Friday, March 27, 2009

I Can Listen and Obey- a FHE idea

One thing I've known for a long time is that I wanted to hold a regular Family Home Evening (FHE) in our home, but I've always been at a loss on how to begin. Yes, we had FHE when I was growing up, but when you start a family of your own, it seems so intimidating! We tried starting a while back when we lived in the condo. I think we got through 2 lessons and then it burned out! But lately I have found some great resources online that made me thing, Hey we can do this! So we are trying again.

We had our first one last night, and I'll be honest there were plenty of bumps! Trying to get a 4 year old and 2 year old to stay seated and engaged for what you have planned can be a challenge, so I tried to keep it short, sweet and to the point. We had our first lesson on I Can Listen and Obey- since we are having a very hard time with listening!

We opened by lighting our family candle that we made in one of our last FHE. The candle is just a pillar candle that we decorated with stickers to spell out our family name. We light it to draw attention that something special is about to happen, and to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world, and the reason that we are gathering together as a family. Then we sang Listen, Listen (from the LDS Children's Songbook) and had our opening prayer.

After that the lesson portion was on Jonah and the Whale. I printed out a picture of Jonah and the whale that I colored and used for our visual aide. We talked about how Jonah chose not to listen to God when He asked him to do something special for him. Since he chose not to listen he got swallowed up by a whale, and stayed in the whales belly for 3 days and 3 nights, until he repented and the whale spit him out. Then Jonah went out and did what God had asked him to do. We talked about what happens when we choose not to listen (we make people sad, we might get yelled at) and how we feel when we choose to listen (happy, we make others feel good and special).

Then we played a game working on listening by singing Do As I'm Doing (again from the LDS Children's Songbook). This took a while because Bri went running off through the house, then Jonah followed, and we spent probably 5 minutes trying to round everyone up. But I think it helped them get their wiggles out for the activity that came next.

We made what I called Obedience Jars. These were just jars that I bought at Wal-Mart (they're a little big for this purpose, but they work!). We decorated them with foam stickers with their names and other fun stuff (princess stuff for Bri, cars for Jonah). Then we put 50 kidney beans in each jar. Throughout the week we will use the jars to work on listening. Each time they do something when they are asked to they will get 5 more beans to add to their jar. Each time they choose not to listen they will loose 2 beans. At next week's FHE we will count their beans. If they have 50 or more beans they will get a very special surprise treat! If they have less than 50 we will try again and they can earn their treat next week. I like the idea a lot, we'll see how well it works!

We closed by singing Quickly I'll Obey (LDS Children's Songbook) and then had a closing prayer and a treat of Simon Says Sundaes. Each person got to make a sundae for someone else, but they had to do it the way they wanted to, and the person the sundae was for had to say Simon Says... and then what they wanted. It was really fun, and the sundaes were sooooo good!
Overall I think that it was a pretty good first venture! It will get easier as we do it every week, and the kids get used to the routine of it (and Steven and I too!). I am excited about some of the lessons I have found or written for future weeks, and I'll share them with you for you to use if you want!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Welcome Spring

I am always so happy when the cold weather starts to break, and the days are longer and sunnier! I am NOT a winter person! The only good thing about winter is skiing, and I got to do none of that this year, so it was wasted on me! But I love the spring and I noticed that my mood remarkable improves as the sun comes out warmer and longer. (Maybe I have seasonal depression!!!!)


We were blessed with a gorgeous weekend, and a few days this week were terrific! Wednesday I decided to take the kids to the park for a picnic and an afternoon of running around like wild people. So we packed some PB&J sandwiches, apple slices, pretzels and Kool-aid squeezers and headed off to the park. It was packed full of people, apparently everyone else had the same thought I did. But I really didn't mind because it gave the kids more kids to play with, and meant less entertaining I had to do :) I let them run for a while, then we sat down and ate, and then they ran around some more. It was really breezy, so we had to fight to keep our food from blowing away, but it was so nice! It's amazing how much better food tastes when you eat it outside!

I took the camera and was able to get some pictures snapped before I realized that my batteries were on their last leg so I didn't get very many, but here's a few to share of our outdoor fun! Welcome spring! Could you please stay forever?!?!?!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

News from Babyland

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last post! I'm really getting bad! But yesterday and today we had some doctor's appointments so I wanted to give everyone an update. I had to go in yesterday because I had been cramping for several days (which this early in the game is usually a sign of premature contractions), and then yesterday I started bleeding, so we went in just to check everything out. They said everything appeared to be ok, but the doc ordered my ultrasound to be moved to today instead of two weeks from now. Baby looked great. The heartbeat is nice and strong. It is breech, which is not unusual at this stage in the game (I am 21 weeks today.) but I do have some placenta pervia (meaning that my placenta is covering my cervix) which could explain the bleeding. This could also mean that we could be looking at a c-section if the placenta doesn't move between now and d-day! I've never had one of those, so that would definately be a new experience..and I don't know if I'm looking forward to that recovery so let's keep our fingers crossed!

We decided when we went in that we would find out what we were having if we could see it. You know, sometimes those babies just won't cooperate, but we thought "well, if God wants us to know, the baby will be in the right position for us to see." And boy was it ever in the right position for us to see! But, we're taking a poll. Looking at the picture what do you think it is...a boy or a girl????