FHE

There are a lot of types of family home evenings which take place in our home.

• There's the kind that didn't actually happen despite our best intentions because we got busy and someone had too much homework or life just got too crazy. That's not so good.
• There's the family home evenings well-prepared ahead of time by Dan or I with a short lesson, some sort of activity, and a big treat afterward.  That's good.  What's even better is if all the kids are sitting up and awake and participating without spending significant time in time out.  That's really good. That doesn't happen all the time, needless to say.
• But, by far, my favorite kind of FHE is the type that the kids prepare and present themselves.  Each of them has taken a turn doing a fantastic lesson recently.  All on their own - the preparation, the activities, the insights and testimonay.

If there is any payment for this really hard job called parenthood, this is it. To hear my children explain gospel principles and testify to the level of their understanding. To see them learn how to give an effective lesson and lead a discussion. To have a chance to better understand their thoughts and their unique personalities.

On Sunday both Joseph and Aubrey wanted to give the lesson (Aubrey has play practice on Monday nights, so for now FHE is Sunday evening).  So,we had a two part lesson and they shared the teaching assignment.

Joseph found a story in the Friend magazine that he wanted to share - it was about choosing appropriate media. He cut out the figures from the story and wanted to tape them to popsicle sticks so I could hold them up for him during the lesson. When he couldn't find popsicle sticks, he settled for taping them to plastic forks! During the day he and I also did a craft he found in the Friend - it involved crayon shavings, wax paper, and an iron, and created these really cute hearts.

Our art project also made a tremendous mess of crayon shavings all over the counter, but that's the price you pay for true artistic expression.

Aubrey had prepared a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She was passing off a goal she had set in the Personal Progress program. She created a great visual, gave clear explanations, led a discussion, showed us a wonderful Mormon Message that supported the theme, and then closed with her sweet testimony.
Everyone listened, everyone participated, nobody was in time out, there was a peaceful feeling and the Spirit was present in the room.

These are the family home evenings that make me feel great.

82 days!

This missionary is coming home in only 82 days! 

We absolutely can't wait to see Brandon. The two years have really flown by and we are so grateful he has had the chance to serve a mission. Right now Elder Porter is braving the Ukrainian winter for the second time and is continuing to work hard. His letters are a lesson in optimism despite challenging circumstances.  He has become a true student of the scriptures and studies them hungrily, looking for connections and greater insights. 

Hopefully he will be able to keep his mind and heart focused on his mission until the end . . .but as for us at home, we are getting "trunky!" We can't believe how soon we will get to give Brandon a big bear hug, see his smile up close and personal, and enjoy his sense of humor again! We made a paper chain countdown and wrapped it around the banister - one link for each day remaining until we see Brandon again.

Now we're working on ideas for his big welcome home at the airport and "transition to real life" gifts we will have waiting for him at home. Anyone have any ideas??

Here's a look at a few of the images from the past two years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We know that Brandon will have many stories to tell about his adventures in Ukraine. 

 Stay tuned . . . (82 days)!

Seasons

The other day I was looking back through pictures on my computer that I neglected to record in our family blog. I found these pictures and was struck by a few things.

I can't believe how fast the seasons fly. I snapped these photos in early November. Now, in February, spring is starting to show its green promise outside my windows. And yet it feels like this was just the other day.

Time flies, whether I want it to or not. On this day Joseph and his friends Alex and Chase were gleefully raking leaves in the front yard for the express purpose of jumping into them and throwing them up into the air to create a leaf shower.

 
 
Their joy was so complete and contagious that I stood and watched them for a long time as the sun set inexorably.

I could sense that this was a memory moment. A memory for Joseph, as he buried his head in the leaves and breathed in the pungent musty smell of decaying leaves and raced with his friends across the lawn and into the hastily raked piles.
 

