Memories of Early Morning Seminary

Last year I had a list of very well-thought-out, doable New Year's resolutions. But then two weeks into January I found out I was pregnant and I sort of forgot about them in favor of devoting my energies to growing a person. This year I had one New Year's resolution: to become a morning person. I feel like if I could just go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, that would fix so many other things in my life: staying in my food budget- check. No more 11:00 P.M. snack time. Keeping up with the laundry- check. Laundry folding is the only productive thing I can think of that is quiet enough to do at 6:00 in the morning other than reading. Getting the kids to school on time so as to avoid receiving a nasty letter from the school district- check. Obviously two hours to get ready is better than 25 minutes. You get the picture.

I did great for about a week. Now I'm back to maybe getting to bed by 11:30 on weeknights and waking up at 8. The main problem, aside from the fact that I just have one of those bodies that needs a lot of sleep, is that I hate going to bed. I think I was one of those kids who always fought going to bed because they just knew that their parents ate candy and ice cream and had wild parties every night while they were sleeping. I'd started to think that maybe I'm just never going to be a morning person.

Then this morning I was reading my friend Liz's blog about what a blah month February is. It reminded me that Groundhog Day is in February. Groundhog Day is the anniversary of my first day of early morning seminary*. Which reminded me that starting eleven years ago, for a year-and-a-half, I was a morning person! EVERY weekday. There was not a single day (I'm not hyperbolizing, I swear!) that I wasn't happy to wake up at 5:15 A.M. and go to seminary. I loved every minute of it! One time I stayed up until 4:30 A.M. finishing a school project. I thought I would just doze off for a few minutes and then get up and go to seminary, but I slept through my alarm. I was so upset when I woke up because I'd missed seminary!

We had the most amazing seminary teacher ever (who happens to be Liz's mom). She loved movies and T.V. shows and she illustrated almost every gospel principle with a VHS clip from some movie or show. Which is why I always remember that my first day of seminary was on Groundhog Day- because we watched clips from the movie Groundhog Day. I can't remember what gospel principle we were supposed to have learned, but I do remember that I felt so warm and happy I didn't care how early it was. One time she baked a cake in the shape of the Hill Cumorah and hid little gold plates in it. Another time she invited me over for Sunday dinner and I was totally mystified when she got out a block of cheddar cheese and started grating it for macaroni and cheese. Didn't she know that macaroni and cheese is made with little packets of flourescent orange powder? Silly! That was one of the first things I learned how to make when I got married, and now I know the recipe for homemade mac and cheese by heart. I still think of it as a "special" dinner and it's my boys' favorite thing to eat.

At the end of our senior year everyone in our class got a copy of Jesus the Christ. I get mine out every year or so and read about ten pages before I give up (only 782 more to go!). But I love to read the inscription on the inside cover, which says:

For Katie-
May the Lord bless and keep you as you follow Him, in faith and hope- my dear friend.
Love, Sister Crane
Seminary 1998
You are one of my angels.

I'm pretty sure that I was no angel when I was a teenager. In fact I'm pretty sure I was a little on the obnoxious, self-obsessed side. But Sister Crane found a way to love me anyway, and that has made such a difference in my life. Now if I could just get her to hang out with me during my pre-dawn laundry folding sessions I think I could keep my New Year's Resolution! Maybe if I watched old tapes of Lois and Clark: The Adventures of Superman.....

*For those who don't know, early morning seminary is an hour-long church class that Mormons attend during high school. It's one of the things I love the most about my Church- we believe in the importance of every member studying and pondering the scriptures and the meaning they hold for our lives. We also believe in waking up early to eat cinnamon buns and color with markers:).