybe it's because I love the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes where Cumberbatch plays a really quirky Sherlock.  Somehow I feel like that is the sort of personality that would shine through in a dinner conversation.  It would make things interesting.  Plus . . . the British accent!  Need I say more?

And as a late update 1/13/12:  Check out this article on the huffingtonpost.com to see just why this guy would be such an awesome dinner guest:  Benedict Cumberbatch Speaks Out About Hostage Situation In South Africa.  Way cool -- scary, but cool!

Savannah's choice?

Morgan Freeman

Alright.  I'll admit.  This is a good choice.  Funny, intelligent, amazing acting experiences.  He's met Nelson Mandela and played him in a movie. He doesn't have a British accent, but his voice just screams "gravitas." I looked up some video clips to show here, but nothing really fit the bill, and I think everyone has seen him act in something.

And our honorable mention goes to . . .

Bill Cosby

Just for the stories he could tell.  Priceless, and so funny. Plus, it seems like he wouldn't judge the chaos of my house too harshly.  Bonus!

One of my favorite Bill Cosby stories:

So it was a completely useless sort of conversation, but it is one more piece revealed in the puzzle that further explains what makes us tick, I think.  

A Question for China Adoptive Families

I'm not sure how many (or if there are any) Chinese adoptive families who follow this blog, but if so I have a question.  I am considering writing a short book about how we were able to travel to China as a family and enjoy the culture and society there without a travel guide.  I was very nervous before I left to visit, and I am sure that many other potential adoptive families probably feel the same way.  But we were able to have a wonderful time exploring the country on our own.  I thought that some families might be interested in seeing how we managed it with our six (and then seven) children in tow, in case they might be interested in doing the same.

Do any of you think that this might be something that would interest a family headed to China?  Please comment below or send me an email at mamamelreads at gmail.com.  This probably won't be a book that I publish for any sort of real monetary profit, but it might be something that would be beneficial to other families.  I just don't know.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Melissa

Oh yeah! That's me!

What happens to me when I overdo it and
spend the entire night reading.  I should know better,
but sometimes it is so worth it!

"Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind."

-Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

Mine!

Drat!  I have to get a new camera soon!  The
iPhone camera does not do justice to these
pictures!  Still, she's a cutie!  Rawr!

Just a short entry today about Minsy's progress on the language front.  I have not had really high expectations for her language acquisition.  I have been just rolling with the flow, excited when she picks up a word here or there, but now worrying too much if she isn't saying very much.  Minsy does communicate very effectively.  I don't usually have many problems trying to understand what she wants to say to me.  Maybe that is because she is fairly demanding, and when she is communicating it is usually to ask for something or some sort of service.  Whatever it is, she gets her point across with little problem.   

As far as English communication goes, she is still not attempting much.  She can say Mama and Mommy, but these words don't necessarily mean me.  She sometimes uses this word for calling Daddy or Laney or some older person.  She also says JoJo, and that is the only name she uses at all.  She does love her JoJo.  Other than that she can say "No."  That's all we get so far.  It's fine.  We're not too worried yet.  She still has awhile before she'll need to have better language for school, and that'll come with time.  Right now I'm content to see that she is trying, and even more importantly, it is obvious that she is understanding many of the things we say to her.  She follows direction extremely well.  It is only a matter of time before her understanding of spoken language translates into her own use of the language while speaking.

Two new accomplishments on the communication front.  First of all, Laney taught Minsy to wave hello today.  That is a big thing.  She is awesome at waving goodbye, but hello just escaped her.  I don't think it made any sense why we would do this.  But today Laney did something so that this action clicked with Minsy, and she was waving hello to everyone.  Hurray!  The best part was she didn't just wave her hand.  She paired it up with a huge dimple-full smile.  Totally precious!

