Legacies

I am fascinated by aspects of Mormon culture and traditions recently as I’m figuring out how to frame my thoughts on the gospel and how I live and share it with my family, as a teacher in church, and to my friends. It is interesting to see how culture and traditions shape how we as Mormons understand, teach, and try to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My Mormon heritage doesn’t go back generations like it does for some. As a kid, I longed for Mormon pioneer heritage and the stories of ancestors sacrificing all for the gospel and trekking West to follow the prophet of God. Ryan is blessed with that heritage and I find it fascinating, wanting to learn more about them. But I've always been intensely proud of Grandma Honey, and then my mom and my dad for choosing this faith to live and raise our family in.

Bob & Lorry, Engagement

My Grandma Honey (maternal grandmother) who recently passed away this summer was the first to join the church in my family. She joined as a young mother in the midst of the same season of life I am in. I'm sure she was very busy, in fact there's a story in her conversion to the gospel about how she felt directed by the Holy Ghost to do something about her growing faith while on her knees cleaning gum off the floor. She felt like there might be something in religion that would help her raise her family. I feel so blessed by that choice! As a result, my mother was raised by in the church and was influenced by many good church leaders. (This doesn't downplay in any way the strong role my Grandpa Bob played in supporting and leading his family too.) As for my Dad, my mom and a few other young Mormon girls caught my dad's eye as a young man, and while in college he investigated religions and joined the LDS church. This is amazing to me, nothing short of a miracle I feel.

Us Bares in 1994

Home is/was in the Tri-Cities of eastern Washington where there is a large LDS community. My dad's family are wonderful people and are not members of the church. My mom's family is scattered between Washington and California and while all are not LDS, they too are great people whom I love. In Kennewick, about 10% of my high school was LDS and we even had release-time seminary rather than early morning seminary. (This is still rare outside of the Utah-Idaho LDS corridor I believe.) It was great to live in this pocket of the Mormon diaspora (I love that term and idea)! I'm still grateful for it and the fact that my kids also are getting the chance to grow up in it.

This past summer while home, I was so surprised to see how much my family’s ward boundaries have shrunk to accommodate growing membership in my home community. With ward (congregation) size usually in the 200-300 range, the boundaries of my ward when I was young now comprises at least four if not more wards! This is so awesome to see! I loved seeing the flow of people entering the 11 years young temple there, taking advantage of that opportunity to serve and align themselves with the Divine. There were and are so many fabulous people there, righteous and strong men AND women! I am so grateful for their good influence on me growing up! Good people are magnets for other good people. I hope to be a Mormon magnet, in all that's fabulous about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here we all are this summer, just shy of two weeks before Grandma Honey passed away. I come from a strong heritage of such good people! All of these people have been influenced by Grandma Honey's choice to seek God and have Him in her life. I have parents and youth teachers who did their best to live and teach the gospel to me and I am forever grateful for that foundation. However, I did and still do feel some of the tensions within LDS doctrine, culture, organization and such which I am still making sense of. 

I am often limited in my understanding and use of words to express what I really mean. For some reason, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the word “command.” It’s in the scriptures a lot, commandments and all, and as my dictionary confirmed, the word often denotes a power structure, authority, and domination. But when I read that word in the scriptures, I don’t think of the Lord trying to wield power over me. My Heavenly Father has a plan of happiness, a plan of Salvation for me. I believe synonyms for “command” are truly, more accurately His way -- to invite, to instruct, to direct, to persuade.

In my early morning scripture study lately (going on 3+ weeks diligently! YAHOO!), I have loved being reminded of the basic principles of the gospel – faith, humility, guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, forgiveness and repentance. I am reminded of a Heavenly Father and Savior that love me, and all of us. In my desire to share the peace and perspective this knowledge gives me within my family and circle of friends, I often feel like I don’t have the vocabulary I need to express all these thoughts, let alone the brain-mouth capacity to vocalize it.

It makes me sad when friends and family members feel like the church isn’t a good fit for them, that they don’t fit the cookie-cutter ideal and therefore don’t feel welcome within the LDS community or beliefs. The church, like the gospel of Jesus Christ, should feel inclusive where everyone, no matter where they are on the path, feels welcomed and not judged. There’s a two-way street of responsibility and accountability.

