What is my Treasure

Today we did a family home evening that I enjoyed alot. I remember doing something like it in my own home and thats what made me want to try it with my brood. I told the kids that we were going to talk about treasure and that I had pciked out some things to represent treasures of the world and a bowl of water to represent spiritual treasures. As we talked about each of the "treasures" we would put them in a bowl that represented our life.
We had a match box car to represent a nice fast sports car . A monopoly mansion, a tiny golf club and some quarters to represent the worldly treasures we could get. The boys whocan earn quarters for extra chores and who loves fast shiny cars were really into this! Then we added water to our bowl as we talked about being baptized and going on a mission, reading scriptures, being sealed, and gaining a testimony.
After this I brought out a strainer and told them that the strainer represented dying and the pot below represented Heaven. I poured our life bowl into the Heaven pot and then we talked about how the only thing that went with us to Heaven were all the spiritual treasures.
The kids really "got it" and it was a cool family home evening moment and you know it really made me think about MY treasures. We are told in the scriptures that what we seek after and what we spend our time thinking about and trying to get is where our heart is. Where is my heart? What treasures am I laying up in store for myself and my family? Its definately something to think about.

A day on the mountain

Today was such a blast! We decided to go up the mountain and go sledding with some friends of ours the Kaiser's. The 1 1/2 hour drive was so beautiful. The mountains and lakes and waterfall we drove past were just spectacular. Everyone had a ball sledding. The boys were amazingly brave considering how huge the sledding hill was. They had a little hill for younger kids and although Hannah went down that one the boys refused, insisting that they didnt want to go down the "little kid" hill!We got to have some great talks with the kids to about Gods amazing power and His love for us in creating such a beautiful world.
Something else that amazed me today was something I had been thinking about. I read a post on one of the blogs I follow about being content with what God gives us. Well all this month Ihave been praying that My hubby would get promoted this month. We could really use the money and aside from the money I believe that he really deserves the promotion.This morning as I was saying my prayers I prayed differently. I prayed that if he didnt get promoted that I would remember that God has a plan and that there would be a reason for it. On the drive up the mountain we got the word that hubby will not be promoted this month. I felt a twinge of let down and disapointment but that was immediately overshadowed with other thought. Thoughts about how this would just be the greatest opportunity for my somewhat reluctant hubby to go to college (its promotion points) and that it was also an opportunity to learn to live better within our means and to learn to budget better. It felt really good. I wasnt mad at anyone. I didnt do the "poor me" game or the "lifes so unfair" thing. I just accepted it and let it go. I know that God put the desire in me to accept His plan and then He answered my prayer for help when I needed to do just that.

BEHOLD THE BARGAIN SHOPPER

I love to bargain shop! I mean REALLY! I never really thought much about the way I shop, I shop like all the other women in my family. You know the "old and wise ones". I have been taught that the first place to look in the store is the clearance racks. I've also learned from them sayings such as "why pay full price?" and "if it isnt on sale I dont need it." Bargain shopping is such fun and that feeling you get, that thrill of the hunt feeling is great! Today the three kidlets and I made a trip to one of my favorite thrift stores in search of some new dresses for Miss. Hannah. No luck in the dress department but on the way out the door the boys noticed a game we used to have, Harry Potter scene it. We Love Harry Potter in our family and we had this game for a while until busted water pipes ruined it. Well I look thru the game and find that all the pieces are in it so I check the price. The game which can be found at stores like "Toys R' Us" for $20 I found at the thrift store for $2.99!! Thats right $2.99!! Ahh yes I am bargain hunter hear me roar!! Needless to say I snatched up that bargain and we spent the evening qiuzing eachother on Harry Potter trivia =-}

THURSDAY FUN

Today was such a fun day! We started off the day with a book club meeting. It was our first back since the holidays and the kids were so excited to see all there homeschool buddies! The kids drew pictures of there favorite part of the book and then we had lunch and discussed books for this year. The kids all had great suggestions for books and next months book is "Peter Pan". Everyone is excited to read all about Pan and the lost boys adventures! After Book club we headed to the library to pick up "Peter Pan" as well as to pick up my book club book for the next two months "Les Mis`erables". Its a monster of a book with around fourteen hundred pages!! This evening has been a fun one. We are missing Daddy tonight since he is working but decided to make the best of it and made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and watch Aladin together. Before bed Isaiah read scriptures to us all and we talked about repentance. Now the kidlets are in bed and I am enjoying some mom time. Ahhh the peaceful quiet!

Our week

this week has been another good week so far. We are studying the solar system and learning a bit about each of the planets, making a poster about all the things we learn about space and painting and putting together a solar system of our own. My favorite part of the week has been comparing Earth to each of the other planets and talking about how smart God is for making this earth just right for us! Aside from Space we just finished this months book club book "Mr. Poppers Penguins" , and just in time to because we have our book club meeting tommorow!

Astronauts in the family

Christmas break is over and I must say I am ready to get life going again! We had a great time with Daddy off work and no spelling list to check but I tell you its great to get back to life as we usually know it. This month is going to be so much fun! We are studying space. So Monday I informed the kids that we would be going on a space exploration. We talked about astronomy and then about some of the first astronauts like Yuri Gagarin. We "explored" the closest thing to our planet, the moon. Then while I prepared lunch the boys looked thru all our space books and they were totally fascinated! It took for ever to get lunch done because every two seconds I got "Hey mom whats this?" "Hey mom look at that?" "What planet is that mom?"

I enjoyed every minute!! I love to see there faces when theyreally get into something. We are also talking about the different planets in our solar system this month and making a solar system. After that will be stars and constellations and using stick up glow in the dark stars to make some of our own constellations in the kids room. We hope to get a few decently dry days to do some star gazing too =-}