For some reason I had two journal entries this day ...
***6/03/04 JOURNAL: ATTRIBUTES OF CHRIST - Patience
I know I've been given lots of opportunities this week that have really tested my patience. I don't feel like I'm doing very well though, because I still get really angry and although it's not an outward aggression it's still there. And I know I can't feel the spirit until I am no longer angry.
***June 3, 2004 JOURNAL: THURSDAY
I was pretty upset this morning. A lot of stuff piled on and my companion was late getting ready so we missed breakfast. But I realized I had to get over that in order to be able to learn and to teach. We taught the 1st discussion to some volunteers this morning. That was nice. definitely got some feedback only possible through converts, because they've been there before. We also went to the Evaluation center. We met with a Bro. Wagstaff. He was really helpful because we were working on two specific goals: 1) making bold, direct commitments and 2) creating more of a discussion environment by asking questions. He taught us how to ask questions on different levels, starting from basic and moving through to more in-depth questions.
Got to play volleyball. That was definitely a good release of energy.
30 December 2012
Few things compare to taking a month long, unannounced hiatus then just as unexpectedly jumping back into things.
December has been a good month for us. I had not given up on this blog. I just needed to get settled into some changes before portioning out time to blogging again.
Toward the end of November we found out that Lloyd received a scholarship (Mahalo Kealii Pauahi!) which would allow him to attend preschool from January 2013 - June 2013. These scholarships are awarded twice a year, and I missed the first round deadline. There were three available openings at the Seagull School I wanted him to attend located on the Kapolei Elementary School Campus. We were the second family to put in a deposit in an attempt to hold a spot until January when his scholarship would be active. Nakeu and I were both concerned that, that spot may not be available in January as the director of the school was unable to to tell me firmly if they would hold his spot, with a deposit, in the case of other families starting full-time in December. After a short deliberation and feeling we could afford it for one month, Nakeu and I decided to start Lloyd at the beginning of December, part-time, to help him get adjusted and at a slightly cheaper rate. Our mornings are so quiet without him! I can't imagine what it will be like on Wednesday when he'll be gone the whole of the day! :(
I had some Christmas things I wanted to do. I did, on a smaller than I thought, scale make Christmas binders for the babies with coloring pages for songs and stories. I had too many pages planned and not enough binder space. So the project got scaled back, but was still successfully completed! I have always wanted to make chocolates to give out at Christmas time. In November I found (thank you Pinterest) some easy chocolate recipes to test. Again this project was scaled back, but it was successfully completed in that I was able to make and give out some chocolate boxes. The inside of the house was far more decorated, although scaled back from my glorious visions, than in years past. Nakeu dressed up as Santa. We made cookies for Santa and had a great Christmas Eve dinner where we formally dressed up the babies because Nakeu and I were too tired from getting dinner and babies and house ready for Christmas Eve to consider dressing up for a formal dinner.
If you noticed the theme of this year was to scale things back. But the beauty is that we still had a great Christmas! Not everything needs to get done and not everything needs to be big in order to be special and enjoyable. And everyone was/is still happy.
One last memory I want to keep. Early in December, in a phone conversation, Nakeu suggested purchasing only one gift for each other this year. Then during "Week of Fun" (yes, from Christmas to New Year's when we are both off from work, with the exception of Nakeu who has to work tomorrow) if we find things we want to buy or other things that we need, we could purchase it then. I had to make sure that Nakeu meant he also would only buy me one gift and I would buy him only one gift. We agreed, which meant I needed to figure out how he would, if he were to bend the rules. So on Christmas day we both broke the rules slightly, but the idea was there where we each had one gift from each other to open. It was a great idea! The next day the babies were with grandparents so we walked around Ross and picked up a few things that we liked and called it good. Scaling back.
This year is a lesson in less is definitely more!
