Magic in the air

I learned today in Sharing time that children love it when you bring a magic wand to Primary.  I made a really cool magic wand yesterday. Neil found some shiny silver tape to cover the end with that made it really cool.  I even performed a magic trick with it in Primary. I had all the children's attention and it was marvelous.  We  then talked about this quote from President Uchtdorf "Too often we notice the needs around us, hoping someone from far away will magically appear to meet those needs...When we do this, we deprive our neighbor of the service we could render, and we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to serve."    We talked about how we could like magic look for people who need help and then give service. We also talked about how many people give service to us all the time and we don't even notice it.  If we have eyes to see as the Savior does and hands to do His work, we will notice people who need service and people who give service.  We had thank you posters for people who serve our Primary, the teachers, the Bishopric, the pianist and music leader, and the brethren who set up the chairs each week. Each child signed the posters and we will give them out next week.  It was a great sharing time and I really enjoyed teaching about service. Next week, we are going to work on Thank you cards for others who served the children this week and work on memorizing Mosiah 2:17.  There was definitely magic in the air in our Primary today and the children were so reverent.

We had a busy week at our house.  I know I say that every week, but I guess that is part of life with 8 children at home.  Neil is teaching an evening class this semester and that makes everything feel busier than normal.  Our evenings look like this: Monday Family Home Evening, Tuesday Neil teaches, Wednesday Neil, Julia, Matthew and Emma have Young Men/Young Women's, Thursday Neil teaches, Friday date night or take the children to the Powell Football game, Saturday finally there is time to read as a family or do family things, Sunday movie and ice cream tradition.  I am so grateful for the time we do have together. I love those nights when everyone is home and we can spend time together. I am also grateful that Neil is willing to provide for our family even if it means he has to teach a night class. I am glad he doesn't always have to teach in the evening.

Wednesday Neil and I took Joshua to Billings to see Dr. Wiggins.  His sats looked good, 87%.  His echo looked good.  The nice young ladies from St. Vincent's Healthcare came and recorded some footage of Joshua with Dr. Wiggins and Melissa.  It will be fun to see what they put together for the video.  Last week we did an interview and they recorded Joshua outside playing with the children.  It is exciting that they are going to spotlight Joshua's story for their fundraiser in October.  I am not sure I said anything worth using when they interviewed us, but I am grateful for the opportunity.

Thursday Emma played in a volleyball match here in Powell.  I had clogging at the same time. I went to clogging for a little bit and then left to watch Emma. Neil watched the beginning of her match and then left to teach his class. Hopefully between the two of us someone was there most of the match to watch her.

Friday we went to the Ward Harvest dinner.  The food and company was good.  They had some friendly competitions after dinner. Dallin got the chance to try and keep 6 balloons up in the air with Melissa Kellett. They ended up with only one balloon, but so did the other team so it was a tie. Dallin was nervous, but he did great.  Matthew kept really hoping that Mom would get her name pulled out of the hat, but I was grateful I got to watch and not play.  It was  a fun night.

Saturday we watched a couple of boys for a few hours while their mom cleaned and packed their apartment so they could move.  We also had rain for most of the day. Joshua found the mud puddles and had a great time.  Joshua and Lydia found the same mud puddle this morning before church, not the idle time to play in the mud. Lydia came in saying her shoes were muddy right before it was time to leave for church.  We made it on time, with clean shoes.