First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the elementary boys. 

I took the traditional pic on the stairs, but didn't walk them to the bus. I would have if they asked, but they didn't, so I just stayed with Katharine. We didn't do any back to school shopping, but hope to do that soon. They're good on backpacks and clothes, but they could use some new shoes. It's cute that Peter still wants to wear the cowboy boots from Wesley everywhere. Tonight I made dinner around 4 (potato salad) and put it in the fridge, then I went on a ride to the ruins. I was back at 6 and then I set the table (!!!) and we had a sit down dinner. It's been a while since we did that. I was pleased to see the kids eating a healthy dinner - some spring greens with the potato salad on top and a drizzle of a vegetarian dressing. 

The plan we made yesterday was: dinner at 6, FHE at 7, leaving for FHE at 6:45 - we went to Waterford and played soccer. We invited Ethan and Bella to join us. They are staying with Wayne for a few days. They joined us and invited some of Ethan's friends from the DR to come. I thought soccer would be an easy activity that everyone would like, but they weren't into soccer. So we had a game of kids vs. parents, and then when they showed up we visited and had some ice cream sandwiches. Katharine guarding the sandwiches until I gave the OK - 

When I gave the green light, they all ate them, and I bought too much and so they each had three and most of them felt sick afterwards. 

So better to have too many than too little? Maybe not, next time I'll just have two boxes, not three. 

So they weren't interested in soccer, but Corey talked to them about climbing and they thought that that sounded fun, so we took them to the Temple Quarry first to walk around there and learn some of the history of the area, and then we went to Momentum. I'm glad that they wanted to do that, cause that got us another month of membership. Corey was wanting to cancel, but then we renewed for another month after they expressed interest in it. 

A butterfly update - I found lots of eggs last week. I gave half of them away, but of the ones I kept, I was worried they were duds - but then when I checked this morning I had 13 that had hatched, fun!

I have some big ones and at various caterpillar stages and should have a few of them change to chrysalides this week. I didn't keep any of the eggs I found in July, cause we were busy at reunions, but I've kept some since we got back from Park City. It's fun, I'm not going crazy, but have been keeping track of the eggs I found. The first ones I found were on July 10 (16 eggs). Here's how many I found on each day: 

• July 10 - 16
• July 11 - 1
• July 13 - 3
• July 14 - 8
• July 15 - 3
• July 16 - 4 before we left for Bear Lake (cause Owen saw a monarch flying around the plants by the AC - Terry came over while we were gone and found 31!)
• July 23 - 1 egg
• July 25 - 1
• July 26 - 7 
• Then park City
• Aug 2 - back from PC, found 21 eggs and 2 babies
• Aug 4 - 4
• Aug 8 - 1
• Aug 10 - 18 eggs
• Aug 14 - 30 eggs 
• Aug 16 - 3 eggs, gave 16 eggs 4 babies 3 big to Alisha
• Aug 18 - one baby
• Aug 19 - 1 baby

I'll put those numbers here for now to compile stats later, if I feel like it. 

First Soccer Games

Hello, coming to you live at 10pm on Saturday night. Corey is over at his parent's house waiting for Sophi to be done at a birthday party, Abi is with friends, Lily is here doing BYU math homework, Natalie is upstairs prob not doing much, maybe playing with Katharine? The boys have showered and are having a little bit of food before bed. They had a good day. Owen had his first soccer game at 9am. We were cleaning the church again today at 8am, so Owen got to leave cleaning a little early. He's on a big field this year! Katharine saw me leaving the church with him and cried cause she wanted to come with me, I told her we weren't going home, we were going to Owen's game, but she wanted to come, so she did and then she cried for a bit there cause she wanted to go home. We will after his game. Sniff "Okay..."  Go #4!

She sat and laid down on my lap and I put my feet on the grass for grounding. Then I found a package of Goldfish crackers in my purse. She was pleased with that, since we woke up and went to the church to clean without anyone having breakfast, so she was hungry.

Owen had fun, lost 3-1. We went home and then Corey took Peter to his game at 11:30. Daniel and Natalie went with him, probably hoping for Wendy's on the way home, which didn't happen. 

