The Boston Baked Boltons

Where did September go? It seemed like it would never get here, then it was over and done with before we realized.

I never thought that I would hear Howard say that he was tired of flying, but after his adventurous last trip, he said that he was tired of the hassles of flying. He is still teaching the Gospel Doctrine Class, and hasn't had to find too many substitutes. It has been amazing how his travel schedule has worked this year, and he hasn't needed to be away on too many weekends. He does a nice job in the Gospel Doctrine class. He would like it if more people would come on time to class, but he always has a full class by the end of his lesson. He put up the door to the laundry room for me. I had asked him how long it would take, and he told me it would be a couple of hours. I got all the materials ready and we started hanging it. After a few errors and many hours later, the door was hung. It is so nice to not have to have cat hair on my clean laundry. The cat now sleeps on the carpet in the toy room, or on the chairs that are stored in the basement.

I am still trying to read as much as possible and have found the book, "Fire in the Bones, William Tyndale--Martyr, Father of the English Bible," by S. Michael Wilcox fascinating. I was even more interested in General Conference when they were talking about him and his work on translating and printing the Bible into English. It is interesting how the Lord sets his work up on this earth. Without some of the major players in World History, our church might have had a different outcome, or beginning. I am still running, though as I get older, I get slower. I will soon be the tortoise on the side of the road. Actually, there is a gray haired older woman that runs near our neighborhood, and she can keep really good time. Hopefully, I will be like that as I get older. I had a great time in Utah, even though the event that brought me there wasn't a joyful event, it made me grateful for travel by air and for family. The baptism and the blessing were wonderful. I haven't heard all the nieces and nephews sing a Primary song before, and it brought tears to my eyes to hear them all singing "We'll Bring the World His Truth." I am extremely grateful to my siblings for teaching their children the ways of the Lord. My nieces and nephews are wonderful human beings. I love watching them together.

Siovhan had a few tests done on her stomach in September. The Doctors have discovered that she has GERD, gastric reflux disease and she is on medicine. Hopefully the medicine will help her to sleep better and to eat better. She hasn't been sleeping well or eating well for a long time now. Siovhan loves her classes, especially her news writing class. She is well involved in her Ward's social life. She was made the "Grandmother" over all the Family Home Evening groups--which means she is in charge of the family home evening mothers and fathers and making sure they are doing their jobs. She loves this calling. Her Bishop has a standing order, that if Siovhan is waiting to see him, she gets in first. How does that work? When I am sitting waiting for the Bishop, our clerk tells me that the Bishop wants to talk to me for a while, so could the others go first? I need the Siovhanposition- of-power.

Braden is doing well in Seminary and School. While I was away in Utah, he filled in for me and took care of the cooking, the laundry and the cleaning of the house. I came home to mopped floors, folded laundry and lots of good-looking leftovers. He did a great job of making sure that Mikaela and Ben were taken care of and that they had their homework done. I don't know what I would do without him. He called me several times a day to give me updates and ask about certain things.

Ben is still Ben. He has his wonderful moments of wisdom, and when one of the other children are talking back to me, he reminds them, lovingly, who they are talking to. He does his homework and then takes care of the dog. He loves to take Sherlock out on walks and loves to be outdoors. I think he is overcoming his fear of the unknown and is starting to feel a little more at ease on his own.

Mikaela is still loving reading. She purchased a Junie B. Jones book while I was in Utah, and is almost done reading it. She would have finished this week, but she had a lot of extracurricular activities which took her away from home in the afternoons, and when she would start reading at night, she would fall asleep with her book open. She loves to be out on her bike, and would ride ten hours a day, if given the opportunity. She wants to be a grown up girl soon, she doesn't like the waiting. I remember Siovhan saying the same thing.

We went to Sharon/South Royalton, Vermont the weekend of General Conference. The Church owns a campsite there, and we stayed in one of the cabins. The air during the day was a cool 70 degrees, the 34-degree nights however, made us all appreciate warm fires, and warm blankets. We toured the countryside in the morning and discovered a farm in Woodstock, Vermont. It was fun to see the children petting the newly born calves and sheep. Then we learned about chickens and their roosting habits. After that we petted a chicken. I never knew that chickens liked to be petted like cats. We were able to do a lot of other farm style things. It is similar to Young Living Farm, but a lot more hands on activities for the youth. It was a learning experience for us all. The farmhouse was on a huge piece of land, but there was an even larger piece of land across the street that housed the family's mansion. It was amazing. The whole area is an historic landmark and part of it is owned by the government as a National Park. That night Howard and the boys attended the Priesthood Session at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial building. They were among six others in attendance. The church building wasn't even being used. While the men were in the Priesthood Meeting, Mikaela and I huddled around the warm fire, drank hot chocolate, played the card game: There's a Moose in Your House, and read Junie B. Jones. We even sang some campfire songs. We both became tired and decided to turn in for the night. Just as we got in bed, the men came home. I then got up and made them hot chocolate, and returned to bed, only to find Mikaela fast asleep, and as we were sharing a bed, she was taking all the bed. We came home on Sunday to listen to conference from our home. We had decided that it would be best to make the three-hour trip in the morning and beating the traffic, instead of fighting the traffic at night. For those of you who don't know about Fall in New England, the traffic around the borders of Massachusetts gets very busy, much like leaving a BYU football game (when they are in a winning season).

If any of you want to spend time in Vermont during the month of December, it is only about two and a half hours away. The celebration on the 23rd of December might be attended by the Bolton's of Massachusetts.

That's all for now folks. Hope that your October is a fun and family eventful month. We love you all

Love, M