As a mother and when I teach my bright Primary class of 10-11 year old girls each week, I want to be sure I stick to the basic, life-changing principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am finding that sometimes Mormon culture has gone beyond the mark to prescribe more than is needed. These prescriptions are sometimes perpetuated by us not individually examining the gospel principles of agency, learning and teaching doctrine. Our intentions are good, but perhaps a bit complacent and lazy in our effort to go to the source. I am often guilty of this but determined to do better.

Rather than set family rules, give youth set guidelines, and share practices of our church, I want to facilitate a more open discussion about why rules and guidelines are in place so we can align ourselves with principles and not judge others who may not have yet examined them. I want to be able to discern between gospel principles and culture/tradition, advocating for change in a Christ-like manner when opportunities arise and are needed. I hope Ryan and I can continue to openly share our life’s experiences with our family and friends so we can form our ideas together about how to apply principles in how we think, speak, act, dress and present ourselves to the world. I want to persuade and invite, rather than command those I love to live the principles that have helped me be happy and feel fulfilled.

This requires more of me as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I fall short regularly, more than once an hour usually. But there’s so much room to get it right - whether it’s keeping my cool "inviting" my kids to do chores, trying to communicate with Ryan amidst the chaos of our young family and career, choosing friends and entertainment, living aspects of the Word of Wisdom, modesty in all its facets, and so forth. These are daily choices and challenges to my faith that come up in my little bubble of a world.

Last night for Family Home Evening, Ryan and I decided to help Easton pass off a portion of his Cub Scout Duty to God requirements because he needs to finish his Wolf badges in the next month before his birthday. We discussed as a family what our duty to God is. We used Easton’s recent school presentation to help give us some ideas. Each of us picked something to work on for the next week that will show our Heavenly Father that we love and honor Him. I am so grateful for Family Home Evening! I love this forum to discuss things of real importance within our family. I don’t take advantage of it enough, I get lazy real easy come Monday night!

I have sometimes let myself get overwhelmed with all that I feel is required of me as a wife, a mother, a homemaker, and a member of the church. I fight the urge to declare aspects of my martyrdom regularly on FaceBook. But what purpose would that serve? Does it edify others or perhaps keep them wallowing like myself. I’ve decided that in this full season of my life, I can choose to be overwhelmed and mired in it or be proactive, hopeful, and pleased with my efforts to be “enough.” I always loved how my Grandma Honey was so quick to laugh and literally danced through life. She didn't seem to stay mired in the hard things life threw at her. She lost her 11 year old daughter, Judy, to leukemia. I can't think of many things in life that would be harder to endure and move forward after. 

I feel I am honoring my Grandma Honey's legacy of faith by taking the time to dig into the gospel with my morning study and trying hard to live my faith. I also feel I am honoring Mormon's legacy, the prophet who's name is our faith's nickname. He abridged the records of the Nephite people in America before being killed in battle leading armies defending his faith and family. They gave me this gift and it's my turn to make something of it. Starting with changing Jake's diaper! Onward and upward!

Recent Soul Food:

Being A More Christian Christian

The God Who Weeps – How Mormonism Make Sense of Life by Terry and Fiona Givens

How many children?

I've miraculously been blessed to find someone to love and be married to, and then also to have children. A huge thank you to my Heavenly Father and Ryan! When meeting someone new, I often fall into this conversation. "Are you guys done?"

Whatever you may believe on this topic, I am fascinated by this conversation and have strong feelings about it. Yesterday I went to a Thanksgiving lunch with Ryan at work. I witnessed this conversation among Ryan and his coworkers and I was a sponge. One guy has three very young kids and is DONE, and came off a bit cynical and tired, but very nice. Another can't wait to have kids with his sweet wife and loves on my little ones as if they were his own. Then you have Ryan with four kids, who apparently is known for breaking into song in the office, always with his "creative" lyrics. I didn't know the other guy well enough to know his family situation. Anyhow, I walked away grateful to be married to someone who loves family life and revels in it, proud to have us come be with him among his work peers. Real family life isn't glamorous, but real fulfillment and joy is found there. We all crave it in different ways I think.

