A Manti trip and a Dream

Saturday we drove down to Manti to see the LDS Manti Pageant. I was surprised at how empty the town was. We’ve gone before and I remember people playing at the park and walking the streets. We didn’t see many people out at all. We went to the craft store and park. Then over to the church for a turkey dinner (they raise turkeys in Manti). I stood in line for a few minutes, made a mad dash for seats, but in reality, there was little competition. Since the pageant doesn’t start until dark, we went back to the hotel to hang out.
The pageant was beautiful. The kids were impressed by the volcano action. I loved the angels and the part where Mary, a young mother who dies on the plains, comes back to get her husband when he is shot by an arrow. That scene is enough to make anyone cry.
I had a funny dream while in Manti. I was at a neighbor’s house, checking their mail for them while they were out of town. I was making sure everything was okay when another neighbor starting chatting. She asked me something about the neighbors, but I couldn’t remember the names of the people whose house I was watching. I was totally embarrassed. Then I see a door inside the house open and close. I ask, “oh, they are home now?” They invite me in and we chat for a minute before the husband gets up, and grabs some paperwork and a baggie of pills. He says, “I am conducting a study on how well this drug will help people with memory loss from drug use early in life. I’m going to sign you up. Here are your drugs.” He writes my name on the clipboard.
I say, “I’ve never used drugs. Will it still help?”
His reply “I think it is obvious you’ve been involved with drugs from your memory problems. I’m signing you up.”
I say, “Don’t you need some background information?”
His reply, “I don’t think that will be necessary.”
I’m upset that he is doing everything wrong, but I really want the drugs (how’s that for a not being a drug user?!) so go along with it. Hysterical!

I woke up to husband knocking on the door (due to our large family, we had girls in one room and boys in another). 7:45… you’ve got to be kidding. Groan. I open the door – not! The deadbolt won’t open all the way. I shake the door, move the deadbolt in and out, but it won’t move all the way over. I go to the window and notice it is a full window, you can’t open it. I shout through the window that the door is stuck. Jay is looking at me like I’m an idiot. Seriously, the lock won’t open. He wiggles the door from the outside and I try again. No luck. He goes to the office, who promptly calls me. I explain and again I get the “are you serious?!” treatment. He instructs me to do the same thing Jay and I just did, again. It doesn’t work, again. The manager says he’s coming to the room. I hurry into some clothes. He starts pushing and shoving the door. I turn the deadbolt and VIOLA- it works. I tell him it is a good thing there wasn’t a fire. That would have been bad. He promises to change the lock. Seems like I can’t go anywhere without having some kind of problem with the hotel. Rolling eyes.
We leave Manti rather quickly. We still had lots of snacks for the trip, mostly gluten-free stuff but not all. We did stop by a McDonalds on the way home for breakfast. My kids hardly ever eat breakfast out and really didn’t know what to get. One had egg mcmuffin, two had a cinnamon roll and one had nothing. I didn’t bother to get anything. There isn’t much on their menu that is gluten-free. I’m trying really hard but sometimes I forget...
We went to dinner at my sister-in-law’s house. My nephew cooked the steaks perfectly. There were baked potatoes and a yummy salad. For dessert, I brought ice cream cones. I had wanted something I could just serve. I didn’t want something with lots of prep time, since I wasn’t sure what time we would be back from Manti. I scooped out ice cream cones for everyone, then fixed one for myself.
I. ate. the. whole. thing. without. thinking. about. it.
I didn’t even realize I’d done it until we got home and the kids asked for one more cone. I fixed them one and thought, “I want another one. WAIT. I ate an ice cream cone?! What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking!”
Waaaa! Where is my baggie of memory pills!

Ragnar Race

Jared ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back Race Friday and Saturday. Yes, it took two days to finish this relay race. There were 12 runners who ran three legs of the 188 mile race. My son was runner #11. He ran a total of 14.6 miles. His first leg was straight up hill, his second relatively flat around a lake and the last was straight downhill and off road. He appears to have run the race without any injuries or problems. I’m really proud of him.

