brrrrrr!

it is so cold today! we have the fire on full blast and it's still a little chilly. but we are playing the "glad" game (like pollyanna) and are feeling glad that the sun has been shining today.

today ryan spoke in the lockport ward. he thought it went well. the girls and i attended our own ward and arrived early, a huge accomplishment, and thus enjoyed a comfy, padded bench. usually we're late and have to sit on the hard chairs in the overflow area. afton gave the prayer and scripture today in senior primary. her scripture was a paragraph from the Proclamation on the Family...All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.
as i think about this particular phrase from The Proclamation, it reminds me of the knowledge i have that God knows each of his children as individuals. because of experiences that i've had in my life, i truly believe this to be the case. we each have a destiny to fulfill and because we are God's children, he can and will help us through this life. i feel really blessed to know this and it makes my life much simpler and much less drama-filled. i hope that i can share this knowledge with someone else.
the last two weeks afton has prepared and presented our family home evening lessons. i was pleasantly surprised at her preparation and seriousness in undertaking this task. the first week she shared a lesson with us that included a part about Sherem lying to the Nephites and challenging Jacob. one sentence in the book of mormon reader that she shared said something like "Sherem wanted Jacob to show him a sign from God". Afton then commented, "he sure will get a sign"! and as you may remember, Sherem did receive a sign. he was struck down and after he called the people together to tell them he had lied and that they should believe in God, he died. Out of the mouths of babes.

we had a pretty good week. we had a lot of fun playing memory, hi-ho cherry-o, playing dress-up, tea-party, singing happy birthday in the bath and then unwrapping the present (a wet cloth placed over a cup containing little pet shops and polly pockets), reading Phoebe the Fashion Fairy, practing spelling words, coloring, stamping, cleaning aftie's room, making rice krispie treats, and having movie night.

ryan took a visiting colleague from tokyo to niagara falls on friday. he said it was so cold, it wasn't even fun to look at. they didn't want to go through the trouble of crossing the border to visit the canadian side, which i'm sorry to say, is 20x better than the american side of the falls. everything on the american side was closed, so they walked out, looked at the falls, walked back to the car and drove back to work. neat, huh? i'll bet we really wowed him.
it was fun for ryan to see him, kenji, because we had met him in paris a couple of years ago and thought he was so nice and interesting. kenji told ryan he had to come and visit tokyo. he also said next time we see him, he will take us for sushi and instruct us. so, my future plans include a trip to tokyo and a great sushi experience. my california roll expertise just isn't cutting it.

one more quick note, if you are interested at all in learning about yoga, you have to read this book...Yoga as Medicine, a yoga journal by Timothy McCall, MD. it is soooo interesting. yoga has been such a huge thing for me in overcoming my depression and anxiety. it talks about the benefits of yoga for other diseases such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease, chronic fatigue, arthritis, infertility, ms, obesity and on and on. it is fascinating to me. maybe you'll find it of some interest to you as well. namaste.