Life Lately

I have been wrapped up in organizing the past lately and have neglected to record the present. So I'm going to quickly write a few things about our right now.

Joseph floats

Joseph got a hoverboard for Christmas, and it is a wonder to see how he has mastered it! He floats around the house and the wheels of the hoverboard are like an extension of his body.

What we do on the Treadmill

The answer for Dan is . . . watch shows! He has really enjoyed watching episodes of The Good Doctor and Blue Bloods and now is starting on This is Us. He is finding that walking for an hour or so while getting lost in a show has been a great stress reliever for him (and he needs that - his job has been pretty darn stressful lately) while also giving him some good exercise. Aubrey has also liked watching shows while exercising on the treadmill.

The answer for me is . . . . read books! I have tried watching shows. I watched The Good Doctor and several episodes of The Crown. But then I discovered that if I get large print books and use a towel to help hold my book open, I can easily read books while speed walking. This has been a game changer for me. I always, always have a huge pile of to-be-read books. While I try to find some time to read each day, my free time hasn't been enough for me to move through books as quickly as I would like. Now, ta-da! I can easily read a book every two days, while getting a great workout and not even noticing that I am walking! 

Preparing for a sad goodbye

I have attended a few of Aubrey's school events lately at VSAA and I am getting teary every time I am in the building. We have had a child attending that wonderful school for ten years. And now Aubrey will be graduating in a few short months and our VSAA days will be over, because Joseph attends a different school. I am so grateful for the experiences our girls have had there and sad to lose that connection with a truly unique educational experiment (it's not perfect, but it's very good).

Changes at Church

A month ago our stake was re-aligned, dissolving one ward and dramatically changing most of the ward boundaries. Our ward was a surprise exception, in that we had very few changes despite having more than enough members to spare. But, because Dan and I are both serving with the stake, we have been busy helping with the changes in other wards. My presidency and I (and Dan) have been going to wards as needed to do whatever . . . sharing time, teaching primary classes that didn't have a teacher yet, encouraging overwhelmed primary presidents. It has been fun to be hands-on and teaching. I really like teaching (and I know Dan does too). We miss teaching on a regular basis. Actually, I guess I miss that most, because Dan gets to teach mission prep every two weeks.

Speaking of mission prep, we have had the chance to host it in our home for the past few months. We serve a big breakfast and then the lesson lasts about an hour. I love getting to watch the kids learn and interact. Our current full-time missionaries (who are truly amazing) have been attending, and they help as the youth learn how to effectively teach and testify. Dan is an exceptional teacher, and he helps them search for truth and learn how to communicate with love. They have had some great experiences. 

Other church changes: we have been receiving a strong message in our stake to "reduce and simplify," evaluating all activities to see if they are meeting the goal of strengthening families and individuals and allowing families time to be together. I made some very tough decisions this year. The most dramatic is we will be doing stake Activity Day Camp every other year. That was a hard decision, as Activity Day Camp is a very GOOD thing and definitely helps the girls gain testimonies, but it also requires a lot of time from a lot of people, and that puts a strain on a lot of families. There are some fairly big changes happening with Cub Scouts too, in that we are making sure that we are not doing "extra" activities just because they are tradition, but are only doing them if they are meeting the goals of strengthening testimonies and families.