My Role as a Woman

My lesson in Relief Society this month is on Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk from October's General Conference Priesthood Session titled, "Brethren, We Have Work To Do." I'm not sure how to approach this one and I really don't want to offend anyone. I came across a blog a while ago written by "Mormon feminists" and read it today in an effort to get an idea of what not to say while teaching my lesson. But I really need to NOT read this blog, I don't agree with most of what they say and honestly I feel like they've got one foot in the apostasy door. And it seems to only bring a spirit of contention into my heart and as Chad said to me, "People don't go to the internet to find truth." So, I won't visit that site again but it did help me clarify my own view of myself and womanhood.

In the past, as I've thought about my personal role as a woman in this world, I've felt that I'm lacking because I don't have an education, I stay at home with my kids, and I don't do anything except be a mom.

Well, I realized recently that I don't WANT to do anything except be a mom. I don't want to work. I'd like to go back to school but I don't want to do that anytime soon. I only want to stay home with my kids. And you know, that's JUST FINE. I'm not less of a woman because I really, really like being a mom and am content with that. I'm not failing in my modern femininity by staying at home with my children and making them my first priority. I'm not even that stellar of a mother, but I love my children and I love my role as their mother and I'm tired of feeling guilty for not wanting more out of life. So you feminists out there go right ahead and fight for your so-called "equality" but stop telling me that I'm out of touch and repressed because I'm content and feel very much full filled with the very thing you're fighting. My desire to be a nurturer of my husband and children and my desire to have my husband provide for our family does not make me weak. It does not mean I've been "brainwashed" by the "Mormon culture" and it does not mean I'm any less of a modern woman.

Dishes

Debbie has been, quite literally, begging us to "let" her do dishes. So today was her big day. She says she loves doing dishes and I just want to document it for the future. Here's the proof Teenage Debbie, look at that smile on your face.

Special Visitor

We had a special visitor for Christmas this year... Influenza!! Debbie got it first, two days before Christmas. Then Isaac showed symptoms on Christmas Day and then Cosette got it a couple days after that. And Chad was sick too so we've just been a bundle of fun this Christmas break. We know it was the actual flu because we took Isaac in and they tested him. Influenza type B, whatever that means. The kids have all been pretty miserable with their fever hovering around 103 without medication. So, we've watched hours and hours of tv and the kids have napped more than they've napped since they were toddlers. But, we seem to have survived it and hopefully will all be healthy again before school starts. And, in spite of being sick, I feel like we had a wonderful Christmas anyway. We stayed home basically the entire time to try and avoid spreading our germs (except for the Sunday before Christmas when we went up to see Grandma and Grandpa Rogers and Debbie's fever made it's entrance, I really hope we didn't get anyone sick.). Grandma and Grandpa Shapiro and Uncle Jack came over on Christmas morning to open presents with us and then we skyped with Grandma Westerson while we opened the presents from her so we had a pretty family-filled holiday. I didn't take as many pictures this year because my Christmas present was a camcorder and I wanted to use that so we have a lot of video just not so many pictures.

 

Grandma Westerson sent the kids Christmas clothes again this year and I LOVE the dresses the girls got, they are beautiful and so elegant.

 

 Debbie got a bracelet maker from Santa...

 Cosette got a fairy dress-up from Santa and this LaLaLoopsy treehouse from Grandma...

 And Isaac got the bayblades that he wanted from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers (with a couple from Santa too) and then Isaac and Cosette got scooters like Debbie's so now they all 3 have fun scooters.

 And here's a picture of Isaac zonked out on the couch with a fever. The dr. said to let the fever do it's thing, which was hard for me to do because I hate seeing my kids miserable so we let the fever burn more than we normally would have but also tried to keep them comfortable.

Revisited

I took a picture of Cosette and Chad a couple weeks ago and as I was looking at it I realized I had taken another one just like it 4 1/2 years ago. So, I put them side-by-side and look at how she's changed!

Catch up

Wow, do I have some catching up to do...

A couple stories I want to remember first:

Isaac was the VIP in his first grade class this week. I love that he's still excited to see me when I go to school. I dread the day when he becomes too cool for me. :( I think I've always assumed that my kids would be embarrassed of me because I just feel like a big fat loser. But sadly, I'm just now beginning to realize just how awesome kids are. They don't see flaws, they see people. People that they love who have worth and are important. No wonder the Savior tells us to be more like children. My kids don't love me because I'm pretty or stylish or hip or whatever (which is good because I'm none of those things). They love me because I'm their mom and that's good enough for them. They don't see my imperfections and failures, they just see me, someone who's good enough. I'm grateful for that.

Anyway, back to VIP. Back in September Isaac's teacher emailed me to let me know that Isaac was really behind in his reading. So since then we've been working with him a lot more at home but I hadn't heard anything more from his teacher. For his presentation he was supposed to pick a favorite book for a parent to read to his class. Well, he decided he wanted to read it so he read a book to his class and his teacher was beaming by the time he was done. She kept saying how proud she was and how much he had improved. We're so proud of him!

Now, for Debbie... She came home from school on Friday and was really sad and then told me what had happened. She had to get moved in class because a boy next to her was doing sicko things that were making her uncomfortable. But the kids at the table she got moved to were being mean to another boy and she stood up for him so then they started picking on her. Like they would tell the teacher she wasn't doing her schoolwork and say things to get her in trouble. The one thing that had her really upset was that they had thrown a paper airplane and then blamed it on her and when she defended herself the teacher told her to stop lying. When she told me that I got really mad. My second grade teacher was terrible and mean and I don't want my kids to have to be treated that way. When I offered to call the teacher Debbie said that she didn't want me to because she felt that she could handle it on her own. Oh, and after she told me about the kids bullying her she thought for a minute and then said, "I'm trying to think of kind things to do to them so they'll be nice to me." She's so inspiring to me. And here's another reason she's an inspiration. I came out to get a drink Saturday night and was startled to find her on the couch. She was reading her Book of Mormon because she was starting to get scared and she felt like reading the scriptures would help. Then she spent all of sacrament meeting yesterday reading the scriptures. She drives me crazy sometimes but she really is an extraordinary little spirit.

Cosette loves preschool, it's been so good for her. We're starting to do reading lessons at home and she's really catching on. I'll post a video soon. :)

 

We made gingerbread houses for family home evening last week, that was fun.

 

And now here are some random pictures...

 I took about a billion of these leaf pitures and half of them turned out really cute. So, these are only a few, I'll probably put more in when I print out the blog book.