Quick September updates. . .

. . . Because the month is over tomorrow! Yikes, time flies way too fast! Sabrina has been in Kindergarten for a month now and is loving it! It took her a couple of weeks to make a friend, but now she and Brooke play together every recess. And sometimes they play with additional friends too. Brooke is a fraternal twin (brother, Peter) and we're trying to set up a play date with the whole clan. Sabrina is a smart little whipper-snapper. She is reading up a storm, I have a hard time trying to keep up with her voracious appetite for books.

Moira is enjoying all the private play time she gets with Sabrina in school. She goes into her room and plays quietly for an hour or so until Brayden decides to stage a hostile invasion because he's bored. Then all hell breaks loose upstairs and the neutral country (mom) has to come in to settle differences and convince General Brayden that he really can survive without taking Moira's dollies/Pet Shop animals/Cars/etc.

Moira and Sabrina are both enrolled in dance classes and love it! It's a non-competitive combination class. Sabrina is in the Kindergarten class and Moira is in Pre-School level. They spend time learning tap, ballet, and tumbling in each class. I like it because it's fun and good for their social development. I asked Sabrina after the first class how she liked it and she responded that she'd rather take soccer. So I told her to do dance for a year and next year we can enroll her in soccer classes if she'd prefer.

Brayden is still solidly in the terrible two's which aren't so terrible. I can deal with the destructo tendencies and the random fit-throwing as long as I get moments of joy from the sweet, captivating, hilarious little boy that he is. He is a crafty guy and has the fastest reflexes for grabbing candy or treats of any kid I've had. But he is loving and generous when you reason with him. I decorated my house for Halloween a couple of weeks ago and I have these glass block jack-o-lanterns with lights inside them. Every morning Brayden runs around the house trying to plug each one in (with help of course). He LOVES them. I can hardly wait to see his reaction to Christmas.

Adam and I have been doing a lot of canning over the past month, trying to preserve everything. We have been given A LOT of food for free, some we grew, and some we bought for a steal. We have used up nearly all of the jars that we have. My neighbor just offered me the rest of her apples to make applesauce or pie filling with. I think I might have to go buy more quarts to put them up. What a blessing. Every year the bounty gets bigger and bigger. We have had so many tomatoes this year that I've given away about 6 bushels of tomatoes and I still have TONS out there. This is after I've done two batches of salsa, a batch of spaghetti sauce, and a batch of stewed tomatoes. I think I'll try to put the rest up as stewed tomatoes. We'll see if I can give any more away. So far this year we've put up the above plus carrots, peaches, pears, strawberry jam, and beets. We still have to dig up our row of potatoes and I think I'm going to can them rather than cold storage store them. They don't last longer than 6 months in cold storage. So if you want to know what I've been doing with my spare time: there you have it.

Adam and I have decided that we need to start shopping in earnest for a mini-van. We've been saving money like maniacs trying to outrun the train wreck that is potentially our 20 year old Toyota Camry with 320,000 miles on it. It passed safety and inspection at the end of August by the skin of it's grille. But that evening it started breaking apart on us. This is how we know that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. We had been fasting and praying that the Camry would pass inspections so we could register it for one more year while we got our finances in order to buy a minivan. Just one more year! Please!!! Adam took it to the shop in the morning, it passed, he drove home from work that night and the car wouldn't shut off when you turned the key. I drove the car to work and had to disconnect the battery when I got there. The next day it worked fine and I took the car again and left the lights on by accident and the battery died. Normally the car has an automatic shut-off sensor that turns off the lights but because the sensor was leaving the interior lights on after the door was shut, Adam disconnected it so now it doesn't shut the headlights off. (Makes sense?) Needless to say I was out in West Salt Lake at 11:30 p.m. with a dead battery. I got somebody to help me jump the car and then drove home. Every couple of weeks something else goes wrong with it and we figure the Lord gave us one more year with this car but that doesn't mean the car is going to last one more year. So, we are shopping for a minivan. We've decided on what car we're going to buy and what price range is reasonable and now we're just watching the ads waiting for the perfect opportunity. Fortunately it's a buyers market for the auto industry, along with nearly every other sector of the economy.

In preparation for General Conference this week I have been inspired by one of my Visiting Teachees to start doing morning devotionals with my family. We hold it in the girls bedroom and read a story out of one of their Scripture Story books (from the Distribution Center) and then have family prayer. They wanted to start with the Old Testament so we're working our way through that. Adam figured if we hold this devo 6 days a week it will take us two months to go through the O.T. and then we can start on the New Testament. I figure that we can get through most of the standard works in one year. They don't make a Pearl of Great Price version so we don't count that. It has actually been very nice to spend this time together as a family. It makes getting organized in the morning a little more hairy but I think the sacrifice is worth it.