Last night, I watched this conversation play out in my favorite show, BBC's "Lark Rise to Candleford."  Since I don't enjoy the benefits and challenges of living near our families, these family dramas feed something in me. It's the next best thing to BBC's "Downton Abbey" and a lot cleaner and uplifting than NBC's "Parenthood."

The only place I can find to watch it is on youtube in 10 minute increments which is tedious but oh so worth it! The meaty part is at the 4:32 mark where this couple discusses if they should and could handle having more children. They live in a poor little hamlet in the 1860s English countryside with four of their five children, It speaks to the rationale that happens in our heads and the feelings of our hearts, something I hold very dear.

Lark Rise to Candleford Season 2, Episode 11-5

If the link above doesn't work, just search youtube for "Lark Rise to Candelford Season 2, Episode 11-5."

So are the Carters done having kids? Nope. I knew it the moment Jake was born, same as with the others. It was really comforting, yet odd at the same time. Not overwhelming, just a thought in my mind and I'm grateful for it.

Have we set a number? Nope. Ryan and I have simply made it an ongoing discussion. Each time asked we simply say, "We just take each one at a time. At least we hope one at a time! Twins do run in the family, my mom was one!"

I've just spent the past two weeks on an experiment on myself. In my dad's testimony of his conversion to the gospel and the church, he wrote how he experimented with parts of our faith - prayer, reading scriptures, not swearing, going to church on Sundays, etc. So I decided to do my own experiment. I love to sleep, but I am a night owl. Yet I have been waking up early for the past two weeks to get my scripture study in before everyone else is up. It hasn't been easy. I have really enjoyed it. As I thought about it this morning after the crazy morning rush to get everyone out the door, I realized how this experiment has begun to change me in three ways in just two weeks.

1) I am excited to wake my kids up in the morning and love on them a little, even though some of them don't feel happy about having to join the world. Last week this helped me do something for Easton on a rough day and he shared at dinner that I was his "warm fuzzy" of the day! I hope my moment of loves fuels them through rough days.

2) I am more hopeful as I tackle the mundane or unwelcome surprises that are my chores or tasks. I don't despair as much at the state of my house and just do what I can, hoping it will be enough. I will say I do run out of hope sometimes through the day and need to work on that (earlier bedtime, better meals, exercise?!). One. Thing. At. A. Time. Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

3) I feel closer to promptings of the Holy Ghost, making time each day to follow them and it's often to reach out to someone else in love and friendship. I love having friends!

So the experiment will continue. What does this have to do with the conversation of how many children to have? As our lives fill up more with these little people to raise, I am recognizing more and more how selfish I tend to be so easily. In order to raise these kids into good people, I have to sacrifice a lot of my guilty pleasures. But those pleasures don't hold anything of true value and meaning when I step back.

When I put my spiritual well-being literally first on my priority list of the day, my heart is open and ready for my family and my day. I don't keep a spotless house. I won't be walking down a runway any time in this life or have an etsy shop. I don't lead a life worthy of news by the leaders of my communities, but I love my life. It is full and messy, but worth all the work and self-sacrifice because it makes me better than who I am without it. I choose marriage. I choose children. I choose motherhood. I choose faith. I feel truly blessed and I am happy.

Loneliness

We're enduring some angst over here. A certain 8 year old couldn't be coaxed out of bed on Thursday morning until 10 minutes before it was time to get out of bed. I'd tried everything short of freaking out when I finally sat down and held him. Time to spill the beans, what's up?! He sobbed that he didn't feel like he fits in. My heart broke for him. I was very surprised because he'd just been at his buddy's birthday party the previous day having a great time with many kids who enjoy his company. He has some really nice friends here but when some of them make new friends, he's the comfy "old friend" and feels real lonely.


