Show and Tell - the letter F

See if you can guess the 'L' snack items we brought to PreK this week.

 They're pictured above. Answers below.

Last Friday's email note to our PreK teacher (subject line regarding that day's show and tell):

Hi- little mr. j's item for F is -----"Forgot" :). Sorry.

(He remembered earlier today. But we didn't act on it--we were being silly and thinking of F words-good F words.)
I told him he could show all his friends and he thought about Foster as well. :)
But, we are remembering that he has snack next week and that they need to have to do with the letter L.
I will do my best.
Have a great weekend!
-the mrs who's real name starts with an 'L'

I would give myself an 'F' for fail as a mom, but little mr. j used his thinker.
When it was his turn to do show and tell he showed his FACE. 
Smarty pants.

'L'emon pudding
Ants on a 'L'og
'L'ime jello (we're Mormon- we had to bring the jello!)
'L'emon muffins
'L'ittle crackers (have you ever seen how tiny those crackers are-they are little teeny)

I thought about bringing 'L'ima beans.
Didn't do it.
Probably a wise decision.
No 'F' for me.
Yay.

Young love

On Valentine's morning, when I went into little mr j's room to say good morning, he hopped out of bed and started looking for something on his little nightstand, behind his picture frame and in front of the little CD player.

He told me he had something special for me that he had been saving to give me for Valentine's Day.
Then he found it and gave it to me.
The bobbie pin.
The very precious bobbie pin.

Later, after he made made a cute little crown out of the leftover red paper valentine scraps, he brought me another surprise.
He had found it in our junk drawer while trying to find tape.
I had put it there long ago, hoping its owner would show up.
I am the new owner.
Ring.

Then, he surprised me by bringing me a very special sculpture,
that he, "was very glad he had such strong muscles so he could make it for me-he was going to make an M for mom, but that would have been to easy."
I like my L.

Young love is the best.

Ru

Welcome to my messy office, that I sometimes share with my children.

I love her hair.

And I used to love that lamp, but it doesn't match anywhere in this house.

We just need the light in here.

It used to sit on the changing table/dresser when the boys were little.

The shade has pee stains.

I never knew how well those little shooters shot.

Anyway,

Tonight I sang a song

to two Senior girls and they laughed at me.

Because

I sang a song about there being two weeks

left in

February.

They said I was wrong.

That there were only six days left in February.

So I sang them a song about there

being six days left in February.

And they laughed at me.

I like to write February.

I like to say February.

I think it's the 'ru.'

It's unrusual.

As am I

tonight.

PS-you Senior girls-I hope that the next six days will treat ru well and bring the news you want.

Sunday School

One of the writers of a blog that I visit (when I can steal the computer from my children or am staying up way too late) asked some questions for a project that really got me thinking. She is taking a class-I don't remember what it's called-something about religion and culture and identity. Anyway, the questions she asked really touched my heart and I've been thinking about them for the past many weeks. I thought I would share the questions and my responses with you.

1. Tell me about a religious experience you have had that made you who you are today.


2. Could you tell me a story or two that might attempt to describe your understanding of an Ultimate Reality or a higher power?  (I answered these first two together.)

I don't know if you can call this experience religious or just plain spiritual- All my older children (ages 13, 11, & 6 at the time - I think) were present for the birth of their little brother. They were cheering me & the baby on. My midwife (at the hospital) had to tell me to quit paying attention to them and focus on having the baby-there was the most palpable feeling of love. Almost like you could cut it like a piece of bread. That boy came out and it just increased. It was like nothing I've ever felt on this earth before. Later my midwife told me that she felt the same thing and had attended many births, but this one was very special. Incidentally, that child is filled with love. It's his gift.


I've become a much more loving and forgiving person since then. I feel like we got to experience a small taste of God's love for us & now I want to live my life so I can return to live with Him again (not that I didn't before the experience-the experience just made it seem so much more real).


3. What might you tell other people about your religious or spiritual experience that is most important to know?


I would tell people that though my religious and spiritual experiences that I have come to know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us very much and wants us to return to Him after our earthly learning experiences are over.


