This morning the boys were in and out of the room where I was trying to watch General Conference via the Internet. I much prefer to watch it on a TV, but since our family does not subscribe to cable or DirectTV and our local church satellite was not working properly I was left with little choice. Although I did not get to watch as much live conference as I had hoped, I did get to watch a little. I still hope to go back and view the sessions that I missed. Maybe I'll report later on some of the things that struck me most. . . Maybe.
Anyway, Todd noticed something that I found kind of funny, if a little disrespectful. As we were watching the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, speak, Todd must have also been thinking about our late prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. He said, "Mom--Thomas, like Thomas. And Gordon, like Gordon." That was all he had to say before I clued in to what he noticed. A minute later Todd says, "And Henry, too." So, let me put what Todd noticed into a little trivia.
Can you tell me what the first names of the members of the current First Presidency and the members of the previous First Presidency have in common? And which of these names does not belong?
Gordon
Thomas
James
Henry
Dieter
[See the comments section for the answer.]
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Nuggets of Wisdom
I have amazed myself by reading about three books in the last three weeks. I have always enjoyed reading, but don't usually manage to find the time to do it as often as I would like. Last week's book was The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. It is a retelling of the Grimm's Brothers' fairy tale of the same name (which I had never heard of). It was a sweet book, and I enjoyed reading it. I was kind of sorry when I finished it.
This week's book was Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder. I was given this book by my mom many years ago. In fact, my maiden name is printed on the inside cover. I had never read it, and decided that it was about time I did. It is another young adult book (my prefered genre of late). It tells the true story of a girl raised in the Amish religion. It is told by her son, and describes the life of the Amish from birth to death. It was interesting, and I enjoyed learning a little more about the Amish people and their customs, but the book was not exactly "entertaining". However, there is one paragraph I wanted to share from this book.
I find it interesting that although I have been doing pleasure reading lately when I should probably be doing more scripture reading, I am still occasionally able to find words of truth that speak to me. Often these insights are just what I need to hear. Perhaps I find these nuggets because my thoughts are focused on a particular subject and I pick up on them as I read.
This nugget takes place in the book when Rosanna's husband is chosen to be a minister in the church. The words spoke to me as I consider a possible new calling in my own church.
"Bishop Peachey was especially helpful. He knew from experience what a staggering blow it was to a member to assume the duties of minister, and preach the Word of God without any particular training or preparation. But he assured Little Crist that, heavy as the burden seemed now, as he began to apply himself to the study of the Word of God, and as he understood the Scriptures more and more and became experienced in preaching the Word, the consciousness of doing the will and the work of the Lord would so lighten the load that someday it would transform these burdens into the joy of service.
"Crist pondered these wise and sympathetic words during the days that followed, and they slowly lifted his burden and gave him peace."
This describes my general feeling about callings in church and why I am usually willing to put so much time into them. Though at times it may feel like a burden, I recognize the joy that comes from service. However, before you begin something new there is always a little trepidation and uncertainty as to whether you will be able to accomplish what is necessary. It is sometimes hard to have that hope of joy in your service. But I know that it always does come with time.
This week's book was Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder. I was given this book by my mom many years ago. In fact, my maiden name is printed on the inside cover. I had never read it, and decided that it was about time I did. It is another young adult book (my prefered genre of late). It tells the true story of a girl raised in the Amish religion. It is told by her son, and describes the life of the Amish from birth to death. It was interesting, and I enjoyed learning a little more about the Amish people and their customs, but the book was not exactly "entertaining". However, there is one paragraph I wanted to share from this book.
I find it interesting that although I have been doing pleasure reading lately when I should probably be doing more scripture reading, I am still occasionally able to find words of truth that speak to me. Often these insights are just what I need to hear. Perhaps I find these nuggets because my thoughts are focused on a particular subject and I pick up on them as I read.
This nugget takes place in the book when Rosanna's husband is chosen to be a minister in the church. The words spoke to me as I consider a possible new calling in my own church.
"Bishop Peachey was especially helpful. He knew from experience what a staggering blow it was to a member to assume the duties of minister, and preach the Word of God without any particular training or preparation. But he assured Little Crist that, heavy as the burden seemed now, as he began to apply himself to the study of the Word of God, and as he understood the Scriptures more and more and became experienced in preaching the Word, the consciousness of doing the will and the work of the Lord would so lighten the load that someday it would transform these burdens into the joy of service.
"Crist pondered these wise and sympathetic words during the days that followed, and they slowly lifted his burden and gave him peace."
