Preparation

Sophie gave a talk in Primary a few weeks ago. This is one that she wrote almost completely by herself. We discussed the subject before she started writing, then I gave a little feedback at the end. She did a great job delivering it.

Preparation

Matthew chapter 25, verses 1 through 12 says

“1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

 The ten virgins is about ten women who were waiting for the bridegroom to come so they could enter a wedding. The bridegroom represents Jesus. The ten women represent us. The bridegroom arrived around midnight and woke up the ten women. But five of the women didn’t have enough oil to keep their lamps burning so they asked the other five women for more oil. But the wise women who had brought more oil said that there would not be enough if they shared and to go to the sellers who had more oil. But by the time the other women had come the door was shut. 

Just like the ten virgins we have to be prepared for the second coming when Jesus comes again. We need to have lots of faith, repent when we make mistakes, read our scriptures, keep the commandments, go to church, and someday go to the temple so then when Jesus comes again we will be ready. I bear my testimony that if we do these things we will be ready. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Now He Has a Little Lisp

Another tooth has flown the coop!

Related

Family Search has a fun new feature. You can upload your picture and it will pull up pictures of family members that look like you. Phoebe and I have been playing with this. According to their search, I most closely resemble my paternal grandparents. I knew that I look like my grandma, but I hadn't seen the resemblance with my grandpa. Although, now that I think about it, my nose comes from that grandpa's dad, so maybe we look more alike than I thought.

In addition to family members, it can match your picture with famous people. One of the first people it matched me with is also a family member, just one that lived a long time ago. Apparently I look like my 12th-great grandma.

Cousin Time!

Uncle Jordan and his kids visited us for the weekend while Aunt Leah had a much needed rest at home. The weekend was full of playing, church, playing, movies, playing, food, playing, sprinklers, and playing.

Zariah enjoyed doing Peter's hair before church on Sunday. Peter was not as enthusiastic about the project, but was a good sport nevertheless.

Zariah and Maverick were both eager to help water the garden.

Sophie was practicing her babysitting skills. She loved getting to help watch the babies.

I snuggled Maverick to sleep while Jordan got Zariah and Legend to sleep one night.

We did a little park hopping the morning of Memorial Day.

That afternoon we pulled out the swimsuits and sunscreen and ran through the sprinklers. Bryan prepared a delicious dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, and sides. Popsicles served as dessert.

Then everyone came inside, washed off the grass and sunscreen, and watched a movie while Jordan packed up the car.

It was fun for Topher to be one of the bigger kids this weekend. He and Legend played well together and didn't require the same level of supervision that the littles needed. 

Thanks for visiting guys! We love you!

A Fresh Coat of Paint

We rearranged our great room to make it more kid friendly for cousins to visit (a babyproofed section, blocked off from other, less baby-friendly areas) and I realized I never wrote about updating this space. I'd been wanting to paint the room since we moved in, but it wasn't high on the priority list. Finally back in March I decided I was tired of staring at beige walls and old yellowed light fixtures. I bought several paint samples, painted stripes on the walls to compare colors, then Bryan and I made some choices. I painted the room in a weekend, it took longer to switch out the light fixtures and buy and install the TV cabinet and storage cupboards. We still need to add knobs for the furniture and a top for the TV cabinet.

I love the way it turned out.

Before:

In progress:

I've now painted so many walls that I don't need to use tape, I can just paint the edge freehand. It's a longer process, but seems to give a better result. We went for the bold, dark blue because we thought it went well with the brick. We chose a warm gray for the other walls because we were concerned if we painted them all dark blue the room would be too heavy. That cupboard in the corner is holding all our board games and most of our art and school supplies. I love that we can tuck them away. Once we put the extra cubbies (brought down from Topher's room to create the baby barrier) away, most of the visual clutter in the room will be gone.

Eventually I'll hang pictures back on the walls, but for now I'm happy to see their pretty painted surfaces.

Keepsake

Topher delivered this note to me recently. I figured out everything except the first word. I asked him to read it to me. "Dear Mom I love you." And then he told me I need to keep it forever.

What a World, What a World*

Apparently my front door got so hot that my wreath melted. For real.

*Anyone know how the title connects to this post?

Sooooo Close

Here we are again, limping our way to the end of the schoolyear. I'm ready to put aside the role of taskmaster (at least regarding school). The kids in school are ready to be done with assignments. Topher is ready to have siblings that have time to play with him again. Peter has one week left, the others have two.

We can do it.

I'm pretty sure we can do it.

I really hope we can do it.

A Long, Long Time Ago

Yesterday had some rough patches. After more yelling and arguing than I wanted to be part of, this picture popped up in my memories. It helps to see them when they were tiny and sweet. This brown-eyed boy is 16-month-old Peter. I'm putting it here so I can find it easily to look at and calm myself when the 17-year-old version is out of sorts.

Read To Me