Falling down and standing up

Last weekend when the other kids were all off at various activities, Andrew, Phoebe and I went to the mall to look for a few specific things...but we also stopped by Max and Phoebe and I saw some cute dresses on the sales rack that we liked, so we got them—my dress was only 40 QAR and Phoebe's was 20 QAR. We were the fanciest gals on the block!

Look! A diversion!

Last week we were on our way to church, all piled into one large Uber, when we saw a big sign with flashing lights proclaiming: DIVERSION!! →

"Look!" I whispered to Miriam. "A diversion!"

"Where?!" she gasped, playing along.

One of the oldest tropes in the book. Unfortunately, I was too slow to take a picture.

What it really was doing, of course, was pointing out a detour route.

*****

Miriam was called as the ward pianist on Friday morning. She's the first one in the family with a calling! 

And it's pretty good timing, too, because we just got Miriam's organ manuals set up! Her pedalboard will soon be on its way from Germany. We shipped them to our friend's house because...we don't have a permanent address yet...and they brought them along with them when they dropped Zoë and Alexander off after their sleepover (Wednesday to Thursday). They arrived a lot sooner than I thought they would, all things considered.

Here's Phoebe helping to open the box:

Benjamin's very churchy weekend

Benjamin was asked to give a talk on July 12—the Sunday we were busy at county—so I asked if there was another week he could possibly speak. We only have 10 youth speakers (on a good year) and 52 weeks in a year, so it's pretty easy to find an open week...but although I was told they'd try to rearrange things, we never heard back. He wasn't on the schedule the following week (which was good because we ended up going to Sam's homecoming instead of attending our own ward) and then we just didn't hear and didn't hear and didn't hear about anything this week, so we figured Benjamin was off the hook (since next week is fast and testimony meeting, which has no assigned speakers). 

But then the ward bulletin was sent out on Friday and, lo, Benjamin was on the intended program. 

So he got to work writing and came up with a decent draft. I read that draft and discussed it with him, noting areas he needed to explain things better, craft some segues between ideas, and more clearly develop the theme running through his talk. He was miffed, but sat down to write a second draft, which was much better than the first. I read that draft and discussed it with him, noting areas where he needed to back up huge claims (such as "the phrase 'fear not' can be found in every book of scripture"—do you know that? Or are you just saying it? You're just saying it...okay...perhaps do a little more research before saying it) and tell enough of a story that people can understand what's going on and glean the message from it, but without reading the whole thing verbatim. He was quite upset about this feedback but agreed to give his talk another round of edits. 

You can imagine how he felt when I sent him back for a third round of edits. Pretty darn frustrated, that's what! Let's not even talk about the fourth...

Miriam's last Sunday

 

Today was Miriam's last week at our ward. Technically she still has one more Sunday left in Georgia, but we aren't going to our ward next week. So this was it for her. 

Miriam's Organ Recital

Our stake (largely through the efforts of Sister Hammond) arranged a farewell organ recital for Miriam this past Sunday. Miriam has played for stake conferences, our ward, the Magnolia (Spanish) ward, stake Easter events, stake Christmas events, and so forth. She has loved getting to use her talents in this way. Sister Hammond keeps a little sign with (a paraphrase) 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the organ, "Do everything for the glory of God" to help remind her while she plays the organ that...that's why she's sitting there. 

Miriam also feels that music contributes to worship, with variations and flourishes helping people listening to the same old song feel something new and different and—God willing—divine. She has, at times, received pushback for playing classical music during postlude, which she thinks is rather funny because much classical music was written for worship. Our current bishop more or less gives her free reign but that doesn't mean everyone in the congregation approved of her choices (and, boy, did she hear about it...but she's pretty good at ignoring superfluous advice). 

