I have always loved birthdays. The parties, the balloons, the cake, the presents, the attention. Birthday’s have always been a big deal in my family and celebrating them is a lot of fun. Yet it wasn’t until my oldest son celebrated his first birthday that it dawned on me that a birthday celebrates a BIRTH.…
When I was young my mother made my siblings and I these fantastic quiet books full of fun simple activities like lacing up a football, putting earings on a lamb, hanging clothes on a tiny clothesline, matching shapes, putting cherries in a bucket and writing notes on miniature note pad. They were handmade, beautiful, and…
My husband reading scriptures with our two-year-old For the last few months my husband and I have really been struggling with family scripture study. We don’t have a problem remembering to do it. Our problem is how to keep it from degenerating into total chaos and mayhem which ends with someone throwing a tantrum in…
A few days ago I got an email from a woman who had just started doing one of my Mom’s MTC lessons with her boys ( 8, 5, and 3). She wrote: … I got ready to do honesty this week and started today because my oldest son was staying the night at his cousin’s…
My little boy has really been into “dress up”. Every day he comes downstairs in a new outfit and has a new identity. Some days he is a train engineer, a robot, a spaceman, a pirate, and for awhile a witch… complete with the witch hat and dress. The first day he wore the witch…
Last summer I spent a lot of time researching educational methods, curriculum, and learning activities. Jon and I are about 90% sure that we would like to home school our kids (ack! Did I really say that out loud) and so I was trying to figure out what I needed to have in order to teach…
My three-year-old has been having a tough week. Yesterday was our first day back to church after a week and a half of being sick. I guess a straight week of movies, sore throats, coughs, and grumpy parents took a big toll on him because church yesterday was a roller coaster. Both of my children…
This post originally started as a response to some of the comments I got on my “When is it Art? When is it Pornography?” post but then it got too long and I figured it needed to be a post all of its own. I’ve had a bit of a change of mind since I…
Story #1 When I was 15 I begged my parents to buy me a red wool coat. The one I wanted was expensive, really expensive, and so I used every ounce of my persuasive power to convince them that I had to have that coat or else my life would be over. My persistent pleas…
Every morning my husband gets our family together for scripture study. Our children are still really young so it is hard to get them interested, but lately we’ve started singing the song “Scripture Power” before we start and it has really made a huge difference. Each of the kids has their own little set of…
I’ve been making felt pieces as a fun way to teach my toddler scripture stories and gospel principles. As I was pondering on what stories I should teach him I realized that there is NO more important story for him to understand, and understand well, than the story of Adam and Eve. My little boy…
I received a wonderful comment a few days ago on a post I wrote last year called “In Which I Vent”, which was an rant about a PG rated movie that showed several scenes of intimacy between a husband and a wife. This reader’s comment brought up some really interesting thoughts and I thought it…
The original Barbie doll, introduced in 1959 (Image Source) I was a HUGE fan of Barbie when I was younger. I easily had two dozen Barbies who between them all owned enough dresses, shoes, and accessories to clothe a small city. My friends and I played Barbies well into Jr. High and then, when it…