12 February 2017 - Snow Days and Stake Conference

Out the front door. Arborvitae are hanging low.

There is beauty in new fallen snow. It's so white and clean. The snow started on Sunday and by Monday morning there was 6 to 8 inches on the cars and yard and trees. It was a wet snow that was easy to mold and make into snow men. Unfortunately that wasn't what we wanted to do with it. School was canceled and we made a fire in the built in fireplace stove and kept the house warm. We  never lost power so that was a blessing. Several ward members said that their power was out. We lost a tree in the front yard and the magnolia tree in the back yard looks pretty sad but it's all good. It looked like a winter wonderland. 

Out the back do

  By Tuesday the roads were clear so Kathleen took Samuel to his church basketball game at the Kent building. Samuel didn't make any points but it was a fun game to watch. Kathleen kept the score sheet so she couldn't get upset by the referees or plays. They won but it was a close game. On the way out of the parking lot. The camry got stuck and spun it's wheels. There was a car behind so Kathleen kept trying to move the wheels for better traction but to no avail. Finally the car behind her figured out there was a problem so he backed out and let Kathleen make it back down the incline and drive around the parking lot and get a good run up the hill. She made it easily and since there were no other cars on the road at that junction she was able to make it home safe and sound.
   Wednesday was disappointing that it was not 2 hour late start. They just canceled the whole day. Sad. They still had YM/YW that night at the church. It was a Etiquette dinner for the youth. Samuel said it was fun but when he got home he was still hungry. Spaghetti was not sufficient for a growing youth. Stephen had Stake Presidency meeting that night to get ready for Stake conference. Since he was unable to work at the school during closure he worked for John Sharp on the construction company. He was very tired each day but glad that he was able to continue to work.
   Thursday, school was back in session and Stephen opted to teach his first grade class at Soos Creek. He really likes that class because they like him. He came home satisfied with his work. That night the sisters had enrichment meeting with Sister Billie Atwood speaking on Self-esteem. It was an enlightening presentation. In a nutshell, she said that as we become disciples of Christ and follow him, doing all the small things, that we will find that we are happy and have greater self-esteem. She did give us a list that included things like organizing your surroundings, overcoming addictions, being kind, serving others, prayer and study, to help develop self-esteem.
   Friday Stephen was back at the construction site but he planned on coming home early so he and Kathleen could take Kaprice Baranet to the temple for the Stake temple night. Stephen ended up staying longer to help out so Kathleen took Kappy herself to the 4:00 session. They got out in time to meet Stephen before he went to the 6:30 session. The drive home was packed with cars and trucks on the highway. It appeared that they closed Snoqualmie pass so there were lots and lots of trucks on the side of the freeway just waiting.
   Saturday morning Samuel had Stake Youth choir practice in the morning. Kathleen drove him there and then went to the Bishop's storehouse for some drink mix that they were going to use for the adult meeting that night. It topic was temporal and spiritual preparedness. Stephen lead the discussion on using the Home Storage facility here in Kent. They had a video presentation about what was available from the facility. The idea was that if you are prepared spiritually, you will follow the counsel to prepare temporally and vice versa. There was light refreshments after the meeting and then Rebekah and Kathleen needed to go to Fred Meyers to pick up some canned chicken for a dinner that Kathleen was preparing for a sister in the ward who had her baby. She also picked up some animal crackers for our lesson on Peter's dream of the "unclean animals." Rebekah also wanted to pick up some items so we got home late but Samuel and Kathleen still had time to watch "Agents of Shield" while Stephen worked on his talk for  Sunday.
   Sunday was Stake Conference. Stephen left early for Priesthood leadership meeting at 7:00 where he was to speak on "delegation". He had several brothers help him out with his topic and he assigned each priesthood leader to delegate a member of their presidency to bring cookies to their next meeting so they could discuss how to delegate and report their meeting to the Stake presidency, including who brought the cookies. President Stroud then assigned Stephen to bring cookies to their next presidency meeting this Wednesday. That went over well.
  Rebekah came by early to practice the piano since she was playing for the choir. She also conducted the music for conference so she was busy. Rebekah and Samuel had to be to the church early to practice and Rebekah asked her mother to turn the pages for her to everyone in the family was sitting on the stand. Stephen had a 15 minute talk to give and he also had to read in the names of the General and Stake leadership for a sustaining vote. His talk was on the pathway to discipleship and he related his experience in having his grandchildren here for the summer and taking them on adventures to Twin Falls where they followed a path to the falls. He related that to the path that Peter discussed in his 2nd epistle. "add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, Charity."  He gave stories and discussed each trait that would lead a disciple of Christ onto the pathway to the Tree of Life. He developed the idea of temperance being self-control and the importance of controlling what we take into our bodies including what we view. He hit pretty hard on pornography and President Stroud also hit that subject the night before.
   After the meeting, Kathleen came home and made mashed potatoes to go with the meat that was cooking for the past 48 hours in a pot on the counter with a Sous Vide cooker inside. It's a new method of low heat cooking that gives you a moist piece of meat, cooked to perfection without drying. It's also good for fruits and vegetable and avoids the problems of carcinogens from high high or flame cooking. It turned out very nice.
   Kathleen also had to cook a meal for a sister who had a baby this week. She made Chicken Divan, rolls and peach crisp. Of course she made enough to have some at home. The rolls were a big hit.