I have never considered myself the athletic type. I much prefer curling up with a book to attending an exercise class. When my son said he was going to run the Ragnar, I had to look it up to know what it was. He had only a two week notice that he was running the race. It was out of my comfort zone for me to let him do this, but felt that if he wanted to, then he should do it. My next thought was, “Better him than me. I could never do that.” I’m not sure where this came from, since I really dislike the words, “I can’t”. I often see that as a challenge to find out how much I can do. This brings me to the uncomfortable place between knowing I need to do this and not really wanting to. I have a friend who is encouraging me to train for and run a 5k… maybe… I can.  

Sunday Song: Still My Daddy

Sunday Song: Still My Daddy Happy Father's Day! Hug yours if he is near, call him if he isn't. If he's in heaven, send a message to Jesus to pass along. 

I'm also sharing this Mormon Message about a special Dad: A Father Indeed

Fathers and Leadership

This Father's Day weekend, I'll share this counsel from Ezra Taft Benson:
With love in my heart for the fathers in Israel, may I suggest ten specific
ways that fathers can give spiritual leadership to their children:

1. Give father's blessings to your children. Baptize and confirm your
children. Ordain your sons to the priesthood. These will become spiritual
highlights in the lives of your children.

2. Personally direct family prayers, daily scripture reading, and weekly
family home evenings. Your personal involvement will show your children how
important these activities really are.

3. Whenever possible, attend Church meetings together as a family. Family
worship under your leadership is vital to your children's spiritual welfare.

4. Go on daddy-daughter dates and father-and-sons' outings with your
children. As a family, go on campouts and picnics, to ball games and
recitals, to school programs, and so forth. Having Dad there makes all the
difference.

5. Build traditions of family vacations and trips and outings. These
memories will never be forgotten by your children.

6. Have regular one-on-one visits with your children. Let them talk about
what they would like to. Teach them gospel principles. Teach them true
values. Tell them you love them. Personal time with your children tells them
where Dad puts his priorities.

7. Teach your children to work, and show them the value of working toward a
worthy goal. Establishing mission funds and education funds for your
children shows them what Dad considers to be important.

8. Encourage good music and art and literature in your homes. Homes that
have a spirit of refinement and beauty will bless the lives of your children
forever.

9. As distances allow, regularly attend the temple with your wife. Your
children will then better understand the importance of temple marriage and
temple vows and the eternal family unit.

10. Have your children see your joy and satisfaction in service to the
Church. This can become contagious to them, so they, too, will want to serve
in the Church and will love the kingdom.

Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice, p. 46

He's reading without being told to

I can't tell you how excited I was to look over and see John reading a book in the car. His two older brothers have always been readers. I never had to tell them to read, they always carried a book with them. John has only recently discovered that reading is a gateway path to learn whatever you want to, go where ever you want to and to help you learn to be who ever you want to be.
He is reading the Magic Tree House book series. The have a great website called Passport to Adventure to encourage kids to read. There are activities for kids to learn from at their Teachers@Random page. Use the books to teach geography, history, spelling and more.

Job Done!

What is a mother to do? After nagging Jo to fold and put away the kitchen towels, this is how they are put away. She claims I didn't say "fold them" just "put them away". I'm not folding them. This is how they will stay. We'll call it "casual living".

Made our own Chalkboard

We’ve added a fun new thing to our school room: a chalkboard! We bought three pieces of sheet metal and some wood molding from the local hardware store. We painted these with chalkboard paint that I found. We mounted these on the wall, then covered the edges of the sheet metal with the wood molding. It looks great and the kids love it! Not only can they draw on it, they can also use their alphabet magnets on it. Say good-bye to those little magnets all over your kitchen floor -- they are happily on the chalkboard! Hooray!