A Lesson on Family Home Evenings

Some time ago, I made these cute FAMILY blocks:They set on the window ledge in my kitchen, reminding me of what is most important in life. But, every so often, our house is filled with fighting, tears, and just an overall unhappy feeling. At those times, this is what I feel like those blocks really say:

I hate seeing my children constantly fight, making me feel like I've failed as a mother. I don't care if my girls are at the top of their grade, if they are the most beautiful children to ever roam the Earth, or if they are star athletes (which, lets be honest, probably isn't in their futures, given their gene donors). But I DO care that they are nice to others. So, we are working hard to teach them to be kind.

Now, we aren't the "Go-All-Out-For-Family-Home-Evening" kind of family. In fact, our FHEs are usually planned an hour before, if planned and not just winged. We switch off every other week with Activities and Lessons. A few weeks ago, it was my turn to produce a lesson, and after a particularly hard week of fighting, I wanted to have a lesson on kindness. And, I thought I would share that lesson, since, surprisingly, it may have actually set in with one of my kids.

We started out with a picture of Christ washing the Disciples' feet. We talked about how Jesus Christ was an example of service. Next, I showed them a plain piece of paper. (And I can't take credit for this idea, it was on the internet) We noted how boring a plain sheet of paper is...nothing to look at. Then, I folded it (as you would if you were to cut a snowflake). I began to give examples of ways we serve, and pointed out that sometimes when we serve others, we feel like we are loosing something. For example, when we pay Tithing or Fast Offering, we may feel like we are loosing money. Or I had made a meal for a family in our ward the weekend before, and it may have seemed that I lost all that time preparing for them. As I gave examples for everyone in the family, I cut away a little bit of the paper, as though it were "loosing" part of itself, too. When I was done, I unfolded it to reveal a beautiful snowflake. I explained that even though we feel like we loose part of ourself in serving others, we are actually taking our plain, boring lives, and making them more beautiful.

After reading a story about a young girl who decided to show kindness, and was blessed with a new friend, and a good feeling, I brought out this jar:

This is our kindness jar. It's filled up with, you guessed it, "warm fuzzies." You know, the kind you get when you do something nice for someone else? For the last 2 weeks, every time we notice someone in our family doing something kind for someone else in our family (since it's hardest to do nice things for family members....) they get to put a warm fuzzy into the jar. When the jar is filled, we get to go do something fun together as a family. Not sure what that fun thing is yet, but we'll figure it out when we get closer to filling the jar. It was hard at first. I had to make it a point to do nice things, just to get certain little girls to notice how great it was to put "warm fuzzies" in the jar. But, we are well on our way there. I'm sure we will have to refill the jar several times before this attribute is more instilled with our girls, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Never Come Between a {Crazy} Woman and Her Saw

I know I've already posted these pictures on Facebook, but I also wanted to have them on my blog as well. Since this is a record of our Family, I thought I should include my own dealings, and not just have it be all about the kids. Because seriously, I can only tell you how cute I think my own kids are before I loose your attention, right?
Let me preface this a bit: Many, many years ago, I was in High School. I recall having received the necessary paper work to fill out for our next semester's classes. Sitting amongst a few friends I proposed the idea of adding Workshop to my class schedule.
I was mocked.
A lot.
I get it. Wood shop was probably full of cocaine sniffing, scary guys, who had nothing better to do than to take out their aggression on helpless 2x4s. But still, I was very interested in building things. I LOVE to create things. I don't know if it's all in the thrill of actually using my brain tissue or just keeping my hands busy, but I like to make crap. And sometimes that's all it is....crap. But, sometimes it actually turns out kinda cute, and I really like that part.
So, here, at the fine, who-cares-what-others-think-about-my-lame-hobbies age of 31, I decided to take up wood working. Shortly after we moved to San Antonio, I splurged on a couple of saws and other wood working equipment, and found a great website to guide me. Get ready for it people, because

VOILA!

My creations:

Number One: My first project was a bookshelf. We had just moved into our newer, bigger house, and I needed something to fill it up. Upstairs we have a big open room that is perfect for toys, computer desks, and a big, lonely bean bag chair that was perfect for cuddling and reading. It was begging for books to be placed beside it. This bookshelf has been so great. We've even had to buy more books, just because we have a place for them (besides piles on the floor). It was a fairly simple plan, and I love the beadboard backing and the molding at the bottom.

Number Two: If any smallish children ask, "Santa's Elf" made this. This little picnic table was Maryn's Christmas present. I didn't want to pay to move our cheapo plastic picnic table, so I sold it before we moved. The kids love eating outside, and I love them eating outside. No sweeping up, right? Win-win. Actually, win-win-win because it also feeds the birds and bugs. This wasn't too hard. I did learn a valuable lesson about buying only very very straight boards. Even the slightest twist or warp will throw everything off, and you will spend hours unscrewing and going back to the store for more wood. I think my favorite thing about this table is how big it is. It easily holds 6 kids, and probably even 8. I used a good quality outdoor paint to protect it since it now lives on the back patio.

