Sunday School - little mr. j's Primary talk that we wrote together

little mr. j gave a talk today in Primary.
We wrote it together.
He spoke very clearly and enunciated his words and didn't look up the whole time and maybe didn't breath either.
But it was great and I think we are a good team.
Here you go:

Living the Gospel Blesses My Family
J. E.
21 Sept 2014

The Gospel teaches me to be a good person and be like Jesus and when I do that, it helps my family. A good person, who follows Jesus, makes choices every day that makes family life nice.

For example, the Gospel teaches us to serve. Some ways I serve my family are: making my bed in the morning, helping unload the dishwasher, and helping clean the house. When I do these things, this gives the other people in my family a chance to get their responsibilities done and then we have time for fun. Sometimes I don’t feel like doing my chores, but I know I can sacrifice and play later.

The Gospel also teaches us to be kind. Sometimes I don’t feel like being kind to my brother and sisters. Sometimes they make me mad. I try to be kind and forgive them and I try not to be annoying. It’s more fun when we all get along and are kind to each other. Some kind things my siblings do for me are: share, play with me, and listen to me when I talk to them about things that are important to me.

We learn to be grateful in the Gospel. We focus on the blessings we have and not the wants we don’t have. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Doctrine & Covenants 59: 7 says, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” In our prayers, we should always talk to Heavenly Father about what we are thankful for before we ask for anything. This helps me remember that I have so much and have a better attitude and not want so many things.

I can be like Jesus and bless my family by serving, being kind and being grateful. I am thankful that living the Gospel will get me to our family’s ultimate goal - being a family through eternity.

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Update. Again.

Oh I miss writing.
I was looking at the little thingy down there in the bottom right that lists the number of posts published each month/year. It's easy for me to correlate the slower pace of posting with what was happening in my/our life/lives given those particular months and years. Good things going on.
A lot of "becoming versed" in situations that required privacy.
A lot of prioritized activities and a lot of growing.
So where we are now.
We are still here.
miss h is now a Mrs. M. and we've added a son-in-law that will get a blog name soon. They are living in a state near but not adjacent to us.
miss s is a resident of another state and studying music therapy.
little mr. b is quite a lot taller than me and in high school.
little mr. j is happily reminding me that his birthday is very soon and I keep telling him, "Be quiet, you are not allowed to have your birthday this year or to grow up." He is happily ignoring me.
my mr. ran a marathon today and has blisters on his feet. 
I have been taking pictures of our building progress, but the big news is:
I've started a new adventure.
I'm learning a lot.
A lot, lot.
And I'm tired and busy and happy.

(Picture from late July - trying to get room together)

I am in 1st grade again and I love it.
Now I get to help a bunch of little ones on their life journey of becoming versed.
And it's awesome.

There you have it.
An update.
Again. :)

Out by the house

Confident Concrete

Apparently an overconfident concrete/cement (?) truck spent some extra time out at the property.
Wish I could've seen it being pulled out. Heard it was quite an ordeal.
Glad our builder warned them not to go where they went, because their extra time did not turn into our extra time. And in the concrete world, time is money.

Yesterday & Today Ap"pier"ances

The soil on our property is quite "loamy." Really it's like very fine river sand. There are also a few spots with natural springs. They discovered this while clearing the lot. It was HOT, HOT, HOT and there were spots that stayed muddy for days. At first the builder thought that we might just have some water pockets - water trapped in the sand because of the clay below - but when they didn't evaporate over time, he knew we had springs. Our friends a few hundred feet away confirmed this when they started telling stories about getting stuck in soft spots on their yard equipment.

For a firm foundation - something very, very important - it was decided that we needed to put some piers in.  It's not going to  have piers all the way around, just mostly on the East side. Our driveway will be (is) gravel to make the moisture issues less of a problem.

Boy oh boy, do those holes bring joy to my heart! It's so very exciting! I was out there doing a very quick happy dance when I snapped these pictures.

Here is yesterday (first two pics) with today following:

There's a stake in my dirt.

And a drive down the lot.

And chalk and flags. 

Yay!