Ben was supposed to be getting into his jammies. Instead he came out dressed like this and announced that he was Mr. LouLouLa. That's the kind of boy he is.
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Ben dictated this "recipe" to me this morning:
Sofa
Add: 2 cups of salt
1 cup of sugar
some salt
butter
2 eggs
milk
Um, I haven't actually tried this recipe, and, quite frankly, I don't think I ever will. However, if you are brave enough, we'd love to hear what you think!
Yes, Dolly is still with us. She is still sweet and very cute. I'm not sure how fair it is to her to be part of our family. It has been so hot lately that we have been staying indoors. But, she is well fed and, when we do spend time out of doors, she is well loved . 
I've considered putting the sprinkler on for her on the hottest of days, but she is terrified of water and hides in the bushes even when we're just filling her water bowl. Poor thing.
Brianna loves this toy she was given for her birthday! On day one, she was pretty scared, then by the end of the first week, she could get on and off by herself. Now, . . . well, you can see, she's gotten a little more comfortable. 
She'll happily get up there all by herself and bounce while standing on the seat! However, if she should happen to get her knee caught on the seat, while trying to swing her cute little leg over it, she will screech and scream in utter terror, as if she's certain she's met her doom!
This is a great toy! Thanks, Adrianne!
Bishopric counselor: "Are you familiar with the scripture, 'Reprove betimes with sharpness'?"
Me: "Yes."
Counselor: "Do you know what it means?"
Me: "I think so."
Counselor: "What does 'reprove' mean?"
Me: "To reprimand? or reproach?"
Counselor: "No. "Prove means to teach; so reprove means to re-teach."
Me: "Oh."
Counselor: "Do you know what 'betimes' means?"
Me: "I think so, 'at times'?"
Counselor: "No. It is an old english word that we don't really use any more. It means 'before it is too late.'"
Me: "Oh, that changes the meaning."
Counselor: "Do you know what 'with sharpness' means?"
Me: "I don't think I want to venture a guess."
Counselor: laughs, "It means 'with clarity'. We are to re-teach with clarity before it is too late."
******
Armed with this great insight, and coupled with a great pep-talk, I was to speak with someone in my church stewardship who was taking things in an unapproved direction. Indeed, it was necessary to re-teach with clarity before it was too late.
Now, if you know me very well, you know that I avoid confrontation at almost any cost. You also know that I am phone-o-phobic, meaning I have a fear of speaking with people on the phone (mainly if I am the one who has to place the call.)
I also have this tendency to freeze up in the face of percieved peril. For example, when I hit the tree with my car, I saw the tree straight ahead, but seemed powerless to change the outcome.
So, let's just say that my weaknesses overpowered the great pep-talk and insight. I was flabbergasted by this person's utter confidence in her misinformation and by her claims that were in direct opposition to the various other reports I had received. Indeed, she made it clear that she dismissed anything that my counselor said to her, and was excited that I had arranged training with the Stake, so that my counselor and I could "finally calm down."
Did I take this opportunity to re-teach with clarity? To set her misinformation aright? To validate my counselor's position in providing her with counsel? Oh, no! It was like heading for the tree all over again, with my foot firmly planted on the gas pedal.
I think the task would have had more chance of success if the bishopric counselor had sent a dead fish in my place.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's five thousand word's worth of evidence of my children's total adoration of each other! 
There was a news "byte" a few years ago about a young man in Kentucky who had been "run off the road" and had "survived in the wilderness for 4 days, until he crawled up to a road and stopped a car to get help." I was intrigued with this 'byte' and wanted to hear this survival story. However, when they showed the interview with the victim, I was no longer quite so impressed, and actually had a good laugh. Let me preface this with the fact that I obviously don't know the whole story, but what I do know has given me something to ponder about.
This guy was probably about eighteen or nineteen. When he was run off the road, his car went down into a gully and stopped near a stream. His hip became dislocated, which I'm sure is painful. This guy said he laid there for three days, surviving on stream water, and calling out to the cars that he heard passing on the street above him. He said he was sure that someone would have heard him if their windows had been down. Finally, on the fourth day, he decided to crawl up to the street, which he did and was quickly helped by some motorists.
I'm sure that he believed he was seriously injured. It did, however, seem ludicrous to me to think that he spent three full days laying there in pain, hoping that by chance some passing car would have it's windows down and hear his calling, before he took the initiative to get himself up to the road (which couldn't have been that far away if he could hear the cars, and figured that they could hear him.)
What made me laugh was the image of this kid, with a relatively minor injury, laying within sight of the road and hollering, "Help!" for three days, rather than crawling up to the road and getting help on the first day. Maybe you don't find that funny. I hope you don't, because that would mean that you are a much better person than I am.
However, I have actually applied this story to my life, and unfortunately, found that I do the same sort of thing. I experience unexpected inconveniences, or offenses, which I'll term as my minor injuries. Yet, rather than "suck it up" and do what needs to be done, I figuratively lay there, nursing what I believe to be terrible injuries, hoping-- on the off chance-- that someone might respond to my cry for help. When all the while, true help and healing and rescue are within my grasp.
I "went off the road" a few years ago, down into a gully of self-pity and, really, of self-deceit; imagining that I had received a serious injury. I nursed my fictitious injury for a long time before my wonderful husband happened to hear my cry for help, and put my dislocated thinking back into place. It's strange how a fictitious injury can create a need for true healing. I've come a long way since then, but I sure wish I had crawled up to the road in the beginning rather than wasting time and causing true injury.
I am reminded of a verse in the Book of Mormon, toward the beginning of Lehi's Tree of Life vision: And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. (1 Nephi 8:8) I suppose it's possible that Lehi, and this kid from Kentucky, and myself are not the only ones who tend to "travel for the space of many hours in darkness" before we remember to ask for help.
