Elder Neil L. Anderson's talk about families. ("Motherhood is not a hobby. We do not collect children because they are cuter than stamps," and so many other good, good quotes.)
Elder Ian S. Arden's talk about wise use of time. (Boy do I need to internalize this.)
Elder Robert D. Hales talk about inspiration, patience, and overcoming trials. (Especially when he talked about Job. . . I know our trials might seem small to some, but the last few years have been tough on our family, and this was a great reminder to me that everything we go through will strengthen us, bless us, and make us better).
And I LOVED Elder Uchtdorf's talk last week about the forget-me-nots.
And I also loved the one that Sister Dalton's talk for fathers of daughters.
Like I said, they were all so good and uplifting.
The kids were so good during all EIGHT hours! That is a long time to listen to church talks, but they did! Of course, they colored and cut lots of papers, and even after cleaning up the mess there are still hundreds of tiny paper shavings all over the room, but I'll just vacuum those up tomorrow. And of course we had some occasional loud voices and fighting (like when I asked Logan to start cleaning up the paper and Grant started screaming bloody murder that Logan threw away the paper that was for his speech teacher). We usually have a "party" during the lunch hour of the Sunday session (except for the last General Conference, which is one of my worst memories). Logan has been talking about how he wished we still did that. . . so Joe and I surprised them and had a party consisting of nachos, meatballs (with grape jelly and chili sauce), finger sandwiches, pineapple, chocolate peanut butter cookies, lemonade and apple cider. It truly was a feast! After conference ended we took a walk and enjoyed the wonderful cooler weather (who knew that 88 degree weather could feel like fall?). Then we played a game of LIFE, which I actually hate. I remember loving it as a child and I bought it on a Black Friday several years ago and now that is the kid's favorite game and I'm wishing I never got that good deal. Maybe it will be more fun when the kids are a little older and understand how to play it a little better. Now the kids are in bed, and even Joe walked through the house and commented on the mess (he usually doesn't notice or care), but I didn't say one thing about it, and I am telling myself that someday I will miss the noise and mess that occur over Conference. weekend. Plus, I have the whole week to clean it up. :)
Also, this is just for my memory and documenting (as is the entire post, sorry), but on Friday I made several little posters and taped them up all over the house to remind me to smile more and to be more fun. My "natural man" is naturally pessimistic and serious and not so fun. . . so I started a little experiment to see if I could change my natural disposition--because I want to be a fun and easy-going person! There is an inspiring story in the YW manual about a girl who made made a similar goal. I didn't say anything to Joe about it until today (I thought for sure he would see those green posters and ask me about it, but I guess they were self-explanatory?). Finally I asked him about why he hadn't said anything and he said he was just waiting to see how it played out, which was actually the perfect thing to say. Anyway, it's only been 3 days, but I feel like it is helping. When I want to exhale loudly or complain about something I think of those little signs and just smile and try to think about it more positively. Joe, that sweet guy, is reading a book about random information and statistics, and he informed me that one of those random tidbits explains how you can tell if a smile is fake. . . and then he proceeded to tell me that he knew the secret face muscle that gave the fake smile away, so I wasn't fooling him. :) Oh well, maybe someday I won't need smile cards and it will be a real smile. :)
