FHE

Last week for Family Night we played this game from The Friend called "Time to Decide." We drew cards that gave scenarios the kids might encounter at school and then they gave examples of courageous actions when it was Time to Decide. I hope my children have enough of a solid spiritual foundation that when they are faced with Times to Decide, they will react with an automatic response that brings goodness to the world.

I've really been trying to use The Friend magazine in our Family Nights--it's such an easy way to incorporate gospel teachings. I've also been trying to relinquish control and put the kids in charge of planning, but it's become clear that will be a learning process. They listen much better when they themselves plan it, though.

This week for Family Night we went to the park with several families to play and have a picnic, and mostly to soak up the wonderful weather before it turns cold later this week.

** Do you have Family Night?
** If so, what works for you?

Avocados at 1am

I am continuing my post from yester-night as I eat an avocado sandwich. Yes. Avocados and spinach between bread. Yum. Don't lecture me....avocados are good fat. (Is any fat "good fat?" Why can't cookies be good fat?)

I've been meaning to jot down my Daily Doings each day (to quote Kramer, "Starting...NOW"), but somehow I never get to it. So here is my last week's excitement:Last Monday (Oct. 6) I had just returned from my latest Harebrained Scheme (more on that at a later date) so, at Mimi's request, we had an easy & fun Family Night at the library and then the park. The kids rode bikes on the walking path and Mike & I walked the stroller. I had to snap a few photos with my camera because I love this park at twilight. That night the big lights were on for a softball game, there were families everywhere and it was perfect Americana.
Tuesday (Oct. 7), after shuttling Mimi and Isabelle to & fro for dance, I went to dinner with my fabulous visiting teachers. We do this once a quarter, which is a brilliant idea. Here is what the nipper did most of the day:
Wednesday (Oct. 8) was spent in the usual way...playing with Mimi, house chores, feeding the baby and loving him up...then navigating the after-school chaos of friends, flag football practice, homework, dinner, church obligations...blah blah blah. I went to Young Women and then out to meet the girls for dinner.

Lately I've been toting little Jack around in my carrier because he likes to snoop in all the action. He can only lounge in the carseat for so long before he becomes impatient and wants to see what's going on. Look at his snoopy little face in this photo, checking out my camera. "Hey, what's that?" Little cutie.
Thursday (Oct. 9) was a little of Max's flag football game and a lot of parent/teacher conferences. Then off to meet some neighborhood girlfriends for a relaxing night of dinner and some riotous conversation. I went a little overboard on the after-hours socializing last week, but it's hard to pass up good friends!
Friday (Oct. 10) I went to Old Navy for a kid-winter-clothes-extravaganza, accompanied by Ali. I had all four children and Ali had none. Spoiled girl, with a built-in 14 year old babysitter at home! Someday. Jack got a baby-sized hoodie at Old Navy.
Saturday (Oct. 11) I felt like the Roadrunner. (Meep-meep) Take & pick up Max from Scouts, run Max to pick up a Lego book from the library in a mad dash before it closed, prowl the mall with Max to find winter clothes for the kids, pick up kids' friends for late nighter party, deal with party chaos. Phew! Busy! At least Baby Joe had a diaper blowout on Mike's shift. Actually, he's blown out his diaper on Mike's shift every time for the last 3 weeks. Good job, Baby!

And he found his hand! He looks a little scared of it.
I organized my pantry last week, too. It was driving me crazy. Repeatedly this week I have found myself going to stand in it, just to stare and admire my handiwork. I need to get a life.
Oh, look at what is so cleverly hidden next to the freezer bags!

Hee hee hee. (Hee hee rhymes with See's)

It is now 2:30am and I seriously need to get to bed. I've fallen into a very bad habit of staying up until the wee hours. I've gone nocturnal. After the kids go to bed, I use the hours of 9pm-midnight to hold and snuggle Baby. It's so fun to lush him up and sniff his feathers while he's fast asleep. He doesn't hold still anymore in the daytime, so I treasure the quiet nighttime snuggles when he is a little puddins. The End.

FHE

We practiced how to look up scriptures for Family Night tonight. Isabelle received her baptism scriptures early--due to MUCH badgering of poor Grandma Hanson, who couldn't stand it any longer, broke down & took her to pick them out 9 months early. So we sat on the couch and Mike showed the kids how to find a particular scripture.
I was surprised to hear how well Max & Isabelle can read those difficult words! Max can whip through the verses. Isabelle muddles through, but does better than I thought she could. Am I actually at the stage in life where you read the real scriptures with your kids, and not just the Scripture Stories? That feels a bit surreal. I have big kids! Weird.Incidentally, Mimi was the winner of all scripture chases. She'd flip open her scriptures and yell/announce, "Found it!" No matter that the scripture was Alma 32:14 and she was in Helaman.

It was a simple little Family Night and I felt the peace of the Spirit in our cozy room with my little family. Lima Bean even made himself known by kickboxing me from the inside out the entire time. We said a prayer and kissed them goodnight.

Then, a half hour later, I ruined it all by yelling, "Will you just go to BE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-D!!!!" Actually, "yelling" is a rather mild turn of phrase; it was more like screeching. Yeah, way to go, Mom...that's the way to cap off a cute Family Night.

But in my puny defense: I began Family Home Evening way later than I should have--basically at bedtime, 8pm--it was 8:30 when we finished, and it took them 25 minutes to brush their teeth and get their patooties to bed. Twenty five minutes!!! After years of living with me and witnessing The Transformation Into WitchMom occur promptly at 8:30, you'd think my kids would be afraid of me at Witching Hour. But no. Instead they artlessly ask for more kisses, and even a snuggle.

