July 2, 2017

Today was a beautiful Fast Sunday.

Emma curled her own hair!! And she looks so pretty with her braces off and her new dress.

My pretty girls.

I'm so glad I have these daughters.  I love them.

I decided to make a full-on turkey dinner, so our house was smelling so good all morning!!  We made it to church just fine, with my lesson ready and Miles's talk ready.  Austin had a meltdown about fasting and Miles had a meltdown about his talk, but we were able to smooth everything over and get to the chapel on time.

I bore my testimony today.  I shared my love for my family and the glorious week we had all just spent together.  I told about a book I have been reading (Hillbilly Elegy--an excellent book!), which is a memoir about a family and a culture in crisis.  The young man telling his story just can't understand all of the heartache  and sorrow that comes to his family.  And I thought about Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness, and how it truly is a plan of HAPPINESS.  I am so thankful for the knowledge of strong families, and how important they are to our society and our well being.  I am forever grateful to mom and dad for establishing such a strong family, for sticking through all of the difficult times, for enduring all of the hardships, for loving us all for all of these years, and for setting us all on the proper path to happiness.  I am so grateful.

I was late with my class into sharing time, and when I walked in, Miles was already starting his talk.  He gave a wonderful talk and acted calm and well spoken.  I was proud of him, and I told him afterwards that that is exactly why we can't panic and shy away from hard things.  It is a lesson Miles and I are working on.  We really do have to face our fears.  It's the only way to make those fears go away.  I was proud of his efforts to do something that he really didn't want to do.

We all rushed home to a DELICIOUS turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Everyone was so pleased with our Sunday dinner.  And we all helped clean up because Greg promised his famous chocolate chip cookies.  They used to be MY famous chocolate chip cookies.  But he loves them so much and makes them with the kids so much more than me, and he's gotten quite good at it, that I'm now calling them HIS famous cookies.  We all ate too many!!  It was a fantastic Sabbath Day!