The Conference Weekend and Easter Stretch

 Anyone who knows me in person or has been following along here on the blog for very long, knows that I'm a bit disorganized and pretty much the opposite of fancy.   I host a lot these days (between book group and YSA events), but I am definitely not someone who can host something and make it look put-together and effortless.  People come to our house and get a sense that it was a stretch for me to make it happen!   This Conference / Easter weekend was a case in point, with the struggle made  a bit worse than usual because Glen was in Denver visiting his parents all weekend long.  

On Saturday, Adam invited up a bunch of friends to watch Conference in our theater room and to eat all 3 meals at our home.  I had it all planned in advance and thought I was good to go, but somehow struggled even getting breakfast on the table.    I served cheddar cheese pancakes with fruit syrup, bacon (most of which I burned to an absolute char), scrambled eggs, and some fruit.   Besides the bacon, it actually turned out pretty well, but I ended not serving it until 10ish minutes before the first session began, so it felt rushed.  Conference was awesome (of course), and the other meals came together okay (croissant sandwiches for lunch and taco salad for dinner), with only minor omissions and mess-ups.   Most of the day we had about a dozen people there, with some trading places that happened along the way.   

On Conference Sunday, I very spontaneously opened up our theater room to our YSA ward for watching conference.   Over the course of the day we generally had 4-6 visitors there (not including Adam and Tia).  I fed lunch (croissant sandwiches again) to about 10-12 people.      

After all that came the hard part--trying to cook Easter dinner  by myself.  Normally Glen, Heather, and my Mom would make part of the meal as well, but, as previously mentioned, Glen was gone, Heather is still completely non-weightbearing on her broken ankle, and my Mom is struggling with stuff, so it was me.  Adam and Tia helped with some of it, but I was making things that other people normally make (like the potatoes, ham, and meat), so it was all only okay.   My Mom did set the table beautifully, which made me smile.  Neither Heather nor Spence felt up for joining us for dinner, so it just ended up being me, Adam, Tia, Mom, and my nephew, Andrew, so it felt very small.  

Here's a closer look at  what we ate:   Ham, roasted beef, glazed brussels sprouts, roasted potatoes, and Brazi bites.   I had also made some carrot cake (not shown) and a purchased Oreo ice cream cake was served for Andrew's birthday (which was also on Easter Sunday).  

We also got to talk to our missionary on Easter and on Monday!   She's finally doing a bit better after struggling with an increase in seizures over the last couple weeks.  It's been a rough couple weeks for our sweet girl and she still isn't 100%, but we are happy that there is some improvement at least!  I am getting so excited for her to come home in June!  

Also on Easter Monday, I got to go to Ashton Gardens for a YSA stake FHE night.  The weather was lovely that day and it was delightful to spend the evening with ward and stake members enjoying the beautiful flowers and amazing sculptures of Christ.  

I'll be honest...I was a bit exhausted after it was all over, but taking into account that I fed about 30 people five separate full meals (though never that many people all at once), I think I did okay.  It's fun living somewhere that we can host that many people and close enough that people actually come, even if it is a stretch for me!  

And I'll end with a quote from General Conference from Elder Bednar that really stuck with me: 

Enduring to the end is linked inextricably to the spiritual gift of charity. Enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth, hold on to the limits of our physical strength and mental capacity, and push through the challenges and adversities of mortal life; it is so much more than that.

Enduring to the end is the joyous quest of a lifetime—a pressing forward with faith in Jesus Christ in a gradual process of trusting in and receiving help from our Savior to become more like Him. As our love for Him grows ever stronger and deeper, we can be blessed to receive spiritual perspective, the Lord’s empowering grace, and exceedingly great and indescribable joy.


Life has felt a little heavy and hard lately and I needed this reminder about what enduring to the end is really all about.  I may not be crossing as many things off my own to-do list right now, but He's helping me to focus on what's most important.   💓

Eastering Together

Since becoming empty nesters, we honestly  go through some pretty dry spells where our lives are pretty uneventful, but lately it's been a pretty steady stream of nonboringness and we are enjoying it!  In fact, it's felt a bit like a whirlwind here the last month or so, so there's a ton to blog about.

This post will focus on the happenings of Easter weekend.  

