Sunday and a couple of other days

When I heard Max say 'You can be a super hero now Samuel, you have gone upside down' I thought I'd better check on the boys. They were in the hammock with Peet pushing - apparently upside down. Now Peet tells me Max did four total flips in a row and then more!

Friday night was a stake dance with a 70's theme. Of course a certain amount of stress was involved - but in the end we came up with a great costume for Jess (blessings on St Vincent de Paul) and none for Alec - which was perfect since he was never going to wear a costume regardless of how good it was. This is a truly dreeadful photo - she actually looked gorgeous.

We have moved family scripture study to the dinner table - now we have scriptures right before dinner and it seems to help Max with his concentration levels. Well - it seemed that way for the first few days. On about day 4 he built this fork creation during scriptures - at least he was quiet.

To preserve this time in Max's life - a photo of Max in the laundry tub that he uses for a bath until the real bath finally goes in.

Sunday:

Max woke up with a stiff neck and a slightly more pronounced cough and a significantly more pronounced bad attitude. He thought that he really should stay home - I almost agreed, but since Sally (our Relief Society President) was in hospital I had to go. So I slowly dressed Max and then got myself ready, left the house a disaster zone and went to Sacrament. The bad attitude went away and in its place was a subdued and quiet attitude - perfect for sacrament. Peet passed the sacrament and was Bishops messenger - as he is every week since he is our only deacon.

The Marriage and Family Relations class was super small today with just me, Donna and Mark, and Linda & Roy. A shame because up till now the lessons have been very generic but this was more everyday useful. Lots of discussion on having a home free of contention even though we know that there will be conflict - how do we keep the conflict from becoming contention and how do we teach that concept to children. My favourite scripture on this is Alma 45:21 which says:

"For behold, because of their wars with the lamanites and the many little dissensions and disturbances which had been among the people, it became expedient that the word of God should be declared among them, yea, and that a regulation should be made throughout the church."

We have lots of wars with spiritual lamanites and certainly there are little dissensions and disturbances in families, so it is expedient that we teach the word of God. Translating to increased study of the scriptures, prayer, gospel discussions, charitable acts etc will decrease contention. Even though it seems counter-intuitive to add more into an already busy life -when the going gets harder than usual, somehow these things reduce stress and contention.

Donna said that she had just listened to a CD by John Lund in which he said 'take your love to your family and your frustrations to the Lord.'

Have also just finished reading Spiritual Intimacy by Wendy Watson Nelson - my favourite line is to the effect that we may be the keeper of some words that will change the way a person feels.

Thomas News

Elder Uchtdorf was at the European Mission Presidents conference and did a Sunday night stop in Estonia. So Thomas heard yet another apostle speak. He said it was a wonderful experience.

Rain!!

We have had a couple of days of beautiful rain. Since Max lost Louisa's rain gauge we have no idea how much rain we have had - but the tanks are starting to taste of rain water instead of town water. There have been damaging winds with the rain - not too bad here in beautiful Samford valley of course - but Roger cancelled PEC meetings last night since there were warnings not to travel unnecessarily on the radio. There have been news reports saying that we are now getting the same weather patterns as we had in 1974 - so we are hopeful of enormous rains this summer. In some ways it is no wonder we live in a world of little faith. Even with all the prayers and fasting of the saints across Australia, we now know what weather patterns are doing and it looks like the work of nature rather than a response to earnest prayer and fasting. Our pioneer fore-runners in the same situation would readily have acknowledged the hand of God because there was nothing else to turn to - and even non-believers would have to acknowledge God in some way. Now it is all about weather patterns -still I'm glad to know about both.

This photo is from a day of rain that we had a few weeks ago. Max is not allowed out in the rain this time because he has a cold and diarrhoea - he calls it a 'diacold'. Louisa has been playing in puddles but I haven't managed a photo.

Caboolture Historical Village with Pine

Max, Louisa and I went with Pine to the Caboolture Historical Village on Friday. Louisa spent the day with Alexander, her best school friend. I went with Louisa's group - which consisted of Louisa, Alexander, Sean, Connor and Hayden.

They had a great time and spent most of the day running. I told them that Petie once lost my Christmas bug catcher down the hole in the ground toilet and that Becky dropped a puppy down one too. They were very amused, but thought they would probably be willing to go down a toilet for a puppy.

Max went in a group with Anastassia, his best school friend, and Mathilda, his teacher.

The kids learnt about spinning wool, gem stone sifting and black smithing.

Lousia climbed an enormous tree stump.

Max and Sophia ran away from the bush chapel so that no one could pretend to marry them.

Later that night we almost finished our phone book deliveries for Pine.

Saturday was roadshows - we took the camera then found we were out of batteries - so hopefully we'll get some copies of photos from someone else. Jesse and Peet were in the roadshow. Jesse was Sally, a spoilt little rich girl, and Peet was one of her friends at her birthday party. Jesse looked stunningly beautiful and acted like a professional. Peet did really well too - he only had a couple of lines but delivered them well and looked great on stage. After the roadshows, while we were waiting for Roger (!), Margaret Batten (the stake YW President) came up to Jesse and said she must be a wonderful actress because her character was nothing like her. Margaret said it was really weird to see someone you know acting completely the opposite of who they are - a double and deserved compliment for Jesse. Max said he thought roadshows would be really boring but was surprised that they were actually good.

I taught Relief Society today - a lesson on reverence and what it really means to be reverent. Beautiful and inspired lesson material from Spencer W Kimball.

Thomas News:

Tom baptised a young girl in Estonia this week, and his companion baptised her brother. Her mother had been baptised earlier. The little girl told her mother she saw angels when she went into the font.

Apparently the missionaries have spent a lot of time in service - this in in summer and it looks freezing!

I assume this is shot of Tallinn from the town tower. Thomas said it is an incredibly beautiful city. He does love old European towns.

Max Wishes:

• That Peet would come and play a game with me.
• That we could go the Ekka every year.
• That Peet would help me find stuff.
• That Tommy would come back.
• That he had the $100 Optimus Prime.
• That he could get some money.
• That he could finish my collection of mega block dragons.
• That he could get a peewee 70.
• That he could make a castle out of the phone books.
• That we could get some rain.
• That we could play in puddles.
• That when he gets to be 8 he will get baptised.
• That he could get some more knights.