Spring arrived a few days ago. I know this independent of whether the snow has melted and without regard to whether we have passed the technical March 21st that officially marks the change of seasons. I know it like an arthritis sufferer might know a storm is coming. I know it because every morning I wake up and begin sneezing as if my life depended on it.
Luckily my biological aversion to pollen has not awakened anyone else so far but there is no doubt that the season has changed.
Speaking of things which are virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy (in other words, things that we seek after) here is something worth watching and sharing:
Ever since I became aware of Mormons Made Simple I have been considering whether I should share the site with others. It is intended to be a resource for those who are not familiar with the LDS church to understand the church as an organization and as a culture. My conflict was not that it is a poor or misleading site – it isn’t as far as I can see – but rather that it is not an official site from the church and I prefer to point people to the official sources of things – especially since the church has an official site specifically for those who are not members of the church.
In and of itself my initial question does not seem widely important, but it led me to another more general question which I thought about for some time. Is it a good thing for members of the church to create their own resources when the church has already provided resources for the same specific purpose? My conclusion was that we have been commanded to “do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27) I could not predict how much righteousness might come to pass from Mormons Made Simple, but it seems a good thing for people to be doing of their own free will.
My question for other people is, would you be more likely to recommend the official site, or the unofficial site to people? Are there times when one might be better than the other?
Isaac has a habit – that seems pretty normal for his age – of changing his mind every second. Normally this is irritating to me, but this morning we had a very sweet little instance of this.
He came out of his room after waking up (he’s often the first one up) and came to where I was studying. He asked for a hotdog (a normal morning request for him). I said okay and he immediately asked me to hold him. I picked him up and he snuggled into my shoulder and asked to go to bed. I asked him a couple of times to make sure that he really meant that (not wanting to get in trouble if I was mistaken) and then I carried him to bed. He went right to sleep and did not wake up before I left for work.
I really enjoy singing the hymns in church and most of the time I sing the Tenor part of the harmony. I enjoy those times when I hear others singing harmony as well when the congregation sings. Today I was really enjoying the gentleman sitting next to us who sang a variety of harmonies during the hymns – sometimes tenor, sometimes bass, sometimes a harmony that was not ever written in the book. (I was highly embarrassed when Isaac took it upon himself to start climbing our singing neighbor as if he were a mountain.)
Later this same gentleman, Brother Wright, sat next to me in priesthood meeting and introduced himself. As we talked and got to know a bit about each other I learned that he had moved here recently (it’s been a couple of years, but that’s recent for this area) in order to be a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. No wonder I enjoyed hearing him – I was singing with a member of a world renowned chior.
Scratching up dinner tonight brought the creation of a new recipe that was well received by everyone in the family (and we have a few picky eaters). I am calling it pork roast on rice (big surprise, I’m sure). Here’s the recipe:
Layer the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan with the rice. Mix the cottage cheese and the diced pork roast together and spread over top of the rice. sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top and bake at 425 for 10 minutes then broil on high for 5 minutes.
Anyone who has read here for any length of time knows how willing I am to talk about political issues (just look through the history if you’re new here – or visit Pursuit of Liberty where my political writing is now concentrated). Starting in the latter part of 2008 I decided it was time to do more than talk about political issues I have been working with my state representative and communicating with various officers of the Davis County Republican Party and have now decided to run for Davis County Republican Party Treasurer. I invite all readers who are Davis County Republicans to vote for me at the party organizing convention in 8 weeks. If you know any Davis County Republicans who do not read this blog (there should be at least 10,000 of them) please invite them to support me as well.
Anyone who wants more information about my candidacy is invited to visit my campaign website.
It’s a good thing I bought a vehicle with 4WD – I got stuck driving into my driveway this afternoon coming home from work. I should have got a picture of the Explorer sideways in the driveway or at least a picture of the sideways sliding tire tracks in the driveway. Better yet I should have had Laura take a video of me driving in after clearing away the snow around the tires (I was still sliding).
I had cleared the driveway before I left for the breakfast with Senator Bennett but by the time I got home there was another 8 inches of snow on the driveway. I did think to get this picture (taken by Savannah) after I had cleared the driveway.
It doesn’t show in the picture but that pile of snow is over my head in height. The line in the snow near the height of my knees is the level of the snow from today.
Voting Record will allow recording of votes cast for display and reference purposes. Elected officials can record and display their votes and citizens can track and display the votes of an elected official they follow.
Latest Version: 2.0 (March 16, 2009)
Display templates are introduced here giving you total flexibility in deciding what to display. There is one set of template settings for recent votes and another for search results. Each template is made up of a header, a footer, and an item template. Template tags are used to display the variables specific to each recorded vote such as the vote cast or the vote description. There is also a setting for what to display when no votes are returned in the recent votes and another setting for when no votes are returned in a search.
Votes are entered on a dashboard widget:
A vote management page is available from the posts menu:
Recent votes are shown by adding <?php recent_votes(); ?> in your theme templates. You can show a search votes form by using the shortcode [ SEARCH-VOTES ] on a page or post. Options for Voting Record include:
To install it simply unzip the file linked above and save it in your plugins directory under wp-content. In the plugin manager activate the plugin. Settings for the plugin may be altered under the Voting Record page of the Options menu (version 2.3) or Settings menu (version 2.5 or later).
For those who wish to help others but who have limited means to do so Kiva provides an opportunity to give a little (as little as $25) and help people around the world who have business plans to lift themselves up economically. Loans from individuals get pooled as necessary to fund people. I have been very impressed with this system that allows people to help others by using small means to make great things happen.
I was very happy to take the opportunity to take the code written by Connor Boyack and turn it into the Kiva plugin for WordPress so that people can raise the visibility of Kiva by displaying loans in the fundraising stage with a link to donate.
version 1.1 (2/10/2009)
More options over which loans to show
Latest Version 1.2 (2/27/2009)
You can now use a text widget with the shortcode SHOW-KIVA (enclosed in square brackets – []) to display the Kiva plugin in a widgetized sidebar.
Options include:
To install it simply unzip the file linked above and save it in your plugins directory under wp-content. In the plugin manager activate the plugin. Settings for the plugin may be altered under the Kiva page of the Options menu (version 2.3) or Settings menu (version 2.5 or later). Place the call show_kiva(); anywhere in your page templates or use [ SHOW-KIVA] in a text widget.