1/31/18 Super Blue Blood Lunar Eclipse

Last night we learned that there would be a celestial event that has not happened since 1866, a year after the Civil War ended. The kids came home with information from school. All we had to do is wake up at 5:30 AM and go outside.

Our meager phone cameras were not up to capturing the spectacle of it.

We asked Papa if we could borrow his camera. The pictures there turned out better. I'll have to update this post when I can get them.

This morning we continued our new goal of going for a walk before the bus comes. Peter loves being outside.

I love TJ's smile.

Joseph and Heidi get streched out for our walk.

Peter loves having his picture taken.

A highlight of the day for me today was taking Sarah and Joseph with me to do the big monthly grocery shopping trip. I tried doing this by myself once and it was not a good idea. By the end we had two carts full of food. With Joseph and Sarah's help we had all the food on our list and we were back home in time for family prayer. I am grateful for such big helpers.

1/30/18 A Walk In the Park

This morning Heidi and I woke up early and did some planning. I wanted to exercise after the boys went to school. Heidi suggested that if the boys got ready early enough we could all go on a walk together. TJ and Joseph loved the idea and got ready in record time.

In the above shot Joseph is showing us the broken toy raquet he found. He says it's a picture frame.

TJ demonstrated his practical knowledge of centrepital force. When he pulls his arms in he goes fast. When he stretches out he goes slow.

Heidi knows a mom in the ward who just had a baby. She invited the two older kids to come over and play with Peter so that the mom could have a break.

This afternoon the cub scouts had Stake Softball. For some, it seemed like it was their first time playing. Many runs were scored and the boys had a great time.

Today I bought a device that acts as a remote trigger for the camera on my phone. Rebecca was happy to help me try it out.

1/29/18 FHE Lesson on Cleaning Up

     Today was a pretty normal Monday. I went to my usual Monday meeting with Sal and Ange. The kids all went to school. One fun spot was when Sharon and Alex came to visit. Peter gets pretty lonely and he LOVES playing with Alex.
     During our weekly Family Council we asked the kids if there were any issues that they wanted us to go over as part of a Family Home Evening Lesson. David said that we should talk about doing a better job of tiddying up. Multiple other children chimed in agreeing that this is something that we need to work on. Heidi and I decided that this sounded like a good topic. Then, on Monday afternoon we started to be concerned about how we were going to make this into an uplifting and productive meeting. Heidi and I met together and discussed ideas. Then she had to go be a Mom and put out homework fires with the kids. After she left I remembered one of my business books from MBA school and felt like I should dust it off and review some of the ideas it has. The book is called "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything". It's a little pretentious sounding but it was one of my favorites back in school. The basic idea is that we should look beyond simple rewards and punishments when we are trying to change entrenched behavior.

The kids had some great ideas. FHE went better than expected. Hopefully we'll be able to put some of these ideas into practice and begin having a cleaner home.

1/28/18 Self Reliance: Personal Finance

      Tonight was the first meeting of our Personal Finance Self Reliance group. It is a good group, with some kind and supportive people in it. It is going to take some time for me to get used to being the facilitator. It's a tricky balance learning how to keep the discussion on time without making anyone feel unloved. I think that it is going to be a great class.

1/27/18 Cleanin'. Mowin', Keep on Goin'

This morning it was our family's turn to help clean the church. There were plenty of helpers and the work went by quickly. David and Rebecca merrily clean Bishop's office.

Becca B came along and helped run the vacuum cleaner.

Next, we headed out to Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's to take care of the lawn. Rebecca and David took turns spraying for weeds.

Heidi is always an example of a hard worker.

Rebecca said this was her first time running a leaf blower. 

In the afternoon Heidi and I delivered a new mic clip to the Stake Center to replace one that had broken. We also picked up some manuals for our Self Reliance class tomorrow.

Today, Heidi officially mastered solving a Rubik's Cube without any assistance. She is a smart cookie. Sarah says she wants to be the next one to learn.

1/26/18 Family Time

This morning Heidi and I went to the Temple. We each did an endowment session for one of our ancestors. I took Albert Bada and Heidi did Mary "Polly" Butler. Now they are each ready to be sealed to their spouse.

Along the way home, Heidi spotted a nice looking wheelchair at a yard sale. It turned out to be a good fit for Gram. In this same shot David is helping Gram with her bill payer service. He is becoming quite the tech helper.

Later on, David helped again. This time his expertise was needed in LEGO construction. Becca B and Papa helped with sorting blocks while David built.

Here is the finished product complete with a happy Becca B.

I wanted to spend some one on one time with the kids. Sarah thought that tetherball sounded like fun. She nearly took me out of commission a couple of times. She and Rebecca Noelani took turns beating me. They were both gracious winners.

Later on, I helped Rebecca practice solving a Rubik's cube. This picture shows her first cube solved without any help or instructions. She later solved it another 3 or 4 times. While she was practicing one of my tasks was to keep Peter from jumping on her. He was in a wrastling kind of mood. I'm glad neither of us got hurt. He leaps first and asks questions later. Today ended up being a great day for family time.