His other reasons were related to some rough play at recess break he's trying to avoid and some German homework that didn't get finished. He's a pretty sensitive kid. I cheered him up enough to get him out of bed and on his way with a special little note in his lunch. He was in my thoughts all day and I couldn't wait to hear how the day turned out. It was a mixed bag - the day was okay except that some kids made comments about him not finishing his homework which caused the teacher to then dwell on it. He hates being put on the spot like that and I know I probably would have broke down in tears of mortification if it'd been me. He's still smarting from an incident last year where he got a tongue lashing from his teacher because his German wasn't up to her expectations of him. I knew this teacher was going through some personal stuff and may have boiled over on him more than she'd meant to. Anyhow, he made it through the day and his "warm fuzzy" shared at dinner was my note in his lunch.

Well, this morning he was to spend the day at a Stake Primary Activity. When he realized we would be dropping him off to stay by himself he cried for at least two hours straight that he didn't want to go and be alone. Ugh! I love activities like this, it was hard for me to relate with his fears because I like meeting new people in that setting. I know this isn't the case for most people, but did it really warrant TWO HOURS of crying?!!

Ryan and I tried everything we could think of to calm him down and bill it as the fun activity with friends that it was, but he stubbornly refused to brighten his attitude. Twenty minutes before leaving, Ryan was finally able to reason with him. I'm thinking our boy might have just needed a good cleansing cry too. I totally have those now and then! Either way, he came out and apologized and said he knows it's okay to be afraid but not to cry about it for two hours like that. Phew! And off we went! Five hours later, he was all smiles, literally flying a kite he'd made, said he'd made new friends, and danced his heart out at their kid disco! Who's kid is this?!

Loneliness is one of those hard things to endure in various seasons of life. I'm pretty sure it's a universal experience by all of humanity. I remember feeling it intensely as a child, as a teen (even in a family with a lot of kids no less!), as a college student, a working gal out on my own, and even now and then in this stage of being a wife and mother. Having been blessed to make friends easily and now most of all to have a husband and children, you'd think the lonely bug couldn't reside here. But friends and family can't always fill the void you feel deep down at times for various reasons. Sometimes this void feels downright paralyzing. That lonely void has felt different through the seasons I've grown through so far.

And each time I have to relearn what to do with it - how to climb out? I liked the imagery in that recent Elder Maxwell talk I'm studying. He talks about how we sometimes let our burdens allow us to become "mired in" the "ooze" or "swamp of self-pity." It's no party to say the least! For me, the answer has been a return to the basics of a reliance on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Clinging to it as my buoy. I think it may sound trite to some, but I've learned over the years that it is the heart of the matter for me. Maxwell's talk reminded me of this - "the great question -- whether there really is a rescuing and redeeming Christ." "It is by the power of the Holy Ghost that we know that Jesus is the Christ, that he lived and lives."

I vividly remember a powerful time of extreme loneliness and pain. I had just begun my senior year in college with a rough start. My embarrassing, fresh diagnosis of ulcerative colitis was exhibiting itself in full force but had a new symptom. I now had an open, oozing, growing lesion on my left shin - in one week it had gone from the size of a quarter to the almost the size of my flat hand. This lesion looked like raw hamburger. It was so painful I couldn't walk on it or attend any classes for two months. The pain often woke me up and kept me up all night. The medicine to stop it's growth made my head buzz and also stole sleep from me while the meds to manage the pain made me sleepy. I was a real mess! My roommate had moved into the other room, it was a bit traumatic for us all I think.

There I lay one night in exquisite pain, tears of loneliness freely flowing. I felt ugly - puffy faced from the high dose of steroids in my system, a disfigured leg and a bad recent short haircut. I was low. My future seemed very uncertain and I was mourning the loss of my health. I was very depressed and far from the comfort of my family.

In agony and prayers for relief, a scripture in the Book of Mormon came clearly to my mind - 1 Nephi 11:16. "Knowest thou the condescension of God?" At first I was wondering why of all things this random scripture came to mind. But then I realized it spoke to my understanding of our Savior's life and ministry, of how Jesus had born all things we would endure here through his Atonement for us. He endured so much in his short time on earth. Words can not adequately describe the imagery and understanding I felt at that time. And then for a time my mind was quieted and I felt as if I was being held in someone's arms. The pain of my leg didn't go away, but I knew I wasn't bearing it alone and that meant everything to me. The Comforter was real. I felt able to let go of my fears.

