Loving Time Together

Today was violin. I picked up Sophi and Natalie from school. Daniel came with me to pick them up. Owen also came with us from school, cause I don't like him walking home from the bus stop alone. Cute kids. Owen kept saying "Daniel! You need a mask!" He is a very "Follow the rules" kinda kid, he likes to know the rules and follow them, and make his siblings follow them.

We are trying to do better at following school rules and procedures. The elementary girls are doing pretty good at doing homework and reading. I recently learned that Sophi has been doing lousy on her spelling tests, so we're going to study this week! Great idea. I've also encouraged Sophi and Natalie, when we are at lessons and the other is taking their turn with Miss Amy, to spend their time reading while they wait. That will get their homework of reading taken care of for the day! They are supposed to read for 20 minutes a day, and lessons are 30 minutes, easy and convenient time to do it, right? Yes. It was cute to see Sophi reading today. I'm not sure how she was able to pull Daniel and Owen away from the train table to read, but it was cute. 

Poor Owen couldn't hold on. Daniel in a more comfortable position now as he listens to Sophi read him a story. 

Owen more comfortable now too - zzz...

A few random photos from today and this weekend... A pretty rose on the walk to the bus with Owen this afternoon. 

Lily eating my soup last Saturday night, Lily still eats my soup! 

Peter was very carefully trying to stack Legos Saturday night. Soooo cute, I love him.

Wesley reaching in to help him. 

This is a good visual representation of what I think of when I read "the hand of the Lord" in the scriptures. Peter fell asleep on Wesley tonight during scriptures, so cute.... 

My heart is turning more each day to my children as I do family history. This time with them is so fleeting. I want to soak it up and treasure it. 

So I'll close with a few thoughts about life and genealogy. So I've been on a family history kick for a few weeks. As I got started going a little more on it, a week ago I was trying to do research on my maiden name. I messaged people on facebook and did googling and by some miracle last week I found the phone number for a Geologist named Dennis M. Hibbert (I had learned via an obituary for a Jessie Horrocks Hibbert (one of my dad's unknown aunts) that a "Dennis M" was one of her children...) I called it and it sounded disconnected. Then I found another number, and I tried that one, and was able to leave a message with someone, maybe it was an office, I didn't know but thought hey, "we'll see where that leads" . Well 20 minutes later I got a call back, and he asked who I was and what I needed, I explained myself, and he was kinda floored, but it he is the Dennis Hibbert who's dad is my grandpa's little brother Mark! Mark and Jessie had 3 children, so wow, and yay! I found a long lost cousin! Very cool! So that's who Dennis is. I knew via my research that today was his birthday so I surprised him and called him to wish him a happy day and we talked for over an hour. I also talked to him that first time for over an hour. And he told his sister about me and emailed me her number after asking her if she was ok with me contacting her, so I talked to her and she had a photo of their other sister Marilyn, who died in 1964. 

I didn't have a photo of her so I was glad to get this from Judy. Marilyn left 5 young children, it was very sad, and those are more people that I want to find now too. Here is Dennis and his dad Mark as a little boy.

Such a sweet little boy. Dennis had a pretty hard life. He's been writing out his personal history and sending it to me. Mark was an alcoholic and it was hard on their family. They lived in over 30 places. - Dennis didn't say that they "moved" to a "new" home/place the way we move today, cause they weren't always homes that they lived in. Once it was in an old boxcar. His mom and dad eventually separated. Dennis and Judy both divorced, and Marilyn had three marriages. Mark died alone in a hospital after his apartment landlord hadn't seen him in a while and found him drunk and almost dead in his apartment. As I've been doing family history and have learned about other peoples lives, I've had lots of thoughts about mercy, justice, of the different circumstances we all are given... death, divorce, choices, influence, forgiveness and repentance. Today I also found out that my older sister has asked for a divorce from her husband, which I think is really sad. It's not really my position to say anything about it, but I am praying that maybe they will have a desire to work it out and to maybe try to fight for their family and stay together and keep their temple covenants. I firmly believe that life and death don't happen lightly, that there is a hand guiding it all, that there is more after this mortal experience is over, that we will continue to learn and grow. What will we think of our parents, siblings, and life when it's over and we look back? Will we have passed the test? Did we endure it well? Did we trust and press forward? I do believe that God will totally understand where we were coming from and why we made the choices we did, he will sympathize with our heart ache and our concerns. I love how Nicodemus is portrayed in The Chosen. The Lord totally understand Nicodemus and the hard thing he was asking him to do. He knows how much Nicodemus wanted to go. He gets it, he loves us. He's reaching out to us now and he will still be reaching out to us when we die. There is always hope. We can't go back and change the past, but until we go to the judgement bar, I believe we can still choose to change now. I believe there is missionary work going on in the afterlife, "on the other side of the veil" as we say in the Church of Jesus Christ. I don't know if I'll ever know here on this earth who I have been able to help, but I trust that my meager efforts are appreciated and will bring forth good fruit, even if it is mostly just in the turning of my own heart to my own children and my fathers. It is important, and I'm grateful to try and move my family's work a little more forward as we press on toward the Second Coming of Christ. Sealing families together in the temple - that is what the work and this world is all about. Eternal families. I will continue to try and gather my family.