I love it when the kids are out of school! They had Thursday and Friday off this week, so party night was moved up to Wednesday, Thursday was our annual Family Jeopardy, Friday we had a donut fry and game fest with Mindy and Kevin's family and of course the infamous Extended Family Harvest party was on Saturday. I really abhor Halloween and everything it stands for, so it is fulfilling when we can make traditions that are so fun and make enough of a difference during this week to drown out the evil influences that swirl around us and have experiences that are uplifting and wholesome and so relevant to the season but not the world's holiday.
Because of all of the car trouble we have had this week, we put off everything that usually entails trips to town until Wednesday evening. Amazingly, we found everything we needed for costumes at Savers so that Fred could take the kid's to our ward Trunk or Treat/ mutual activity, but by the time we got everyone home and dressed up it had already started and we hadn't had dinner. I happily opted to stay home and cook, since there is inevitably some Halloween that sneaks in to someone's decorations and when that's promoted at a church function I have a hard time not being irritated. It worked out for everyone. It ended up being very poorly attended, so the whole family was home quite soon and we had dinner and movies here, which we always enjoy.
I was a little worried about our traditional Family Jeopardy party on Thursday, because a big portion of the responsibility for that celebration has always fallen on Fred's shoulders, and he is always so busy. Every year he puts together the game and I put together our Harvest Basket and deliveries. I offered to help with the game questions, but Fred really wanted to do it, so I couldn't ease that pressure and because I didn't have a car he ended up putting together our Harvest Basket as well. He found a few new varieties of produce that were fun to try. He brought home a Jicama, which is like a mild turnip. We ate it raw and was a big hit with everyone. We also had some tamarindo beans which looked like brown dried seed pods off of some tree, but had a soft raisin like inside, that was sweet and sour, wrapped around cool seeds that we decided to keep for our mancala game to make it more authentic feeling. Mikayla, Lily and I really liked it. Sophie liked it with a little more reserve. Everyone else thought it was a little strange. We also tried a bosc pear which everyone loved and just for fun we had a mango and a pomegranate and some limes. Because Fred had Scouts right after work we didn't even start the celebration until 8:30 that evening and because he was under such time restraints, the questions were a little more difficult than usual this year and we had to do some emotional maneuvering with the younger kids, so they felt as involved as they wanted to be, but it ended up being enormously fun. Fred bought enough candy for a small army and everyone got plenty, so only the older group cared that Mikayla won. Unfortunately, I never made deliveries a high enough priority until it was too late to do that in conjunction with our family party, but the great thing about celebrating Harvest and not Halloween is that the window is so much broader and doesn't have to be a particular date, just a general time of year, so I can still make that happen.
Friday, Mindy and Kevin's family came over and brought enough donut dough over for the entire neighborhood. It took us an hour to fry them all and lathered with maple frosting very few people had the self control to stop eating when they should have, so we had a lot of little kids (and some big men=) that weren't feeling their best at the end of the night. I was smart enough to stop before the gorging point, but they were delicious and even I had three. Mikayla is doing the Middleton Health Challenge on her own and was a rock and didn't touch a bite of any of the holiday treats, including donuts, until Sunday.
A funny thing happened on Sunday. I had put a nice note on our front door informing Trick or Treaters that we had celebrated Harvest on Saturday, and everyone honored that by not knocking on our door, so I didn't even realize how much activity was going on outside until I had to leave the house at 7:00 for a setting apart that was taking place in a sisters home in my neighborhood. As I came out the door there were parents and little children dressed up everywhere. I was wearing a black skirt and collared white shirt and black jacket and hadn't walked more than a block when a young father coming towards me on the sidewalk, bent down to his two young children and gesturing towards me said, "Look, it's a business woman." I'm sure he hadn't meant it for my ears and I just smiled as I walked past, because the only way that comment isn't quite odd is if he thought I was dressed up for Halloween. I guess I did look a little out of place in that environment, but I thought it was humorous.
