March Meanderings

Josh finally got some work this week, thanks to the generosity of our friend Lane.  He has a Jersey cow that he uses as a nurse cow for raising calves, and circumstances were such that he needed to have someone milk her (Natalie is her name) for a few months.  With the milk he gets, he will nurse four calves and sell them in a few months for a handsome profit.  It's a very generous deal from Lane, and we're very grateful that Josh will have some cash flow.  It's like a part-time job to do the milking twice a day on your own, so this is an adjustment, but he's been doing very well!

Today, one of Josh's best friends for the past eleven years, Drew, gave his Farewell talk in our ward, and he'll be leaving on Tuesday for his mission in Iowa.  He has spent countless hours at our house just hanging out over the years, so I feel like our family has a small part in sending him out as well as his own.  Josh also received his Duty to God Award today.  Congratulations Josh!

Joseph and Jesse have been busy with Choir happenings.  They sang in Solo & Ensemble Festival last week.  Joseph sang a duet with Amanda called "When I Close My Eyes" that was beautiful.  Jesse and her best friends Kalli sang "I'm a Wanderer", which is a spiritual.  They got a high enough score that they got to do a repeat performance at the high school choir concert.  Jesse also accompanied for three people, including Joseph and Amanda.


The High School Choir concert was awesome!  The Madrigals sang an extremely technical song called "The Sounding Sea", and it was one of the highlights of the evening.  Mary also had a Middle School concert the week before that, and she had fun doing that.

She had such a busy month of February playing the piano and the organ, that it was a miracle she got through it.  She had Piano Festival (which she got a "Superior" rating on - Yeah!), the Solo & Ensemble Festival, which I just talked about, she accompanied the congregation on the organ, and she played for the choir too.  Good thing she loves to play the piano and sing!

Mary also played in Piano Festival (and got a "Superior" also - Wahoo!), and sang "The Call" in the Middle School Solo & Ensemble Festival.  She sang beautifully - I was so proud of her.  Mary had some time off of soccer and track (yes, I know - two sports is crazy) this week because of a hurt knee.  We have been putting Lemongrass, Marjoram and PanAway essential oils on it, and they have helped it heal much more quickly than it would otherwise. 

Peter has had two outdoor soccer games, with Bruce as his Coach.  He plays goalie for half the game, trading off with other players.  He also played in Piano Festival - one song called "Race Across the Serenghettti" and another called "Un Poco Espanol", and he got an Excellent rating.

Libby played  "A Knight's Tale" and "Bewitching Boogie" for Piano Festival and got a "Superior" rating!  Way to go Libster!  She also had a gymnastics performance last weekend, and she was the only one to do several hard moves.  She is going to start soccer this week, and now soccer and gymnastics are on the same day!

Bruce Josh and Joseph have had a great time playing for an Indoor Soccer League, and I've had a ball being their #1 fan.  They have a really good team, so watching them is a clinic in soccer every week.  Their last game was this week, so now they're thinking of signing up for a new round of play, which I hope they do!

I gave a lesson today in Relief Society about Service, which was really fun.  I enjoy teaching RS!

The Lord has been blessing us in so many ways, and we are so grateful.

Honor Choir and Other Happenings

Joseph and Jesse sang in the local "Honor Choir".  It was where all the smaller schools in the area had choir students audition to be in this Honor Choir.

All of the students from our high school that participated in the choir.  Jesse is on the bottom row on the left, and Joseph is near the top row on the left.

They rehearsed on three Monday nights, and all day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then performed on Wednesday night.  For the concert they sang four songs, and they were very unique and beautifully done.  I loved that concert.  So did Joseph and Jesse.  Jesse said she was as happy singing up there as she had ever been in her life.  She does love to perform!  And Joseph - we had several friends comment that they couldn't keep their eyes away from Joseph because he look liked he was having so much fun.

During one of the songs, the conductor, unrehearsed, told the choir members to join hands.  Joseph never heard him say that.  The irony of it was that Joseph was standing right next to a really cute girl that he has had his eye on for awhile now.  When he found out that he could have held her hand for four minutes and fifty five seconds, he couldn't believe his bad luck!  Ha ha  Oh, we had a good laugh over that one. Jesse did hear the conductor say that, and got to hold the hand of one of her good friends who's a very handsome fellow.  She said that wasn't so bad.  :)

Josh is home again, and this time to stay for nine days for Thanksgiving.  He has been playing the guitar non-stop, and it's beautiful.  He told me that his roommate Stephen said, "Josh, you can play Silent Night a million times, but please play something in between."  Ha ha!  Uncle Craig was nice enough to let Josh borrow his guitar this semester.  I guess that will have to be a future purchase for Josh since he's getting so good.  Thanks Craig!  Speaking of Craig, he and Jennette went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and took a small side-trip over to visit Josh.  I wish we could have been there.  Thanks guys for taking the effort to go and see Josh!

