Doing vs. Being

I was sick this week, so I had to cut back on my to do list. But it turns out I had more to say than I thought I would. Here are the things I did instead of my regular running around.

1. We have had wild fluctuations in temperature, so on a warm day we headed to the new Wassmer park right before it got dark. The fall moon and the fall trees caught my eye and the new equipment was perfect for G and E.

2. Evie's new face!  This picture was taken at the end of school on Friday--the day she lost her front top tooth. She also lost a bump on her face this week, and we are all pleased with how cute her new face is.

3.  After teaching my aqua classes in a more laid back style, I headed to the pool at the high school and watched the 5 boats made by the AP Physics 2 boys compete. They had to float for 30 seconds, then paddle to the other side and back. Wyatt's skiff took third. It was so much fun!

4. I started reading Come Follow Me with G and E at breakfast this week because they felt like they weren't really doing it. We talked about hearing the gospel (yeast) and mixing it with the faith of a soft heart (honey).  It does so much more than just hearing it  and barely letting it in your life.

5. I took a bunch of naps. I went on a walk with my friend Linda Yarlagada, which was wonderful and injected joy into my day and spared me the energy cost of going to High Fitness. I went to two public affairs meetings where we talked mostly about #Lighttheworld and had a religious freedom specialist who was in our ward in Ann Arbor and is now a research fellow at Stanford teach us about religious freedom and the groundwork for the case and laws the church are supporting. I took Griff and Eve to a fun conservation day in the woods that had a really fun nature treasure hunt.  I skipped out on two choir practices. And we had a new family over for dinner. You just don't know the people you see at church unless you take the time to talk to them. The dad of this family has neurofibromatosis, which produces tumors under the skin and in the nervous system. He had a tumor that wrapped around his spinal cord and broke his neck.  The doctors warned he would likely end up paralyzed as they went in to surgically remove the tumor. At the same time, his two year old son had a similar tumor that wrapped around his optic nerve and blinded him at age two. And they are awesome. The son is going to school to be a math teacher and the dad, although disabled, is not paralyzed and does good things like fixing their new house, doing odd jobs and taking in his sister and nephew who need a home and some help.