Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Latest

We've had a busy week since I last wrote.  Mostly it's been busy because we've had bouts of sickness.  Bazinks got sick with the croup early last week.  Fortunately, he was better by Friday so I took the kids to choir and then we went to Temple Square.

There is such a wonderful feeling about that place.  We ate at the Joseph Smith memorial building cafe, listened to a man practice playing the organ in the old conference center (the sound was amazing, we were all mesmerized - except little Ray who wanted to play on the sloping floor - and due to the wonderful acoustics in that room, we couldn't stay very long).

We also visited the South Visitors center and saw a miniature replica of the Salt Lake temple in which you can see the inside of the temple and play videos that tell you about each room.  The kids really liked that.

 We also went to the North Visitor's center and went through a presentation about families with the sister missionaries.  I am so incredibly grateful for my eternal gift of a family.

The next day, we went south to my parent's house so they could watch the younger two children while the older 3 went with Rock and I to a The Price of Freedom concert.  It was incredible.  We already had all of the songs memorized (it's Bud's favorite CD so we listen to it often) and then when you add to it the footage from WWII, and the excerpts from letters, with the amazing talent on that stage - we'll never forget it.



Here's one song that I love (the narration comes from real letters):

And here's Bud with the singer:
They were all so amazing. 

That night, Little Miss and Ray started getting fevers and now they both have croup.  Little Miss is an angel when she is sick.  She just lays down and never complains.  I have to remember to ask her if she needs something.  Ray is not so easy.  He likes to be held, so I've had to do a lot of things one handed lately.  Babies are so pitiful when they are sick.  They just look at you with sad eyes wondering what is going on.  We stayed home from their usual club days yesterday and they made forts in the front room and played World War II.  They also found boxes to hide out in.




The kids asked me recently to teach them to spell better.  I've been looking at different programs - detailed ones like The Phonics Road (which I have, but need to sell) or just lists to memorize.  The former seemed too thorough, the latter not thorough enough.  My mom introduced me to Words their Way so I spent Saturday figuring it out and we tried it yesterday.  They liked it, so hopefully it's what we need.  It teaches children to look for spelling patterns in words and find the rules as they see them.  They do it by sorting words.  It's pretty interesting.

I'll also been trying to figure out how to take all this interest in war and soldiers and use it to help our family.  Our new devotional song is We are all Enlisted and they're pretty excited about that.  We are also going to study US history more thoroughly and give World History a little break.

I've also been thinking a lot about traditions and how to change some of the ones I don't like.  It's slow going, but we're coming to some decisions I think.  I'm sure it's a process that will take years.  We just need to start somewhere.   I talked to the kids about the irony of Jesus' teaching us to look not for the riches of this world and to seek for the things of a better and the crazy commercialism that surrounds celebrating His birth.  They agree that this ought not to be.  Now we just need to figure out what to do instead.


That's pretty much life and what's going on in my head these days.  Now I better go take care of some sick children...

6 comments:

  1. Oh darn, I wish I had known you were going to be there. I would have loved to meet you! That song is my favorite too.

    My grandpa is a veteran, and I took him to the concert. He loved it. He told me some stories from when he was flying a chopper in Vietnam and Korea. It was very emotional. I am so glad we were able to go.

    We (as in my little boy and me) love to visit Temple Square. My kiddo is totally obsessed with temples and loves the place. For a while he kept saying "Isaiah lives in the Salt Lake temple" and I had NO IDEA what he was talking about until I remembered the visitor's center, ha ha.

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  2. seeing those pictures of the concert bring back memories of when my children were attending AHS. In many ways, that was the beginning of our being able to step back and look at education and all things in a different way and to begin to take the responsibility to choose for ourselves which direction we would go. We no longer just went with the 'flow' or the status quo. We went on to home schooling after our time at AHS. I have attended many wonderful events there that surely deepened my love and respect for the country we live in and the founding of it.
    Looks like it was worth the drive to see the concert!

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  3. It would have been great to meet you Kestrel! And your grandpa! We'll have to plan better next time :-)

    AHS is a neat school, Kassie. I told my husband before that if I ever died I wanted him to enroll our kids in it. I'm glad to hear your positive experience. Yes, it was well worth the drive to see the concert. Rob Gardner and much of the same cast will be coming back in April to preform The Lamb of God. I can't wait!

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  4. I hope your kids are feeling better!

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  5. I always love the update posts. I love seeing what your family is up to. The Price of Freedom concert sounds amazing! Also, the sick kids in the box pictures are adorable.

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  6. We LOVE seeing The Price of Freedom, when it came to AZ! I cried and cried! Every time I see a production like this (where the spirit is so strong and the words and music so inspiring), I think that my grandma must have been sitting on someone's shoulder helping to put a production like that together. She passed away when I was 18, but had amazing talent for putting together "a show!" :0) How I admire your faith and devotion to truth and right for your children! I am reminded of Laura and Mary at Christmas time! We love reading those books and my kids remember how they shared a cup for a while and only ever had one doll their whole lives. I think hearing about others who weren't quite so blessed as us, helps us to put things in perspective. It might be neat for your family to find some way to serve others on Christmas day! I have always dreamed of doing this, and hope that as situations and health issues change in our family, we might be able to do this someday! One thing we have instituted this year is to only have 3 gifts and a stocking at our house for each child this year (that's including what they get from us and from Santa.) The Savior only received gold, frankincense and Myhr as gifts. Our children are excited about this idea and as we've applied the ideas of The Headgates, commercialism is letting us rest this year! It's amazing what distance from the world, does to help ease it's influence upon us! May you enjoy and wonderful holiday season with your family this year! :0)

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