"Aha" Moment in Seminary

As most of you know, Scott and I are doing daily Seminary at home because it's in Italian over here. I never went to Seminary, having joined the church during my freshman year at college. I have never claimed to be a doctrinal expert. Today something we talked about really struck me.

We were talking about the importance of agency. How important it is that we all have the freedom to make our own choices, but then we must enjoy the blessings or suffer the consequences of those choices.

A quotation from the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Student Guide is what caught my eye. Talking about the War in Heaven we read about how important agency is to our Heavenly Father. It says, "Rather than violate their agency, He [Heavenly Father] allowed one-third of His children, led by the devil, to rebel".

That really hit me. I know Heavenly Father loves us. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Him to allow one-third of His Spirit Children to make such a terrible choice? A choice that would take away their chance to come to earth and gain a physical body? A choice that would take away their chance for eternal salvation? A choice that would essentially seal their fate.

How very important agency must be. How much more faithful I need to be about the choices I make.

I love "aha" moments like that. Although something simple, that all of you have probably thought about many times, it really resonated with me today.

Maybe that's why I'm in Italy this year - to see what I can learn from teaching Seminary to Scott.

Sigh

While I could have done without the washing machine catastrophe that brought me home, I have truly enjoyed the 5 weeks I've been here.

And I don't want to go back on Saturday.

Sigh.

I've decided that some people are well suited for living overseas and some people are not. I fall into the "not" category. I would happily choose the comfort and security of my home in Richmond over the adventure of living in a foreign country.

Once I arrive back in Milan, I will begin my countdown to February 18th, when Scott and I come home for a week.

How to Run Up the Electric Bill

The electric bill I got in October was $133.00.

Yesterday I got my November bill.

It was $266.00

Four of those days we had 26 pretty big fans and 6 large dehumidifiers running nonstop in our house.

I'm thinking that's what caused the spike in our electric bill. What do you think?

Phone Call

Brian is not big on phone calls. He never has been. I hear from him rarely, and usually by text. So it always worries me a little when he calls.

Fortunately, he is okay, but he did call and tell me he was in a bike collision with another bicyclist. Whenever I hear the words "bike" and "collision" now, my thoughts always turn to Gary and his terrible bike/bus collision. Brian's collision was nowhere near that bad, thank goodness. In fact, he and his bike are fine. The other guy, whose fault it technically was, may have broken his collarbone. They had to call an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

I feel bad for him, but I have to say, I'm glad it wasn't Brian who was injured!

It Never Fails

Today, as I was driving down 359, I noticed a Needlework shop that I hadn't been in. I have done counted cross stitch before, and thought it might be fun to pick up some projects to take back to Italy.

I went in and discovered a treasure trove of patterns! Cross stitch has come a long way since I did it years ago! I especially love the tiny patterns they now have, patterns that are really cute and should stitch up quickly.

I bought a number of patterns. One set of three for Halloween, one for Thanksgiving, a sampler for Christmas, and a sampler about the joys of reading. I decided to buy the materials to make the Thanksgiving pattern.

First off, the fabrics they now have are incredible! I remember shopping at craft stores years ago and finding white and cream and the occasional red, green, or black. The fabrics now are linen and come in amazing colors. I will be stitching my Thanksgiving pattern on Summer Khaki.

My pattern uses nine different colors of thread. Even the threads are better than they used to be. The saleswoman was showing me how many of the threads are slightly variegated, which gives a more interesting look to the finished product. I was persuaded to buy four new threads for the larger areas, so I will get the variegated look. The other five threads cover smaller areas, so I decided to go home and looks through my large stash of DMC thread to see if I had those colors.

Okay, so if you're not keeping up with the math, my pattern needed nine different colors of thread. I bought four colors, which means I needed five more. I came home and looked through my DMC thread - all 243 colors which I own. Guess how many of the thread colors I don't have? Two. Out of my 243 colors, I could only come up with three of the five colors I needed!

If any of you have done cross stitch, you will understand why I titled my post "it never fails". I don't think I have ever done a project and had all of the threads I needed.

On the plus side, I get to go back to that fun store now...

Enjoying the Quiet

On Saturday the workmen ripped out the laminate wood floors in the dining room, game room, and family room. Then, to make sure the slabs were completely dry, they brought in 5 large fans and a dehumidifier. This is actually the second time we've had the fans and dehumidifiers in the house. The first time was right after the water leak happened, and a lot more fans were used.

But it seemed louder in the house this time. Probably because there's no furniture in those rooms, and no flooring, so everything just echoes. We've literally had to yell at each other to have conversations!

The workmen just left with the fans. I am enjoying the blessed quiet.

Until the flooring guys show up to start installing the laminate...