Bruce and I spoke in Church today.  My talk was based on Elder Richard C. Edgley's talk "Faith - The Choice is Yours" from October Conference.  I chose to focus on faith over fear, and I told three different stories.  I told of when the missionaries were killed in Bolivia, when there was that trouble on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where Palestinians were killed, and then when that guy threatened Pres. Hunter in the Marriott Center at BYU during a devotional.  The parallel I drew between all of them was that when frightening things happen, the adversary attempts to distract us from our work and fulfilling our purpose by using fear as a tool.  Fear is immobilizing, and is the opposite of faith, which is motivating and gets us moving and working.

Bruce spoke on Elder Richard G. Scott's talk, also from General Conference.  One of the poignant images I had from the talk was when Bruce described our faith as fine pottery that we have worked very hard to create, and that has gone through the furnace of affliction.  Even so, it can be shattered in a moment by transgression.  Thus, we have to be ever-vigilent and careful to keep it safe.

As a follow-up on my eating too many calories trying to keep myself awake, I found this week that I could drink water and get a similar effect.  So I made sure I had a water bottle on hand all the time.  And I also realized that if I make sure I have vegetables on hand, I can eat all the veggies I want and that will help keep me awake without contributing to an overload of calories.  I also worked really hard on getting to bed on time this week!

This is a fun picture that I didn't add last week.  I think Josh is the coolest in this picture! I'm gonna get grief about that from all the other kids, including Bruce - ha ha.

It's been snowing today!  I like it when it snows.  If it's going to be cold, I like to see white instead of brown and gray.  I am so grateful to have a warm home and to be here with all my family in it, and another family as well!  We have been blessed, and continue, every day, to see the hand of the Lord in our lives.

Programs and Preludes

Mary finished her map of South America on Monday made out of play dough of every color. This uncluttered our fridge considerably, as Mary had put each color of play dough in a big bowl and stuffed the bowls all through the refrigerator. Gotta love it!

This is Libby at her 1st grade music program. It was titled The Turkeys vs. The Eagles. Libby was an Eagle, and her line was, "Listen here you turkey birds!" I love her innocence and willingness in this picture. "Unless you become as a little child.." comes to mind.

On Wednesday night we went with Jesse to Young Women in Excellence. The program involved all of the Laurels speaking about one of the YW values, and as they talked about it, they put together a fruit pizza, with each value color being represented by a piece of fruit (the frosting - white, blackberries - purple, pineapple - yellow, strawberries - red, blueberries - blue, etc.) It was so creative! It was a great program, and I think Jesse got some good ideas for projects she wants to do. She got to go to Twilight yesterday, and then came home and re-read the book (for the third time) in seven hours. She is a FAST reader, without loosing anything on the comprehension end.

Josh also had a program this week for an Honor Choir that he was in. The choir was composed of students that tried out and then came together for two evenings and two days of workshops with a special conductor and then a performance. It was a great concert and they sang beautifully. I thought what a treat it was for him to perform with enough male voices!

We re-scheduled Joshua's Eagle Court of Honor! It will be Saturday, January 3, 2009 (wow I wrote 2009!) at 6:00 pm at our chapel. You are all formally invited. :)

Peter got the most pieces of candy at his Den meeting for having his uniform, his book, and his tin can ready to make his drum. He's a good Cub Scouter! You have to know that I had nothing to do with this - he did that totally on his own.

The discussion around the dinner table tonight was about the resources our family had to offer others (our ward in particular) in times of need, besides money - which we don't have. It was really interesting to hear their answers. One of my answers was that we are a family of faith, with cheerfulness and optimism.

I recently saw this quote by Brigham Young, and I don't think these are exact words, but it something like this, "The riches of this people lie not in our assets, but in our ingenuity and industry."

I told about our friend Lane, who was inspired to organize a group of men to work for three hours to move two jack-knifed trailers off a mountain road and in the process, opened up a way for an ambulance to get by to go and rescue somebody higher up on the mountain who had fallen and broken his leg. Lane didn't know this at the time, but that somebody was Dave, his dear friend and next-door neighbor who had had a horse step on his leg and shatter his ankle, and cause a compound fracture of his tibia and fibula. Having already laid in the snow for seven hours on the mountain, if the ambulance had not gotten there when it did, Dave might not have made it through (this is a whole other story of miracles). Lane used ingenuity and industry to get those trailers moved, and quite possibly saved Dave's life.

As a side note, Lane said of the whole group of men standing around waiting for the tow trucks to come (which never did), only about half stepped up to help. The other half just stood on the side and made negative comments. An interesting parallel to the mathematics of the ten virgins, no?

I really took a lot of short-cuts on this story - there is more to it, so if you ever want to know, ask me (or Lane or Dave).

Finally, I am highly recommending you read this blog - Mormon Soprano. It has a video clip of Elder Neal A. Mawell's Devotional Talk in 1978. It is absolutely fascinating to hear him describe our day in such detail. You've just got to hear it - and even better, follow the link to the actual talk and read it. I found it amazing.

Also, I recommend this blog as well entitled Article VI. It's especially interesting in light of Elder Maxwell's words!

Have a good week everybody!