I thought I'd respond to Bobby's comment about being dead. I think, on the contrary, we are living too much! This last week I've felt like I'm on the verge of dropping one of the many things I'm juggling. And then today when I think I'm about to drop it, somehow Heavenly Father is kind enough to bless me right at that moment so the thing disappears right before it hits the ground. Or at least that's the mental image I have of it. At the risk of sounding self-important (I HATE saying I'm busy) I thought I'd share what I'm juggling right now. Besides, it helps me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Let's see... not in any particular order...

• Alienor, Guillaume, Margot, Perceval and their 'upkeep.'


• the house and it's 'upkeep.'


• homeschool for Guillaume and Margot, plus the various activities for the kids - mainly practicing for piano, flute, clarinet.


• YW pres which is lessons every other Sunday and activities every Friday evening. If I don't do the activity then it doesn't happen.


• Ward nursery teacher which is just a small lesson every Sunday.


• Stake nursery leader which isn't too demanding. I'm preparing a presentation for the Stake leadership meetings during Stake conference.


• Cub Scout leader which is an activity every other Saturday morning.


• I'm working on a cross-stitch


• I read lots of books, to the detriment of my sleeping habits!


• I heard through the grapevine that they are going to call me to be the YW camp director for Girls Camp this summer. Luckily I haven't heard anything official in the last few weeks so maybe it won't happen! I told the sister that told me (couns in stake YW pres) that the stake YW pres would call me as revenge for having criticized the camp last year.

Wow, I put it in a list and it actually doesn't sound like I'm doing very much. Well, I still feel like it's a lot. This past week I spent probably 20 hours preparing a YW/YM combined activity for Friday night - it was a murder mystery dinner party. Then this morning I was supposed to give a talk in sacrament meeting - as well as the nursery lesson and YW lesson. Well, I had been so busy during the week that I hadn't prepared anything for it. And Saturday night I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 8 so I gave up and went to bed early. This morning I prepared a quick talk, obviously not one of my best, and we went to church. I winged my talk and it didn't turn out too bad. Then it turned out that all 4 of my YW were absent! So Heavenly Father sent me a tiny miracle to get me through the rest of Sunday!! YW was the ball I was about to drop but which vanished before it hit the ground. Thank Heaven for small miracles.

So what is everyone else juggling? Although I love to see what everyone is doing and am glad to hear about your day to day activities, I'd love even more to find out what you THINK about what you're doing. I always want to write about the things I think about but then I think it's too personal and nobody would want to read it. I'd probably sound like a coock - that's coooooock, don't know how it's spelled! Well, maybe I'll start writing stuff anyway and if you want you can throw tomatoes at me - if you can throw that far!!!

Have a great Sunday. Let's see if I have any pictures to post.

This is Christmas Eve dinner at Patrice's cousin's house.

This is our new family tradition- the kids decorate the Christmas tree because Mom doesn't like to have to do it. They had a ball. They used decorations plus odds and ends of ribbon and anything else they could find that was 'pretty.'

Opening presents on the 'veranda' which is enclosed but not heated like the house so it's kind of 'outdoors' still.

Yes, I love the frosted look. This is looking out our kitchen window to the northwest.

OK, I've gotta get going... BYC in half an hour!

Love you all, Jocelyn