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I came across this documentary on byutv, and I have to say, I was extremely impressed: 5000 Days Project: Two Brothers

It’s the story of two brothers growing up in Washington, covering from ages 10 and 8 up through their LDS missions in Chile and Cambodia. I was surprised to learn the filmmaker, Rick Stevenson, is not a Mormon. The film captured so many aspects of LDS living, so many things about my own experience growing up Mormon and serving a two-year mission in Germany. We ended up watching it as a family, and our boys were quite engaged. There were many experiences for these brothers that I would have the words to share with them, but which the expressed very powerfully.

I wonder the impact making this film had on the brothers during those years. Just the process of answering very personal questions, thinking about those things to be able to vocalize them, it must have been very shaping. From twobrothersthemovie.com:

Socrates said, KNOW THYSELF. By asking challenging questions of themselves on a regular basis— — especially at the least self-aware period of their lives — —children can gain self knowledge and perspective.

Looking back, I think I was very self-unaware during some of those years. This gives me lots to think about how to help my own boys.

1 Corinthians 1:27:

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty

Michael Irvin made an interesting observation connecting this verse with the recent success of the Denver Broncos, and Tim Tebow specifically. Humorous as well.

“This is foolishness we are watching, but we are being confounded”

Too bad NFL.com doesn’t allow embedding, so catch it at about  2:30 (actually, the whole video is worth watching).

This is not all about Tim Tebow – the defense has really picked up their game. But it’s been a lot of fun to watch the Broncos go 5-1 since Tebow took over as the starting QB.

And who knows – perhaps he really is being used as a tool to accomplish much good? I can only wish him (and the rest of the team) continued success.

A bit of foolishness, but at least I’m recording this for posterity. Go Broncos!

 

 

We saw The Lion King as a family at the Buell Theatre in Denver. It was a great show for the whole family, well worth it if you ever have the chance to see it.

I was impressed with the creativity of the customing / puppetry, and it’s a fun story. My favorite was the music and dancing, especially the tribal chant-style musical numbers:

The Lioness Hunt

One By One

A few (minor) critical points:

• Scar and young Simba were both disappointing in their acting – poor timing
• The mechanical lion headpieces worn by Scar and Mufasa didn’t work particularly well, kind of distracting.
• I can imagine the show would be hard to enjoy if you’re not already familiar with the story line from the movie – it didn’t flow together very smoothly.

But all in all, very enjoyable and a great family memory.

 

Another round of Suzuki “book recitals” for our boys:

• Alec completed Book 1
• Trent completed Book 3
• Caleb completed Book 4, doing violin and viola

Alec:

Trent:

Caleb:

And a bonus performance from Mark:

And since we’re on the subject, here’s Caleb’s Lesher Middle School Symphonic Orchestra:

I coached Trent’s soccer team this fall, for the U12 Boys Rec League. We had fun and decent success – 3-3 and 2 games canceled due to weather.

I enjoyed practicing with them, helping them to understand and enjoy the game better. I’ll probably be back to coaching Alec’s team in the spring, but nothing’s decided yet.

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is making a media push in various markets, including Colorado. The marketing campaign is called “I’m a Mormon“, and it goes along with the mormon.org site that’s been around for several years.

My profile:

Some highlights from our summer adventures…

Caleb went to DPAC for the second year

We all drove down to pick him up and spend a few days together. Grandpa showed us around Redmesa and shared stories from his childhood

We spent an afternoon at Mesa Verde National Park

On the way back to Fort Collins, we spent a day at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The weather was perfect — overcast but not windy while we hiked the dunes, then the sun came out while we played in the creek

We had fun with fireworks on the Fourth of July

We tried camping at Carter Lake… it rained and blew most of the evening, then we woke up at 5am to howling winds that collapsed the tent on Caleb and Trent. Kim and the boys went home to sleep while I broke camp, then we spent the rest of the day canoeing and fishing. We probably won’t go back there, but we did have fun.

 

I spent a week at OSCON in Portland, while Caleb went to BDSR for Scout Camp


 

Mark took swimming lessons, which he really did not enjoy

 

But he was excited to learn to ride a bike

 

Finally we went away to Rocky Mountain National Park for a few days with the Mills. Lots of fun with cousins,

 

enjoying the great outdoors

 

and the wildlife.

 

While we were away  at RMNP, we had our front room / main level re-textured and painted. That was an adventure that is still on-going. We like the results, but it was a huge job (mostly for Kim) getting everything ready, and we still have to put it all back together. And of course it’s spawned lots of discussion on other changes we want to make.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we made wax writing tablets to go along with a discussion of Ezekiel 37:15-19

The tablets were a rush job, but we had fun doing them. First I use a router with a 3/4″ straight bit to carve out a cavity in the wood, about 1/16″ deep:

Next we melted beeswax on the stove and poured it into the wood tablets:

After they cooled, we wrote / scribbled / doodled in them with nails:

They served as a prop to talk about the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph:

15 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, andfor all the house of Israel his companions:

17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

We understand this prophecy to refer to the Bible (stick of Judah, record of the Jews) and the Book of Mormon (stick of Joseph, record of some of the tribe of Joseph broken off and scattered/lost). The two work together in the hand of the Lord to witness of Jesus Christ and clarify doctrine.

All in all, it was a bit messy but a success. It would be fun someday to do it a bit more ‘official’, something like this:

 

A sketch I did today (via SketchBook Mobile) – “Within the Shady Woodland”