Every Six Months

General Conference is this weekend! I've been looking forward to this for the last six months. I love hearing from the Prophet and other leaders for our church. It fills my soul.

Curious about what eight hours of spiritual nourishment looks like? Everyone can watch Conference from their own computer. You can go to this website for all the dates and times. We'll be watching from our Roku (if we can find it) or connecting a laptop to our TV.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from last April's General Conference.

Source

Hey Kids, Does Anybody Know Where Sophie Is?

You Oughta Be In Pictures

Tomorrow is picture day. Picture day for the boys goes something like this:

Me: Here, please wear this collared shirt, it'll look nice in the pictures.

Male Child: No.

Me: I bought it just for today, please wear it.

Male Child: No, I hate wearing collars.

Me: I know, but it's only for today. Wear the shirt.

Male Child: No! I don't have to! You're not in charge of me!

Me: Actually, I am totally in charge of you. Now put on the shirt!

Then they begrudgingly wear the inexpensive polo shirt I picked up at Walmart, or Target, when I'm feeling fancy. Maybe, if I'm really lucky, they will allow a comb to be used on their hair in an attempt to tame the cowlicks. But only maybe.

This year, Miss Phoebe is joining the Picture Day Ranks. She has been stressing over it for days. "Oh Mom, I just don't know what I should wear!" Add in that they can't wear green (because the backgrounds will be digitally added later), and she's in even more of a tizzy, despite the fact that she doesn't own anything green. We've finally settled on the fancy dress my parents sent for her birthday (oh yeah, Phoebe had a birthday, I wonder if I'll ever get to writing about it...), a glittery pink cardigan, and a black headband with a jeweled heart. It's laid out, waiting for her.

Let's hope it still passes her approval tomorrow morning when we're running out the door.

Support Your Local Library

Our home library is 90% done, but we've all been enjoying it despite its incomplete status. Bryan and Sophie had a nice snuggle while reading in that special room yesterday.

The Great Debate

Because we have kids at two different schools, which have two different but still similar start times, we've resorted to taking the bus. This means that we need to be out the door, heading to the bus stop, by 7:15 in the morning.

7:15. In the morning.

My night-owlism is well documented on this blog. I kind of drag through the day, then, when the sun goes down, my energy turns on.  Except that right now, with this new schedule, I'm ALWAYS TIRED. Even at night. The kids are exhausted too. The following conversation happened at bedtime.

Phoebe: I've decided I want to get up and shower before school.

Me: Really? That means you'll need to learn how to shower really fast.

Phoebe: I can shower fast!

Me: And you'll need to get up even earlier than you have been.

Phoebe: Hmmm. Actually, no.

In the great debate of which is more important, a full night of rest or feeling fresh, we prefer sleep to sanitation at our house.

Three Rooms Done

I finally finished the girls' room today. I'm not sure why it took so long, and I technically still need to put a dowel in the costume closet to really be done, but I'm calling it good.

 We decided to make the girls' room the playroom, which, now that I think about it, is probably why this project was so drawn out. We've had an official playroom since Washington, and I was sad to see it go. But the choice came down to a playroom or a home library.

And there's simply no competing with a library.

Phoebe liked the idea of sleeping in Toyland, until she envisioned the mess that would be generated on a daily basis. At one point she officially uninvited Cooper and Peter from ever playing in there. They were annoyed, but the LEGOs are in their room, so they didn't care that much. I quickly struck down the brother ban, much to her chagrin.

For those of you doing the math at home, we've had the keys to the house for three weeks, our belongings for two, and only have three rooms completed. This is our slowest move-in ever. We were waiting on some key elements, and most of those are now in our house and waiting to be built and/or mounted. My new goal is to be totally unpacked by General Conference, which is a week from tomorrow.

I don't know that it's a realistic goal, but it sure sounds like a nice one.

This Is What a Grumpy Sophie Looks Like

She was not pleased that I woke her up to go to the bus stop.

If You Can't Sleep, Simply Snuggle Your Sister

Pinterest Win

I've been wanting to finish the girls' room for days, but a giant mountain of homeless costumes kept me from declaring it done. I'd pondered and prayed and experimented with a few different storage options, but nothing was quite right. This morning, after the big kids were at school, Sophie and I spent some time searching for ideas on Pinterest. I scrolled through several that explained how to turn an old chest of drawers into a darling, child-sized wardrobe. Ah, if only we had such an item, I wistfully thought. Then I found one that called for an IKEA bookcase.

Would you believe that we had two IKEA bookcases in our basement, languishing from lack of use? We've had them for many years and didn't think they had any life left in them. Bryan had even reinforced them a few years back, but they simply didn't work for our book needs anymore.

But they might work for costumes!

I started out with this (but sans the back panel):

Next I removed the shelves and the reinforcements and scrubbed the frame a bit:

Then I lined the inside walls with fancy paper and put up a tension rod for the costumes:

And then lined the outside walls with chalkboard paper:

Finally I called Phoebe in to see her new treasure, which of course required a photo shoot:

Phoebe was thrilled when she saw her new costume closet. Of course, shortly after the last picture was taken, we discovered the tension rod was kind of busted and the costumes were once again littering the floor, but I'm sure we can fix that.

Sometimes Princess Anna Helps Me Unpack

And sometimes she finds her sister's sticker earrings and wears them like makeup.