On the Friday before Easter, my sister Heather was down in Provo with my Mom taking Emma's graduation pics (more of the recent excitement) and we decided to join them for a spontaneous little dinner and treat night.  Besides Heather, my Mom, and Emma, McKenzie (my niece), Riley (Emma's roommate), Adam, Spencer, and Glen and I were there.  We ate dinner at Don Joaquin's...

and laughed when our receipt was #74, which induced a lot of giggles on our parts...

We ended the night at Brooker's Founding Flavors ice cream shop near BYU.  Zwahlens in PA is still our gold standard for the best ice cream ever, but Brooker's isn't too far behind.  Plus the colonial / Founding Fathers theme of the shop makes us nostalgic for the DC area.   We were there on the snowy day mentioned here, so it wasn't great ice cream weather, but the place was still packed and we laughed that they had an outdoor DJ there that night.   

It was way too cold to be sitting outside and eating ice cream, but we chatted with the DJ on the way out and were impressed that they were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere that night.  

I doubt any of you blog readers have been around long enough to remember that Emma was OBSESSED with the poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow back in the day!   We both could quote several stanzas of the poem from memory and I had to pull up this picture I found here on the blog to pass around to everyone!    "Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..." 

Then on Easter Sunday we attended our new YSA ward and LOVED it!   The talks and music were Christ centered and beautiful.   I think we are going to really enjoy this season of serving down at BYU. 

After church, we hosted dinner for 12 people!    Guests besides Glen, Emma, Spence, Adam, and I, included our niece, McKenzie, my sister, Heather, my Mom, my cousin, Trisha, and her 2 daughters Lily and Sylvie, plus Adam's roommate, Ty.

Glen woke up at 2am to  smoke  brisket and later made mashed potatoes, Heather brought rolls, and I made broccoli salad, pie,cupcakes.  Adam, Emma, and McKenzie were our sous chefs.  Everything was delicious and we ate well! 

It was so fun to get these first and second cousins together again. 

Meanwhile, in Alabama...the B family was enjoying their own Easter.  Yes, Cami and I were wearing matching dresses that we both bought on a recent sale!    And Cami sewed Lucie and Oliver's matching outfits!    Apparently Lucie had the time of her life with all the Easter celebrations, but Oliver wasn't so sure...

And, in California, Ellie was busy teaching people about Jesus, while celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.   She, along with the other missionaries serving in her ward, ended up performing a musical number in the Easter sacrament service without any previous notice.  Overall it sounded like she had a beautiful day. 

It turned out to be a lovely weekend with  a lot of good food, lots of reflection on the atonement of our Savior, and  with lots of good company... just the way Easter should be!  💗

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Easter Bunnying

The older our kids have gotten, the more laid back our holidays have become.   What fun is the Easter Bunny when your kids don't even like candy (much) anymore?   Or when you wouldn't dare buy an item of clothing for any one of your five children, because chances are, they wouldn't wear it in a million years.   Combine that with Glen being in Colorado for the weekend helping his mom with a few things, so I decided I needed to liven things up a little. 

Instead of playing Easter Bunny for my kids, I decided I'd be Easter Bunny for a whole lot of other people.   First off, I made a bunch of little goodie bags...

and printed this note for about 10 missionaries (some of Adam's friends, some of my Thailand peeps, a young man from our ward, and Adam of course), and enclosed a pack of small pictures of Jesus!   Then I traipsed to the post office and sent them off all over the country!

Sadly, I doubt that a single person received them before Easter, but, hopefully they'll smile anyway.  

Then, I realized that I bought waaaaaaaaaay too much candy and I decided to make a bunch more goodie bags...

This time the goodie bags were for kids at church who brought me pictures of Christ at the end of church on Easter Sunday.   Yes, I bribe children for pictures of Jesus.  No, I am not embarrassed by this fact whatsoever.   In fact, I rather enjoy being the candy / picture of Jesus lady at church and I was quite happy with my picture haul!   They'll take care of the artwork for the cover of the program for weeks!    

 

So don't mind how completely exhausted I look in this picture...or all pictures, for that matter...