We have had such an amazing experience this weekend. Mikayla has very gradually, over the course of her high school years, created a friendship with a boy who used to ridicule her and any other member of the church he knew, quite openly and continually. He was very ill informed and relentless. Last year he and a friend started singling her out in their mocking, but because she never felt that it was motivated by cruelty she didn't let it bother her and as we would talk about it I could tell that he was a bright boy searching for answers and his taunting was a protected way to get information without seeming interested. At the end of the year, he followed her out of class one day and apologized for his taunting and told her he was impressed with the way she never got offended or defensive, but stood up for what she believed. They have very different personalities. At the beginning of this year, the student body voted on about 20 categories for "Hall of Fame" pictures for the upcoming yearbook. Mikayla and her friend, whose name is Jet, were both "labeled". She as "The Most Laid Back" and he as "Most Likely to Take Over the World". They have had classes together this year that have leant to their talking openly about their very different views and opinions. He has shared enough about his family with her to see that he comes from a broken home and jumps back and forth between parents. He has a sister who is extremely liberal, a father who seems to vigorously believe in nothing and a mother who professes to be Methodist but not actively. He would profess to be liberal and atheistic sometimes as they would talk about politics in government or religion in history, but one day they took a test in class that categorized their political views and Mikayla told him she bet he was more conservative than he thought. They both ended up ranking as moderate conservatives, which kind of shook him up.
This past Tuesday Jet informed Mikayla that he was going to church with her this week. Needless to say, she was a bit surprised--so was I. On Wednesday I met him in the library. I was checking out books and he came in the front door, grabbed a book and approached Mikayla in a way that, though I didn't know who he was, I could tell they were comfortable friends. They made some small talk about their different book choices and I overheard him say that he wanted to read something a little shorter than his last 1000 page book, which picqued my interest. When I looked at his hands, I noticed that he was holding onto an Ernest Hemingway, which isn't the most common choice for the average high schooler, unless it's assigned, so when he approached the desk to check it out, I made a snarky comment about someone actually reading Ernest Hemmingway on purpose and he laughed good naturedly and left. Only then, as Mikayla said goodbye and used his name did I realize who it was and I was a little taken back.
On Sunday, Mikayla and Eden picked him up for church in the truck. He had asked her what to wear and was dressed appropriately. Mikayla was as calm as anything, while my stomach was churning wondering what his perception would be. Of course, I shouldn't have worried, the Lord knew he was going to be there and the entire bishopric spoke in sacrament mtg. on some of the basic essentials of the gospel. He doesn't have much of a religious foundation and asked questions through the entire meeting. He even asked questions during the prayer until he realized what was going on. In Mikayla's Sunday school class the lesson was on the twelve tribes of Israel, so he was completely lost, but not too shy to ask lots of questions. And then, perfectly, because it was the 5th Sunday the YM/YW met together the last hour and a member of the Bishopric taught about the Proclamation on the Family. It was fun to be there, sitting by Mikayla, watching him participate and her guide him through the whole process. After the mtg. he was surrounded by leaders and youth, many who he knew because it is such a small town. Afterwards, I asked him how he was feeling about the whole experience and he said he was completely overwhelmed. I asked him what he was overwhelmed by and he said that he just didn't know much about religion and it seemed that there were so many basic things that everyone seemed to know, but he didn't understand at all. Fred asked him if he would like to have a Book of Mormon to give him a base reference for all of it and he was very perceptive and seemed quite appreciative when Fred produced a copy for him and said, "I am definitely going to read this." When Mikayla dropped him off, he asked her to pick him up next week. This friendship has been such a long and evolving thing to go from a ridiculer/ ridiculee relationship to what it is now. Mikayla has been an incredible missionary. Of course we don't know where this will lead, or if he is ready yet, but he is so open to gleaning knowledge right now and Mikayla seems to know the right pace to give it to him. She did say she was nervous about his best friend finding out about all of this because he is very anti, though he was a member previously. I know he is going to have opposition because that is how Satan works, but this boy is no emotional lightweight and I am confident if he can keep his wall down and keep searching he will find what he is looking for. It is a neat experience for our whole family, but especially for Mikayla.
