A Slow Tuesday

Nothing much happened today.  I'm not complaining.  Just stating the facts.  The most exciting thing that occurred was that the Elders came by for an hour and practiced on us.  They gave us a lesson about the first vision.  It was really nice.  I love talking to the Missionaries.  I need to be a better member missionary but I'm not a very outgoing person.  It is very unnatural for me to reach out to my neighbors.  It would take months to reach out to them, form a relationship with them, and even bring up the gospel.  I feel like I have been such a failure in regards to helping to spread the gospel.  I hope to be able to go on a mission some day.  In the meantime, I hope that Heavenly Father will be okay with my efforts to strengthen my own testimony as well as my efforts to help my children gain testimonies of their own.  I hope that counts for something.  I try to share my testimony when I can.  I hope that counts for something.

Even though it's summer, the kids are all required to do some school work.  William has a preschool workbook that he uses.  Caitlyn has a kindergarten/1st grade workbook.  I print out Math worksheets for the older three kids.  They are all expected to read as well.

We officially signed up Bryce for the homeschooling option this year, like Caitlyn and William.  We are in this for the long haul, for this school year, at least.  Lizzie will be home schooled for the rest of her school years, I'm sure.  The other kids may want to keep going to traditional public school.  Unless our kids are into sports, however, I think I would rather home school them for high school.  The high schools around here are getting bad.  I think Lizzie would be strong and make it through, but I'm concerned about Bryce.  I don't want him to fall in with the wrong crowd and be influenced in the wrong way.  Especially if he isn't strong enough to combat the temptations.  Choices, choices, choices.

I don't know if I can wait for 2 more months before the next General Conference.  I need it so badly.  In the meantime, I made a goal to read all of President Nelson's talks that he's ever given at General Conference in his time as a general authority.  It's nearly 100 talks (91 to be exact).  I'm going to do it!  It's only 2 talks per day.  In fact, this blog will be a great spot to journal my favorite parts of the talks that I read.  Starting tomorrow!

Mason played with Legos today...what a surprise!  Mason is so sweet.  The other night he had a bad dream and he crawled into bed with me.  He's still a little baby to me, though he's 8 years old.  He has a very sweet and caring spirit about him.

William enjoyed playing with his remote control cars, among other things.  He had a bad dream last night and I stayed in bed with him a bit in an effort to calm him down.  I ended up falling asleep and, as a result, slept in and didn't get my morning walk in this morning.  I don't care though.  Cuddling my children in the middle of the night is not something that will last forever.  I need to cherish while I can. 

Lizzie loves reading.  Her idea of the best day ever would be to curl up on a couch, next to a hot fire, with Christmas music playing in the background, while sipping a mug of hot chocolate (or a tea).  She's always been an older spirit...very mature.  She is, by far, the most mature in her young women class.  I love her so much and feel so blessed to have her as a daughter.  I have a feeling we will be the best of friends one day.  I hope so, at least.

Deep down, Bryce is a good kid.  He really enjoys cooking.  He made dinner tonight.  A new recipe, Taco Mac and Cheese.  Everyone seemed to like it.

Little Caitlyn Dawn is doing so well at playing beautiful melodies on the piano.  She isn't really interested in learning how to read music yet, but I am amazed at how well she picks out melodies by ear.  Amazing!

This girl is going places!

I'm off for another girls night.  Last time was a lot of fun and I'm sure tonight will be as well.  Although I'm an introvert, I have realized that I do crave other human interaction aside from my family.  This pandemic has taught me this about myself.  When life is back to normal, I will not take human relationships for granted again.