One way of readiness!!!

Years ago in Homer there was the wonderful Anderson family.  They were a strong and important large family to our small Church Group. They home schooled their children with their Grandma Edna being their school Marm.  They were outstanding in my book. The oldest child was a daughter named Sarah.

Sarah is all grown up now.  Married and has 7 children!!....girls, ages 18, 15 and 13, and boys, ages 10, 9, 7 and 5. Her oldest daughter is a sophomore at BYU. How time does fly!!!

I love to prepare for General Conference and so does Sarah! We are at different ages/stages of life but our hearts are on the same page with loving General Conference.

She shared on FB how she readies things for Conference....

I love General Conference and think we ought to celebrate. So, a couple weeks before, we use FHE to plan what everyone wants on the menu for the weekend. Whatever the kids pick, they usually help prepare/cook. It ends up being quite a feast available during the two days of conference. We put down a sheet, so the kids can eat in the living room while watching conf. (they usually don't eat in the living room). I don't keep track of how much dessert is eaten or if they live on fruit snacks for the two days. I also buy juice boxes and it is a big deal that they can have up to 3 a day  Tomorrow for FHE we will pull out our pictures of the 1st Pres. and Quorum of the Twelve and hang those up around the tv, (the kids like to match the speakers up with their pictures), and we all work together to get the tv room really clean and conference ready. We have never insisted that the kids stay in the room and listen to general conference, but they all do. In April we started a new tradition and everyone got a new conf. journal. Conference Celebration has become one of our family traditions that my kids really look forward too. And it isn't just the feast, this year we received tickets to go to the conf. center and they are so excited to go see where General Conference really happens. Our two youngest aren't old enough and are highly offended that they don't get to go too, even after I explained they would not have snacks and would have to wear church clothes. This was a bit long, but this is what a General Conference Celebration looks like at the Crawfords.

I asked Sarah....

How long have you been doing your Gen. Conf. celebration? did you sort of hobble it together at the beginning or just lay it all out in one fell swoop? do your friends do similar things? did you get ideas from others or you just thought this would work for your family?

Sarah responded....

I have always loved general conference, it is something I look forward to and wanted to share with my family. My oldest daughter and I tried to remember and think we have been doing this for at least 10 years. Our celebration has grown with the kids, and the ideas have just evolved over the years. The girls wanted to help cook, so they started to help choose what we were serving. Now the boys help with some of the cooking. The pictures came into being because I did a sharing time about the Prophet and Apostles so I had individual pictures. We have just added to them over the years. It is great because the younger kids love to match who is speaking to their picture. The special family home evening cleaning/prep of the tv room started a few years ago out of desperation. I knew I had a busy week ahead of me, not enough time to plan family home evening or clean the house. But it works and it helps show/teach respect and we started talking about how we prepare ourselves and our homes for conference. We are so blessed to have living prophets and apostles on the earth, it is a big deal to be able to hear what God wants them to tell us, we should get ready!

Some of the blessings I didn't expect have been tucking little boys in at night on Saturday and they are so excited that they still get to have conference the next day. How much fun it is to watch my girls make pie together, or argue about who get to make which kind. Hearing my children agree that Conference is at least as good, probably better than Thanksgiving. Having my 9 year old say that he wanted to go to the Conference Center for a session of conference because he wants to be in the same room as the Prophet, not just see him on tv. Knowing that another son, that seems like he isn't listening and doesn't care is still going to surprise me when we are discussing later, who talked about what, and he will remember what I can't. And hearing throughout the weekend, I love General Conference!

Thank you, Sarah!!  and thanks to all you Mothers that work so hard to make this a meaningful weekend for your entire family.  A lot of work but a lot of rewards and GREAT memories!  We are each preparing for a spiritual experience and that is super exciting!!!!!