JANUARY 1-3, 2015 -- FAMILY WEEKLY UPDATE

FAMILY UPDATE

JANUARY 1-3, 2015

·         New Year’s Day it was nice to sleep in!  We called and talked to Grandma and Grandpa Beach and to Alison.  I, personally, did a lot of relaxing in my bed and watching Heartland.  I also helped David wash his dog – stuffed animal – and did make breakfast for the family.  In the evening, we watched a new movie called, “When the Game Stands Tall.”  It was a good movie and had a good message – it was a football movie based on a true story.

·         Jan. 2^nd:  Today officially started the New Year for me.  I woke up and I exercised and read my scriptures.  I went to pay the utility bills. I took David with me and he rode an ebike on his own.  He did great!  We stopped and bought oranges and then headed home.  Amy mixed up pancakes, Benjamin cooked them and we ate breakfast.   After breakfast, we had our next planning session with our planners.  Amy had written up bookmarks with daily and weekly tasks.   We discussed the bookmarks and then met with each of the kids individually to plan their day for today.  We have helped the kids divide their planner pages into quadrants.  There is one square for Personal, Spiritual, Education and Health.  All of their goals, tasks, and “free time” activities should be able to fit in one of these quadrants.  We had a little resistance as a couple of kiddos were learning to make plans and be responsible but the stretching is good for them!

·         “DR. WHO WORKOUT” has been our fun this afternoon and evening.  When the kids were needing to choose an exercise they asked if “Dr. Who Workout” would be acceptable.  Of course, we had to try it so this evening we are on our 2^nd episode of Dr. Who, a BBC series, and every time someone says “doctor” the kids do 10 jumping jacks.  Just a couple minutes ago there was a string of lines that contained the word “doctor” 6 times and the kids all just did 60 jumping jacks!  Mason is quite cute doing jumping jacks!!  I told the kids that I needed to create a Heartland Workout so I could watch my episodes of that while exercising!

·         BEWARE:  We have several kids getting really good at NERTZ!  It is fun times playing with them.

·         Today while we were very focused on training kiddos with their planners, Bethany speaks up and says, “Melissa has to marry someone who’s last name begins with an “S” because then her initials would be “MRS.”  J  It made us all smile!

This has been a very long letter.  There are lots of details to log and remember for Christmas and the New Year holidays.  I am going to attach a few other things at the end, but you can just skip it if you wish.  I will attach the notes from the lesson I gave last Sunday that was from the talk “Which Way Do You Face?” and some thoughts from my scripture study this morning.

BREAKING NEWS:  I just received an email this afternoon from the husband of the owner of a company called “Brick’em Young.”  They produce “Lego” type sets that are in kits to build an LDS temple.  David received the kit for the Salt Lake City Temple for his birthday last August.  I have his picture up on our blog of this.  So, this man, Tim, did a Google search for images of their product and found a link to our family blog and then got my email from there and sent a note asking if they could feature David’s picture on their website as a “Builder of the Week.”  I told David and he is so excited.  We had been told previously that the family who started this company was LDS and our Branch President’s family knows them.  This family is still living in China, near Shanghai.  I offered David to be a tester builder if they needed it and they said they have 2 new sets in the development phase so they would keep him in mind!  David did some “hoopin’ and hollarin’” when he heard that!!!  It is kind of fun!  We will let you know if David becomes famous on their website.  The website is: www.brickemyoung.com

I look forward so much to all of your letters!  Dad and I watch all morning on Mondays to find Hyrum’s letter for the week.  During the night is when we used to get letters from Melissa but now she is home so we will set up other ways to talk to her!  I am now counting on Elder Jorgensen and Elder Call to send their letters so that I can still wake up to a couple of missionary letters on Tuesday morning here in China!  If I wake up in the night, I usually check to see if you have emailed yet!  All of your missionary letters and bearing of testimony are such a strength to me and to our family!  Thank you!!!

Please remember that you are loved by all of us here in Suzhou, China!

Love,

Mom