A Fairy Tale Ending

Back when I was a Young Women leader, I decided to do my personal progress and earn my Young Womanhood Medallion. The theme I had chosen for the year for our Young Women was about fairy tales, so for my Choice and Accountability project I chose to write a fairy tale for the young women.

When we made the teaching schedule for the year, I planned it so that I would be the one teaching the Choice and Accountability lesson, and I had written this story and planned that lesson just for that purpose. I had handouts - everything. Then the Sunday came and I completely FORGOT I was teaching. I was sitting in Sunday school before YW when I thought "Gee, I wonder who is teaching today?" Then it hit me - I AM!!! I couldn't believe I had forgotten. How on the world could I forget something like that - and this lesson of all lessons? I was heartbroken, and really stressed out since it was almost time for YW. In the foyer I mentioned my dilema to a few friends, Jenie and Shari who just happened to be standing there. Jenie said she had the talks from the YW broadcast in her bag. She had just felt the need to print them off that morning. She offered them to us. Shari, who was one of our teachers, said she had just read one of those talks and had been so impressed by it and at the time had really wanted to share it with the young women. She offered right then to teach the lesson for me! How wonderful is that?!? And the talk was about queens and princesses, and went exactly with out theme for the year. Shari taught the impromptu lesson using the conference talk that Jenie happened to have in her bag. She did an amazing job, certainly better than I would have done under the circumstances. I was SO relieved, and so grateful! Shari saved the day!

I got to give my special Choice and Accountability fairy tale lesson the next week. It happened to also be my farewell lesson, because I had been unexpectedly released a few days before (maybe I was released for just such things as being a dingbat and forgetting my lessons), and this very special lesson that I had so carefully planned turned out to be on my very last Sunday with those dear girls.

It was easy for me to see the small miracles: my desire to have a very special lesson that particular month, my completely forgetting my lesson, Jenie having the right conference talk with her, and Shari just having read that talk and offering to teach it - just so that I could give a special lesson and what I didn't know at the time would be my last Sunday as president. I recognized it as something more than coincidence, a tender mercy of the Lord.

Anyway, here is my story that I wrote for that lesson. It was written for my young women, but it's message is for all of us, especially me. Enjoy.

The Castle Without Clocks

By Rachelle VanBuskirk

Once upon a time in a land not so very far away, there lived a beautiful young maiden who longed to live in the castle of the king. Ever since she was a small girl, she would gaze at the towers and turrets of the large castle on the distant hillside and dream of being an elegant lady in the King’s court where she would constantly be in the presence of their gracious King. She had heard fabulous tales about life in the castle. It was even said that there were no clocks in the castle, because none were needed.

And now her chance had finally come! On her twelfth birthday the lovely girl was given the opportunity to earn her place on the King’s court. She must prove herself worthy to live with the King. She left her loving family to live in a room at the base of the clock tower in the middle of the village. The room was very large and filled to the rafters with bales of straw. In one corner were a comfortable bed, a dressing table, and a spinning wheel. The girl was instructed that she must spin the straw into gold for the King, and if she had made enough gold, by the time the King came, then she would be admitted into the castle to live forever. However, the girl was also given a warning that every time the great clock struck the hour, one blade of straw would disappear, never to be recovered.

Now this task was not as daunting to the girl as you might think. It was not impossible at all, and this girl certainly did not need a funny little man with a funny long name to spin the straw into gold for her. In fact, no one could spin the straw for her. She was required to spin her own gold, which she was prepared to do. You see, both of her parents were quite adept at spinning gold, and were well known in the land for the great amounts of gold they had spun out of the mere straw that they had been given. From a very young age, the girl hat sat at her mother’s knee, watching her deftly work the spinning wheel. Now that is was her turn, the girl felt quite confident that she knew just how it was to be done.

The maiden got to work immediately at the wheel. She found spinning to be a bit tricky at first, but she quickly got the hang of it. As she worked she realized just how much she enjoyed the spinning, and she found quite a sense of accomplishment to see the spool of newly spun gold thread getting fatter and fatter, and then another spool and another spool.

When she was too tired to spin another blade of straw, she went to sleep, but woke up early the next morning and began spinning again. There was so much straw to be spun, and she had no way of knowing when the King would come for his gold. She was absolutely determined to please the King and earn a place on his court when he came. She spun all day, and late into the night, and all the next day and into that night too. She spun for days on end, with the clock chiming above her every hour. Each time she heard the great chime she would wonder if this was the hour the great king would come. But her never did.