After they got back I went and ran errands - Walmart for rice milk and onions, then Costco for food. I kept it pretty tight. We're in crunch time. We're postponing music lessons for a few weeks, hoping to know more about Corey's project by then. We're even going to cancel momentum, sniff. Everything is on freeze.

When I got home from Costco, Alive was here. Ethan and Bella went to the temple so I got to play with him for an hour. I need some baby toys. I had some rings which he liked, but I need a rattle. 

Then he took a nap in my arms. He fell asleep as soon as I wrapped him up and held him right. 

I texted them when he woke up, they came back (were close by eating at Costa Vida) and then I went on a ride (Clarks) before the sun set. 

Yesterday went on a walk in the morning, Corey did a ride, Abi took carpool. I didn't let Sophi and Natalie go to Maceys' with friends after school cause they didn't practice. We are serious. They gotta practice. Date night discussion about kids' responsiblities. Ethan Bella and Alvie came over for last night for date night too. They picked up some pizza (Corey paid, they delivered) and as he looked at the legos all over our bedroom floor, he said we need to set boundaries and bring back the toy monster. That might be a good idea. Corey and I went out to eat at Bandits. We made a pretty good plan of attack for Saturday and the upcoming week as we waited for our food. I made a list of things to discuss, like going to Disneyland after Wesley gets home from his mission, cause Peter's never been and needs to go while he's still little. I think I'll make a list of things to discuss again next week. Back at home we talked with Ethan and Bella until 10:30. I think I'll bring back the Summer binders, which said system never really started, but we'll try again but they will be School Year binders. 

Going to make a calendar for each of them right now. Used this site, looks pretty good! K I just printed those. Ok, yay for me I blogged today! I'm trying to stay on top of it and blog every night. Oh, here's a pic of Abi's thing she went to tonight - it was a "pink party" for all the new Senior ladies. 

AC Repair

Yesterday was the first day of school for Abi Lily Sophi and Natalie, but I didn't take any pictures, cause I was up the mountain on a bike ride. Abi took Lily, who had to be at school early to give the incoming freshmen a tour, cause she is a "RISE ambassador", then Abi came back and got ready. School started for her at 9:30. Corey took jr high carpool, they started at 9:45 as well. 

Owen went swimming with a friend around noon, and today he went to the lake with another friend. He's got a good social life. DPK have been playing legos and watching movies in my crazy hot bedroom ~ watching Prince of Egypt and Curious George. I don't know why or how they are able to tolerate being in there cause it's so hot - the AC hasn't been working for over a week. I thought it was bad Tuesday at 89°F but I knew it would be worse on Wed cause the temp got up to 98°F! So seeing the forecast, I texted our landlord to let her know and she gave me the ok to contact the AC guy Elden. The girls have been sleeping on the main floor on the couches, and did last night too cause it was just took hot. Elden was able to send someone to look at it yesterday. The tiny old AC unit on the right here is the one that cools the upstairs. 

He said the motor wasn't working. And after he talked to the landlord, she gave the ok to install a new AC, so they are here installing that right now (10am) and I trust that tonight everyone will be able to sleep in their bedrooms. Hooray hooray.

So that's was the main thing that went on here today. When Abi got home, I went to the temple, then stopped by Walmart for rice milk and also brought home some hardship ice cream for the kids. They also played trains in the basement. The basement is a good place to be right now. The main floor is comfortable temperature too, and you can feel the heat when you go up the stairs, and feel the cool temperature when you come downstairs. I'm going to post this now but will update later if anything else interesting happens today. 

4PM - the AC guys are still here, I feel bad it's taken them so long! I guess changing an AC unit was a matter of unattaching the outside thing and putting a new one in out there, but they've mostly been working inside close to where the furnace is at the top of the stairs. They started around 8:30 but I think they are almost done. I hope they had lunch. I've just been here making myself available if they needed to tell me anything. I've been able to get some blogging done so that's good. Daniel has Karate at 5:15, and then I plan to go climbing after that.  

Hyrum is 22!

