Adventures Out and About

Today was a great day. The sun was shining and it was ALMOST warm out. This past week I had been wanting to go see the elk at the reserve.
So today, since the kids get out early on Fridays, I decided to go. Elyse and Tony had to bug out, but the rest of us went. Although the boys kept asking me, "Why do we have to go?" I told them, "It's because I'm the mean mom."
As soon as we got there, we were able to get our tickets, and get to the trailer pulled by HUGE horses. As soon as Katia saw them, she was ready to go home. I told her we would sit at the back far from the horses, and that helped. They all loved it. The fresh air was great! We were able to get so close to them. There were over 350. So many. I'm glad we were able to go. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Tony and Elyse had come.







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The First Lost Tooth

Today jayden lost his first tooth. Then he lost it!! Down the drain!! Not good. So we made that bathroom off limits and when Dad got home, he took it apart to try and get the tooth. Well, teeth are lighter than rings, so it went all the way through.
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Cell Phones

Cell Phones are a great tool, but I have felt that they can also be a hindrance to communication.
Picture this: a room full of teenagers. All with their phones out. texting. looking at their phones. no one saying a word. Unless it's on the phone. they might laugh. they might grunt. but they aren't communicating with the people in the same room with them.
Then if their phone dies or is lost, they can't function. There is NO ONE to COMMUNICATE with. But they aren't communicating. (Heaven forbid they talk to someone who lives in the same house as them. Or even invite a friend over to just hang out. You know, like we use to do. Eat pizza, watch a movie, listen to music.)
We have proven this several times. They will be texting someone and trying to coordinate an activity, meeting, something. Then it will turn out that what was being "said" wasn't what was meant, thought, happening....a big mess, to say the least.
Well, here is an article I read this morning that shocked me and also had me nodding my head.
http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2010/02/24/news/news04-02-24-10.txt Pin It

We had fun doing:

I love to find fun ways of teaching that I can enjoy.
This past week we have had a couple of fun things that turned into little play times.
The first started when we got a bunch of Care Bear figurines.
This began when we were just playing with them. I had been doing desk work, so we started lining them up on desk. We then started putting them in columns according to color and ended up with a pictograph. We compared and found which had the most, least, same, and other such stuff. The girls loved it. Then it was turned into chaos as we threw them everywhere.



Tonight there was a light on the floor in the girls' room after we turned out the light. Delta wanted to know what this was. So we looked out the window to see where it was coming from. She saw how light it was in the back yard and decided it was a light shining in the window. Emma looked out the window and saw the moon. So we all four looked out the window at the small moon that was making so much light. We talked about moon beams, and how when there are no clouds, the moon can seem much brighter. They found all the places in the room where the moon was shining. On the bed, desk, pillow, floor. Delta started "eating" the moon beams. So Emma and Katia followed. I asked if it was delicious and Katia said it was. So I asked if it tasted like cheese. She said, "Like cheese...and sausage." The girls had fun looking at, and eating, the moon until I finally convinced them (after MUCH weeping) that it was late and we had to go to bed. Delta wouldn't let me close the curtains, because she wanted to sleep by the moon beam.
These were just silly little things, that can be fun and a tiny bit educational, at the same time. Pin It

FHE Lesson: Life--With all the Trimmings

This is a FHE that we did as a Relief Society several years ago. I've not been able to find the book (Bright Impressions Family Home Evening Vol 3, pg. 43-46) so I thought I would share what I have. I don't have the clip art. It's been lost over the years.
The kids have loved this lesson and pay attention to it better than I thought. they will even remember what each of the hamburger trimmings stand for.

Scripture: We believe in being ^bhonest, true, ^cchaste, ^dbenevolent, virtuous, and in doing ^egood to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we ^fhope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to ^gendure all things. If there is anything ^hvirtuous, ⁱlovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Song: Teach Me to Walk in the Light

Lesson:

The Journey
I started on a journey, not many years ago,
Just where the road would lead me, I really did not know.
I left my Father's house that day; I was anxious and afraid.
I knew that I must leave Him, for the plans had now been made.

So I took myself a body and started on my way,
Down the road of Eternity and hoped I would not stray.
At first the road was very clear, I walked along with ease.
It wasn't going to be so hard. My Father would be pleased.

Then I saw the path of pleasure, it looked so nice and gay.
It wouldn't hurt to stop awhile, because I need not stay.
There were paths in all directions, It was very hard to choose.
"Why not try them all?" I thought, "I surely could not lose."

