Callings

I don't usually have really strong spiritual promptings about callings, but this last few months I have and wanted to share.

This summer our ward boundaries got realigned and instead of the two Ankeny wards being divided north/south they are divided east/west.  They wanted to even out ward numbers, but it didn't really end up helping - the wards are still really uneven.  I had been serving in the RS Presidency as 1st councilor and the Bishop wanted to keep us until the boundaries were changed but it kept getting put off and off and finally he released us.  A month later the ward was split.  Our RS President Rhonda was in the other ward now and their RS President Melissa was in our ward.  I totally knew that Melissa would be called as RS President (I am sure everyone else did too - not that big of a surprise) and I kept on thinking, "She's so cool.  It will be really fun to serve with her in RS!" and then telling myself to "let it go, you're not in RS anymore."

But when the Bishop called the week after the presidents were called I knew - absolutely knew - that I was going to be asked to be 1st councilor again.  And I was.

We needed a secretary and when Nikki Smith moved in I knew she should be called, but Melissa wasn't sure and then Nikki was called to be a primary teacher.

I love our Bishopric, but they have been slower than molasses in January about getting callings filled.  Primary is still missing teachers and RS only has one teacher, no compassionate service leader (we have been soooo lucky and have next to zero compassionate service needs in the ward) and only one visiting teaching coordinator.  And until this week no secretary.  That is 6 months people!

Anyway, a few weeks ago Bishop Bishop met with the Primary, Young Women and RS presidents and they went over what callings still needed to be filled and who needed callings.  After the meeting Melissa dropped a hit that there were some big changes coming.  I read that as meaning I was going to be released and I was correct.

It was really a good thing.  I kept on feeling like Melissa felt like I was being critical of everything.  Honestly, we just had different ways of doing things and I was kind of use to the grove of the old presidency.  Plus I was getting burned out.

So for the first time since the reorganization there were a ton of releases and sustainings today at church.  When I heard Nikki Smith was released from primary, I knew she would be the new 1st councilor - and she was.  I knew she belonged in RS - it just took a few months.  :)

I am a primary teacher now for the 8 & 9 year olds and the Activity Day leader for the same age girls.  So after I was called Melissa told me about the meeting with the other presidents.  The Primary got first dibs on callings and the first thing Diana said was, "I have been thinking about the 8 & 9 year olds and Activity Days and there is only one person I can think of that can do that...Leila."   She was nervous to ask for me to be released, but Melissa and everyone else felt really good about it too.

I served my purpose as a bridge between the old ward and new mixed ward and know that all of the decisions were inspired.  I still want them to get me some teachers called for RS though.  :)

The only thing that I will miss is being in the thick of things planning wise.  I liked having a say in how things go.  I'm kinda a bossy control freak.  But now I can plan for Activity Days.  :)

Monday

• Brian stayed home today.  He is taking the whole week off.  Crazy.  He cleaned the kitchen, played with Becca and mopped while I ran errands this morning.  He was going to replace a few pieces of siding on the house today but that is proving difficult.  There are way too many old nails that won't come out without tearing the old siding apart too.
• Kate didn't want to go to school today.  She was low level sick all last week and got use to staying home.  It started with a fever then congestion and sore throat and then diarrhea.  But go to school she did.  The kids are going to school tomorrow and then are off for the rest of the week.  Fun!  (kinda sarcastic there)
• I have been throwing around this idea for a block of the month program based on the ceramic quilt block patterns found on the outside of a building at the state fair grounds.  Every county designed one and it looks pretty cool.  The blocks would range in size from 8" to 36".  I made the 36" block and it is bigger than it looks in the quilt mock up so now I am re-evaluating my plan.

Emily's Pinwheel Star Tutorial

About a month ago my 14 year old daughter Emily was playing around with EQ7 (I love seeing them get into quilt stuff too!) and came up with this design.  I really liked the pinwheel in the star and decided to make it up into a 12" block to go with my other Meadowsweet star blocks.

I thought other people might like to make it too, so here is the tutorial:

To make a 12" finished Pinwheel star, cut:

 White
4 - 3.5" squares
4 - 4" squares
1 - 4.5" square

Pink
1 - 4.5" square

Print
4 - 4" squares

Yellow
 2 - 4" squares

Cut the 2 of the print squares on the diagonal.
Cut the 4.5" white and pink squares into quarters along both diagonals.
Draw a line along the diagonal of the four white 4" squares.

Lay out the white, pink and print triangles as illustrated.  Sew the white and pink triangles together.  (Tip:  Feed the triangles into the machine blunt end first.)  Press.  Sew the print triangle onto the pink and white triangle unit.  Press and trim to 3.5" square.  Make sure that the seams all run into the points.

Match the white 4" squares with the remaining print and yellow 4" squares and make 8 half square triangle units as illustrated above.  Press and trim to 3.5" squares.

Lay out all of the squares as shown.  Sew together into rows.  Press.  Match seams and sew the rows together.  Press.

Done!

Such a cute block.  I just need to make a few more for the quilt!  Have a great Thanksgiving week!

The new plan

So the probability of me actually carving out time to write tons and post cute pictures is pretty low, but I decided that I could probably write for 10 minutes a few times a week.  Don't think, don't plan, just write for 10 minutes.  Here we go:

• As fall and winter came I stocked up on tomato soup.  I have decided that tomato soup counts as a veggie.  With open faced cheese sandwiches you have dairy and whole grains.  Score.  That is what the kids are eating right now.  Emily doesn't like tomato soup.
• Today was Stake Conference.  I was kind of sad that the snow last night wasn't bad enough to give us an excuse to skip and watch old general conference addresses.  The crowds and having to contain/entertain kids for 2 hours takes all of my patience.  Actually it isn't that bad.  But I only say that because we hang out and watch conference in the RS room.  Padded chairs and only 15 kids making noise vs 200 kids making noise in a loud, echoing gym with hard chairs is a no brainer.  I don't know why it is always empty.  Best kept secret ever.
• We were encouraged by the visiting 70 last night to have gospel art, inspirational teaching quotes on the walls/refrigerator.  I know I should.  I have been thinking about it for the last 10 years, but there is only so much time and I want to use that time to quilt not to go around to Goodwill to find cheap frames and paint them a trendy color, choose out print, frame and hang all cute.  I know I can just tape a picture from the friend on the kids' wall, but somehow that just makes the rooms seem messy and cluttered.  I know I am whining and justifying, but I wanted to get it out there.  Maybe I will work on that kind of stuff on Sunday.
• Becca is obsessed with Elsa from Frozen.  She is about a year behind the trend but is making up for it fast.
• Kate followed Brian all around yesterday jabbering.  She says she doesn't jabber.
• I have started to try to do more interesting things to the girls hair except for brushing the tangles out.  Colleen's hair is really fun to work with and I have been doing a twist along the crown of her head, fast, easy and almost fool proof.
• Aleah has been reading a ton the last six months.  It has gotten to the point that I want to ban reading books at all.  She isn't interacting with the other kids very much and will go up to her room and hide out at any given opportunity.
• Emily, Aleah (I was trying to get her away from her book!) went to a consignment shop yesterday.  Emily found a leather jacket there for $24 and I bought it for her in exchange for two nights of babysitting.  She LOVES it.  We just had a talk about how people wearing jackets in the house bugs me.  She can wear it outside, she can wear it all day inside at school, but I will go crazy if I have to see her in it all day every day.
• Lot of things bug me and make me crazy.

That was more like 20 minutes, but I think I am liking this type without too much thought thing.  So if grammar is poor I hope you will forgive that.  Let's just think of it as "raw" and hope I can keep it up for awhile.  :)