Feeling Fall-ish

While I generally dread fall as being the precursor to the horrible season of winter, I have learned in recent years to appreciate it. I like the peace and stillness that the season brings. I love the industriousness of canning and preserving and gathering in all I need to carry my family through to the next season of warmth. I marvel at the abundance fall brings, in food, in beauty, in blessings. And I have come to the realization that fall really embodies many of my favorite things. I love the food, the colors, the clothes (ie. fat hider clothes), and most of all I love the decorating opportunities! So I have been doing a lot of that around our house. Here is a peek at some of my favorites.

Now the canning is nearly done, the gardening is over, potatoes are in the cellar and my pantry shelves are almost full. Life is slowing down a bit and the entire earth is getting ready to rest. I am enjoying quiet walks under bright blue skies with brilliant colored leaves all around and marveling at my many, many blessings.

General Conference Workshop

One family home evening really stands out in my memory. So much so that I wanted to create a similar experience for my own children. So two weeks before general conference I issued the challenge. Each person would need to prepare a lesson based on one of the talks from the previous general conference. The lessons must each include an activity and a handout and be a minimum of ten minutes long.

I am happy to report the night was a huge success!! Better than any of my expectations! I am so proud of my children for accepting this challenge and putting forth such effort to do a good job. I loved the spirit that was in our home that next week as people fought over the conference ensign so they could find the perfect talk and then worked busily on their lessons. Each person was assigned a different room of the house to be his/her classroom and, after an opening song and prayer, the night began.

Emily chose the talk "Mother Told Me". She told the story of the calves that were lost and the mother cows that were taken back to find them and lead them home. Then we had to be blindfolded and complete a maze in the shape of a cow with someone else directing us on where to go. Her handout was a reminder to follow our mothers. Porter gave a lesson on the aaronic priesthood, explaining what it is and why it is important. He also talked about the new Duty to God program and we all got to try it out by doing the first activity together in the new booklet.

Aleise was paired up with her Daddy for her lesson and it was about the Savior. It came from Elder Andersen's talk "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus". They decorated their room with a bunch of pictures of the Savior and his life and each of us shared our favorite story of Jesus' life and ministry. We each got to take the picture that corresponded to our favorite story to hang in our bedrooms.

I helped Noah give a lesson from a talk by his favorite apostle, President Uchtdorf. This talk was given at the general young women's meeting and it was about the opportunity we have each been given to have a life that ends in "happily ever after". We are sons and daughters of a king and he wants us to be happy and to have the fairytale ending to our lives that will truly make us happy. Here is our handout.

We ended the night (two and a half hours later) with hot fudge sundaes and definitely with our Heavenly Father's spirit in our home. I have no doubt that this family home evening will stand out in my children's minds as well in years to come. I can't wait to do it again in six months!

Anniversary rewind

Kevin and I celebrated our 13th anniversary in September (although the card Kevin gave me said 14th...I asked him if he wanted it back to save for next year.) In a rare romantic move, Kevin transformed the partially-built shed into a dining experience reminiscent of Princess and the Frog or Fools Rush In. It looked something like this.

There were sheets hung up over the top of the open trusses and all around the walls. Candles were placed on planks between ladders and on overturned buckets and crates. A cd of love songs serenaded us while we ate.

It was a Sunday night. We dined on cold cereal and then relaxed in the love sack to review the wedding scrapbook. Then we sent the kids to bed.

Happy anniversary, honey, and here's to 14 years...next year.

Expecting and Expanding

Exciting things are happening at our house! For one, we are expecting baby #5! I am due March 1 and I think we can probably write that on the calendar in ink since all four of my other children were born on their due dates. Weird, huh? That means I am almost halfway done with this pregnancy. I am feeling like I am way too old for this. It seems much more difficult than ever before. I have no energy, I am still sick all day and my body just doesn't work like it used to. This baby will throw off the delicate balance of power in our house so there are some definite strong feelings among the children about what gender this baby needs to be. Each side is trying to fortify their ranks. I am just praying for a healthy, whole baby and an uneventful pregnancy and delivery (as if those things could ever really be classified as uneventful). Mostly, I am just so very grateful for the opportunity and blessing of being a mom to another of our Heavenly Father's spirit children. I feel overwhelmed at the trust He has in me to bless me to be the teacher and leader and nurturer of such wonderful people.

Since our family is growing and sharing bathroom time with five other people every morning is getting really old, we are also in the preliminary stages of adding on to our house. We should get a final bid this week and then away to the bank we go. I am a little nervous about the visit to the bank. If it were the beginning of the year, things would look a lot better for us financially but the end of the year...not so much. But if we can pass the bank's approval, building will take about 45 days and it should be done for Christmas!! We will be adding two more bedrooms and another bath on with a big family room in a walk-out basement underneath with a half bath. The more I think about it, the more excited I get! A family room with a place to play and a place for all the toys AND another bathroom! Sounds like heaven. I am keeping my fingers crossed...

A Little Bathroom Humor

I found a puddle on the bathroom floor yesterday and said, "someone needs to be a better shot in the bathroom."

Noah: Last time I went to the bathroom I was sitting down.

Aleise: Me, too!