Spreading Kindness

At the end of December Janay asked our laurel class presidency to come up with a theme for our class to focus on in 2011; something they could work on as a class that could also help unify them. They decided they wanted to focus on service, and use the "Pay It Forward" idea. So we have challenged the girls to do some kind of service each week. I made this bucket and filled it with bite size candy bars so that if they have done service that week they get to take from the bucket on Sunday.

We have also been drawing names from our class at the beginning of each month and spend that month doing secret service for whose name we drew. I have made slips with each of their names, addresses, favorite candy, and favorite color on. We are hoping that this will help them get to know each other better as they are serving one another. I made the poster of a garden and as a reminder added the words, "Spread Kindness like Wildflowers. . . and watch it grow." We punched out little flowers to put on for each act of service we do for our secret persons. Once the garden is full of flowers we will do something really fun as a class. Our goal is to have the garden full by the end of the year, but I'm thinking (hoping) they will get it done sooner than that!

eight cows. . .

Every Spring our ward puts on a theme dinner. It is seriously one of the funnest church activities we have ever gone to! People sign up to host tables and as hosts come up with a theme, decor, and food assignments for the other couples assigned to their table. We have three families in our ward with celiac disease so of course we all go together. Last year Mike and Terri were our hosts and did a cowboy theme with dutch oven cooking. This year I signed up to host. J suggested we do an island theme since haystacks are so easy to do gluten free. Someone had told me that an island theme had been done a couple of years ago so J came up with Johnny Lingo and we added cows to our decor. Here we are, Johnny and Mahana.
Janay went with me early to help decorate, and supplied me with tropical bowls and serving dishes, as well as the tableware. Love that lady! Here she and Scott are with Randy and Elizabeth. Doesn't Randy make the best Mr. Harrison? He wasn't even trying, but I thought the hat and beard were a perfect fit for that character. Since I couldn't find cow pictures I ended up drawing my own (I wish I would have thought to have every couple's picture taken in front of them), and J suggested adding a sign above the cows that said, "Every woman is an 8-cow wife," but I thought the thing started at 7 (actually started at 6), so I ran out of time. Oh well.
I came upon these little cow chocolates at TJ Maxx the day before; couldn't believe how perfect they were! Everyone thought they were hilarious. And I got the cow tales at the Dollar store the day of thinking I could pass them around as an ice breaker and have everyone tell their engagement story, but the conversation was fun enough on it's own that I forgot to use them!
Denise brought the yummiest gelato for dessert; a coconut flavor and papaya/mango blend. Mmmm, I'm craving it just thinking about it. She served her mission in Hawaii so she had the flavors down! Anyway there she and her hubby are at the end of the table with Brooke and Scott to the left.
And here we are with Mike. Terri couldn't make it this year because MoTab is in the middle of recording. Missed her!
And you see why Mike is such a great Scout Leader! Always goofing around. Seriously though he is so patient with AP and the rest of those boys, we are really grateful to have him working with them.
There were some great tables there; people get pretty serious about their decor and it's so fun to see how creative people are! I really wish I had gotten pictures of the other tables. There was a Sound of Music table, Happy Days, Nascar, Pirates, Chinese take-out, game night, and 80's prom (complete with reflective disco balls and prom pictures). Hilarious! In fact, I'm already looking forward to next year's dinner. . .

FHE for 2-year-olds

Hmmm. I think the most important thing to having a successful FHE with a two-year-old is to make sure it is very interactive and very quick. Just think nursery. With one child it's a little bit easier because you can really gear it towards him. If you have older kids, it's a good idea to just have something there to keep the little one busy during the lesson like paper, crayons, paper punches, etc. With our family if I'm doing the lesson J is entertaining D and vice versa. Anyway, here are a few sample lessons that might help:

Topic: Love
Sing "we are a happy family"
Show pictures of various family members that your child knows and loves.
"Look! It's grandma. We love her so much don't we? And there's [cousin]. He's so fun to play with. We sure love him don't we?" And so on. Show pictures of Heavenly Father and Jesus and tell who they are. "They love us SO much and we sure love them." Ask child for a hug and tell them how much you love their hugs and kisses and how much you love them (they might say no in which case say, "oh that makes me so sad because I love you so much and your hugs show me that you love me too"). Close with a song and prayer and have a treat you all really love!

Topic: Creation
sing "Two little eyes" (p268 CSB)
Get out some play dough (you can make edible versions, recipes found on line, if you're worried about your little one eating it), or some paper and fingerpaints
Roll the dough into balls or help him paint a picture
"wow! Look at the creation you made! That is so special, just like you. Let's put it in a special place. Did you know Heavenly Father created us? Heavenly Father created us and we are so special!"
You could also just talk about the earth's creation. Have several balls out. Play with them a little bit, talk about how they are round. Then show a globe. "This is earth. It's round like these balls. We live on earth. Let's make our own balls." While making the balls continue talking about earth's creation. "Heavenly Father created the earth so we could live here." Make the play dough ball(s). "Look we created a ball just like the earth."

Topic: Word of Wisdom
song, "head, shoulders, knees, and toes"
"Wow aren't our bodies neat?" Run around, play catch, try to lift some heavy things.
"Wow our bodies are strong. Our bodies are strong because we take good care of them."
Have some bite-size fruit and veggies to sample from or a fruit smoothie, yogurt or some other healthy snacks.
"these food make our bodies strong. We need to eat good things to take care of our bodies."

Topic: Saying Prayers
Make a chart with pictures by the words
Dear Heavenly Father. . . picture of Heavenly Father and Jesus
Thank you. . . things he would be grateful for
Please bless. . . you get the idea
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen . . . picture of the savior
Show the chart, explain, and practice. Whisper as you describe kneeling down, folding your arms, bowing your head. If your child is anything like my boys, they might get a little silly, but just quietly tell them you are going to say the prayer and hope that he will join you. Try to get him to kneel with you on your lap. If he just won't then don't give him any more attention and just say the prayer.

