Little Things

They read a first presidency letter today in sacrament meeting asking us not to speculate about the location of the Meridian temple. Whoops! That warning came a little too late.

There was a big stake Relief Society mtg. this last Tuesday. The Laurels were also invited but Mikayla couldn't miss choir so I went on my own. The theme was compassion and the wife of one of the Bishops in our stake spoke. She is an entertaining woman, but she is also a woman with an immense amount of depth and insight. It was both humorous and moving. She based her talk on a Neil A. Maxwell quote that differentiated between compassion and pity. I can't seem to find the exact quote online, I'll have to ask her to send it to me, but her talk was so intimate and profound and she emphasized that compassion was tough and the real McCoy and that pity was weak and an imposter. I was moved and motivated to work more on becoming truly charitable. One thing that she said was that Christ had the power to have accomplished everything he did by his words alone, but he chose physical touch. She talked quite a bit about the healing power of that alone. I almost didn't go that night. Tuesdays are busy and I'd almost always rather stay home by evening time, but something bigger than myself got me out the door and I am so glad that I went.

We are over a week into Middleton Unplugged. We forgot about it during Spring Break, and then conference was on Sunday so we started two days late, but it is always a good thing to go through "screen de-tox" and spend more time together as a family. We've been playing lots of games and made our annual trip to the YMCA yesterday, which I think the kids really enjoyed. Abe, Lily and Sophie were issued a "screen free challenge" from school and signed the contract. Those who make it will be awarded with a special party and prizes, so they are excited. Their challenge only involves "entertainment" so they can still get on the computer for homework or work charts or to write Jordan, but we try to keep the computer off as much as possible after school hours and they have all been very stalwart and will have no trouble reaching their goal. It is a little more difficult for some of the rest of us and a downright struggle for Eden, but we are all doing great as well and as usual I am seeing positive family benefits. It's a unique community challenge and I love how it brings us together.

Speaking of our little community a brand new Ridley's is slated to open up in June and in anticipation of that we now have our first stoplight in Middleton.=( It is not working yet, but it is standing as a testimony to progression, no matter how hard some of us (me) resist change.

Mikayla was asked to Prom last Friday by a boy the girls refer to as "Jeffy". I hear of him continuously in Eden and Mikayla's conversations and I could tell they both enjoy his company, but their comments have always been about his male chauvinist jokes or his "nerd appeal" or his Star Wars obsession or his "Phone Call" hairdo etc., so I was a little surprised that Mikayla seemed excited to go. He isn't a member of the church, so of course my mom alarms have been going off like crazy, but Eden and Mikayla both insist he is a good kid with high standards, from an actively religious family and that this is purely a "friend date" with absolutely no attraction on either side, so what can I say? Since the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet was revised there are no black and white RULES. I guess Eden works with him on student council and gave him quite a tongue lashing when she discovered that he wasn't planning on going to his Senior Prom and convinced him (or probably more likely verbally abused him until he gave in=) and the next thing she knew he was planning on asking Mikayla, so Eden is sure she has accomplished heroic feats. I just hope he passes "the mother interview" at the front door.

He asked her with a sandwich delivery during lunch period at school and a note attached that said, "I did the womanly thing and made you a sandwich, now why don't you do the womanly thing and say yes to going with me to Prom." I guess there is quite a bit of sparring (they say, all in good fun) that goes on between him and the girls at school and the amount of feminine incense directed towards him is encouraged (what better way to get so much female attention). Mikayla answered him with a box of tide detergent filled with old clothes that had a Mikayla poem written on them about doing more womanly chores and washing the laundry and wrote most of it in washable marker and the words, "of course" intermingled in the poem in permanent marker. This was pretty late notice, so I am glad she already has a dress she hasn't worn and we found a pretty jacket so I don't have to sew one this time.

I am looking forward to Easter in two weeks, as it is my second favorite holiday. Our stake conference is scheduled that weekend which will add a nice touch. I am hoping for beautiful weather so we can have our family's traditional semi authentic Easter dinner outside. The chill has been hanging in here pretty well lately, but everything is greening up and blooming, so nature is convinced that it is spring.

Jordan still hasn't gotten any of his birthday packages that we mailed over a month ago. Taylor said he never had any trouble with mail in Chile but I'm getting worried. We put so much time into making him a book of family pictures and quotes from prophets and even had it published and bound online. We also sent him 30 spanish "CTR" children's rings that he wanted to give away, but I guess we'll just wait and see. I guess those are all "little things".

I'm waiting for the temperature to hit 70 degrees so I can start officially come out of hibernation and start working on my yard. It better warm up fast, because I'm already falling behind! =)