letters to Beth {conference & luxury applesauce}

dear beth,

today i was in my kitchen.

all day.

it was very fulfilling,

listening to conference 

and cooking in my kitchen.

but now,

i don't want to cook for a few days.

i'm all cooked out.

mostly b/c i'm just plain sick of the dishes.

i'm really no fan of dishes.

some people like them.

laundry i like.

dishes i do not.

sean cleaned up the last of them 

for me tonight,

and it was such a relief.

what a guy!

how do you watch conference in germany?

i was thinking about you today.

about how your mom gave me almost all of my conference traditions.

sitting on your couch,

taking notes in our conference notebooks,

cuddled under blankets.

those were relaxing conference days!

now i cook for my family,

help keep my kids entertained and within earshot of the speaker's voices,

and listen the very best i can.

i love it.

i absolutely love it!

new traditions and ways of enjoying the conference spirit in our home.

it was great, great, great.

chase played with paper dixie cups on the kitchen floor next to me for half an hour,

and then went off to find his cars.

i let max get the markers out for the first time in two weeks,

under strict instructions to only color on the paper.

"where?" i said.

"on the paper" she chimed back.

there was a table incident in the tv room two weeks ago.

i still can't get the marker off of the game table top.

any wood cleaning tricks for me would be much appreciated.

so today was her first day back at the markers,

and it went well.

brennan got in on it too.

success and marker happiness all around.

i was so pleased.

we let brennan watch netflix and play games on the ipad for the first session today,

so it was really quiet and calm.

during both sessions yesterday he and max played toys together.

i couldn't believe it.

i didn't even have to put anyone in time out.

they played and listened, and i sat on the couch and listened, 

and made sure chase wasn't unraveling the toilet paper again in the bathroom.

for the second session today we didn't let anyone have any phones or ipads.

it wouldn't have worked,

except my cousins came over after the family yard lunch between conference sessions,

so they all played while we listened.

i made applesauce.

sean's favorite with the red hots.

i will save a quart for you.

i got the apples from my neighbor Briar's tree.

two different blends.

it's DELISH!

i just LOOOOVE using the apple corer and peeler.

an hour of bliss.

john helped me with a few,

and then audrey came over and showed us a way that was about a million times easier for how to use the apple corer and peeler.

life changing.

john made dixie cup towers over and over again.

he kept trying to make them taller than the last.

finally brennan knocked his tallest one down, 

and the big kids assured him he wasn't the one that knocked it down, and then they called the tower making quits.

they all ended up on the trampoline while i made soup,

and it was just so warm and gorgeous outside.

despite us waking up to blankets of frost the last two mornings, it was the perfect sunny, warm, fall weather today.

i loved watching them all play outside together, 

and it made fear the long cold winter that is coming.

when i create my own world,

i fully plan on making it snow warm.

boy do i wish i had two 13 year olds around to help me every day.

good company AND good helpers.

plus, they say really awesome things about life.

audrey sauteed my ground sausage, 

while john played with chase and brennan.

it was absolutely JOYFUL!

and by 7:34pm brennan was falling asleep at the dinner table,

asking to go to bed.

that has happened OHHHH maybe one other time in his entire life.

god bless 13 year old cousins.

i actually felt like i got to LISTEN 

to conference for the first time in 6 years.

a win for sure.

and so that's what i'm wondering,

do you watch general conference from home online?

how does the time change work with that?

do you watch it later?

stay up in the middle of the night?

what do you make?

the scones?

can your allergy people eat them?

probably not.

enlighten me oh beth of many lands!

and tell me all about your german escapades.

i miss you,

and brennan saw your video on facebook today and said,

"i want them to come back from germany. i miss them."

out of the mouths of babes!

love,

emily 

{all of those apples,

and this is what we get.

i can never believe how far they cook down.

tomatoes too. who knew applesauce was such a luxury?}