Hyrum is 22 years old today. Sadly, he is away from us, far far away in California. Instead of taking him to lunch virtually (via video chat and venmo) we are going to go out to eat after he gets back around Sept 5, so stay tuned for that. 

This morning, Lily said she had to be at school at 8. Abi went to take her, cause she was going to go work for my mom afterwards. I decided to hurry out and have them drop me off somewhere on Wasatch and I'd walk home. As we went, Lily found out she actually didn't need to be at school, so instead Abi took her to Momentum on Ft Union, which is close to my mom. Corey was at the temple with the other car. I told Lily I'd get her after Corey got back. I enjoyed a 4.75 mile walk and explored the river rocks just a little bit.

Long enough for me to think I wanted to bring the kids here. Corey was longer at the temple than I thought, so I ended up walking all the way back home (thought I might have him swing by for me) and instead I had him go get Lily on his way home. Then I took his car and the kids, minus Lily who already exercised at Momentum, and we went back to the dry river. They didnt' like exporing much at first, but they got into it after a bit.

We were only able to stay for a little bit though, cause Natalie had to babysit at noon. 

It worked out just right though ~ kids that didn't want to be there at all had their patience tested for 30 mintues, and kids who had a good attitude enjoyed it for 30 minutes. Next time I'll have K wear shoes instead of flip flops, cause I carried her most of the time. 

Back on the paved trail, Katharine kept her little Ariel doll safe from spiders (aka any insect on the trail).

Owen and Peter got on top of a bit boulder! 

Daniel, who was one of the reluctant participants in this outing, came over and got on top too. 

Cute picture! I think I'll get this one printed for their wall. We got back home and then it was legos and playing for the boys. It is the last day of summer break for the girls, and so I took advantage of that by having them mow the lawn. I actually would have done all of it, but Corey requested a teenager girl do it, so I had them each do a part. Abi in the front northwest corner ~

Lily doing the back. 

Sophi did the back east side, and I did Natalie's part cause she was babysitting. I was going to go bouldering around 1 before the evening got away from me from 4 o'clock on, but Corey said he'd like to go with me, so I waited and we said we'd try to go around 8pm. Next on the calendar was Peter's first soccer practice at 4. He's the one running in this pic below.

Peter was a bit nervous so I said I'd stay and watch. Katharine saw me leaving and wanted to come, but the slide was too hot so we just sat in the shade of the tree. She colored on my phone until she met a new friend. After that, PK came with me to return library books (didn't read most of them) and then it was time for a neighbor's birthday party. Daniel & Peter were invited, I gave a very small lego set, it was all I had on hand. Natalie told Katharine about the party at Becca's house, then K wanted to go so then I was stuck cause ASN all took off to go shopping. They dropped Owen off at soccer practice which was from 6:30-8. I put Katharine off for an hour and then we went over at 6. She got in the pool for one minute and then was done. She had some pizza and soda pop and enjoyed being there even if swimming and the bouncy house are beyond her level of comfort at the moment.

Such an amazing view from their backyard on the ridge!! A view of the mountains and of the valley. Daniel going down the slide, Peter just getting out at the bottom.

The party was from 5-7, and my kids lingered a little bit, but I got home in time to go get Owen from soccer. They were voting on a team name, so it went past 8 and I was worried it would mess up climbing, but Corey came home and so we were able to go as soon as I was back, from 8:30 - 10. That was good therapy and I feel better now (less frazzled after such a full day.) Back to school tomorrow!

FHE - DIY Coldstone

Corey worked late tonight, but he does a good job making sure we still do FHE, even when we don't plan it out in advance or when we end up not having a lot of time. Ice cream usually does the trick for nights when we don't have our act together (which is most Monday nights!).  

We had talked about how it would be fun to do a little back-to-school shopping, but it was too late for that, plus none of them (or us) have money anyway.... The "summer binders" I made (end of this post) were a total fail, so kids didn't earn anything from us for back to school anyway. Natalie earned some from babysitting, and Abi from working for my mom. The rest of the kids don't have $, which led to a conversation about who would be buying back to school stuff anyway (they have a long list of wants... times that by 7 kids gets a bit pricey...) and that led to a conversation about money, then we talked briefly about a new book on Prince Andrew called "Entitled" and how $ messes up kids and families. That led to a documentary on Ghislaine Maxwell (part 1, 2, & 3) as part of our discussion on how it's good for kids to NOT get everything they want. Just a light conversation ha before we went to Macey's for ice cream. Corey thought it would be fun to do our own Coldstone treats, so first we got Red Button vanilla ice cream ~

then they each picked out their topping of choice from the candy isle. So many choices...