The nerve.

It's time for A Cold One.

FHE: Scriptionary

Tonight for Family Night we played Scripture Pictionary on whiteboards and then Apples to Apples. And I'm bugged at myself that I forgot to snap a few photos of scriptionary because the kids' pictures were so cute! Grrrrr.

Because the kids were out of school today, it felt like a Saturday. I kept panicking, feeling like it was Saturday, and thinking I had a primary lesson to prepare for tomorrow. So all day we basically loafed inside while a blizzard raged outside. When the snow finally stopped, there were 8 inches on the driveway! The kids went out and played in the snow (except Mimi who stayed inside, sick & grouchy) and I finished this book. Considering I have loved every book by Robin McKinley, I was disappointed by this one. It was slow, plodding and failed to ever just capture me. But I plowed on, thinking I'd find a denouement at some point. Nope.

This week is uncharacteristically clear of obligations for me. A perfect week to schedule some projects. Last week I whipped through my house, organizing and decluttering basically every room. So this week I think I'll start filing my kids' scrapbooks of schoolwork and artwork that I've saved. It's all in a big mess of a pile. And I think I will also start on Stie's Amazing Job Charts. I wish I had an artistic, fun, crafty project, but all I can think to do are organizing projects. I think I must be nesting--way ahead of time.

So here's to a great tomorrow!

Family Night: Thank You Notes

Despite my mother's rather scrupulous training in my youth, I am an inadequate writer of thank-you notes. I have decided I dare not hold my head up high in the world any longer and am turning over a new leaf.

Tonight's Family Home Evening was dedicated to the writing of thank you notes. After a (very) brief lesson on gratitude, I scattered gaudy art supplies all over the counter and the kids went to work.

{Good luck deciphering that tiny writing, Grannie.}

{Isabelle takes painstaking care in her crafts.}

Long after everyone else was finished and off to play upstairs, she was laboriously poring over her notes. She seems to be a project-perfectionist. It's so cute; she takes such satisfaction in the end result--and such delight in the process!

{Mimi drew her thank you notes.}

Each note had a rendering of the giver and Mimi together in joy. She had fun but when the last scraggly-haired person was finished, she jumped off her barstool and demanded to be put in her jammies. She was fast asleep in 10 minutes.

Gingerbread Girls & Boys

{my gingergirl. i had to snatch one for myself to decorate.}

Well, my shopping is done and I am devoting all of December to my favorite Christmas activites! Last night we had a Christmas Family Home Evening: we made the gingerbread dough and cut it out, played a Nativity matching game & read Christmas books by the tree upstairs. It was the epitome of Christmas cozy.

Tonight we decorated the gingerbread girls & boys. Max, in his typical mathmatical style, divided up & distributed the cookies so that all three kids had an equal amount to decorate. I was on "filling-the-frosting-bags" duty and Mike was on "help-Mimi" duty. (Next time I do this, I will try to remember to make the frosting & fill the bags while the kids are away at school; it took a half hour just to make the frosting & mix the colors...not to mention fill the bags!)

Mimi was actually very adept at holding the frosting bag. Look at her 45-degree angle!
Max was having a ball; his gingerboys got kookier & kookier as he went.


They finished & Mike took them upstairs to dump them in the tub and wash the frosting out of their hair. I was left with a brigade of gingerbread boys & girls and...a very messy kitchen, which will be waiting for me in the morning. Ugh. I hate kitchen-mess first thing in the morning.

I will just have to reward myself for KP duty by scarfing a ginger-girl!

Christmas Time is Here

I stood out in the frigid cold for a half hour, trying to get a good photo but my red & white candycane lights do not show up!

Last night for Family Home Evening we put up the tree. Actually, Mike put it up while I watched. He told me I'm not allowed to attempt it because I'd fall and break my arm. Considering my accident-prone nature, he's correct.

The ladder actually teetered during this maneuver. Good thing it wasn't ME up there!

I helped by snapping photos and making hot chocolate.


When he saw me happily snapping away, Mike said, "Are you actually blogging this?!" I replied, "Duh!" and then, "you better SMILE", you look a little frazzled."

He smiled. Yes, he DID. Look closely. You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it; he's not exactly effusive in his emotions.

Evidently, Sis is allowed on the ladder. But not me.

Typical Mimi. Can't you just hear the "Charlie Brown Christmas" music playing in the background as I type this? Because it is! I've been playing Christmas music now for at least a week. Next up: "A Muppet Christmas Carol!" The best Christmas movie ever.

***Do you have a favorite Christmas show?

*** Is your tree up yet?

***What’s your favorite Christmas music?

Family Night with the Star Wars Maniacs

Tonight for FHE Mike gave a brief lesson on being kind to each other and how families are supposed to lift one another up and how the home is a sanctuary. (that was a run-on sentence, i know, but i am exhausted)

And then we turned on Star Wars Episode III (my kids are obsessed with Star Wars), intending to allow the kids to watch only for 1/2 hour. Yeah right.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN EPISODE III ???

It's so gripping that we simply had to watch until the very end. So at 10:30 we finally put the kids to bed. Tucked them in so that they could have visions of sugarplums, er, Darth Vadar, dancing in their heads. I will get back to you tomorrow on just how many times they all come down to our bed tonight, utterly terrified.

What kind of parent does this?! Certainly not a responsible one!

***have YOU ever allowed your kids to stay up later than they should on a school night? (watching scary movies???)

***what did you do for FHE this week?