Music Therapy and R.S. Conference

Saturday I drove down with my kids and a music therapy colleuge to my parents house. We dropped them all off and headed to Primary Children's Hospital for the UAMT conference on Self-care. Devin picked the boys up on his way down to Cedar City for Don and Aliene's speaking assignment before they go to Moscoe Russia! Because our Primary program is really soon and the two conferences on Saturday I decided to stay home with the girls.

I feel so enriched after attending both of these conferences. The music therapy conference we had four different workshops, Dance Therapy, Professional Marketing, Chakra Toning and Quantum Touch, and MARI Assessment. I had fun reconnecting with music therapy friends. Some I have not seen for a long time. I had a great time visiting and catching up at lunch and in between workshops. The title of Self-Care for the music Therapist really fit what I needed. Sometimes we go through life taking care of everyday things, mothering, our jobs, cleaning, church callings, fun activities, but we forget to take the time to do our own personal care. I believe everyone needs time to decompress and reconnect with who we really are. If we don't do this we get burned out and are not effective in serving others. The ones we love the most are neglected. This conference gave us some ideas of things you can do. Some cost lots of money, some are time-consuming, and others are very simple and no-cost.

I personally have committed in doing better to find time to do my spiritual self-care. I would like to be more regular in reading my scriptures. I was reading my journal a little while ago and I saw in several entries a similar goal of reading the scriptures. This is something I have always struggled with. I keep setting goals and time escapes me and I've gone back to my bad habits.

Relief Society General Meeting is always a highlight for me. I especially enjoyed Barbara Thompson's words. She is so genuine and good natured. I'm impressed with her wisdom and great attitude about her purpose in life. I re-commit to relish where I am today. Relish the ages of my children and the fun stages they are in. I do not want to wish for tomorrow. Tomorrow is only built on what we do today. I also want to be a better Visiting Teacher. I felt during the meeting that I could do much better in serving and loving my sisters. Even though I am serving in the Primary right now I want to feel more connected to Relief Society. I will try to put more energy into visiting teaching and work hard to support the activities R.S. has. It has been a great weekend for me. I'm really looking forward to more spiritual feasting next weekend.

Just a side note. Traeden's Primary teacher was called to be the new Y.W. pres in our ward and she told me today that last week in class he asked her thoughtfully, "Does this mean you're fired?" She said "I guess it does." She has been a wonderful teacher for him and we will miss her in Primary.

Buddy Walk

I have a hard time coming up with original titles. I keep thinking maybe I should put the date. Well I'll keep thinking. Yesterday Devin went down to my parents to work on the porch. He said they got all the under part done. Now they just need to put the top part on. (not sure what the terminology is on that) I'll have to take a picture next week when I go down to visit. They also put a stone bridge in that took about eight guys to get into place. I don't think they will be moving that for a long long time! They have some new pools and a river and a beach for the kids to play in. Devin said it is really cool.

The kids and I stayed home to do some yard work, housework, canning, and we played a bit too. We gave our freezer to Utah Power on Saturday as well. It was on the brink of dying so we thought we better get it picked up before it was completely dead. (They only give you money if the freezer still works) Guess what Santa is bringing the Overly family for Christmas?

The pictures below is us at the Buddy Walk for Cache Valley. We have a little boy in our subdivision who has down syndrome so we thought it would be neat to have our family go and support him and his family. The kids had a blast. They had the walk, bounce houses, fishing treasure hunt in saw dust, lunch, and a raffle where you could buy a ticket to win prizes. Traeden and Conrad brought their own money and bought some tickets. Traeden won two prizes and shared with Conrad and Samantha since they didn't win anything. He really can be a nice brother.

We got Abigail's pictures taken professionally yesterday as well. They turned out so cute. As soon as I get them back I'll post some pictures.

I don't watch one of the boys during the day anymore. I'm feeling a little less busy. His grandma is going to be watching him. So I only have one extra from 11:30 am to 3:30. Not bad. I've got a poll on this blog so take a minute to answer the question about your garden this year.

Samantha was not going to stand by those scary guys until our next door neighbor, Christy, took her hand and got her to pose for the picture. These star wars fans are really neat, they go to events like the buddy walk and other charitable events and interact with the kids. Get pictures with them. My boys thought it was so cool!

Samantha loved getting her face painted and even got her finger nails painted.

Boys show off there paintings

There was not a lot of people that came so all my kids could go in and out of the bounce house as much as they wanted. Even Abi loved it!

Have a great week! We love you!

Feeling a bit full

Since school started, I've been racing just to keep up with daily things. I really thought when I sent Traeden and Conrad to school for full day I would have more time. Wow was I wrong. I agreed to watch a neighbor's little boy three days a week while she teaches school. I also am watching another neighbors boy who is in kindergarten. I have him until the other kids come home. It really hasn't been that hard of an adjustment and I really like that when Traeden and Conrad get home from school I can focus on them and their homework. But yes I don't have as much spare time as I would like. I was asked by another neighbor just this week to take her two kids during the day as well and I had to say no. I don't want to run a daycare and that would be just too much. I have a hard time saying no to anyone but I did it.

The kids are loving life. Samantha started dance lessons! She is so cute in her little pink leotard. I like having a little time with Abigail alone. Conrad started orchestra which normally begins in 4th grade. I asked the new orchestra teacher at Thomas Edison if Conrad could try it and see how he does. Well he is playing twice a week with the 5th graders after school. I am really proud of him. Traeden is doing so well in school so far this year. He come home and gets his homework done quickly and without complaint. I'm really hoping it continues. He seems to really like his teacher and his classmates.

I really am doing well and everyday I feel like I am a little more together. It's really hard to coordinate all of the schedules and play taxi driver and then have a clean house. The house right now is suffering especially because this week I canned peaches almost everyday. We got some peaches from Devin's parents and then I bought some from Brigham to get our yearly supply. I love bottled peaches so much more then canned. Our garden is producing tons of tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, and peppers. I am hoping to get all the beans canned this week and then I'll start on the tomatoes. Fall is a really busy time but one of my favorites. The colors have already started changing and it's so beautiful. I decided to do a slideshow since it's been so long since I've done a post. Enjoy.