And a memory moment for me, as I watch my youngest steadily and surely move through childhood days. I'm not sure I'm ready for those days to end, but that won't change the fact that the days and even the years are marching onward. So quickly it seems. Seasons pass on - and every new season has joys and challenges.

I am so privileged to be present in this season of life. I feel lucky to move through the seasons together with my kids and husband. I wouldn't wish away this time for anything. These are the moments that are engraving themselves on my heart.

 

Mormon Celebrities

I'm not into celebrities - I completely avoid any magazine or news show that prattles on about the lives of celebrities.  I just seriously don't care one bit about any celebrity's latest love interest, beach body, baby bump, or children.  In fact, I have a secret desire to go on the "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" game show (and I would spend all the money I earned to take us on a Disney Cruise, of course), but I just know that I would be stumped by the inevitable questions about popular culture and celebrities.

But there are a few celebrities that I get excited about.  I wish I had been as lucky as my sister Ali and been up close and personal with President Monson and Elder Holland (at the Kansas City Temple dedication last year).  I've never been that lucky.  But, at the Time Out For Women conference last November I was able to meet one of my few celebrity idols.  

This is a blurry iphone picture, but do you see the really cool thing about this picture?  That's me in the upper left hand corner and that's Sheri Dew smack dab in the middle. Yes - that is Sheri Dew taking a picture with me and a bunch of my friends.  You might notice that Sheri doesn't look exactly thrilled to be posing with a bunch of giddy women, and I don't blame her.  After her amazing talk at the Time Out for Women event in Portland last fall, I'm pretty sure she was trying to hightail it out of the building before she was mobbed. However, my friend Kristi (to Sheri's left) used to sing with Young Ambassadors and also performed at different events for church leadership.  Apparently, years ago, Sheri Dew paid Kristi a nice compliment about her performance, and Kristi wanted to thank her for it.  Because Kristi delayed Sheri long enough for the rest of us to run up to her, we all were able to snap a quick photo like a bunch of drooling celebrity enthusiasts.

Sheri Dew is one of my favorite women who I don't even know personally.  I love to listen to her speak. She is intelligent and spiritual and she doesn't mince words.  When I listen to her talks or read her books I feel inspired to be better  - more intelligent, more spiritual, more charitable, and a greater student of the scriptures.

This was an extra fun Time Out for Women event - it included teenage girls!  I bought tickets for both Aubrey and Bailey to attend.  The TOFW event was Friday night and all day Saturday, but the promotional materials for the Time Out for Girls said that there would be no separate programming for the girls on Friday night but that they were welcome to come with their moms.  Aubrey decided to come with me anyway on Friday, but Bailey decided to stick with her previous engagement - a Mia Maid sleepover with her friends from church.  

It wasn't until we got to the convention center that we found out that the plans had changed and the girls did have their own Friday night program, which included another of our very favorite Mormon celebrities.  Just look at who Aubrey met on Friday evening. . .

John Bytheway (!!)  who is a great speaker who has done many, many inspirational and hilarious talks for LDS youth. He was the surprise addition to the speaking schedule at Time Out for Girls.  Our kids know by heart every talk John Bytheway has ever recorded and we all love them.

Like I said, we didn't realize that Bytheway would be a speaker on Friday night.

So, while Aubrey was meeting one of her favorite celebrities, this is what Bailey was doing.
 
She had fun at the sleepover, but when she heard how much fun Aubrey was having, she wished with all her heart that she could join us. This was our text conversation Friday evening:

Me:  So, I just shook Sheri Dew's hand!  I'm on cloud 9!

Bailey:  Oh my gosh, Mom!!  You're famous!

Me (one hour later):  OK, even better.  In the Time Out for Girls, John Bytheway was there!!!! We are standing near him right now!  

Bailey:  YOU ARE KIDDING ME!!!!!!  NOOOO - I WANT TO MEET HIM!

Me:  Yep, we are standing in line to meet him!

