I realised this morning that even though I had mentioned Stake Conference in my post You Can't Say No, and said that this was an LDS thing that only LDS people would understand that my non LDS friends are going to want more information about what it is exactly.... so this is my explanation.
Firstly to make things easier, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and from now on I'll use the initials LDS. I'm a Christian, I read the Bible and The Book of Mormon and I believe that we have a living Prophet. I converted when I was 18 (I might have been 17, I can't quite remember as I've had two children since then and lost half my brain cells) and I like Chocolate... oh wait, that is nothing to do with my religion!
So I go to Church in a Ward, this is basically a boundary to define the area and is really just another word for a parish. There are smaller congregations, and these are called branches, but I've never belonged to one! The Ward is presided over by the Bishop and his two Counsellors and we call this the Bishopric.
Local Wards are grouped together into Stakes, and these are presided over by the Stake Presidency, we have the Stake President and his two Counsellors and there is also a Twelve member Council called the High Council, but I actually don't know a lot about that or them. I'll give myself some homework and find out about it if anyone wants.
Above this we have Areas, which are where Stakes are grouped together and they have leaders too, but I doubt I'll be talking about those in the near future, so I'll explain those if I ever talk about them!
So every six months or so we have what we call Conferences. We have BIG ones where the whole Church across the World will listen to talks by our leaders and we call them General Conference. We have ones in our Ward, which funny enough are called Ward Conference and the talks are given by the Stake Leaders and then we have ones in our Stake too.
These are called Stake Conference and is the reason I was in so much of a tiz, was I'd been asked to talk in our Stake Conference this weekend. The talks in Stake Conference are generally from the Stake Presidency and Stake members (that's me) that have been called upon by the Stake Presidency to speak on a topic assigned to them.
My talk last night went well, I might type it up and add it as a blog post here, but I think that you get enough of my random natterings as it is ;)
So there you go, a basic grounding in phrases I drop as if they are totally normal (well they are to me!). If in the future I start talking Church phrases that you don't know just let me know and I'll explain or try to and find someone much more qualified to answer if I can't.
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What's At The End Of The Rainbow?
I was thinking last night on the drive home from the Theatre about the end of the rainbow. For Beverly and Sue and Angela, I'm pretty sure that they thought that marriage was the end of the rainbow for them and then when they got there, they discovered that it wasn't all happy ever after after all (Sue got a divorce, Angela was treated like a well, a woman in the seventies and Beverly was pretty evil really).
So what is the end of my rainbow?
At the moment losing the weight is my goal, so being the "right" weight for me is the end of my rainbow and I'm not sure what I'm expecting.
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be happy?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be pretty?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be proud of my body?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be where I want to be in my life?
I don't really have the answer to what I'm expecting. I know that I'm not going to step on the Scales and as I step off a magical pulse will cover the world and all the problems I think are in my life be made better, but I'm not so sure that I full understand that in my heart.
I guess once I reach the end of the rainbow, I'll have to take it one step at a time.
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So what is the end of my rainbow?
At the moment losing the weight is my goal, so being the "right" weight for me is the end of my rainbow and I'm not sure what I'm expecting.
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be happy?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be pretty?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be proud of my body?
Am I expecting that as soon as I lose all the weight I will magically be where I want to be in my life?
I don't really have the answer to what I'm expecting. I know that I'm not going to step on the Scales and as I step off a magical pulse will cover the world and all the problems I think are in my life be made better, but I'm not so sure that I full understand that in my heart.
I guess once I reach the end of the rainbow, I'll have to take it one step at a time.
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You Can't Say No
If you aren't a Latter Day Saint, then a lot of the phrases or things that I talk about might not make a lot of sense and this is one of those posts.
Earlier today, a member of the Stake Presidency gave me a call. We chatted for a few minutes about having missed each other at Ward Conference a couple of weeks back, and how we would catch up at Stake Conference this weekend when he dropped a bomb on me. He asked me to give a talk at Stake Conference, which at the time of asking was just three days away.
I accepted the talk, I really don't know why. And then I started to panic. Giving a talk to the whole of the Stake? That's worrying for me. I talk to you easily enough, but that's because you are all tiny people who live in my computer and who are more worried about if I put an apostrophe in the wrong place rather than what I'm actually writing about.
The members of the Church who will be at Stake Conference will want to listen to what I have to say. They won't care if my notes that I'm reading from are spelled correctly, they will care if I'm talking with the Spirit.
I've prayed and prayed and prayed. And I've had the inspiration that I need to approach this like I would a blog post. I need to write what I feel and pretend that I am talking to you... I'll let you know how it goes after my talk on Saturday evening.
