Soccer Tournament

Sophi has been in a soccer tournament this weekend. It isn't for her team, but it was another Girls under age 11 United team that needed 3 more players to be able to be in the Freedom Cup / Pioneer Day soccer tournament. They were really nice and covered the tournament fees for us, since Sophi is helping them out, so that was nice. She had a game yesterday at 2:30 that was super hot, one this morning at 7:30 which was better temp wise and then one more today at 4:30. They lost all 3 games, I don't know the scores, but they weren't close, and that's ok. The coaches on this team are really great and made it very clear last week at practices that soccer is about having fun, learning to work together, and doing your best. The team did their best and so they should be proud. There were only 4 teams that entered the tournament, so early tomorrow morning Sophi's team will play for 3rd place. I watched yesterday's and this morning's games by myself, and brought the little boys along to the game at 4:30 today. Sophi wants us to be watching the games, so I put in my time for those, and I told her that bringing the kids for the 4:30 game meant my attention would be split, so to just be aware of that. I had told Corey's parents about her game this afternoon, and it was a fun treat to have them come and watch. The highlight of this tournament for Sophi was getting a cute soccer ball mug from her Grandma Wride. 

The kids at the park, making friends with a puppy that was out for a walk. Owen saying hi -

And Daniel giving the dogs a soft pat on the back.

Yesterday Corey took some of the kids to a birthday party for a Brazilian friend. I stayed home and tried have some time to clean and practice violin, since the soccer tournament has taken it's toll on my time and I am feeling a bit crunched. I honestly wish I hadn't done the soccer for Sophi, but we'll see what we all think by next summer if it was worth it and whether we'll do it again. It'll probably have to be pretty amazing to make it worth the cost. I'm planning on her just doing rec next year, but we'll see.  What else is going on...12 year olds can get the covid vaccine now and so Lily got her first shot yesterday. Here's a cute moment of Abi, Daniel, and Natalie playing Slap Jack in Abi and Natalie's room -

Oh, there was an AMAZING talk given for the BYU Devotional this week. IT IS SO GOOD. Go listen to it right here, right now - “Yes, and . . .”: The Creative Art of Living - by Lisa Valentine Clark. Corey shared it with us last night for scriptures, and I listened to it twice and cried both times. I shared it on facebook way too late at night, and thus misspelled "amazing", ha.

Corey caught that and pointed it out to me this morning. That's what I get for posting late. I listened to it again today a little bit at the soccer game. It is beautiful. What a powerful message and she and her husband Christopher lived! They are such powerful examples for good. I want to be better. Two parts I liked: at 14:32 - I've learned that a lot of humor and joy is found in the unexpected or seeing the unexpected happen. But to see it or experience in it, we have to accept the offering we have, be honest about it, and make a choice to act. President Nelson taught that our circumstances don't have to dictate our happiness when he said "And I promise you that your capacity to feel joy will increase even if turbulence increases in your life."  That all goes along so well with things I've been learning in Laura Dixon's program. She teaches that we don't need to bottle up sad and hard feelings or ignore them. Accept them, accept the offering, as Lisa says in this talk: be honest about it, and make a choice to act. Laura teaches us to Let the feeling pass through you - ask "What is the worst thing about this feeling" and we will come to realized that the feeling can't actually hurt us, and when we stop fighting difficult emotions, then we will be able to actually face them and figure out how to respond productively. 18:08 - Serve God, Love me, and Mend

I want to read it again and update my post here with more notes of parts I loved. Go give it a listen!