Sunday, February 17, 2008

Be prepared...has not sunk in yet

My trip to the temple yesterday was just what I needed. It was fun to visit with the "girls" on the way there and being inside the temple was so peaceful and it felt so good to be of service. I know I am of service to my family every day, but serving strangers REALLY feels like service. My cup has been filled and I'm trying to convince Matt that I should go to the temple 3 more times before the new baby arrives. For some reason he is not as enthusiastic about this plan as I am.

The kids and I have been singing in our church choir every Sunday before church and we sang in Sacrament meeting for the first time today. All of our kids join the practice, but only Zoe and Emily sang during Sacrament meeting. My Dad came to the practice this morning and sang with us also, which was nice. We sang "As the Shadows Fall" which I had never sang before, so it was nice to learn a new hymn. Zoe and Emily each recruited a friend to also sing during Sacrament meeting. The poor girls didn't know the song, but they got up there anyway. Later the choir director commented on our growing choir (meaning the friends) and he thought it was great...although he said it annoys him when adults come up to sing when they haven't practiced and frankly it annoys me too.

Zach & Eleanor are staying with my parents tonight. They left church happy and very willing to go with my Mom. Zoe & Emily have been enjoying time at home without their younger siblings to ruin their fun. And Kate has enjoyed playing without an older brother bothering her.

All of the families in our branch and I think in the stake received a letter today that was to be opened at 5pm with all family members present. So we opened ours and it was a mock emergency situation, a chance to evaluate how prepared we are for an emergency. Not very I'm afraid. We are in the process of switching our one huge box 72 hour kit into individual backpacks, which means we have thought about it. Clothing was an issue tonight since the clothes I have in the kit are not maternity, so that's not going to work, I think there are clothes in our kit for Zoe and Emily, but I doubt they fit them anymore, there is nothing in our kit for Kate, Zach has diapers, but I don't think he has clothes because the diapers in there were originally for Zoe I bet and they just happen to fit Zach now. It was definitely a reminder to us that we need to be working on our kits. I've used the excuse that we need backpacks and we don't have any yet, but really we could be collecting things and putting them in temporary bags. I am so bad at being prepared.

Matt loves black beans and rice and he keeps trying to encourage the rest of the family (including me) to eat them and like them. This afternoon Emily said she would eat them and Matt gave her some. We were all a bit surprised when she said "sure" to Matt's question, "Black beans and rice anyone?" or something like that. Surprising because Kate is the only one willing to eat them, she actually LOVES the black beans. Zoe couldn't believe that Emily was eating the black beans and rice and kept talking about it. Emily shrugged it off like what's the big deal, its rice with some stuff on it. Zoe's reply, "Well, we all have different taste buds and mine do not like black beans and rice." I don't thing Emily's do either because she didn't eat much before saying she was done.

We let Emily stay up until 8:00 this evening with Zoe since there is no school tomorrow. They have this week off and then they get another week off in April. And then they'll probably be in school until the end of June from all the snow days we have had!

Zoe has been sweeping the floor at night lately because she keeps losing bets with Matt. She claims she is not betting, but Matt always tells her before he gives her a brain teaser to answer that if she gets it wrong she has to sweep the floor. But he also always says that it will be easy, so Zoe agrees. She was not happy when she had to sweep the floor this evening and it became an issue. After a lot of threatening to send her to bed early, Matt starting to sweep the floor himself, Zoe claiming the broom and sweeping, Zoe claiming she didn't know how to use the dustpan, my sweeping after she made a mess with the already swept up dirt, Zoe using the dustpan in a panic, and Matt putting the chairs back where they go, the floor was clean.

And here is the end of another peek into our lives. Fun, fun!

3 comments:

Kris said...

Matt & Zoe sound like Deanpaul & Savannah sometimes. The teasing, leading to the freaking out - also the deals and bets they come up with... why do they do it? Dads are just Dads I guess... although, I don't remember my Dad ever teasing me like that!

Janae said...

We would be in the same shape with that kind of mock evaluation! I know it is so important yet we have had a hard time getting that together too. At least you had diapers:)

dawnae said...

Wow, I think many of us would be poorly prepared with a mock test like that....yikes! I know we have a 72 hour kit....somewhere.