Dear Elder Powrie!
Just one month to Christmas! Crazy times!
We put up our Christmas tree for family home evening this evening, which the
kids were very excited of course! It’s effectively Caleb’s first Christmas, so
it was very cute to see him all excited J
But at this time of the year means that
I’m feeling very weary! I spend much more of a week feeling tired now than I do
in the earlier parts of the year… But at least it does pass, and it’s just 3
weeks until go on leave, and then
hopefully I can get some rest!
Some of the notable things we did this
week were that for home evening last week we put the tent up in the front
garden and had a picnic supper in it – to make up for the rained out camp that
Josh and Andrew went on! But it worked out nicely because then Hannah and Caleb
could also get to play in the tent J On Tuesday
Andrew and I spent the whole day doing Christmas shopping and pretty much
finished everything! I’m so glad that we made such good progress!!! I also met
with a lady that I’ve been working with doing some accounting and tax work for
her husband’s business and her father-in-law’s business. And I’ve handed over
the last of what I’ve been doing to her. I’ve been trying to shed things where
I can, and I’m down to only a handful of people that I do tax for, and that’s
really just family J
At work I met with the lecturer who is in
charge of setting the academic standards about some of the changes I would like
to make to my course for next year – some of it changing the type of
assignments, some of it changing the topics we teach, and also changing the structure
of the tests and exam slightly. And she completely agreed with everything! Which
is huge, because she is often very hard to convince, and I’ve been on the
receiving end of plenty of criticism in the past… But it was the best meeting I’ve
ever had with her J Then on Friday
I went to the first final year course convenors meeting that happens every year
to look at the results of the potential graduates. And I made two suggestions
of things that I think my students should be allowed to do, and the other
convenors agreed with both of them as well. So a good week in terms of getting
my voice heard at work!
I’ve also made good progress on the textbook
this week – with other things slowing down, I can finally focus on things like
this. I’ve just got one more chapter to go through of the 6 I was assigned.
More progress! I’ve also been asked to do a peer review on a journal article,
which is a first for me. And considering I haven’t had an academic paper
published in a journal yet, it’s pretty cool that things have worked out for me
to be able to do this J
My visiting teachers came last week, and
Sis Marie came again – so great to have her fulfilling a church assignment J Sis Sally shared a really nice story
though. To paraphrase quite a bit… A young boy needed to go and spend a night
in the middle of the forest to become a man. So his father took him, settled
him on a tree stump and told him that he had to sit still, with his eyes
closed, the whole night, and only when the sun shone on him in the morning
could he open his eyes, and then he would be a man, and then his father left
him. So the boy sat there, feeling scared, of course, while the forest got
noisy during the night. But he desperately wanted to become a man, so he didn’t
move or open his eyes. Eventually the sun rose and he opened his eyes. And
there in front of him was his father, who had never actually left – he had been
watching over his son the whole night. So just like we have to come and
experience mortality, and we can’t see our Heavenly Father, He is still there
and watching over us. And when we get through this life, we will be ready to
become like Him! Really nice J
On Saturday we spent the day at home –
first time since September (and we missed going to a special lunch thing for
friends of mine who are getting married – but the family time was more
important). We spent the day mainly working in the garden – we cleared the
vegetable boxes you made for us, and planted more seeds, as well as in a few
other strategic places in the garden, and we bought and installed a new creepy
system for the pool. We also fed and watered the lawn. And all of that
definitely called for a swim! The kids are loving the pool of course, and Caleb
will try and undress himself when he wants to go in! During the week we’ve also
had our neighbour, who’s a year older than Josh, coming over a few times to
play, and the one time he swam with us. Interesting how he’s feeling
comfortable enough to just jump over the wall and come play with Josh and
Hannah! But if there’s going to be a neighbourhood house where the kids gather,
I’d rather it’s ours J
Yesterday we were tried! Of course the
hottest day of the summer so far is going to be a Sunday! But it might be a
blessing that we can’t swim, because we don’t even go outside and can’t get
burnt by the sun… So maybe only partly a trial ;) But Andrew only came home at
bedtime, after doing tithing settlement and other interviews and then going to
a general priesthood meeting (where Leon was sustained and then ordained
afterwards as an Elder J), so we spent
some time with Mom and Dad, and then just tried to keep the kids occupied and
happy. But we were all so glad when he got home!
Oh, and Andrew sent a note down to me
during sacrament meeting yesterday – can I share something that was meaningful
to me from General Conference?...! So in 5 minutes I had to quickly prepare
something! But the Gospel Library app is fantastic, because the hardest part
was choosing a talk that I wanted to cover, and then I could just quickly
glance down what I had already highlighted – and then it’s not too difficult
for me to just talk :P I decided to talk about Pres Uchtdorf’s talk, Come Join
With Us, which is really powerful! And it was funny to see how many people came
and thanked me afterwards – and I just laughed everytime… But a quick prayer,
and having been through (at least parts of) General Conference also meant I
could do it at the drop of a hat. J
And Josh’s second tooth fell out last
night! So the Tooth Fairy came to visit this time (at his request, he wanted
the Fairy this time – I think after watching Rise of the Guardians…)
The kids also got their reports, and both
had really good comments.
·
“Joshua has really grown in confidence this year.
Joshua is able to present an oral to his classmates with ease. Next year we
will work on him speaking louder when presenting an oral. Joshua loves art
activities, his drawings are well planned and have extensive added details, as
well as beautiful use of colour. It has been a pleasure having Joshua in my
class this year and I wish him well for next year.”
·
“Hannah is a soft-hearted and smart young lady.
She brightens the room with her smile. Hannah loves attention and has a super
sense of humour to go with it. She enjoys being part of group discussions and activities
and get along very well with all her peers. Hannah is not shy to let her
teachers know how she is feeling, with this said we must comment Hannah on her
impeccable manners and respect towards her peers and teachers. Hannah has been
an absolute pleasure to have in our class.”
So we’re really proud of our wonderful
children! J
So busy as always, but the end is in
sight!
Keep well, love you lots!
Shelly
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