Apples, Vomit and Preparing For Tomorrow

On Wednesday Jack, Sage and I went with Bill and Katherine, the famous John and Linda Sanchez family, and Natalie Sanders from church to the parents of some other people in the ward to go pick apples. They have a HUGE orchard with well cared for Golden Delicious Apples. And they really are delicious. We could pick as much as we wanted and could take them all for free! My kind of deal! It was a really nice morning, very enjoyable, and Jack didn't throw a tantrum when I told him it was time to stop playing inside Natalie's car with her keys and to continue to pick apples from the trees. Today, Friday, we started to can applesauce. So far we have about 38 quarts and some pints full of applesauce. We have about 1/3 of the apples that we picked for us left and we ran out of jars. Well, not just us, I guess all of Western Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Washington are out of canning jars. This must have been a popular year. We are planning to make some apple pie filling and maybe drying some apples too. The rest we'll give to people at Joel's work or church.

To end our canning day (which Bill and Katherine did most of the work while I fed Sage, kept an eye on Jack, and made dinner [I made Joel's fav. hamburger buns] I am SOOOO grateful to all of their help), Jack vomited all over me, Sage (who was eating mama's milk) and the couch. Very pleasant indeed. My poor little guy. He's so pitiful when he is sick. I threw him in the bath and washed the couch and floor as best I can. He fell asleep in my arms just past 7:00 (keep in mind that we woke him up at 5:00 from his nap). It is 9:30 now and he just woke up crying - no vomit thankfully. He was burning up so I gave him medicine and Joel gave him a priesthood blessing. He is such a good little boy.

Instead of cleaning up the kitchen I'm sitting here gathering my thoughts. On Sunday the Relief Society asked Katherine and I to teach a class for tomorrow's Super Saturday. It is supposed to be on journaling. We are supposed to do a little talk and then make journaling jars. We are going to teach for 45 mins, for two class sessions. With the abundance of time that we had to prepare we decided to split it up - I'll do the talking and Katherine will be in charge of the jars, seeing that she is a dutiful papercrafter and that they just did this same activity in Young Women's. I'm using this time to gather my thoughts. After reading a bunch of talks Katherine printed off for me to read about journals, here is a basic outline/organizational entry. So if you are not interested, don't feel obliged to read:

I remember my first journal. It was when I was 5 or 6 years old. My family had just moved from the Washington DC area to Portland, Oregon. We were living in a Residence Inn type of place, waiting for our house to finish being built. I remember that my Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us there. They brought me a journal. I was excited, and I remember writing in it and then putting it under my bed. I wrote something along the lines of, "I like my Grandma, she likes flowers. I like my Grandpa too, but he gives wet, sloppy kisses." The next day when saying goodbye to my grandparents, either because they were leaving or because I was going to school, my Grandpa gave me a hug and kiss and said, "Who says I give wet kisses!" I was mortified. I don't know who or what, but obviously someone had gone and read my diary. That was the last entry of that journal.

When I was 9 or 10, I got another journal in primary and wrote in that one off and on, on a not so regular basis. I have it now and some parts are so funny to read. When I was in High School and even into College I wrote music, lyrics and poems to get me through hard times. This collection is a type of journal to me. I have had countless journals where I try to start with my life story but was too far behind and there was too much to write so I would become discouraged and stop. In College I started writing in a journal when I went to go do baptisms for the dead at the Salt Lake Temple. It was more my testimony at that time than anything else. Once I got married, I stopped going as often to do baptisms so that was the end of that book. And now, I would say that I am a pretty regular blogger. This suits me perfectly because I have terrible hand writing and type much faster anyways. I write about current events and reminisce periodially. I plan to print them out someday to have a hard copy. Why am I sharing all this? Well, because we are talking about journals!

Even from the time of Adam, Abraham, and Moses, we have been counseled to be a record-keeping people. "You may think of them as not being as highly educated as we are, but they were well-trained people. Adam spent much effort being the school teacher for his children. He and Eve taught their sons and daughters. He taught them the gospel in their home evenings, and he taught them reading and writing and arithmetic. And they kept their books of rememberance. How else do you think Moses, many hundreds of years later, got the information? These records had been kept, and he referred to them and got the history of the world, which wasn't in any library other than that." (Spencer W. Kimball, New Era, December 1980)

Even in the Book of Mormon, Nephi kept two records. The one that we read from includes his personal history and spiritual experiences. Joined with that of the same from other authors, we have sacred scripture. When Christ came to America he asked to see the record kept, but found it lacking and not up to date. (See 3 Nephi 23:6-13)

Besides being commanded to by the Lord, why should we keep journals?