One of Miriam's favourite composers is Bach (despite her program last night being full of French composers). He began most compositions with the inscription J.J. (for Jesu, Juva, meaning Jesus, help) and ended them with S.D.G. (for soli Deo gloria meaning glory to God alone), indicating that his music was his worship. It sounds like he was a fan of 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Two times I cried yesterday

I'm sitting alone in what has been dubbed The Boat Room with 51.86666667% of our allotted shipment. I know this because we have been weighing each box and recording its weight in a spreadsheet because we don't know how else we're supposed to know what 5700 lbs of stuff looks like. I'm alone because Rachel is now in Utah, Miriam and Benjamin have left for FSY, Zoë is in Tennessee, and Andrew took Alexander and Phoebe to swim practice. 

I haven't been alone in the house in ages. 

I may have never been alone in this particular house. 

It's quiet and I could be getting stuff done, but instead I'm blogging (which one could argue is getting stuff done). We do need to decide what else needs to come into The Boat Room, but really our rooms are starting to look rather bare. 

Last night I was working in Miriam and Zoë's room, which was very nearly finished (but not quite) and I came across a handful of paper-and-ribbon Olympic medals the kids made for their Kids' Olympics a few summers ago and it made me feel so happy-sad.

Our cul-de-sac has been an oasis for my little kids—they have made such good friends with our neighbourhood kids! I'm so grateful for our wonderful neighbours, who have truly been a village. It's been such a privilege to raise my children alongside these families. Thinking about that made me tear up a bit (and I think that's why packing takes me so much longer than Andrew, who is much more pragmatic about things). 

And then last night I also got to "attend" my cousin's son's baptism (between packing boxes), which was a wonderful surprise! 

Rachel's mission pictures

This morning was so terribly rainy that swim practice was cancelled for both Alexander and Phoebe—if you can't see the bottom of the pool, that's cause to shut down the pool, and it was just that rainy. 

Rachel and I had planned to go take her mission photos today as well, but that had to wait until after the rain had stopped because we wanted to take them at the temple. I'm not an exceptional photographer, but I have found that if I take several hundred photographs there are usually a handful of keepers...

We wanted to take a picture with a Vietnamese Book of Mormon, but they don't sell those at our distribution center and we forgot to order one early enough to take photos with it. She'll have plenty of opportunity for such photos in the future, I suppose. 

For now we were just happy we got a good window of sunshine to take some pictures in this afternoon:

Rachel's mission call!

At 4:00 this afternoon (2:00 MST), we were in the process of chucking our couch off our second storey deck (for not the first time—that thing is sturdy) when Rachel suddenly exclaimed, "I got my mission call! My mission call is here! I have an email with my mission call in it! What do I do?! Guys! What do I do?!"

"Well, first I guess we'll finish pushing this couch off the deck that we have balanced on the railing and then you'll open your mission call."

Listen...

I have tried to give these couches away on multiple occasions on multiple platforms. No one wants them. They're a little scratched up (thanks, Waffles) and definitely not trendy. Our local Goodwill didn't want them. So they were destined for the landfill one way or another. 

We could have kept them to sit on for the next little while, but Andrew started this project with Miriam and Benjamin while I was in a meeting and by the time I came out they had already taken a saw and crowbar to it and were working on the first deck-chuck. So we were pretty committed to the destruction path at that point. 

He figures that this way we can sneak bits of the couch into the garbage can every week and save on the cost of disposing it. 

Anyway, we threw the couch off the balcony for the second time and then gathered around to watch Rachel open her mission call. She didn't want a big to-do about it (and even told me that if came while she was in Florida—she drove down to Florida for Corbin's mission farewell...he's off to Argentina soon—that she would just open it there and text me about it so I guess we're lucky it arrived the day after she got home from Florida), but we did take a minute to have everyone make a quick guess about where she might go.

Zoë: Tanzania or France

Alexander: Utah
Miriam: Berlin

Benjamin: Stockholm

Dad: Pennsylvania

Mom: Spanish Speaking or Canada

Phoebe: California

Atlanta Georgia Temple

Rachel began working on her mission papers shortly before the semester ended. She had decided to maybe go on a mission...in December. After talking about the pros and cons for a long time she decided that she should finish and submit her papers. But then after having made the decision to, yes, go...she felt like waiting until December was silly. 

