the weekend

This past weekend was the weekend of festivals all over the state.  A friend of mine invited to me go to the Fall Fiber Festival with her.  It was located just across the road from James Madison's Montpelier home and the landscape was absolutely perfect for this event.  When we arrived, sheepdog trials were underway and memories of the movie Babe came rushing back.  It was kind of a magical moment for me.

Large tents set up in rows housed vendor after vendor, selling their hand spun yarns and hand dyed wool.  With over fifty vendors, there was a lot of fiber to choose from.  I browsed each vendor and kept mental notes of each vendor I planned to purchase from.  I brought home hand dyed roving which I plan to make goodies with to sell in my soon-to-be opened etsy shop.  Artists entered their work to be judged and I so wanted to take the fox pillow home with me.




The llamas were entertaining and I was surprised to feel how soft their coat of fur is.  My friend wants to sell her two sheep and buy llamas.  It makes my heart yearn for a home on acreage so I can raise my animals.

We finished our day with a hot apple cider donut.  Holy cow.  It's the best donut I've ever had - hot, thick and perfectly flavored.  I am craving more and plan to get some at the pumpkin patch this weekend.



This weekend was also a special one for my family.  Hailey got her patriarchal blessing and I was so touched by the things the patriarch had to say.  She is a special girl.  We also got to enjoy General Conference, hearing the leaders of the church speak.  I've had things weighing on my heart as of late and things were said that put it at ease.  It was like some of the words spoken were meant just for me.  I love it when that happens.

general conference weekend

General Conference weekend ended up being much busier than I had planned it in my head.  I thought it would be a quiet weekend at home, our eyes glued to the television with naps between sessions.  It ended up being soccer games Saturday morning, the Mr. running over to the church to set up the broadcast for those who wanted to watch it there, watching conference, making homemade bread and rolls because we were out, working on the fencing for our new little garden, chatting with our very elderly neighbors about our soon-to-be planted garden, and kids playing with neighborhood friends somewhere in the middle of all that.  By the end of Sunday night, I was exhausted and ready to hit the sack when the Mr. found The Hunger Games on netflix and the next thing you know we are going to bed waaaaay too late.  Late bedtimes are my nemesis.  I need to practice much more self control when it comes to going to bed early.

Conference was very good (isn't it always, though?).  I was happy to hear some talks that touched on parenting and am anxious for them to be available at lds.org so I can read them again.  The 10 commandments were also spoken of and the kids suggested we learn all of them in order.  This will be a Fun Family Home evening challenge over the coming months.  The activity basket I put together was a big hit with the kids.  It kept them occupied 85% of the time, which makes this mama happy.  In the past, listening to conference was never that easy.  Keeping littles quietly busy for a whole two days was practically impossible.  Last year, we watched conference at the church, which was a total failure in our attempt to have them reverently watch our church leaders speak.  I am grateful they were quiet enough for me to hear and digest most of the inspired messages given this weekend.

general conference//quiet basket

Hello friends.  It's a special weekend.  Our family will be gathered around our tv to watch the president and prophet of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), Thomas S. Monson, speak.  His counselors and other leaders will be speaking as well.  And I can't wait.  It seems I need to be uplifted, enlightened and directed every time General Conference rolls around.  I usually don't get too religious on my blog, but religion is a very big part of my life.  What I believe makes me who I am and I try to live my religion the best that I can every day.   I am not claiming to be perfect.  I am human, after all.  I've had to deal with a lot of hard things in my life, but all things have been bearable because I have religion in my life.

Conference weekend is great, but it can be a challenge to listen to every single talk if you've got 4 kids who don't know how to sit still for all four of the two hour sessions.  That's a lot of sitting and listening and my kids just don't last that long.  In an effort to help them do quiet things while we all camp out in our living room, I put together a little basket with activities the kids can do quietly.



I got the basket at Dollar Tree, along with 3 notepads for drawing and 2 boxes of candy for a game of bingo.  I already had a new box of crayons (left over from school supply shopping) that can be used to draw in their notepads.  I grabbed some of the boys' legos and they will be challenged to build a temple or church building with them - all while being quiet and listening, of course ;)  I also printed up some activity sheets, a bingo game, and some prophet & apostle cards the kids can use to play a memory game with.



I scoured the internet and pinterest for ideas.  Here is what I ended up putting in our quiet basket:

Conference coloring pages: HERE & HERE
small notepads and a box of crayons for drawing
build a temple/church out of legos
Apostle/prophet BINGO (w/candy): HERE
Apostle/prophet matching game: HERE

I hope this will keep them quiet enough to play and listen at the same time.  We'll see!