1/25/18 A Day Out

This morning Heidi and Peter and I headed out to Humanitarian. Along the way, we stopped at Heather and Doug's to pick up a couple of oranges. Heidi also checked on the pool.

After Humanitarian, we picked up some fruit. We got a call from Rosemarie Gunnell that her mother needed some tech help. It was Peter's first time visiting Sister Rigg's house and he had a blast. Sister Gunnell and Sister Riggs gave him food and let him play with toys. He happily played in the other room while Heidi and I worked. It was really kind of amazing. We think that Heavenly Father was watching out for Sister Riggs because not only was Peter miraculously happy but her tech issue just sort of dissolved. Things appeared to be set up right but still weren't working. We called tech support and the lady had us do something that we had already done and this time it worked. We also felt that Heavenly Father was watching out for us because this gave us something useful to do while we waited for a meeting. Above, you see the circles that Peter played with at Sister Rigg's house. They were so kind that they ended up giving us the circles, an old laptop and paying us for our time. They are overly generous. I felt to accept the generosity because it was a blessing for Sister Riggs to be able to serve us and for us to be able to serve her. We were both able to do things that the other couldn't do for themselves.

1/24/18 Temple Make Up Trip

Last week Friday, mostly due to the planned power outage, we missed our regular trip to the Temple. Today was my chance to make it up. It was a busy day so I did Initiatory. 

Afterwards, I had a multi-hour meeting over at one of our clients. It was a good meeting where we answered a lot of questions that have been lingering.

Peter had a happy day today. He's been loving this marble contraption building set.

1/23/18 Plumbing Issues and the Park

This morning Heidi and Peter and I headed over to 430 because there was a rumor that the toilet might need to have the flap replace. As it turns out the toilet was fine but there are some leaky pipes under the bathroom. Sadly, when we got back home we realized that the upstairs toilet needs a new flap. Oh well, at least we know and can do something about it.

This afternoon Heidi and I took Peter to the park down the street. He takes after his father in that being outside cheers him up.

This evening we put David in charge of his siblings and Heidi and I went to Pack Meeting. Heidi was in charge of teaching an internet safety class. I love to watch her happy service.

1/22/18 Puzzles

This picture was taken yesterday. David officially knows how to solve a Rubik's cube. He's been helping teach Rebecca and his Mom.

Today Becca B wanted some help putting together a LEGO-like set that features the BYU logo. It was a gift from the Reynolds clan. They figured that B would like it since she is into puzzles. They did not finish it in one setting but perhaps will resume building at a future time. The pieces are very little.

1/21/18 Stake Conference and Self Reliance

This morning Heidi dropped me off again at the Inter-Stake Center. Things went pretty smoothly since we had set up most things yesterday. We did run into some audio related snags. Kevin Rowse, the person who had been solving those challenges has moved. It took some effort to learn how to solve the issues but we did resolve most of them.

Heidi brought the rest of the family, plus Becca B at around 9 am. Gram was still not feeling well and Papa stayed to help her. David sang in the Youth Choir. They sounded great. He even got to be on camera briefly.

After Stake Conference, we swung by the house so that I could grab a quick bite to eat. Then it was off to the Stake Center. I helped set up for the two self-reliance meetings. The first was in Spanish and the second was in English. I got to meet my new group members. This is going to be fun. Two of the people in our group are a couple that Heidi works with in Cub Scouts.

This evening we did some planning. We even managed to go over the family blog with the kids. David has officially learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube. We'll have to have a race now. We ended the day with the usual family scripture reading. It was a good day.

1/20/18 New Hairdos, Renewed Glasses and Stake Conference

Today I spent 14 hours at Stake Conference. Heidi was not one to remain idle. She gave the kids haircuts. Here is Sarah's new do. She looks cute as ever.

Rebecca chose to keep her hair long and only got a trim. She is looking older by the day.

Later on, Heidi and Rebecca went to Walmart. The kind people there helped them fix Rebecca's broken (new) pair of glasses even though we hadn't bought them there. Next time we need a pair I think we know where to start looking.

While all this was going on I spent the early part of the day at the Inter-Stake Center getting set up there. Then, around 11 Heidi picked me up, fed me a sandwich and dropped me at our regular stake center to prepare for the Leadership and Adult sessions. I started the day in my church clothes anticipating that I might not be going home. There may have been a half hour window that I could have but I was glad I was prepared to spend the day. It was a busy one but I hope that any tech issues were disguised enough that they did not distract from the Spirit of the meetings.

At one of the meetings Elder Tilleman suggested that we compare how we feel when we watch General Conference to how we feel when watching other media. The world wants to distract us from what is important. What we need to focus on is learning to love others in the way that the Savior does. If we can do that we will be on the right track.

1/19/18 Peter at the Park

Peter loves the outdoors. Even when he is Very Upset, being outside can usually cheer him right up. This afternoon he requested a trip to the park. We'd had a productive work morning so I acquiesced. 

He's loving the Superman shirt with the cape that he got for Christmas.

He wanted me to spin him around and around so that he could watch the cape fly out.