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Earlier today, a member of the Stake Presidency gave me a call. We chatted for a few minutes about having missed each other at Ward Conference a couple of weeks back, and how we would catch up at Stake Conference this weekend when he dropped a bomb on me. He asked me to give a talk at Stake Conference, which at the time of asking was just three days away.
I accepted the talk, I really don't know why. And then I started to panic. Giving a talk to the whole of the Stake? That's worrying for me. I talk to you easily enough, but that's because you are all tiny people who live in my computer and who are more worried about if I put an apostrophe in the wrong place rather than what I'm actually writing about.
The members of the Church who will be at Stake Conference will want to listen to what I have to say. They won't care if my notes that I'm reading from are spelled correctly, they will care if I'm talking with the Spirit.
I've prayed and prayed and prayed. And I've had the inspiration that I need to approach this like I would a blog post. I need to write what I feel and pretend that I am talking to you... I'll let you know how it goes after my talk on Saturday evening.
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Do you ever hold on to a secret?
I have a secret, which I'm going to share because it isn't a "real" secret, it's just a thought that I like to keep to myself and when I'm feeling down or lonely or just want a few minutes to myself, I tell myself that secret and bask in the warmth that I get from knowing something special is going to happen.
It's selfish really. I know this because when I shared my secret with some friends they were so pleased for me and excited and happy and joyous and every other word you can think of, that if your friend told you some great news you'd squee out until you were spent.
There were plans made, and hugs given and messages exchanged and offers of support given and phone calls placed and grins all over the place. I do believe there were even a few prayers of thanks and love and praise.
Now, thinking back over the three groups of friends that I've told I can see the love and support that they unconditionally offer me and why they all reacted the way they did.
I can understand why they are so excited, it's the same reason I'm excited.
I know why there were tears, it's why I'm crying right now.
And so I'm sharing this secret with you, it won't make sense to a lot of you but to those in the know it will.
I'm going to the Temple.
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It's selfish really. I know this because when I shared my secret with some friends they were so pleased for me and excited and happy and joyous and every other word you can think of, that if your friend told you some great news you'd squee out until you were spent.
There were plans made, and hugs given and messages exchanged and offers of support given and phone calls placed and grins all over the place. I do believe there were even a few prayers of thanks and love and praise.
Now, thinking back over the three groups of friends that I've told I can see the love and support that they unconditionally offer me and why they all reacted the way they did.
I can understand why they are so excited, it's the same reason I'm excited.
I know why there were tears, it's why I'm crying right now.
And so I'm sharing this secret with you, it won't make sense to a lot of you but to those in the know it will.
I'm going to the Temple.
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It's just like Crack
There are some phrases recovering over weight people, like me, hate to hear. Phrases like;
Phrases like that are like crack to us.
We're working hard to lose weight at a sustainable and sensible rate (roughly 2lb a week, but it can be more depending on how much weight we have to lose) and hearing that there is a new diet on the market that will help us lose a stupid amount of weight and quickly, immediately makes us want to jump on that diet.
We can't help it. We know in our hearts and heads that slow and steady wins the race, and that it is far more sensible to work at the weight loss, so that we understand how to maintain our weight when we eventually reach our goal, but getting to our goal a little quicker? Who wouldn't want that?
And so we plod on, wondering why other people can jump on a diet and lose so much weight in one week and we're stuck here losing it slowly.
And eventually we're get to our goal, and we'll be ready for the new challenges that lay ahead.
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"I lost 7lbs in one week on this diet"
or
"I heard that Celebrities use this diet to lose up to a stone in a week!".
We're working hard to lose weight at a sustainable and sensible rate (roughly 2lb a week, but it can be more depending on how much weight we have to lose) and hearing that there is a new diet on the market that will help us lose a stupid amount of weight and quickly, immediately makes us want to jump on that diet.
We can't help it. We know in our hearts and heads that slow and steady wins the race, and that it is far more sensible to work at the weight loss, so that we understand how to maintain our weight when we eventually reach our goal, but getting to our goal a little quicker? Who wouldn't want that?
And so we plod on, wondering why other people can jump on a diet and lose so much weight in one week and we're stuck here losing it slowly.
And eventually we're get to our goal, and we'll be ready for the new challenges that lay ahead.
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My name is Dan Jon Jr
Over on A Mothers Rambling's I call the children by nicknames. To start with, it was because I wanted a level of security, if a stranger didn't know my Children's real name then they couldn't convince them that they knew them. And knowing that if I google myself I get some really dodgy stories, I wanted the children to have some protection of a future boss googling them and finding out about the time that they ran naked through the garden (actually that was childhood me) or snogged a boy in the cloakroom at School (again me).
Gradually the nicknames became used more often. If I was in a crowded place and I quickly needed my children's attention then their blog names get their attention quicker than shouting their quite common, given name.
