For today's blogpost, I've decided to just include excerpts from my letter to Cami:
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Dear Soeur G.,
Happy P-day! So, first thing's first. I am actually in town this Friday, which means that I can be much more responsive today than I've been the last two P-days. It's my intention to keep the afternoon pretty open, so that if you need my response to anything, hopefully I can be on it pretty quickly.
Second, why on earth is your cell phone not set to go automatically to "do not disturb" at night? As you can imagine, almost nothing is happening with your cell phone currently. It's used for Ellie's daily snapchats, taking pictures once in a while, and the occasional pokemon adventure (for Ellie), but generally it stays put away in the top of my closet the vast majority of the time. So, imagine my surprise when last night your phone starts ringing in the middle of the night! Dad and I have had our phones set to automatic do not disturb for quite a while now, so we're used to never even hearing a mail ping, yet alone a full blown ring. It took quite a while to get to it at the top of the closet and of course we missed it (and we assume it was a wrong number anyway), but, man, it sure was hard to sleep again after that jolt of adrenaline. It is now set to "do not disturb" and will stay that way for at least 18 months!
It's your third p-day today, which means that you're almost half-way done with the MTC now!
The tomatoes are growing like crazy in our garden and we have been thoroughly enjoying them in all their fresh deliciousness. I know I already told you this, but I'm totally obsessing about the panzanella I'm going to make for the missionaries for tomorrow night's dinner! Hopefully there will be lots of great families in France that will feed you freshly grown produce straight from their gardens! Or at least that there'll be lots of little markets where you can buy fresh produce and eat simple, healthful meals....like panzanella. :)
Today we picked up a bushel of fresh peaches that we ordered straight from an orchard. I was quite excited to dive into dehydrating and jam making tonight, but, alas, not a single one of them is ripe yet. I am hoping that they don't all ripen this weekend, which will make it harder to give them the attention they need before they go bad...which happens far too quickly with peaches.
Random tidbit: I was going through a box in the basement and came across my journal from my freshman year at BYU. Some of it is pretty mortifying, but ask me nicely sometime in the future and I might let you read bits of it. :)
My visiting teachers came over today and shared a message about strengthening families. It's interesting that this has been the topic du jour lately, as it's the theme of our youth lessons for the month, as well as our sacrament meetings.
“The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service,” said President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Our discussion really focused on the word, "laboratory" and how apt that seems for us as parents. We're constantly trying to figure out what "chemical reactions" work and don't work with each kid and it's an ongoing process of experimenting---with every day things, like discipline and how to interact with each child, but also spiritual experimenting and learning how each child feels the spirit in their lives. Anyways, it made me think of how imperfect we've been as parents and how impressive it is that you (and your siblings) are where you are, in spite of us! How grateful I am for the atonement and forgiveness and for a lot of "lab notes" along the way--in the scriptures, from our leaders, from other people who've been down our path before, etc.
And it made me think about how you're embarking onto a journey into a giant French speaking laboratory soon. A place where you'll have the opportunity to experiment on His word and learn to do His work in your own way. In a way that only you can do.
We love you and are so proud of you. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Mom
PS Here are a few other random pictures:
******************************
Dear Soeur G.,
Happy P-day! So, first thing's first. I am actually in town this Friday, which means that I can be much more responsive today than I've been the last two P-days. It's my intention to keep the afternoon pretty open, so that if you need my response to anything, hopefully I can be on it pretty quickly.
Second, why on earth is your cell phone not set to go automatically to "do not disturb" at night? As you can imagine, almost nothing is happening with your cell phone currently. It's used for Ellie's daily snapchats, taking pictures once in a while, and the occasional pokemon adventure (for Ellie), but generally it stays put away in the top of my closet the vast majority of the time. So, imagine my surprise when last night your phone starts ringing in the middle of the night! Dad and I have had our phones set to automatic do not disturb for quite a while now, so we're used to never even hearing a mail ping, yet alone a full blown ring. It took quite a while to get to it at the top of the closet and of course we missed it (and we assume it was a wrong number anyway), but, man, it sure was hard to sleep again after that jolt of adrenaline. It is now set to "do not disturb" and will stay that way for at least 18 months!
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| Random DC number that called on YOUR cell phone in the middle of the night. |
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| Perfectly imperfect tomatoes from our garden. |
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| The bushel of peaches we ordered came in this cute basket. Too bad none of them are ripe! |
My visiting teachers came over today and shared a message about strengthening families. It's interesting that this has been the topic du jour lately, as it's the theme of our youth lessons for the month, as well as our sacrament meetings.
“The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service,” said President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Our discussion really focused on the word, "laboratory" and how apt that seems for us as parents. We're constantly trying to figure out what "chemical reactions" work and don't work with each kid and it's an ongoing process of experimenting---with every day things, like discipline and how to interact with each child, but also spiritual experimenting and learning how each child feels the spirit in their lives. Anyways, it made me think of how imperfect we've been as parents and how impressive it is that you (and your siblings) are where you are, in spite of us! How grateful I am for the atonement and forgiveness and for a lot of "lab notes" along the way--in the scriptures, from our leaders, from other people who've been down our path before, etc.
And it made me think about how you're embarking onto a journey into a giant French speaking laboratory soon. A place where you'll have the opportunity to experiment on His word and learn to do His work in your own way. In a way that only you can do.
We love you and are so proud of you. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Mom
PS Here are a few other random pictures:
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| This is a lovely flower we found while out on one of our evening walks. |
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| This is what Emma will wear in next week's production of the "Wizard of Oz". She is Auntie Em. |
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| This life-size poster at the library almost gave me a heart attack when I saw it out of the corner of my eye and for half-second thought that a group of people were glaring at me. Ellie, of course, loved it! |
2 comments:
These are exactly the kinds of letters missionaries love to get! Lucky Cami to have your love and support!
How did the Wizard of Oz go? Thanks for sharing this with us. Dad loves reading all your blogposts too. And I read each one several times.
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