Happy Birthday Relief Society!

Tonight was our Relief Society birthday celebration. As the events associated with Relief Society morph and change from "work day" to "homemaking" to "Enrichment" to "Relief Society whatever they are," I sometimes fear that maybe something has been lost in translation!!

But tonight we had a great Relief Society Birthday Party, complete with taco salad, some of Dawn's delicious chocolate ganoche cake, and a wonderful talk by one of my fave LDS authors, Lael Littke. It was a treat to sit at the table with her too!!

The theme was creativity - there were lots of displays of the creative efforts of the women in our ward and two lovely musical numbers. Then Sister Littke shared thoughts and experiences she has had over the years as she has pursued her career as the author of over 40 novels. One of my favorite lines from her remarks came as she was sharing some thoughts from Elder Uchtdorf. She commented that she was glad to hear from the brethren as they encouraged women to be the best they could be. "And he's so good to look at too."

I'm sure my girls remember lots of Lael Littke books that have been in our household over the years. I actually had forgotten how much of the Mormon fiction Phoebe, Eliza, and Hannah had consumed over the years until I hunted in Google Images! Prom Dress has been a school favorite too. I told Lael how I had bought multiple copies of Prom Dress because the girls who borrowed it from me never returned it!

Remember Run, Ducky, Run? And Getting Rid of Rhoda? She also wrote, along with two other women whose names escape me at the moment, the Almost Sisters trio. Those books are a great read for a summer day if you are in the market! And the Mink Creek stories are a good read too.

I sometimes fancy myself a writer. The truth is, however, that I am not quite willing to "give it my all" and "giving it your all" is definitely a requirement for gaining status as an author.

I will continue to find satisfaction in blogging, writing newsletters, penning missives to friends, other writing tasks such as journaling, and writing family stories.

And I will always be glad for the writers like Sister Littke who do give it their all!