I saw the path of evil that's laid out for the weak.
I simply couldn't pass it by without a little peek.
And then the path of worldly gain, it looked like such high style,
I simply had to linger on for just a little while.

By now I was so weary I surely needed rest,
So I took the path of discouragement, to see if it was best.
I rested there for a while, but found no peace of mind,
And so I started on again to see what I could find.

And as I walked along one day, I was weary as I could be.
I wondered why it was so hard, I simply could not see.
I thought of all the steps I took and all the paths I'd tried,
I wondered why it was so hard to find the path to God.

Then suddenly I realized that the road was straight and fine,
And all those little side trips were just a waste of time.

-Author Unknown

Sometimes we make life hard for ourselves by the paths we choose. We usually get as much out of life as we put into it. Have you seen people that seem happy and satisfied with life?
(Use either pictures, toys, or a real hamburger with all the trimmings as you are talking.)



(Display a hamburger bun. We used a toy hamburger and then some condiments out of the fridge.) The bun represents your life. There really isn't much to it by itself. It's what you do with it that livens it up and makes it palatable.
Spirituality is the meat of life. (show hamburger and place it on the bun) Spirituality brings much flavor to our lives. Without spirituality we tend to wonder down wrong paths. We may find ourselves doing things that are unkind, dishonest or self defeating. But sometimes we can come across as being so spiritual that we appear to make life dry and boring. There are things we can add to our spiritual life to help us grow and make life more meaningful.
Let's garnish our life with motivation. (add a slice of cheese) There's nothing like motivation to add that much needed flavor.
Add a few onions for individuality. (put onions on) This is an important item. It adds zest to the hamburger just like remembering, enjoying, and appreciating each other as unique individuals brings zest to our lives.
(Add tomato) Add a slice of tomato for kindness. Heavenly Father has asked us to love one another. How better to show our love that by being kind?
Add a leaf of lettuce to remember to be clean and well-kept. (put on lettuce)
Next, add a few sliced pickles to represent a sense of humor. If you have a sense of humor you can laugh at things that might otherwise get you down. (place sliced pickles on)
Put mayonnaise on it for a positive attitude. (add mayo) You can't accomplish worth while goals with out a positive attitude.
Add a bit of mustard for self-control. (add mustard) Having self control keeps us on the right track and keeps what is really important in front.
Finish off with a dab of catsup for humility. (add catsup) If we are humble and willing to receive inspiration and acknowledge our Father in Heaven in all things we will enrich our lives a hundred fold.
(Show the hamburger all put together) We can have a well-rounded life just by adding all the garnishes to life that we have added to the hamburger.
(show another plain bun and pace it beside the other) What kid of life can we have without spirituality and all the garnishes that make life enjoyable and worth while? We need to apply ourselves to gain a complete and happy life so that we will be able to receive our ultimate goal of Eternal Life.

Refreshments:
Serve hamburger cookies for dessert.

Hamburger Cookies
small amount of butter cream frosting (canned worked well for us)
color part of the frosting yellow for mustard.
vanilla wafers
green tinted coconut (I just colored it with food coloring)
round chocolate-covered mint patties (like York Peppermint Patties)
Warm honey-opt (we skipped this)
Sesame seeds-opt (we skipped this too)
(We also cut out pickles and tomatoes from fruit roll-ups)

To make each cookie, spread yellow icing on flat side of one vanilla wafer. Add chocolate patty. Spread white icing on other vanilla wafer. Sprinkle coconut on icing. Place on top of chocolate patty. Brush top of "bun" with honey and sprinkle seeds. (Like I said, we skipped the honey. Added the "tomatoes" and "pickles" or "Leaf-lettuce".)

You can also do this during the summer and have a barbecue. That would be so fun. We usually do these more "intense" lessons during the summer when we can't go outside to do much.

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Find Joy in the World Around You

This past winter the sun hasn't been visible very often. This has been hard for me, as I suffer from depression and the sun really helps with that. I am one who opens the curtains as soon as I get up. I also don't close them until it's really getting dark. So, when the sun hasn't shone much, I've had to find other ways to help.

So I decided that I would find beauty in other things.

The frost on the trees with a blue sky background. The sun happened to shine that evening. it was so beautiful.

The falling snow. It is so beautiful.


The birds that came to eat the apples left on the tree.



The snow on the pine tree.


The beautiful mountains.


The frost on the trees.

