Dway and the Semiannual Gauntlet

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . hearing Phillip sing in two lovely, powerful  choir numbers.

. . . Anna finally learning to say Joy's name.  OK, technically she says "Dway" not "Joy," but that's much closer than "Deh," which she's been saying up to this point. It was fun to hear her happily call her big sister's name as the kids played "Hide and Seek" this evening.

. . . finally getting around to making the Bat Mobile--a mobile with black paper bats that I hung in our front room.  I made a similar one last year, but it needed a few tweaks.  I may keep this year's version so I don't have to make another one next year.

And another thing . . .

. . . you might be a Mormon parent of young children if you view the Saturday night adult-only session of stake conference* as a soul-feeding revelatory opportunity, and the Sunday morning general session (where the whole family attends a meeting nearly twice as long as our usual Sunday service) as a two-hour gauntlet to be run with a big bag of books, activities, and snacks (and a prayer that your kids won't be tired of every single one of them before the closing prayer).  When my toddler had a meltdown during the closing song, I just handed her my purse and let her rifle through it.  Wanna play with my iPhone? Sure!  Just don't delete anything, OK?

At this stage of life we get very little out of the morning session, and frankly our kids don't, either.  I go mainly to teach my kids (and remind myself) that church is important, and I trust that in future years we'll all get much more out of it if we establish the habit of attending now.


*Stake conference is a semiannual gathering of several congregations in the area to hear talks by local leaders and members, and occasionally visiting authorities.