Mr Perfect and I were headed to Salt Lake City this last weekend for a Leadership Convention. We made a pit stop in Beaver on the way up and decided to run into Wendy’s to grab a bite to eat since it was near dinner time.
I was pondering the menu since I am on the “no more sugar, no more white flour, no more happiness candida cleanse” when Mr. Perfect asked me what I thought was on the new Asia GO Sandwich. Curious as to what new Asian item was on the menu that I overlooked, I quickly scanned the board trying to find what he was looking at. Then I saw this:
I’m still laughing over this. Asiago pronounced ah-see-ah-go, as in CHEESE. Or Asia Go…. whatever you prefer. He would have bought it but “I couldn’t pronounce it.”
Rock Bottom. We’ve all heard that statement, but what does it really mean? I’ve heard numerous people tell me about their struggles and say, “things will not change until they hit rock bottom.” Why is that so? Thanks to Leslie Householder and her FTMF Course I learned a few things about Rock Bottom that have made a huge difference in my life.
1. Rock Bottom is the point of change. Most people are muddling through their lives in a comfort zone. Even with their disfunctions, habits, and messes, they are comfortable. How do I know that, you ask? Well, I know that because change is UNCOMFORTABLE. You have to do something different, CHANGE what you are doing. And until you reach the point where the situation is MORE uncomfortable than change itself, you will stay in your situation or circumstance. The above picture is true because a ball cannot bounce back up until it hits a surface with which to change its course. In our lives, we spiral downward until we are ready to bounce back up.
2. You cannot force rock bottom onto some people. They have to hit it themselves. Sometimes “getting caught” brings about a rock bottom, but for others, they may not even care. Drug addicts, pornography addicts, alcoholics, depression, abuse– you name it– some of them can get caught and be grateful that finally someone will help them get out of their hell, but for others, they may not even care and you know that their lives will continue to get worse because they have not hit their own rock bottom .
3. Rock bottom truly is a foundation. I have found that if I use the foundation of Christ, my bounce up is so much better. Most of us have to hit a low point before we turn to Christ or God for help. We truck along thinking we can handle it. For addicts, they may think that they can stop anytime they want. But once you realize that you cannot do it alone, then you find yourself laying there on the road to Jerusalem waiting for a good Samaritan. When we hit this point and look UP– out of the pit– toward our Savior, then we have hope to bounce back and toward Him. He sends us family, friends, programs, scriptures to lift us up and help us out of our hole. Using the Savior as your foundation will ensure you do not ever go this far down again.
4. Rock bottom is about purification. Recognizing those things within us that need change is part of the purification process. I believe that is when we need Christ the most. We are on our knees pleading for help and hope. He uses this to purify our souls and come to him. It’s called repentance. It is the greatest gift. He truly wants us to be with Him, and the Savior understands our problems in a way no other could understand.
5. We can hit Rock bottom because of our own choices and mistakes, but we can also hit them because of others. Either way, there is a purification process going on. If another’s choices have caused you to hit rock bottom, then you have an opportunity to learn about forgiveness and unconditional love. Difficult? YES! Life changing if you do? YES YES YES! The most powerful feeling in the world is when you feel overcome with pure love through forgiveness. I recommend it. It’s not easy, but it will change your life in no other way.
6. Rock bottom is not just for addicts. Rock bottom is for any of us trying to live a better life and get rid of habits and mind sets that are not for our best self. Gossip, judging, hypocrite, dishonest, sarcastic, critical, naggy, bitter, envious, jealous? Don’t think the addicts have the corner on the market. They just have the bigger, easier to see and point-a-finger-at problems. Try for one week to not say an unkind or critical thing to anyone. Try not to THINK an unkind or critical thing of anyone– or pass judgment. It is not an easy thing to do because most of us have spent a lifetime developing that trait. Then when you see how difficult it is, have some pity and empathy for the addicts who are trying to quit. It’s HARD! You’ll see that casting stones and looking at motes in others eyes takes on a whole new meaning. It’s hard to stop cold turkey. First you have to WANT to change and second, you have to WORK at it.
