The Spirit moves each of us in mysterious ways

We netflixed Dune recently and I experienced strong emotions as the movie progressed and finished. Each time I’ve watched after my baptism & coming to Christ I’ve had similar feelings. (It might have been a little more intense this time given my recent struggles and the reported effect of pregnancy hormones, though I cannot personally attest to the latter)

Watching Dune makes me feel as though I’m a part of something bigger, something prophetic and incredible. I feel inspired in the face of my obstacles. Preparing the family and house for the new baby is no longer an unending list of Herculean tasks. Rearing and teaching six children is far less daunting.

Odd to find courage and strength from such a bizarre movie, and yet there it is–my reality. It will be difficult but I can do it. We can do it. We will do it.

I’ve blogged before about how Lord of the Beans and Millions affected me in a positive way. Has anyone else found inspiration in a seemingly unlikely source?

Ephraim update 

Ephraim’s recent speech and hearing evaluations indicate a need for follow-ups. The hearing tests show no physical formation problems but were inconclusive on the tones and frequencies that he can hear because he’s young enough that his unresponsiveness may be due to age rather than deficiency. We will retest in October.

The speech evaluation official report isn’t in yet, but the therapist believes that Ephraim has a mild to moderate delay that can be helped with speech therapy. We’ll be looking at weekly sessions in conjunction with our working with him at home. The therapist said we were doing many good things to help develop his language and vocabulary skills already and gave me some more ideas to try between now and the next appointment.

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Two, three or four weeks?

Of course we could have more or less gestational time left, but hey, we like anything after May 10th.  The Elders Quorum would ask for anything after noon on May 13th, so they wouldn’t have to find a sub for Richard’s teaching turn that day.  (My May lesson has been subbed out already)  The children don’t want it to fall on the 17th during the end of the year party at Makutu’s Island. 

Elena asked on our way to the ultrasound “Is this the time when they’re going to put on the gloves and take the baby out of your body?” 

Everything looks great according to the tech–she gave a weight estimate of 4lbs 11oz and noted her head was measuring slightly larger than gestational age.  Yup, the 95th percentile head, I told her, which is another reason I’m glad that I make small babies.

No, we still haven’t figured out a name  =)   I’ve been making check lists and lining up supplies (or potential donors thereof) but the name remains unknown.

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Rolling over

On the way back from the ultrasound Tuesday we hit this mileage milestone

Granted, they are not all of our miles since we bought it used, but it was a cool thing to see!

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Girl Scouts

I finally have all of the cookies that we ordered–yay! Good thing too, because Tuesday was the last meeting of that particular Brownie troop. We’re going to try another troop that meets a little later on the same day, it seems most of the girls from this troop are heading there.

Elena is very excited that she can start Daisies in the fall and go to Scouts just like Duncan, Cheanna and Emma Catharine.