This describes my general feeling about callings in church and why I am usually willing to put so much time into them. Though at times it may feel like a burden, I recognize the joy that comes from service. However, before you begin something new there is always a little trepidation and uncertainty as to whether you will be able to accomplish what is necessary. It is sometimes hard to have that hope of joy in your service. But I know that it always does come with time.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Bless Me - A Child's Bedtime Book
It was time to do some sorting through the books in our home library. I continue to add books here are there for the boys. It's So easy to add things to our home than to remove things, even when it is their time to leave.
This book was one of Ryan's favorite bedtime stories for a long time. He no longer requests it, he has gotten a little old for it, and we certainly have lots of other books for him to choose from. However, I couldn't say good-bye to this book completely before recording the poem for me to read over some time down the road when I am feeling sentimental. I will have to rely on memory to supply the illustrations as I read through it.
Bless Me
by Grace Maccarone and Sam Williams
Bless the moon
Bless the stars
Bless my night-light
Bless my cars
Bless my trucks
Bless my chairs
Bless my table
Bless my bears
Bless my bunny
Bless my mouse
Bless the family in its house
Bless my pillow
Bless my bed
Bless me, too, from toes to head
Bless the water, earth, and air
Bless the children everywhere!
This book was one of Ryan's favorite bedtime stories for a long time. He no longer requests it, he has gotten a little old for it, and we certainly have lots of other books for him to choose from. However, I couldn't say good-bye to this book completely before recording the poem for me to read over some time down the road when I am feeling sentimental. I will have to rely on memory to supply the illustrations as I read through it.
Bless Me
by Grace Maccarone and Sam Williams
Bless the moon
Bless the stars
Bless my night-light
Bless my cars
Bless my trucks
Bless my chairs
Bless my table
Bless my bears
Bless my bunny
Bless my mouse
Bless the family in its house
Bless my pillow
Bless my bed
Bless me, too, from toes to head
Bless the water, earth, and air
Bless the children everywhere!
Monday, September 29, 2008
D is For Dinosaur
Since Ryan was not old enough to attend Florida's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) and I did not want to pay to enroll him in private preschool, I was happy to join with five other moms from church in what you could call a preschool co-op. The six of us take turns teaching preschool for a little over two hours every Monday.
My friend Angie (the same Angie who has done a fantastic job organizing our weekly playgroups) got our preschool organized. She set up a schedule for us to follow in terms of what the main subject would be each week and what letter we would be teaching. She also gave us an outline to follow for the day's activities. Yesterday was my turn to teach. I have been gathering ideas since our first meeting and was looking forward to introducing the Letter of the Day, "D", and the Word of the Day, "Dinosaurs".
The day moved along very quickly. We only spend about 15-20 minutes on each activity. I was glad that I was fairly organized before my teaching day, but I still wished that I had been more organized in some areas. Fortunately, I have another six weeks to prepare my next lesson.
I let the kids have some free play while everyone was showing up (and while I was gathering the last of my things together). When everyone was there, we started with circle time.
Circle time started out with the pledge of allegiance. This photo was taken after the pledge was over. Ryan was trying to straighten the flag out a little. I did make sure that all of the kids had their right hand over their heart, but it looks Charity switched hands when I wasn't looking.
We also reviewed our calendar. We talked about what month it was and counted, adding leaves for the last week, until we reached 29. [Mason looks on while Claire does some counting for us.]
To help introduce our word of the day, "dinosaurs", the kids searched for some little dinosaur skeleton pieces that Ryan had "hidden" for me. Then I had them split into two groups and try to fit the pieces together. The individuals in both groups examined their pieces, then asked me to finish putting them together correctly. [Ryan tries to offer advice to Charity and Amber who are examining their skeleton pieces.]
After circle time, we had a little craft activity. I had precut the letter "D" out of construction paper, as well as some triangles and a funny looking set of teeth for each kid. They glued on the triangular "scales" and the teeth to make their own dinosaur D. I thought that was a fairly successful activity. [Claire, Amber, and Makayla are hard at work creating their dinosaurs.]
My friend Angie (the same Angie who has done a fantastic job organizing our weekly playgroups) got our preschool organized. She set up a schedule for us to follow in terms of what the main subject would be each week and what letter we would be teaching. She also gave us an outline to follow for the day's activities. Yesterday was my turn to teach. I have been gathering ideas since our first meeting and was looking forward to introducing the Letter of the Day, "D", and the Word of the Day, "Dinosaurs".
The day moved along very quickly. We only spend about 15-20 minutes on each activity. I was glad that I was fairly organized before my teaching day, but I still wished that I had been more organized in some areas. Fortunately, I have another six weeks to prepare my next lesson.
I let the kids have some free play while everyone was showing up (and while I was gathering the last of my things together). When everyone was there, we started with circle time.