4. Are your beliefs the same now as when you were a child? Or have you changed as you have matured?


I grew up in the church I attend now. It's not the same city or building, but my religion is the same no matter where in the world you attend services. I would say that I have definitely matured in the Gospel and my spirituality as I've grown older. My beliefs as a young child and teen were like small roots of a tree, growing and getting fertilized. Now they are very strong and help me weather the storms that try to topple me.


5. Explain a ritual of your faith that is important to you, signifies the core of your religion.


The Sacrament. We take the sacrament every Sunday. (bread -symbolizes the body of Christ & water the blood) We accept Christ's Atonement & we recommit to follow Christ, always remember Him & live as He would have us. When I miss the sacrament, I still live my life the same way-I just feel like something is missing that week.


6. Describe a symbol of your faith and what it means.


Temples- They are beautiful and sacred.


Here's an official Church quote about temples: "Throughout history, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. Temples are literally houses of the Lord. They are holy places of worship where individuals make sacred promises with God."

Can I tell you how thankful I am that I could go back and blog-stalk this. (It's from 1/22/2011.)

Sherri, I hope you don't mind that I cut and pasted what I wrote.

If you all would like to visit Sherri (she's got quite the insights on living with MS) and read her final paper from her class (2/22/2011), here's a link:

(I do have to say--what a snazzy picture on her linky!)

Something

There are three unwritten posts sitting in my post list.

Have I found time to get to them?

No.

So, because this little becoming versed is important to me.

And I need to write something.

And because I think there are a few of you out there reading.

And because it seems there are so many pregnant women and new moms everywhere I look

and I am glad I've been through that phase.

And because this is too funny not to be shared somewhere in the world.

I am going to share a little bit of myself with you.

Well, my old self, because I now know better.

Let's just say this was one of the times where it became very clear to me that

I had a lot more to learn about life.

Before I tell you, you need to know that as a child and young person, I did not spend very much time around babies or mothers and their babies. Especially not around nursing mothers.

Here you have it:

I always wondered how nursing mothers knew whether their baby wanted milk or water.

Because I thought one made milk and one made water.

Then one day I found out I was so very wrong.

Oh, so very wrong. 

And now

you may laugh

at

me.

And I will laugh with you.

Sunday School- What all the girls are getting

Doing crafts gives me the willies.

I am not good at decorating.

And being girly is difficult for me.

But, I am happy to say that 

the Young Women in our ward

will be getting a candy and paper

Valentine tomorrow.

And these are they:

A happy smiley face prize for the first person to correctly

say what candy is under each wrapper.

Well-each wrapper except the dud of a picture dud one

because you can see that one right below.

Thanks for helping with your wrapping skills, my mr.

After completing the wrapping he decided to arrange, rearrange and arrange again the silly things.

And count them.

He counted 37.

I thought I had 40.

But I was at the store with three kids

who were all trying to help me count

and we'd been in the house for many days

and I guess we'd forgotten how to count to 40

because we had the correct amount of each candy that I bought.

Dang snow days.

Oh well,

hopefully those girls will know they're loved.

Today is Friday - honk, honk.

And it is weird because we are just getting over more snow days.
Today, the little one's school is open, but not the big one's.
Score for the last two weeks for my younger kids: Snow days 6 School days 4
Score for the last two weeks for my older kids: Snow days 7 School days 3
So it's Friday, the day before two days off from school and our routine has been whacked for two weeks.

I did attempt to take the kids sledding at the bigger neighborhood hill yesterday.
It was on my list of "to dos" and they knew it, but when I asked them to get ready, they didn't want to go.
Sad.
And then an hour and a half before we needed to leave to take miss s to a lesson,
little mr. j decided that he would like to go sled.
So we went.
miss h and little mr. j were the sledders-the other two wouldn't come out.
miss s was supposed to be cleaning her room, but she was in there all day and I don't think anything got done. (But I'm not going in to find out-that whole thing is between her and her father.) And she didn't want to come with us anyway.
little mr. b was playing video games or reading. I don't know why he wouldn't come with us.

And that big hill is awesome, even if the wind had blown off quite a bit of the snow.
The kids went really, really fast and they didn't even hurt themselves on the trees at the bottom.
I am very thankful little mr. j listened to me when I told him to bail off before he hit the trees.
Nobody got hurt and we made it home in time to get dry clothes on before we needed to leave.