Waiting is the worst.

So she decided to put her availability date in August (after the summer term ends). That doesn't mean she'll leave in August (she could still leave in December for all we know), but it does at least mean she won't have to wait to know when she'll be leaving and can make plans accordingly. 

She submitted her papers on Monday (after going to the doctor for the third time in a week because the doctor/nurse couldn't figure out how to fill out the form properly) and she went through the temple this morning!

You can read more about the endowment ceremony here, if you're interested!

Saying Goodby to Grandpa and Darla

Grandpa spent his first day of retirement taking the kids bowling. It was the first time for several of the children because we haven't gone bowling here. I honestly couldn't remember why we hadn't just taken the kids bowling...until Reid told us how much it cost. Let's just say "Private Equity Bowlero Ruining Bowling" isn't a sensational title. I was fully expecting the fees to be around $5 per person per game...maybe even $10 (it's been a while since we've been bowling). I was not expecting round $30 per person—talk about exorbitant! 

But the kids had fun. 

And we remembered why we have never gone bowling here. 

Miriam finished with her finals on Wednesday, so she was available to go bowling with everyone. I asked her to be my photographer (Andrew and I stayed home to work). 

Here's Benjamin:

Just another (manic) Palm Sunday!

Palm Sunday was a doozy of a day! 

• Miriam played a special musical number in the Johns Creek ward
• Miriam played prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns in our ward
• Miriam, Benjamin, Zoë, Alexander, and I sang two choir songs in our ward
• Miriam played a special musical number in the Magnolia ward...as well as the prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns, and also filled in for a sick pianist (getting a 12-page score the afternoon before and practicing until she felt confident enough to accompany a soloist)
• Miriam played a special musical number in Grandpa and Darla's ward
• Grandpa and Darla gave their "farewell" talks before leaving on their mission and they served a lovely little lunch at their house after, which was good because we were all hungry
• Miriam played an organ piano duet for the stake Palm Sunday event, as well as the prelude, postlude, and congregational hymns
• Miriam and Benjamin participated in the youth choir for the Palm Sunday event
• Zoë, Alexander, and Phoebe participated in the children's choir for the Palm Sunday event

It was...a lot...but it was mostly wonderful! I especially loved getting to sing congregational hymns with big congregations (our own little ward is so tiny).

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning I took the kids to the ward Easter egg hunt, which they didn't want to miss...so they skipped out on the second practice for the big stake Easter fireside tomorrow night. It's cool that the stake puts this on, but it does limit when we can do an Easter activity as a primary (though one might wonder whether that's necessary—I don't remember attending many church-sponsored Easter egg hunts growing up and I survived just fine). So, anyway, the little kids skipped the rehearsal, the big kids attended the rehearsal, and Daddy went grocery shopping.

Who's to say had more fun, really?

Here's Phoebe collecting some eggs from the bushes:

Andrew's Talk: God will bless me for my faith and righteous desires, even if it doesn't seem like things will work out

When I was in primary and in young men's, the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price was my favorite book in the scriptures. I didn't like it necessarily because of any of the specific scriptures or teachings in it—though there are some good ones in there! We learn about foreordination, the premortal life, the council in heaven, and lots of other fundamental doctrines.

I liked it because it has neat pictures.

I've long been interested in Egypt—while some kids love dinosaurs, or trains, or Greek mythology, I was an Ancient Egypt kid. There are three facsimiles from Egyptian papyri included in the Book of Abraham, and I would pore over the symbols and little interpretations during boring talks and lessons. I would try to replicate the little pictures and include different hieroglyphics in doodles. I just thought they were cool. They made the Pearl of Great Price feel ancient and special.