After time, the girl’s spinning began to slow. She would look out of the room’s small window and watch the people in the village out enjoying the lovely sunshine. Certainly it would not hurt, in fact in might even do her some good to take a short break and get a breath of fresh air. The girl ventured just outside of the room, stretched her legs and had a short conversation with some passers-by. But when she heard the loud clang of the clock, she remembered her task and went right back to work.

As time passed, these short breaks became more frequent and lasted longer. Each time she would venture out further and further from the room at the base of the clock tower. At first the chiming clock reminded her of the task awaiting her, but she would tell herself that the King would certainly understand her need to get some fresh air, or that she had been working really hard, and had probably spun enough gold already, or that the King already had plenty of gold, and really didn’t need the gold she could spin for him. The sound of the clock chime began to fade for the maiden. Of course, the clock was still chiming as loudly as ever, for the kingdom’s great clock never stops ticking and is loud enough to be heard throughout all the land (except, of course for the King’s castle.) Soon the girl stopped hearing it all together.

Days and weeks passed, and the girl no longer thought of the room of straw. Then, one day, she began to hear rumors in the village about the coming of the King. The King! She had forgotten about the King and her dream of living in the great castle on the hill! She remembered the room full of straw at the base of the clock tower, and raced back to it. Everything was just as she left it long ago, except that, to her surprise, much of the straw was gone! How could so much straw have disappeared? How many hours had she wasted? She looked at the spools of gold that she had spun. Would they really be enough for the King? She feared it would fall short. The girl collapsed on the pile of straw and wept. But soon the loud clang from the clock above roused her from her despair.

Perhaps it was not too late after all. If she worked quickly and deftly with the time she had left, she still might have time, before the King came, to spin enough gold to win his favor. The maiden moved her spinning wheel near the window so that she could have a clear view of the castle on the distant hillside. Then she went back to her spinning. She remembered once again how much she enjoyed spinning that shimmering thread of gold. Whenever she felt tired or distracted, she would gaze at the castle far away on the misty hillside and her energy for the work would be renewed. In fact, it seemed that the more that she spun, the closer the castle appeared. Where before she could only see the distant spires above the mist, she could now make out the glimmering windows, the colorful high-flying flags, and the ornately carved façade.

The maiden spun and spun until one day when she reached for another handful of straw she found that all the straw was gone, not because the great clock had chimed it all away, but because she had spun every last blade of it into gold! At that very moment she heard the royal trumpets sound and her King walked through the door in all of his majesty.

The girl fell to her knees at the sight of her king. Questions flooded her mind. Had she spun enough? Had she passed the test and done what was required of her to gain admittance into the King’s castle? Would the king be pleased with her offering of gold?

The king placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder and gently lifted her to standing again. Then pointing to the spools and spools of fine gold he said, “Well done thou good and faithful servant! Your offering is acceptable to me and you will come to dwell with me forever in my castle – not as a lady in waiting, but as a princess, my very own child. You shall inherit all that I have. And the gold you have so carefully spun is all returned to you as your reward for you to enjoy forever!”

And the princess lived happily ever after in the castle without clocks.

The End.

Cubcakes!

On Tuesday night, our favorite Webelos, Derek and Dylan, had their very last Blue & Gold Dinner in Cub Scouts. As is tradition, the cubs are supposed to decorate a cake with their Dads. Well, we ran out of time for all that, so decided to just bring some Chinese takeout instead.

Actually, these are the cake - cupcakes that is. Dylan made the chow mein noodle cupcakes. The noodles were made from two tone frosting, the ham from pink fruit chews, the green onions were sliced from sour straws, and the perfect broccoli was made from green fruit chews, frosting, and green nonpareils! Derek made the fried rice cupcakes with Rice Crispies and frosting, piled high. The carrots and egg were made from fruit chews, the green onions sliced from sour straws, and the peas are Skittles. The soy sauce was just chocolate sauce.

We found the recipe in a book the we LOVE called "What's New Cupcake?" The twins just flipped through it until they settled on what cakes they wanted to make for the Blue & Gold dinner. Being the voracious male creatures that they are, they decided on the Chinese food.

Dad was working late, so all the brother stepped in to help with the effort, baking, frosting, and chopping "veggies" (some are more helpful than others), but the twins did most of the work. Mom did the hard part. I was the one that had to run all over town trying to find just the right candy!

There were some other amazingly creative cakes (and some simply delicious ones!) Here are just a few of the clever entries. Check out that Wii console that is standing up like that - that took some engineering! I just loved the Wolf cap! It had every last detail, even the stitching!

