Moms are always serving

It has been my privilege to serve the Heflin family for a time (with Dad & Vince of course).  But I noticed that it was mostly the Mom (me as a sub for Chris) that washed the clothes, fixed the dinner and reminded...  And it occurred to me that you girls are all spending your days serving - it is "your time to serve".  I would like to invite you to contribute to this blog with parenting ideas that are now meaningful to you.  Angie, after listening to a speaker at her RS meeting, came home inspired "to be a coach - not a ref."  And you girls all know that you grew up in a home probably with the parenting style of a "ref" many times.  What does a ref do - find faults and point them out and what does a coach do - he teaches you.  We tried to do our best and we tried "to not slam the door" too much - but to love and teach BUT...

Please use this blog to share with your sisters in your most important time right now.  I was "teaching" Preston, Wyatt, Brenna and Bryant to always be respectful, responsible, helpful and happy.  It was neat to me that the traits began with an "R" or an "H" and we were working on it so that by the time Riley and Chris came home, the quality would be mastered.

I invite you to share a sentence - a picture - a quote or a thought.  Sure love you all. 

Family

Our children love each other enough to get together in May and June.  We are especially thinking of you all as the birth of the Bishop baby is near.   The three baby goslings in our complex were hatched in May and the father has been protecting and the mother nurturing.  They even had a family reunion a few weeks later....

 Here are those babies in July....

Elder Gibson's Birthday

The end of May we participated in a 5 hour 20 minute Fast and Testimony Meeting in Sumter, South Carolina, with 3 zones.

 President and Sister McConkie kept an amazing pace around the mission finishing Zone Conferences, Firesides and other assignments.  At their last Zone Conference which was held in Columbia, they were presented with appreciations including a quilt made by the sisters in the Mission Office with quilt blocks made by missionary couple sisters in the mission.

Sister McConkie has a mission tradition of "cutting the ties" as each elder leaves the mission.  Current

missionaries donated their ties en mass at the last Zone Conferences of the McConkie reign.   

Returning home, we celebrated Elder Gibson's birthday.

The "cake" was cherry vanilla ice cream with a cookie sent by Patty.  Dad still added milk!!!

His birthday and Father's Day were great days having heard from family and feeling loved. 

Miracles

We are so grateful for the opportunity to share the message of the restored gospel.  The single sailors are coming in groups of twelve now and they are bringing friends.  One will baptized on the 14th and he is a wonderful young man.  There are people prepared and He is putting them in our path.  In asking permission to take a picture of a blossom on his tree, Larry was happy for us to do so and presented Sister Gibson with a beautiful magnolia blossom.  They have a subtle scent and are so amazing to see.

Wedding Day 29 April

Not realizing it was the day of the "big wedding", Carol woke up early to do some computer work before heading for a day of service at the NMCRS and discovered what was happening in the world.  There was a humble beautiful spirit with those two young leaders of England.  The only part that was sad was the words, "til death do you part."  We took this picture of the Columbia Temple the day before.

Trip to Columbia

We needed to get a quilt block to the Mission Office by May 1, so we headed to drop it off and enjoyed the Temple.

the Coventry Green Geese

Our apartment complex has two resident geese who just produced two little goslings.  Dad would go out for his morning jog and the geese would fly overhead with loud honks, go past the pond and the Dad Goose would land on the roof as to stand watch and looked like a big weathervane.  The Mom Goose cares with her three little babies.  Sometimes they head to the other pond for a new adventure.