Sunday school musings

Yesterday in Sunday school my friend Bryan sat by me and asked me a very interesting question. It took him awhile to form the question and I'm not sure if it was exactly what he wanted when it finally came out, but it got me thinking more about something that had already been on my mind. These aren't his exact question, but what I wrote in my journal.
1. How does pride keep us from having empathy?
2. How can our striving for perfection sometimes keep us from having empathy?

Essentially he was asking me why we have a hard time forgiving other people's shortcomings. Or at least that's what I understood.

I had a few thoughts and it's been on my mind off and on since. Here goes. We don't see the full extent of someone else's trials. We don't see all the effort they are actually putting forth. Progress is often very slow and we don't or can't see the tiny steps someone else is taking on the path toward perfection the way we might see our own.

Many times we compare our lives to someone else's highlight real, but on the flip side, we compare the efforts and progress we can see in ourselves to the effort and progress we think we should be able to see in someone else. I guess it comes down to perspective and possibly communication. While we can't always see the progress someone else is making, we can talk about it. That can help us open our eyes to their struggles and triumphs and possibly help us find that empathy that keeps eluding us.

At the same time, sometimes people really aren't making progress. That can be very discouraging. When you can see so clearly what (you think) they need to change and how much it would help them. Agency is such a hard principle to accept sometimes. You can't be the one to change someone else. They have to want it for themselves and make those tiny steps to achieve it.

While we should have empathy for others and their shortcomings and we should encourage those people to not give up and to keep striving for that perfection even when it seems so far away, we also have to accept that sometimes they just aren't going to choose that for themselves and ask yourself if you can accept that in your life. Is that what you want for yourself and for them. I have seen this in decisions of family and friends and while I haven't given up on them, I have had to come to grips with the fact that there are times when they just won't be able to be where I am and while disappointing, that's just how it's going to be.

I'm going to continue thinking on this. I'm not sure if it even comes close to what Bryan was talking about, but it helped me. :)

Twin Falls adventure

Last weekend I decided to take advantage of the Monday holiday and go to Idaho to visit my friend Katie and her family. They just moved there in December, so I needed to see their house and I've started doing "experiences" with her kids instead of giving them presents for Christmas. Last year we did a slumber party and this year we were going to do swimming and cookie decorating, but Tay had strep throat so we passed on the swimming.

We had a great time watching the girls put on a magic show, going to the home and garden expo, Pizza Pie Cafe, Fixer Upper and When Calls the Heart on Netflix with some ice cream and general shenanigans. It's always so fun to be with Katie and her family. I loved having a break from life even if I did have to do some homework while I was there. It was a great time and I look forward to the next visit.

Happy Birthday

It was my birthday last week. I didn't tell my students although they did ask when it was. I did give them clues. I told them it was in February and it was on one of my observation days. That actually narrowed it down to 2 days. My teacher on the other hand, did know it was my birthday and she brought cupcakes and had the class sing to me. My sister brought me flowers at school and when I got to work after school they had gotten Jamba Juice for the office since we usually do  lunch for birthdays, but I'm not there at lunchtime.
After work my sister, cousin and I went yarn shopping for my sister to choose yarn for the afghan my aunt is going to make for her baby. Then we headed to Red Robin to have dinner with Aubrey. It was fun to hang out with them and then I went home and went to bed. All in all, I count it a very successful birthday. :) My roommates also got me flowers and a gift, but I still haven't opened the gift since one roommate was out of town, one roommate is gone for the month and the other offered but we didn't find a time.
So far, a week in, 32 hasn't been too bad. This week was a doozy and I'm beat, but I count myself lucky to have lived for 32 years. Lots of ups and downs, but I'd say the good outweighs the bad. I have great people in my life (many of whom, called or texted me as well for my birthday), I have the opportunity to pursue an education and work with kids, I have a job, a car, a place to live, and so many other blessings. 32 is going to be a good year.

Student teaching

It has only taken me two weeks to understand why people kept telling me student teaching was going to kick my butt. Trying to keep life balanced and keep caught up with everything has caught up with me and I'm not even to the hard stuff yet. I think I'll be okay though. Keep priorities. Sleep when you can. Meal prep on the weekends. Stay organized. Only 10 weeks to go. I've got a great host teacher, a great class and a merciful Father in Heaven. I've got this. 

Happy 2017

As I said my prayers last night (or rather very early this morning) I had a good talk with God about this last year. Despite some rough spots and being so busy with work and school, I learned a lot. I hadn't realized the lessons God slipped in there and the prayers that were answered. Despite how things turned out, I am grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who is always aware of what I need, even when I am not.