Hopefully that helps!

My little loves

I am really grateful for my little family. We are definitely not perfect and there is plenty of arguing, fighting, and sometimes all out war that breaks out around our house. But we're always trying to do better and I am a firm believer that following the prophet leads to deeper love and peace in the home. I am grateful for counsel to read scriptures together, pray together and have regular Family Home evenings. I am also grateful for each one of my little loves and for the things they do and say that make our family and home a good place to be.

Our Family Night lesson on Valentines was based on the one from the FHE manual called "Love at Home." As usual it was a bit of a challenge getting everyone gathered. I finally did only to have AP run to the bathroom. We waited a little while until everyone was getting restless and then started without him. We sang the opening song and had the prayer and still no AP. So I pulled out my paper punches and scrap paper and got D busy doing that. Still no AP (too much candy and junk got the better of him I guess). Since the lesson was primarily for him and AJ I decided to (impromptu style of course) start an activity. I had gotten each of the kids a pad of sticky notes (a different color for each child) and a pen (in the matching color) so they could start leaving love notes for family members around the house. So J and I helped AJ and D customize their sticky notes with punches. AJ made a cute one with the big and little cat punches to represent a mother cat with 3 kittens and then wrote me a sweet note thanking me for all that I do for them. At that poing AP joined us and we went on to the lesson.

The lesson started with the question, "Do you think Jesus would be comfortable if he came to visit us in our home?" Their quick and honest answer was, "Well it depends. . ." They further explained that on the days they were nice to each other he would, but when they were fighting a lot and being mean he definitely wouldn't. Perfect answer. I went on with the story in the lesson and we talked about how little things we do and say make a big difference in letting our family members know how much we love them and creating the kinds of feelings in our home that make us and Jesus want to be here. Then we ended with the challenge to use our sticky notes (as well as kind words and deeds) to help us create that atmosphere of love and kindness in our home. We then played a game where we each took a turn telling something nice that someone else in the family did for us that day without using names and everyone else had to guess who it was. It was really fun. Then we had a closing song, closing prayer, and we were done. It went pretty well!

And now for each of my little loves:

AP~full of imagination, spunk, and determination!

AJ ~ sweet and encouraging, and always creative!

D ~so bright and so fun, he lights up the whole room!

SERIOUSLY simple!

Yup, Valentines dinner really was about as simple to make as it gets!

Gluten-free crepes
1/2 cup egg whites
2 T water
1 t vanilla
1/2 cup tapioca starch (I used my tapioca/rice mix)

Mix it all together and pour onto skillet (or in my case pizelle iron, which made it that much more simple) and cook. I have to admit it took about an hour, but I made 100 crepes (we don't often have bread around because the GF stuff is so expensive and I don't like to make it that much so when I do something "breadish" I make a BUNCH to keep around for snacking or to freeze for later).

Chicken "salad" was just canned chicken mixed with light miracle whip and some Lawrys season salt. The ham spread was just canned ham blended with cream cheese. Took a total of about 5 minutes to put together.

Voile! An easy peasy valentine meal for the whole family to love. Oh, BTW the table was all decorated courtesy of Dollar Tree (which is also where I got the cute heart baskets to put their goodies in).

P.S. For the lemon curd:
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 t lemon juice (or in my case 1/4 t lemon extract)
Put one tablespoon down the middle of each crepe, roll, and put in 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Top with berries and whipped cream.

Love at home

Just thought I would share a little bit of the love we've had around our house this month! At the beginning of the month we made a paper heart chain to count down the days to Valentines' day and hung it on the little shelf I have in our entry. Here it is on day 8:

I also added some paper hearts we made to this bowl I have on the trunk in the front room

And a little love garland to greet those coming in

We did marble painting one Sunday evening early in the month. Put paper in a plastic tub/bin with some different colors of paint and let the kids roll it around. I used rubber bouncy balls and tried to make it a game by putting two in the same tub and having AJ and D hold different ends of the bin and have them try and avoiding their balls touching but it didn't really work. . .

After the papers dried we cut them up to make cards for writing notes to each other. We had made felt envelopes the first FHE of the month using this tutorial from the Crafty Chicks. They turned out super cute but we did iron on their names, so for privacy purposes I'm not showing them.

On Valentine's day my sweetheart brought home flowers. He actually brought me home an arrangement he put together himself on Friday while the florist was taking his order. Then he brought me another on V-day. He wanted to incorporate blue into both since it is my main decor color and probably favorite color over all (although I have so many). Can you guess which one he did and which one he had the florist do? I like the one he came up with better even if it's more patriotic than 'tinesy.

I planned a candlelight dinner for our family to have together. Here D is contemplating the set-up, while I am putting together the food.

Here it is right before everyone got home

I made crepes with my pizelle iron. The iron made them super quick and easy and so pretty!

I made chicken salad and a ham spread for the filling and did a veggie tray to go along. I am all about simple! I have learned that the kids usually enjoy simple better anyway and I am a lot less stressed which make everyone happier!

Of course D was totally fascinated by the candles and had to go around the table and blow them all out

At first AP was mad that D was blowing out all of the candles, but after being told to let it go (a couple of times) he decided to join him

I got red and white sparlking grape juice to go with our meal and the kids loved it!

Well D didn't enjoy the kick so much. . .

but he loved the bubbles!

I found these cute baskets and filled them with a few goodies for each of the kids

Including a webkinz for each of them

Then for dessert we had crepes filled with lemon curd and topped with berries and whipped cream. So yummy! We finished off the night with lesson from the FHE manual on love. I will try and include more on that in a follow up post!