As an undergraduate student at BYU, I majored in Arabic, which meant that we lived in Jordan for a summer to study Arabic in the Middle East. During our time there, we got to visit Egypt for a week, and I loved it. We got to see the pyramids in Cairo, of course, as well as a bunch of ancient temples and other religious and royal complexes in Luxor. There's a modern Egyptian saying that once you've metaphorically "drunk from the Nile," or been to the country, you're hooked and have to get back to Egypt. After graduating from BYU, we did just that—we moved to Egypt for two years for graduate school.

During our time in Cairo, we traveled all over the country and visited as many ancient sites as possible. I particularly loved going to the different ancient temples and looking for temple symbolism in the architecture and art. During one trip, we rode on a rickety little minibus for an hour up the Nile to visit Dandarah, one of the best-preserved ancient temples in Egypt. The art still has bright colors and most of the buildings are intact. Surprisingly for me, one of the Dandarah temples has a large mural that—with some differences—is essentially Facsimile 1 from the Book of Abraham, which Joseph Smith interprets as the story of Abraham almost getting sacrificed to heathen gods in Babylon. I was so excited to see it!

Nancy's Talk: Of Wells and Arks

Here is the talk that I gave in sacrament meeting:

Of Wells and Arks: Doing the Next and Necessary Thing

Since I’m speaking first, I’ll take a few minutes to introduce our family. We moved here in July of 2019, so we’re coming up on seven full years here, which is the longest that I have ever lived anywhere in my entire life—and by extension it’s also the longest my children have lived anywhere. Although I’m sure many of our children—particularly our youngest few—feel as if we’ve been here a lifetime, I don’t actually feel like we’ve been here very long at all. I’ve just never felt very settled here. Perhaps I don’t know how to settle. I don’t know…

But, here we are! We’re the Heisses. We have six kids. Our oldest Rachel is a freshman at BYU. Then there’s Miriam, who you hear at the organ each Sunday. Next is Benjamin, who made a goal this year to bake bread whenever he’s assigned to bring bread for the sacrament. Zoë is enjoying her last year of primary; she’s very excited to enter the Young Women program next year. Alexander was baptized this past November. And Phoebe is four and…we just…celebrate…that we’ve been able to get her to attend her own class. She’s very clingy. 

She describes herself as “snuggly,” but she’s clingy. 

Church, the work of Sunday

I was trying to schedule a time to video call with Uncle Patrick (in Austria, GMT+1) and Auntie Josie (in Utah, GMT-6) while being here (in Georgia, GMT-4). It can be tricky to find a time that works for everyone, but Patrick, being mindful of my church schedule, suggested 2:00 pm my time (noon Josie's time, 7:00 pm his time).

He and I were texting before Josie was even up. 

"We should jump on a call and talk about train tickets..." he suggested (Josie and I are going to visit him in May).

"Rushing to get ready for church atm" I said (atm = at the moment). 

We've been going early for morning choir practice, which already feels like a bit of a sacrifice. With daylight savings added on top...and with some late night excitement at our house (prom, among other things)...it felt like a real sacrifice this morning. We managed to get the choir people up and out the door in time to be just barely on time for choir, if not a minute or two late, which I felt was really pretty good, all things considered. 

But the joke was on me the whole time because I was accidentally left off the group text informing everyone that choir practice would be moving from 9:30 to 9:00 to allow us a full hour in the Relief Society room before the other ward kicked us out. 

So we walked in at 9:30, quite proud of our timeliness, only to be half an hour late. Not that I'm very sad about having missed out on that text message...because I didn't have to feel guilty about not being ready in time for 9:00 since I didn't know about needing to be ready by 9:00.

Guest Lecture and Home Church

This morning Andrew braved the "treacherous" road conditions to drive me to Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. I'm sure the roads were icy somewhere, but I think we saw two little patches of ice the whole way, so we made it to our destination just fine. 

I was so nervous about delivering this lecture, but Andrew reminded me that my audience was there not to tear apart my arguments but to take something away from what I said. They were there to listen and learn, not judge. 

