Thoughtful Sunday

I was thinking today about what I would have to write about because I subbed in nursery but I have to say that new nursery manual they have is awesome. I am defiantly getting one, if you have young kids it would be great for Family Home Evenings. My sister also sent an email that someone did of 48 Family Home Evening lessons that correspond with the weekly themes of primary this year. It's great I have just been printing them off and that's what we have been doing for family home evening. Yeah for the over achievers who do things like this for us lazy bums :). Here is the link to it http://www.4shared.com/file/81463881/93c1610a/2009FHEBook.html (sorry you might to cut and paste I don't know how to do the cool link thing yet).
I have been thinking a lot about Family Home Evening. It's something that Jeremy and have discussed often, I won't go into details but we have realized how crucial it is for our children. My kids call it Happy Home Evening and if we are being grumpy Hadley will say, "Remember it is Happy Home Evening Night". I had it regularly growing up. I can't say I remember very many specifically I am sure most were repetition of things I already new, and as we know repetition in the gospel is not a bad thing it's just helps.
One example of something that I learned from family home evening at a young age is that I remember my Dad saying "never get a credit card" so I never have. As I now live by that rule it has helped tremendously in my life. From this I realized that we will never know the impact of what we say and how it will affect our children's future. I was probably only nine or ten when it was said but it has stuck with me through the years and I am eternally grateful for it.
I have a good friend who is not LDS but loves the idea of family a night so every week she has a lesson with her kids and does a fun activity with them. She made a comment that by setting one night a week apart for this it makes it so nice to talk about some of the things you really want to teach your kids but are not sure when is a good time. For example we were talking about teaching our children about what is appropriate for how people touch you I told her we taught this in Family Home Evening about how Heavenly Father created out bodies and how special they are and that we all have special parts and that no one should touch them and why and so forth. She then did a similar thing with her own children the next time they had family night and it wasn't awkward because they were use to Mom or Dad teaching some sort of lessen at that time.
I love that for one night out of the week we focus on just our little family what a great thing and good idea whether we are LDS or not.
As for our little family we need to do better and prepare more and involve the kids in the planning better but as with everything we always can do a little better :).
Have a 'HAPPY FAMILY HOME EVENING" tomorrow night.

Pretend Tigers

I thought you all might enjoy this...

Yesterday Hadley and Madelyn were in their room fighting and screaming at each other. So I go in their bedroom and ask what it wrong. Hadley looks at me and says "She took my pretend tiger". She reached in her pretend tiger cage and gave it back to him.

Need I say anymore about how our day was yesterday. If there was something to fight about it was fought about.

Thoughful Sunday

I know it's Monday I meant to do this yesterday but by the time we got home last night I was to tired. I was thinking every Sunday I would write a little bit about what I learned at church that day maybe not so much for those of you reading it but for me, to help me remember what I learned.

A man came to Satan to buy a tool. On a table there were lot's of nice shiny tools and there was one really used tool. The man asked Satan what that was. Satan replied "My greatest tool of all... Despair"

A few weeks ago in church we had a lesson on Hope and Despair. I have thought a lot about this since because I see so many people losing hope. I have been thinking about how much a get discouraged sometimes. What would I do if I didn't have Hope in our Savior Jesus Christ it would be so easy to just give up and say I can do whatever I want.

These are my thoughts of despair lately. My house is to small. We don't make enough money. I have faults!! I want to do want I want to do. Whoever said that being a mom was all fun and games? It's harder than any job I have ever had and I have had difficult jobs but at the same time it can bring great joy when I focus on what I should be doing, which is not always the case.

It is so easy to give into despair especially when things don't go the way we want them to. Like when a love one dies, failing healthy and especially now with finances, lose of jobs and so on. Satan can drag us down, He starts a little at time. Maybe with the idea of thinking that we deserve our own time so we start hanging out with friends instead of family (nothing wrong hanging out with friends as long as our family comes first)and then maybe skipping church here and there and then having the desire to have more and need more money, one little drink, one little smoke, and so on. It's gradual but a fast steep down hill.

And the whole way down the hill we think that we are happier than before. Then we hit the bottom of the hill and realize that we are not as happy as before that we want to get back to the top. That is when realize we really were happier before but that hill is a steep climb back up. Satan thinks I got you there is no way you can get back up it's to hard and He tells us that over and over so that every time we start He makes us so discouraged and so we stay were we are, full of despair.

But then we remember that we are not alone and we know it will be hard but that there is someone who has born our burdens already for us. We know it will be hard to get back up, impossible by ourselves but then we realize through repentance that there is someone that can help carry us and it's not as steep as we thought in the first place.

I pray that we all remember when our lives get hard that we still can be happy and have hope.

Ice Skating

Hadley has been begging to go ice skating for the last couple of weeks. Besides the price to go, the thought of taking three little kids on the ice with a Mom who can barley ice skate and a Dad who can hardly stand in skates off the ice did not sound that appealing.
Hadley got his wish though, a local park made an ice rink that is free...if you have your own skates. It so happened that a friend has more than a dozen pair of double runner ice skates so I went with some friends and their kids( I wore my snow boots). It was a gorgeous day outside we where able to have the little ones in strollers. I thought for sure Madelyn would hate it but she had a blast (she kept her snow boots on)every time she fell down she laughed. After two hours I was done but they could have kept going.
I think it will defiantly be something we will do again if the ice stays good before winter is over. I love doing things that all the kids enjoy which seems to be few and far between to find something for all of them to enjoy.