womens conference

I got to go to a day of women's conference at BYU last week. Mark "stayed home" to take care of the kids so I could go. On Wednesday evening Karen, Alisa, and my mom came and stayed overnight so we could get up early Thursday and head to Provo. We left here around 7:00 a.m. and drove to Michelle's in Orem. Then Mom & I headed over to the Marriott Center to save seats for the others. Sister Sheri Dew gave the opening address. I always like listening to her because she has a delightful sense of humor and just says things like they are. She counseled us to awake to who we are (daughters of God), arise (make our lives like Christ), and come unto Christ by walking away from the things of the world.

The next class I went to was for mothers with young children. I found it ironic that of the four presenters in this class, only one was currently a mother of young children. I guess the moral of the story is to learn from others who were there once and survived to tell about it! A couple of things I needed to hear:

• Sit down in the middle of the mess (toys) and just play with your kids, instead of getting everything on your to-do list crossed off.
• Is what I'm spending my time doing consistent with what I really want?
• This is the time to be with my kids -- there will be another time to do other things later, or else the desire for those things will leave.

The next class was the one I really wanted to attend most of all -- Raising Boys. That's me! The Nadauld's (parents of 7 boys) talked about teaching these 5 things to boys:

1. Work -- work hard, give boys jobs that use big muscles (like mowing the lawn) and involve machines (vacuum). Work with them and make sure the work they do is meaningful.
2. Responsibility -- boys need to be responsible for something and to be responsible to someone.
3. Respect -- for mothers and women (be courteous); I should speak in kind tones because harsh words will be echoed back by my sons; body part should be discussed with dignity and respect, remembering they are a gift from Heavenly Father.
4. Expectations --these need to be made chrystal clear, no subtlety (sp?) allowed! Expect college education or training.
5. Reverence -- unfortunately I can't remember exactly what was discussed here except that by having consistent family prayer and scripture study, they will learn!

The last speakers of the day were President & Sister Bateman. Sadly, I didn't get much out of the first part of their talk, but the end was quite good. They counseled us to use quiet voices in our homes, teach our children, begin every day with family prayer, treat our families kindly, and keep our homes in order (clean too!) -- this will help our homes be more like the temple (House of the Lord).

After all this, we headed over to Michelle's for a yummy enchilada dinner, which I couldn't enjoy because I developed a migraine! Lovely! After resting for awhile and taking some tylenol, things got under control so I could drive home. Mom came with me and spent the night. When we got home we were greeted by Mark trying to install a new toilet in our bathroom because the tank had cracked earlier that day! Needless to say, he wasn't very happy. The boys had cleaned up the house though, so that was a nice surprise!