A couple of other fun things today included playing ping pong with David and Heidi vs me and Peter. Heidi and David won but we gave it our best shot. David left for a cold weather campout with the scouts this afternoon. This will be the last campout that he needs to earn his final merit badge before he can become an Eagle Scout. We are proud of all the hard work he has put it. Also fun this evening was watching an episode of the show Due South with Gram in Papa's living room.

1/18/18 Humanitarian and Closing the Office

This morning Heidi went to Humanitarian. Peter loved going to a place where he could run around. I tagged along and tried to get some work done on my laptop. Afterwards, we went over to the Empire Offices. Michael no longer feels that he needs that space to work so we are closing it down. I suspect that we will need an office again in the future, but for now, we are letting it go.

Next up we did some mid-month grocery shopping. We were getting low on fruit and some other things. 

This afternoon Joseph came to my and Heidi's room and let me help him with his homework. He can get it done quickly when he feels motivated. After we got the kids to bed I did some additional work for a client. It was keeping me awake so I went ahead and finished it. It felt good to have it out of the way.

1/17/18 Cub Scouts and a Scuffed Knee

This morning Sarah still had a fever that Heidi noticed last night. She stayed home and made Peter very happy. This allowed Heidi and I to get some much-needed work done. I also managed to renew my Youth Protection training for scouts. This afternoon Heidi and I went to Cub Scouts. The boys are a lot of fun and high energy. We're still working on teaching them to channel that energy. Heidi had them each draw a patch for a contest for the upcoming Mesa District Pinewood Derby. This only held their attention for so long. For a more active activity, we played ultimate frisbee in the Cultural Hall. Since this is Cub Scouts, we need to have a purpose with our fun. We had the boys work on a Duty to God requirement. When they got the frisbee, before they could throw it, they needed to say something they can do to practice their faith. It was loads of fun and was hopefully educational. I learned that I am too old and heavy to slide for the frisbee. I put a hole in my pants and my knee. Luckily no real bleeding just felt pretty silly. I'm glad that the boys seemed to have a good time.

1/16/18 Timing and Training

     This morning Heidi helped out by taking apart a couple of sticky doorknobs and adding graphite. Peter was feeling extremely fussy so I took him for a walk down to the park. He later made my day by spontaneously telling his mother "Daddy cheered me up at the park".
     I've started a little experiment. We already track our work time so that we know how to properly bill our clients. I decided that for a time I wanted to measure my non-work time and see if any patterns emerged. The first thing that I noticed is that when I consciously think about what I am doing in order to write it down I am more particular about what I choose to do. I don't wish to waste time but sometimes I do without thinking about it. The other thing that I noticed about myself is that sometimes I hit a slow patch during a day where it becomes hard to get anything done. I tend to feel discouraged by this. Today, however, because I have a more careful record I can see that I did still do some important things.
     This evening I went over to the Stake Center for a training on how to be a facilitator for the Self-Reliance group that I will be leading soon. They talked at length about how this is different than being the teacher. I am simply meant to keep the conversation flowing and on schedule. My role is to guide the creation of a safe environment for group members to work together. It sounds very interesting. I look forward to getting started.

1/15/18 Fire Drill and Paddington 2

This morning, first thing David and I went out to help put up flags in the neighborhood. We always include Great Grandpa Connelly's flag when we do the others.

A while ago one of us had the idea to have a fire drill for Family Home Evening. In the process of preparing, we realized that we were not as prepared as we wanted to be. Today we moved a desk and a bunk bed that were blocking two of our potential escape routes. Above is TJ, testing out the ladder and escape grates. One of our goals was for the kids to become comfortable knowing how the window ladders work so they could use them in an emergency if they had to.

After the work of the morning, Papa took us to see Paddington 2. I am pleased to report that it is far better than the original. Hugh Grant does a fine turn as the villain, this was a weak spot in the first film. The story is warm and charming all about the theme that "if we will be polite all will be right". 

I'm a lucky Dad to get hugs from my six kids.

Here is my attempt at a selfie with all of us. It has been sunny by midday here in Arizona. Gram, Papa, and Becca B also joined us for our official FHE fire drill. During the day they cleared the emergency door in their room. We learned that taking Gram that way faces a couple of hurdles. Better to learn that now than during an emergency. Now we can face them with the benefit of some time.

1/14/18 2 Weeks Into a New Year

It's hard to believe that it's already been two weeks since the start of the new year. The kids are getting back into the swing of school. Tonight we had our first Family Counsel in a few weeks. When we talked about our coming turn to help clean the church more than one child said "Yay!" Our kids have developed a love of service. It made Heidi and I smile.

After dinner, Grammie and Grandpa Mangum visited via Skype. It was fun to see the kids all try to cram together to fit into the view of the camera.

This evening the Primary recognized the children who memorized the 12 Articles of Faith. Rebecca, Sarah, and TJ all accomplished this feat. Then they did something even better. They all decided to share the treat they had worked so hard to earn with their siblings. I'd love to say that they were all happy with the gift they were given. David and Joseph were happy and I'm sure said so. Peter decided to cry that there was not more to be had. Still, I am proud that the kids decided to share. I think that treats taste better when you share them.