Richardson Report

Can you believe the cousins' clothes all coordinated?  How fun is that! I left a spot to photoshop Hannah into the picture.  ;-) So the baptism went great.  We were happy to have some family drive down to be with us.  And there were some wonderful ward friends who showed up as well, which made it very special for Natalie.  She was so excited, but we were worried she was coming down with a cold.   Luckily she pulled it together for the big day. Obviously we are not used to grouping together for a family picture without Hannah.  There are gaps in all of them! Congrats, Natalie!  We are so pleased with your decision to be baptized and your excitement about it. 

Yep.  At 12:21am Miss Natalie turned 8.  Since she was 8 for so long before breakfast, we figured she was practically 8 1/2 now.  She's pretty excited about this birthday of hers! This little girl was born 8 years ago.  She was the second and only child other than Hannah where I started labor at home (that is weird when you think about it).  Great story from her birth - I had to have antibiotics and an IV because of the strep B that sometimes is present.  We decided to do an epidural to help the wait along (antibiotics have to be spread out in two doses).  So I was feeling pretty good during labor.  My doctor came over after work and I remember him sitting on the side of the bed telling me that he was going to rupture the amniotic sac so that labor would start progressing. He did the tiniest of tears because I WARNED HIM.... and a huge fire hydrant's worth of fluid came gushing out all over him, the bed, the floor.  It was a mess.  He...

This is the last post from Education Week.  I think.  I went to a bunch of classes by Stephanie Sorensen.  One was on the Beauty Paradox - it was a great talk about Righteousness, Self-Image, and Power.  If you want those notes, email me.  Great stuff to teach teenage girls (and their moms!) But I really loved the class she gave entitled "Women as Gospel Scholars".  If you've paid attention lately at conference, there have been several talks about the need for the women of the church to have a "bedrock understanding of Gospel principles".  So this class is pretty timely as far as I'm concerned.  She shared talk after talk after talk.  I wrote down the reference so that I could go back and study them.  So what you have here are my brief notes jotted down during the flood of information, and lists of talks.  But I think they would make a great basis for improving Gospel study for anyone who's feeling a little at loose ends as to the...

Since I've been lazing around a little more than usual trying to recuperate from my cold, I've taken a little more time to go over my notes from Education Week last summer.  I thought I'd post a little more of my favorite stuff. ************************************************* Kevin Hinckley had a class on Forgiveness. Reasons or signs I may not have forgiven:  I may not be done grieving - rushing or ignoring creates physical ailments I still have bad days - emotional triggers cause NORMAL FEELINGS  Trauma changes us permanently and IT’S OK. I keep repeating my grief story - burns into you, forms you identity.  All the emotions and physical feelings come back.          Peace is not the absence of conflict; real peace can exist in the midst of conflict.  Peace                         is often the acceptance of conflict. ...

I'm giving the Relief Society Lesson on Sunday -  here are my thoughts and preparation so far. I felt inspired about three weeks ago to start preparing a lesson on the purpose of Relief Society.  To that end I did a ton of reading.  I read the entire "Daughters of My Kingdom" book (the little blue book that came out awhile back) and every conference talk I could find on the subject.  I also browsed blog posts by other women and delved into the scriptures.  And then I got stuck in my lesson preparation.  See there was SO much good information but I couldn't figure out what or how much to share in a 30 minute Relief Society lesson.  How on earth do you distill 3 weeks of study into a 30 minute class (plus let others have a chance to talk).  It actually made me wonder if I was barking up the wrong tree - maybe I just needed to learn this for myself and I wasn't meant to actually teach on it. But with prayer and some great ideas that were sparked ...

I posted a few videos on YouTube.  Just some fun insights into life in our family. First, the kids love, love, love to hear Josh laughing when he thinks something is super funny.  This little clip is after I sat on my bed and listened to him giggling for probably five minutes.  I couldn't figure out what was so funny for so long.  I finally got up to record it because this is just JOSH.  He's tapering off here, but obviously something was quite entertaining! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhhyoz-Gp70 And this cute clip is Faith getting ready in the morning.  She's a woman of few words but I love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj-Jkdy8uUM When Hannah got home from school or work she would do stuff like this EVERY day.  I know Hannah reads this blog and I don't want to embarrass her - but I gotta say I miss this!  She's awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJmJS9VpHeY In December we went to Brynne's orchestra concert. ...

Natalie and Kenna both received top and bottom palate expanders, and Kenna also got four braces put on front.   This week we go in to see if they need more expanding on top, or what the next step is. Logan started wrestling.  He's been teaching Natalie as he goes.  He loves it.   Comes home from practice a happy, worn out boy. Co-op started back up after Christmas break and a snow day.  Faith enjoys getting ready to go with me.  I teach the first hour.  She packs her own lunch and eats it as soon as I start teaching (about 10:30 a.m.)  Which is fabulous because after I teach I take myself out to lunch and she is content with a smoothie.  Best Thursday tradition ever. have you ever seen anything cuter? Kenna took a sewing class with three of her friends.   She gave away everything she made at the class,  but then came home and promptly began sewing again.   This is her first...