Bailey:  Mom, you are KILLING me!!  Will you please tell him I'm a big fan?!?!  Oh my gosh, Mom.  I want to be there so bad right now.  (I did pass along her message - when we met Bytheway I very awkwardly said something like, "my 15 year old daughter wants you to know that she is your biggest fan."  It was very awkward and weird and I should have kept my mouth shut!)

Me (an hour later):  So, there's a chance John Bytheway will be there tomorrow.  As we were all meeting him, he told everyone, "see you tomorrow."  

Bailey:  Did you personally talk to him?!?!

Me:  We did talk to him. And shook his hand, got an autograph and took a picture.  

The next morning we picked up Bailey at 7 a.m. from her Mia Maid leader's house.  We drove to Portland and I got the girls and their friends settled in their conference room and then joined my friends in the main room.

A few minutes later I got this message:

Bailey:  JOHN BYTHEWAY IS HERE AND I'M GOING TO GET A PICTURE WITH HIM AT BREAK!!!!!!


Me:  Hooray!!!!!!!  (We were very liberal with exclamation points this weekend)

And she did get a very grainy but awesome picture with her favorite speaker/celebrity.  It's a good thing John Bytheway was so patient with all the teenage girls!

On a related side note, I have always meant to pass along my own thank you to John Bytheway by email or something. It wasn't the right time to do so when I had my 5 seconds face to face with him surrounded by 100 other women and teenagers (plus I was busy awkwardly tripping over my words and sounding like a stalker.)   But, this is what I wish I could have said/have always meant to say to John Bytheway:

"It is a hard thing to raise kids to be righteous, strong, and immovable in this increasingly morally dissolute world. My husband and I try to take advantage of every tool available to reach our kids and strengthen them. One of these tools which has been very helpful is the recordings of talks by you and other great speakers. For many years our kids have listened to the talks over and over until they have memorized them. I don't know how many times over the years I've tucked in the kids one at a time at night and heard a different Bytheway talk playing in each of their rooms. Many times the kids will reference a scripture or story or principle they learned in one of the talks - the principles of the gospel are being written on their hearts and are becoming part of their inner governing principles.  One of the ways this is happening is that they are consistently listening to uplifting and spiritually strengthening media.  Thanks for showing the youth that learning about gospel truths isn't boring - it's fun, and it's more than okay to have a good time doing it. And thank you for giving us some great tools to use as we do our best to parent our kids."

On Saturday we had a splendid time walking briskly through the beautiful fall weather to a restaurant for lunch.

What a fun weekend with my two favorite girls in the world!  I'm such a lucky mom.

This is a photo with all my friends who were at the conference with us.  I coordinated the ticket purchasing and rides for most of the group - it was a little complicated but worth it!

Firsts

Today was a first for Joseph . . . he decided to have hot lunch at school.  Not impressive, you say?  Well, then you don't know Joseph very well.  He is extremely cautious about food and has happily taken the exact same lunch to school every day since the beginning of 1st grade:

Danimal yogurt

Raw almonds or sunflower seeds or peanuts

5 slices of red pepper

chocolate milk or pineapple juice

That's it - he doesn't ever want a treat in his lunch, and he definitely wouldn't want a sandwich (that would involve bread).  We've tried to expand his culinary horizons, but he has insisted on this consistently boring yet admittedly healthy lunch every day.

But recently a few of the hot lunches have caught his eye.  Today he made the exciting announcement that he wanted to try hot lunch today:  Chicken Tenders, Baby Carrots, Delicious Apple Wedges.

Because he had never had hot lunch, he had no money in his account and had no idea how to work the passcode entry system, so I stuck around after helping with reading groups to make sure the money I sent had been deposited correctly.  As we walked from his classroom, he quietly repeated his lunch code over and over, worried that he would mess it up.  I hung back and watched as he successfully punched in the code and headed off toward the lunch trays, skipping the whole way.  It was clear that he was excited to be "one of the guys," eating just like his buddies.  And I did a happy dance on the way out of the school, grateful for miniscule signs of progress. 

