A Little Glimpse Of Liz

Life, Love, and Faith

Prepare With Us Today

Can I just tell you how excited I am! About 3 months ago, I got a strong prompting, and you know what happens after that, you have to follow! Well, I had a prompting that I needed to help more people Prepare! The spirit spoke and said, "Liz, you need to help others prepare" I was like, "But I am not the expert. I just like to teach," and he said, "Well, you don't need to be the expert, you just need to create a platform so moms can inspire other moms to prepare!" Prepare for what? Well, that depends on you and your needs. Food storage, financial, and spiritual is on the list, plus many more.

So I got to work, started to build a website, and produced my first podcast. It took a ton of work! But today was an exciting day! Today I recorded my first podcast with a guest speaker. Her name is Courtney, and she is amazing. You guys will all have to download the podcast so that you can listen to her. On Monday I am going to record another amazing woman named Janina! You guys...

Serving The Lord

Today, a chapter closed in my life. A little over 4 years ago, I was called into the Bishop's office and asked to be the Primary President of our ward. Little did I know how this would change my life forever. The President before me, Amy, counseled me and said all you need to do is love the kids, but that is easy. And she was right! Loving those kids becomes easy when you are with those special spirits. I was released from this calling today, and I am changed for the good for the rest of my life. I feel so honored and blessed to have been the President while working with other amazing women and men as we all lead these kiddos.

These last 4 years, the church and the primary organization have gone through so many changes. At times it was hard to keep it straight! Two hours of Primary to a whirlwind of only one, manuals to no manuals, implemented Come Follow Me, Sunday worship halted, Bringing back from the dead Wednesday Primary, Restoring Primary on Sunday's. I don't...

The Spirit Will Tell You All Things

Have you ever had the Spirit chastise you before? I did Saturday night, and I would have to admit, I am not the proudest of it. But through the humbling process, we were able to experience a Christmas story my kids and I will never forget. We had our own real story of "Light The World with Love."

Sunday was the last day, we as a primary, could meet for the rest of the year. So you know what that means? It's PRESENT TIME! We got the primary kids in our ward these nightlights that had a picture of Christ on them. So when you plugged them in, you could see Christ shining through the light.

Since I have been in primary, our motto has been on the "Light of Christ." Everything we as a presidency have done has been centered on what Christ feels like in our lives and how we can recognize him. We have so many experiences to be Christ's hands and be His light to the world.

Now to my humbling story...My family and I were Christmas shopping Saturday night in the...

There Is Always A Place For You

I wanted to tell you a part of my life most of you may not know. Funny how I decided to share this when the "Come Follow Me" for this week is section 132 (I didn't plan that but only felt prompted I needed to share). I haven't shared it with many as this is a part of my life where I have felt alone, judged, and like a second citizen.

I am a very faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. However, many of you might not know that I am a convert to the church. There was a time when I could not get baptized to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint. No matter how much I wanted to, I was told NO! Not by my parents but by the church. Because of the policies that were and still are in place, kids from a polygamist family have many guidelines they have to meet to get baptized. Remember the policies the church made recently with children who came from same-sex couples? The children were not able to get baptized until they were 18 and out...

Spiritual Insights and Awakenings You've Never Had Before

It's Saturday night, and you and your husband have two choices. Either you go to the new James Bond movie on opening weekend or the temple to do sealings. It was a hard tossup!

This last week was conference weekend, and we heard from our Prophet Russel M Nelson and other church leaders. A talk given by our Prophet stuck out to me because I kind of geek out on that type of stuff.

"When you bring your temple recommend, a contrite heart, and a seeking mind to the Lord's house of learning, He will teach you.... He wants you to have spiritual insights and awakenings you've never had before."

We eventually decided to do some service, so we hopped on the scheduling app and scheduled a time that evening. James Bond will just have to wait!

When my husband was younger, and his parent went to do sealings at the temple, he always thought they would clean the ceilings! So to clarify what a sealing is, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day...

Learning To Laugh

Words to the wise…”Don’t drink the fruit fly juice trap, it will result in your husband throwing up and a wife that peed her pants in laughter!!!”

