Happy Birthday, Adam!

In honor of Adam's inauguration into the teen years (aka his 13th birthday), here's a glimpse of 13 random facts about Adam right now!

1.   He really likes being busy.  We have a lot more on our schedule this school year and he is loving it.

2.  He is in process of trying to figure out how to solve a Rubik's cube.

3.  He has studied about worms and composting A LOT and is the main caretaker of our vermicomposting bin.

4.  He is really into biking right now and I'm pretty sure that he wishes that we could bike 43 miles a day.

5. He has taken after his daddy and is turning into quite the fisherman.

6.  He is currently reading "Animal Farm" for his homeschool English class

7.  He requested lasagna for his birthday dinner

8.  He has a limited wardrobe and will only wear a certain style of t-shirt and shorts.

9.   He was just called to be a Family History consultant in our ward.

10.  He has started to do indexing and family history of his own accord.

11.  He is the king of random facts.   He loves to make you guess the answer to things, then share lots of interesting facts about it.

12.  He's the policeman of our family.  He loves to makes sure that everyone is following the rules.  Your cut's not bleeding…count on Adam to deny you access to the bandaids.

13.  He's a math whiz that can do problems in his head easily, which means being required to "show his work" is the bane of his existence.

Adam is an all-around fun guy to have around (except when you need a bandaid), and we are so happy he is a part of our family!

Happy Birthday, Adam!

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A Post

For those of you who are faithful "A Day At a Time" followers (all four of you), I have to apologize.   I have a short attention span when it comes to blogging and anytime there's an event (like a vacation) that takes time to blog about, I get bored.   I start interspersing my vacation posts with current life and pretty soon there's no rhyme or reason whatsoever to  the order of my posts.  Basically I blog about whatever catches my fancy, not really paying attention to the fact that I'm confusing my readers and  that someday my future grandchildren will rightly conclude that I am weird.      

I still have a handful of vacation posts left and I don't want to let the beautiful pictures and stories get lost to our memories, but truth be told, I have absolutely no interest in posting them.  They're boring even for me to write, which is why they've been filled with random comments and fictitious stories.  Even then,  my blog stats have dropped through the floor the last couple of months.    So, I'm going to stop trying so hard and just get these posts done.   This post will be so boring it should make you cry tears of pity for anyone who actually reads it.    Seriously.    

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Bed in the house we rented in St. George.    

Narrow rocks that they climbed through at Pioneer Park in St. George. 

 Ellie trying to recreate this iconic photo of Cami. 

Arms in the air like they just do not care. 

Emma sitting on the rocks.

Sister and her family. 

Adam stops to think. 

Me and my peeps (minus Glen and Spence).

At visitors' center, walk around, pick a language, see where you'll serve your mission. 

Cami--Slovenia.  

Adam--somewhere else (what language is that?). 

Pretty St. George Temple. 

Visited Uncle Kendall and family in Cedar City.  

 Saw long lost cousins. 

Jousting on the roof.

A queen in her castle.

First cousins, once removed. 

It was hot. 

The end. 

Engraving on Our Heart

In General Conference a week and a half ago, Elder Durrant gave a talk that really resonated with our family about "ponderizing" scriptures. What is "ponderizing", you ask?   According to Elder Durrant, it's 80% pondering + 20% memorizing.   He encouraged people to pick a scripture per week to "ponderize,"  hang it up around your house, and spend a little time each day reading it, pondering it,  and making it a part of your heart and mind.    We've read the Book of Mormon together several times over the years, but this sounded like a great way to dive in a little deeper.     So we started the very next day.   

Week 1 (10/4/15):   2 Nephi 31:20 

How we chose it:    This scripture was in the chapter we were reading in our daily scripture study on that Monday morning after General conference, and when we came across it, I just knew that that would be our very first ponderizing scripture!    We had a lot of great discussions about it through the week and even spent some time studying it in French.      

Week 2 (10/11/15):  D&C 82:9-10
How we chose it:  I decided that the activity of ponderizing would be more meaningful if we took turns choosing the scripture each week.  This is the scripture that Glen chose.   The kids already have verse 10 completely memorized, but it will definitely take some time to get the first part down.   We are not necessarily setting out to memorize them at all, but to remember phrases and what they mean to us.