But it was very fun to have Ellie (freshly home from Vietnam), and Emma up from BYU for the day.   Spence was also there, but, for whatever odd reason, he didn't voluntarily join me for any pictures.  If you could see the live version of this one taken a few days before, you'll see he was still for about 1.7 seconds and was ducking out by the end.   😂

It was very fun to have Emma and Ellie together for the first time in a few months.  The G Girls vibes were strong and there was a lot of loud singing along to Disney songs, laughter, and much cooking going on.   Sadly, we were off our game in the kitchen that fine day and most of the food was lackluster and bland.    The best part of the meal was this cake Emma made and the ham and rolls my Mom and Heather brought with them!   

Speaking of Easter dinners, I was happy to hear that Adam and his companion were invited to several!  They only ended up eating one, but it sounds like it was a good day.   Four of the people they are teaching opted to sing with the ward choir for Easter, so that ended up being a special experience for them.  

Last but not least, what would a holiday recap be without pictures from my favorite Alabamans?!   Lucie and her matching friends were as adorable as can be...

And check out this over the top preciousness!   I adore these peeps and can't wait for them to come visit in a couple weeks. 

Also, let's take a closer look at that last cheesy grin!   I'm dying at the cuteness!    😁

Hope you all had a very happy Easter!   💗

A Little Life Update

Getting ready to move after being in one place for 20-years has been an all-consuming task for me.  So all-consuming that I teeter between never wanting to own a house again, so as to at least prevent all the house stress  and wanting to buy a house ASAP, so that I can guaranteed to be in one place for a while.   Our reality will probably end up somewhere in between those two scenarios.  In the meantime, we still need to figure out where the next place for us is.   Right now, we've got 4 reasonably good options and we need to wait for some things to happen at Glen's work before we can confidently start moving forward with any of those potential plans.  For now, all I can do is get the house ready to sell and our family ready to move...somewhere and hope and pray that the somewhere will be the right place for us.  

 Just so my kids don't forget that we have had some normal life in amongst all the household distractions these past few weeks, here's a peek of what else we've been doing.  

We had one of our favorite missionaries come back to visit...

 Elder Judkins served here 4ish years ago and it was great to see him again!   We took him to see "Amazing Grace" at the National Bible Museum.  It was a powerful performance and we were grateful for the opportunity to include him in this family outing.  

Adam used Rocky to up his seminary devotional game.   He had the balloons for an activity, made this picture into a poster....

and made this picture into a little hand-out for everyone.   But, alas, he still didn't win the devotional contest. 

Ellie and Emma had a temple trip to Philadelphia.  Adam was taking the ACT and had to miss it.  Glen and I stayed home and plugged away at house stuff.  It was probably one of the few temple trips our kids have been on when at least one of us wasn't there. 

Ellie had two of her cousins stay over one night during spring break. 

They enjoyed the time together and even Adam got in on the fun when he took Lauren on a run, since sleeping over meant that she missed her track practice. 

Easter was low-key, but good.  We didn't dye eggs, we didn't hide any candy, we didn't get any new clothes.  Emma did make these cute bunny pancakes though...

And we did have a family gathering with a delicious dinner at Pete and Mika's place...

And on the other side of the country, Cami's been taking off with her baking business...

And pretty soon....we will have all five kids (and their mom) together in one place.  It's only a quick trip and we're sad that Glen can't come too, but a little time away sounds just about perfect right now.  

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Happy Easter!

March 27: 

Happy Easter!

This song is one that the primary children sang today in our Easter program and it's been stuck in my head ever since.  What a powerful testimony of Christ's love for each of us personally.   

Jesus climbed the hill

To the garden still

His steps were heavy and slow

Love and a prayer

Took Him there

To the place only He could go

Gethsemane

Jesus loves me

So He went willingly

To Gethsemane

He loves me....and you!   

"The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, “No one understands. No one knows.” No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did."

  Elder David A. Bednar

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A Chorus of Angels

March 25:

On Friday,  everything came together for  the first official performance of "Savior of the World."  The cast has been practicing regularly for over three months and all three of my thespians were very excited {and nervous} about performing in front of an audience.    

Ellie's jitters translated into a nervous energy and an ear-to-ear grin the entire night.  

The performance came together beautifully.... 

and I was surprised at the high quality of the music and the acting.   

Here's a video of the final scene of the play. 

There's one more performance left!  If you're in the area, I highly recommend altering your Easter plans to include this meaningful family activity!  

Washington DC LDS Temple Visitors' Center

Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016

7:00pm 

(admission is free, but you'll want to come at least an hour early to pick up your free tickets)