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life pictures

Saffron and Elli…ot

Not long after Savannah left this morning for the Utah Classic ballroom competition Mariah called me into their room.

“Dad come look, you’ve got to see this.”

While we purchased two female dwarf hamsters it turns out that Ellie is actually Elliot.

I’m hopeful that first-time-mother Saffron doesn’t get too worried to care for her babies. Two is an awfully small litter so I’m a bit concerned that things might not be alright but I’m hopeful that it will all work out – and then we’ll have to decide how to handle mixed genders.

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life

Growing Children

Last night Savannah asked me what time I went out weeding in the mornings. I told her 6:00 and apparently she set her alarm for 6:30 this morning so she could join me. When she came out I was still finishing scriptures but then we went out together and I taught her the tips to pulling weeds among plants you would like to keep. So not only was I pulling weeds this morning, I was growing workers.

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When I got inside I discovered that not only had I been training up a new worker I also had an audience while we were out there:

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From the way Alyssa talked after we came in I have the feeling that I may soon have two kids out working beside me on some mornings.

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life pictures

Revealing Personalities

It’s always interesting to me to see the little ways that the kids display their unique personalities. Recently I noticed them coming through on Tap Fish, a game I have on my iPod. The game is a virtual aquarium and I allowed each of the kids to have their own tank. Because I don’t allow them to play the game anytime they want, and because the fish in the tanks will dies if neglected for too long (two full days according to the documentation), I make a habit of going in every day to feed their fish, just in case they won’t get an opportunity soon. Other than my basic maintenance I don’t do anything with the kids’ tanks, they each have complete control of what they put in the tank in the way of fish and tank decorations.

At first I limited what they could buy so that no one child would use up all the virtual money at the expense of the others but once I built up a sizable reserve of coins I dropped that restriction and it has been interesting to see each tank take on it’s own character according to the person who owned it.

Please note that I would not presume to read much into looking at the tanks if I did not get to see the other aspects of each child’s life as well.

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life

Receiving the Holy Ghost

It has been very amazing and gratifying in the last few days to watch Savannah since her baptism. On Sunday afternoon Savannah came to me and said that she had not felt anything change when she was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. I reminded her that when the gift of the Holy Ghost is given we are invited to “receive the Holy Ghost.” I told her that we must work at doing those things which will invite the spirit of God to remain with us.

She told me that Ethan Miller, a boy in our ward who was also baptized last week, had said that he felt a change when he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and I answered that some people do notice a change while others do not. Savannah’s response was insightful. She said, “Yes, our house hasn’t been suited to having the Spirit these last few days, people have been grumpy and not very nice.”

I can’t think of a more accurate summary of what things were like in the days leading up to her baptism. We were busy with all the regular tasks of life plus we had the excitement and stress of preparing for a big event plus Laura was helping out the kids swimming teacher get ready for the start of swim lessons this week. A spiritual atmosphere had definitely taken a back seat to a hectic and frazzled one last week.

Later Sunday evening Savannah got upset over how we were handling dinner with the result that she screamed at Laura and I and then stomped off to her room. Later I was pleasantly surprised as she came down the hall and very meekly said, “Dad, will you forgive me for screaming at you?”

I told her that I forgave her and then she said, “that’s hard, I’ve never had to ask someone to forgive me before.”

A minute later I heard her asking Laura for forgiveness as well. Laura later explained that she and Savannah had discussed forgiveness and repentance that morning. Apparently the discussion had an impact on Savannah and it’s clear that she is doing the work to receive the Holy Ghost.

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life pictures Uncategorized

Best Calendar for 2010

On Christmas day there was one gift under the tree that neither Laura nor I knew about. Savannah had made a wonderful calendar for our family for 2010. I just had to share each of the months – it really warmed our hearts to see the work that she had put into this.

January

February

March

April
In case you can’t tell, that shell of the egg opens and closes to reveal the picture.

May

June

July

August

September

October

Things she is thankful for: Mom and Dad, Alyssa, Mariah, Isaac, and Bell (not sure of the reference there)
Things she is thankful for: Mom and Dad, Alyssa, Mariah, Isaac, and Bell (not sure of the reference there)

December

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life

Too Busy to Hear

It constantly amazes me how human and approachable President Eyring is. We were blessed to have him speak to our Elder’s quorum today. His son, Stewart, was there as well. At the end, everyone allowed President Eyring to leave first. I was not far behind him, but he stopped in the hallway to wait for his son. As I got to where he was he said, “I guess Stewart isn’t coming yet.” I’m not sure that he was really saying it to me, but I responded that it looked like Stewart was stuck behind a lot of other people in the room. Just then I heard Savannah’s voice in the hallway calling to Alyssa and Mariah – trying to direct them. As they came in sight I called out to them to calm them down and get them out of the way. President Eyring said to me “Savannah?” (I had called her by name) and I said, “Yes, Savannah.” He then called out to her. Unfortunately for Savannah, she was too busy with whatever she was thinking about to notice that a prophet had tried to speak to her. She rushed off the other way to find Laura.

