so many thoughts...so little time to type
We are fast approaching the end of the school year! Brynne graduates on June 8!! She's pretty excited and so ready to be done with school for the summer. The rest of the kids have four days after her but they are full of variety shows, BBQs, and a field trip - no learning will be taking place. Of course.
We have had the busiest two weeks - I think I made dinner just a handful of times because it was chaotic. All the end-of-school high stuff has to wrap up before graduation. Just this past week we had orchestra banquet, track banquet, violin recital, and strings play-in, not to mention a youth temple trip for Josh and Brynne and then our own temple date on Friday. Last night I was seriously so exhausted...but silly me I said, "why don't we have your Bishopric and their families over for waffles after church". So we spent the evening cooking bacon and going to the store for vital waffle toppings such as Nutella. We're feeding 25 people for dinner tonight, as it turned out the missionaries needed food and so did the Stake President, who's family is out of town. ;-)
I've been waiting patiently to be released - it's weird to be in limbo. The first week of Josh as Bishop and me as RSP was interesting, overwhelming, and tiring. So much to talk about and discuss. It's hard to support him and still do my own calling. We need to talk about things other than church - so it will be good when I get released. But on the other hand, it's been fun to have a lot of no-holds conversations. We can talk about virtually everything related to our ward right now! I listened to a podcast recently that said we are at our best at the beginning of a new project because we are giving it our full heart and attention. That's where Josh is right now and it shows. He's trying to get things organized before we leave for 20 days in June/July so he's pretty busy.
The past 6 months have been a barrage of information from the church. I've been thinking about what it all means and I feel like the following things are going on:
1. our church leaders are very concerned for our youth and want the Bishops to have more time with them. They are freeing up his time in order to help this happen.
2. our church leaders are warning us that we cannot withstand the last days if our testimonies and conversions are not solid. We have to invest the time to do this, AND help our kids with this.
3. The Bishops have too many things going on in general and it's time for the general population of the church to do more - not every problem has to be solved by the Bishop - thus ministering and the functioning of the EQP and RSP as mini-Bishoprics. They are tasked with taking on a lot of the responsibilities previously reserved for the Bishop.
4. We need to learn to seek and receive personal revelation - this will be a vital skill for us to have - and necessary to truly minister.
5. The Lord is giving us tools and processes to prepare us but we have to take advantage of them: family history work and temple attendance being two key ones.
And as I've observed families in our area I find that busyness is a key issue with making time for family. Most families I know with kids older than 12 do not eat dinner as a family often. Most families that I know skip family home evening on Monday nights (they do something on Sunday typically). I feel like this is a problem because it reduces the actual amount of time spent together as a family. Yes it checks the "have FHE" box, but I think part of the purpose of reserving Monday night as family night is to extend time together. I also think that as the world's views on what is normal and good veers so far from what the Lord teaches us, we need both quantity and quality time spent with our kids to combat those views.
So those are some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head.
In other things....
I've started making plans to homeschool Kenna and Natalie again next fall. This is one of those things that I wasn't planning on doing two months ago, but the Lord has definitely been working on my heart and I have had a complete 180 change in my willingness and excitement about doing this. For whatever reason - this is the path our family needs to take next year and in order for that to happen the Lord had to put me in the frame of mind to be willing to do that.
I have a cute girl in my ward who was a horticulture major and spent 10 years working in nurseries. She came and checked out my yard and then we went shopping for plants together. It was so helpful to have someone along who knew the plants and had ideas and then even suggested the best ones to purchase quality-wise. I bought 15 plants and had Josh and Logan plant them yesterday. Some Rhododendrons for down below by the creek, some laurels for a hedge between us and our neighbors (they started a hedge with four plants on their side - I'm continuing with some on my side of the fence). And some heather, boxwoods, star Jasmin, and other things here and there. I'm excited for next year when they should take off and grow! Next task is I'm supposed to go to the nursery every month or so and see what perennials are blooming and get some that I like for color all summer long!
We have had the busiest two weeks - I think I made dinner just a handful of times because it was chaotic. All the end-of-school high stuff has to wrap up before graduation. Just this past week we had orchestra banquet, track banquet, violin recital, and strings play-in, not to mention a youth temple trip for Josh and Brynne and then our own temple date on Friday. Last night I was seriously so exhausted...but silly me I said, "why don't we have your Bishopric and their families over for waffles after church". So we spent the evening cooking bacon and going to the store for vital waffle toppings such as Nutella. We're feeding 25 people for dinner tonight, as it turned out the missionaries needed food and so did the Stake President, who's family is out of town. ;-)
I've been waiting patiently to be released - it's weird to be in limbo. The first week of Josh as Bishop and me as RSP was interesting, overwhelming, and tiring. So much to talk about and discuss. It's hard to support him and still do my own calling. We need to talk about things other than church - so it will be good when I get released. But on the other hand, it's been fun to have a lot of no-holds conversations. We can talk about virtually everything related to our ward right now! I listened to a podcast recently that said we are at our best at the beginning of a new project because we are giving it our full heart and attention. That's where Josh is right now and it shows. He's trying to get things organized before we leave for 20 days in June/July so he's pretty busy.
The past 6 months have been a barrage of information from the church. I've been thinking about what it all means and I feel like the following things are going on:
1. our church leaders are very concerned for our youth and want the Bishops to have more time with them. They are freeing up his time in order to help this happen.
2. our church leaders are warning us that we cannot withstand the last days if our testimonies and conversions are not solid. We have to invest the time to do this, AND help our kids with this.
3. The Bishops have too many things going on in general and it's time for the general population of the church to do more - not every problem has to be solved by the Bishop - thus ministering and the functioning of the EQP and RSP as mini-Bishoprics. They are tasked with taking on a lot of the responsibilities previously reserved for the Bishop.
4. We need to learn to seek and receive personal revelation - this will be a vital skill for us to have - and necessary to truly minister.
5. The Lord is giving us tools and processes to prepare us but we have to take advantage of them: family history work and temple attendance being two key ones.
And as I've observed families in our area I find that busyness is a key issue with making time for family. Most families I know with kids older than 12 do not eat dinner as a family often. Most families that I know skip family home evening on Monday nights (they do something on Sunday typically). I feel like this is a problem because it reduces the actual amount of time spent together as a family. Yes it checks the "have FHE" box, but I think part of the purpose of reserving Monday night as family night is to extend time together. I also think that as the world's views on what is normal and good veers so far from what the Lord teaches us, we need both quantity and quality time spent with our kids to combat those views.
So those are some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head.
In other things....
I've started making plans to homeschool Kenna and Natalie again next fall. This is one of those things that I wasn't planning on doing two months ago, but the Lord has definitely been working on my heart and I have had a complete 180 change in my willingness and excitement about doing this. For whatever reason - this is the path our family needs to take next year and in order for that to happen the Lord had to put me in the frame of mind to be willing to do that.
I have a cute girl in my ward who was a horticulture major and spent 10 years working in nurseries. She came and checked out my yard and then we went shopping for plants together. It was so helpful to have someone along who knew the plants and had ideas and then even suggested the best ones to purchase quality-wise. I bought 15 plants and had Josh and Logan plant them yesterday. Some Rhododendrons for down below by the creek, some laurels for a hedge between us and our neighbors (they started a hedge with four plants on their side - I'm continuing with some on my side of the fence). And some heather, boxwoods, star Jasmin, and other things here and there. I'm excited for next year when they should take off and grow! Next task is I'm supposed to go to the nursery every month or so and see what perennials are blooming and get some that I like for color all summer long!
Comments
Post a Comment