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...