Lately

The last few weeks have been pretty intense.

I've read more news than I probably have in the entire 12 months preceding January. And most of that news was pretty terrifying.

Having everyone home all of the time has also been an adjustment, not just for me but for all of us. Some of the 8 of us at home don't mind being with people every minute of every day. Some of us struggle a little more with the lack of quiet and personal space. But. As a mama, and in spite of my own personal preferences, I hate to send the little ones (and sometimes the bigger ones, too) away, knowing that their worlds have been just as upended as mine has been.

This past weekend was also intense, in mostly great ways, but still intense. We celebrated Sam's 10th birthday (I'll save that for another post), and that was lots of fun. It involved several batches of cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, and cakes, with varying degrees of success. Not sure what happened. It's like my baking talent just ... went on hiatus, lol. And there was no way to rescue anything but to try again. It was a good learning experience?

We also watched, from the comfort of our very own living room, the annual General Conference of our church members and leaders, which was very different and unique this year, thanks to social distancing. There were many, many wonderful words of hope and faith. I am so very glad that continuing revelation is a part of my life, and I am thankful for latter-day prophets and apostles to share words of inspiration and hope. I felt like I received many private promptings from the Holy Ghost about what I need to focus on right now to make myself a better disciple of Jesus Christ and just a better human being in general.

I read somewhere, on a long list of ideas for improving mental health during this time, that doing something repetitive such as sewing can be soothing to a stressed mind. Between that, and having far less taxiing to do than usual, I pulled out the Never-ending Project. I won't even tell you when I purchased this, and how long it's been scrunched up in a box, started but nowhere near completion, waiting for me to have free time (hahaha, while I was busy bringing 7 kids in to the world to rear, lol). Ah well, better late than never in this case. So this is what I've been obsessing over, instead of the daily blog post. It's coming along. And soothing my brain, too.

General Conference Fun

When you are listening to the prophets and apostles, obviously you build a temple. I think that's part of our family out front.

A Beautiful Day

I had a beautiful day with my sweet girl, Hannah. She starts her 18-month-mission for our church on Wednesday. So we spent our afternoon in Salt Lake City at the conference center and on Temple Square. I loved getting to go to conference with her, and I want to take all of the other kids in the future.

I love having this time alone with just her before she goes. I still can't believe she's old enough to have this new adventure, though I'm not surprised by it. She's been giving copies of the Book of Mormon away since kindergarten.

Also, General Conference was pretty cool. I enjoyed listening to the speakers in the afternoon session, but I think the most awesome experience was the rest hymn in the middle when 21,000 (or so) saints stood to sing praises. It brought tears to my eyes, and made me so grateful for these wonderful people who share my love for the Lord.

A good day that makes my heart smile.

Great Weekend

This weekend was General Conference for my church: 4 satellite-broadcast sessions of counsel and laughter and goodness from our church leaders.  I so enjoyed it this fall!

Dare I admit the following things?  Of course I do....  This is the first conference in years quite some time that I have heard all 4 of the general sessions of conference.  We didn't over-schedule anything too badly, and were able to catch up from what was somewhat unavoidable (Caleb's flag football game).  And--bonus!--I didn't fall asleep during the afternoon sessions either.  It's not that they are boring...it's that I have 6 kids and weekend afternoons are for napping, especially nice weekends like this one.

Anyhoo, we successfully made it through conference.  Sometimes it can be hard on the kids, who generally think it's long and boring.  However, I'm pretty sure they were listening part of the time, though definitely not when we were listening to Elder Andersen speak about how we believe in children and families while I was secretly wishing to locate the duct tape so I didn't have to hear one more fight....

This year, I spent some time preparing myself for conference.  That means I prayed and studied, and hoped to find some answers to the things I've been pondering over the last few months.  The Lord does not disappoint.  I listened to His servants as they directly answered some of my prayers.  I'm sure they didn't think, "I'm going to answer Tracy's prayer with this paragraph," but I am certain they heeded the Lord's suggestions and incorporated into their talks the words and feelings the Holy Ghost needed to communicate to me.  In so doing, these great brothers and sisters were able to help me figure out some of the things I need to do with myself, my family, and my home in the next several months.

That's some exciting stuff!

If you would like to watch some of the addresses from conference (or in about a week, read them), click here.  If you check out only one or two talks, here's what you should read (they were my faves): Ian S. Ardern's address from Saturday afternoon, and President Thomas S. Monson's address from Sunday morning.