Even on the cloudy/inversion days, There is Beauty All Around. Pin It

Chuck

Get in a chucking mood. Get rid of the broken toys, puzzles with lost pieces, broken crayons, colored in notebooks, torn reading books. Donate the toys that are no longer played with, the books no one has read or wanted to have read, the clothes that no longer fit, or toss the ones that are worn out.
If you are wondering what you should/could/will get rid of, go to this link at flylady and she will help. (She helped me. I'm a keeper. I still have papers from Kindergarten.)
So where to start?
Well, I started in my room. I went through everything on my desk. Everything on my floor, under my bed, in the closet, and started by putting it where it went. If it didn't go in the room, I put it outside my door. I tossed what could be tossed. Separated things that I can't wear, use, or don't love to go to DI. After my allotted time was up, I put it all away.
Then I moved on to the toy area, the family room, the laundry room. I'm still going through the storage room and may still be doing that when spring comes.
I went to DI 3 times last week and already have a load ready to go for this week.
We are doing a give and take table at Relief Society each month, but I don't want to house these things and run the risk of the kids, or actually me, getting them out of the "give" pile before it comes around again.
(I have a place in my laundry room where things go that we are going to donate. This has been great to have a place. I don't always have this much I'm willing to part with, so the pile isn't usually that large.)
I have also chucked a ton. In fact, my trash can is already over-flowing and trash day isn't for 3 more days. I've had to jump on my recycling to condense it, and am hoping that it will come out when it's dumped into the truck.
Now, I'm not usually like this. Like I said, I'm a keeper. But when I get in this kind of mood, I hurry and get as much gone through as I can. I told my oldest, that if she wants to go through things and toss anything, she better do it now, before this phase passes. Hoping that I can do the same.
Now, when it comes to sentimental items. Or things the kids HAVE to keep, we will take a picture of it, and then after the art work, science sculpture, poster for Social Studies has been displayed long enough, we can chuck it, because we have PROOF that it existed. I've also tried to do this with the outfits that are so cute I could NEVER part with them. This has happened quite a bit with the twins. Yes, I know, I have less room to store these things than when the oldest was little. But it is just SO CUTE!! So I make sure and take a photo of them wearing the certain outfit. And you know what, It doesn't take up that much room. It's on my hard drive, and backed up. And if they looked exceptionally cute that day, I'll frame the picture so I can see it more often.
Taking pictures has really helped me.
Also, having a scrapbook has helped. You know, the old kind. My mom put one together for me. It has my pictures, art work, letters, specially birthday cards, ribbons, programs, awards.....things that meant a lot. This way I still have them, but they aren't just in some box collecting dust. I need to do this for the kids. I'm slowly working on it. Hopefully I can get them done before they have kids of their own.
Now, I'd better run. There is another place I want to tackle and chuck things from. I'd better hurry before this urge to relinquish items of sentimental value has past. Pin It

Child's apron tutorial

This is the cutest apron ever, and the tutorial is well done. She also has a great tip for gathering a ruffle. I'm definitely going to copy it with my next gathering expedition. Pin It

Enjoy the Holidays

We love looking forward to all the holidays. Valentine's Day is exciting and fun. This year I did my
DH's on Wednesday. I wanted him to enjoy it longer than usual. His BDay is on Tuesday, so that doesn't give him much time between. I also did the kids' on Friday. Then, for the past week I've been practicing making heart shaped pancakes (the kids got a little burned out by this pa
Wednesday). Yesterday we made our crepes pink. Had muffins today with Valentine muffin cups. DH always sends flowers to the older girls, and balloons to the rest of them. He brings me flowers too.
Well, today was an amazing day. It was so good to wake up this morning (I got to sleep all night in my own bed and Everyone else did the same thing!) then spend some time sitting next to my husband who didn't have to go to any meetings.
Then this evening we made dumplings, pot stickers, and orange chicken to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Here is where we found the recipes:
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/shrimp-dumplings-828421/
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/pork-dumplings-828409/
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/recipes-by-cuisine/asian-recipes/cooking-dumplings-828489/
We usually have a candle lit dinner for Valentines. It took us 2 hours to make everything and by the time it was done, that was not on our minds. But it was good.
Tomorrow we are all going to the movie. Katia has been asking to go for the past 2 weeks. Jayden has been singing songs he's learned at school to go with the Presidents' Day theme. We watched a video about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We'll hopefully sleep in to start the day. That is MY plan. We'll see if it's the little girls' plan.

Well, enjoy your holidays. Have fun where ever you can. And most of all, enjoy your family. Pin It

Portraits

Friday I picked up Delta's and Emma's pictures. They actually turned out great! Usually at this age, we can't get them to behave well enough to get more than one. I hope this continues. But I wanted to share a few that I loved, and then some layouts they did. So much fun!















