Family Happenings

Quiz: This is a baby picture of one of our children. Any guesses which one?
Libby got a kite at a friend's birthday party, and one evening, she wanted to fly it. In my limited experience, kite flying has not been successful, so with the little dollar store kite, I didn't have much hope. But I've obviously never flown one in windy Idaho.

It went right up and Libby and I had a fun time flying this kite!Here's Josh singing with the high school Madrigals at the 100 year celebration of our town.
Later on the same day, Josh went to Prom with Mary. I've been hoping Josh would go out with Mary for a long time, because I like her so much, and this was the right time. They doubled with Jancen and McKenzie, Josh and Krissy, Sterling and Hannah, and Dallin and Jayme. For their "day date", they rode tandem bikes on the green belt. After gathering for pictures, they went to dinner at a fine Italian Restaurant, and then to the dance. I am continually grateful that Josh has consistently chosen good friends, and these are no exception.

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference! I felt that the theme of the conference was how to teach and guide the youth. This is not surprising seeing that I'm in the throes of doing that very thing.

The next week, Joseph was asked to speak in Church. He took all these talks from General Conference and coalesced them into a wonderful talk. He said that when he wrote the talk, he felt that it was exactly what he should say.

Jesse went to a clogging competition. We didn't get to go with her because I wanted to be here for Josh's prom date, but she had a good time. I was so glad to see her when she got home!The same night as Prom, we had an Un-Prom party for Joseph and his friends that didn't go to prom. It was fun - we had teenagers in and out of the house all night long. One time I went out on the back porch and found two of them on the roof! (It's easy to access from our back deck). Needless to say, they were asked to come down. I had to smile later, though, when I overheard the girl telling her friend that when they were up there talking, she was testifying the guy about the importance of serving a mission. :)

I've been having so much fun with Young Living Essential Oils. I set up a new website this week that I'm really excited about. It's lorena.vibrantscents.com and lorena.myningxia.com. It's explains a lot why I love these essential oils. The myningxia.com website is about NingXia Red, which is a juice that is very high in nutrition and anti-oxidants. We drink it almost every day as a family, and love it.

Bruce and Peter went horseback riding almost every day last week, and Joseph joined them one day also.

The last two days have been WARM with no wind. Absolutely heavenly. Spring has sprung!

Bruce, Jesse, Mary and I are starting a Health Challenge this week. We get points for not eating refined sugar, exercising for 60 minutes, not drinking pop, eating a healthy breakfast, drinking at least 80 oz. of water, eating a handful of vegetables, and doing all these for six days a week. The challenge lasts for 7 weeks. Each participant puts in $10. Whoever has the most points at the end of the 7 weeks gets the whole pot of $$. It's community wide, and 32 people are in it so far. Jesse said earlier, "All these adults think they're going to win, but they're not because I'm going to win." Ha ha. Since there are four of us in the household, I think we are going to be pretty competitive about it! If you want more details, I can send you the blog address. I don't want to publish it here because it has the name of our town on it, and I try not to publish that in this blog.

One last word - Mary gave a wonderful talk in Church today about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She was a really good sport too, because I knew about the talk on Tuesday, and forgot to tell her until late Saturday night. Yes, it's true - Saturday night. We got up at 6:45 this morning and worked on it together. Thankfully it was an easy topic with easy material to find. I was proud of her though, because she just got up and gave the talk and didn't say anything about who called her to speak, or when, or how she prepared it that morning. She just dove into the talk. Good job Mary!

Easter

We had a full day of soccer yesterday, among other things.

This is what happens when you have six soccer players, two coaches and five referees in one family. Every Saturday I write out a schedule that looks something like this:

4/11/09

7:30 am – Mom goes to ref a U10 game at 8:00am. Josh goes on date with Hannah.

8:20 am – Dad takes Jesse, Libby and Joseph. Libby & Jesse to games at 9:00 am. Dad and Joseph go to their game at 9:00 am

9:00 am - Mom refs Libby’s U8 game. Jesse refs a U10 game. Then they go over to finish watching Joseph’s game.

