General Conference Weekend

 

Our flooring finally arrived!!! I am so excited for new floors, the install will happen Thursday and Friday next week. Can I just say that September flew by? Gracious, autumn is here in full force. I love all the fall colors on the trees. There is one particular tree around our area that has several "layers" of colors starting at deep red on the outer leaves and moving to yellow inside the canopy, the effect is lovely. Amelia helped me decorate "the table" with fun Halloween themed decor. 

Mornings are cool and almost frosty now. Evelyn noticed curls of steam coming off the trampoline one morning. The younger kids all rushed out to touch the steam that was cold and not burning hot. We had a nice scientific discussion about how steam is produced. Josie was thrilled even her breath made cool patterns in the early sunlight. I found a really cute baby Yoda boy's jogging suit at Walmart. I painted the set with hot pink fabric paint for a girly look. Josie helped guide the decoration by suggesting I add three hearts to show how much she loves baby Yoda. I pulled out the fun Halloween shirts for the kids to add into their wardrobes this week. Everett, Evelyn, and Josie finally got their Ronald Reagan Roadrunner sweatshirts we ordered during school last week. I love how the girls are swamped in their shirts, so cute and squishy. 

The kids are allowed to watch a show or play Minecraft for an hour on Wednesday after school once their chores and music practices are completed. I loved that Evelyn and Josie chose to make their own laptops with Oliver out of cardboard boxes. The little girls are constantly coloring, cutting, glueing, and etc as they practice skills learned at school. Evelyn is working on her spelling words several times each week. Josie just cranks out the cutest art projects for Justin and I with drawings of my in a princess dress and Justin with a bald head and glasses. She learned how to spell "mom" and "dad" on her own so she now incorporates those words into her art. Yesterday she was carefully drawing me, adding three fingers to each side. She paused and grabbed my hand carefully counting 5 fingers per hand...she counted three fingers on her drawing...slapped her forehead and muttered, dang I need to add more fingers! She counted the three fingers on her art then drew two more fingers per hand. It was so cute to catch her noticing how many fingers are actually on our hands. One afternoon while walking home from school she whipped out a toothbrush from her hoodie pocket...though it appeared she pulled the toothbrush from her pants, combined with her silly expression I had a really good laugh! She is a funny koala. 

The kid's Millennial Choir attire arrived this week. I am relieved it all mostly fits, only minor length hemming is needed. The kids look so put together and cute wearing their outfits. I volunteered this week for the younger kids as a chaperone. I quite enjoy the rehearsals, it's fun to learn choir and singing techniques. He has the kids yawn and notice how their throat opens up, that is where your voice should come from. It was a very simple yet effective trick! The kids got assigned order by height this week, it was a challenge to organize the kids while still maintaining order. I signed Josie up for the children's choir, she loved her first rehearsal because she got to sit up on the stage. 

Friday Sara came with me to return some jeans at Ross and check out Joann fabrics for an art project. I certainly returned the jeans...and then spent more than I returned. Those Halloween/Fall dresses were super cute! The girls love wearing the popular milk silk dresses, I love the cut and comfort. I was looking for embroidery fabric for the kids to enjoy during conference sessions. All the kits were too expensive and the single fabric not thick enough. Sara helped me load up on cute fall decor, mostly fake pumpkins. She snuck several extra items in...like a Christmas wreath and a set of Halloween pumpkins, the wreath went back, pumpkins stayed. I spotted some thick aprons on clearance before I checked out, perfect for embroidery.  Justin and I got to see a new Marvel movie in the theater called Shang-Chi, the movie was funny and entertaining. 

General Conference was amazing! Amelia worked on some word art projects while taking notes. Phillip, Everett, and Josie worked on embroidery projects. Evelyn created some Barbie fashions with scrap fabric I gave her. I worked on a crochet bucket hat for Amelia. Saturday I started planting part of the 80 spring bulbs for some color next spring. Justin and the kids worked on prepping bikes for a ride, the kids were too whiny so Justin cancelled the ride much to our chagrin. The kids whined for hours. After the second session Justin up and left on a nice, solo motorcycle ride. I got an earful of whining for the next two hours. I was feeling a bit grumpy. Poo-poo on you. I channeled that negativity into cleaning and organizing the craft cabinet. That project took me about 4-5 hours, felt great to get everything back in order. Our van was MIA for the weekend. Brother Leavitt is going to try and fix the van door...again. This is the 6th time the door has broken. Argh. So annoying. He found the lock actuator motor was bad, got a new part for $40. I offered to pay him in a family photo session. He was confused until his wife shouted, "YESSSS!" from across the room. The kids were antsy by the last session of conference on Saturday. I found some "tickets" in my craft supply. The kids played with the tickets for the next 24 hours! Evelyn has a carnival planned, the tickets are safely packed in jars until the carnival. I love how something simple like $1 tickets from the dollar store can create a day's worth of entertainment. 

President Nelson opened conference with the announcement that the church now has 16.6 million members! That is so exciting! I remember while on my mission growth finally reached the 10 million mark. He invited us to "listen for three things during this conference: pure truth, the pure doctrine of Christ and pure revelation." My favorite, Elder Holland, spoke second. He addressed some concerns I have about unity, "If we love God enough to try to be fully faithful to Him, He will give us the ability, the capacity, the will and the way to love our neighbor and ourselves." We were invited over and over to build our foundation on Christ before more unprecedented times arrive. There is no safer place than the Salt City Temple once it is completed! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about using landmarks to lead the way instead of walking in circles. I also enjoyed the story about the British Cycling Team, who made small adjustments in many areas to slowly gain traction in the sport after being at the bottom since the sport began.  Elder Renlund also addressed unity saying "First, contention weakens our collective witness to the world of Jesus Christ and the redemption that comes through His ‘merits, ... mercy and grace,’ ... and everyone knows that we are not his disciples when we do not show love one to another; and Second, contention is spiritually unhealthy for us as individuals. We are robbed of peace, joy, and rest and our ability to feel the Spirit is compromised.” Those people fail the spritiual stress test! I am excited to strap down and study the words of our leaders. 

This week we studied about temples in Come Follow Me. The kids all were assigned a Pioneer Temple to research and tell us about in devotional. That was a quite fun for the kids! We watched the movie, The Mountain of the Lord about the SLC temple for Sunday devotional. Justin was assigned the Manti Temple, Amelia had Logan Temple, Phillip had the St George Temple, Everett taught us more about the SLC Temple, and Evelyn and I have the Nauvoo Temple!