After the canning season coming to a close with peaches, pears, salsa, and now grape juice, some fruit flies have decided to make our happy home theirs! Canning grape juice all day gave those tiny pests a drinking fountain of pure goodness! So I made a trap with that pure goodness and some other extras to stop them dead in their tracts. I guess we need to put posted notes on everything or not assume anything!

Fruit Fly Trap

Use any jar that has a smaller opening at the top

Fruit or fruit juice of any kind

Apple cider vinegar

Few squirts of Dish soap

Letting Go

Have you met Grandma yet? I have talked about her before. She is my mother-in-law, Shane's mom. She has now lived with us for over a year. She needs full-time care, and we all chip in to help her along this path we call life.

It is interesting how the mind works and the process it goes through while aging. Even though I do almost everything for her, I am new to her every day. Some days I am the facility worker, other times, I am her roommate, or I am married to the Smith boy. It is different every day! She has specific stories she repeats and sometimes multiple times a day. We let her tell these stories over and over again because they make her happy. It's in these stories she tells you what she holds dear.

Often she says, "I Graduated from BYU in 3 years." She loooves BYU! We bought BYU cups, and every time we hand one to her, she says, "I graduated from BYU!" If you have a BYU shirt on, tears fill her eyes, and she will tell you how she went there. Today we put...

Stand And Do Hard Things

"Everyone is going through something hard," "Sometimes we just need to learn something," "We can do hard things." These were the responses Brax gave today when I asked him what he learned while he was home.

5 months ago, we were here in the airport dropping off Brax to serve his mission. Life happened, and he ended up coming home promising he would be back. Last night after he was set apart, I told him that I am so proud of him because coming home can be HARD, but he put his heart and soul into going back out.

So often, these experiences can break us, but he allowed this experience to "Make" him. Make him into the man Heavenly Father wants him to be, the man he wants to become. I am so proud of him because he rose above himself and did the hard thing. We love you Brax, and are so proud to call you our son.

So I want to leave you with his final words of encouragement "Everyone is going through something hard, sometimes we just need to learn something, we can do hard things."

Love...

Celebrate Life

So it's that day! The day most of us dread, my BIRTHDAY! But a few years ago, I decided that I was no longer going to dread this day or have any expectations but love every second! No matter what comes, no matter what it says on the scale, no matter if there are a few more gray hairs, I would have a day that no matter what, I would celebrate my joy of living.

Yes, life is hard, but I love living. I love that I have a curious mind, so I am constantly learning new things. I love to make others laugh. I love getting massages from my husband. I love going out to lunch with my girlfriends. I love that my kids think I can fix anything (please don't tell them the truth!). I love creating new recipes in the kitchen. I love my morning walks. I love getting up early in the mornings and reading my scriptures, and meditating. I love that God lets me experience moments of his grace and visits from the other side. I love my homemade ice cream (gluten, dairy, and sugar-free), I love...

Doing Hard Things

Sometimes you never know what's coming down here!!! Last night Gage was playing Varsity football in Syracuse. We had to leave at 5:30 to get there. Ella and Talen were on Grandma duty. Ella calls and says Grandma wants to go to bed. So I told her that she could either go to bed in her clothes or wait for an hour for me to get home. Well, she decided she just wanted to go to bed with her clothes on. So they put her in bed. Ella went upstairs to go to bed, and Talen stayed downstairs.

Grandma started yelling that she needed help, so Talen went in to see what she needed,

"I can't get my bra off."

So Talen yelled for Ella to come and help, and she said, "No!"
Talen called me back again and told me that Grandma needed help getting her bra off. So I told him to see if Ella would help, and he told me he already asked her, and she said no (Ella can't do any personal care for her because it freaks her out!)

Yep, I asked!!!!

"Talen, can you go and help her?"
"Do I have to?"
"Well, you can ask...

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A Little Glimpse Of Liz

Life, Love, and Faith

Prepare With Us Today

Serving The Lord

The Spirit Will Tell You All Things

There Is Always A Place For You

Spiritual Insights and Awakenings You've Never Had Before

Learning To Laugh

Letting Go

Stand And Do Hard Things

Celebrate Life

Doing Hard Things

Bring The Light

Two Step