The next big accomplishment was her use of a new word -- "Mine!"  Or I should more accurately say, "MINE!!!!!!!!"  Oh, how she loves to use this word when playing with the other kids.  Everything is mine, whether it really belongs to her or not.  I'll admit that it is a bit cute to see her do this, and for awhile we were just giddy that she was using a brand new English word, but reality has set in, and I'm realizing that we're going to have to nip this habit in the bud before we have a little terror on our hands.  We have been working to help her see that everything is not MINE.  It doesn't always succeed.  She is also mastering the art of throwing tantrums.  But, again, her tantrum plans are a bit foiled because she is just too cute while she is wailing away, and it is hard for us to take her fits seriously.  But, with a little bit of direction and love we have found that she is quickly moving past her "Mine" obsession.  She really is a sweet little girl.  With just a bit of molding we are easily able to help her make some sense of the dynamics of our big, boisterous family.  

Hurray!  Now on to the next word.  I can't wait to see what it'll be!

Happy New Year? Yes. I Believe So.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just have the blahs?  Nothing is really going particularly wrong, but for some reason your mood is off somehow, and nothing seems to fix it.  Well, I seem to have been having the blahs for the past two days.  This happens every once in a while, and luckily I'm able to pull myself out of the moods pretty quickly, but it does tend to put a damper on a New Year's Eve celebration when Mama is feeling grumpy.  Yesterday I was definitely feeling sorry for myself for no reason in particular.  Thank goodness, as I've gotten older I have been a lot more introspective about these moods, and I know that I just need to give myself a bit of time, and I'll pull out of the doldrums.  I wish that I could say that my mood was just influenced by end-of-the-year introspective thoughts where I was consumed with my memories of the past year and thoughts of the passage of time, but, alas, it was not that simple.  It was just something completely irrational that needed to be cured through the passage of time -- with a healthy dose of dark chocolate and carbs as medicine.  Herman was a total sweetheart during my blah mood -- I know that the experience of more than eighteen years of marriage has given him good knowledge of how to handle things when Miss Melissa gets grumpy.  He noticed my sadness and came home with a bouquet of flowers and a twelve pack of diet caffeine-free Dr. Pepper.  Then he gathered the kids for some fun games while giving me some time to veg-out in my room.  It was a total blessing.  My mood didn't totally go away, but I was able to get myself together enough to come join the family for the New Year's Eve celebration at the end of the night.  Sadly, it wasn't as exciting as it could have been if I had been running at 100%, but it was still nice.  Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo really went all out in planning something fun.  Their highlight of the celebration?  Cheese Puffs!  I know.  Don't get too jealous over our cheese puff celebration.  But I'm no fan of cheese puffs, so I never, ever buy them, so for the kids this was something way awesome to show their excitement for a new year.

I hoped that a good night's sleep would help me to get over this funky mood, but circumstances again conspired against me.  I had a horrible night's rest.  I could not go to sleep, no matter what I tried.  We do have some sleep medicine to use in emergencies, but by the time it hits 3:30 in the morning I feel like it is too late to depend on them.  I tried to tough it out.  I did not wake up feeling rested at all, so my mood wasn't helped by the sleep deprived headache I was suffering through.  2012 was not getting off to a great start.

But this isn't a story of a grumpy mom on New Year's Day.  This is a story of me getting over the blahs today and regaining my excitement for a great new year.  Things started when I headed to church with my family this afternoon.  I was teaching my primary class, which I love.  I really love to teach.  I don't like being in charge of things much, but I do love to teach in different capacities, and this fun group of nine year-olds I work with are a lot of fun to work with.  They have a lot of energy that can sometimes be a challenge to contain.  There are days when I wonder if I am even making a lick of difference as I try to teach while they are bouncing off the walls.  But today we began a new year of study, and this year we are studying the Book of Mormon.  Love it!  I decided to give my class a pretty big goal to read the entire book by the end of the year.  I didn't know how it would go over.  For kids who are still gaining their reading chops, this might not seem like a very appealing goal.  As I gave them the goal I wasn't sure what their thoughts were.  I wondered if anyone would try it at all.  Well, I was super excited when I got home to see a facebook message from one of my student's mom.  She told me that her son had already finished one entire book even though I only told them they needed to read two pages a day.  This little boy is one that I would have never expected to take the challenge seriously because he is always cracking silly jokes in class, but apparently he came right home and started reading so that he could get ahead of the game.  That made me happy.  Maybe I am reaching these kids.  Yea!

