A war with no winners

Sometimes you end up in the middle of a conflict by no fault of your own. With family and friends on both sides, and no clear solution. Trying to stay out of it and not have an oppinion seems impossible, but is exactly where you want to be. Times like this, it would be nice if everything were black and white. Choices would be clear cut and easy, and perhaps there would be a clear winner. 

Some conflicts are easy for me to chose a side and feel good about it. Others, it tears me a part. There are two such battles raging around me right now, and I feel torn between the good on all sides. My first instinct is to ignore the whole situation. Unless I'm forced to make a decision, I won't express any oppinion. However, in these two battles I feel the need to look deep inside and find out where I stand. For no other reasons than to have inner peace right now, as well as to know where I stand if forced to chose a side. 

It's hard though, even firmly believing in the side I choose, to be opposite of people I love and respect. There's really no winners when both sides believe they are right and will not even consider the opposite view. I wish it were as easy as taking the good parts of both sides. Maybe that's where I stand. Not on one side of the fence or the other, but on a third side of a triangle where compromise exisists. 

General Conference

Maddox strung beads for more than an hour. Seriously can't believe it!

Pinterest has so many awesome ideas for everything. I actually put many to use, and while it took prep time, after one session it was worth it!

The supplies basket included glue, scissors, pencils, markers, crayons, string, beads, and some 'draw the speaker' pages. The idea behind the beads was that each color represents a topic and you create a bracelet. Maddox seriously just loved stringing them. Bai wants to create one later. 

This basket has 15 ziplock bags with different treats and activities. Each has a photo of one of the apostles or member of the first presidency. When they speak, the kids get to choose that bag. 

My cute girl!

The bonus basket has other treats and snacks. They are for bingo prizes and the speakers who don't have a bag. 

Bai wanted a binder like mom's to take notes. I am super impressed with the things she chose to write down. 

Maddox doesn't sit still very often. One thing I read was a family that tells their kids they can run around during the songs. I tried that, not really expecting it to make a difference, but it did!! He played basketball during the songs and was pretty quiet otherwise. 

Cutting and gluing!!! Ok, so maybe most of the activities I chose were a ploy to work on some occupational therapy. But he didn't know that! Overall, we had a wonderful time listening to conference. I think these activity bags will become a new tradition. 

On Saturday, especially, my soul was fed and my testimony strengthened. I'm looking forward to listening to all of the talks again in the coming months. 

Conference is such a blessing in my life, and a real source of personal revelation. I am so grateful to have a living prophet here on the earth, to lead and guide the Savior's church, under the Savior's direction. 

Kid quotes and quips

Last night Luke mentioned to Bailee that the Daddy Daughter camp out is shortly after the baby comes. She loves Daddy Daughter so much, so is really excited. Maddox asked when Father and Son's is and Luke said he didn't know if they were doing it this year. Maddox's response was very typical. "I know! We can go to the first BYU football game and that can be our father son date!" Luke will take that over camping any day of the week.

We were on our way to the park to meet friends that had moved away, one of Bailee's best friends. She got upset because she'd forgotten her pencil. I told her she'd be too busy playing to need a pencil to which she replied, "You mean talking! We have a lot to catch up on."

Play dates are no longer called Play dates, this almost 8 year old is going on 16 and wants me to call it "hanging out".

A few months back Bailee says to me "If someone looks in my diary and I write in Egyptian, they won't know what it says!"

Maddox has a hard time waking up on the mornings he has school. Weekends and Monday's he's up earlier than he needs to be. I attribute it to deep sleeping and stubbornness. He usually finds his way into my bed somewhere between the hours of 2 and 6 am. It's pretty dark in our room, so I decided I need to just send him back to his bed. He's my cuddle bug though, and it's not going to be easy for either of us. This morning when he came in at 5:45 I told him he could only get in my bed if he promised he would wake up when I told him to. He said he would, and I asked him what the consequence should be if he didn't. He responded "No TV ever again." Like that punishment would ever stick. I compromised with no TV today and he agreed. It worked. He got up the first time I asked him. I hope this sticks!

In St. George driving past Dixie State and Luke points out to Bailee where he used to live. Without skipping a beat she says "So you were an orphan?"

The other day in the car Maddox asks me "Mom, when are you going to tell me that the baby isn't coming?" I was confused and replied that I wasn't going to tell him that, because the baby is coming next month. He responded "But last time you said the baby wasn't coming. Were you joking?" Obviously, explaining a miscarriage to  a four year old didn't go as smoothly as I thought. We talked briefly about the first baby going back to heaven because maybe it was sick. He wanted to know if this baby is sick, and I told him I don't think so. He then said, "Well, maybe it's the same baby."

Bailee is having a hard time with the idea of having another baby. I really think between the miscarriage and her memories of Maddox, she is just protecting her heart. I'm certain she'll warm up when the baby actually gets here. In an effort to get her a little excited, I tried to get her to feel him moving. I put her hand on my belly where he had been moving moments before and of course, he stopped moving. I told her sorry and we'd try again when he moved. She said "This baby already has a brain! He is already tricking me and Maddox hasn't even taught him how, yet!"