singing and other lost talents...

Over Christmas we went to a Musical Christmas Evening in my parent's ward. It was wonderful. Everyone that performed were extremely talented musician's and it was just inspiring to hear such beautiful music. At the end they have a tradition of having a sing-along with the audience of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. I loved standing up and feeling the power of joining my voice with such a large group and feeling the vibrations of the organ coming up through my toes and singing with my full voice, something I don't do very often unless I'm calling for my kids (I sing for them to come, yes it is still lazier than going to get them but sounds better than screaming across the house). It reminded me of choir camp back in High School when I sang Mozart's Requiem with a full choir and symphony, so powerful.

It got me thinking about the things I used to love to do or feel passionate about that don't seem to have much of a place in my life. I think it happens to all of us, we find new hobbies that fit in with our current lifestyle. But sometimes I miss the things I was so involved in before. I think I also have the problem of wanting to do so many things and I can't do them all. I love what I do now, I love homeschooling my kids (which is my number one activity now and will be for as long as I can), scrapbooking and I still play the piano. I just wish sometimes I could do it all.

New Hair

I suddenly decided this week to chop all my hair off. I was going for flippy and cute, not sure I managed it. These are some of the reactions I got:

Jocelyn: "You don't look like my mom any more"

Joseph: "Are you going to be able to fix it like that?"

Girl in my primary class: "Are you wearing a wig?"

The Birds and the Bees, okay fine just the Bees

I planned my first big homeschool field trip today. I have wanted to take my kids to a bee farm for a long time and so I googled and found Marshall's Bee Farm in Napa Valley. It sounded like so much fun but I was worried it wouldn't live up to the description, but it turned out great! The kids got to put on bee keeping hats and go right out to the hive and see everything in it. They even found the queen bee! Then they each got to eat honeycomb right out of the hive. They also got to see where they process the honey (uncap the wax covering the honeycomb and spin it to get the honey out). Then they got a whole table full of honey to try (20 different varieties) plus crackers, cheese and bananas and yogurt parfaits to eat. Isaac kept yelling, 'more honey'. I guess it's not that different from the 'more candy' I've been hearing him yell since halloween. It was so much fun and thanks to all my friends for coming!

Building an Eternal Family

Last night for Family Home Evening I did a lesson based on the song My Eternal Family. It's not in the primary songbook it was one of those songs in the friend a couple years ago. Anyway, it is one of the songs for the primary program next year and it is the song all the primary is supposed to learn in January. I love primary music and I think it is such a wonderful way to teach the gospel to my kids. I love making my kids picture music sheets for the songs we learn. Here's the one I made for this song.
I got out a bunch of different tools and set them out and then had sticker labels. We sang each line of the song and the kids had to find the 'tools' we use to build our family. Then they got to come up and choose a tool from the table to represent that tool. The hammer was serving, the screwdriver was speak with kindness, the staple gun was help at work and play etc... It was really fun. But the best part was our activity. We decided to try and build a family pyramid. We set up the camera on timer and after two tries we got this:

Our very own eternal family pyramid.

That's how I roll

I've done sewing projects off and on with my kids and Solomon was wanting to sew something new (he just thinks it's cool to use a machine that if you put your finger in the wrong place could get a needle through it). We've made lots of fun easy sewing projects together and so I started hunting for something new and maybe a little more complicated. I found this fun tutorial for a crayon roll and knew my kids would love it. It's perfect too because the math curriculum I use involves a lot of coloring and they are always hunting for the right color. We went the fabric store and I let them each choose 3 fat quarters to make their roll up. I thought they turned out so cute
Now Adelaide just sat on my lap while I pretty much made the whole thing but Solomon and Jocelyn were able to make them all by themselves. We've been working on more for christmas presents for their cousins and friends (act surprised ok?) I did come up with a different idea for the closure, I just used a pony tail holder and a button, I think it's more kid friendly than tying a bow. She makes one darn cute seamstress eh?

Going Veg

I never thought vegetarian could possibly be used to describe me. I love meat, well I love all food. I have tried to make some healthy choices in our eating, I try to make fish once a week (which is either Salmon or Tilapia I'm too chicken to try anything else) and my children are pretty much only allowed to snack on fruit. But about two weeks ago Joseph out of the blue said he thought we should try to eat a couple of meat-less meals each week. After I recovered from my shock and extracting a promise that he would not complain at all about there being no meat I started trying out some vegetarian meals. It's been two weeks of no meat here at our house and finally Joseph did ask if we were ever going to eat meat again. But overall it's been good. Making Bean and Potato Enchiladas was way cheaper than making flank steak fajitas that's for sure and my kids have actually eaten, read that at least 3 bites, of everything I've made. And technically I know we aren't even going true vegetarian just trying to eat less meat. We'll see how long it lasts.

