General Conference Adventures

Conference weekend is the best!  Joyce and Sage and I went to Spotlight on Wednesday and bought a bunch of fun sewing supplies to expand the possibilities in the mending box.  During conference, I mended.  The girls did a little mending but spent more time doing the fun sewing.

Beebes made a tooth pillow (not shown) and this sequinned letter "J".  

Sage made a bathrobe for her dog.  This project is telling; Sage has lately taken to wearing her bathrobe through the morning.  Since Sage wakes up late, and likes to take it slowly, her mornings (and her bathrobe) can last quite a long time, especially on the weekends.  

Other memorable Conference moments....

All the kids got a pack of Bertie Bott's beans.  They might be old news other places in the world, but they are a novelty in NZ.  I bought them in London, actually.  Joyce and Mercy tricked Mike by giving him a vomit-flavored bean which he thought was peach.  There was a lot of spitting out and groaning when the packages got opened in the middle of the Sunday afternoon session.  

Immediately after Sunday afternoon session, we set off on a 90-minute drive through Taranaki farmlands to have dinner with the Swansons in Patea.

I've never driven so far for a dinner appointment before.  We decided to accept the Swanson's invitation based on the recommendation of the last two sets of senior missionaries who served in the Hawera branch (Taylors and Cochrans).  Both of these couples told us that eating with the Swansons was one of their most memorable experiences in New Zealand.  Based on these strong recommendations, we decided to give it a go.



 .
Swansons have 8 kids and live in a hotel that is over a century old.  They bought the hotel fully furnished. 
 
The noise level, the industrial kitchen where the kids cook most of the meals, the "damns" and "dammits" (not considered swear words in NZ), the accounts of ghosts in the hotel halls and old stable grounds, the potion-master inventory, the toddler's survival skills, the food, the good will, the dinner debate about the older boys' future careers, the district matchmaking (Swansons are already matchmaking for their oldest sons, ages 18 and 16.  Noah, the Swansons think that your best possibilities are Tiffany or one of the twins from Waitara, especially since you only have a couple of months between mission and uni) . . . . dinner with Swansons did NOT disappoint.


After dinner, when the younger Swanson kids invited Joyce and Sage to go play, they both looked at me with wide eyes.  I intervened to suggest that the girls stick with me and go on the 'grand tour 'of the hotel and soap business with the older folks.   Joyce and Sage weren't the only ones in our family who felt awed by the energy level at the Swanson's.  On the way home, Mike said to Mercy, "It seemed like you were pretty quiet."
Mercy laughed and said, "No point in saying anything - no one could hear me."

.

I have even warmer feelings for the Swansons now than I had before this memorable visit.  Thank you, Swanson!
http://www.tigerlillys.co.nz/


Jess, Levi and Aslan stayed with us for a couple of days.  They were here with Oak the previous weekend when Mike and I took the girls to Te Awamutu for a piano competition.

Books from the last few weeks:

Thanks, HollyS.  Such a vivid memoir.

I'll never sing "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise" in Primary quite the same way
again after reading Weber...

Question:  If a capitalist could 'hang on' to the religious underpinnings to his/her reasons for work, to a sense of calling, could the 'iron cage,' the rat race, be avoided?