Sunday, Sunday!

All the big people in our house woke up feeling poorly (as we expected), but Andrew managed to make it to ward council and the rest of us managed to get ready for church on time. We lost a few battles with Phoebe, who ended up wearing her Grogu dress and Alexander's owl sweater, rather than any of her sweet, frilly frocks, but we made it to church early enough for prelude (which is important since Miriam and Andrew are the organists).

Here's Zoë reading a story to Phoebe while I was finishing getting ready to go, myself:

Because Zoë was speaking about her baptism during the primary program, she wore her baptism dress, and asked me to put a fancy braid in her hair (which I obliged). 

She did a great job saying her lines. And Alexander did a great job saying his lines. And Benjamin did such a great job saying his lines that the young men of the ward (all, like, three of them) told Rachel and Miriam that they were going to have Benjamin conduct every single meeting starting in January because he has such a great speaking voice. 

He really does seem to be a natural orator. He sounded confident, spoke clearly and passionately. 

He's a good kid!

The primary had a little post-presentation celebration during the second hour, with a whole bunch of treats to choose from. When the presidency was cleaning up they popped the boxes into the garbage can and Benjamin—whose favourite chore is taking out the trash—hopped out of his seat, pulled the boxes back out of the trash and flattened them (because flat things take so much less room). 

He's going to make a fine young man. It's hard to believe this was his very last primary program. My kids haven't been on the stand for a primary program since...2019. Benjamin was seven. Now he's eleven, going on twelve! 

It's interesting to me that they "let" us sit at home for so long. Our ward is tiny. 

Like, Rachel and Miriam attended a youth fireside this evening, where every ward in the stake was responsible to provide a musical number (sometimes multiple musical numbers) and the girls said that some of the wards' "small group numbers" were bigger than our entire ward youth. We don't have very many youth. And we don't have very many in primary, either. 

I'm still not happy about re-entering society. I think society is suffering from some sort of collective insanity. I'm not okay being in the church building when I know the ventilation system hasn't been updated and the windows are all unable to open. I would feel much better if we could get some fresh air in. I would love for them to buy some heavy duty air filters so that we could clean the air a little better. It's mind-boggling to me that the public isn't crying for clean air...when we understand (more so now than we did in 2019) that clean air is important. 

I mean, we all want clean water...clean food...but we're okay with soupy air? 

Anyway, one reason I was so adamant about staying home was that when I started sending Rachel and Miriam to lessons and activities, their teachers and leaders were asking them to remove their masks, or asking them to rationalize why they were wearing masks, and I thought that was entirely inappropriate. My older girls are pretty good at being hard-nosed (don't I know it?!), but I was worried my little kids would be more likely to acquiesce to authority and remove their masks and...I just...we were so sick with COVID...and people come to church sick all the time.

Like, our Relief Society president was just talking about how she flew to Europe with her brothers, but had to miss out on the last couple of days of their trip because she felt too sick to do anything. And then she flew home, still feeling sick, and then she came to church—but at least had the decency to wear a mask—and was just so very sick. She also had a surgery scheduled and when she went to her pre-op appointment they made her take a COVID test, and lo...it was positive. And she didn't seem to think it was a huge deal (except that she was annoyed that they postponed her surgery). 

Could we encourage sick people to stay home? Just zoom in? (We can't, because we're explicitly told not to share our zoom link and...no one knows what it is unless they have express permission to join, which I think is silly—we should all just be zooming in when we're sick). 

That said, I know we said we went to church feeling miserable this morning. But we also know these aches spreading from our arms are...from the vaccines we just got...and that we're not contagious. We're not coughing. 

Anyway...today a woman came up to me and said how wonderful it was that my kids were there because they add so much to the primary—and they do! They're like 20% of the primary, or something. 

So why have we had radio silence from the primary these last few years. Aside from a couple of cards in the mail for birthdays, and one primary teacher stopping by a couple of times, we've had nothing??

I've reached out with ideas! I would like to be my children's teacher (since I'm teaching them at home anyway), that way we can be in our own private classroom, and then I can monitor their mask use when we meet together. Or, I would like assurance from their teachers that they will actively support my children's use of masks (rather than question and/or belittle). Or, I would like to see some evidence of air quality. Or, you could plan outdoor activities for my children to participate in. Or...

I mean...I sent emails with ideas—many ideas—but I never got any response.

I've learned that many people find ideas (specifically those that challenge the status quo) frightening.

Anyway, it's an end of an era for Benjamin, but I sure he'll make a stellar young man!

We hit another end of an era this evening when I put my sweet one-year-old down for bed. She'll wake up a two-year-old, and that's exciting—she's turning into a big girl!—but I'm going to miss my sweet baby. 

Here's Phoebe asleep in her stroller:

We took her on a little walk this evening after dinner and she fell asleep! I could hardly believe it. She very rarely naps these days, but apparently she was feeling sleepy after dinner. 

And then, of course, she took a long time to fall asleep at bedtime.

Her nap wasn't even that long!