Bethanyology

Last night Colin and I got to go to the Oakland Temple and work for a couple of hours.  Kim willingly watched all three kids for us with very little notice.  Yay Kim!  Of course, the kids LOVE having their aunt babysit, and we’re always grateful for her generosity.  It’s a strangely big deal for us to go anywhere more than a couple minutes away without the kids.  When we went to the opera last week we had to hire a babysitter for eight hours in order to go to a location that’s about 40 minutes away.  When we went to the temple yesterday, I left the house around 5:30 and we didn’t get home until 11:30.  Six hours for a two-hour event that’s only 40 minutes away.  It was a huge realization for me after I had Degen that everything takes longer with kids, and it takes even longer with three kids (but not three times longer, thank goodness!). 

Anyway, it ended up that the temple session we attended was in Spanish with subtitles and it was so good for my brain type and learning curve to have those subtitles!  And it’s always fun to listen to a foreign language.  I’m thinking I want to go to foreign language sessions from now on.  The temple is a comforting, peaceful place and it did my heart good to go to my first full session in eight months. 

Yesterday I also tried my hand at indexing for FamilySearch for the first time.  FamilySearchIndexing.org has a program where they’ve scanned millions of microfilms of census and other records and regular people like you and I volunteer to transcribe them from home, then they make the searchable images available for free online.  It’s really fun to think of being part of a huge collaborative effort like that.  And I was surprised at how easy it is.  You go to the web site and register, download a little program, and then pull down a “batch” to transcribe on- or offline at your leisure into a form they’ve prepared with detailed instructions, then click a button to send your transcription back.  They have it all triple-checked for accuracy, then they publish it to share with the world!  This is something even I, with three little kids and sharing a car, can do as a meaningful service to others.  Simple, easy, and doable in small time segments.  I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to get outside themselves for a few minutes a day.