It's hard to just pick one...

FHE treats are our treat. Katharine got Mamba's to mix with her ice cream... I'm not sure how that turned out for her, but she looked happy. They're always up for eating ice cream. Oh, also on Saturday, Daniel went to Macey's with Owen and a neighbor Liam, and there was an ice cream eating contest going on or something and Daniel won for his age category so he got a punch card for a free ice cream cone every week for a year at Macey's! So tonight we first went there to see if that was valid for his family too (he said it was, I didn't think it would be). It wasn't.

 

K, so that was FHE. Today was spent as most summer days are ~ playing legos and games. Peter made a "Prince of Egypt" set with Moses talking to Pharoah.

Flip the set around to see the Hebrew slaves with heavy burdens on their backs.

Katharine played legos too, then took a break to play "circles", first Otrio, then Othello.

We also had a little bit of time to be with Baby Mary! 

Eliza and Mary came down from Idaho last night and they flew back to Ohio today at 5:45. We enjoyed having some time to snuggle with Mary! 

Corey took them to the airport around 3 - they went by a place to drop off Eliza's wedding ring first, to get it resized - it's always falling off her finger! So they are getting it tightened. I'm sure Joseph will be glad to have his girls back at home. He survived the first week of school last week. Eliza said that he said he's 5 days in, and he's only 3 days behind! Only they were gone this week, so he can't blame getting behind on being a new husband and father, lol. 

Last Weekend of Summer

Summer break is about over, and we've all just been taking it easy/lazy while we still can. I haven't made the kids do much, chores-wise (although Abi and Natalie did a fab job cleaning up the main floor yesterday evening). Abi went and picked up Lily and Sophi in Provo this morning. Those of us at home went to clean the chapel at 8am. ALS joined us around 8:30. Owen and Daniel have been playing with friends most days, after a token practice session, cleaning of their room and folding clothes. Practicing hasn't been much cause Owen has had a cold sore, and so if he can't play trumpet, and then Daniel protests he shouldn't need to practice sax if Owen doesn't have to do trumpet. Sophi and Lily have been at FSY this week. Abi has gone with Corey most days to do ACT stuff while he works at his dad's. Natalie, Peter and Katharine are my buddies here at home. There are still legos everywhere - have been this whole week. Peter and Katharine playing at the top of the stairs...

I'm wishing we had a playroom so the legos weren't at the top of the stairs or in our bedroom. Maybe we need to nix the music room and have that be a playroom? Or maybe it doesn't matter now that kids will be in school again soon. Do you like Katharine's hair? Natalie did that Thursday night, K slept in it and was still proud of her Anna hairdo yesterday morning (and this morning... yes she's on day two of this outfit and 'do). 

I called Peter and Katharine to come downstairs yesterday to come and see the butterflies. Terry brought over 6 for us to help release. Peter said "cool" and then went back upstairs. K came with me outside.

They were all rearing to go. As soon as Katharine had one on her finger... 

...away it would fly!

4 flew away right away up high into the trees, one flew down onto the street. Daniel came home while we were outside and he ran and got that one. 

Terry kept it in her mesh cage for a few more hours and then released it later. Fun stuff. She's had 10 emerge so far, has 20+ more to go. I have a few baby caterpillars that I might give away. 

I gave the kids my 4 Lego Story books that I'm saving for my grandbabies. (I've tried to save sets before... it didn't work) Natalie promised they won't lose the pieces, so we'll see... that promise has been made many times before by many different children and yet to have been kept, although I've never made them pinky promise... but I gave the books to Natalie for Peter and Katharine to play with, with the full knowledge of what I was doing. I guess I can love my children as much as my grandchildren, but my children already have SO MANY LEGOS. My goal, after K starts kindergarten in 2027, is to get all the legos organized, and then maybe I'll remake a few of my favorite sets for Katharine to play with when she gets home from school. (Cinderella's castle - see "Thursday"). 