7. True Rock Bottom creates the most permanent change. Those who hit true rock bottom and know that they never want to go there again, usually will not. They somehow can quit “cold turkey.” I admire these people because they will make their decision and never look back. There are also some who truly desire, but struggle a little more and have some set backs. Either way, if the desire is there. They will make the change. And they always become a powerful force for good.
8. The BEST news about Rock Bottom–There are different levels. One of the best things I learned from Leslie’s course is that I can CHOOSE my rock bottom. In the past, I would wallow, sulk, whine and complain my way to the depths of despair. As soon as I understood this principle of CHOOSING my rock bottom, I started making a conscious choice to stop myself. As I was going through the FTMF course, I found myself on a higher vibration than I had ever been before. I was learning how to think better. I was happy. I was feeling the spirit all the time. I felt a deep joy I had never felt before. All of a sudden, I NEVER wanted to go back to those other feelings. I LIKED the higher place. So I would try and catch myself and say, “Nope this is rock bottom for me.” When I started thinking unkind thoughts about someone, or becoming upset at what someone had said, I stopped myself. I didn’t want to be a judgmental, envious person anymore! I was done with that! Have I conquered that entirely? No. But I am doing SO much better. It is a powerful concept to raise your rock bottom. I HIGHLY recommend trying it!
Be grateful for rock bottom. Bounce up! Use Christ as your foundation. Raise your rock bottom. Rebuild your life!
Coloring Easter Eggs is one of our family’s favorite traditions and activities. According to my grandma, they have been coloring eggs this way in Santa Clara for as long as she remembers, so we assume the tradition came over from Switzerland with the pioneers.
It’s a pretty easy and fun way to color. You want to give yourself plenty of time to do it, though, so you can relax and have fun with it. Maybe it just takes a while for our family because we all want our own dozen eggs for the Egg Bust (Read about that here.)
So here we go……
The first thing you have to do is gather up all your brown onion shells. You can get these from the grocery stores if you don’t remember to save yours during the winter months. You also have to dig up some red root. Red root looks like an obnoxious weed that you’d dig up. They grow wild along the ditch banks here in Santa Clara, but since they got rid of our ditches and went to a city water source, we have to track them down in the fields. Here is what they look like:
And here are the roots
You can see how they are reddish in color. You have to take the roots and wash them really good with the hose to get all the dirt off. Then grandma usually takes a rock and smashes them a bit. I kind of twisted mine to break them apart. Then you put them in an old pan and put water in them. These pans we use are grandmas old pans that we have used for years. They are only used for eggs, so if you have an old pan you want to throw out, save it for Easter eggs. =) Here is the pan of red roots covered in water. You need to start them simmering for a while to bring the color out of the roots.
Here is the pan of onion shells. You’ll need to put quite a few in. Cover them with water, as well, and start them simmering to get the color out.
You can get your pots ready a day or more ahead of time if you’d like. Just keep them refrigerated after cooling. Or you can just simmer them while you are wrapping your eggs. We pass these pots around to the whole (extended) family. We all take turns using them and coloring our eggs on different days.
Because we color so many eggs, we have two pots of each going at the same time.
Now to color the eggs:
Before you start coloring eggs, you have to gather up your weeds, flowers, and leaves. We give all the kids a grocery bag and send them off in search of these items. Things that color nicely are peach tree leaves, dandelions, the dried shriveled up iris blooms, holly hock leaves, lilacs, carrot fern, etc. We just wander through up and down our street and pull a few leaves off any trees, bushes or plants we walk by. We try not to take too many if we are pulling them off neighbors property and we never take flowers from our neighbors. Weeds make some of the best designs, so if you find an open lot or such, getting weed leaves and tall grasses are good to color with as well.
Here’s our layout of weeds, leaves and flowers:
You can see that we decided to try some strawberry tops this year. They actually colored nicely. The foxtails leave a neat imprint and so do those snowball flowers off my uncle’s snowball bush. =) I like using the really big holly hock and ivy leaves. Then I can wrap a whole egg in them. They really color pretty.
With the leaves spread out, we put our eggs in a bowl of water. The reason we do this is because we found the leaves stick on them a little better if the eggs are wet.