But before anybody got to eat any cake, there was some official Cub scout business to take care of - like skits (all of which, not surprisingly, had to do with potty humor.)

And of course, awards. They both earned a whole bunch a badges and belt loops. Their Webelos leaders, the McRaes, have done a wonderful job with those boys keeping them very busy. They have had a great time this year!

(Check out Dennis' shiner. Two words: church basketball.)

But the most important award in all of Cub Scouts, and the only patch from Cubs that they can wear on their Boy Scout uniform, is the Arrow of Light which the twins both earned! They were both given an Indian arrow. Very cool! We are so proud of those boys!

Then it was time to dig in to the cakes! Our Chinese Food was pretty popular. Should have brought more chopsticks.

My favorite were some corn muffins with vanilla bean frosting, and that Wolf Cap! Yum! I love looking at the cakes, but in the end, its all about the taste, right?

I can't believe we won't be attending another Blue and Gold dinner for a few years. We've made a cake, (or two, or three), for the past 7 years! We'll miss all the fun! But that gives Caleb a long time to decide just what kind of Cubcake he wants to make when it is his turn.

Super!

Friday was a super day!

The twins' 5th grade class put on a special parent appreciation breakfast. We had a little time before it started after dropping the boys off at school, so Luke and I decided to enjoy the beautiful weather at the park next to the school.

Luke had decided that he needed to wear his Superman cape to the breakfast, as he said, "because everybody loves Superman!" He thought the kids would like it.

By the way, if you ever ask him his full name, he'll say "Luke Connor VanBuskirk, Superman Luke, or Dr. Luke." In that order. Every time.

And when Superman Luke is wearing his cape, he just has to FLY!

When the time came we made our way over to the school. We met Dennis there. The twins just love when their little brother comes to their class. They like to show him off. (They don't seem to excited about showing Mom and Dad off, however. Hmmm.)

The kids all worked so hard to make and serve breakfast to the parents. On the menu: orange juice, hash browns, sausage, and egg and cheese burritos. (No salt, ketchup, or salsa, however, and what I wouldn't have done for a bottle of Tabasco!) But the love was there, so it tasted super!

After we ate we watched a slide show where we saw baby pictures of all the kids and had to guess who it was, followed by some other pictures from the school year. Mrs. J told us that in all her years of teaching 5th grade, this was her very favorite class ever! It really was a super group of kids!

What a super morning we all had! Thanks Mrs. J for the breakfast and for making 5th grade so super for my boys!

We are His Hands

Last Saturday we had our annual Stake Women's Conference. This year was a day of service and the theme was "You are His Hands." My mom is the stake Relief Society president, so she was in charge of the whole deal, which means that since I am her unofficial "third counselor", I was pretty involved in the goings on that day.

After a wonderful session in the chapel with some inspiring talks and music, we all got busy in the cultural hall where many stations were set up for ways to be His hands. We assembled hygiene kits, sewed school bags, tied quilts, made baby blankets, stamped cards, sewed baby gowns, wrote letters to missionaries, collected canned food, and knitted newborn caps! There was a lot going on!

It was so fun because there was something for everyone to do. And you could try you hand at something you have never tried before!

My dad had a great time in the action as well. He spent most of the time sewing school bags on my parents' trusty old featherweight Singer (I have one too! Great little machine).

Mom and her counselor, and our dear friend, Nonie. Those ladies ran themselves ragged that day!!!

We wrote letters to all the missionaries from our stake serving all over the world.

Tying quilts. Even the Stake President got into the action!

I was in charge of the card making station. It was quite popular! The cards are donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Those ladies were having a great time getting creative!

The best part about the whole conference was getting to serve and visit each other at the same time! It was so fulfilling seeing about 100 ladies working away to serve, and to be able to visit and catch up with old friends at the same time. Some women moved from station to station, trying different things, and some stayed at the same station the whole time. But everybody was working hard.

Then it was lunchtime.

They provided sack lunches from Aspen Mills (totally worth all the service and work just for that! Yummy!)

Then Mom announced that because everyone was being so Christlike and working so hard, she wanted everybody to come up and have a little taste of heaven. That was when they opened the stage curtains to reveal this:

A lovely LONG table filled with all kinds of heavenly desserts! There was an audible gasp when the curtains opened. It was quite a surprise! The sisters wasted no time in getting up there for some deliciousness!

Mom put me in charge of the dessert table. I thought that since the theme was about hands, I just layered the tables with lots of lacy white table cloths then used my collection of old ladies' gloves to decorate the table, topped off with some blingy large acrylic diamonds scattered everywhere. The centerpiece was a Christus statue on a pedestal and a sign below that says "Charity is the pure love of Christ." It was a very pretty presentation, especially up there in front of the black stage curtain and under the bright stage lights. The diamonds just sparkled!