Well, what else... yesterday Corey was fasting, so then I started a fast, so we didn't go out to eat for date night, we went climbing instead. I did the red 5.11b with only one rest, that one is intense. My goal is to be able to do it without a break before Wesley gets home, or before they take it down, or before we cancel our membership, whichever comes first. We might be cancelling momentum, but if we do that I think we should cancel music lessons too. We've either really got to hunker down and get through this and cut off all/any non-vital expenses, or I guess if we're gonna keep playing like we can keep paying for all of this, we'll keep pretending. The kids were invited to two birthday parties today, but we didn't go to either. I'm about at my breaking point and I just can't do birthday parties. I called and talked to Nicole yesterday morning, and she gave her permission to say no to the birthday parties. She said they would not miss me, and I believe her. So I just blew them both off. Probably not very nice, but it was necessary for my survival. The upstairs AC is broken, I woke up at 3am Friday morning and moved to the basement. Woke up, went out for a walk w/o headphones, then called Nicole for the home stretch. I've been thinking of the phrase "You must be the rock that the river cannot wash away." - from a talk by Elder Richard Maynes "The Strength to Endure". That talk helped me in 2016, and here we still are. I'm working on trust. Trust in the Lord. 

Natalie just came up and showed me that she's learned the tik-tok version of the Soda Pop dance, so then I just wasted the past 30 min learning that via this tutorial, then practice at tempo. Back to blogging, I just finished May, yay. Gonna chip away at April June July next. Corey and boys and K are watching Journey to Mysterious Island, and I am blogging until we go to bed. LSN are at a neighbor's house for a party, Abi is sleeping over with friends. We didn't allow sleepovers, but Abi has broken our resolve. She'll be 18 next month, so yeah, we wave the white flag. 

Picking Plums

Corey and I went on a bike ride this morning, up to the ruins. Seems like I haven't been up there for a long time, but it has only been a little over two weeks (July 22). I listened to Follow Him podcast with Nicole Pikus Pace. The thoughts she shared went along with "Learn to Join the Dance" - 

I spent some time texting neighborhood moms to figure out carpool. School starts next Wednesday for Skyline and Churchill. We've only got 4 of us driving, so I volunteered for us to do three mornings. Corey will drive Monday and Wednesday mornings and Abi will take Friday morning, cause that is a late start day for Skyline. 

My mom called and asked if I know about dyson vacuums. Yes, we used to have one, I figured I'd be able to figure out what was going on - they were having trouble emptying the canister, so I went to help  with that and got it fixed in less than two minutes.  Then I was able to stay and visit for a few bit while K played with their russian stacking dolls. I'm glad my mom called and asked for help. As I drove home and headed into the neighborhood, I saw the neighbors plum trees that they've told people they can come pick. Went home and got 4 big bowls, then back and Katharine helped me filled them all! We reached the ones that we could from where we stood on the ground. The branches were hanging low, heavy with fruit.

Then I got a ladder so we could get some of the higher ones. I'd put plums in the plastic bowl, then K would dump them in the silver bowls. We got a lot!

Then K wanted a turn on the ladder. She did a good job. 

My little helper. We were there for an hour but she didn't complain. 

We just kept picking and saying "We have a lot of plums!"

While I topped off the bowl, Katharine took one and said "I'm going to try one..." and then as she bit into it, she did a surprised and pleased little "Mmm!" sound, then "Mmm!!!" again, so cute. She ate 5 of them. 

Katharine enjoying the fruit of her labor! We'll be eating plums for breakfast for the next few weeks! When I came home, Peter and Natalie were upstairs, and it was hot. It appears the upstairs AC isn't working. I might sleep on the main floor or in the basement tonight. It's 85 degrees in our bedroom, ugh. 

