Chapter 10

Excerpt

“Oh my! Sister Whittaker! Are you okay? I am so sorry!” She just sat there a bit stunned, staring with wide eyes like a deer caught in headlights. “Sister Whittaker?” I wondered if she had a concussion. I scooped up the kids, diaper bag, activity books, Cheerios, and all other paraphernalia and slunk to the back of the chapel. I prayed she came to her senses before the meeting started. Maybe by the time she regained consciousness she wouldn’t know who or what hit her…

That’s just a flavor of our home life while Scott worked 60-plus hours a week. Things weren’t always that awful. On the one hand, we had probably the rowdiest kids in the ward for a long time, but we also had the smartest, wittiest, and most talented (in my humble opinion). Ward leaders and teachers were always amazed at how much our kids knew about the gospel. They had all 13 Articles of Faith and the Ten Commandments memorized, as well as key Book of Mormon verses. They knew about doctrines the average church member was unfamiliar with, sometimes adding insights to their Sunday school and Aaronic priesthood teacher’s lessons. This knowledge came from our daily “family goals,” which included family scripture reading, prayer, singing a song, reading a General Conference talk, and following up with discussion. Each of kids also had a daily piano lesson from their dad…