Saturday, March 21, 2015
Our week has gone well.
I was glad to ease back into school only having to go three days this
week. On Monday Karalee and Marlee
really wanted to set up a Lemonade Stand.
They (and I monitored since they are so young) stayed out for about an
hour and made $9.50. Other than that we relaxed
and enjoyed the day off school.
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| Ralaxing |
Tuesday was the last day of Spring Break. That morning the boys had basketball
camp. The girls went to Grammy days and
I went to the temple. I am SO thankful
to have a temple nearby where I can quickly run and do service in the temple
when I have a couple hours. As I walked
up to the temple and while I was inside I really felt strongly how blessed I am
and how much the Lord wants to bless all of his children. I was able to do sealings with an emeritus
general authority, Elder J. Richard Clarke.
He was a member of the presiding Bishopric and a member of the
presidency of the seventy. He is a
snowbird and will be going back to Utah in a couple of weeks. I asked him if he will work in the temple in
Utah when he moves there for the summer and he said, “Yes, but I don’t work
in the temple, I serve in the temple.”
The way he said that reminded me of my dad when I would ask him if I had
to go riding. He would say, “No you get
to go riding.” It’s important to have
the right perspective about things. J
After the temple, Grammy days and basketball camp were over,
the kids and I had a lunch date at the new Barro’s pizza that opened up across
the street. Later that afternoon Amy and
her kids came to play in our back yard. Amy’s
son Jason was very talkative to me this time.
I’m glad he knows who I am now and that we’re good friends. I love being an Aunt. I’m sure glad my kids had so many
opportunities to play with their cousins over spring break. For mutual that night our laurels class
decorated plates with sharpies. They
turned out cute. After you decorate them
you bake them in the oven for a while so they sharpie won’t wash off.
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| The kids like to play a form of breddish (not sure how to spell that) bulldogs on the slippery slide. It really isn't very safe and someone usually ends up crying, but I decided to let them find out for themselves on this one. |
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| Cute Sally |
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| Beautiful Mary |
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| My new buddy Jason |
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| A few of the plates we decorated at our laurel activity |
Wednesday the older kids went back to school. I mowed the lawn after I worked out that
morning. That afternoon I planned our
menu for the next little while and went grocery shopping with the kids after
they came home from school. Shopping
with the kids reminded me of why I usually shop while they’re at school. It’s a lot more work to shop with kids.
Thursday afternoon I worked on a little Personal Progress
again. If you are interested in reading
my journaling about that you can read it HERE. That afternoon Marlee had choir. I’m looking forward to her concert. Chad’s flag football game (which happens to
be in north Mesa, 30 minutes away) that night ended up being a forfeit. Luckily, he had gone to his game straight
after a work meeting in Scottsdale so he didn’t drive all the way over there
for nothing. I gave Chad and the boys
haircuts that night.
Yesterday (Friday) Spencer and Tilly had doctor appointments. Spencer got his physical for scouts and it
will count for school sports next year too since it is after March 1st. Spencer also had his ear follow up since his
ear trouble while were on vacation. He
still can’t hear out of it well. The
doctor said it looks like he has swimmers ear because there is a lot of fluid
in there, but if it really did burst it’s healed up now. We just have to monitor it here at home to
make sure he doesn’t start having trouble again. Tilly had a well check and got her MMR
vaccination. I am really slow about
getting vaccines for my kids, but still think they are important. Yesterday afternoon I tried a new chocolate,
chocolate chip cookie recipe I got from my friend Brittany Call. It was very yummy. Instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used
milk chocolate chips and also added a little bit of Andes mint pieces. Chad and Spencer went on a deacon's backpacking
hike/campout that afternoon. They asked
Chad to come because they needed more trucks to get all the boys to their
location. Chad was happy to go. This time it was a much longer hike. While they were gone the rest of the kids and
I grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy’s and then went to watch the new Cinderella
movie. I really liked it. I loved its message about kindness and
courage.
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| Tilly sure loves to line things up. I hope she doesn't become really obsessive about it. |
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| Tilly's reward for helping me with the chocolate cookies. I sure love my cute little helper. |
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| Karalee had a school field trip to Butterfly wonderland on Friday. Her friend's mother sent me the pictures she took of Karalee. That was so thoughtful of her. |
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| Karalee's whole class with their matching tie dyed shirt they made at school. The B stands for Miss Braidi. |
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| Karalee with her friends Reagan and Capri |
Today the kids and I rode our bikes to Sonic to get a soda or
snack after we got our chores done. I
let the kids order one thing off the value menu $1.50 or less. Currently Bryant
and Karalee each have a friend from school over to play. Chad and Spencer still aren’t back from the
hike/campout. I hope everything is
ok. Chad has a priesthood leadership
meeting at 4:00 this afternoon and then we have our adult session of stake
conference at 7:00. He’s not going to
get much rest today.
I’ll finish this week’s letter up tomorrow.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Chad and Spencer didn’t get home from their scout outing
until about 3:00 pm. They reported that
it was a much longer hike, but they had a good time. Chad said he had to carry one of the deacon’s
packs for a large portion of the hike. Both
Chad and Spencer were pretty tired when they got home, but Chad went to his
Priesthood leadership session of stake conference and then he took me to the
adult session of stake conference and stayed awake the whole time. I’m so grateful for a good, stalwart husband. I was promised a stalwart Priesthood holder
for my husband in my patriarchal blessing and I’m glad I lived worthy enough to
receive that blessing in Chad. I sure
love him.
Stake Conference was wonderful last night and today. The kid’s all did really well and since they
had a stake youth choir this time Chad was around to help me out. It was much better than my
last Sunday morning stake conference session experience that almost brought
me to tears.
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| I love these pictures of Bryant and Karalee. They are beginning to become good friends for which I am so grateful. They can still argue pretty good with each other, but thankfully that is happening less than it used to. The top picture was taken Friday night. The bottom picture was taken this morning. Bryant and Karalee got up earlier than everyone else and quietly started a game of stratego. |
This evening Chad, the kids and I are going to go visit
Joseph’s grave. This Thursday would be
his 12th birthday. My
children know who he is and talk about him.
We love him and look forward with hope to being gathered as an eternal
family with him in Heaven. Over the last
few years, I’ve thought about verses 4-6 in 3 Ne. 10 regarding gathering. I wondered what I needed to do to let myself
be gathered. Initially I thought about
making covenants and allowing myself to be gathered into the church. However, recently I’ve come to realize that
it is much more important to allow myself to be gathered into the different families
that I belong to. Families are the
organization of Heaven.
Instead of one quote to end with today, I will share the
quotes from our Stake Conference that really stood out to me.
- The barometer of our conversion is how we serve outside of our callings. – Pres. Neher
- “Man’s greatest happiness comes from losing himself for the good of others.” – David O. McKay
- If you get close to Him [Christ], your love for your fellow men will increase and you will see your weakness a feel the need to repent – Pres. Derrick
- We are going to run aground on our inability to love other people. We need to change. He asked us to read Elder Oaks talk about loving others and living with differences.
- Blessings come--some come early, some come late and some come in heaven. – Bro. Spencer
- Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given us a gift that allows us to repent. It won’t matter how many times we need the gift as long as it is used each time it is required. – Pres. Trendler
- If you want to move on with your life, you have to forgive. Do it for you. –Pres. Trendler
- The law of the fast falls under the law of sacrifice as does tithing. … Just as bad habits can harmfully penetrate generations, this law of sacrifice [fasting] penetrates many generations for good. – Pres. Derrick
Love,
Mindy
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