Bickmore Buzz Jan. 28, 2018

By Lesley - January 28, 2018

Hey family!

This week was awesome! I got to sub 4 days and on my day off I met with my friend to discuss upcoming PTO stuff. Her husband is getting deployed for six months. I just don't know how these military parents do it. That would be so hard. Our schools have counseling groups for kids whose parents are in deployment.

Isaac went to a MMEA (Missouri Music Educators Association) Conference this week. He left Wednesday and came home Saturday. He did a poster session where he displayed a poster about his dissertation. Copies of his dissertation arrived in the mail. I started reading his novella today. I'm so proud of Isaac and all the work and research he accomplished the past 4 years. If you ever want to read his dissertation or just the novella, let us know! We're trying to figure out how to publish it because several people have expressed interest in reading it.

The weather was amazing this weekend. The boys and I played baseball on the driveway. Yesterday Isaac cleared out some weeds while William played nerf gun war with the neighbors behind us. We rode our bikes, went on walks, it was wonderful.

We cancelled swim team for William. He didn't care for it and for the amount of money we were paying, the coaches were not very engaged. Van expressed interest in the junior community choir. Ahh! It's overwhelming sometimes trying to get your kids signed up for things--choices, money, time, commitment, etc. What a nice problem to have though! Our kids are so blessed to even have the opportunity.

This week I've been feeling very grateful for my education. It's been such a blessing for our family.
I'm also grateful Isaac has a job he loves. I try hard to count my blessings everyday. It's so easy to get caught up on what we don't have.

I've also thought a lot about this. As I stand on the playgrounds during recess duty and see the sea of white kids, I long for the melting pot that Tempe was. I get really disheartened about the latest immigration policies "making America white again." I read the church's statement on immigration , specifically regarding the DACA issue tonight and couldn't have said it better myself.

I've also been thinking a lot about this article regarding Mormonism and the recent announcement of our new prophet. It talked about issues the church leaders are faced with. I especially loved this statement:

So what will hold us together? In recent years, the central church leadership heavily emphasized “family.” But strengthening the family in certain parts of North America entails a different set of problems and solutions from strengthening the family in, say, parts of Africa or the Pacific. One set of pro-family prescriptions does not fit all.

I hope [LDS leaders] turn the emphasis to Jesus Christ, the primary object of our faith and the only truly reliable common denominator for a global church.

I hope so too!

Overheard at our house:

Van hates to be corrected. I've been telling him, "Be a humble learner, not a difficult learner." There's a name in a book he's reading, "Phoenixhouse." He insists on reading it "Pixar House." Tonight, before he read to me, he asked, "Can I just read the book the way I want?"
Van has a new name for each of us. I'm his "BMF"(Best Mom Forever). Will is his "BBF" (Best brother forever) and Isaac is his "BDF" (Best dad forever).
Last night, our friends Edith and Maxwell were over. Whenever William would say something funny, Edie would start giggling. Will would continue his jokes, getting louder and sillier and she kept laughing. I saw a small glimpse into the future of what things are going to be like when Will enters middle school.