Time Out for Sisters

Earlier this summer, either while I had 7 children under my care, or shortly after, I received a catalog from Deseret Book that had all of their dates listed for "Time Out for Women." I had so much fun attending with Stacy last year in Boise. And I really wanted to share it with my sisters. This got me to thinking that I'd want to go again this year. They offered "Time Out for Couples" in Boise, but it was for the weekend when Ryan was planning to be on his hike to the Sawtooths. I looked at Sacramento, to go with my sister there, but it was for the same weekend. Then I saw "Time Out for Women" was going to Portland -- and the wheels started moving in my head.

Right after Ryan came back from Scout Camp, I bought my plane ticket. Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening. Milaka had school until noon on Friday (but ended up ditching her class beginning at 10:30 am on Friday). Keturah booked her flight for Friday morning. I'm glad that Shanda decided to leave SLC early on Thursday, so we could wander around downtown Portland, and wander we did! A whole lot of walking! We went to Powell's Book World. They aren't kidding with a name like that - a multi floor store with bookshelves that go up to the ceiling. I swear the children's book area has more square footage than my entire house. This is an excerpt from their website: "Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books."


We ate some good food with some lousy table service. Rose's Bakery and Restaurant, Stanford's Seafood Grill, Red Robin, Shari's. The Onion Rings at Stanford's were huge! Definitely needed a fork and knife to get through those.



We went on a relaxing river cruise on the Willamette River. It was a 2-hour lunch cruise operated by Portland Spirit. The food was delicious. The atmosphere was great. The scenery was beautiful. The company was amazing. The price seemed reasonable to me ($36 for the cruise with lunch - it was $26 if you didn't want lunch).


And then, we were fed: spiritually and emotionally. "Time Out for Women." Wow. The theme of the entire event was "Joyful Life." On Friday night we listened to Cheiko Okazaki. She related that we can have a joyful life by following the Prophet Joseph Smith when he explained to a member of the Illinois Senate how he was able to keep the peace in such a large group of people: "Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves." Then she went through a few conflicting principles that we are teaching our children, i.e. President Hinckley's charge of "Move Forward" versus the 2008 YM/YW theme "Be Steadfast and Immovable."


Saturday morning, we got to listen to Emily Watts. She shared with us one of her unfavorite Scriptures: 2 Nephi 10:23 "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." Reminding us that we don't get to control our children's reactions. And then she said something that I want cross-stitched on my wall, or at least done up on a plaque with vinyl letters: "The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain; it is resource in event of pain." She also gave us 3 tips for having more joy with our children. 1) Refuse to engage - when a child storms off to their room and slams the door, instead of shouting or following after them with cross words, say sweetly "That will never alter my undying love for you!" 2) Repent - explain to your children "I am an imperfect mother to let you go into marriage without unrealistic expectations." 3) Don't let the straws pile up -to explode when the last straw drops on the pile. And then after she had us laughing so hard, she reminded us that being a mother gives us the opportunity to provide for "the least of these." (Matthew 25:34-40) Beautiful.

Camille Fronk Olson is now my favorite Professor of Religion at BYU. I want to search out the talks and lessons that she has given and listen to them all! She talked about the women in the old testament. The majority of the women named were barren. When you look at the Hebrew word for barren, it means lacking something. If their stories were just about not having children and then having children, the only thing we'd need to take from them was that all joy in life comes from having children. Whereas really, these women were lacking something and they went to the source, the Lord, and through Him, they were able to have their joy made full. [On my flight home, I got to sit next to a Catholic woman named Pam who was on her way home from a women's retreat. I shared this message with her.] She also likened Hannah (of 1 Samuel fame) to us as we prepare our children to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries.

Elia Gourgouris talked about what relationships need: Trust, Love, Communication, Listen, Forgiveness (do you want to be RIGHT or do you want to be HAPPY?). He also talked about Love Languages. The 5 love languages are:

1. Physical Touch
2. Words of Appreciation
3. Quality Time
4. Acts of Service
5. Gifts

I've decided that mine is Quality Time. What is yours?

Mary Ellen Edmonds is so cheerful and goofy! "Finding JOY in spite of trials." She taught us that we will find joy as we try to be budding peacemakers. She taught us some Indonesian words. To say Good Morning, you would say Selamat Pagi, which directly translated means 'Peace to you in the morning.' Juru Selamat means an Expert of Peace, and is also the name for Jesus Christ. I love that people, in their friendly greetings, are saying a part of Christ's name, what beautiful imagery that brings to mind!

We also had some good music by Kenneth Cope, The Nashville Tribute Band and Cheri Call. My favorite songs of the weekend were Believe, He Gives Flowers to Everyone, and Names by Cheri Call; With His Name and His Name is Love by Kenneth Cope; and Come, Come Ye Saints performed by Dan Truman and the Nashville Tribute Band. You can download the singles of these songs at Deseret Book Downloads.

I've been blessed with some pretty amazing parents. When Shanda discovered that all the flights from Portland to Salt Lake were sold out on Sunday evening (and she was flying on a standby pass), she made plans to leave on a Sunday morning flight, missing singing in Milaka's ward. My dad had the idea that if the flights in the evening were open to Boise, he would drive up here to pick up Shanda and then drive her home. YES, my parents drove 10 hours on Sunday, just so my sisters and I could sing "Nearer, My God to Thee" in Milaka's ward Relief Society. The musical number was amazing. The spirit was so strong. Women wanted to clap when we were done. Some of Milaka's friends who work in the primary, snuck in to hear us. Several men were outside looking in the window as we sang. I LOVE SINGING WITH MY SISTERS! Lets do another recording! I wasn't joking when I suggested that we take our music to street corners when we do another one of these outings!