Week In Review

How was my week? It was a little of a lot.

On Monday, I went walking at the church at 8 AM with the 3 kids and then picked up a friend and her kids afterwards to do some shopping. While we were in Wal-Mart, her wallet came up missing and we spent some time retracing steps, saying little mental prayers, then more time on the phone cancelling her cards when the wallet turned up in the bathroom without the cards. At one point, all of her 3 kids were crying simutaneously. Her checkbook was still there so she went back to pay for her stuff and then found the credit cards stuffed into a separate section of her wallet! From there we went to DI and did some "treasure hunting." I got some warmer clothes for Rebekah and Leah. *Side note: I have two boys and two girls. Each pair was born in different seasons, so I have always had to buy additional clothes for each one. Now I'm ready for whatever comes at whatever time of the year! Aren't some things supposed to get cheaper with more kids? We have used the same crib and stroller for all 4!* Since my friend no longer had usable credit cards, she headed home for lunch and I ran a couple more errands.

The rest of the week went fairly normally. I fought with Daniel over his reading, I cleaned up different spots of the house only to see them get destroyed again, I did some laundry, changed the girls' clothing for the new season/sizes, made some breads and some dinners, went Visiting Teaching, did some reading, etc... I've been working on my quilt squares. I am SO CLOSE to having the 2nd one done. This one has been the most time consuming. Check back in a couple of days to see the finished project. It is going to look neat!

One of our Enrichment Groups is a book club. We read the first book last month. It was "The Five Love Languages." It was VERY good! I don't normally like self-help books, particularly relationship ones. I enjoyed it so much that I bought the one written for children. (It came in the mail yesterday.) Our book for September is "Love Comes Softly." I bought it off of Amazon.com for $3.50 (shipping included). I'm hoping it comes in the next day or two. There has been a movie made for it, so we plan to watch that eventually.

Chad had to run into the Scout office here recently and while we waited in the van, I got this cute video of Leah and her "backup" singing, "I Am A Child of God." She looks so innocent! It is very cute.



I have been fighting a cold the past couple of weeks. This week it really hit my throat. I was supposed to be learning a 2nd Soprano part for a choir song we sang this week. There is a reason I don't sing 2nd. I can't. I can't stay on my notes. It is lucky that I have the range for 1st Soprano, because that is all I can do! Anyway, I spent the week needing to practice, but unable to because of a cough. I finally got around to in on Friday afternoon and yesterday. During the practice today we decided to scrap it because the other strong soprano couldn't hit the highest notes (lots of young sopranos make us look impressive, but they are still developing their talents - anyone else have a church choir like that?). OH well! I tried. I wasn't much help because my cold is still troubling me; I sang all the notes, but you couldn't always hear them! By the end of Primary, I gave up singing. I had used up my voice in Sacrament Meeting and teaching my primary class.

As far as I know, we still aren't actually keeping the kitten. But he is very "playful" and is constantly attacking us as we pass. I bought him a collar while grocery shopping yesterday. It has TWO bells on it. For the first hour he frantically tried to escape the torture around his neck. The bells probably bug his ears. They are kind of annoying. The one good thing is now we know WHERE he is! The kids used the opportunity to try to name him. Apparently, Nathan wanted to call him Jingle Bells. By the time Daniel decided he would call him that, too, Nathan decided that he really wanted to call him Thunder. Leah is playing peacemaker and waffling between the two names. To defray some of the stress between the boys, I have been calling him Thunder Bells. Personally, I think he should be named Scratchy. It suits his voice and his claws!

General Conference is coming up. Anyone need some Bingo Cards to keep their kids listening longer than one talk? I like to find neat things online. I passed some of these out to my Primary class today. Now I need more printer ink.

Because of G.C. and our Primary program coming up, I don't have to prepare another lesson until 22 October! Yeah! One less thing to cram into my Saturday evenings! If I prepared sooner, I would have less to stress about. If I had less kids, I would have less to stress about. If I had less kids, I would be bored (and have less laundry).

For FHE last week, we had a lesson on service. I cut out a big heart from red foam and wrote, "Because I love you!" on it. We have been doing things for each other and leaving the heart for them to see. We have also instituted a new marbles system that the kids are now individually rewarded or punished. Between these two events, I have seen some very sweet exchanges between the kids. We really are getting through to them! We are also hearing. " I love you" more often.

I guess I'll wind down my ramblings. It is apparently time to take a walk. Winter is coming quickly to this area and we are taking advantage of some remaining rays of sunlight.