Notes for July 13th - July 17th

I caught this cute picture of Rebekah on Thursday,
 napping on the couch.
She loves her copy of the Book of Mormon
and spends time 'reading' her scriptures
every day. She also loves coloring them, hence
all the pens.

I left off with Monday, and will pick up there to share a bit about our afternoon and evening. We headed to my sister's house to let the husbands change the brakes on our car while we all visited. Five hours later we had played inside and out (trampoline!), eaten pizza, laughed, talked, and still didn't quite have those brakes done. The usual comedy of errors happened, where everything that could go wrong, probably did. It was just one of those things that happens when working on vehicles. 

Tuesday morning the kids slept in. It's very unusual for all of my kids to sleep past 6:30am, but as I type this note it is 7:45am and the only child who woke up was the one with an alarm who needed out the door at 7am for work. I spent the quiet time reading and sweeping. Kids got up and did their morning tasks. Emma mowed the yard. There was a fair amount of playing with hot wheels cars and blocks, piano practice, and reading books. It was a good day.

Wednesday the kids spent a lot of their energy pestering one another. It was a long day. 

Thursday kids worked with me on a few organizing projects when we realized someone was on our enclosed porch overnight and stole some of my family's shoes. As in, two of my kids now have NO shoes, and one pair of my husband's shoes were left outside on the grass by whoever was on our porch. We moved the shoe racks into the house, and are trying to find places to put the few other things that are currently on the porch. It was frustrating. Now I have to get to the store when my husband is home and guess at what shoes will fit these two kids, because they can't go in a store without shoes. 

I also got to begin learning about something new for me. Last Sunday I was called to be an early morning seminary teacher! For those unfamiliar with the term, high school age youth in our church have the opportunity to attend a scripture study class every weekday morning during the school year, with a teacher and other youth. They read and study the scriptures together. By the end of their high school career the students have read (and studied!) the entire Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. They have discussed how to apply the gospel to their everyday challenges and life. They have memorized scripture. Laughed together. Learned together. COVID-19 makes for an interesting beginning to our seminary year. We will use Zoom to meet each morning before school for 40 minutes, instead of meeting in my home. From August through December we will study the second half of the Book of Mormon. Beginning in January, we will move to studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History. (The four year rotation is Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants/Church History.)

Friday my mom came over for the morning just to play with the kids and visit. We all had a fun time. My mom is one of those grandmas you always want your kids to have - she gets on the floor to build Lego with them, says yes to board games and card games, and even sometimes brings donuts (they were delicious this morning).