Fun Filled Week

There is something to be said for the fact that I’d rather receive a calling than be asked to speak in sacrament. That’s why, while waiting to speak with the Bishop with Dad and the kids today, I was really hoping Dad was getting a calling (I already have one). But, alas, it was not to be. We’re speaking in church next week. Bishop Byrd even offered his daughter’s services to help mind our little ones while I’m on the stand. Let’s face it, while I love my husband dearly, he does not deal well with all the toddlers on his own. The last time I spoke in sacrament, I had to stop in the middle of my talk and tell him to take them out because they went so crazy when I went onto the stand. But hopefully with the extra hands, he’ll weather the storm better. Our talks are to be based on Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s “You Matter to Him” and Sister Barbara Thompson’s “Personal Revelation & Testimony”, addresses given at the October 2011 General Conference.

Last week was very busy, especially Saturday.

I had a splendid day at the Relief Society Super Saturday. We had several crafts for sisters to complete, lunch and lots of fun chatting. I made three crafts that I think are super cute. Two of my crafts were taught by a sister from Magna that has a store where she prepares craft kits called The Idea Closet. I made her “Home is Where the Heart Is” and Snowman blocks. My other craft was a glass box with black stickers placed on it in the shape of the Wiseman and the Star of Bethlehem and with a glittery ribbon around the edge. I suspect it will be very pretty at Christmas time with some lights around it. While I really enjoyed the crafts, I absolutely loved getting to chat with the sisters of the ward. For those that are not aware, the ward we moved into has Dad’s old girlfriend from high school living in it. This has been the source of some angst for my husband because he worried about awkwardness between her and me. But I was able to get to know her much better on Saturday and find that I like her very much. Afterwards, Dad laughed and said that it’s a good thing that there are no skeleton’s in closets that he has to worry about coming out or he might be in trouble

Rebekah’s school had drama try outs. She wanted to participate, but after some discussion, her father and I said ‘no.’ For several reasons. First being, the drama teacher’s letter home did little to convince us that this was a teacher we want to deal with on a regular basis. He doesn’t like it when the school plays are called ‘cute’ by the parents and will kick out any child that misses more than two practices. The first – dude, you’re at an elementary school, not a high school or college. Get some perspective. The second, I could understand if he gave us a schedule of practices. Instead, he makes a huge deal of demanding that the parents sign to agree that their child will not miss any practices yet tells us he will let us know when practices are to be held on a weekly basis. Sorry buddy, but school drama does not come before family or church obligations in our household. Add to our instant dislike of the teacher’s attitude the fact that Rebekah is already involved with morning band and has a hard time fitting clarinet practice, homework and chores into her daily schedule (they don’t get home from school until almost 4PM). Thankfully, Rebekah handled the disappointment very well. We explained to her our concerns and reminded her that we’d been advised in General Conference the past few years to not over schedule our selves. She thought about it and agreed that Mom and Dad had a good point. Success! My oldest daughter is starting to see reason! Gives me such great hope for the future. Along with her good attitude, she has been an example of outstanding behavior and good attitudes for her little sisters recently. I cannot heap enough praise on this beautiful daughter of ours. We had a fun night on Saturday night just the two of us. After all her sisters were asleep, Rebekah couldn’t seem to settle down. Due to the good behavior exhibited recently, I invited her to have some popcorn and watch episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix with me until she felt tired. We had an enjoyable time together, watching corny episodes, giggling and just talking about whatever came to mind – the bonding time was invaluable to me.

Rebekah & Rose also had a church activity on Saturday. The Stake had an event for the Activity Days girls. They came home with book marks, chocolate scriptures and full of fun tales of the activities. Twilight fans will love this. One of the activities was to learn the primary song “The Books in the Book of Mormon”. For each book, they had a picture to hold up to remind the girls of the name of the book. For the Book of Jacob, they held up a picture of Taylor Lautner (the young actor that portrays Jacob Black in the Twilight movies). Dad declared that ‘just wrong!’ while I laughed myself silly over it.

Rachel and Robin have really been pushing boundaries this past week and have been trying my patience. They’ve been biting, hair pulling, being grabby hands and throwing tantrums every five minutes. I know that by being firm and consistent with repercussions for these bad behaviors, they will eventually stop. But I sure do hate these ‘testing phases’ that all children go through periodically. Especially when two of them decide to go through a phase together.

Ruth continues to grow and surprise us with new abilities. She is kicking strong with her legs now and pushing herself up very high when on her tummy. I don’t think it’ll be much longer before she’s scooting across the floor. In fact, Dad and I were discussing this evening that we need to get gates for the stairs in preparation for her becoming mobile.