Monday, October 27, 2008

Just to Blither

Do you ever just want to go on and on about nothing much in particular? Well, that's where I am today. Just want to say what I want to say because I want to say it. Does anyone have a problem with that?



Right now, I have so many photos on my camera just waiting to be downloaded or uploaded or whatever it is that takes place between the camera, the computer and that cable thingy. I will probably have to make a slideshow just to get it all on here.



I'm starting my new class today. It's not exactly what I expected it to be. The old text was teaching your child to read using the Book of Mormon, but now it's just Teaching Children to Read. It's to teach you how to tutor kids who are learning to read at school or those who are older and struggle with reading. I have a new challenge, I have to get the course material read before I tutor A, but I have to have time to do that part and then time later to do the exercises with him. Ideally, I'd love to do it all in the morning, so I may have to get a day ahead, so I can tutor him before school. T's just so active right now that keeping him busy is tricky.



This morning T found one of those string backpack things. He was so funny. He had a soccer ball in it and insisted on putting one of his cleats inside too. He then had a graham cracker for snack and begged me to open the bag to put that in as well. I drew the line on that one--too messy. Anyway, anything that he picked up had to be put in the bag.



Hey, I want to take a minute to thank you for all of your encouragement and kind words. It's so wonderful to have such great friends. I'm actually surprised after some of my posts that you continue to come back and read. About Saturday night, I still can't talk about it. It's not that I'm sad or disappointed or feel that I failed. I just really don't have anything to say about it. I'm sad that I didn't just walk by faith and do it like I felt directed to do, but other than that, I really don't have any opinions about it.



Okay, so enough on that subject. I want to touch on a bit about stake conference--Saturday night--not my part. You all know my feelings about our stake president. He's the BEST! Love him to pieces! On Saturday night, he gave us very specific instructions. He said that this was hard for him and he doesn't usually do this, but he felt strongly that he needed to do it. So, here's what he said to do:


  • Be obedient

  • Use your trials to your advantage--learn from them (new skills, etc.)

  • Pray - repent daily, express your gratitude and tell Heavenly Father what you're feeling; pour out your soul.

  • Go to the temple

  • Read a General Conference talk every day (Z and I used to watch one online nightly for awhile, so we started that again last night).

  • Be EXACTLY obedient to the words of the prophet.

So, I think these things were basic guidelines, but the clincher was this one:



  • Think on this - If you/your spouse were to lose his/her job Monday (today), what would you do? What things would you eliminate from your life?

  • Do those things on Monday.

  • Set the money from those things aside.

  • Do not fear; be of good cheer

He said that the sifting has begun and that soon there would be no more lukewarm members of the Church.



So, you might ask, how am I doing on this? Well, hmm. Not easy. Do we get rid of the home phone or the cell phone. The hardest thing of all is pinning Z down to make decisions about this. Nearly everything we're tied to has a contract attached. We don't feel that we can eliminate the exterminator from our lives although we've not seen signs of any vermin in a very long time. We have a contract with the vet, and Z says it is insurance, so he doesn't want to eliminate that one. Ugh! It's hard to make these decisions.

Okay, done blithering. There's someone at the door. Thanks for reading.

7 comments:

Breezy said...

Is it Teagan that you're teaching to read? I've been having fun with Greyson he knows all of his letters except Q and V. So we started on colors and it is so funny. Everything is Green. Ben thinks he's colorblind. I have found that the Dominie letter books have been fantastic in teaching letters I've been getting them from the library but I finally broke down and ordered the set. I love to read your blog. I'm not great on commenting because I've been a little sick and I only get moments to check the computer, but know I'm thinking of you.

RunJoRun said...

Thanks for sharing the Stake Conference bit. I am soooo ON IT! I listen to your blog all of the time, as I can trust the virtue of the fun music.:o)
Love to you and yours,
Jo
I'm gonna be canning applesauce to your tunes today!

vaxhacker said...

Blithering at random about nothing in particular? Sounds like my whole blog :)

The tutoring idea sounds great. We've thought of doing that even with our own boys (or even just a simple thing like picking a quotation or scripture each day and having them copy it down a few times), to help them practice reading and writing skills. I've heard teaching kids to read from scriptures works well (although it's a bit counter-intuitive considering the unfamiliar Elizabethan English). Maybe our family scripture study (*cough*whichweneedtostartdoingmoreregularly*cough*) will help that too.

Hesses Madhouse said...

Sorry you're still going through the sick part of pregnancy, Breezy. I was just thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you were feeling.

No, I'm not as driven after six kids as I was with numbers one and two. I'm working with child #5. We also thought #5 was colorblind awhile back, but he can now tell red and green apart, so I'm guessing it pretty much just comes with time. So, T will be learning to read later on.

Jo, so glad you like the tunes. I do too. I love to get my housework done to them. They just get me dancing and singing. Good luck with the applesauce.

My dear neighbor, your blog is very intelligent. If that's your idea of blithering, man, I want to be a TAG blitherer like you!

Today, A and I worked on the concept of what a fan is in its many uses. Kind of fun. He got to go out, look at the engine under the hood of the car. We got in the car, I started it up and let him play with the fan that cools and heats the inside. To him, it was miraculous. He kept asking to do it over and over again.

Jeannie said...

I remember you telling us about a lot of this last night. T is a very funny kid, and same with all of the rest of the Hess Kids.

Good luck with your new class!!

Alyson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alyson said...

Teaching kids to read is probably my very favorite thing about kindergarten through second grade. I love teaching kids to read, and that's without having taking classes! I wonder how much more fun it would be if I knew how to do it? ;)

I'm either going to vent in your comments section, or I'm going to have to make a post about the stake conference stuff. Long story short: I want to do all of the things we hear in stake conference/general conference. I want to be the daiichiban most obedient person ever. But I can't see how, when I don't have quite enough money to stretch out as it is, and things (new tires for B's car this week...) keep coming at me though I'm trying to keep my head above water.

HOW? Ack, discouragement.

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