Number Three: My front entryway was barren. Especially after I took down all the Christmas decorations. It just needed something to bring in a little bit of color and maybe a place to sit down and put on your shoes before you head out the front door. This little bench was perfect! And I do love the color. I spent a solid hour at the store, trying to find the perfect color. I wanted a nice subtle blue, and I can't wait to use this color for other projects in my house.

I love how it looks next to my front door.

Number Four: My most recent, a bed side table for Maryn's room. I'm not big into getting nice furniture for my kids' rooms, but Maryn is getting to an age where she is learning to take care of her things [not draw on them]. She loves to read at night before she goes to bed, and a little lamp next to her bed was just what she needed. Now, I have to confess, the drawer on this table isn't the best handy work. What can I say? I'm a rookie. I even tacked down a little bit of felt to make it slide easier, but it's catching on the top. I didn't take into account that paint would add any thickness when I was putting it together. You live you learn, right? I only need to get after it with the sander, but I'm just going to ignore it for now, and pay attention to the cute little flower knobs instead.
The lamp was a quick project, too. I had the lamp base already, and was just looking for a shade. It's previous shade had gotten cracked and dirty, so it didn't make the move. But cute, inexpensive lampshades are hard to find. One day, as I was browsing through Hobby Lobby's sewing section, I happened upon ready to decorate lampshades. They had a few different shapes, and their best feature: You peeled of the wax paper, and they were sticky. All I had to do was trace the pattern for the shade onto 1/2 yard of cute material, and stick it on. Piece. Of. Cake. The lamp shade was only $6 with my coupon, the material $2, and the shiny ribbon, $1. I was going to give in and buy a whole new lamp for $20. Ha!

There are new projects beginning to stir in this crazy head of mine. I must admit, I really do enjoy making cute things from a couple of pieces of wood. I think I'm ready to move on to using better quality (more expensive) wood for my projects. If only I had more free time to go out and play with my tools....

Through Ailee's Eyes

I absolutely LOVE it when my kids start drawing. It's hilarious what comes out of their head, through their hands, and on to paper. This is Ailee's self portrait. It's from a few months ago, I'm just getting around to posting it. Her art work has even improved over that time. Her E's no long have 7 lines, and now, most of her people have mermaid tails. I was going to scan and post her most recent picture of me (as a mermaid, and wearing "makeup.") but she got ahold of it this morning and covered it in stars. Next time, for sure.

We Went to a Land Down Under

On MLK day this month, we decided to go out and live it up as a family. The day was cloudy and rainy, so it only made sense to go where the sun don't shine anyway...a cave. Not far from out home is a cave called Cave Without a Name.

[Does anyone else see the irony/confusion in this name?]

The girls thought it was pretty cool/spooooooky, and it was good to get out and explore the local area a little bit. We even spotted a few locals in the cave:

[Do you see the little bat?]

[And a little frog hunting crickets]

Despite my claustrophobia, and my fear of being crushed to death under a 100 feet of earth, I think [large and very open, non-small] caves are pretty cool.

It's even pretty cool to find pictures in the formations. The kids thought this one looked like a monster:

This one looked like a stack of skulls:

And, maybe some bacon:

This formation was probably the scariest:

After emerging from the cave, the girls found some rocks to pose like the Little Mermaid on, and begged me to take their pictures.

Mermaid Maryn

Mermaid Ailee

Christmas Celebrations

I was pretty excited for this on Christmas:Christmas gets more and more exciting as our children get older, and start getting in to the magic of the Holiday. True, presents and Santa and reindeer aren't the real meaning of Christmas, but it is still so fun to mess with their heads. Don't you remember the magic that existed around this season for you, as a child? Plus, there is the added benefit of children being on their best behavior.
Christmas fell on a Sunday, so it made for some very nice post church pictures. For once, instead of messy hair and pajamas, we had on pretty dresses and ties. We let them have their stockings to sort through before church, but decided to wait until after our meetings for the big things. The kids were pretty antsy to get out of church and home to their presents.
This year Maryn treated Kade and me to a grand array of homemade presents. (The best kind in my book!)

She's become quite the artist, and loves to write sweet little notes to us. In addition, we had lots of miscellaneous items (or "junk that she didn't want any more," as she put it) that were wrapped up in scrapbook paper.

Santa was good to us this year. Kade scored an NBA TV package, and I got some fun tools to assist me in my most current hobby, wood working. Cora had the least demanding wish list, and got a pretty, little, bouncy ball....

...that mostly Ailee has been playing with.

Ailee, our little domestic diva, got a cute little kitchen from Santa. As an accessory, I found the cutest set of pink pots and pans, for her. They had her name all over them.

Maryn had been pining for a My Little Pony since about August. Luckily for us, Santa pulled through. Santa's elf, who has recently taken up wood working, also worked hard to make her a fun little picnic table.

We ended our day with a delicious dinner with some of our new friends here in the area. It was nice to have enjoyable company to help us celebrate this season. I think we all had a good Christmas. Now it's on the New Year...and all that comes with it (hopefully a successful new practice for Kade).