Why didn't I think of this before???

So, I found a new blog I have been visiting lately:

Being LDS

Check it out, you will really like what you find. I was reading one of her blogs about "Life Lessons Preschool" and she gives ideas for "Fun, cheap, and Slightly Messy Educational Activities to Do At Home." One was called "Wheat Play" which I thought was a brilliant idea. It reminded me of Carter's nursery class in Rexburg, where they had a big container of rice for the kids to play with.

Since I did not have wheat or enough rice (since we do like to eat rice, preferably rice that hasn't been played with) I remembered I had a box full of bags of beans I had been collecting from WIC...which I just never used! I knew that beans would be perfect!

So I set up our "play station" and the kids....well... PLAYED!!!

They LOVED it. It kept them entertained for probably an hour. Kya did great too, picking up handfuls of beans and then opening her hands up and watching them fall to the table. Then she started trying to put the beans in the dishes, and when that got old, she began kicking the beans, sending them flying EVERYWHERE!!!! Anna and Carter weren't too happy about that! So, I moved Miss Loo to the floor, where she kicked to her little heart's content!!!

Of course Carter HAD to have his tractors...which I happened to find at the dollar store! Great buy and he has loved them since day one! The kids scooped and piled, organized, spooned, poured, strained....and just had a blast! It was really easy to clean up too!

We will be doing this activity again this week...if not everyday! Another idea I got: water stations,where the kids can play and experiment with water. Once again, fun and brilliant! I am compiling a list of activities for the winter, and these will be life-saving!!

Oh...I hope you all had a great weekend and a happy Sunday! My Sunday was perfect (minus the part where Kya has come down with a nasty croupy cold and my sister has still NOT had her baby yet!)

Our lesson in Sunday School was awesome, and it went right along with a book I just finished:




It was incredible and I highly reccomend it! It only took me two nights to read it too, which was nice since I don't have a lot of time for reading right now. Here is the Preface, for your reading pleasure:

"We live in a world at war. I am referring not only to wars between countries but also between former friends, siblings, spouses, parents, and children. Conflicts between countries are perhaps more dramatic, but the hot and cold wars that fester in the hearts of family members, neighbors, and friends bring more pain and suffering to this earth in a single day than have all the world's weapons since the beginning of time. If there ever is to be peace on earth, we first must find the way to peace in our hearts and homes. 'I am the way,' the Lord declared. 'After your tribulation, I will feel after you,' he promised. 'And if you harden not your hearts, and stiffen not your necks against me, I will heal you.' Nothing is more important than understanding not just that the Lord's atonement is the answer to our daily, painful predicaments, but how it is the answer. This book is an account of how the Lord 'feels after us to heal us,' and what we must do to receive the peace of his healing. It is the story of a husband and wife whose marriage is in trouble. It could just as well be the story of a father and child who aren't speaking, or of neighbors who bristle at each encroachment over a property line. The Lord's atonement reaches deep into the trouble of daily life to the very bottom of every dispute and hurt feeling. To the predicament of a hard heart, he offers the promise of a new one. To the pain of hurt feelings, he offers the balm of his love. To the utter loneliness, he offers the companionship of the heavens. His birth was heralded by the words 'Peace, good will toward men' because his atonement is what makes peace and good will possible. Whether in a home or a bunker, the way to true, deep, lasting peace is only in and through the Prince of Peace. 'He is our peace,' Paul declared, for through his atonement he has 'broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity.' There are far too many partitions in our hearts and homes and too much enmity between us. But the carpenter of Nazareth has constructed for us peace. My desire is to explore with you how."

This book opened my eyes to a new level of understanding about Christ and His Atonement. You will LOVE it. Then our Sunday School lesson is from the New Testament, Lesson 35: "Be Ye Reconciled to God." (The scriptures studied were in 2 Corinthians) If you didn't get this lesson yet, or missed it, you should read it. One of the quotes from the manual (which is on my handy dandy iPad, where I can go from text to scripture with just a touch...so lovely)...anyhoo, there was a quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley that stuck with me all day today,

"We see the need for [forgiveness] in the homes of people, where tiny molehills of misunderstanding are fanned into mountains of argument. We see it among neighbors, where insignificant differences lead to undying bitterness. We see it in business associates who quarrel and refuse to compromise and forgive when, in most instances, if there were a willingness to sit down together and speak quietly one to another, the matter could be resolved to the blessing of all. Rather, they spend their days nurturing grudges and planning retribution...

"If there be any who nurture in their hearts the poisenous brew of emnity toward another, I plead with you to ask the Lord for strength to forgive. This expression of desire will be of the very substance of your repentance. It may not be easy, and it may not come quickly. But if you will seek it with sincerity and cultivate it, it will come...

"There is no peace in reflecting on the pain of old wounds. There is peace only in repentance and forgiveness. This is the sweet peace of the Christ, who said, 'blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.' "(Matt. 5:9) ("Of You It Is Required toForgive," Ensign, June 1991, 2, 5).


I am so thankful for good books and Sunday School teachers. Because of them, I am learning how to be a better person, and gaining a better understanding of my Savior and feeling closer to Him each day.

This week: Try to be a peacemaker and help our children learn as well.


