Conference Sunday

I love general conference Sunday. When I was single I would sometimes take a drive up in the mountains with a radio and a notebook and just be inspired.
Since children have come into the picture I find it harder to focus on the messages given by the prophet and our leaders. I've realized it is just part of life but I keep trying to find ways to help them listen, so I can listen.
One thing I did last conference that worked great (it didn't really work this time) was, I put a bowl of pennies by the TV and told them to listen for 2 specific words, like families and the Holy Ghost. Every time they hear one of the words they can go pick a penny. By the end of conference they can exchange the pennies into larger coins and keep them. The trick is to not shout out "I heard. . . " For my kids, competition works a little better. They always want to see who got the most pennies. At least this way I know they are hearing some of the messages.
For our last Sunday session we made these Haunted gingerbread houses. Everyone had a lot of fun and I think it even help us concentrate better than listening alone.
Check out the concentration faces on Scott and Will. hee hee Brennen spent most of his time eating the candy but at least he was quiet. That was HUGE for him.
There were a few talks that I really appreciated one that stands out is the one on Its okay to say no. Tell your kids if you have a bad feeling about something they will understand. And just stand up for what you feel is not in harmony with what you would have in your home. In my case it would be TV shows that aren't very appropriate. I know I will be hated half the time. But I would rather be able to answer to my God than bow down to what's cool.

Day of Rest

Who ever coined the phrase "Sunday is a day of Rest" was either
A. without a family
B. not a member of our church
Sundays are CRAZY busy/hectic/stressful/tiring
Here is a sample of what an average sunday is for my family
7:00am wake up make bed before the little one wakes up (too late)
7:10 shower (hurry little one is trying to break down the door)
7:20 teeth and makeup "Peter get that toy out of the toilet!!"
7:25 make bed (so one room in the house has order)while a crying child is hanging on my leg
7:30 try to pick up what used to be the upstairs. (little one is following me around crying)
7:45 wake up the big kids (my little shadow is at my heels still crying)
cleaning is useless this is supposed to be a day of rest
8:00 wake up the big kids again
8:10 feed little one breakfast (he finally stopped crying)
8:15 Scott is off to choir practice and meetings
There goes my help for the day
8:45 Feed Brennen breakfast wake up big kids
9:00 argue with William about getting ready for church
9:10 get church bag ready. trip over little one, he starts crying again
9:15 last minute touches on my lesson
9:30 big kids get dressed
9:32 big kids change because they didn't dress for church
9:40 did you brush your teeth?
9:45 where are your shoes?
10:00 load the car
10:01 NO, we can't take guns to church
10:02 Go eat your breakfast
10:05 hairdoo's x 5
10:15 big kids go eat breakfast!!!
10:16 Where's Brennen?
10:17 Brennen is playing in the dirt
10:18 change Brennen's clothes (he peed his pants and played outside)
10:19 William did you eat?
10:20 get myself dressed
10:25 wipe the gooberslobers off of my fresh shirt
10:30 finally everyone is in the car to go to church
10:35 Did I put dinner in the oven?

You would think once we got to church things would settle down. WRONG
wrestle with Peter. Tell Brennen to shush he us talking way too loud. William has to go potty. Breakup a fight over the 1 toy motorcycle we brought. Brennen has to go potty. Ellie's mad because she wants Peters snack. Didn't you eat breakfast? pick up the spilled goldfish. etc.etc
you get the picture and that is just sacrament meeting.
I'm in the primary so it's more dealing with children for another 2 hours. (put your feet down. keep your clothes on. Don't tip your chair. keep your hands to yourself. . . Fit a spiritual lesson in somehow.
Time to go home. Where are all my kids? Ellie is on the stage practicing for her next debut. William is at the bishops office trying to score another piece of candy. Who knows where Brennen is. Scott has more meetings we will see him later. Finally get home and the chaos starts all over again.
So I ask you. . . Who was the crazy person that said Sunday is a day of rest?!?!?!?

Sunday Walk

One of my favorite things is to go for a walk every sunday. The kids complain every week but as soon as we get walking they love it. So why do they complain? who knows. I guess it is just their way of trying to make us crazy. Brennen usually brings his "shake and go" car. This sunday Peter wanted in on the action. It was such a sweet moment of the simple things in life I had to keep it.

Eater Sunday

For Easter Sunday I got up early and made cinnamon rolls for breakfast when the kids finally woke up they found the hard boiled eggs and their baskets.. Then we watched conference. After conference we invited a family that doesn't have any family near over for traditional Easter dinner. and our own little egg
hunt in the back yard. It was a nice Easter day. A little cold for us. (I think it was 60-65 degrees) but other than that nice. When i do the egg hunt there is one special silver egg. After all the eggs are found we open the silver egg. Inside is a picture of Jesus Christ. I give a lesson to let the kids know that Easter is not about bunnies, candy and finding eggs but about our resurrected savior.
Interesting non canonized fact: The tradition of finding eggs dates back to when Mary Magdalene goes to Tiberius Ceaser and tell him that Christ has risen. He says that a man cannot come back from the dead any sooner than the egg in his hand could turn red. At that the egg turned red. So the Christian started exchanging red eggs to symbolize that Christ has risen. The hunt comes from the People hunting for the risen Christ hence the colored egg.

Sunday tradition

One of our latest traditions is one of my favorites. We just call it story hour. Every Sunday night we build a fire in the fire bowl and read stories. The stories usually consist of church history and other short church related stories. Some times we make smores or just roast plain marshmallows. Other times we just watch the stars. If we are feeling lonesome for the Utah caln we cook tin foil dinners in our little fire bowl in honor of my Dad who really enjoys those meat and potato packages. This just started out as something to do on a Sunday night but now everyone looks forward to it. I didn't realize the learning impact it had on my kids until Ellie started giving her testimony on church history. I hope we can all remember simple moments like this in our lives. So even though some nights it is still 90 degreas we still have our story hour, and we all love it.