Speaking of which, we have a new plan to motivate Joseph to complete a food challenge every week. After we finished occupational therapy last year, the idea was that we would continue to do a food challenge each week. The real truth is that life gets in the way and it was just plain HARD to remember to do this.  We were always struggling to think of a suitable incentive for each new food challenge.

Enter . . . the lure of the ipod touch.  He has watched enviously as his sisters have played with their ipod touches.  And he loves to commandeer my iphone to play games.  He knows that it won't do him any good to ask for the gift of an ipod touch for a few years.

Then I had a brainstorm.  We have an unused ipod touch right now - it was Bailey's before she got her new ipod touch a few years ago. I think it is a 3rd generation model, which means that it doesn't have a camera. But, it does have lots of other cool capabilities.

Dan and I explained to Joseph that we now own this ipod touch, but that we would rent it to him as a reward for completing food challenges.  Each time he successfully tries three bites of a new food - something we are all eating for dinner -  he "rents" the ipod touch from us for the next week.

This has worked like a charm!  He tried several new recipes of chicken and discovered that he liked them.  He also tried a few things he didn't end up liking, but at least he tried them. He polices himself and brings us the ipod at the end of his week of rental.  Right now he is working up the courage for another food challenge so he can earn it again for a week.

And, the last first for today . . . this is the first day in weeks that no one has been home sick.  Well, I'm not feeling the greatest and I'm home right now, but I won't count that.  We were hit by a nasty virus which is working its way inexorably through the schools and neighborhoods around here.  Sore throat, low-grade fever, achiness, cough, stuffy nose, and a persistence of symptoms for 1-2 weeks! I helped in the classroom today and was not surprised to see that every kid in the class was coughing and had a running nose.  No wonder we're all passing around such lovely germs - the schools are petri dishes of germiness.  I'm thinking we should all be quarantined to our homes until our illnesses run their courses ......

I've been reading research lately about some natural remedies which have shown clinical success in helping to boost the immune system.  I am undoubtedly a fan of western conventional medicine, but I'm beginning to see that there are some elements of "eastern" medicine and natural cures which work well in conjunction with westernized remedies.  So, these are the things I added to our arsenal the last two weeks:  echinacia herbal tea, Airborne effervescent tabs or Emergen-C, black elderberry syrup, astragalus, turmeric, and 1,000 mg. of Vitamin D per day (2,000 units per day for me and Dan).  Has my concoction worked?  I don't know.  I don't think it's hurt, at least. We have all still dealt with some illness, but for the most part the illness has been fairly mild.  I know that I feel better about things when I'm at least trying to do something proactive about attacking the viral enemies!

Memory Lane

Did I mention how much I enjoyed spending time with family while in Moses Lake for Grandpa's funeral?  It was like a mini family reunion.
 We stayed up late laughing and talking and reveled in every minute we were able to spend together as an immediate and extended family.  Hollis and Barry and Brent and Lora were especially kind to open their homes to family for several gatherings.  We ate delicious Chico's pizza (the best pizza on earth - I promise) one of the nights.  Scott, Ali, Kara, and I had a sibling getaway to get hot chocolate and Starbucks and we laughed so much that we couldn't even talk.  
I love my family and it was so much fun to be with them for a few precious days.

On the day most of us left to drive or fly home, we met in the morning for a whirlwind tour of Moses Lake (except for Kara and Lauren, who had left for home early that morning with Uncle Nyle).  The ML tour was mostly for Ali's benefit, as she hadn't been back since my wedding reception in 1989.  I have toured all my old stomping grounds a number of times over the years, but this time was especially meaningful, as we were able to talk about the places and events as a family.  Oh, memories . . .

We started the day with breakfast at our hotel where we did our best to not talk about politics. At least I did.