10:30 am – Mom takes Joseph and Jesse to referee U8 and U10. Mom and Libby go to Saddle Shop to buy Ellie a present.

11:00 am – Joseph and Jesse ref U8 games.

11:20 - Mom takes Peter to game. Joseph will ref a U6 game at 12:00pm and Peter will play a U10 game at 12:00 pm with Mom refing that game; Jesse referees at 12 also.

1:00 pm Mom picks up Kami at her house, then takes Joseph, Jesse and Peter home, and then leaves with Mary for game at 1:30 pm. First they drop off Libby at the Emalie's (call on this!)

2:20 – Dad takes Joseph, Jesse and Peter to game. Jesse plays, Dad and Joseph referee. Peter plays there at the park.

3:00 – Mom and Mary have their U12 game and come home.

6:00 Send Josh off to Senior Prom. Pick up Libby at Emalie's.

6:30 Go to Judson’s missionary party (we never did this – too tired!)

8:00 Watch Twilight. Maybe. If it comes in the mail.

______________________________

If I don't do this, a lot of bad things happen.

If I do, only a few bad things happen, like Bruce leaving Peter at the Park. Jesse wants me to add that she remembered him, once they got home. They did go back to get him, but he had already gotten a ride home with the neighbors.

As I said in the schedule (if you got that far before you fainted of dizziness):

Josh went to Senior Prom on Saturday night with Hannah.Every one of these dresses was handmade. This is when you know you're in Idaho! Are you saying, "WOW...", because that's what I'm saying. I'm afraid I won't be doing that for Jesse. Of course, I never thought I would be milking a cow, and making whole wheat bread, butter and yogurt either. I've got less than three years to figure out how to make a prom dress...
They had a lot of fun, and Josh enjoyed the date! Here is a link to my Picasa web set that has more pictures.

This morning we had a nice breakfast together, sang some Easter Hymns, and then brought out everyone's new Sunday clothes. This is the tradition we have to remind everyone of the Resurrection - of being new and clean. (See the results in the new picture on the blog header!)

I was deeply touched by the program in our Ward today for Easter. Mary sang "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" with six other Activity Days Girls. It was beautiful, and the Spirit was strong. I couldn't believe that there were so few girls that age compared to all the Cub Scouts at the Pinewood Derby!

After Mary sang, our dear friends, Fred and Amy, gave wonderful talks. Most of Amy's extended family was sitting behind us, and it was so beautiful to see them all sitting in that row together.

The Bishop added his comments afterward. I was glad to be on the front row, because I don't know if others sitting farther back could tell how deeply he felt about what he was saying. He testified that when we come before Jesus at the Judgment Seat, we will want to be with Him. I believe that wholeheartedly. We will want more than anything to be surrounded and abide in the presence of such light and love as we never dreamed of here on earth.

The Church published this video on YouTube:



As I pondered these images in Sacrament Meeting today, I thought about the vicious beating that Christ received at the hands of the Roman soldiers before they took him to the cross. I thought of how only hours before, he had suffered for each of their sins, individually, in the Garden of Gethsemane. I pondered on the depth and breadth of a soul that could take each one - the one that used the lash, the one that pushed the thorns into his head, the one that nailed his hand onto the beam, Pilate, and even Herod, to whom He spoke not a word when interrogated by him; all these, he took one by one and fulfilled his part of suffering every last ounce of the weight of their sins, and their own personal sufferings.

I know and feel deeply that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and the Savior of all mankind. I have never had a time in my life when I didn't know that. I have spent the balance of my life using that knowledge and feeling to do and to become what He wants me to become. I want more than anything to be in the presence of my Savior, and my Father in Heaven, surrounded by those I love. The reason I want that is because I know that They are full of light and love, in the deepest sense of what those two sacred words mean, and I belong there.

This is the basis of every decision, every choice that I make. And, oh, how many "course corrections" I have to make! But I will get there, because that is where my course is charted, and I am sure that whatever we most deeply, deeply want in our lives, that we will receive.