• "What could you do better for your children and your children's children that to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved. Some of what you write may be humdrum dates and places, but there will also be rich passages that will be quoted by your posterity." (Kimball, 1980)
• President Eyring told of an experience of watching his father-in-law giving service to him and his family and then heard in his mind these words: "I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down." (Henry B. Eyring, Liahona, November 2007)
• "But my life isn't at all interesting," you protest. Perhaps it doesn't seem interesting to you now, but a hundred years from now your great-great-grandchildren will be fascinated to know what happened during your time on earth."(Jeanne W. Pittman, Liahona, February 1988)
• "Any Latter-day Saint family that has searched genealogical and historical records has fervently wished its ancestors had kept better and more complete records...I promise you that if you will keep you journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, you grandchildren, and others, on through the generations." (Kimball, 1980)

• Maybe one day you will be one of the future leaders of the church whose life will be an important part of scriptures yet to be written. (Pittman, 1988)

• "Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives" (Kimball, 1980)
• A journal (can) become a vehicle for seeing God's interaction with us. 'It helps you get closer in touch with the Lord's time frame, when you can read your own intimate history over a period of months rather tahn days. Patterns emerge, and you can see more clearly the hand of the Lord in your life. You can see how he has helped you and answered some prayers by events, not revelations, in a quiet way that escaped you in the press of cricumstances.' (Janet Brigham, Ensign, December 1980)

• 'Keeping a journal gives you a chance to let some whisperings trickle through you from your own spirit, as well as from the Spirit of the Lord.' (Brigham, 1980)

• The act of writing in a journal can help a person deal with emotional pressures. Some people who don't intend to keep journals - and some who don't even want to - find themselves writing as a they try to cope with difficulties. Writing can help you express some of the emotions - until you can let go of the feelings, learn from the experience, and consider appropriate alternatives. (Brigham, 1980)

• A journal can also be a tool for self-evaluation and self-improvement. 'We examine our lives as we come to know ourselves through our journals. Even if you take your journal and go back a year, you learn things about yourself you didn't know at the time. You understand things about yourself. In knowledge begins real freedom of the soul and the spirit, and a real chance to be all that we can be and all that we should be.' (Brigham, 1980)

• Memories are inadequate. (William G. Hartley, New Era, March 1977)

What do journals look like?

• Notebook and Bound Books
• Computers and Blogs
• Letters and Emails
• Scrapbooking (Ask yourself - if someone saw this page in 50 years from now, would they know who these people/places are?)
• Media sources (ie tape recorders, video tapes, etc)
• Spiritual or Gratitude Journal
• Study Journal
• Calenders (Grandma Tanner does this - just jots down on the calender what happened during the day)
• Meeting Journals

What do we write about? (Use as an entry to Journal Jars)

• Before you write, ask yourself: "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?" (Eyring, 2007)
• Don't begin by trying to catch up your life history first. You may find time later for a retrospective life story, but start off now by writing about current things. (Hartley, 1977)
• Mainly you need to tell about the who, what, where, when and why type of things. Certainly religious experieces and thoughts deserve special emphasis. (Hartley, 1977)
• Obviously earth-shaking matter deserve comment, but so do your everyday experiences. And rather than simply listing what you did, where you went or who you were with, offer some explanation and give your thoughts and reactions. Tell why you did something, how you reached the decision, what your part-time job was like. (Harley, 1977)
• Your journal should contain a tru self rather than a picture of you when you are "made up" for a public performance. (Kimball, 1980)

"We hope you will begin as of this date. If you have not already commenced this important duty in your lives, get a good notebook, a good book that will last through time and into eternity for the angels to look upon. Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully. You are unique and there may be incidents in your experience that are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other life. Begin today and write in it your goings and your comings, you deeper thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. We hope you will do this, our...sisters, for this is what the Lord has commanded..." (Kimball, 1980)

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.