Buoyed up by this feeling, I felt I could face another 10 minutes, another hour, another difficult day.

Over the years, quiet moments like this spent really thinking about what I believe or listening to peaceful, inspired music seem to be my antidotes to the dark, lonely void. They don't nip it in the bud, but they make it bearable and connect me with my Heavenly Father, my Savior and the Comforter. Looking for opportunities to be thoughtful and serve others also helps me endure sometimes.

I am sure life's got some good curve balls in store for me yet. I'm glad I got the chance to organize my thoughts here to share with my sensitive little guy. Hopefully we can figure out what works for him when the lonely bug bites, for his journey has just begun and there's bound to be a swarm now and then along the way. 

Study Journals Crush

I, of myself, am not creative, but I do like to copy stuff I find and love. I often wish that extended to the cute crafty stuff many talented women in my life are apt to conquer! Perhaps in another season of my life, or maybe not - we'll see! Our ward held a crafting Super Saturday last weekend which left me satisfied with my one creation, but deeply happy for the four hours of great conversations I had while not leaving my chair, even for food!

For the past couple weeks, my juices have been flowing about scripture study. How can I get excited about it? How can I make it more meaningful?

I stumbled upon a fabulous website a few weeks ago - www.theredheadedhostess.com. I initially landed there to check out her General Conference Journal. I enjoyed using it to take notes at Conference, but I am seriously in love with her Journals! She's got chapter or topic scripture journals, ones about scripture heroes, and so forth. I needed these simple ideas of how to break down and search the scriptures, recording insights and questions along the way. While I waited for my journals to arrive, I was emailing a couple dear friends to rave about them and one created her own and asked what we'd start on. And it hit me, Why am I waiting?! I decided I just needed to dive in where I am and stop waiting. I too often make excuses and reasons why I can't start something I desire TODAY! Not this time.

I used some of the Red Headed Hostess' headings to prompt my thoughts as I began:
- Words I looked up
- People in this chapter
- Significant doctrines and principles I found
- Questions I asked
- Other scriptures I looked up
- Insights from Study Guides
- My personal thoughts and insights

Day 1
I began with the readings for the next lesson I will be teaching in a couple weeks in Primary. Mormon, chapters 1-5. Essentially it's the beginning of the real end to the Nephite people. All because they allowed themselves to be lifted up in pride and then descended into all sorts of wickedness. This is 200-350 years after the Resurrected Christ visited them. I opened up my laptop and in Word, I recorded some recent favorite scriptures shared at church on Sunday and experiences I've had as I felt prompted. I dissected a scripture to define words and phrases. I found a fabulous talk to study the next day when I wanted to flush out what it means to be "meek and lowly in heart." Printed the talk and the two pages I'd typed and stuck them in my 3 ring Journal.

I had to stop myself because dishes needed to be done, desperately! Told myself I needed to wake up earlier to get in some study time because I need serious chore time too. You see, Morgan is now a full-fledged German kindergarten goer every day and Jake takes a 3 hour nap every morning once the kids are all gone. Ahh, sweet solitude! Perfect study or chore atmosphere!

It was a glorious beginning for me! So imagine how deflated I was when within a half hour of having Morgan home, I totally snapped at a very 4-year-old-something lil' Morgan did. I snapped! Mortification! I let myself cool down and then held her in my arms and asked her to forgive me for losing it over spilled yogurt and tantrums. Felt just a tiny bit of redemption.

Day 2 
Hard to get up a half hour early, but was glad I did once I began reading. Only got 4 pages into the 10 page talk given by the late Apostle, Elder Neal A. Maxwell in a 1986 BYU Devotional entitled, "Meek and Lowly." Decided a half hour just isn't enough time to really dive in like I want to.

Favorite quotes:
"Meekness is needed, therefore, in order for us to be spiritually successful -- whether in matters of intellect, in the management of power, in the dissolution of personal pride, or in coping with the challenges and routine of life."