The eggs will dry quickly, so you can just dip your leaves in the water to keep them sticking. As soon as you get all your leaves, weeds and/or flowers on your egg, you take your spool of thread and start wrapping. Here are a few tips. It helps if you have all different colors of thread to help keep track of your eggs somewhat. When you start to wrap, first tuck the thread under your thumb where you can hold it as you wrap your egg. You need to wrap the egg tight, but not so tight that you break the egg. You’ll get used to the tension amount as you keep doing it. The last trick is to just let your thread go and fall if you need to. You can gather it up off the ground when you finish your egg.
When wrapping your egg, you want to wrap your thread around the ends and edges of your leaves and petals so that it will leave the full imprint. If you don’t, the water seeps underneath them and you can’t see the outline. Here is a video where my family is wrapping their eggs. You will notice that once we get them wrapped, we just bite off the end of the string. Demonstrated beautifully by my hubby. =) The political discussion is a bonus. ;o)
Here are some pictures to show you more wrapping. Remember to use the black sharpie to put your initials on them, cuz if you don’t EVERYONE will claim the prettiest eggs as theirs. ;o) (Not that that has ever happened before at our house.)
Putting initials on.
Here’s a bunch of eggs wrapped and ready to boil. You can see the ones done with loose thread and only wrapped in one direction. Most likely, that thread will fall off during the cooking process and they will have a plain egg. These would be the younger kids’ eggs or my impatient boys who could care less how they look. Here’s some that are wrapped more correctly. You can see how the thread goes in all directions, laying the leaves and flowers down to get the pattern.
Now we’ll cook them. You’ll notice in the video how my sister is making a little hole in the pot to put the egg in. She will move around the pot, creating spots for the eggs. You may have to add water after a few batches to make sure the water is covering the eggs. If you do it in between batches and let it cook a little more, then you won’t weaken the color. Often we notice it as we are putting eggs in and add water. The dye will be a little lighter on those batches when we do that, but that is okay, too, because it gives you different shades of purple/pink and orange/brown.
Once all the eggs are in, you set your timer for 20-25 minutes. They need to simmer, not boil. If the water is boiling, it will crack the eggs, so you just want them to cook on a nice lower temperature. Make sure you set the timer so that your eggs boil all the way. If you don’t then you have runny eggs at the egg bust and that is not only gross, but embarrassing. (Not that we’ve ever done that before, either!) ;o)
When the eggs are all done, gently use a slotted spoon to lift them out.
Get a bowl of cold water and put next to your pan to put them in.
Then you will place the bowl of eggs in your sink. You will grab the loose threads in the water and gently pull on them as demonstrated in the video below. Have the garbage or a bag close, as you will throw away all the thread and cooked weeds into the garbage before dumping the water out.
You can see that you only put a few eggs in the bowl at a time or have plenty of water in there so they don’t hit the other eggs and crack.
At our house, we then take the empty cartons and write everybody’s name on them. When we get them unwrapped, we look at the initials and put them in that person’s carton. As I stated before, we like to each have a dozen eggs to use at the egg bust.
The last step is to shine the eggs. You can get a little square of cloth or some paper towel and rub it in some shortening. Then you rub the egg to make them shine. Here is the video below. And yes, I used real butter. Not the cheapest way to do things, but it was all we had and no one could run to the store because we were wrapping/cooking/unwrapping. It’s a process that we love!
I apologize for my lovely nail polish. Evidently a manicure was not in my plans. At the end of the video, I show you a few of the designs that the leaves have left. (And you get to hear some awesome discussion in the background of each video. I hope you enjoyed that, too.)
And there you have it! Beautifully colored Swiss Easter Eggs!
I will say that one year I wanted to experiment with other natural dyes. I tried purple cabbage, tumeric or saffron, and green onion stems. I remember one year, one family used pecan shells and got a really pretty brown color. What I found was that it the other dyes didn’t color as well as the red root and yellow onion shells. The green ones were either too light, or colored similar to the leaves, so it was harder to see imprints. The cabbage was not dark enough– too pale. The yellow was also different either too pale or blended again with the leaf colors, so it didn’t imprint well. If anyone has any other suggestions for natural dyes or what they like to use to color with, I’d love to hear about it!
I hope you all enjoy coloring some Easter Eggs in a different way this year!
