Braindump and Catching up

So, since I last blogged, we had General Conference.
I'm not going to blog all of my notes yet ... but, if you're really wanting to know bits that stood out to me, you can browse my Twitter feed  (@llannalee).

My dad's girlfriend had a birthday. Apparently, I was the good (step)daughter and remembered to call on her birthday (Cozi.com calendar FTW -- again!). Bruise, Bucket, and I serenaded the answering machine.
Her other kids and mom called the next day, and the day after. But they all DID call. Phew!

Bruise was selected to be one of the students of the month at their school -- for displaying honesty. The boy is ALL about being fair. And, USUALLY, he's quite truthful. Unless he and Bucket team up and steal food they shouldn't be getting into.

Bucket was rather a punk about it, "Why is HE student of the month and I'm NOT?!?? It's not FAIR that HE'S been it TWICE now and I've only been it ONCE!!"

(Well, I've been alerted that a certain whiny girl has been selected for displaying Self-Reliance ... but don't tell her!)

We went up to OMSI on Friday and got to go to the Mythbusters exhibit. Bruise sat on a chair that Adam Savage designed to capture farts for an episode. There were some fun experiments to do (I can ALMOST pull a tablecloth off without disturbing the plates) and lots of memorabilia from the show to see.

Michael did see about getting tickets for when Neil Gaiman comes to Portland to speak this summer ... sold out. Oh well ... The tickets WERE a little pricey, BUT they covered the book that he'd be speaking about, too.

Besides Conference, we didn't do a whole ton of stuff.
I baked cinnamon rolls ... took some to some neighbors.
We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast on Saturday.
I made Chicken Tikka and a Turmeric-Coconut rice for dinner ... which Bruise and Bucket didn't care for, but Bubbles ate with gusto!
(Bucket thought she'd be clever and put her chicken in the garbage and then claim she was done eating. TROUBLE. She had to eat MORE chicken AND some of the rice. Which she cried through, because --obviously -- I am a mean, mean mother, making my child eat and punishing her for lying.)

By that point, I was just really, really DONE being a parent. I just wanted to go somewhere quiet and cry. Which was even more sad, since I had finally started feeling better, spiritually, due to Conference. And then I felt like a jerk, being tired of my kids.

Oh well.
Doesn't help that I have the angry bees of  PMS buzzing in my brain.

Today, I went to an appointment for Bubbles -- she's healthy and has a healthy iron level. She's just tiny.
Then we went home ... and she ate and took a nap.
Talked to Dad on the phone.
One of my friends from high school (that I hadn't talked to in a long while) called up to wish me a happy (early) birthday. It was a good chat.

Some sad news is that my brother-in-law and his wife's cat (who they got shortly after they got married ... so  M-cat is around 12 or so) has cancer. The vet has given her a week, since there's fluid around her lungs, which makes breathing difficult.
I'm going to take the kids up to give her some loves and to say goodbye.

About this time last year (tomorrow, actually), we had to take Sari-Jasmine, the hedgehog, to be put to sleep. Self-mutilating ... and a huge tumor in her mouth.

After that ... and how Bubbles-fish died on Valentine's Day (and Iris II not long after), I'm starting to think that I'm cursed when it comes to animals and holidays/birthdays (Gingi-cat went on Mom and my stepdad's anniversary. Diana-cat right before Christmas Eve ... but those were a few years ago).

I've started using the Duolingo website/app/program/whatever. Some of my friends are using it ... so, who am I to avoid an educational bandwagon?
I'm refreshing my German (and Bruise and Bucket like to watch ... they're picking up bits of it, too!) and learning Spanish.
I can't have the kids around when I do the Spanish. Bucket, ever helpful, GIVES me the answers ... whether I want her to or not (I don't. Because I need to learn this for myself).

But I'm starting to learn Spanish a bit. I REALLY need to learn/memorize the rules of Spanish conjugation. (German, I've got that. But I don't really know the pronouns and verb forms at all in Spanish.)

This site does a different approach to teaching a foreign language than my German classes did. In class, we'd go through the alphabet, numbers, some vocabulary, the rules of grammar ... some common phrases ... then we started really getting into it.

With this program, I feel more like I've been tossed into a pool and I only know how to doggy paddle. It's a challenge. But I'm going to do it. Because I should know Spanish. There are enough Spanish-speakers around that I need to learn it. And, well, it'd be nice to learn it well enough to volunteer in BOTH kids' classes (instead of just the English-speaking class ... since it's a dual-immersion program at school).

So ... yeah.

Also, how did I never know about this before!?!? There's a page on Facebook that gives you a Book of Mormon reading assignment (all typed out, even) every day (Book of Mormon Daily). They even have it divided up so that, if you read every day, you'll get through the entire book in a year.

Today's reading was Mosiah 3:19 -4:3 ... and, as I read it, some things occured to me (and since I don't have a scripture journal, nor have I yet started a blog to do that, I'm putting it here):

• Mosiah 3:19-20 ... These concepts were covered quite a bit in General Conference.
  The natural man is an enemy to God ... We need to be like a child (meek, submissive, teachable, willing to let the will of our Heavenly Father guide us, instead of trying to be in charge.)
  The gospel will be available to all nations, all people.
• Mosiah 3:24-27 ... I think that it's in C.S. Lewis's "Great Divorce" where it's discussed that if we make a habit of sinning instead of being saints, that we won't feel comfortable/right/happy to be in God's presence.
  This goes even further -- if we sin and choose not to repent, we disregard the Atonement of Christ. And, therefore, without His mercy to fulfill the demands of justice, we will suffer the effects and consequences of all our sins. Hell isn't a place someone sends us ... it is a place of our own making. If we are humble, we will repent ... we will forsake pride and accept the gift that Christ has offered us. Then we will be able to be cleansed from our sins and joyfully enter the presence of our loving Heavenly Father.
• Mosiah 4:1-3 ... Well, it's fitting to be in these verses, since King Benjamin's sermon to his people is very much like our modern-day General Conference. And his people, at first, felt terrible, due to the recollections they had of their sins ... but, then, they were able to repent and feel joy.
  In fact, having "peace of conscience" was mentioned in one of the Conference talks.

So, yeah, there's my insights.
Now it's time to get back to being a mom again.