Beautiful Day

It is a beautiful day here in Tremonton today.  The sun is shining with a few clouds in the sky. 

On today's agenda, I am headed 20 minutes south to Brigham City where I will hand in the form to check my kids out of public school.  I hate the fact that I have to sign my kids out of school because it should be the other way around.  I should have to sign my kids in to school each year.  Compulsory education is not what I believe this country should have ever agreed to.  However, I am so grateful to live in a country where I still have the freedom to educate my children the way I see fit.

I am so excited for homeschooling this year.  I have so many plans and am excited to see how well I do at executing them.  The kids are excited too.

As a reminder, if you are sending your kids to public school, please watch the assignments they bring home.  If you do not like the material that they bring home, speak up.  Talk to their teacher, their principal, the superintendent in their school district about your concerns.  The new state standards that were adopted in over 45 states in America are truly horrifying.  Do not be afraid to homeschool.  If I could afford a private school, and we lived near one, I would consider that too.  It has been said, and I agree with it, that even a parents' worst effort at homeschooling their child is better than the schooling being offered at the public schools because a parent loves their child more than anyone else ever could.

In other news, the company Jared works for still has yet to find a replacement for his current position.  They haven't told Jared 'no, you don't get the job' yet, but it only follows that they will with how long they are searching for other candidates to interview for this position.  We have had spiritual confirmations that either way, the Lord is with us and He will take care of us.

Reputation

In our family, we have been talking about reputation.  The older kids are starting to recognize how important having a good reputation is, and how much hurt and pain can come from a ruined reputation.  I loved this verse of scripture that I came upon this morning in my reading.  It is from 1 Timothy 4: 12.

12 Let no man ^adespise thy youth; but be thou an ^bexample of the believers, in word, in ^cconversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in ^dpurity

Last night, I gave a lesson to the children that our reputation can always be good if we watch our conversations and be loving, faithful and pure people.  I spoke of the Golden Rule and how important it is to remember it.  It turned out that Eric (13 year old) was having a misunderstanding with Vanessa (14  years old) amongst their mutual friends which was causing both of them to not behave their best around those friends.  We were able to talk out those misunderstandings and bring peace.

To end with , we came up with ways to improve a reputation once it is scarred or dirtied.  While some stains to reputation take several years to cleanse, the everyday mars to reputation can easily be cleaned with apologies or speaking good about others or by being kind to others' we don't agree with. 

The discussion on protecting reputation can be a tender one with youth and so I made sure the children know that I was speaking a out protecting ours because we want other's to think well of us because we are pure people.  We don't want to look good on the outside only to be filthy on the inside.  We want people to learn to trust us.  We want people to find a good friend in us just like we want to find purity in our friends. 

The night ended well.  I love having older children.

20 Year Reunion

It is mine and Jared's 20 year high school reunion this weekend and we are not attending the events.  It is Jared's work weekend anyway, but that isn't the real reason we aren't going.  It feels so trivial to write the reason why, but I want to anyway.  We attended our 10 year reunion and it was a pretty miserable experience for me.  I realized how many people I didn't know from our graduating class and they didn't know me either.  The event we attended was a family event at Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City.  At the time we had 3 kids under the age of 4, Vanessa was 4, Eric was 3 and Joseph was 1.  It was awful trying to chase them while reuniting with old friends.  Well, in my case I mostly just stood around while Jared tried to reunite with old friends.  I felt so stupid and so lonely.  There were even people there that knew me from high school but they acted like they didn't know me.  How rude!  I guess they didn't have anything to say to me and I decided I didn't have anything to say to them either.  I remember it was hard for me to even talk to people.  But the hardest part for me is how hard it was for me to smile.  And if you know me at all, that is saying something.  Smiling has always been something that has come easy for me.  So, I decided I wasn't going to go through anything like that again, ever.  And I have kept to my promise. 

I wonder if it would be different now that 20 years have passed.  I wonder if the people in my graduating class have gone through enough of life's battles that it has softened them a bit.  I feel sure that that is the reason why I do not want to attend this weekend.  I just couldn't bare the thought of standing around all alone trying pretend like I was having fun. 

I asked Jared if he wanted to go.  He knows my feelings and said he didn't want to go knowing how I felt.  It was sweet of him and I was glad he didn't put any pressure on me.

Here's to our 20 year graduation from Highland High School!!!

In other news, Jared's parents, Grandma Harris (92 years old,) his sister Marianne, his brother Grayson's wife Allysa, and his brother Jonathan and his family were all here for Jared's birthday party yesterday.  We had a lovely time and the kids loved seeing their cousins.  I was so happy that Jared got to spend his birthday with the people he loves the most.  Our relationship with Jared's parents is still strained and we have our disagreements, but we don't focus on them.  Now that Jared is completely away from working for his father, our relationship can move forward normally.  We feel blessed.

Birthday And School

It's Jared's 38 year old birthday today.  We are taking him to pick out his own present and stopping by Maddox in Brigham City to get him his favorite pie, coconut cream.  He is working on putting a party together with his parents and siblings.  He is hoping to do grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.  We'll have to see if it happens;)  Happy Birthday, Jared!

Also, we are getting ready for the new school year to start.  Vanessa and Eric will be doing a couple of classes and I will be doing their core classes.  Joseph and Rex will be fully homeschooled.  I am looking forward to the neighborhood children going to school too so that I will have less disruptions with my own kids.  I have been doing some schooling over the summer but we get interrupted so frequently that we've had to put a sign on the door that says we can't play till later.  Yikes, I've become 'one of those Mom's.'  I don't know, maybe that is not such a bad thing, we sure do get a lot more done when the door bell isn't ringing.

Observation

Jared met with the company manufacturing department head last night.  It wasn't a formal interview.  Instead, the man observed Jared conduct his weekly meeting and then Jared walked around the plant with him.  As he was leaving the plant, the man shook Jared's hand and told him he is doing a good job.  We still have no idea what the end result will be, but we know that our Father is in charge and His will for us is all we want.

Party and Promotion

We're off to the annual Ward summer dinner over at the church.  I have made a pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, cucumber, and Italian dressing.  This year the Ward is having a bounce house and slide for the kids.  Bruce will love that the most.

Rex and Joseph are at football practice and will miss most of the party.

Jared also is meeting with the head of the manufacturing department of MOM Brands tonight.  The man is here from Minnesota for other business, but Jared will meet with him for some time too.  This is another step to see whether Jared will get the promotion or not.

Kids

Not much going on in our home.  Joseph had his birthday and we went to Chuck A Rama for dinner.  Last night we had a neighborhood boy come over and he spent the night at our house, which for us is unheard of, we are anti-sleepover.  His friend's name is Jason Sullivan and our families are very close. 

Football has kicked in full swing and Joseph and Rex are both on teams.  Practices are every night for 90 minutes.  Rex came home tonight with sore legs.  He is 7 years old and this is his first time being on an athletic team.  He is quite the athlete.  Joseph, however, is 11 years old and this will be his 4th year playing football, but his 3rd year playing for the Tremonton Bear River Bears.  His coaches love him and they put him in key positions.  He also has a really good friend on his team who is the quarterback named Ashton Rhoades.  As a family, we love watching the kids play.

Totally unrelated but my thought for the day:

'Individuals, to the extent possible, should provide for their own needs. Where the individual is unable to care for himself, his family should assist. Where the family is not able to provide, the Church should render assistance, not the government. We accept the basic principle that "though the people support the government, the government should not support the people." Latter-day Saints should not receive unearned welfare assistance from local or national agencies. This includes food stamps.' - Ezra Taft Benson