I’m confessing here….knowing that this could cause great embarrassment on my part, but I’m willing to share this little piece of my funny day.
I was getting ready for work. I decided to wear my fushia pink shirt with my sky blue scarf (like the one I was wearing in my family picture). I grabbed big blue hoop earrings that matched my scarf and went to grab my shoes. By shoes, I mean flip flops. I have about one of every color of flip flops. They are the shoes I love to wear all the time. Easy on, easy off. Not constricting. Variety of colors, etc etc. So this particular morning, I decided to wear my blue flip flops that matched my outfit. They are stacked in my closet like so:
As you can see, they are kind of tucked under my shirts. So I bent down to find the blue ones, slid my right foot in and then, while putting my earrings in (you can all relate to this, right, girls?) I slid my left foot in the other shoe.
I grabbed all my stuff and raced off to work.
I had been at work for about an hour or so when I needed to get up and grab some copies off the copy machine. I usually slide my feet in and out of my shoes while sitting down, so I looked under the desk to slide my feet in and to my wonder and astonishment, there sat one ORANGE and one BLUE flip flop.
Stunned at my fashion ability, I hollered, “OH….MY….. GOSH!!” Then I started laughing and wondering how in the heck I could manage to go for about 2 hours never looking down at my feet and noticing what I had done BEFORE I left the house.
In utter amazement and still cracking up at myself. I slipped my shoes on and walked in to my husband’s office and stood there. He looked at me and I pointed at my feet which looked about like this:
He put his head in his hands and shook it back and forth, rolling his eyes, and said, “Well I guess it’s a good thing you can laugh at yourself!”
“Well, It’s hysterical!” I said. I mean, if you don’t laugh about it, then what do you do? Sit and pout and cry and be embarrassed? Really, who will know? Unless you post it on facebook and your blog, right? ;o)
Well, I went back about my business, still giggling and yes, I posted a note on facebook and then adjusted my schedule to NOT stop at the grocery store on the way home, cuz THAT would be embarrassing!
While I was sitting at my desk, our good friend Danny P came in. He is a super nice guy! The first thing he said to me was, “Hey, those are nice earrings! I like those!” I was laughing because they are HUGE blue things that my hubby hates because they
A: have color
B: are big
C: someone may “notice” them.
[Insert information here: MP (my hubby) does not like color. Ok, he likes color, he just doesn’t like to WEAR color. He’s a blue/gray/brown plain, simple, not-standout-ish kind of a guy and is embarrassed when I wear any colors (especially bright ones) because it will make you stand out and people will look at you. I’m ok with wearing color now that I’ve been studying Dressing Your Truth and now I know that I like to wear color and it’s okay and he doesn’t like to wear color and it’s okay. I’m at peace. He still struggles. ;o)]
So, when Danny noticed my earrings, I was kind of chuckling that I would get a compliment on them–especially when I couldn’t even get my shoes to match. MP was walking up to the desk as he heard the compliment and said, “If you like her earrings, you should see her shoes!” Yes, he ratted me out. Laughing, I showed Danny my shoes and he said, “Hey’ I’ve done that before!! I ‘ve worn two different Sunday shoes to church!” We got a good laugh at that. Only because, yes, I’ve done that before, too,– only they were both white and both pumps and you could only tell by a slight color variation. But Orange and Blue are a whole different story.
It got slightly funnier (I know that ‘s not a real word, but it works for me), when another man came in a bit later when MP was gone. He said, “I really like those colors together! That blue and pink are a great combination! When I was playing softball and was in charge of the uniforms , I ordered a red with that sky blue color. Everyone thought it was going to look ugly, but they were sharp looking! Oh, and I like the way your makeup matches your outfit!”
Now it was really funny. First of all, when do guys even notice color, let alone makeup? I thanked him and told him he was the most observant man I knew and that someone raised him well. He said it was his mom. ;o) I couldn’t help but think how great it would have been if MP had been here to hear that compliment. It was still funny because while I was receiving the compliemnt, I couldn’t help but think that my shoes weren’t matching.
It still cracks me up.
And yes, I do like to match my makeup colors to my outfit colors. It’s one of my quirks….kind of like flip flops.
You will be glad to know that I have looked down at my feet EVERY time I have left the house since that day. I match now. And I am at peace with color.