Ice storm: before and during church

We woke up to a world glazed over with a thin layer of ice (not the half inch we were predicted to get, which is probably for the best). Our power went out a time or two in the morning (and about a dozen more times throughout the day), but only momentarily. We were quite lucky on that front. 

Some of us had a hard time sleeping last night because they were so excited about the storm, and so perplexed about the weird noises frozen rain makes (yet somehow she is sleeping through all the ice crashing onto the roof this evening—make it make sense!). When Phoebe woke up she wanted to explore the ice. 

She found that it was interesting.

And tasty. 

Let there be...squats

Sometimes I wake up sore the day after primary, usually after I have the brilliant idea to play "sit-stand" during a song. This is where the kids have to stand up or sit down when they sing/hear a given word/phrase, so if they were seated and we sang the word they would have to stand and if they were standing and heard the word they would have to sit.

I remember playing this game during the song "Sing a Song" when I was in primary. 

The words go like this:

Sing, sing, sing;

I like to sing.

I like to sing a song;

Sing, sing, sing!

So you can see that in this song you'd have to either sit/stand a total of 8 times. Since you begin sitting, you stand on the first sing, then sit on the second sing, then stand on the third sing...and so on. 

Yesterday I decided to play this game with a new song that we're learning, called "The Creation," a lovely song written by my lovely and talented mother. The kids have really taken to it. I've had multiple families ask me where to find a copy of it so they can help their kids sing it at home (because their kids are already singing it at home; I should probably just send an email).

We had only gone through the first few verses, but yesterday I was determined to run through them all. There are seven verses...because...of the seven events of the creation story. 

The first verse goes:

On the first day, God said, "Let there be light.
We need the world to have both day and night.
Let there be light; let there be light."

That pattern repeats through the first six verses, with God saying, "Let there be..." 

Lemmings

Benjamin learned about lemmings at church on Sunday. 

They were talking about being agents, choice and accountability, things of that nature, and the bishop talked about lemmings. When Benjamin told us he learned about lemmings he described them in kind of a strange way so I asked him what, precisely, lemmings were.

"Well, it's a really old video game where these little dudes just walk around..."

"Whoa, there..." I objected.

"Hang on, now!" Andrew said. 

"Lemmings are actual living creatures," I said, while Andrew said: "It's not that old of a video game!"

We were concerned about vastly different things.

This led to a conversation about both the video game and the creature, which extended to an FHE lesson the next day, because did you know...

Lemmings don't behave the way you imagine they do. 

They don't mindlessly follow each other to their ultimate demise, they are not wont to fling their tiny bodies off high cliffs into the icy waters below. They do experience population drops and booms and undergo "mass dispersal" behaviour (that sometimes does force a number of lemmings into cold water), but they don't run mindlessly off cliffs together for no reason. 

In the Disney documentary where this behaviour is shown they actually, ummm, bought lemmings in Manitoba, transported them to a filming location in Alberta, rigged a "lazy Susan" up to a motor, placed the lemmings on it, and repeatedly hurled the poor creatures off the cliff to get the dramatic footage they desired...because such footage was impossible to film in the wild...because lemmings don't do that.

It's a myth.

Ward Christmas Party (in absentia)

Today while I was attending session after session of conference presentations, I started getting pictures of the ward Christmas party. Miriam passed her driving test this morning (hurrah!) so she drove to the church early and started hanging garlands. Andrew and the other kids joined her later to put up some finishing touches...and then the party started. 

And I think it was worth all the headaches and tears putting it together. People seemed to have fun and it was pretty well attended—around 100 people by our estimate. People seemed to understand the roving rooms set up and many seemed to appreciate having various activities to do. 

I...admittedly...wasn't there (off doing actual job stuff), so I have to rely on what I was told and saw. But what I saw was pretty good. 

Here's the nursery room before Miriam got the popcorn strands up: