Special Effects

Peter discovered that the camera on my phone has effects, which means I've found all kinds of weird pictures in my gallery. Here are a few of my favorites:

Heaven on Earth

On Saturday I finally made it to the Temple for the first time this year. It was wonderful. The Philadelphia Temple is so beautiful and the experience had many surprises that made my heart happy.

As I got into the elevator to go into the Temple from the parking garage, a man got in as well. He asked if I had a name to do. I said no, then he asked if I would do one for his family. I told him I'd love to. He handed me a card from a stack he had pulled out of his coat pocket. Knowing that I was helping a family made my time in the Temple more meaningful.

A couple from my ward was serving as Temple workers while I was there, which was especially comforting since I got a bit turned around and it helped to see a friendly face who also knew which direction I needed to go. And there was a couple in my session from the ward that shares our church building. They've sung in the choir the last two Christmases and we smiled and said hello.

When I go to the Temple I have a question that I'm prayerful about. This time I got two clear answers, both impressions that I've gotten before. The first is that I need to consistently get enough sleep. The second was that we have too much stuff and need to actively get rid of as much as we can. This has been on my mind for a few weeks, that if we had less stuff we would have more peace, more time to enjoy each other's company, fewer arguments about chores. The kids have been pushing back because, in Phoebe's words, they "love all the stuff!" But when I told them that the same answer came in the Temple, they all accepted it more readily. We'll see how it goes following that inspiration over the next few weeks.

My trip to the Temple was made possible by Bryan and the kids sacrificing their whole day. The Temple is an hour and a half each way, plus two hours at the Temple itself. That's too long away from Topher and too long to have Peter be in charge of the kids at home. So everyone came and sat in the waiting area and on the Temple grounds while I was inside. I had some pretty grumpy family members when I exited. But thankfully I was so renewed from my visit to the Temple that I had a lot more patience than usual.

I love the Temple.

Self Defense

Apparently Topher has learned how to defend himself against Sophie when she's demanding a kiss by smashing her cheek against his mouth. Have I mentioned that Topher has eight teeth? And that Sophie is aggressively affectionate? She was pretty shocked by his reaction, so hopefully she'll finally remember that he's a person and not a toy.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Peter gave his second Sacrament Meeting talk yesterday. He had a few weeks to work on it and did most of the prep work without any prompting from us. Then, on Saturday, he required a lot of prompting to actually write the thing. A lot. But he finally wrote it himself. The only note I gave him was to ask if he had a personal experience he could add (he said no) or if he had found a quote from the talk he'd used to study the topic (he added one), the rest was him.

He did a good job delivering it. He looked up at the congregation a few times at the beginning, then again near the end. I figured he didn't look up more because he was nervous. When I asked he said that yes, he was nervous, but that wasn't the reason he didn't look up more. It turns out the microphone was too low, so he had to lean down just a bit to reach it. He was afraid that if he looked up any more, the mic wouldn't pick him up.

Here's the talk. I think he did a wonderful job with it.

Be a Peacemaker

Third Nephi, chapter 12, verse 9 says “Blessed are all the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

But what is a peacemaker, and how can we be one?

Mosiah 4:13 says: “And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render every man according to his due.” This means that peacemakers don’t try to hurt others. They try the opposite. They try to live without conflict. 1st Peter 3:11 states: “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.”

Peacemakers don’t just live in peace, but they look for peace, and when the find it, they pursue it. They strive to always be peaceable. To be peacemakers, we must “renounce war and proclaim peace.” To be a peacemaker, we must follow Jesus and Heavenly Father’s examples. 1st Corinthians 15:33 says: “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”

We must realize that, according to President Nelson’s talk “ Blessed are the Peacemakers” of the October 2002 General Conference: “We can learn to love our fellow human beings throughout the world. Whether they be Jewish, Islamic, or fellow Christians, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or other, we can live together with mutual admiration and respect, without forsaking our religious convictions. Things we have in common are greater than our differences.” End quote.

Jesus taught: “Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, or shall desire to come unto me, and remember that thy brother hath ought against thee-

Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you.”

The Primary song Love One Another says “As I have loved you, - Love one another.”  To be peacemakers we must love as Jesus loved, and forgive as He forgave. I know that if we seek peace and forgive and love one another, and renounce war and seek peace, then we can be peacemakers, and we shall be called the children of God. I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Baller

Peter stayed at school late three afternoons this week to tryout for the volleyball team. Good news: he made it! Of course, only eighteen people tried out and the coach decided not to cut anyone so they all made it, but we're still counting it as a win! I think Peter is happy about it. This week he's been explaining what he's learned about volleyball and talking about various techniques and watching clips of the BYU men's volleyball team and leaping through the house showing us how high he can jump. Yeah, he's looking forward to it.

Peter's schedule is going to be a lot more exciting for the next month, but that's okay, I'm excited for him to try something new.

Busy Baby

Monkey Do

"I'm pretending we're very well behaved monkeys." -Sophie, while climbing across my bed yesterday morning.

The Professor

There's No Fun Like Snow Fun

We had our eighth snow day of the school year today. During the last few snow days the weather has been really yucky so the kids haven't gotten to play outside. But this time the snow fell last night, so this morning we bundled up and headed outside.

Topher napped for part of the time, then observed the rest of the adventure from the warmth of the house.

By the time I called them all in they were ready for our traditional hot chocolate. And though they all enjoyed their fun in the snow, at bedtime tonight Cooper and Phoebe were talking about how much they miss warm weather.

Two, One, Two, One

Sophie has been doing reading lessons for a year now. That's kind of a misleading statement. We took a great big break when Topher was born, so I guess it's more accurate to say that we started reading lessons a year ago, but they certainly haven't lasted the whole duration. In that time we've restarted twice and some lessons have taken two days instead of one. We're using the same book I used to teach Peter, Cooper, and Phoebe to read. There are one hundred lesson in total. Today we finished lesson forty-two.

Today's lesson, the photo credit goes to Sophie.

Reading lessons were not easy with any of them. If memory serves, Cooper took less prodding than the others, but I think that's because we saved the lessons for just before bedtime when he and I could have one-on-one time. He thrives with that kind of attention and so didn't put up a fight. Peter and Phoebe definitely did put up fights, but they still did the lessons.

Most days Sophie flat out refuses. She's screamed, cried, thrown things out of anger at being asked to sit with me and learn to read. Occasionally she complies. Usually she does not. Last week, after I asked her to come do a reading lesson she replied, "I'm never going to do a stupid, hateful, disgusting, 100% reading lesson." Her adjective game is on point, even if her obedience leaves something to be desired.

I realize that all kids learn to read at different rates and that I probably shouldn't push it if she's not ready. But, knowing Sophie, I think it's more a case of "I don't want to and you can't make me." That's not going to work so well when she starts Kindergarten in the fall.

I was praying about how to help her, if not learn to read, at least be willing to learn in general. I listened to some really great speakers talk about motivating children and I had an idea. We tried it out the Friday before Topher went into the hospital, then a few times this week. And it's working. I mean, she still argues and doesn't want to do the reading lesson, but not as much as usual.

What are we doing differently?

Instead of pushing through and doing a lesson in one sitting, I set a timer for two minutes. When the time is up, she picks a song and has a dance party for one minute. Then we do two more minutes of reading, followed by another minute of dancing. We repeat the process until the lesson is done.

The first time it worked beautifully. She had so much fun dancing and liked that it felt more like a game. The second time she tried to run down the clock by going slowly and chatting instead of reading. I saw through her plan and told her I would pause the timer each time she stopped the lesson, thus delaying the mini dance party. She stopped that ploy. Today it worked well and went surprisingly fast.

Here's hoping we can get through a few more lessons before we have to change tactics again.