Friendship Soup

 What could be better on the day before Thanksgiving break

than making a little Friendship Soup with your kindergarten classmates?

 

Everybody brings something to throw in the pot.

 

Eli's contribution:

2 stalks celery

&

vegetable broth

 

"I was the only one to eat two bowls, Mommy!"
 

Could kindergarten be any more adorable?

 

Alex, one of E's buddies

Cutest buddy ever, Mia

Football lovin' bud, Jonathon

 

Turkey projects.  For whatever reason, Eli chose to make a dragon turkey (2nd from top left).

 

 

Eager beavers to participate.  If only seniors in high school looked like this.


 

*All photos courtesy of Alex's mom. Thanks, Christine!

Family history, I am doing it

Well, sorta.  I'm not exactly doing my own family history, but I am helping others do theirs.  Indexing.  Heard of it?  Elder Bednar talked about it a conference or two back, which is when I first became curious.  Then I heard a presentation on it at a stake leadership training and knew this was something I needed to check out.  The Spirit told me loud and clear. And yet I didn't.  A month passed, I started to forget, I got lazy.  Elder Scott talked about it in October conference and I felt that same feeling I did at the stake meeting: "You need to do this.  Now." 

This post is a sad peek into my mad procrastination skills, because you'd think hearing an apostle of the Lord tell me something I'd already felt prompted to do would be impetus enough to act.  But no.  I still managed to rationalize that I had too much to do in October to add some weird family history thing to my daily to-do list.  Seriously, what is wrong with me?

Finally, after a presentation in our ward a few weeks ago, the same exact presentation I'd heard a few months before, I realized I'd run out of excuses.  I went home that night, hopped onto familysearch.com for the first time in my life--I know, I know, what kind of Mormon homemaker am I?--and started indexing.  So easy, people.  You look at old documents, mostly from the nineteenth or early twentieth century, and transcribe or decipher the handwritten script.  You record names from those documents to help all those family history decectives out there who are trying to find their ancestors.

Sounds incredibly boring, I know.  And some of the documents really are just that--boring.  But then you hit a ship's log from the S. S. Aquitania that came from England to Massachussetts in the 1920's, and suddenly you're imagining what the lives of these families that boarded and rode this ship were like.  Or you're going through soldier cards from WWI and thinking about the sacrifice these young men and women made to serve their country.  Or your transported to Ghana for some census records, or to Puerto Rico for baptismal records. It's actually quite fascinating.  

I love that it doesn't require absolute concentration, ether. It's one of those things you can do while you watch TV, and rather than feel like you just wasted an hour of your life online doing what you typically do during shows at night, you feel like you've actually been a little productive. You feel like you've done something worthwhile during downtime. Pretty cool.

Our stake has a goal of indexing 500,000 names by the end of the year, and as of the first Sunday in November only half that goal had been met. But I've been surprised how quickly it goes. Like I said, I've only been at it for a few weeks, and certainly not every day, but just from those ten times or so I've done over a thousand. So I just have to do that two-hundred and forty-nine more times, and the goal will be met! Just kidding. (If you're in my stake, help me out) I do like feeling like I'm at least on the path to someday doing my own family history. If nothing else, I'm helping do somebody's family history. :)

Slam dunk!

Maybe that's an irreverent title for a post on our oldest child's baptism, but that's a bit how it felt to have Bennett make that first and crucial step in returning to live with his Heavenly Father someday.  Entering the waters of baptism, just as our Savior did, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost are hands-down the best and most important choices he's made in his eight years of life.  The Holy Ghost will guide and direct him in future decisions.  It will comfort him in moments of trial and pain.  And most reassuring to this mother of a third-grader is that it will warn him of danger.  I have a feeling the next ten years of his life will warrant a whole lot of warning. 

I love this shot.  Beaming father and son!

 Benito wanted to have his baptism as close to his eighth birthday as possible, so we picked the nearest Saturday. It's just a day, right? Wrong. It happened to be the same date as our ward's huge annual craft day. It also happened to be the same date as the school carnival, THE big fall fundraiser that we've always supported in the past and that typically generates a huge turnout. Whoops. 

Proud Ma and Pa

Our fears about having picked a bad Saturday didn't matter in the end.  Ninety people packed into that little junior chapel for Mr. B and his baptism.  Humbled and touched seem understated adjectives in describing how we felt about all those who came to support us.  I felt terrible about the standing room only situation, but never did we anticipate that many people coming out on such a busy Saturday.  Friends from church, friends from school, friends from soccer, former primary teachers, former school teachers, and of course family.  So many people we love and appreciate in one room.

California girl at heart, Grandma Paula gives the baptism boy a hug

Keeping in mind that some of B's school and soccer friends might be there, we prayerfully approached the baptismal program with a goal of keeping it simple and Savior-focused.  Seeing as we let Bennett pick the songs, speakers, and prayers, all that left us with was the interlude--which for some reason stressed me out to no end--and musical numbers and such.  I never realized how many little decisions go into one baptism.

 

 

Connie, Little Aunt Kendra, Bennett, and Grandad Jory

Conducting: Mark Kiene

Opening song: When I Am Baptized

Chorister: Connie         Pianist: Paul Bankhead

Invocation: Mommy

Talk on Baptism: Aunt Kendra (Seymour)

Musical Number: Grandma Paula

Baptism by Daddy (witnesses: Grandad Jory & Grandpa Geddes)

Interlude: Baptism sung by Cynthia Lee

while Eli & Millie held up pictures of the Savior's life

Notes written to Bennett by all those in attendance

Talk on the Holy Ghost: Grandpa Geddes

Confirmation by Daddy, Grandad, Grandpa, Uncle Joseph

Ward welcome by Steve Hurst

Primary welcome by Cathy Anderson

Closing song: God's Plan for Me

Benediction: Grandad Jory

 

Grandma and Grandpa Geddes

Everything felt just right.  To me at least, the Spirit ratified the truth of the ordinance of baptism and the power of the priesthood.  I felt Heavenly Father's love for my own child and knew that this was what He wanted for me and for Bennett in that moment in time.  I hope I never forget that feeling.  Nothing could be better.

 



B's first-grade teacher came by for some pre-baptism congrats 

Only regret? Forgetting to take pictures of everyone else who came to the baptism. We got so busy talking to people afterwards that neither Stephen nor I thought to bust out a camera and document the moment. I think I'll regret that one for a long time to come... but at least we have the notecards everyone wrote to B during the interlude to remember who came and the sweet things they said to him.