All about the kids

I forgot the camera for Solomon's first two games but I finally remembered it yesterday. I got some great photos, but the best one is this one of him scoring a goal, I can't believe how perfectly I captured it :)

Yesterday Adelaide came up to me and wanted to sing me a song she made up for me. She was being really cute dancing around with these balloons and singing.

The song was making me feel pretty good too...until the second verse. The first verse went something like this, "Mommy's the best mommy, she's so nice and fun. I love her so much." But then the second verse started, "My mommy's so nice except when she yells and is really mean." Needless to say the warm fuzzies were gone.

Today at church the babysitter that babysat for us last weekend came up and told me that when she was putting the girls to bed they asked if she would lay down with them until they fell asleep (something I do with my girls sometimes). So they were all laying there holding hands when Jocelyn said to our 15 year old babysitter. "Courtney, you are going to be such a great mom."

The Family that sings together...

I love singing. I have always dreamed about having sing alongs with my kids and singing songs together at church. I had really just about given up on those dreams as my son Solomon seems to really have a strong dislike for singing (it's like pulling teeth to get him to sing anything!) But today Joseph and I were asked to speak in church and I thought it would be nice if our family sang a primary song in French together. I admit at first I was just going to sing with Jocelyn but Joseph said we should try singing together. We practiced and it didn't sound half bad so we sang altogether. Thanks family for making one of my dreams come true :)

Things to make life easier

I hate lunch. I hate deciding what to make that A) at least half of the kids will eat and B) is easy to put on the table and C) is somewhat healthy and well-rounded. So I finally figured something out that helps me not only get through lunch but all the meals. I've started planning every meal and snack for the week. It is so nice to not have to scramble around for what to put on the table. We also eat so much healthier. Here is my menu plan for last week:

Mon ...........Tues............Wed
Cereal........Yogurt/fruit...cereal

Quesadillas...ham/pretzels...Annie's pasta
plums.........carrots........cherry tomatoes
cucumbers oranges........nectarines

Grapes........apple slices...dried cranberries
PBCrackers....cheese.........graham crackers

Shrimp Salad..sweet n sour...Tostada leftovers
melon.........meatballs......corn
breadsticks...rice/broccoli..watermelon


Thurs..............Fri..............Sat..............Sun
pancakes.............oatmeal...........biscuits........cereal

chicken nuggets......hot dogs..........PB&J............tuna
plums................carrots.............oranges.......apples
sweet potato fries...strawberries........carrots.......cucumber

smoothie.............goldfish............bananas.......grapes
popcorn..............oranges.............nutella toast..banana bars

crab quiche..........cous cous...........sweet n sour...salmon
peas.................salad.................peas................wild rice
cantaloupe...........watermelon............ rice................broccoli

Desserts: Peanut butter bars, snickerdoodles

Other bonuses: not as much complaining, my daughter started to complain about what was for lunch but stopped when I showed her that her favorite lunch was coming up the next day. Not as much pestering, instead of bugging me about what was for snack or dinner they just went and looked for themselves what they could have.

I also try to plan one meal that I can double and freeze to make a quick meal for another week (I doubled and froze the crab quiche and the cous cous was frozen from before and a few fun desserts to make with the kids or when I *need* some chocolate.

Okay so looking back at my menu I take back that we eat healthy...we just eat more of a variety :)

So in a perfect world I would do this every week instead of every once in a while like I do now.

The upsides of having a teenager

For the last few weeks I have become the proud mother of 5...okay not really but I have had our 15 year-old neighbor/babysitter from Paris come and live with us for the Summer. I have to say, I LOVE having a teenager:) Now don't get me wrong she hasn't really even done much babysitting for me but it is the little things. We are out running errands and I need to run in and pick up my holds at the library, I can actually run in and grab them without unloading and herding my whole little troop in and out and we get to do fun things like go to a Jonas Brother's concert together. I'm going to miss her when she's gone but there's already talk of next summer...

Starting again

I think I will get back into blogging again, it was fun last year when I did it so here it goes again. I love my kids birthday parties, I love having a day where everything is special for them. We just celebrated two birthday's: Isaac turned two and then the next day Jocelyn turned 6. Here's a page I made of Isaac eating his bulldozer dirt cake.

He loved opening presents but the next day on Jocelyn's birthday he got pretty made that he couldn't open all her present too. We are still waiting to have Jocelyn's party but hopefully it's going to happen next week.