Christmas 2016

This Christmas was a bit different for my family. My aunt decided we needed to do a Christmas at a cabin, so we all pitched in a paid to rent a cabin in Island Park, ID. Friday afternoon I went and picked up my cousin Jamee and we headed up to Idaho. There was a winter storm advisory for Idaho and we were hoping to miss it. We didn't have any weather trouble until we got to Island Park and even then it wasn't too bad. We did see a moose on the drive and we only got lost for a minute.

 Saturday was a rough day for me. I was highly emotional and irritated by pretty much everyone and everything. There were many tears shed and tissues used. I did manage to pull myself together to participate in the Christmas Eve games. I was on the reindeer team with Sadie and uncle Benny and I won the guess the ornament game only getting two wrong and they were so similar that it was really just guessing for everyone anyway. Elsa or Anna and Elsa, how was I to know? :)

 Christmas morning I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. The front room was occupied with someone sleeping on the couch and no one else was awake except my brother David, so I had him come back into my room and we watched White Christmas on my laptop in the giant bathroom.

 Christmas morning was noisy and busy. 6 kids make everything a bit louder and busier. I got everything I asked for on my list and enjoyed watching everyone else open their presents. We read Luke 2 and had breakfast and then went to play with toys, watch movies and read books.

 I tried to take a nap, but my Kevin convinced me that I should go on the garbage run with them. We had 8 bags of garbage that needed to be hauled out and he assured me it would be fun and that the landfill was open.

 He was wrong. The landfill was not open so we had to haul the garbage back. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of carrying two bags of garbage on your arms while riding on the back of a snowmobile on a bumpy trail, let me save you some time. Don't do it. My body is so sore. It was a great core workout, but my legs are killing me, my neck is stiff and my arms are visibly bruised. It was quite the adventure.

 I spent a lot of my time over the weekend working on this 1500 piece puzzle. I was grateful to my mom and cousin Richard who put in many hours helping me as well as Kaylene, Julie, Marc and aunt Tammy. We finished it at 11:30 on Christmas night.

We headed out Monday morning. I was hoping we would get snowed in, but the nice neighbor man came and plowed us out. It was slow going back to Sugar City but the rest of the way back to Utah was clear roads with a bit of fog. I wasn't feeling super awesome for the drive and when I got home I got my stuff inside the house, ate some crackers and had some 7up and went to bed by 9:15. Overall it was a fun and successful Christmas. I'm back to work today and trying to prepare myself for student teaching starting on January 3rd.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Weekend Surprises

Last Monday my friend Camilla text me saying she had won a trip on a private jet to San Diego at her work party and that she could bring three people and that I was one of them and that it was for Friday. I said yes! And told work I'd be taking a half day Friday. Now before you say "Wow, Cathy, you believed her?!" Let me tell you that she actually has won a trip on a private jet from her work before so it wasn't that farfetched.
Come Friday I get this snapchat from my sister

That's my sister and my best friend. I guessed a few things like Julie was helping Katie move or Katie was taking Julie to the doctor. She had me keep guessing and I guessed they were coming to Utah which would be unfortunate since I was flying to California that afternoon, but my sister called and told me she had good news, bad news and funny news, which all turned out to be the same news which was that there was no trip to California and it had just been a cover so I would take off work to hang out with them.

The roads were really bad so it took them a lot longer than they planned to get here and then I drove up to Salt Lake and the weather was crappy down here as well so it took me awhile to get there. They got a hotel so we hung out there for a minute

After hanging out for a minute we went and grabbed some lunch at a Hawaiian place. Trying to feel a little more like San Diego than Salt Lake and then we did a little shopping. We decided to forgo our naptime and check out IKEA since Julie and I had never been there.

We definitely got our exercise in for the day. It was too early for dinner and we weren't sure if we wanted to brave the cold to go to temple square so we headed back to the hotel. Once we got there we decided we didn't want to go back outside so we watched some Food Network and Christmas movies and then ordered a pizza. After dinner we headed to the hot tub.

And then back to the room for more Food Network. As we were starting to get drowsy we decided to play Heads Up. It was probably the best decision we made all weekend. We played for almost two hours and laughed and laughed.

We had such a great weekend and I'm so grateful for these wonderful ladies who love me so much. I cried when they left and wish I lived closer to both of them. Lucky for me my sister is moving here in a couple weeks, even if it's only for a couple months, I'm super excited.