What to blog about . . .

I have had the urge to blog, but haven't been inspired on any topic worthy to take the time to record. So, I guess I will just start throwing out the thoughts in my head in an attempt to move on to something more productive. * I have tried about 5 times to put in spacing after paragraphs and blogger just isn't cooperating! Sorry for the scruched up reading. *

As I sit and listen to the President talk about his stimulus plan or whatever he is calling it, I am thinking that at this time I am not enjoying my job. I am not enjoying it for the mere fact that we will see some people in our plant having to deal with reduced hours. I've had a couple of people (three today actually) ask if we could try to distribute the reduced hours around evenly rather than use seniority to determine who gets reduced. It's a good thought and I will have to consider it. People are trying to look out for one another, yet some are looking out for themselves. The next several weeks are going to be a challenge for us at work. I am sure I have only started to hear about people's concerns. Not the fun part of my job. There's a pretty long story that could go along with that, but I'll just leave it at that. I should say that the place is not in any financial danger, just need to make sure we stay at or below budget - don't need to spend more than we are making.

The Sunday before last, we had a really good lesson in Relief Society about adversity. The resource was an article from the January Ensign entitled, "Putting My Hand in the Lord's". It is quite the amazing article. I took many notes on that day and was really inspired to evaluate my own life and how much or how little I trust the Lord to take care of me. How much faith do I really have? How difficult is it to have faith when things aren't going as expected? A couple of notes in no particular order:

• Don't ask WHY. Ask HOW can I get through this tough time? Answer: with the help of the Lord, of course. It is counterproductive to have a "why-me" attitude.
• Having Faith is NOT about having all the answers.
• Both of those two first bullet points are very difficult for me because I have to know why and I need to have answers. That's just how I've always been. Usually, I think of it in a different context. For example, if you want me to buy into something, support something, etc. I need to know the WHY behind it. I don't need to agree, just understand. My husband would say it's because I have to be right all the time. Again, I think of it in a different context! :)
• It would be great to decide NOW how I will react to "the big one" - whatever big news (usually of not-so-good nature) may come to my life, it would be good to have the reaction all settled now. Does that make sense? It's kind of like how we teach the youth to decide NOW what their answer will be to peer pressure (drinking, drugs, modesty, etc.). If you decide when you are a child that you aren't going to participate in inappropriate activities, when you are faced by someone asking you years later, you already know the answer.
• Turning to the Lord immediately when there is a problem is a best practice. Why wait?
• Live worthy to receive assistance. That doesn't seem to be too difficult, but I am usually in a strange place where I feel like I am not breaking any major rules, but I am not doing everything I have been asked to do, nor is my attitude always Christ-like.
• Attitude affects adversity. I am usually one who tries to see the positive light. I hope it's working for me! I did have a guy (hourly worker at the plant, one who was talking about reduced hours) tell me today that from the first time he talked to me, he knew that I believed in the word of God. That made me feel good. I am usually pretty reserved about religion at work just because of my position, but I do always try to do what is right for employees and balance that with the needs of the Company. I guess there's some people that recognize that.
• Adversity is only bad if we don't learn from it. Wow. I think that is true. Sure is tough to make it through something before we learn - kind of a catch 22 there! Do you see it?
• A couple of scriptures that I found very comforting: Doctrine & Covenants 78:17-19. That basically says that the Lord knows that we can't bear everything at once, but be of good cheer because He will help us along. He knows what we can handle and wouldn't expect us to deal with something more than He knows we can. Also: D&C 6:20 - the second part of that verse says, "Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love."

So, moving on from Adversity - kind of . . . one day last week, Gunnar was reading his book for school to me and one of the characters in the book had "brown" skin. He said to me that he didn't like people with brown skin. I was so shocked and really caught off guard. There's plenty of people around here with "brown" skin. In fact, Gunnar is one of about 4 or 5 kids that doesn't have "brown" skin in his class. So, we discussed and I think I don't need to be too worried about his comment, but I think that a follow up discussion might not be a bad idea since this is obviously still on my mind. Another incident occured today with Gunnar. I got an email about Gunnar and his friend were bothering a girl on the playground. Turned out to be not a huge deal or problem, which is great. Both of those things made me think about how much I like toddlers! I know why people say "enjoy them while they are little!" The difficulty of raising kids sure comes quicker than I expected.

So, speaking of kids, I should feed the ones I have and get some homework going for Gunnar. Paden has been munching on graham cracker for the last hour. He just "stole" a chocolate snack pack from Neil's night stand and with pudding on his chin asks Neil if he could please have it. Nice!