Did you catch that?
Before we needed to leave.
I put my brave on and drove miss s into town
along with miss h to a friend's house and the boys as tagalongs.
The main roads are fine.  The neighborhood roads are not.
But they will be by noon today (it's getting into the 40s-next week, we are supposed to reach the 70s).
We ran some errands and it was even getting dark (and cold) by the time we headed home.

I know I sound like a wimp, but you snow drivers need to know that around here-
people don't have snow tires (and-many aren't that great of drivers).
Only the main roads get plowed. And it can get very, very, very cold very quickly.
It can be a bit dangerous.
And we have to drive up a significant hill to get to our house.
(It's not significant enough to sled on, just enough to scare me when it's slick.)
And I've had enough snow driving scares while living in the Northwest, that I don't need anymore living in Central South. (Is that a good way to place Oklahoma?)

Anyway, I drove.

And-for your enjoyment-a photo of some very confused geese from yesterday. It was awesome.

"Honk, Honk?"

"Honk, Honk?"

(photo credits to the other mom, mrs. l, who was at the hill with us and had her phone camera with her and who I had no idea who she was until after I asked her it she would please send me a copy of the picture and she rattled off my email address and then told me who she was, because I still couldn't tell because of all the snow gear and sunglasses. Thanks mrs. l!)

She also suggested that yesterday, some moms waited down at the bottom of the hill by the trees.

So I went down there, I couldn't decide what I would do if the sledders came at me.

I took the "Bail off!" option.

I suppose I could have sacrificed myself,

but as you read earlier,

I am not really one to take

risks involving my physical well being.

PS-I've wanted to write lately, but haven't made the time. Lots of ideas swimming around in my head and when I sit down to let them come to shore, they don't come in. Frustrating.

Big Life Lesson - Following Directions

Whether they be written, whether they be verbal-it's alway wise to follow the directions.

Example: Handwash, not dishwasher safe

or 

(and I'm sorry there's not photo for you with this one)

Dishwasher & microwave safe, will get hot in microwave, made in China.

(but they forgot to add-if it gets too hot in microwave, it will explode and you won't get to eat your leftover chicken enchilladas and that will be sad.) 

Snow Day #4

Really Four Snow Days?

The kids are starting to get concerned that this is seriously going to cut into their summer plans.

Which probably are something along the line of what's pictured here. (Snow Day # 3)

Day #3 went well for us. Much less bickering than the earlier two days.

Very pleasant.

I talked to a friend. Also a mom of daughters' friends.

She said her family needed a break from each other.

She dropped off her oldest and kidnapped my 2nd.

And they all seemed happy about it.

Today (number 4) we got out of the house.

It's warmed up some.

It was nice to go out while it was snowing and not blowing.

Good snowball snow.

Good sledding snow-too bad I totally forgot about the awesome hill that everyone else in the neighborhood went to.

Loser mom.

Maybe I'll wake them up at 7am tomorrow morning so we can get a few runs in before it starts melting.

Not.

This is what the sun looked like to my camera.

I tried to get him to stop eating the snow.

He wouldn't.

But said he knows not to eat snow that has colors on it.

This is right after I told him that he should get up, his neck wasn't broken.

He disagreed.

But he got up and went on to participate in a snowball fight with the big kids at the park.

The dog was concerned.

But only for a minute because she really liked messing up all the pretty, smooth snow.

And she liked running around me and wrapping her leash around my legs.

 So that when my other friend drove by on the first bit of pavement we've seen in a few days-

she could lunge in the opposite direction I was facing taking a picture and pull me over.

No worries, I saved my camera and gave my other friend and her cute daughter some laughs.

Dear friend,

Your daughter was an angel today.

Thanks for being a braver driver than me.

Hopefully, the weather will break. Hopefully this is the last of this you'll be hearing from me for a while. While a homebody & having really enjoyed being at home with my family, I am ready to get back going with life outside. And when I say outside, I don't mean the yard or the neighborhood. I mean down the road, up the street and out and about. Thank you and goodnight.

Sleet, Ice, Snow & Wind Day 2011

Hi.