Because of all of the car trouble we have had this week, we put off everything that usually entails trips to town until Wednesday evening. Amazingly, we found everything we needed for costumes at Savers so that Fred could take the kid's to our ward Trunk or Treat/ mutual activity, but by the time we got everyone home and dressed up it had already started and we hadn't had dinner. I happily opted to stay home and cook, since there is inevitably some Halloween that sneaks in to someone's decorations and when that's promoted at a church function I have a hard time not being irritated. It worked out for everyone. It ended up being very poorly attended, so the whole family was home quite soon and we had dinner and movies here, which we always enjoy.
I was a little worried about our traditional Family Jeopardy party on Thursday, because a big portion of the responsibility for that celebration has always fallen on Fred's shoulders, and he is always so busy. Every year he puts together the game and I put together our Harvest Basket and deliveries. I offered to help with the game questions, but Fred really wanted to do it, so I couldn't ease that pressure and because I didn't have a car he ended up putting together our Harvest Basket as well. He found a few new varieties of produce that were fun to try. He brought home a Jicama, which is like a mild turnip. We ate it raw and was a big hit with everyone. We also had some tamarindo beans which looked like brown dried seed pods off of some tree, but had a soft raisin like inside, that was sweet and sour, wrapped around cool seeds that we decided to keep for our mancala game to make it more authentic feeling. Mikayla, Lily and I really liked it. Sophie liked it with a little more reserve. Everyone else thought it was a little strange. We also tried a bosc pear which everyone loved and just for fun we had a mango and a pomegranate and some limes. Because Fred had Scouts right after work we didn't even start the celebration until 8:30 that evening and because he was under such time restraints, the questions were a little more difficult than usual this year and we had to do some emotional maneuvering with the younger kids, so they felt as involved as they wanted to be, but it ended up being enormously fun. Fred bought enough candy for a small army and everyone got plenty, so only the older group cared that Mikayla won. Unfortunately, I never made deliveries a high enough priority until it was too late to do that in conjunction with our family party, but the great thing about celebrating Harvest and not Halloween is that the window is so much broader and doesn't have to be a particular date, just a general time of year, so I can still make that happen.
Friday, Mindy and Kevin's family came over and brought enough donut dough over for the entire neighborhood. It took us an hour to fry them all and lathered with maple frosting very few people had the self control to stop eating when they should have, so we had a lot of little kids (and some big men=) that weren't feeling their best at the end of the night. I was smart enough to stop before the gorging point, but they were delicious and even I had three. Mikayla is doing the Middleton Health Challenge on her own and was a rock and didn't touch a bite of any of the holiday treats, including donuts, until Sunday.
A funny thing happened on Sunday. I had put a nice note on our front door informing Trick or Treaters that we had celebrated Harvest on Saturday, and everyone honored that by not knocking on our door, so I didn't even realize how much activity was going on outside until I had to leave the house at 7:00 for a setting apart that was taking place in a sisters home in my neighborhood. As I came out the door there were parents and little children dressed up everywhere. I was wearing a black skirt and collared white shirt and black jacket and hadn't walked more than a block when a young father coming towards me on the sidewalk, bent down to his two young children and gesturing towards me said, "Look, it's a business woman." I'm sure he hadn't meant it for my ears and I just smiled as I walked past, because the only way that comment isn't quite odd is if he thought I was dressed up for Halloween. I guess I did look a little out of place in that environment, but I thought it was humorous.