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Adding Color

Add color to your house. Especially when the sun doesn't shine for a while.
Sometimes when I have to sit and hold a child who is sleeping or sick or just wants mom to hold them, but not read a book (I know, strange) then I will surf online. Well, the places I frequent are craft sites. I know, I know, I don't have the time to do many crafts, but I really want to do crafts. I have been gathering the items needed to make so many things that it may take me a year to just get them started, let alone done.
I happened upon this site: the purl bee.
It looked so fun and festive. Well, I was so busy with other things, so I couldn't get to it. I decided that I could make them for Valentine's Day!! So as I would go to Hobby Lobby, I would pick up a few pieces a felt. Then one night after the kids were locked in their room (I wish, but Delta can open the door), I started cutting out hearts, all sizes from about an inch, to 4 inches; in the colors I wanted. Purple, pink, fushia, white. I just sat at my machine with white thread in it and just fed through the hearts, all facing the same direction, and in a random order. Here is what I ended up with:



It really added color to the room. Not as much as bright orange, green, and yellow, but sure helped.


You can also see that for FHE one week we copied this idea and made colorful hearts. Unfortunately only one has survived the wrath of little girls. (they are currently in destruction mode) Pin It

Behind!

Here is what I'm gonna do, I've got so much I want to share, and where I'm stuck holding sick kids all day, I might as well type. I've been running around trying to keep up with the house, the laundry, the kids, the noses, the diapers, drinks, meds, breathing treatments, birthdays, throw up, that now I decided to just sit and enjoy this time I can sit and hold them. Because I rarely get to just sit and hold DD age 16.75. So here goes....

BTW...this will be a little out of order (it's actually the 9th, but all this began on the 2nd, so...), sorry ahead of time. Pin It

Let Yourself Recoup

Recoup. How do you do this? I have no idea. This topic is on my mind, as we have 4 sick kids, and 2 sick adults in the house. One well toddler, and one well teenager.
So, how do you get the rest you need to deal with what you have to do? Well, you let things go. The past two days I've had to let things go. The front room has been a sick room. We've just laid around watching movies and drinking lots of fluids. We've had vicks and tissues close by. And ate mainly snack type foods, and easy dinners. Dosed out lots of ibuprofen and acetaminophen. And have watched Strawberry Shortcake more times than I'd like to remember.
I did wash laundry and dishes. Tried to fold laundry and put it away. Finally got the clean dishes put away right before refilling it with the dirty ones. Then running it again.
So what have I been doing? Well, holding sick girls. Sleeping. Nothing. Taking cough medicine and sucking on cough drops.
What have I wanted to do? Sew. Read. Clean out the boys room. Finish up shopping for DS's (almost age 6) birthday. Have preschool. (I was all ready with some fun activities planned. I may just take the items around to the children and they can do it on their own.)
I did get out tonight and go to RS. We were decorating fondant cupcakes. I wanting to see if they had any great ideas that I can use on the cake this weekend. I think just refamiliarizing myself with the technique and remembering that last time it was way too thick will help this process go much more smoothly. We'll see. Atleast I have someone local I can call if I need help. My sister makes beautiful cakes with fondant, but she lives 3 hours away. And i only stayed for the demonstration, so I could get back and help with the little ones.
Well, I hope that I didn't get too off track from sharing that what I should (and you should) do if you find yourself as a sick mom. Rest. Take care of yourself. At least try to take it easy. (My sister in law wears slippers to remind herself to take it easy. I do this most of the time.) Remind yourself that if you rest now, it won't take you so long to get feeling better. And the mess will still be there. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be much better. We'll have to see what the night brings. Pin It

Enjoy Yourself! (or just be miserable)

As a stay-at-home mom, there are a lot of UN-enjoyable things you must do everyday. Toilets, for one. Mopping, for another. But I have found that giving myself a reward for doing these things really helps.
I will give myself a list of things I have to do before I:
-get on the computer.
-watch Good Things Utah.
-sew
-craft

But then I go and enjoy myself.
Here are some things I did last week to "reward" myself for .... folding the light colored load of laundry, ... :

I made hair bows with Elyse.





Made Katia a Valentine skirt.



Made a pillow case for Jayden.
Went to sew at DSIN's and continued making the Potato Heads. (here is a link if you want to make your own.)
Worked on a quilt with Elyse.

So, what do you like to do after you have swept the floor for the bajillionth time? Pin It