Their nicknames became their second names, used almost as often as their real names.
I didn't think that it really effected them to be honest and then Big Boy started making videos of himself playing Minecraft. And at the start of every video he introduced himself to his viewing public;
Who the heck is Dan Jon Jr? Who is Dan Jon Sr for that matter! We don't know anyone with those names, we don't even know a junior! And yet that is how he introduces himself.
Whilst I would quite like to know where the inspiration for this name came from, I'm not that worried about this alternative identity. He's introducing himself with a secret identity, because that is what he thinks you do on the internet. Why he chose these names, I don't really know but they are his. They are his identity, his chosen way to present himself to the world and I'm glad that at nearly five he's sure enough in himself to decide that he knows who he is.
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Gradually the nicknames became used more often. If I was in a crowded place and I quickly needed my children's attention then their blog names get their attention quicker than shouting their quite common, given name.
Their nicknames became their second names, used almost as often as their real names.
I didn't think that it really effected them to be honest and then Big Boy started making videos of himself playing Minecraft. And at the start of every video he introduced himself to his viewing public;
"Hi! This is Dan Jon Jr. here..."
Who the heck is Dan Jon Jr? Who is Dan Jon Sr for that matter! We don't know anyone with those names, we don't even know a junior! And yet that is how he introduces himself.
Whilst I would quite like to know where the inspiration for this name came from, I'm not that worried about this alternative identity. He's introducing himself with a secret identity, because that is what he thinks you do on the internet. Why he chose these names, I don't really know but they are his. They are his identity, his chosen way to present himself to the world and I'm glad that at nearly five he's sure enough in himself to decide that he knows who he is.
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What would I do if I had no internet?
I'm not saying that I'm an internet addict, but I think I'm pretty close... So what would I do if I had no internet?
I'd clean the house from top to bottom.
I'd go to the gym or for a walk or a bike ride.
I'd go to my friends and Neighbours houses to chat.
I'd bake cakes, cakes and more cakes.
I'd cook every meal from scratch.
I'd read.
I'd write.
I'd not put things off.
I'd be bored
I'd be alone for most of the day.
I'd be lonely.
I'd be fatter than I am now
I'd be frustrated.
I'd be less educated.
I'd be more in my head.
I'd find new ways to procrastinate.
I guess that even though the internet can be the thorn in my side, that it brings as much as takes away from my life.
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I'd clean the house from top to bottom.
I'd go to the gym or for a walk or a bike ride.
I'd go to my friends and Neighbours houses to chat.
I'd bake cakes, cakes and more cakes.
I'd cook every meal from scratch.
I'd read.
I'd write.
I'd not put things off.
I'd be bored
I'd be alone for most of the day.
I'd be lonely.
I'd be fatter than I am now
I'd be frustrated.
I'd be less educated.
I'd be more in my head.
I'd find new ways to procrastinate.
I guess that even though the internet can be the thorn in my side, that it brings as much as takes away from my life.
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I'm not fat but you are
I thought that I was setting a good example.
I thought that by showing the Children how to eat right, how to exercise and how to not get to the point where I am (overweight) that they were going to live happy and healthy lives. Diabetes of course screwed that up for Big Boy in part, but it turns out that I have too.
"I'm not fat but you are" is something said to me on a daily basis by Big Boy. Big Boy has understood what I've been saying and instead of understanding how it applies to me and instead of taking it as a warning and having an understanding of why I'm overweight and how we can stop me from being over weight and how we can prevent him and his Sister from becoming over weight he sees it as something that he can use as an insult.
And yet he doesn't understand that to me it is an insult.
I mean, yes he is 100% right. I am fat and he isn't. He is just making a statement of fact as he sees it (and there is nothing like a child to make a statement of fact that cuts straight to the heart of the matter) but I still see it as an insult as I'm sure all of the people he might say it to will.
I've created a problem and I don't know how to solve it.
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I thought that by showing the Children how to eat right, how to exercise and how to not get to the point where I am (overweight) that they were going to live happy and healthy lives. Diabetes of course screwed that up for Big Boy in part, but it turns out that I have too.
"I'm not fat but you are" is something said to me on a daily basis by Big Boy. Big Boy has understood what I've been saying and instead of understanding how it applies to me and instead of taking it as a warning and having an understanding of why I'm overweight and how we can stop me from being over weight and how we can prevent him and his Sister from becoming over weight he sees it as something that he can use as an insult.
And yet he doesn't understand that to me it is an insult.
I mean, yes he is 100% right. I am fat and he isn't. He is just making a statement of fact as he sees it (and there is nothing like a child to make a statement of fact that cuts straight to the heart of the matter) but I still see it as an insult as I'm sure all of the people he might say it to will.
I've created a problem and I don't know how to solve it.
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