26 March 2024

A mom in our friend group has started the practice of giving experiences to friends at birthday parties instead of toys, and the Brown house is firmly on board with this!  Here is Rosebud taking her friend out for froyo at Sweet Frog  for a birthday gift.

 

22 March 2024

 We attended the youth camp fundraiser at church this evening.  Both Nut Brown and Bobo have worked hard on their assigned parts of it, and they both were really hoping it would go well. There were meal options for dinner, and a talent show.  There were two auctions, one silent, and one with a real live auctioneer! We ended up seated at a table with some fun people (Wagners and the Youngs) and enjoyed the food.  Nut Brown and Bobo performed in the talent show, singing a song from Hamilton together with another young man.  (They were awesome.)  The photo is from Nut Brown "having breakfast" with someone else's arms managing the food.

Rosebud and I had a great time with the silent auction, bidding and then re-bidding.  We won some voice lessons for Rosebud, among other things.  The live auction with the auctioneer was so much fun!  Nut Brown's offer of four hours of hard work was purchased for more than $100!  Bobo had volunteered to bring in a dessert to be auctioned.  Rose Pink ended up making it for him, and I outbid everybody to buy it in the end.  Overall, it was a very fun evening!

21 March 2024

 

Monday night we went out to Golden Corral for dinner, which is one of our favorite places to eat. Why? Because although the food is mediocre, there is a large variety so everyone can find something they like and therefore dinner is incredibly low stress.  I also hypothesize that the fact that getting up in the middle of dinner to walk around is expected is another reason that our ADHD family likes eating there so much. The wall behind them in this photo says, "Help yourself to happiness" and that is certainly how we feel when we eat there. Very relaxed and we enjoy each other so much.

The last time Rose Pink ate at a Golden Corral was prior to taking a food safety class. Knowing what she knows now, she just couldn't bring herself to eat the hot dishes. We all commiserated, and a few minutes later Nut Brown came back to the table and told her that he had just seen them set out a new dish of fried fish so she could be certain of how long the food had been out. She happily got up to get some. Nut Brown is so compassionate.

On the way home, Nut Brown initiated singing in the car. They sang songs from Hamilton and Queen and Wicked. It was so much fun to listen to how wonderful my family is together.

20 March 2024

Bobo: I have so many pencils on the bottom of my lockers. I keep forgetting my pencil case.

Rose Pink: Why don't you send them to Pencil-vania? That's where they belong!

Bobo: If you lose something, the first thing to do is clean out your locker.

Nut Brown: No, first you should pray.  I find your lack of faith disturbing.

15 March 2024

 

More artwork from Rosebud. The black stencils are rain clouds. I asked her about the hills at the bottom, and she said, "No, Mom, those are trees!" 

14 March 2024

 Pi Day! Pizza and pie for dinner!

We also got a new trampoline set up in the backyard. There was much jumping and squealing from all four of them as soon as it was safe to get on 

6 March 2024

 

5 March 2024

Bobo, making his angry face at me.  I told him that even when he's angry he's smiling!  One of the things I love about him is how easy it is to make him laugh and cheer him up when he's upset.  And he has such a charming smile!

 

4 March 2024

 Today was a lovely day. During the last several testimony meetings at church, Nut Brown has written out his testimony on one of our small white boards before getting up to share it.  Today while he was doing that he also invited Bobo to do it, and then coaxed him into coming up with him to share it! He said that he would feel less nervous if Bobo came with him.  Mr. Brown and I watched his tender mentoring with amazement, and we were touched by the testimony each of them shared. Nut Brown talked about his opportunity to baptize his little sister, and Bobo opened with a metaphor - that he was like the Holy Ghost because he was there to support his brother - and then shared his testimony that we are never alone because the Holy Ghost can always be with us. Mr. Brown also shared his testimony about how our wretchedness does not keep us from Jesus, and makes God's salvation of us more glorious. 

After church, I sat outside in the sunshine for most of the afternoon. Both Mr. Brown and Rosebud told me how glad they were to see me outside again. Spring is coming, and I am even thinking about planting something!

Rose Pink came home from church with papers to be completed for her missionary application (yay!) and she took Bobo and Rosebud to a state park to hike along a shallow river. She is such a a good big sister to them.  They came home wet and muddy, which Rose Pink did not foresee, but I was not surprised.

Tonight we were invited over for games to the Wines' house as well, and Nut Brown and Mr. Brown and I went. We had a good time! And Mr. Brown got to give some counsel to their son with the same name and the same ADHD. It was such a lovely restful Sunday. 

3 March 2024

 A lot of nights at our house are either really busy so we're all in a hurry or involve a lot of us on individual screens not really interacting with each other. But a few nights ago we had an evening where everyone was happily occupied and busy and there was a cheerful spirit in the house. 

Bobo and Rosebud were playing War.

Rosebud was working on a baby quilt for a friend.

Nut Brown and Mr. Brown were having a D&D conversation.

1 March 2024

 A note from Nut Brown's seminary teacher:  "I was really proud of your boys in seminary today.  I asked them "In your reading today, what titles of Jesus Christ have you see?" and all of them burst out spontaneously with "Wonderful! Counselor!" and sang the rest of the chorus from the Messiah together.  You are obviously raising them right."