On Luke's Fourth Birthday

"A central purpose of the mortal experience is that each spirit should receive such a body and learn to exercise moral agency in a tabernacle of flesh. A physical body is also essential for exaltation, which comes only in the perfect combination of the physical and the spiritual, as we see in our beloved, resurrected Lord. In this fallen world, some lives will be painfully brief; some bodies will be malformed, broken, or barely adequate to maintain life; yet life will be long enough for each spirit, and each body will qualify for resurrection." Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Where's the Beef?

5 November, 2010

Chere Famille,

Welcome to the first official issue of:

“Barefoot and Pregnant, J.D.”

This week Alex and I didn’t have a single argument about homework. I nursed Ryan’s little feelings through his first social disappointment: not getting invited to a birthday party that he wanted to attend. Today, I managed to negotiate nap time with my two-year old without a roof-raising fit. Josh and I have made it through another week of wedded nearly-bliss. I have made two meals for friends in need, babysat kids, cleaned the house, kept up with the laundry, done the grocery shopping and cooked meals for my family, unpacked a few more boxes, paid bills, run errands, gotten the kids to school on time, to swim team and to scouts and worked on my personal history. I made homemade bread and a batch of raspberry jam. I have knitted half a hat for Jane and read my scriptures and a wonderful book called Freedom’s Daughters about the women of the civil rights movement. I have read a Newberry award winner to the boys for 30 minutes every night. I have already run 8 miles and tomorrow I will run 7 more. After that, I will help my husband teach a lesson on virtue and purity to 300 youth at the Queen Creek South Stake Youth Conference. And yes, I am currently barefoot and baking cupcakes!

In case you were wondering, I just received my copy of “Res Gestae” in the mail. It is the magazine sent out by the law school once a year to brag about it’s programs, faculty and students. As I looked at all the things that were highlighted I realized that never in a million years will they ever include anything about those of us who have retired from the practice in order to rear children. Since we are not out fighting for the rights of convicts, saving the planet, battling injustice in Africa or the Balkans, or carrying the banner for gay families, we seem to have fallen through the cracks. So, today I wrote a brag rag about myself and I hope you will all forgive me for sending it to you.

We are moved in to our new house. We owe much gratitude to our friends, especially Matt Rosen, Jeremy Atkin, and Warren Barnhill, Jennifer and Lexi Cluff, the Felt Parents, and Ken and Alison. They all came at different times and helped us do all sorts of lovely jobs. Gary and Debbie worked like field hands for the time they were here and so the move has been relatively easy. Debbie got the whole kitchen unpacked and put away, and Josh and Gary hung ceiling fans in every room and fixed up inummerable odds and ends that needed to be squared away. Funny enough, it hasn’t taken a lot of adjusting for us to feel like this is home. It has been nice to have our parents here to visit. A house isn’t really home until your family has been there. I am hoping that we can get our other little house in ship shape and be able to sell it soon.

I’ve got two great kid stories to end things off. Today I gave the kids a treat and let them have cocoa and raisin bread for breakfast. When Ryan got home he announced to me that today in Kindergarten they had talked about healthy food. “The breakfast you gave me today was NOT healthy and didn’t help me concentrate and learn at school!” He told me that he didn’t think that anything with chocolate in it was an appropriate breakfast food.

This week I splurged and bought myself a copy of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie. This morning when I asked Jilly what she wanted to do today she said, “I want to watch ‘Beauty and the Beef’.” So I put the movie on and we started to watch. About 10 minutes in she looked up and said, “Mom, this Beef is a scary Beef. I want to watch Nemo.”

Well, Josh is off at Youth Conference, I have cleaned up after dinner, and the kids and I are going to sit down and watch “Beauty and the Beef!”

Our love to all--

Cheryl

BY THE WAY, THE TITLE OF MY MAGAZINE IS PURELY FOR EFFECT. THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANY KIND!!!