Updates

I realize it's been over a week since I last posted, but it's summer and we are busy. The girls have been reading up a storm. They are participating in the bookmobile's summer reading program and trying to earn the 'goodie bags' that Ms. Ginny has if they read a certain amount of minutes (for the k-12 graders) or books (for the 4 and under crowd). One bag for every set of minutes or 30 books. She wasn't able to come two weeks ago due to the July 4th holiday but is coming tomorrow and so the girls have an opporunity to earn up to 6 goodie bags. These bags are loaded too. Stickers, pencils, little stuffed animals, gift certificates for various stores in town or free books. Ms. Ginny also has crafts for the kiddos to do while she's here. I'll try to remember to take pictures and post them tomorrow afternoon.

We had a Primary Activity Day on Wednesday. It was wet and wild. The children rotated between three stations. The first was a water ballon toss, the next was a water relay, and the last was an 'ice pool' where the kids sat around a kiddy pool full of ice and had about 2 minutes to fill a bucket up with ice using their feet. We had a great turn out and the kids enjoyed the excuse to throw water at everyone else while at church.

Thursday the members of our RS Book Review came all the way out to my house to discuss 'Life and Death in Shanghai' by Nien Cheng. Some of the ladies brought their kids and while they played on the slip 'n slide we had a great discussion. If you've never read the book I highly recommend it. It is an autobiography of Nien Cheng's experiences of 6 years in prison in Communist China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Very moving. It opened my eyes to a world beyond my own.

Friday night we drove to Fallon and stayed the night there. Saturday Sylvia (Joseph's sister) watched the girls so Joseph and I could go to the temple in Reno. Joseph helped the youth in the baptistry while I went through an endowment session. We went and did some shopping afterwards. It was a nice little break from all the hard work that is going on with the farm.

Our chicks have grown and are in desperate need of a chicken coop which Joseph and Ammon are trying to build in their spare time.

Another update to the quilt square contest. Marie won the grand prize of $25 for her quilt square. She paid her tithing and used the rest to buy Harry Potter 4. I thought I was doing so well to teach them to save their money, until they told me they were saving to buy the movie and now had enough with Marie's winnings. Oh well, college can wait I suppose.

Event calendar activities this week have included: making Kool-Aid playdough, writing nice things about each sister, making Thansgiving decorations, read pioneer ancestor stories and act them out, a trip to the dollar store, and getting new lip gloss.