Dear friend,
We enjoyed our annual Labor Day excursion to Narragansett.
As we say, "it's always a good day at Narragansett."
I am not an artist, but I've been wanting to illustrate to my children the power of partnering with the Lord. I've always been touched my the story of Christ feeding the 5,000 with just five barley loaves and two fish. I'm confident that others in the multitude had food on them, they just felt they didn't have enough to share with the masses. So often it feels like we don't have enough time, enough energy, enough mental capacity to do what the Lord asks, but when we partner with Christ, what we have to offer becomes more than enough.
Christ not only multiplied that small offering to be enough to feed the masses, but there were 12 full baskets of leftovers. Everyone else in attendance was blessed with something to eat, but because he offered what he had, that boy got to witness a miracle. Incredible blessings come when we offer what we have to the Lord. He wasn't a prophet or a chosen one; he was just "a lad". He offered what he had and Christ made it so much more. In our family, our callings, our community, I hope we partner with Christ and offer what we have so we can witness the miracles.
(Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:12-17, John 6:1-4)
So I made this painting. Most of my family members could have done it better, but I hope it stands as my testimony to my children.
We are getting back into the groove of another school year.
Joy is taking an acting class and she is a natural to say the least. She will play the part of Madame Morrible in "Wicked" and she will be fantastic. She is also really enjoying tennis and playing with friends. She has a great little group of girls. She continues to take piano and has also started flute and school chorus this year. She loves the spotlight and is quick with a joke. If a room is quiet, it's not uncommon to hear "I hear no laughter, I hear no fun...you need Joy-Joy, number one!" Then Joy pops out and entertains us all!
I'm so proud of who Boyd is becoming. He has shown so much growth and maturity this past year. He takes school very seriously and is committed to doing his best on every assignment. He has loved his music exploration class and in turn has embraced piano practice. He loves Billy Joel and piano instrumental music. When he needs to wind down, we will often find him organizing legos in the attic. He has found solace in organization since he was a toddler. He would organize toy cars or stuffed animals by size and color. He has a good group of friends at school that are ambitious as he. He enjoys playing tennis and continues to do the occasional origami. He loves steak and a loaf of sourdough.
I continue to dabble with sourdough and Elias has been making the most amazing steaks lately.
This picture was during the last youth activity I was in charge of where we did different service projects including making kits for the homeless for ward members to keep in their car to hand out. I was sad to be released from Young Women, but that very night they called me as Stake YW Camp leader.
Life moves on.
It's been a weird transition for me and Elias to not be in the youth program anymore. We put our whole heart and soul into it and with three kids in the program, we really want it to succeed. That being said, we are grateful for all the youth leaders. Our stake held an incredible activity at Candlewood Lake; Boyd invited a friend and they all had a blast.
Since we didn't need to be at the activity, Elias competed in a Spartan Ultra in Vermont. I rode up for moral support and enjoyed the town's farmer's market during his race. And wouldn't you know it, there was a Whoopie Pie Festival in town, so I jumped in like a local. Elias survived the Ultra and loved the hurt-locker experience. It's a special kind of crazy to do something like that but I find it's good for his soul and I love his soul so I'm supportive of it.
He continues to serve as the ward primary pianist and stake seminary teacher. This school year he switched from an early morning online class to an in-person evening class, so twice a week he teaches 18-24 high schoolers in our home from 8:15-9:15pm. Summer has been attending when he teaches and I think all the kids really enjoy it.
Rose continues to be a riot. We are having our kitchen cabinets repainted at the moment and she will pop her head between the plastic curtains and exclaim, "really good job guys!" She loves being outside and has made a few friends at school. We are still working on getting her swim strokes down and she still has no interest in piano, but she has an amazing voice. Sometimes Elias will sit down with her and play the piano while she sings and it's really touching. She is taking a sewing class that she has enjoyed. Her obsession with corgi dogs is only getting stronger and you can convince her to do just about anything in exchange for a few minutes of corgi videos.
Smith is a ton of fun. He has shown a lot of growth on swim team and is really enjoying rowing. Getting back into the groove of homework hasn't been his favorite but it's coming along. He got a new mountain bike and sneaks out on a ride any chance he can get. He continues to play the piano and trumpet and sing in the school choir. He has a great voice and a love for the outdoors. Smith has no problem hanging out with Summer and her friends and it's kind of killing Summer that many of them are starting to have crushes on him.
Summer is a wonderful oldest sister. She has found a great group of friends at school and I'm so proud of the 8th grader that she is. She continues to love art and music. Painting in her room while listening to music is her happy place. Swimming continues to be a respite for her and her good friend Brianna is on the team so that makes it fun. She has started rowing this year and while she likes being on the water, she would rather be in it. She has suffered from back pain for nearly a year now so we are trying to figure that out. And she runs hot so she is always up for a good cold plunge.
Elias and I have loved leaving the chores for the kids to do on a Friday (and Saturday) night while we go paddle board at sunset. We often just paddle out to the middle of the water and then lay on our backs and stare at the sky and chat. It's not a workout, but it's sure heavenly.
I held another "Night of Conversion Stories" this month at our home. I think this is the fifth one we have done. I really love them and I hope they are influencing my kids for the better. We have maybe 30 people from the ward who come. There is a panel of four people and it usually consists of two ward members who were raised in the church and two who converted later in life and they all answer the same four questions:
1. Who were you before you developed your testimony? (age, family, upbringing)
2. How did you develop your testimony of Jesus Christ and his church?
3. How did your life change as you began to practice your faith in this gospel?
4 . What does faith mean to you now?
These four speakers especially all have incredible life stories and it was such a treat to hear from them.
Keith Ashton's (the bald one) comments were especially powerful to me. He spoke of how some sin you can build up an immunity to (like choosing not to swear while still being around people who swear) and other sin will always be kryptonite (like pornography) and there is no chance of building up immunity so just stay as far away from it as possible. He also spoke of how he always desired to have a "firm knowledge" of things, but now is coming to understand that faith is actually more important to God than knowledge.
Sadly, Boyd broke his arm this month. I can't believe it's our first broken bone. He was so incredibly brave; he slipped playing soccer during recess and walked himself to the nurse after he broke it and he didn't even cry. I arrived at the school when the paramedics did and rode with him to the hospital and they kept commenting on how he was "the nicest, most polite patient" they had ever seen. It was kind of comical how kind he was in the ambulance. When the paramedic came in Boyd said, "That's a really nice mustache," and then he kept asking questions, "So how long have you been doing this? Have you always lived in Connecticut? Do you like to travel? Where do you like to go? What's your favorite food? So you like to cook; what do you like to cook? How many kids do you have?" The paramedic looked at me and said, "He's so nice. I've never felt so seen on the job." Once the medicine kicked in, Boyd turned to me and said, "Mom, I think I'm going to take a nap so I'm going to stop asking questions for a bit but you guys can keep talking." It really was sweet. Luckily it was a clean break and an easy reset with no surgery required. He'll have to miss a semester of tennis and paddle, but we expect a full recovery. So grateful!
Love you all,
Brittany et al.
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