I think what made it so effective was that there were NO other decorations of any kind at the conference. It was all business! So when the curtains opened to an over-the-top pretty buffet of scrumptious desserts, it was just so fun!

My mom felt good about how the whole day went. She should! It all came together so well. The final count is still out on how many quilts, blankets, cards, letters, kits, school bags, cans, gowns, and baby caps we got done that day, but I know the Lord is so grateful that he got use of those 200 hands for those few hours last Saturday.

(Please scroll to the top to leave comments. I still have not figured out the bug in my html that is causing the comment line to appear on the top instead of the bottom. Thanks.)

My Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! It started really early. Of course I was up before everybody, but felt it obligatory to stay in bed until somebody brought me breakfast, because as much as I really wanted to be up doing something, I knew a few little boys who would be disappointed. Sure enough, before long I heard someone banging around in the kitchen. It was sweet Caleb who took it upon himself to bring me a bowl of his favorite cereal - Cookie Crisp. (Not having the refined taste buds of a 6 year old, I'm not exactly crazy about Cookie Crisp, but received it graciously, and Luke helped me by finishing it off later.) Sweetie Pie Cabes was so happy to be the first to wish me a Happy Mothers' Day.

Soon I heard more banging around in the kitchen, so I didn't dare get out of bed. This time it was Nathan, our resident chef and crepe maker, and Dylan, who brought me some amazing crepes with Nutella, a donut (Krispie Kreme - only the best for Queen Mom), fresh kiwi, milk, and grapefruit juice. Delicious! Truly. And such beautiful bedside presentation.

Finally each of the boys had to shower me with my gifts before I could leave my bed - leaving just enough time to get ready for church while my dear hubby ironed all the clothes (to be fair, he usually irons all the Sunday clothes - good man.)

Church was really wonderful! Dylan and I got to sing a duet for the Mother's Day program in sacrament meeting. We sang the primary song "Mother, Tell Me a Story." Originally they had asked Dylan to do a solo, but he found the duet in the primary songbook, and really wanted us to sing it together since it is supposed to be sung by a mother and her child, so I happily agreed.

It was such a wonderful experience to sing that touching song with him. He has such a good voice and is such a sweet kid. I will always cherish that sweet memory.

Looking down, I saw a lot of moist eyes in the congregation. Dennis was supposed to give a talk right after our song, and when we finished and I turned around, Dennis was sitting behind us on the stand and his eyes were welling. Poor guy. I did not mean to do that to him right before he had to get up and speak. He got his composure, though, and gave a wonderful, heartfelt talk about mothers.

Right after church we drove up to Yucca Valley to visit Dennis' mom, and the other mothers in his family. It was so nice to see and visit with them. (The wind was crazy bad up there.)

Then we made it down the hill in time to spend some of Mothers' Day with a few other special women in my life - my Mom, of course, and my sister, Lisa. Our dear friend, Bev, also joined us.

I love my sisters so much, and I missed the ones that were not there. All of my sisters (including, of course, my brother's wife) are just wonderful mothers and I learn so much from all of them. Of course, that has everything to do with our own angel mother who taught us everything we know about mothering. How lucky we are to have been sent to such a wonderful, wise, and loving mother! She is my role model, and I strive to be just like her...one day hopefully.

I love my family! I love being a mom!

Here are some of the colorful gifts bestowed upon me for my special day! Fun! Caleb painted the polka-dotted tin can with the marigold, and Dylan cut me some beautiful sunflowers that he discovered in an empty lot.

My big gift was actually a shopping trip to Onterio Mills/Nordstom Rack/TaiPan the day before. Dennis and Dad accompanied Mom and I. It was SO fun. I came home with shoes my size, and jeans that are long enough (both extreme rarities) and some very blingy bling from TaiPan! Fun, fun, fun!

Look how cute! Mom topped my gift with a huge paper flower!

Glad she like flowers as much as I do, because we gave the grandmas flowers too. Our elementary school had a fundraiser to sell all kinds of gifts made from our kids' own artwork. I thought it was such a clever idea! We bought the pot holders for the grandmas, and I bought the little flags for me. How perfect is that flag in my zinnia garden?

Sadly, Caleb neglected to turn his order in (and never told me), so I never got items made from his beautiful artwork.