Circle time started out with the pledge of allegiance. This photo was taken after the pledge was over. Ryan was trying to straighten the flag out a little. I did make sure that all of the kids had their right hand over their heart, but it looks Charity switched hands when I wasn't looking.
We also reviewed our calendar. We talked about what month it was and counted, adding leaves for the last week, until we reached 29. [Mason looks on while Claire does some counting for us.]
To help introduce our word of the day, "dinosaurs", the kids searched for some little dinosaur skeleton pieces that Ryan had "hidden" for me. Then I had them split into two groups and try to fit the pieces together. The individuals in both groups examined their pieces, then asked me to finish putting them together correctly. [Ryan tries to offer advice to Charity and Amber who are examining their skeleton pieces.]
After circle time, we had a little craft activity. I had precut the letter "D" out of construction paper, as well as some triangles and a funny looking set of teeth for each kid. They glued on the triangular "scales" and the teeth to make their own dinosaur D. I thought that was a fairly successful activity. [Claire, Amber, and Makayla are hard at work creating their dinosaurs.]
We left the D's on the tables to dry and went back inside for some storytime. We specifically read some books about dinosaurs to prepare us for our next activity: digging for fossils. I had caulked the shapes of a dinosaur and a bone on pieces of wood. I put the fossil-covered wood in a little tray and covered it with sand. (Green was the best color I could find at Walmart on Saturday night. They were out of white.) I gave each of the kids a sand toy and a brush for the them to uncover their dinosaur fossil. The kids seems to enjoy it and I was pleasantly surprised that it was not too messy (considering that these are preschoolers). I was happy that it was outside, and that we could just leave it as is when we were done and didn't have to worry about cleaning it all up right away.
The last 15 minutes were a little crazy. We had gone back inside, and I played some music that I had picked out for the day--some fun songs, and some "learning" ones. We listened and danced to the Sesame Street "D" song performed by Ernie. (This is a lesser-known song, but surely you have heard the "C is for Cookie" song performed by Cookie Monster.) I also played a LeapFrog song called "All the Colors of the Rainbow." I gave each of the kids a different colored Lego for them to hold up when their color was called. Basically, almost all of them just held their Lego and looked at me like I was crazy. I got interrupted from my music time by a bathroom break and from that point on, most of our structure was gone. Fortunately, it was only about 5 minutes before the moms were going to be showing up, so I just let the kids listen to our "Dino Train" book on CD (a favorite of Todd's and Ryan's), or look through some of the books I had out for them on the floor.
We went inside and I individually washed everyone's hands. (I knew we would be having snack soon and wanted to be sure that there wasn't any sand left anywhere.) We sat down again for a little more storytime, this time with some stories about the letter of the day. We had a successful storytime activity (no photos) with the book "Little d". I had scanned pictures in the book, had printed them on card stock, and cut them out. I passed out 2-3 pictures of items that started with the letter "d" around to each child. As I read the story they were supposed to identify their picture and tape it to a dry-erase board I was holding. After the story, we reviewed all of things we found that started with the letter "d".
After another story we were ready for snack. I served deviled "dinosaur" eggs, dinosaur-shaped peanut butter sandwiches (thanks to a nifty sandwich cutter I bought at the grocery store for $1.99--totally worth it; my boys love it.), and some chocolate graham crackers. (I ran out of time and wasn't able to make my dinosaur- and bone-shaped sugar cookies.)
We cleaned up snack and stayed at the tables for some writing practice. I had printed out some good worksheets online for the kids to trace the letter "d" and practice writing. Unfortunately, between cleaning up the food and tables, bringing out the crayons and pencils, and passing out the worksheets, I found it difficult to go around and show them one-by-one how to write the letters. So it ended up being more of a free-for-all coloring time. I'll try better next time.
The last 15 minutes were a little crazy. We had gone back inside, and I played some music that I had picked out for the day--some fun songs, and some "learning" ones. We listened and danced to the Sesame Street "D" song performed by Ernie. (This is a lesser-known song, but surely you have heard the "C is for Cookie" song performed by Cookie Monster.) I also played a LeapFrog song called "All the Colors of the Rainbow." I gave each of the kids a different colored Lego for them to hold up when their color was called. Basically, almost all of them just held their Lego and looked at me like I was crazy. I got interrupted from my music time by a bathroom break and from that point on, most of our structure was gone. Fortunately, it was only about 5 minutes before the moms were going to be showing up, so I just let the kids listen to our "Dino Train" book on CD (a favorite of Todd's and Ryan's), or look through some of the books I had out for them on the floor.
Despite the fact that it felt a little crazy, I still think it was a successful day. I am already started to think of ideas for my next lesson: the letter "J".
