Heaven Calls YOUth... and Joy in the Journey

Our yearly homeschool conference has come and gone and I've learned a few things....

1. My youth LOVE it!!!  due to the cost I was going to make this an every other year event, but I learned that this is one of those things that is worth every penny spent. Considering the fact that Liam is five (and will most likely have similar feelings as his siblings) this will be in the yearly budget for quite some time now. They are super excited for next year--it will be a Virginia Beach again and John Bytheway will be coming to speak!!!

Cailin here--

The conference was pretty good-especially for my first time. I was a little freaked out because I didn't know what to expect, but it was really easy to talk to everyone and figure out what I was supposed to do. 

We came Wednesday night, so my first classes were on Thursday. They were really good, too. Later that night was a dance...that I went to, but Connor didn't. (I still don't really know why.) That was fun.

More classes on Friday, and after that was the Graduation. I'm sure it was great for the graduates, but it just felt like another class, basically, to me. That's not a bad thing, though. 

Bye!

2. Boys really do like to eat....and eat well!! Connor told me "I love coming to conference because we get to eat the good foods we don't normally eat at home, well I like the other parts too, but I really like the good food."

3. Testimonies are expanded and friendships enlarged and created.  Connor, who doesn't often get up in sacrament to bear his testimony, got up yesterday and briefly shared with the ward how much he enjoyed his time at the conference and how much his testimony was strengthen by being there. (I'm sure that made some people squirm :) Later that day, I asked him what he felt contributed to this. He said, "Well all of it, but I really liked the classes."  He chose to get up and attend seminary on Friday, Barry and I took a class from Br. Devin Toma, the seminary teacher...that class alone was amazing.  I'm sure the seminary lesson contributed to his spiritual growth.

4.  Cailin is a social butterfly!  She loved meeting new people and attending the pre-dance class where they learned some dancing steps.  She LOVED the family Hoedown dance.  She was even asked by a few boys for a dance. As we were heading back to the dorms after the dance she said she couldn't understand one bit how the boys could even hate going to the dances....she surmised "they are just weird!" 

  She loved to tell me about some of the people she met and what they were like.  I enjoyed hearing about the classes she went to and the fun outdoor games they played.

5. Ryan, who gives us such a hard time about going to such events really does have a good time!  He and Barry, along with the littles, didn't come up until Friday morning.  They had to stay back to complete some yard work, but I wish they could have come earlier.  Ryan made a new friends in the short time he was there.  This new friend, a fellow graduate, has even connected with him by email just two days after the conference.  (He's a computer techie too!)  He ate dinner in the cafeteria with him.  I wish I would have taken a picture of them!

6.  Asperger's Syndrome is more common among this group of kids than I had originally thought.  I also observed how well some of these young men were doing with skills that Ryan still struggles with--there is hope.  I also learned that these young men had a great mentor/friend, along with their wonderful dads that helped inspire them....now I'm praying and working to find such a person for Ryan.

7.  I learned that Brianne is quite fast and that she should never wear her glasses in an environment where we won't be able to find them easily.  Thankfully we did find them this time---it only took 5 minutes of searching the grassy quad area (thankfully the many youth out there playing a game didn't step on them!) A few weeks ago at a local park in Christiansburg, while Connor was taking his test, it took us 20-30 minutes to find them...with the help of other local patrons!  Liam luckily found them!! yea!!  She really does not like wearing those things!!  She also loves to run and run and run--she does hear us when we call for her to stop, because she's running away laughing.  What an imp!!

8.  Liam has quite a vivid imagination.  He loved this statue and had many questions about it....I believe this may be one of those "sparks" of learning that I need to delve into with him. He was asking all kinds of questions about the knight...Was he frightened to go to war? What did he do? Why did he serve?

 Hummmm, so many possibilities to explore the scriptures, virtues and medieval life with him.

9.  I have really great friends....well I knew that before, but we had such a great time learning and discussing the many thoughts and ideas we learned about in our classes with each other.  Jen Averitt was there too.  I enjoyed getting to know her... I'm not the only one who has a love/hate relationship with TJEd, and I'm not the only one who doesn't have a strict screen media schedule or other such charts all over the house.

10.  I learned that I trust in the arm of the flesh a little too much and not the arm of the Lord....however, during the special needs class (the one where I had that Ahh moment), I also met a new friend from New York City.  She has a 5 yr.daughter with down syndrome, who doesn't take her to speech therapy too, and homeschools her with great success.  I can do this and there is enough speaking/speech and language in our home that Brianne will do just fine with out all the stress of going here and there from this therapy to that therapy.  I look forward to keeping in touch with Emily through out the year by email....and maybe in a few years when our cuties are old enough to attend the youth conference they will get to meet too!

Connor's thoughts--- to come later
Ryan's thoughts---to come later