As that happened Mariah came to me and asked me to pick her up. I stood up with her in my arms as Savannah was leaving and turned to President Eyring and, referring back to the lesson he had just given said “this is my little celestial kingdom.” He looked at Mariah and said, “Yes, and we all have to become like her to return home.”

I think that is the identifying feature of the society of apostles and prophets – it’s not about titles or position, but that society is where the eternal can be recognized even among the most mundane parts of life. Being in their presence is no guarantee that we will be able to recognize what they have to offer us. To truly have the society of apostles and prophets we have to prepare ourselves to listen when they speak and to feast on what they have to offer us – whether they have a title that the world would recognize, or whether they are simply people filled with the spirit of prophecy and a testimony of the Savior.

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life

The Chairs Are Smiling

While watching the video presentation prior to touring the Draper temple Savannah blurted out “the chairs are smiling” when she saw a picture of one of the endowment rooms. Later she repeated that when seeing a picture in the brochure and when walking through those rooms.

Leave it to a child to see things in such a simple way. Where else but the temple would even the furniture be happy? (I’ll have to get a picture from one of the brochures and post it here to show what she meant.)

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culture life meta technology

It Takes a Village

Most people have heard the proverb “it takes a village to raise  a child,” especially since it was made more famous by the book “authored” by Hillary Clinton when she as the First Lady. (Personally I doubt that she “actually wrote the book” as she claims. She probably commissioned it, helped edit it for content, approved it, and wrote the acknowledgment section.) Of course, Mrs. Clinton meant that society was very important in raising a child – which is true on the surface – but the real value in the proverb is not what it means about child-rearing as what it means about society. What I take it to mean for society is that we must build societies that are large enough to provide the support necessary to raise a child to adulthood and intimate enough that each child is more than a statistic in the process. That’s the main problem with the government approach – government solutions must reduce everyone to no more than a statistic. A village, in other words, consists of those outside the immediate family who are familiar and trusted by each other (both children and adults) and who have an interest in the successful raising of the children in the village.

A perfect example of the village approach occurred last night. We went to see a performance of Annie being put on by Bountiful High. Soon after we arrived we ran into my cousins, JP and Marie Feinauer. The kids were well behaved for the first song, but then their ages began to catch up with them. Isaac started running up and down the aisle. He wasn’t very noisy, but with the light coming from the open doors at the back he cast a long (and distracting) shadow. Mariah was pretty good, except that she had to keep switching laps. Alyssa could not seem to stop herself from changing seats, bouncing, and talking (without her whisper voice). Savannah was perfectly behaved. Considering how late it was (late for young children) we decided that we needed to leave at intermission, but that was really not fair to Savannah who was enjoying the show and acting appropriately. This is where JP and Marie, members of our village, come into our story. At intermission I asked if the Feinauer’s would be willing to drive Savannah home at the end of the show. They agreed.

Because they were there, and were trusted by both us and Savannah, we were able to take the three home who were not acting appropriate to the setting while allowing Savannah to stay. Not only was this fair for all of the children, but being able to make that distinction showed in a very tangible way what behavior was appropriate at a public performance. I honestly expect that at the next public performance we attend Alyssa will act appropriately (and possibly even Mariah) because of the lesson from last night – made possible because of some help from our village.

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life

Teacher

On the way home tonight Savannah told me she wanted to play baseball. When we got home it turned out that she meant golf. I got the clubs out for her and some wiffle balls and she started playing. Within 5 minutes Alyssa wants to play too. Savannah took it upon herself to instruct Alyssa in all the fine points of the game.

“Put the ball down there. Now hit it. . . Like that.”

Categories
life

Jail Break

I just love having two kids who are such good friends. Laura told me a great story that took place yesterday with Savannah and Alyssa. I just have to share how Savannah chose to play the protective big sister for Alyssa.

Alyssa was doing something that she was not supposed to do. Laura warned her that if she did it again she would have to go sit in her crib – she did it again. When Laura was taking Alyssa to her crib Savannah followed her down the stairs. Savannah was talking to herself saying things like “I’m going to go help my sister.” After Laura put Alyssa in the crib she went to do whatever random things she needed to do. Savannah went into the bedroom where Alyssa was while Laura was busy and pulled the reading chair in their room over to Alyssa’s crib and helped Alyssa out of her “prison cell.”

A few minutes later Laura peeked into the girls room to find Alyssa out of the crib playing with Savannah in the room. The chair was left right at the scene of the jail break.