Saturday, October 8th, turned out to be a wonderful day. I woke up, after sleeping in undisturbed, to find my children all reading and Charlton playing with toys in the living room. I then happily proceeded to make them whatever they wanted for breakfast. Anyone can be an awesome mom when she has had enough sleep! While I was cooking, I brought out some play dough for them to play. They were excited since I had just bought a bunch of play dough tubs and there were enough of them to go around for each kid without getting into fights over which color to get. This truly made me smile. Let me explain. A week ago or so, James had been on a play date and when he got back he told me he had played a lot of wee, some PlayStation games, and some fun games on the iPad. I didn't say anything. I was glad he had had fun, and since his friend was the child of one of my friends and I trusted her in choosing good games for her kids, I wasn't too concerned. The week after, his friend came to play with him. James was excited to share with him all the games he played with his siblings: making forts with cushions, looking for Waldo in the Waldo books, coloring and drawing, creating things out of play dough, and using their imagination as they played with Legos or tinkertoys. His friend wasn't too impressed. I got a bit stressed out; I really wanted them both to have fun, but his friend didn't think those ideas were fun, and James was hurt because his friend didn't want to play with him. I said a little prayer, and I was glad that afterward they found some costumes and swords and guns to play together. That incident made me think. I was still thinking when Gillian comes home from her play date, and tells me how much fun she had with her friend playing games on the computer and watching movies on the iPad. She then proceeded to ask me what my password for Netflix was. I'm still smiling thinking of that statement. What made me smile more was the fact that the first thought that came in my mind was "I am an old fashioned mom!" I pride myself for being modern in thought, style and attitude, but I guess when it comes to my own children, I choose to be old fashioned. I don't actually know what that means, but I know that although I think technology is the way of the present and the future and I absolutely love it, I don't think I'm ready to give free reign to my kids on that account. I'm also sure that even my friends have limitations and are careful what they let the kids use. My kids love to play games in the computer; they know and watch movies on Netflix; they love seeing clips on YouTube; and Gillian is using the keyboard to type her compositions. Nevertheless, when you've got a good thing going like children who love to read for hours at a time and come up with awesome creations using play dough, why change anything. Here is some of their handiwork they created this morning:
Charlton didn't understand why he couldn't eat his ice-cream.
James's ice-cream made all of our mouths water.
I was wondering why it was taking so long for James to incorporate his love for guns. It must have been the ice-cream.
Jefferson amazes me with his attention to detail. I love the tiny sprinkles on his ice-cream, the pretty gold coins in the treasure chest (did you notice the white skeleton of the dead pirate in it?), and my favorite, his version of a snowstorm with lightning (I thought you couldn't have lightning in a snowstorm, but Jefferson was very determined that it did happen, so I went on line and found out that he was right. We just don't see the lightning because of the snow, and it is more rare than in summer storms. Thanks, Jefferson, for teaching your mom yet another thing.)
Gillian, my literary queen, used her play dough to make her favorite characters from the Lord of the Rings series (Bilbo Baggins killing a giant spider, and the Elf Queen, Galadriel):
After breakfast, I got ready to attend Sister Beck's talk at the Oakland Interstake Center Auditorium by the Oakland Temple. My friend and I couldn't find any parking, and when we finally found one, it was all the way down and very far from the center. Afraid that we would be late, we tried to look for short cuts, and thought we found one: we climbed in our heels up a drainage cement pipe that took us all the way up. Unfortunately, the exit was closed with a fence. Believe me, we thought of climbing it, but since we were right at the temple, and furthermore we did have heels and skirts, we decided to go back and try the long way around. We made it just in time, and we even found great seats.
Sister Beck spoke about being faithful and strong daughters of Heavenly Father by reading the scriptures every day and by attending the temple, where the power of the atonement is made clear in our eyes and minds. My favorite thing that I remember from her talk was a story she shared about her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law made these wonderful rolls and sister Beck really wanted to know how to make them just like her. Her mother-in-law said her secret was: 25 years of trying. She related this to scripture reading and how we don't just learned the scriptures in one reading. It takes time and effort, and 25 years of repetition. And one day, the connections will start to come together and the scriptures will come to mind and make sense. I will never forget that: 25 years of continuous scripture reading will help me understand the mysteries of God.
While we were attending Sister Beck's meeting, our husbands had our kids dressed, fed, and ready to come to the center to be babysat by our young men and women. Our ward and another ward from our stake was going to have a combined temple session, and our youth was providing babysitting, so more couples could attend. It was so sweet to be with my husband in the temple. We usually take turns watching the kids when we go to the temple, but this time we were together. It is so interesting how different we each see our temple ceremonies and being in the temple. Elijah ponders the things of God and Heaven, and I ponder what God wants me to do on earth. Either way, I love receiving personal revelation in the House of the Lord.
After the temple session, our husbands took the boys home, and us ladies went out to have an evening with our daughters. A great violinist was going to perform that evening at the same building Sister Beck spoke, near the temple, so we decided to take our girls to it, and while waiting for the performance we thought it would be nice to go and eat out. Our place of choice: the Fenton's Creamery, offering the best ice-cream in the area. After eating dinner, we each ordered a giant size serving of various kinds of ice-cream. We were in heaven.
The concert was beautiful. The guest violinist Jenny Oaks Baker has a new CD out,
Wish Upon a Star, playing a variety of Disney princesses' songs in symphonic arrangement. It was so beautifully done and she played with so much heart. My favorite one was the song from the
Little Mermaid. The arrangement made the song sound as if it was composed by Debussy himself with that dreamy feel. Gillian's favorite was the piece from Aladdin arranged in a tango mood. What made it fun for the girls was the fact that Ms. Baker was dressed like a princess herself while playing those beautiful pieces.
After the concert, we walked through the Temple grounds and shared our feelings about our day. What fun! A big thanks to our husbands who made it happen by taking care of the boys.
As we were driving back home, I was complaining to my friend how I don't see very well at night. I was having hard time seeing the signs and cars. We went on discussing how some people have this particular condition of not seeing very well at night and we concluded that I should see a doctor. As we are approaching her house, we are stopped at a traffic light, when we see this gentleman making a face and trying to tell us something. At first we were scared, but then out of curiosity we were trying to figure out what he was trying to say. He was pointing at my headlights: I didn't have them on!!! No wonder I couldn't see well. We couldn't stop laughing at our very serious conversation about my eyes. Maybe I should go and see a shrink instead. (In my defense, I was driving Elijah's car, which I've probably driven only once or twice before.)