We have had such an amazing experience this weekend. Mikayla has very gradually, over the course of her high school years, created a friendship with a boy who used to ridicule her and any other member of the church he knew, quite openly and continually. He was very ill informed and relentless. Last year he and a friend started singling her out in their mocking, but because she never felt that it was motivated by cruelty she didn't let it bother her and as we would talk about it I could tell that he was a bright boy searching for answers and his taunting was a protected way to get information without seeming interested. At the end of the year, he followed her out of class one day and apologized for his taunting and told her he was impressed with the way she never got offended or defensive, but stood up for what she believed. They have very different personalities. At the beginning of this year, the student body voted on about 20 categories for "Hall of Fame" pictures for the upcoming yearbook. Mikayla and her friend, whose name is Jet, were both "labeled". She as "The Most Laid Back" and he as "Most Likely to Take Over the World". They have had classes together this year that have leant to their talking openly about their very different views and opinions. He has shared enough about his family with her to see that he comes from a broken home and jumps back and forth between parents. He has a sister who is extremely liberal, a father who seems to vigorously believe in nothing and a mother who professes to be Methodist but not actively. He would profess to be liberal and atheistic sometimes as they would talk about politics in government or religion in history, but one day they took a test in class that categorized their political views and Mikayla told him she bet he was more conservative than he thought. They both ended up ranking as moderate conservatives, which kind of shook him up.
This past Tuesday Jet informed Mikayla that he was going to church with her this week. Needless to say, she was a bit surprised--so was I. On Wednesday I met him in the library. I was checking out books and he came in the front door, grabbed a book and approached Mikayla in a way that, though I didn't know who he was, I could tell they were comfortable friends. They made some small talk about their different book choices and I overheard him say that he wanted to read something a little shorter than his last 1000 page book, which picqued my interest. When I looked at his hands, I noticed that he was holding onto an Ernest Hemingway, which isn't the most common choice for the average high schooler, unless it's assigned, so when he approached the desk to check it out, I made a snarky comment about someone actually reading Ernest Hemmingway on purpose and he laughed good naturedly and left. Only then, as Mikayla said goodbye and used his name did I realize who it was and I was a little taken back.
On Sunday, Mikayla and Eden picked him up for church in the truck. He had asked her what to wear and was dressed appropriately. Mikayla was as calm as anything, while my stomach was churning wondering what his perception would be. Of course, I shouldn't have worried, the Lord knew he was going to be there and the entire bishopric spoke in sacrament mtg. on some of the basic essentials of the gospel. He doesn't have much of a religious foundation and asked questions through the entire meeting. He even asked questions during the prayer until he realized what was going on. In Mikayla's Sunday school class the lesson was on the twelve tribes of Israel, so he was completely lost, but not too shy to ask lots of questions. And then, perfectly, because it was the 5th Sunday the YM/YW met together the last hour and a member of the Bishopric taught about the Proclamation on the Family. It was fun to be there, sitting by Mikayla, watching him participate and her guide him through the whole process. After the mtg. he was surrounded by leaders and youth, many who he knew because it is such a small town. Afterwards, I asked him how he was feeling about the whole experience and he said he was completely overwhelmed. I asked him what he was overwhelmed by and he said that he just didn't know much about religion and it seemed that there were so many basic things that everyone seemed to know, but he didn't understand at all. Fred asked him if he would like to have a Book of Mormon to give him a base reference for all of it and he was very perceptive and seemed quite appreciative when Fred produced a copy for him and said, "I am definitely going to read this." When Mikayla dropped him off, he asked her to pick him up next week. This friendship has been such a long and evolving thing to go from a ridiculer/ ridiculee relationship to what it is now. Mikayla has been an incredible missionary. Of course we don't know where this will lead, or if he is ready yet, but he is so open to gleaning knowledge right now and Mikayla seems to know the right pace to give it to him. She did say she was nervous about his best friend finding out about all of this because he is very anti, though he was a member previously. I know he is going to have opposition because that is how Satan works, but this boy is no emotional lightweight and I am confident if he can keep his wall down and keep searching he will find what he is looking for. It is a neat experience for our whole family, but especially for Mikayla.
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