One more thing: I think I have found just the right words to put on a canvas to hang above my bed:

Moroni 7:45 "And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

What a nice reminder to read every morning and night. (read verses 44-48, all so good)

That's all for tonight. The baby is coughing and fussing...I really despise sickness....so I need to make sure she is okay. If I don't post before this weekend, I hope you all have a wonderful conference weekend!! I am so excited and anxious to hear the words from our beloved Prophet and Apostles. My soul needs the spiritual nourishment...

I spoke too soon!!!

I don't know what kind of luck we are having this week, but it seems to be some pretty darn good luck for injuries!!! I should have felt that foreboding feeling this morning after I exclaimed last night about no more "tragedies" this week!! I could have at least knocked on wood! Oh well, lesson learned, there will definitely be the knocking of wood next time! Or maybe I will just make it a daily morning ritual...better luck that way!

We began our morning as usual, kids up, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and brushing teeth. I was just getting ready to take Anna to school when Carter comes running up to me from Anna's room, head bleeding! I grabbed a rag and slapped it on his head, as Kya is fussing because of Carter's crying and Anna tells me in a whir that Carter was flinging his blanket at the sheet metal I am using to make the kids a magnetic chore chart. I got it out yesterday, so I could work on some things, and put it in Anna's room last night. The kids had their magnets on it and Carter was apparently trying to knock them off with his blanket when Anna asked him to hold it while she opened her closet. (since it was resting against the closet doors) Somehow, the sheet metal sliced open his head, though I cannot figure out how, since he was standing and the top of the sheet metal only comes up to his waist. There are some details we are missing, but anyhow, I taped on some gauze and called the Children's Clinic and we got him in before 9am.

He was really calm at the clinic and the nurse was able to rinse the cut 3 times with a special syringe, which she gave to Carter to keep...it's his "water gun"...then they put a numbing agent on a cotton ball and put it on the cut with a bandaid over the top and left us to wait in the room for 15 minutes. While we waited, Carter helped me tell a story about a dinosaur who got numerous cuts and what happened after each incident! haha! Then the doctor came in and stitched him up. Carter did so awesome, he didn't cry at all, even when the doctor couldn't get two of the stitches through the bottom of his cut very well...he said he must have some pretty thick skin or something!!

Then we got to go home! We stopped by McDonald's for some ice cream (because there is nowhere in Pocatello that serves ice cream before 11am!) because Carter was so stinking brave and cute the whole time we were at the clinic!!! He is VERY excited to show Anna his stitches when she gets home from school!

So now we've got two little ones with war wounds to show off this week!

Don't worry, I am not going to say ANYTHING about more tragedies happening in this house!!!

.

..knock on wood...

Well...it had to happen sooner or later...

Miss Loo had her first "tragic" fall. Tragic: Causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow....though I think it was more tragic for me than it was for her...

When Anna was a baby, she suffered many hits to the head. Sometimes from walking right SMACK into a wall! I guess she didn't see it???

Carter suffered from a similar plight. One day, he tripped on the sidewalk outside our apartment and landed right on the side of his forehead. We got into the car and drove to Russ's brother's house. As we were walking up their sidewalk, Carter tripped again, leaving another bump and bruise on the OTHER side of his forehead!! It gets better...we went inside their house, and minutes later, I swear, Carter tripped on the CARPET and hit his....yes....FOREHEAD...on the fireplace!!! The last and final blow left a bump AND bruise right in the middle of his forehead!!! Three wounds, all in a row, on his head, in a matter of hours!

I might have to admit that there just might be a problem with my kids...

Loo loo's war wound story: Miss Stinky Face can crawl. No longer is she satisfied with her little bucket of baby toys...because, of course, those ones are just for babies!!! She is so over weeble wobbles and rattles!! Time to move on to the BIG stuff!

For instance: she likes to crawl over to the piano, then rolls onto her back right under the piano bench. A little scoot here, shift of the leg there and she's ready. Then she puts her feet under the piano bench...which is quite heavy...and starts doing leg presses. All the while she is doing this, she stops for a second, looks at me, and then starts shaking her head, "No!"

Yup...she knows better. Do you think that stops her???

Not even when Russ had to save her life as she lifted it up off it's two hind legs, and it tipped backwards...Russ moved faster than light, I think, and caught the bench right before it smashed itself and all its contents on the floor...not to mention the cute little baby underneath it!!!

She also loves the stairs, and she recently has learned to climb UP them...but certainly has no ability whatsoever to climb down! She had conviently dumped out an entire plastic drawer of matchbox cars right at the foot of the stairs, then before I even had a chance to realize what she was doing, she was up two stairs grabbing a plastic monkey spoon on the thrid stair, turned around to go back down, but alas, there was no floor!! Luckily, that huge pile of metal cars was there to break her fall. It happened so fast, by the time I got to her, she was laying face down on top of the toys, still tightly gripping her monkey spoon!

She cried the biggest crocodile tears I have ever seen! It was the saddest sight, the poor little munchkin!!! But I guess she wasn't hurt too bad, because after a few minutes of crying, she saw the picture of Anna and Carter on the wall, stopped crying and squieled, "Carter!!!" And the tragedy ended just like that.

Hopefully we steer clear of any more "tragedies" this week!


Side Note: don't you love her BIG BLUE eyes??? Oooh....I just cannot get enough of her...the little cutie bug!!!