We are looking forward to many more weeks of ponderizing to come and hope that you'll join us with whatever scriptures you read!      Tell me in the comments what scriptures you're ponderizing right now.  Or which one we should do next.

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Top 10 Things You Don't Know and Probably Don't Care About Me

1.  I'm a bit of a book snob.  I love reading, but don't have  much time for it in this stage of my life, so when I do pick up a book to read, I want it to be high quality and enriching to my life.   Mindless, fluffy reads are a complete waste of time for me, which is why I love our ward book club, which keeps the bar set high with lots of classics, nonfictions, and  other great reads! (this month we read this , next month is this one (about as fluffy as we ever go), and the month after is this one )

2.  I've never had to wear glasses or contacts, which is good since I can't stand anything touching my face (including sunglasses, bangs, or hats). 

3.  I collect postcards and blank notecards.    I participate in a postcard exchange group as part of providing  a fun hands-on experience for kids to  study geography, but mostly I just love sending/receiving real snail mail.   I'm not as good as I used to be, but I try to send a couple of letters via snail mail per week….mostly to my YW and family members.    

4.   My idea of a perfect day is to have nothing on the agenda and to go  on a long hike.  I love being outdoors and I love walking along beautiful trails, especially with Glen.  I think my kids tolerate it for my sake, but if it were up to me we'd be doing it every day! 

5.   I just allowed my children to talk me into starting an indoor vermicomposting bin.   "Vermi" is Latin for worms.  Ask my kids about it (especially Adam) and you'll get to hear an excited earful all about it!

6.  I'd much rather eat cookie dough than a baked cookie and I'd prefer a ball of chocolate chip cookie dough any day over a fancy dessert!

7.  I have a talent for falling asleep.  Anytime I sit down for longer than about 20-minutes, I have to fight hard to stay alert.    It's pretty much the only true talent I have, so if you ever see my name on a talent show program, be prepared for something really nap-worthy.  

8.  I love challenging myself with a deadline.   I have a hard time getting things done without something pushing me (I guess I'm lazy that way), so I love forming specialized groups and making deadlines for myself.   I've been in FHE lesson exchange groups, preschool co-ops, card making exchange groups, homeschool lesson exchange groups, and when I'm "on" my blogging, I set weekly goals for myself.    Some of my most creative works have come from participating in these groups and I attribute these successes to the fact that I had a deadline and a high standard to uphold, because I was sharing the work with others.

9.  I have visited 17 different countries, besides the US.   1. Canada 2. Mexico 3. England 4. New Zealand 5. Russia 6. France 7/8. East and West Germany (when they were separate countries) 9. Lichtenstein 10. Luxembourg 11. Belgium 12. Netherlands 13. Yugoslavia (back when it was one country) 14. Hungary 15. Czechoslovakia  (back when it was only one country) 16. Austria 17. Switzerland

10.  My top five dream destinations are:
1.  Alaska  (my 50th state)  2.  Venice   3.  Turkey  4.  Cape Town  5.  Australia

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Embarking

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The theme for the youth program at our church this year is, 

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind...." 

Early in the year, as a presidency, we discussed how we could weave this theme into our activities for the year.   We decided that a greater emphasis on service was one of the obvious things we could do, and as such we've engaged in a variety of service projects through the year.  Another idea we had, though,  was that we could  capitalize on the word "EMBARK" and  go on an embarking adventure!  

So on September 1st, the young women of our ward met together to EMBARK on a sailing trip together.  

One of my YW counselors has family that owns a home right on the Chesapeake Bay, which they were kind enough to let us use as a home base for two days.  

We spent two whole days in...

And on the water!  

It was a time when a lot of friendships were made...

and deepened.   

It was a great thing to spend time together as a ward...

since our stake does level based YW camp, which means we actually spend very little time together at camp.  

It was a beautiful and serene setting...

and I think the girls enjoyed unplugging a little right before school started again.  

They even got to do some crabbing...

which meant they also got to have a delicious crab lunch! 

We played games...

...went hiking...

and in general had a marvelous time together.  

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games.    We also had a great fireside and talked about the beauty of embarking on service in our lives.   

It was such a good experience to spend that unplugged time together that we hope to repeat it in future years.

I've been in this calling for three years now and oh how I've grown to love these girls! 

Ignore the typos and notes to myself, but here's a link to a sacrament meeting talk I recently gave about the young women.   They really are pretty amazing!  

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