My kids also gave me some "girl tools." Don't you just love these darling tools? My very own tools! Imagine that. Now I never have to go digging around Dennis workbench when I need a hammer, and no self-respecting male in this house will be caught dead borrowing mine! I love it! (Thanks Target!)

What a wonderful Mothers' Day! I hope you had fantastic one too!

Hanging Out with the Fam!

Last week, my brother and his family came for a visit. My parents and my sister's family also came over. It was a great opportunity to all hang around in the backyard (that was before the heat hit) and sit around and chat.

It was such a nice evening, so I grabbed my camera and took some informal shots of some of the people I love.

Alex had just gotten his braces on, and I thought he looked so handsome. He is just growing up so fast! His voice is getting deep and he is shooting right up. I think that teenage transition into adulthood is every bit as amazing to watch as the transition from baby to child. Love that kid!

This is my niece Zola, named after my mom. Isn't that cool? She is a beautiful little thing and I love her to pieces!

If Zoe is beautiful, she gets it from her gorgeous mamma. I love my sister-in-law Elizabeth! I'm so glad to have her for a sister.

And then there's my only brother Rick. Yep, he looks like me, (a handsome fellow, I must say) only I don't have that crazy red beard. He is a good dad, and he always adds to a lively discussion.

And their little boy Jon, who Lukie LOVES! He is a funny kid. Very, very busy.

And my older, and wiser, sister Lisa. (She is only older by a year and 2 weeks. People often thought we were twins.) What an amazing woman she is, and a great example to me!

Her beautiful daughter, Christyne. She is like her mother in that she is a "sports girl" which is her term for tom-boy. Lisa was just like that. I, on the other hand, was a girlie-girl, just like her oldest daughter Andreya. (I didn't get a pic of her that night.) It is fun to watch those two girls who are also just a year apart, because they remind me so much of Lisa and I at that age.

Lisa's son Ayden is a cute kid and a good friend of Caleb. He seems to have gone from little kid to big boy overnight.

I didn't get pictures of everyone (sorry Mom, Dad, Ossil, Andreya, my family), unfortunately, because it was all informal, and I was losing light. Too bad.

We always have such fun chatting and visiting together. We usually discuss the gospel and politics, although lately things have changed a bit. You see, we have all gotten iPhones or iPod Touches. Last time after we all got together Nathan said, "Mom, you guys used to always all talk about the gospel, and now all you do is swap apps." Oops.

But that night it wasn't all wonderful. Darth Vadar showed up and scared the living daylights out of poor Zoe.

I love my family!

Boot Camp!

For his 13th birthday last month, Nathan wanted to have an air soft battle with his buddies and brothers. Well, we decided to step it up a bit and turned it into a full on boot camp.

This was the invitation:

We invited Jake Thomas and his friend Santiago to come be the drill sergeants for our "boot camp." They looked so intimidating in the fatigues, and did a great job whipping those boys into shape.

Some more recruits.

The drill sergeants really gave those guys a workout!

Dylan designed a tough obstacle course that had the recruits crawling under a net, running through a mine field, swinging over a water feature, climbing, sliding, running through tires, a grenade toss, crawling on elbows, crossing a balance beam over water, and so forth.

It was intense! And if they didn't do it right, those tough drill instructors were right there yelling at them, dousing them with water guns, or making them do sit-ups!

And if the recruits really got out of line, they found ways to handle that too!

After the intense training session the recruits finally got to head to to mess tent for their rations: Gatorade, power bars, chips, trail mix, and every soldiers favorite feast - unheated M.R.E.s!

(The easiest entertaining ever - just toss an assortment of MREs on the table and let them try what they want.)

Yummy. The boys seemed to like what they picked, even if they couldn't figure out what in the heck they were eating. Teenage boys are so easy to please.

We didn't even need paper plates (though we did need a lot of napkins!)

After consuming their delicious rations, the whole unit was transported by military Humvee (aka, the old suburban, with the seats down in the back) to the battlefield (aka. the Thatcher's backyard) for some war games! They were having way too much fun all crammed back there, all sweaty and wet.

Then the real action began. These recruits had been well trained, and well fed, and were now ready for battle!!!

The actions was intense! As the official war reporter, I was brave enough go onto the battle field to shoot some photos before hiding in the house to wait for the cease-fire.

After the battle, everyone climbed back on the Humvee to be transported back to base where we had military issue birthday cake. Yep, that is a tank cake, number N13 (for Nathan's 13th), with, licorice treads, and the candle flame coming out of the cannon.

And yes, the inside of the cake was also camo - just so that it could be eaten without the enemy seeing them.

Happy Birthday, Private Nate! Now drop and give me ten!