I also found 4 baby caterpillars. The popular spot for the mamas to put their eggs in the yard right now is the west pine tree in the back yard. I agree, that milkweed is really nice. It's very pretty green and looks lush, not like the hard and kinda dried out and colored light green milkweed that is in most of our yard.

I did some blogging, and I'm pleased to report that I have finished December 2024, yay. Then I finished March, woot. Working on April now, and trying to stay current. I really just need to do it at the end of each day, then I can stay on top of it from Aug 7 on into the future from here. And still catch up on April, May... June... sheesh and July, doh!

Learn to Join the Dance!

Here are a few photos of Katharine dancing in the kitchen this past Sunday - spinning and twirling and dancing ~

Natalie took this slow motion video of Katharine dancing that is pretty cute, I only wish she had gotten more of the little side to side dance she started to do at the end. But I loved how Katharine winds herself up one way, then switches to turn the other way, getting a good spin from her dress. 

She's such a sweet little girl, she's all things pretty and princess!

We enjoyed watching her dance.

And then yesterday on our family group chat, we shared some thoughts that go along with these pictures of her dancing perfectly! 

So I'll share those after Katharine finishes her dance. 

Ok, I think that's her final pose - not a bow, but she's done for the moment. :) So yesterday Bella shared with us an email that she got from a missionary she taught last year. 

Corey asked what was meant by the phrase "Learning to join the dance" that she mentioned. Ethan said "Most important lesson I've ever learned in my life and the center of what I taught missionaries." I knew it was from a song from "The Prince of Egypt" "Through Heaven's Eyes" sung by Brian Stokes Mitchell. Corey and I looked that up on google. AI Said "In 'The Prince of Egypt,' the phrase 'learn to join the dance' from the song 'Through Heaven's Eyes' means to embrace life's journey, even when the path ahead is uncertain, and to find your place in the world's larger purpose. It encourages letting go of control, accepting change, and finding meaning in the present moment." So good! Ethan sent a voice message to share with us his mission experience with the song and I loved it, so I wanted to document it here on the blog for posterity. So this was from Ethan yesterday:

Hey Wride nation, so let me explain "learning to enjoy the dance". I just did a whole 15 minute recording and then the audio wasn't good so I have to do it again, but that's ok! That's part of what learning to join the dance is! It's dealing with trials. So I’m going to learn to join the dance and make this recording again. When I was in Litchfield with Truman and this other guy, Elder Hess, I was extremely depressed, which is kinda funny cause I had not idea how much worse it was going to get. I told Mel the story recently of me getting poisoned with schizophrenic medicine when I was in the DR by a Dominican psychiatrist. Anyway, things got really bad there for a while, but when I was in Litchfield and I was struggling, I was sitting in the back of the car feeling sorry for myself and the song "Through Heaven’s Eyes" from Prince of Egypt came on (but the rendition that was approved for us with the Tabernacle choir). And it was one so powerful, it was the start of a very insightful experience and just feeling I had about learning to join the dance. So! What do I mean by that. When I was sitting in the back of car, here are the words: "No life can escape being blown about by the winds of change in chance, and though you never know all the steps you must learn to join the dance" Some of the most profound words I think ever written. because I heard that and realized - well the first thought I had was of Grandma Wride, who couldn’t walk. "No life can escape being blown about by the winds of change and chance" And I just thought of how Grandma learned to join the dance. It’s essentially this idea, It’s a way to articulate what we all deal with and basically it's just learning to deal with hardships. 

So I yeah I first thought of Grandma Wride, then I thought of you Dad (Corey), who had a really depressing mission, and then I thought Chalane who has Lyme disease. I thought of Mark who had a lot of struggles with his young adulthood, and I just realized "wait a second... I’m not the only one who is depressed! Or who has been wrong by 'change and chance'!" So learning to join the dance - it ties in perfectly with the scripture of learning to take up your cross and follow the Savior. Like, we’re all gonna have a cross and you just have to take it and follow him. 

