Conference Weekend

Yikes - this turned out to be a rather long post - sorry about that!

Twice a year, instead of our normal church meetings, our church has "general conference." I love conference weekend! It's the one time that all we need to do is "show up" for church - and with the sessions available on our DISH network, we can show up in our living room. So we keep the weekend free, and relax, and enjoy conference. (I say we just "show up" somewhat tongue-in-cheek; as my brother points out, we do need to bring something to conference, in our attitude and personal preparation, or we don't get much out of it.)

And by showing up, we get to hear counsel from our prophet, and other leaders. I used to madly take notes, trying to remember everything. But these days, detailed notes aren't as important - video and audio from the sessions are already available on the church's website, the text will be online in a few days, and we'll have the conference issue of the Ensign in May. So now, I try to listen with different ears. I try to recognize the messages that seem targeted to me personally, that resonate with me, that touch my heart and say "you need this." Having watched and listened to all the sessions, I have my list, and as soon as the text is available, I'll be rereading those talks...

So, besides conference, what else have I done this weekend? Well, eight hours of watching conference, plus Friday's knit night at Stitching Memories, plus answering phones at Ministry with Community yesterday morning, meant lots of knitting! Here are my current projects - altho' these pictures are already out-of date.

The seed-stitch scarf I'm knitting for OFA - It was too wide, so I ripped it out and started over. That was a pain, but of course now that it's narrower, it will grow more quickly... :)

The Forest Canopy Shawl - I've knit lace before, but never a shawl, and the construction is so interesting. I am fascinated by the way the shawl grows outward. (I know, I'm so nerdy.) I'm also paranoid about messing up, so I'm using lifelines again, and counting incessantly...

Elijah the Elephant - I made my first Elijah because I fell in love with one that Katie had made for a mutual friend. I knit the second, and now a third, because they are such fun to knit and give away...

This morning, with no early church (a benefit of watching a broadcast that originates two time zones from here), I went for an early run. Don't read a lot into that word "run." I started the couch-to-5k program a few weeks ago. I completed weeks 1 & 2, then went back to week 1 for a couple days. Today went well, so I'll go back to week 2 with my next run. Meanwhile, I think I'm running something like 8 minutes, in one-minute stints, with lots of walking in between.

Anyway, it was a really lovely morning. Usually it's dark when I run; today I enjoyed the sunrise, and saw birds and cats - a surprising number of cats, sitting in front windows. No dogs, though! After the half-way point, as I headed west toward home, the sun behind me was up enough to just hit the tops of the trees. They were so beautiful - it looked like gold. As I got closer, I could see they still had last year's dead leaves, and the sunlight was hitting those leaves. Forgive the corny metaphor (it was probably a side-effect of watching conference), but it made me reflect how Christ's light can take what is ugly and wrong in our life, and make it beautiful.

Bonnie & I had a nice walk yesterday - cold, but sunny - and I decided we would walk on the Kal-Haven trail this morning. Interestingly, within minutes of my returning home from runnning, the sky was clouded over, the sun a thing of the past. Before long, it was raining. I decided to go ahead with our Kal-Haven plan, since it looked like this morning's rain would only get worse as they day went on, with thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.

By the time we were on the trail, it was pouring buckets, so we only walked half as far as I'd planned. Most of the time, notwithstanding the rain, Bonnie's tail was a-wag, as she enjoyed the new and fascinating smells. By the time we got back to the car, we were both drenched. I tried to take pictures, but I was rather wet and cold, so they aren't stellar...

I think there is actually a pond at the bottom of all this - I've never noticed it before, and suspect it won't be visible once the leaves are out. If nothing else, I hope this picture conveys how dismal the weather had become!

I tried to get a picture to show how wet poor Bonnie was. She was really soaked, but didn't seem to mind. Once she was in the car, she did allow me to towel her off, so I suppose she was at least aware that she was wet!

Two more misc photos, for your amusement and pleasure:

We had friends over Thursday evening, for birthday cake. This is how one friend ate her cake - very carefully eating the cake and leaving the frosting behind. She doesn't like frosting, and I'm impressed with her ability to eat the cake and leave the frosting intact.

I confess that, as a child, I ate cake like this - but only so I could savor all the frosting at the end. Today, as an adult, I feel obligated to eat the cake and icing together - though I do try to make sure there's a final bite of mostly frosting...

Finally, a photo I took on one of our walks last week - hope that spring really is coming!