Hope for Japan

When a huge disaster occurs like the earthquakes in Japan, or hurricane Katrina, I often feel helpless and a little detached because I know all my sad feeling and wishes for things to get better won't help. I watch the news reports, share with people in the feelings of saddness and amazement of the survivors. And that is it.

I don't know what changed this time. I guess I saw other people on Etsy donating a portion of their sales to the relief efforts and I decided- I could do that too. (maybe I saw one too many disney "you can make a difference" commercials, i dunno.)

So my sister and I decided to design and offer a special scrabble tile pendant in our Jubilation Studios store,  devoted to helping those in need in Japan. It isn't anything over top, just a simple statement of Hope.

The Japanese characters for "hope" are in the background, and the english word "hope" is in the foreground, reminding us that no matter who or where we are, we can have hope. 100% of the proceeds are being donated to relief efforts for Japan. The pendant is currently $6, though we have taken special orders for $10 pendants.

If you want to order one- click on one of buttons or links in this blog or on the side bar. If you hate Etsy and want to order via well, me, or if you want to donate more than $6 and still get a pendant, shoot me an email at jubilationstudios@gmail.com and we can set it up!

Family

I could not figure out what to do with my Sunday today.
I wanted to blog, but if I blog on my crafty blog that is probably "working" on work stuff. So I can't do that.
I really really want to start making all the Japan Relief Pendant orders we received this weekend, but that is really really working on the Sabbath, so no go there.

So I wandered around the blogs for a while till I came across this photo:

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAMILY! Everyone looks very odd in this photo to me.

See, my dad should have A LOT more facial hair, and maybe a few more pounds. My mom should have WAY POOFIER hair, and bangs that rise a few inches off her head and she should be wearing some printed flowery shirt that is tucked in with a belt. MY BROTHER SHOULDN'T BE THAT TALL. Nor should he have a thick boy neck or look "hot" in any way.

Blech.

This is how my family should look, minus my mom who is taking the photo. (And you are so lucky mom that I couldn't find that perfect 80's photo of you!)

Awe. Now doesn't that remind you of how your family is supposed to look! I feel much better.

Good Weekend

It seems like we've been pretty busy nearly every weekend since the start of the year. Last weekend was Stake Conference, and though it added to our list of weekends that were already planned, it ended up being cool because we had Elder Anderson of the 70 come and talk to us. All the messages were focused on the family and how to raise a righteous family in these latter days. 

However, my favorite message was: Men, help out around the house. Women: Be thankful for the help.

Or at least that is what my ears heard. ;-)

Brian's ears must have heard the same thing because when Saturday rolled around he decided that we needed some more clean clothes for the weekend, and so...... He Did the Laundry! It was glorious.

In return, first, I didn't worry or stress over how he was doing the laundry.

Second, I started the yard work for the spring! I cleared out all leaves in the front area and along the pathway. A most excellent and satisfying way to spend the day.

Better yet, we got to end our evening at a Hawks/Blazer game! Brad stayed home with a babysitter, and we jetted off to the Phillips Arena! Brian wore his bright red Blazer shirt and I wore a Hawks shirt so we were balanced, but we both sported Blazer "3 goggles" to show the love. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you aren't a Blazer fan.)

We had wicked seats gifted to us by a friend. So this pic, yea I took it from a few rows back. These are the two cutest guys on the team- no contest. Aaaaand they are pretty talented too.


Just to make our weekend extra wonderful, we had beautiful weather on Sunday, so we spent half the day outside enjoying fresh air. Brian was a bit sick, so he stayed home from church and kept Brad with him so I could enjoy a day of church without the kiddo.

Brian may have set up our new slide for Brad while I was gone.


The weather was sooo nice we heeded the council given the weekend before and spent some much desired family time together outside.

Brian even felt well enough for a little bbq outside. Although he did give me the annoyed, "why do you have to document every part of our life" look while I took his picture. He said he perfected it earlier in life thanks to his mom.