Unity and Love

After teaching about the gathering of Israel last Sunday, I found it interesting that the topic for this week was Zion...where we are gathering. Zion is built with unity and love say the scriptures and Elder Christofferson's last conference talk that we studied today. I thought it was a pretty good description of what I am TRYING to do with life. I felt like in the trying, I was given power, enabled, to do and be better than myself. That said, I guess the day to day activities weren't anything too impressive...

-getting my Monday morning out (thanks to Randy) to exercise and then do the weekly grocery shopping.

-making yummy frozen yogurt for our FHE activity.

-taking the kids to the library (twice...one storytime and one little art project program. The program was fun because they had the kids "warm-up" their hands by coloring up and down then side to side then around in cirlcles and finally zig zag. I thought that was the perfect, simple, easy way to teach little people to write the different lines they need to learn to form letters! The library we went to is also new and has a beautiful deck where we're planning a picnic for next time, fun little places to play and sit in the children's area, and check yourself out stations that are fun!)

-coaching soccer practice (and attending the Saturday game...had all the kids that day while Randy was at a funeral so I didn't do too much coaching).
-playing at the park with some other families in the ward.

-delivering dinner to a neighbor with a new baby.

-having a game night with another family in the ward...kickball in the rain was fun!

-going to the temple with Randy and conversing over what the greatest need of our family is right now. I think we both came up with...time. Randy is under an especially lot of pressure and stress, past overwhelmed I think, and now going through the motions to get through another day. I pray for him and try to do all I can to cheer and bless his way. I feel that he is losing his life in service and know that he will be blessed to gain his life when he passes through these trials faithfully. Despite his struggling, he is taking kids to meetings with him, letting me get out of the house, playing games on Sunday, helping out in the kitchen and with the little people...he is hanging in there and wearing out his life in service to us and others. Bless his heart and pray for his strength to continue without failing until life calms down some!

I had fun...

Seeing the boys in the matching pajamas they got for Easter...why didn't I think to take a picture of the girls in their dresses?! (Oh, here is one of Ada with the skirt anyway.)

Passing out invitations to the neighbors for a church open house with my family for FHE. I especially liked eating refreshments at the end and hearing the children express how happy it made their hearts feel. Mine felt the same!


Taking the kids to a science program at the Library on wind...the little people especially liked the bubbles!

Sending each child with Randy one night this week to a scout meeting and doing something a little more relaxed than the regular schedule with the others.

Having the kids go to the dentist and hear how much they LOVE it because of all the little prizes they come home with. (Not to mention watching how Peter and Ada each chose a prize to bring home for Mary Joy as well. Such sweet moments make a mother's heart so pleased!)

Getting to spend a lot of the day on Friday outside enjoying beautiful weather.

Talking to sisters and friends on the phone...it had been too long since I took some time to do that.

Preparing for and teaching the Sunday School lesson.

Practicing soccer in the rain with Ada and another girl on our soccer team...then meeting the rest of the sweet 5 and 6 year-olds for the first time at our Saturday morning game.

Watching Randy trying to juggle the little people while I tried to coach/referee the soccer game.

Seeing the pizza handprints of Paul left on the wall and taking this cute picture of him.

Noticing how Randy started sweeping, tidying, and dust-busting kitchen messes and letting him know that I noticed and appreciated his efforts!

Finishing off the items on my overwhelmingly long to do list.

Isn't life fun! From President Monson: "How might we have joy in our lives, despite all that we may face? Again from the scriptures: “Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you.”³

General Conference/Spring Break Vacation

This past week we took a vacation! Since we don't have TV at home and watch General Conference on the computer or at the Stake Center, we decided it would be fun to take a trip (hoping that this would be a good way to make General Conference memories for the kids). We invited Aunt Cindy (my sister) to come along since Randy would have to get back to work and didn't dare take all five kids myself. We ended up in Ocean City, MD. We stayed from Friday to Friday and took little day trips to lots of sights in the area. I'll have to refer everyone to Cindy's blog for a full report since I am sure that she will do a much better job reporting it than I will. I will add a few of my favorite pictures (courtesy of Cindy).








It was pretty cold and windy so we tried to find indoor things to do though we did walk on the boardwalk, fly kites and play in the sand on the beach, and come home with lots of sea shells. We also visited an old furnace town, an island with wild horses, wildlife refuge, duck museum, the mall (to get Randy a new suit...Cindy had fun walking the mall with five kids in tow!), the entrance to a NASA visitor center (too bad it was closed), and other things that I'd have to go back and think about. We enjoyed several picnics inside of the car to get out of the cold. Here we have pictures of our conference arrangement, we had to go and use the internet in an upstairs room of the check-in center...Peter invited the employee to come and listen and Cindy gave her a pass-along card. We got latch-hooks for Peter and Ada to work on and tried to convince Paul and Mary Joy to take naps in the big window wells (though I think Randy got a snooze out of it to0)! Cindy was surrounded by kids wanting her to play games, take their picture, and watch everything she was doing. One evening we took a really nice nature walk and found a barrier rope that Cindy and the kids started jump roping with...that was fun! It sure was nice of her to come and put up with the cries at night, the kid stories playing in the car on the drive, the requests to take pictures or have a picture taken, etc. We really enjoyed having her with us and plan on inviting her (and anyone else that we can convince to visit) again!