General Conference

General Conference was this weekend, and for the first time as a mother, I tried to not let it sneak up on me unprepared.  I have long since shifted from the bored child who thinks conference will never end to the thirsting parent who longs for enough peace and quiet around the house to actually hear the words of the prophet.  Here are some of the things I did in an attempt to keep the kids happy for the 4 hours of conference we enjoyed today.

We pitched our tent toward the prophet, just like King Benjamin's people in the Book of Mormon.

We had treats to eat whenever we heard one of our chosen key words.

We had activity books, prophet matching cards, an apostle wheel, and small crafts to get through the day.   This one pictured is an egg carton with numbers 1-12 written in each spot.  You then add the right number of beans, noodles, rocks, etc. to each spot.  Leah, whose favorite pastime lately is counting to 100 and beyond, thought this was great.

All in all, I think it was a success.  Of course, by the end of the day the house was trashed, the kids were a sugary mess (especially thanks to the maple syrup incident) and I was exhausted.  But one of my favorite quotes from conference came from Elder Richard J. Maynes in the Saturday afternoon session. 

He said, "Our children might not remember everything about the family home evening lesson later in the week, but they would remember that we held it.  They would probably not remember the exact words of the scriptures or the prayers, but they would remember that we did read scriptures, and we did have prayer.  There is great power and protection for us and our children in establishing celestial traditions in the home."

So, for today, I can feel good knowing that my children will remember that we heard the voice of our prophet in our home today.  And that is enough for now.