He enumerated a good long list of meek, serious disciple virtues concluding with -
"In the midst of all these things they are given a Sabbath day for rest, during which they do the sweetest but often the hardest work of all." -- A resounding AMEN here!!!

"This is a high-yield, but very severe form of learning." -- Oh, how I have felt that lately!

I had a busy day out and about with the kids, chores were still neglected, and overwhelmed-ness kept creeping in. I'd had my friend Helen with me all afternoon and can I say how much better a parent I am with her around?! Apparently I need a real life shadow to help me behave as I know I should when I can't control circumstances around me! Seriously, being a grown-up is so hard sometimes! Add kids and you've got yourself a perfect petri dish for testing how to be meek and lowly in heart. Yet I think whatever life circumstances we're in, God gives us minute-by-minute opportunities to participate in this "stretching journey."

This evening after a pathetic attempt at giving the kids some dinner, I tackled just a one-room pickup with the kids so there'd be no Lego injuries and subsequent screaming in the next 12 hours. Then I sat down and happily shared my excitement over what I am starting/learning with Ryan. It's silly how great it was to hear him be happy for my two days of effort! And it's silly how not having a single clean wash cloth can make me okay with taking the time to share this with Ryan. Seriously, it's been two days now without a clean wash cloth to wipe down counters and the dining room table! And I'm out of paper towels. Ugh. I blame the wet beds around here taking up my laundry consciousness. I didn't journal today until now because Ryan said, "why not blog this." Perhaps someone else is stuck in the same study rut and this might be helpful. If not, I'll enjoy having a record of this.

I'm currently listening to two very different histories while I do my chores - Washington: A Life, and Charlie Wilson's War. As I'm pondering what it means to be meek and lowly in heart like the Savior, I feel like I'd like to have a record of the fascinating people I read about in all sorts of literature, not just the scriptures. I love to understand these great individual's strengths and weaknesses to use as illustrations for lessons I give at church and at home. I love to learn through examples and stories and my kids love a good story. I'm no good at making up fun stories to tell, but I sure do get excited to tell them about real ones!

Now I'm trying to decide how I want to record all this? Typing it up in Word makes it easily searchable and quickly printable, but how to tag and link uniformly? I don't do anything uniformly, my brain is too creative for that . . . or forgetful. A great guy I once dated in college used Word to link all his reading notes, stories, and whatnot with cross-references, it was amazing. He teaches Seminary now, go figure! Hmmm . . . questions to ponder and answer with a fresh day tomorrow.

Halloween 2012

I've really enjoyed our Halloween traditions this year! McKay had to do a presentation on a holiday that our family celebrates and he picked Halloween. Yeah, presentations in 1st grade! I love it! He did a great job and I liked being reminded that we actually do have traditions with intentions, even for Halloween.

Sometimes traditions feel binding and overwhelming for us moms, but I'm trying to retrain myself. I'm trying to analyze holidays for what I want our family to get out of them: traditions that create memories as a family, time to serve others and share our blessings, and outings to celebrate with our communities. I'm finding that if I approach holidays like this, I don't get as overwhelmed/resentful and can find the joy of holidays.

Pumpkin Carving
In preparation for Halloween, we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening last week. We had Ryan's coworker Helen Garza, a.k.a. Garbonzo, over to enjoy dinner and carving with us. Little did we know, she had NEVER carved a pumpkin before! No time like the present to learn, right? She was such a good sport as we pretty much handed her a pumpkin and a kitty face Morgan wanted and put her to work. 

Your big debut here, Helen!
Working your kitty magic!

Ryan enjoyed his carving tradition where he put the hand mixer's beater on his drill and whips all the pumpkin guts away from the edges for easy scooping out. The kids checked on our carving progress now and then, but were mostly interested in watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie.

Easton had to use all his might to carve part of his and it was hard work - such a thick pumpkin!

I love all the faces they make below! My cute kids!

Serving Others

I love ding-dong-ditching around holidays! I love how it makes me feel good to be thinking of these friends while I prepare it and imagining their joy at being thought of. Who doesn't like a yummy surprise?!

