"Every woman can be a gospel doctrine instructor in her home, and every sister in the Church needs gospel knowledge as a leader and teacher. If you have not already developed the habit of daily scripture study, start now and keep studying in order to be prepared for your responsibilities in this life and in the eternities.” -Julie B. Beck

Crafting With A Two-Year-Old

Little Boy's latest art project:

 

He loves trains. I mean, L-O-V-E-S them. And he doesn't even know who Thomas the Tank Engine is. Yet.

I'm afraid to expose him to Thomas because he may never eat or sleep again, after that.

 Anyway, all we did was glue down paper rectangles and circles. (The alphabet magnets were his idea.) Two-year-olds are so easy to please.

A Woman And A Mother

“My dear sisters, don’t ever sell yourself short as a woman or as a mother. … Do not let the world define, denigrate, or limit your feelings of lifelong learning and the values of motherhood in the home—both here mortally and in the eternal learning and benefits you give to your children and to your companion." -Elder Robert D. Hales

Crazy Neighbors and Big Trucks

Check out this truck that's outside right now. Little Boy is in love with it:

 
(I had to take this photo from the upstairs window--I didn't want the work crew to see me. Awkward.)

There's a bunch of work going on at the apartment next door. The last tenant who lived there was...mentally unhealthy. Let's just put it that way. Anyway, she decided that she'd like to remodel her apartment--and ended up causing $20,000 of damage. (We did hear a lot of loud noise coming from her apartment when she was "remodeling". We just thought she was weird. It didn't really occur to us that she was violating all sorts of housing laws.)

So that's why there's an enormous truck outside right now--the management finally hired someone to fix the damage. The crew is using that arm thingy on the truck to lift pallets of stuff over the hedge and onto the front porch of the apartment. Little Boy thinks it's pretty cool. Heck, I think it's pretty cool. It's not every day that we can watch big ol' loud trucks from our front porch.

Turn That Frown Upside Down

I'm a little bit grumpy today. But instead of grouching all over the place, I'm just going to post this video that always makes me laugh. Enjoy!

Just Beachy

So, this one time we went to the beach [this was like two months ago. I know, I'm terrible at keeping up.]. And at that beach we had some adventures.

 
We sported our most stylish beach gear, of course.

 
Little Boy ONLY wanted to walk in the water. None of that boring sand stuff.

 

We wondered why this pink starfish was with all the purple ones. Maybe the pink one was lonely, and the purple ones were comforting it--we saw lots of pink ones on other rocks. Or maybe the pink one is their prey, and they're going to eat it. Eventually.

Not pictured: The weird fish that we found on the beach and threw back in the water. Saved! And the beached jellyfish that we did NOT throw back in the water. Ouch.

Blossom-End Rot: D'oh!

I found these in my garden today:

 

except...they were attached to the plant. Anyway, I've got blossom-end rot.

Y'know that heat wave a couple weeks ago? Well...this is the result. Since we weren't at home for most of that week, I didn't water the tomato plant very well. And it got pretty dried out. Apparently that's a no-no.

But on the bright side...our car works again!

"There is nothing that we are enduring that Jesus does not understand, and He waits for us to go to our Heavenly Father in prayer. I testify that if we will be obedient and if we are diligent, our prayers will be answered, our problems will diminish, our fears will dissipate, light will come upon us, the darkness of despair will be dispersed, and we will be close to the Lord and feel of His love and of the comfort of the Holy Ghost." -Robert D. Hales

Little Boy Quote of the Day

Andrea: "...because you're my boy."
Little Boy: "And you're my girl."

Light and Truth

“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one.”

D&C 93:36–37

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