Bringing our children unto Christ, week 2.

30 Weeks to bringing our children unto Christ using the nursery manual found on lds.org.

Each morning, we begin our day with breakfast at the dining room table. 

Before we start our hectic day, we take some time to be still...

We pray together and we learn of Him.

In just a few moments a day, we plan to complete one lesson each week. 

Lesson two is: 

Heavenly Father Has a Plan for Me

The introduction to this lesson reads, "We lived with Heavenly Father as spirits before we were born. Heavenly Father prepared a plan that allows us to come to earth and receive physical bodies in order to become like Him and return to His presence. This is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and our obedience. Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior."
For the complete lesson click {here}.

How we learned this concept last week: 

1. Song. 
We learned the song, I Am a Child of God, last week and continued singing it this week. It's lyrics teach a beautiful truth about who we are, where we came from, and what our Heavenly Fathers plan for each of us is. To better realize what it is we have been singing, I printed out simple images that go along with the songs message. Each morning, my little girl colored a picture so that by the end of the week we had a musical story complete with visual aids.

2. Read the scriptures.

We opened up her illustrated bible and talked about the pictures. In the beginning God made the earth... And someday, when we're all done living on this earth, we'll go up to Heaven to live with Him again!

We absolutely love this cute book, available here on amazon, for the cute rhymes of the most well known biblical stories.

3. Talk about it!  
"Did you know that someday you get to live with Jesus again in heaven?" I asked my daughter one morning, and she replied, "Yes, please!"

She's just the sweetest little thing.

Not another baby brother!

My toddler caught me stepping out of the shower 
the other morning and exclaimed, 

"Oh! More baby in tummy, mom?"

No, sweetie, that's just fat... Thanks for pointing it out.

Bringing our children unto Christ, Week One.

30 Weeks to bringing our children unto Christ using the nursery manual found on lds.org.

Each morning, we begin our day with breakfast at the dining room table. 

Before we start our hectic day, we take some time to be still...

We pray together and we learn of Him.

In just a few moments a day, we plan to complete one lesson each week. 

Lesson one is:

I Am a Child of God

This sweet print out is available at the Lily and Thistle Blog.

How learned this concept last week: 

1. Song. 
The beautiful song, I Am a Child of God, is easy to learn with cheerful repetition. Actually in just two lines a day, the first verse and chorus were committed to our memory by the end of the week. We also sang the song through out the day using sign language and in Spanish too. (You may remember that we have set the goal for our daughter to learn 100 words in sign language and 100 words in Spanish, what better way to learn than by music?)

2. Read the bible.
Psalm 82:6 reads, "All of you are children of [God]" and Moses learns of his relationship to God in Moses 1:4, "Behold, thou art my son."

3. Talk about it!  
You are a child of God. Mommy is a child of God. Baby brother is a child of God...

4. Personalize it. 
For this activity, I printed off a page that reads: I Am a Child of God; Soy un Hijo de Dios at the top. (Great way to help her to recognize those important words too!) Then, I printed off pictures of family members. Nothing fancy, I don't even have a color printer. The point is, my daughter knew who they were and she loved talking about them. We picked one picture out of a bag each day and talked about how they, (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, uncle...) were a child of God. Then, my daughter had the very important job of taping their picture to the Child of God paper. We chose to stick it to the fridge all week! She loved this and starting asking for it first thing when she woke up! Maybe we'll continue it on this week; we certainly have a large enough family to keep it going for a long time!

Juicing: Strawberry Peach Lemonade

Who knew making lemonade was so easy?! There is only one rule of thumb: Equal Parts! 

Equal parts sugar, lemon juice, and water! 

(Plus additional water for diluting.)

After that, you can get creative and make all sorts of yummy flavored lemonades! 

Our favorite: Strawberry Peach. 

Recipe:
1 Cup Sugar (can use 3/4 cup, or can substitute honey.)
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice (6 to 8 lemons)
2 Fresh Peaches, juiced.
2 Handfuls Fresh Strawberries, juiced.
3 to 4 Cups cold water. 

Heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan on the stove until sugar is dissolved. This makes the syrup for the lemonade.

Juice the fruit.

Pour hot sugar water into a pitcher and then add the fruit juice. Stir in 3 to 4 cups of cold water, to taste. I like to add 3 cups of water so I can serve the lemonade over ice and not risk it losing any flavor. Allow to chill before serving. If you think you have added too much water, simply add more lemon juice to revive the tartness.

Communicating by 100 Goal!

During my difficult pregnancy, and a rather rocky transition into having two children, my main focus has been survival! And, sleep. Yes, to survive and to sleep. I gotta say it though, I am now ready to raise the bar! I feel like I have a years worth of living, and teaching my toddler, to make up for and I am finally ready to set some higher expectations for myself!

I want to do a better job of catering to my daughters exceptional ability to communicate. She loves to interact with people. She is obsessed with words! And I want to encourage this. So, I am making a goal of 100.

We're going to focus on learning to sign 100 words in American Sign Language, of saying 100 words in Spanish, and in recognizing 100 written words... all by the time she turns three next March.

She already has a solid foundation in each category, so I know she will succeed if only I get my act together and show her the way!

So what? Why post about it here on this blog, this... sewing blog. Well, my sewing is packed away in boxes at the moment. And, more importantly, I want to "give a little, take a little" from this wonderful online entity of moms and teachers. Already, I have found marvelous plans and activities for kiddos from other blogs and pinterest and I want to share them as I use them.

I think together, we can raise the best generation of young people this world has ever seen! It's going to take work and persistence. But, with all the resources we have available to us through modern technology, anything less than the absolute best in our offspring is not acceptable.

The purpose of boobs.

The hour was late and the mood was tense. After a long day of travel, we had missed our connecting flight and were crowded into a dirty van like shuttle set to bus our little crowd of cranky strangers to a nearby hotel. We'd have to sleep here tonight, and continue on to our destination first thing in the morning. My husband climbed into the front seat and the kids and I took the last available seat a couple rows back; baby on my lap and toddler squished between me and a very professional woman clicking away on her smart phone. All was quiet as we pulled away from the curb and merged onto the highway. I am learning that there is something about silence that invites toddlers to share exactly what's on their mind. And so it was just then, when my daughter reached out her little hand to grab the woman next to her's breast and ask loudly, hand lingering on her chest, if she was going to feed the baby? Oh. My. Gosh. I could have died! My daughter persisted and would not stop asking until this patient woman just told her yes, "that's what they're for... sometimes."

Who are Buzz Lightyear and Woody?

        We have watched Toy Story probably a zillion times in our home. We even have a Toy Story book to read before bed. Rather than reading the story last night, I used it to spark conversation with my sweet two year old. We discussed how the piggy bank held money and how Rex the dinosaur roars. Then, pointing to Buzz, I asked her, "Who is this?"
        "Bless you!" She answered confidently. Apparently, I need to annunciate better if she thinks Buzz Lightyear sounds like Bless You!
        Surpressing a laugh I continued by pointing to Woody and asking, "And, what is his name?"
        "Toy Story!" 

Close enough!

Picture of "Bless You" courtesy of disney store. com

Picture of "Toy Story" courtesy of disney store. com

Farmers Market Lotion

Little Girl thought I bought her new lotion from the 

Farmers Market yesterday!