We boo'd five neighbors this year (underlined link is to last year's experience/explanation). Usually I like this to be an anonymous service, but this time I put a Happy Halloween tag with our names on the pumpkin bread loaves because one American neighbor family won't eat stuff from people they don't know. Since I can't always remember some of these neighbors' names, I thought perhaps they were the same and having our names would be nice. The kids were ecstatic the next day when we found a bag of Haribo gummy candies tied to our van door from a thankful neighbor! That's a first! Easton said, "Mom, I'm so glad you put our names on the bread so they knew who to give treats to!" HaHaHa!

Community Activities

The kids are out of school this week for fall break - a tradition in Germany. Most of the kids' best buddies are away on vacation and their church friends who go to school on base don't have it off. We've enjoyed laying low during the day because our evenings were full: the "boo-ing" for Family Home Evening on Monday night, a ward Trunk-or-Treat activity on Tuesday, and traditional Trick-or-Treating on base Wednesday. So each morning this week, the kids have raced to get their chores done so they can have some video game time in the morning. They are loving their school break!

I wish I had taken some pictures before and at the ward Trunk-or-Treat family night. Easton was Batman, McKay was Darth Vadar, Morgan a tiger, and Jake a frog. Hurray for costumes already in the box! The ward activity was a lot of fun with a yummy pot luck soup buffet spread and we invited the Frikken family from school. They are such a great family, we love being with them!

All day Wednesday the kids changed their costume ideas every half hour it seemed. I will seriously have to be on the look out for some more versatile costumes in bigger sizes for next year! I am not as crafty as others yet, but the kids seemed happy with the selection and their choices.

We went to Ryan's office to show off the kids and then Ryan took them to the movie theater where there were some children's activities. I had to run back to the security gate to sign in a friend's family but we all met up to do our trick-or-treating. I'm really grateful for those families who live on base and supply all that candy and decorate their spaces for the event! It's a fun tradition and we are always running into friends the whole time because it is such a small community.

The reality of trying to take a picture with my four kids.
It's "like herding cats!" 

Jake couldn't be bothered to pose for pictures when there was a ball to kick in sight.
He is nuts about playing soccer and tests every item he comes across for kick-ability.
If it rolls, it passes the test - even cups with no handles roll well enough he thinks.

She insisted all afternoon to her big brothers, to the point of screams and tears, that she is a lion not a tiger!
She regularly brings out the ogre in me, but I love her as fiercely as a tiger!
Look at that sweet face!

With all the action of getting out the door for trick-or-treating,
Jake here embodies what I'd rather be doing for the rest of the evening. 

He so badly wanted to be out walking with his siblings but they were too fast and the footings too unsure. Last weekend's big snowfall has been creating mud bogs that are too much for his little legs to conquer.
But look at that smile! We make cute babies, no?

You can barely see our stealthy ninja, McKay.
He was pretty excited to see this picture!

If you're a kid, what's not to love about costumes and candy?!

We headed for Indian food afterward and were happy to find ourselves the lone customers. Good food, fun conversations, fun holiday! The icing on the cake? An episode of Downton Abbey while hearing snippets of what McKay called, The Treat Trading Convention. He made a haul, just like Easter!

Side Note:
I recently read on a blog about wards that celebrate Reformation Day instead of Trunk or Treat! How cool is that?! In northern Germany on October 31, 1517 is the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door which ignited the Reformation and has shaped world history. Having recently listened to a book about the building of the magnificent St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, the costs of which were creatively covered by selling indulgences - I just can't help myself! I told Ryan I might have to do my research and come up with a 20 minute simple multi-media/faceted presentation to pitch for a ward party idea. I'm such a nerd, this is such an exciting idea to me! The one friend I did pitch this too said I would be laughed out the door and I'd have to agree. Our trunk-or-treat pot luck was such a perfect laid back family activity that everyone seemed to enjoy, I'd hate to mess with a good thing. But we're in Europe! It's a German holiday! Most everyone in attendance will have recently visited and heard about these places and people in their travels. Any takers? Anyone??

Side Side Note:
We're so grateful our friends and family seemed to have fared alright through Hurricane Sandy!!!