beauty (a talk about shame & vulnerability)

I was asked to speak at my RS enrichment meeting about "inner beauty" this week and I thought it went pretty well. I recorded it so Matt could have a listen and I've included the text as well as the recording on this post. I spent a lot of time studying for it and really love the information I found, so I figured other people might as well. The recording and the words don't match up perfectly because I wasn't reading the talk but trying to do most of it from memory. The message is the same and it's probably better articulated in writing, but has more personality in listening.

(If I can get the listening feature to work... but I don't think it will work on anything other than a computer...sorry cell phones or iPads! I'm new to this audio world.)

Today we will be talking about beauty, and I am trying to specifically address "inner beauty." I do think that it can be a tricky subject to discuss because we use "beauty" to describe a huge array of topics... people, specifically women, babies, art, nature, sports games, touchdowns or slam dunks or goals, animals, homes, relationships... we can use the word beautiful as an adjective to describe almost anything.

So in my study to internalize beauty, I hope to start a conversation for all of us as to what it means to have a beautiful heart and a beautiful spirit and how it makes us more connected to each other and to heaven.

these guys

We have a very scheduled week and are crashing into the sheets exhausted (and usually too late) every night. Busy busy, but good. Matt's been doing crossfit and it's kicking his butt (but he likes it, of course.) He's still working 45-50 hour weeks, rides the train to and from work, and eats expensive french pastries at least once a week.  EZ loves his hat, eating candy (dandy), and being outside. We went swimming today and he is very excited for summah summah summah time. He still has to wear a patch an hour a day and they think he has "Duane Syndrome" which basically means some of his nerves are backwards and his eyes might always wander. But, he's not blind! So we'll take some wander if that's his only issue. I spoke at a Relief Society Enrichment tonight and will share soon because I'm pretty happy about how it turned out, did so much laundry today I want to puke, and have a big Girl's Camp meeting this Friday that should last well into the night time party hours. Oh, and we're feeding the sister missionaries on Thursday and need to return some library books.

sidekick

If anyone ever peered into my iPhone camera roll, they'd first think holy smokes this girl takes A LOT of pictures of her kid. The second thought would be holy smokes there are a lot of #selfies of her and the kid. It probably appears vain (and might be), but I just can't stand by documenting our life if I'm not in it. Especially in regards to motherhood. EZ and I are always hanging out and I love every little thing we do, and boy howdy I feel immensely grateful that I've figured out the art of one-armed photos. EZ is my buddy and my sidekick and my only little lover right now, so I hope I'm making the most of it. [I wrote a post 2 years ago about being his mother before he was ever born and I still like it. Smother! S to the Mother!]

Getting caught in the rain// Lunch dating// Play-doh playing// Hugging because he's scared of the blender// Watching a show at the office while mama works// Tickling// Reading// Snuggling.

Happy Mother's Day. May we all take more one-armed pictures so our children see how much we love the moments we live with them everyday. And big loves to Grandma Dee Dee & Grandma Boerup as well as mother Danell and C-mama.  Matt and I come from great ladies.  

if you give a boy an idea...

if you give a boy an idea about swimming, he'll probably want to act on it.
if he acts on it, he'll be asking you for his floaties.
if you put his floatie device on, he'll probably ask you to go to the pool.
if he's asking to go to the pool, it'll probably turn into crying when you say no.
if you ask him to help with the dishes, he'll probably stop crying.
if he helps with the dishes, he'll want to wear an apron like you.
if he wears an apron, he probably won't be very careful with the water.
if he realizes how fun it is to dump the water on the ground, he'll get soaking wet.
if he gets soaking wet, you'll probably take off all his clothes.
if you take off all his clothes, then he'll probably ask to get in the sink.
if he gets in the sink, he'll probably play for an hour.
if he plays for an hour, you'll probably get some of the dishes loaded.
if you get the dishes loaded, he'll have more room to dump the water.
if he dumps the water on the ground, he'll probably laugh.
if he's laughing, he'll probably keep dumping water on the ground.
if he keeps dumping water, you'll probably take him out of the sink.
if you take him out of the sink, you'll probably put clothes on him.
if he has clothes on, you'll want to clean up the floor.
if you start mopping, you'll probably use a towel.
if the boy sees the towel, he'll probably want to use it.
if he starts using a towel, he'll remember his floatie device.
and chances are if he wants to put his floatie back on...
he'll probably remember the idea to go swimming!

                          and then we mopped from Carla Thorup on Vimeo.

(i took eerily similar sink bath pictures last year when he was a smaller, chubbier nugget.)

oh ezekiel red, you are so great.

ka-pow

We all know Batman defends Gotham with his huge muscles, but during his off-time he loves throwing rocks, trying not to choke on rocks when he wrongly puts them in his mouth, and has THE sweetest freckles JUST LOOK AT THEM.