7 Quick Takes: Dietbet, Football, Conference, and Attention Edition

1.  I won my Dietbet last month!  I lost just enough to get back my $35, plus an extra $12.  I was sorely tempted to decide to take a break, but I know that without a deadline, I'm likely to find all kinds of excuses to put off the weight loss (Halloween, birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.).  So I signed up for another 4 week, 4% challenge as well as a 6 month 10% challenge.  The 10% one is interesting to me, as it breaks up the weight loss into month-long increments to help you stay on track.  I'm supposed to lose 3% the first month, 3% the second, 2% the third, and all 10% by the 5th month, with one more month of maintenance before the bet ends.

2.  We looked out the back window early last week to discover Joey teaching Cami how to play football.  It wasn't long before there was an audience cheering her on. She got sillier and sillier the more we watched.

 

3.  We loved watching and listening to General Conference this past weekend, and the kids loved their snacks and treats, of course.  Michael and Eliza brought down a whole slew of Legos to play with while they listened.










4.  Speaking of Conference, it was a wonderful soul-filling weekend with so much for me to ponder on.  My favorite talk, given this stage of my life, was Elder Holland's about motherhood.  I need to take a few days just to consider it all.

Bear, borne, carry, deliver. These are powerful, heartening messianic words. They convey help and hope for safe movement from where we are to where we need to be—but cannot get without assistance. These words also connote burden, struggle, and fatigue—words most appropriate in describing the mission of Him who, at unspeakable cost, lifts us up when we have fallen, carries us forward when strength is gone, delivers us safely home when safety seems far beyond our reach. . . But can you hear in this language another arena of human endeavor in which we use words like bear and borne, carry and lift, labor and deliver? As Jesus said to John while in the very act of Atonement, so He says to us all, “Behold thy mother!”⁶

Today I declare from this pulpit what has been said here before: that no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child. When Isaiah, speaking messianically, wanted to convey Jehovah’s love, he invoked the image of a mother’s devotion. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” he asks. How absurd, he implies, though not as absurd as thinking Christ will ever forget us.⁷

5.  My husband's been working like a madman this past week, with a bit of a crisis he's had to deal with.  So that just makes moments like these even more precious.

6.  Benji continues to be the center of attention around here.  We love him!

7.  Speaking of attention, I have a five-year-old who demands it constantly.  She's a bit challenging, as she has a very difficult time entertaining herself and so she is constantly following me around, expecting me to fill her up with activities and attention.  Last week, I was able to channel some of that desire for company by having her help me process and dehydrate the abundance of apples my mother-in-law gave me.  The surprising thing was that her help actually made things go faster!

Now, if she were only so enthusiastic and helpful about sweeping the floors, folding laundry, and doing the dishes . . .