The parable of the 10 Virgins has always been intriguing to me. I have known there was a deep message in that parable just for me, yet for years I have not discovered what it was until just recently.
In Sunday school, we were talking about the parable of the 10 Virgins and how it relates to us. I’ve heard it said that the oil in our lamps is our testimonies, and that is why we cannot “share” our oil with others. During the lesson, our teacher mentioned olive oil was used to light the lamps and how much effort went in to producing the olive oil. In my mind, I thought of the process of making olive oil. We have heard it used in symbolism with Gethsemane. Here is the piece written by David Ridges in his “The New Testament Made Easier” book that popped into my mind and got me thinking on a deeper level:
Gethsemane The word “Gethsemane” means “oil press.” There is significant symbolism here. The Jews put olives into bags made of mesh fabric and placed them in a press to squeeze olive oil out of them. The first pressings yielded pure olive oil which was prized for many uses, including healing and giving light in lanterns. In fact, we consecrate it and use it to administer to the sick. The last pressing of the olives, under the tremendous pressure of additional weights added to the press, yielded a bitter, red liquid which can remind us of the “bitter cup” which the Savior partook of. Symbolically, the Savior is going into the “oil press” (Gethsemane) to submit to the “pressure” of all our sins which will “squeeze” His blood out in order that we might have the healing “oil” of the Atonement to heal us from our sins.
When the teacher mentioned the process of getting olive oil, I thought, “it is the intense pressure that extracts the oil and gives us the purest oil. If we think of this symbolically in our life, then is it the pressure (the struggles and challenges) that we go through that extract the best in us—that makes us pure and creates our oil? If that is the case, it is our challenges and pressures that create our oil and make us pure enough to see Christ. THIS is the reason we cannot “share” our oil. Our trials are our own. It is through overcoming them and becoming pure that we have ‘oil’ and we cannot share that. Each person must go through this individually.” This was such a profound AHA for me—an epiphany, a lesson. It hit me so powerfully. The trials and challenges we go through are truly blessings. It is the Lord’s way of purging the impurities from our souls and creating a pureness so that we will be able to stand in His presence and live with Him again. When I see someone going through a trial, in my mind I think they must be special because the Lord is giving them a gift and helping them create oil for their lamps.
I found that interesting as read about the second pressing creates a bitter red oil. I thought about how when we continue to press and press on our own problems and struggles, like calling friends or family and hashing and discussing and complaining and continually talking about your problem/issue, then you can create bitterness in your own life. I’ve done this, so I know. I usually can talk myself through a problem, but when I call someone or somebody asks me, then I can get heated up, worked up, and re-wrapped up in an issue. The secret is to not keep pressing and create bitterness, but to use the struggle or trial to create purity, and then let it fill our lamp and move on.
I now know that this was part of the deeper message I was to get from this scripture. I know there is more—something about the virgins themselves that I have not uncovered yet, but I do know that one day I will and the deeper meaning will become clear to me then, too.
I ordered French doors for the office when we started building. Long story short, the guy got mad at us and sold them, so Mr. Perfect and I are having to order new doors. I was looking at one with a seedy Baroque glass. It’s kind of an old fashioned looking glass, a French word pronounced “Burr Oak”. Well, Mr. Perfect called to order the door. When he came home he told me, “I told the guy that my wife wanted the seedy BAR O Q glass.” That’s right—BAR O Q, three syllables and as red neck as you can make it sound. I explained to Mr. Perfect the correct pronunciation. We figure the guy is still laughing about that. Of course, now we have to call them the BAR O Q glass doors, too! Even Doodle Bug knew the right pronunciation. BJ Dude probably does, too ;o). 1/9/06
At Costco, Doodle Bug had her dad buy these really good sorbet’s (pronounced Sore Bay). They are actual halves of fruit– coconut, pineapple, lemon, orange, that are filled with the sorbet, or sherbet-type stuff, and frozen. Yesterday, MP said that he was going to have a Sorbee. When we started laughing, he said, “Okay a Sore Bet.” Finally Doodle Bug told him that they were “Sore Bay’s”. But from now on you can have all the Sorbee’s or SoreBET’s you want! 11/7/05
