Conference Weekend: The Reality

We really enjoyed conference weekend. Joel and I put the kids down for a nap during the morning session (because it starts at noon here) and enjoyed a little peace and quiet. During the afternoon session, well, we had to get a little creative as it happened to be the time the kids are used to going outside to burn off energy.

I have been working on crocheting a blanket (the red and blue pile you see in the picture below) and Everett has always wanted to help me. I let him pick out his own yarn and crochet hook this week, and I got him started on his own piece of. . .something. He liked pretending he was crocheting, anyway.

Wild colors, but he sure liked them--He even wanted to sleep with the whole shebang.

Of course, there's always a game like Blokus to make everyone happy.

When we run out of games, we move on to food, like eating apples while standing on the same stool.

OR, sharing popsicles.

When the food doesn't work anymore, we move on to wrestling.

And if I don't watch out, there are two sneaky boys who love to tackle their Mama.

Of course, we always have a bunch of this going on. . .

But after hanging upside down for a while, the belly laughs come out and the world starts to look more fair.

Conversations we had during Conference:

"Hey Honey, do you want to roll my yarn into a ball while I work on this row?"

"No. . . Why would I want to do that?"

"Just wait. When we're 70 years old you'll be sitting peacefully by me, rolling all my yarn, while I crochet blankets for the grandkids."

"Hah! Yeah right. Never gonna happen."

"Everett, make sure you go potty IN the toilet this time instead of hitting the floor."

"O-tay, Mama."

"Candy, Mama! Candy, Mama! CANDY! MAMA, CANDY!"

"Everett, did you finish your apple? Oh, nevermind. Two pieces."

"No, three!"

"If you count to ten for me, I'll give you three pieces."

Notice something missing? Yep, that's right. We didn't have too many gospel conversations around here. I didn't hear very many talks in their entirety without getting distracted (demanded on) by the kids. Our online transmission jumped to french for a while. We had to restart our computer a few times. The kids had a lot of energy.

But somehow we felt edified and uplifted. The talks were wonderful. Many of the speakers said things I had been praying to hear. The spirit was in our home more strongly, tantrums notwithstanding.

Such is the beauty of Conference weekend. I'm already looking forward to the next one.