Any tour of Moses Lake must include the public library, where we spent a lot of our time as kids.  It still looks and smells identical to how it looked and smelled in 1970, and that isn't necessarily a good thing!

This little building used to be a drive-in shop where we bought milk in glass bottles.  Scott, Ali, and I remember that they always gave all the kids in the car a sucker, so we were always happy to go along on this errand.

This is Frank's Market, which looks exactly like it looked in the 1970s.  We would stop here every Wednesday afternoon after school to buy penny candy, as we walked from school to the church for Primary (which was held during the week until 1980).  We felt so delightedly independent as we spent our pennies and savored our candy on the way to the church.
 
This is, apparently, the first house I lived in as as baby.  I don't actually remember this, but my parents said that my Uncle Stan lived with us and he would lay on the floor and let me practice crawling over him repeatedly.

Next we lived in a house on the base, but we didn't take the time to drive all the way out there. After that we moved to this home on Cascade Avenue. We moved here in about 1975 (I think).  This is where Ali and Scott were both babies, I believe. This is also a home I remember very vividly - running around the back yard, storing my bike on the left of the house and grabbing it each summer morning to ride for hours around the neighborhood.  This is also where Kara and I began our illustrious musical career, as we sang along to our record of Neil Sedaka while singing into the handle of a hairbrush.  Lots of good memories here!  The house seemed so much bigger when I was little.

 

My Dad was Bishop of our ward just about the entire time we lived in this house.  We took a picture of him in front of the churchhouse, which is a few blocks over.

In 1978, we moved from this home and rented "the yellow house" in the country, not far from the home we were building. We lived there for a year. We stopped to take a picture of the house, which is still yellow, and Dad knocked on the door to let the nice couple know what we were doing. They invited us inside to look around but we were in a hurry to get Ali to the airport (which is two hours away in Spokane.) 

 
Once we moved to the yellow house we were in a new ward - Moses Lake 4th Ward. This is the ward I remember the best, as I attended from age 8 until almost 16 (when we moved to Utah).  It is a huge building.  Kara, Ali, and I attended an 11 a.m. Sacrament Meeting in this building on Sunday morning, and it was fun to look around the congregation to see if we recognized anyone at all.  For the record, I recognized exactly two people, but there were probably lots more people I should have recognized.

Finally, we spent quite awhile at the house that my parents built in the country. I am amazed every time I think about how brave they were. As a young and less-than-wealthy couple they bought the land at an auction and then planned and built the house all by themselves. And they had never done anything like this before!  My mom always likes to say that prior to building the house, the only fix-it thing my Dad had done was replace a toilet seat. They did an amazing job - my parents have great vision and an incredible belief in their ability to learn how to do just about anything.

This is the front of the house.  The window in the basement just to the left of the hose box (behind Mom) was my bedroom.  I helped my Dad finish it - at least I pounded quite a few nails.

This is the back of the house, but we always used it as the main door.  The house is at the end of a long lane off the main road, and the only way we got this close to it was that we totally trespassed. Luckily, the family wasn't home as we drove right up to their home and walked around the yard.

 

 These are the fruit trees we planted.  They were still tiny when we moved in 1986.

This is the view of pasture in front of the house (taken from the vantage point of Potato Hill Road) where our cows grazed.  It's also where I moved big irrigation pipes every day when I was 10 years old and where we sledded in the winter (with the sled tied to the back of the car).  The ride got extra bumpy when we hit frozen cow patties.  What country bumpkins we all were!

Ali took this great picture of the intersection closest to our house - these streets are loaded with memories for us.
 

Now the land surrounding our previous home is filled with nice houses on acre lots.  But, when we were kids most of the area nearby looked like this - very open and with fields of corn.

 It was great to visit the house with my parents, and they told us many stories we had forgotten. They got emotional talking about how hard it was to leave the home to move to Utah (where they both eventually attended graduate school).  They were ready to move from the small town of Moses Lake, but it was hard to leave something they had poured their whole hearts into.