Thoughts on General Conference

We enjoyed General Conference last weekend. I love staying home, cooking a good breakfast, and staying in my pajamas. Entertaining the children has always been a challenge, but since we live in Utah we are fortunate to be in our own home and not disturbing anyone else. We have tried several things over the years to entertain the kids. We started out with coloring books and puzzles when the girls were small. That lasted about 20 minutes of the 4 hours. Then we tried Conference Squares aka Bingo. It worked really well and the girls had a great time earning prizes when they got bingo. But it progressively get more rowdy and not a reverent activity. There was fighting and complaining if one person got bingo and the others missed. Now that Devin has joined our family we have had to put Bingo away. He is now 18 months and into everything. We could not have bingo cards with markers on them on the floor or he would destroy everything. The girls are getting older. Riley is 11, almost 12, Mariah is 10, Emily 7. I think they are old enough to actually listen to Conference and learn something and feel the spirit. So this year we tried something new. No coloring (Devin would be an all too willing participant). They were given a notebook and an activity book (mostly for Emily so she could do mazes and puzzles). I still had a bowl full of prizes that they could earn. They earned the prizes by listening. During each talk they wrote down the speaker's name (that turned out to be a hardship sometimes) and what they spoke about. They could write down the theme of the talk, something they liked about it, or in Emily's case she could draw a picture. We really enjoyed Pres. Monson's talk. It is just what our family needed. Justin and I have talked about the issue of gratitude many times. We want to give our children all we can and make life good for them, but at the same time we want to teach them not to take things for granted. Children are often ungrateful for their blessings, because as parents you never want your children to lack anything or have hardships. It was a great thing for us to focus on as a family and try to be more grateful for all that we have. We have talked to the kids about being grateful for what we have and not complaining or whining about things we do not have. That was the highlight of Conference for me. As is so common with children we learned something unexpected as well. One of the General Authorities told a story about a cow who kept breaking through a fence to eat food on the other side (you may remember this story). It was eating food that was harmful to it and the fence was there for the cow's protection. In the story the cow got through the fence and ate the food and ended up dying. This man was so emtional about this cow and upset at the choice it made and he quite enthusicatly said "You stupid cow!" In all my days listening to Conference I have never heard this phrase, nor will I ever hear it again. Of course the kids thought it was hilarious! Emily later showed us what she had learned from this man's talk. Here it is: That was an unexpected lesson from General Conference and now one of my kids' favorite quotes. Isn't life so much more exciting and fun with children?