Anyway, for example, Dad, you and John Dehlin had very similar experiences with regards to your mission being difficult, and you've said before that you could write an anti-mormon book if you wanted to. But the difference you learned to dance, and instead of cursing God and wishing to die, you were like "OK how do I figure this out", and you jumped in and tried to learn to join the dance. You have to listen to the music, that's what really makes it so powerful. It's the idea of embracing the hit, embracing the hardships of life and realizing that we all have problems. This is the answer to any problem in life. David Archuletta - his problem is he is not learning to join the dance. Instead of "learning to join the dance", dealing with your hardships, turning to the savior, picking up your cross, whatever you call it, I like to call it "learning to join the dance" ~ instead of doing that, David chose to curse God and he complains online every chance he gets about how he's been wronged by life and by the church and just whines about it. "NO LIFE can escape being blown about by the winds of change and chance" - We're all wronged by life in some way. Some of it's chance, we don’t really have control over it, but none of us are able to evade being wronged by life in one way or another and the trick is learning to join the dance. It goes back to that quote you shared dad, 'The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.' (quote by Jenkin Lloyd Jones at the end of this post). "Learning to Join the Dance"

If you haven’t listen to the song recently, I mean, even if you have, go listen to it, relisten to it and follow along with the lyrics, look up the lyrics online and follow along with what it is saying, cause it’s really profound. And I love the part "And although you never know all the steps, you must learn to join the dance" and then you hear the choir come in - it’s so powerful. I love it because I feel like I’m hearing this choir of people who have been wronged by life, but who learned to join the dance and are turning towards the Lord. It's really cool to hear the choir come in. When I first heard that in Litchfield, I literally visually imagined JeNeal, just people, grandpa, we all have reasons to curse God in some ways, but I thought I imagine the group of those people all just dancing and you know the dance is difficult. It’s hard to do. It’s not always fun, but the trick is learning to join the dance. And Wesley has learned to join the dance. The first few months of his mission, he was trying to figure out the dance and decide if he should go all in but now he's learned to join the dance. I think that's what the mission is  primarily, is learning to join the dancing. That was a big turning point in my mission, especially since I internalize it. I think the dance is learning, taking up your cross and following the savior is the key to any trial anyone has, is learning to join the dance and accepting the Lord will and still join the dance. Do you know what I'm saying? The dance is hard, it's difficult, it’s unfair, but the idea is we all have problems, we all have issues, and you suck it up! We're all in this together. We all have been wrong my life one way or another. So hopefully that makes sense. It is definitely the most important thing I've taught missionaries and the most impactful. Letters like that one you read I receive all the time, and they're almost always about The House videos and Learning to join the dance. 

So I thought that was really good. 

Click the link below and here are the lyrics so you can follow along as you listen ~ Through Heaven's Eyes - Song by Brian Stokes Mitchell ‧ 1998

A single thread in a tapestry

Though its color brightly shines

Can never see its purpose

In the pattern of the grand design

And the stone that sits on the very top

Of the mountains mighty face

Does it think it's more important

Than the stones that form the base?

So how can you see what your life is worth

Or where your value lies?

You can never see through the eyes of man

You must look at your life

Look at your life through heaven's eyes

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

A lake of gold in the desert sand

Is less than a cool fresh spring

And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy

Is greater than the richest king

If a man loses everything he owns

Has he truly lost his worth?

Or is it the beginning

Of a new and brighter birth?

So how do you measure the worth of a man

In wealth or strength or size?

In how much he gained or how much he gave?

The answer will come

The answer will come to him who tries

To look at his life through heaven's eyes

And that's why we share all we have with you

Though there's little to be found

When all you've got is nothing

There's a lot to go around

No life can escape being blown about

By the winds of change and chance

And though you never know all the steps

You must learn to join the dance

You must learn to join the dance

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

Lai-le-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

La-lai-lai-lai-lai-lee-lai-lai

Lai-lai-lai-lai-lai-lai

So how do you judge what a man is worth

By what he builds or buys?

You can never see with your eyes on earth

Look through heaven's eyes

Look at your life

Look at your life

Look at your life through heaven's eyes

~

The quote by Jenkin Lloyd Jones (shared by President Gordon B. Hinckley in BYU Devotional 25 Sept 1973 "God Shall Give Unto You Knowledge By His Holy Spirit") -

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.

Life is just like an old time rail journey…delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.