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Homework, Cooler Weather, and Competition
Homework
This is the follow up to Todd's sick day post. Todd ended up being out of school for three days. I had hoped that he would be well enough to go to school on Friday, but he was up most of the night (Thursday night) coughing. When he went to school on Monday I sent a note to the teacher explaining his absences and said to feel free to send home any work she wanted me to go over with Todd at home. We spent all of Monday afternoon and early evening finishing his "homework." It was all easy stuff, and Todd was a great sport about it. If anything, it was more one-on-one time than he usually gets with me in the evening. However, I am not looking forward to when homework becomes a daily chore.
Sometimes Todd still doesn't seem like his body has fully recuperated. Not that he has a temperature or a constant cough and runny nose. He just seems to get tired out more easily in the evenings. Tonight he had to be sent to his room for a little quiet time. I can see it, but he doesn't recognize that his body is still a little worn down.
I am still having him take his breathing treatments twice a day until I am sure that he is back to normal. He has been protesting the medicine the last two days, because he doesn't consider himself sick. I am hoping that this doesn't become a battle this winter when he needs to take his breathing medicine every day to treat his "asthma-like symptoms". A summer with no problems has made him forget that sometimes we use the medicine to assist in treating a cold, but we also use it at times (colder winter weather) to help prevent the coughing fits he is prone to when he is off the medicine. This all still feels new to me as I adjust to caring for someone who needs regular treatment for a (comparatively very minor--thank goodness) chronic health concern.
Cooler Weather
I was so excited this week when I was able to open the sliding glass doors for the first time since Spring. We set up Play-Do on the craft table in the screened porch for Ryan. No more reminding, "Shut the door!" I enjoyed some time finishing my book outside and playing basketball with Ryan. And yesterday we had an absolutely lovely day at the park with our church playgroup friends.
Competition
One reason (among many) why I find it harder to spend much time on the computer these days: as soon as I sit down during the day at the computer one or two little boys will immediately ask, "Can I play on the computer?" They have become quite adept at controlling the mouse and figuring out how to play the activities on their favorite web sites (Thomas and Playhouse Disney). They do a pretty good job taking turns when I use the timer, but I still need to monitor them closely so they don't get glued to the screen. I am looking forward to having a system at home where they will be able to earn the privilege to play on the computer for a set amount of time according to the chores they have completed. Coming soon!
This is the follow up to Todd's sick day post. Todd ended up being out of school for three days. I had hoped that he would be well enough to go to school on Friday, but he was up most of the night (Thursday night) coughing. When he went to school on Monday I sent a note to the teacher explaining his absences and said to feel free to send home any work she wanted me to go over with Todd at home. We spent all of Monday afternoon and early evening finishing his "homework." It was all easy stuff, and Todd was a great sport about it. If anything, it was more one-on-one time than he usually gets with me in the evening. However, I am not looking forward to when homework becomes a daily chore.
Sometimes Todd still doesn't seem like his body has fully recuperated. Not that he has a temperature or a constant cough and runny nose. He just seems to get tired out more easily in the evenings. Tonight he had to be sent to his room for a little quiet time. I can see it, but he doesn't recognize that his body is still a little worn down.
I am still having him take his breathing treatments twice a day until I am sure that he is back to normal. He has been protesting the medicine the last two days, because he doesn't consider himself sick. I am hoping that this doesn't become a battle this winter when he needs to take his breathing medicine every day to treat his "asthma-like symptoms". A summer with no problems has made him forget that sometimes we use the medicine to assist in treating a cold, but we also use it at times (colder winter weather) to help prevent the coughing fits he is prone to when he is off the medicine. This all still feels new to me as I adjust to caring for someone who needs regular treatment for a (comparatively very minor--thank goodness) chronic health concern.
Cooler Weather
I was so excited this week when I was able to open the sliding glass doors for the first time since Spring. We set up Play-Do on the craft table in the screened porch for Ryan. No more reminding, "Shut the door!" I enjoyed some time finishing my book outside and playing basketball with Ryan. And yesterday we had an absolutely lovely day at the park with our church playgroup friends.
Competition
One reason (among many) why I find it harder to spend much time on the computer these days: as soon as I sit down during the day at the computer one or two little boys will immediately ask, "Can I play on the computer?" They have become quite adept at controlling the mouse and figuring out how to play the activities on their favorite web sites (Thomas and Playhouse Disney). They do a pretty good job taking turns when I use the timer, but I still need to monitor them closely so they don't get glued to the screen. I am looking forward to having a system at home where they will be able to earn the privilege to play on the computer for a set amount of time according to the chores they have completed. Coming soon!
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