Then when I got home I got another "hurray!" moment for the day.  I found an email in my inbox from one of my favorite authors, Courtney Cole, asking me if I could look over her latest book and give my thoughts before she sent it off to her editor before publishing it.  Hurray!  This is one of my favorite things to do, and her latest book is going to be awesome.  I've already read the first two chapters and LOVE it!  This is a spin-off series from her Bloodstone Saga books, which I loved as well.  So I'm in the midst of reading.  I'll add a review when I get the okay from Courtney, but for now I can say that so far I highly recommend it.  You can find the goodreads.com link to the book here.


So a few little neat experiences, the support and patience of my wonderful family, a load of chocolate, and a little time finally got me out of my rut.  Thank goodness.  Those moods are no fun for anyone.  Luckily there are still a few hours left of this New Year's Day, so I'll close with twelve goals that I have for 2012.

1. More patience with my children.  That's a constant goal.  I'm getting a lot more mellow with age, but I still could use an extra dose of patience each day so that I can truly enjoy the moments I have with them.
2. More love for my husband.  Is that even possible?  I already think he is the bomb-diggiest man on the planet who can rock my socks daily.  But it is always good to keep this as a constant goal as well so that things are never boring or ordinary.  Every day is a day I can appreciate him more than the day before.
3. Read (or re-read) more classic literature.  When life gets hectic I like to load up on total fluff reading -- you know, the kind of books that are fun and fast but have little substance.  But I like to take a bit of time to head back to the classics, especially Victorian lit, so that my brain keeps working.
4. Declutter. Declutter. Declutter.  Too much stuff leads to too much mess leads to grumpy mama.
5. More days in the park.  Maybe not in the dead of winter.  I'm not a total martyr as a mom, but I would like to take a few more days to leave the house with the kids and enjoy the outdoors.
6. Better filing.  This is a boring one, but it has to be here, nonetheless.  I have a kick-butt filing system -- when I choose to use it.  But with the craziness of our last year I got to where I was just unloading things in huge piles in our office/junk room.  That has got to change.  I'm starting to take my office back by doing a half-hour room rescue every day until it is decluttered, filed, and cleaned.
7. I'm back on FlyLady.  It is the best cleaning system out there for me, and I am so much happier and more efficient when I do her program.  I don't know why I keep falling off this wagon, but I'm jumping back on this week.
8. Take some more time to enjoy having Laney at home during the day.  Yes, she is doing her online classes, but she breezes through them pretty fast, so she has some extra time in her day.  I only have about a year and a half of her home with us until she heads to college, so I need to make sure I take advantage of this time.  It is my classic reaction when one of the kids heads to kindergarten that I spend some time regretting the wasted time that I did not enjoy with them before they leave home, and I don't want to feel the same way when Laney goes to college.
9. More consistent scripture study.  When I study my scriptures regularly things seem to roll much more smoothly for me.  I'm not sure why this is.  It isn't that I don't have problems, but maybe I'm just more confident in my ability to handle them.
10. Monthly temple attendance.  I need it, so I gotta do it if I want the blessings.
11. Doing a better job of archiving our life with pictures and stories behind them.  I have tons of publishing points with Heritage Makers, so I'm going to sit down and publish some of our stories so that they aren't just stuck on my computer for no one to see.
12. Smile more.  I like to smile.  I do.  But I have a natural scowl that sticks around if I don't think about it too much.  I think I have a creepy looking smile, but I'm going to use it more, and then maybe I'll get used to it.

So there are my goals for the year.  I imagine I won't end the year having reached all of them consistently, but if this year goes like all my other years, I'm sure that I'll end up better at this time next year than I am as the year began, and that's a good direction to be headed, I think.

So, have a wonderful new year.  I'm planning on having one myself!

I had to add this picture of the New Year's display
in the Hong Kong harbor since it reminded me
of seeing the light show here while we were
visiting Hong Kong in November.