Happy Sleet, Ice, Snow and Wind Day 2011.

Oh, I forgot, cold.

It's cold too.

And that big storm is moving North and East.

Good Luck North and East.

Here's what we did today:

Watched the news.

Because it's always on during severe weather

and before severe weather

and after severe weather.

And there are very important stories to tell.

Like three crazy college kids who decided to sleep in a tent.

And I learned that 'snowmageddon' or 'snowpocalypse' 2011 began here in Oklahoma.

It's now over, but boy is is cold.

Like coldest it's been in 15 years cold.

I found that out on the news.

And there are snowdrifts

and a lot of people stuck in snowdrifts

and when I say a lot of people stuck in snowdrifts,

I mean a lot of people in vehicles

who weren't able to hide out at home

or maybe didn't get the news.

(Ok, there were actually reports of tow trucks and firetrucks getting stuck. Pretty bad conditions.)

I took pictures through the windows.

I did not go outside.

my mr. did - to deal with the dog.

Poor the dog.

Poor my mr.

She's (and he's) had to go in and out and in and out and in and out.

And in.

I am thankful I am human and can stay in.

And I am thankful I can use a toilet.

(Inside.)

(Side note-my mr. only used the facilities inside today.

I do not know of any outside business, and hope not to.

Except maybe if he's camping and I still don't want to know.)

Made my child do his homework

that his very wise teachers sent via email (and that they told their students about)

because they had a feeling it was going to be one of those days.

Incidentally, Monday morning, I was very firm with my school attending children, 

telling them to be sure that if they had any projects or homework

they knew about to be sure to bring it home with them.

Because I knew that the severe weather was coming.

Because I watched the news.

(This boy is going to be very annoyed that I used this picture because of the hair. 

His hair is an issue. He likes it flat. But it looks so awesome standing up.

There is something at the end of this post to make it up to him.) 

Watched him play.

And listened to a lot of 'pwoshhhhh' and 'wwhhhhaa' and other little boy playing noises.

Folded a load of laundry.

This is huge.

Folding laundry is something I am slow to get to.

Watched my mr. make himself a sandwich with the mayo I bought him because I love him so.

And later in the day, I made bread.

That package stuff is just the emergency freezer bread for when we run out of my homemade.

We had a baking intervention in the afternoon.

Someone wanted to bake some yummies, which would have been

really not good

because four of us are on

a fitness challenge

and baked yummies

do not jive with our challenge.

Sad.

Tried to take a photo of two teenage girls watching a movie.

Watched my oldest have leftover soup for lunch.

Yay her.

Yay leftovers.

Yay for that soup that took waayyyy too long to make last night

and didn't taste as good as it should have because I had to use

ground turkey

instead of ground beef for the homemade meatballs

because the last store I went to (Sam's) yesterday (2:30pm) was out.

Yes, out.

Of hamburger.

I know.

The meat manager came out and visited with me about it.

He was amazed, too.

And- when miss h went to top off the little car with fuel,

the station was out

of gas.

So she went to a different station.

And when I visited Target earlier in the day (before the meat incident),

I had a very successful search for a checkout line with less

than seven people in it.

(There were 10 open!- That's a lot!)

It took me a while, but I found one.

After the customer service counter (too many people), jewelry counter (lady in red taking jewelry out of a package said she didn't work there), pharmacy (closed),

happily entering the little food court thing

to a smiling girl who sweetly said she could ring up my two items.

Yay.

When I was done,

there was a long line behind me.

Why all the crazy?

Because this is Oklahoma.

And we watched the news.

And it's important to be prepared, because sometimes these weather events can really mess things up.

(The most awesome thing that I saw in my out and abouts yesterday was the number of people who were accompanying older folks with their errands. Very heart warming.)

And here is another thing I did today-- I found a ton of these kinds of pictures on my camera-awesome!

(This is to make up for the hair, son.)

Last but not least, I read some emails.

And found out one that made my snowy day.

Thank you so much, Tashmica!!

On the agenda for tomorrow:

Sleep in.

Clean.

Games.

Because tomorrow is another snow day.

I know-I watched the news.

And now, I know you are dying to know how the little guy's story ends, so here you are:

TAAA DAAA!