Conference Weekend

WALKING ON THE BEACH BEFORE SUNDAY SESSION:

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, four days each year (two in April and two in October) are dedicated to a marathon of spiritual/insightful words and music. General Conference has always been a priority in our family, even when I was a little girl (and even more so with Fernando and his family who drove to their stake building and camped out all day to watch in church clothes).

Now as a mother of 4 kids, I have tried each year to make Conference a meaningful experience for everyone. When I woke up to the reality that 8 hours of tv time, no matter how spiritually uplifting, is just really long for kids. I tried packets and coloring pages to no avail. The best attendance we got was when we did Word Treats. We allowed the kids to pick several gospel terms and then affixed those terms on different treats and foods. We tried to limit the types of treats to healthy fruits and veggies and a few semi sugary wonders but in the end it felt like we were just constantly eating which felt gross after sitting and watching the tv for hours on end.

Then, last year while scouring the internet for ideas, I stumbled onto the best solution ever (at least for my kids) on sugardoodle.net by Janna Barnes. She had little presents for each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and members of the First Presidency. I also loved her idea of having mini snickers for the kids to eat each time they heard someone laugh and little hugs candies for the times someone cried.

I have done this for two Conferences now with amazing results. For less then $15, we had kids excited for and ready to "listen" to General Conference. Now, I am not so naive to think that it was excitement solely for the messages that would be heard, but I hope that this same concept could be applied here

"6 months from now you will not remember how the cookie tasted, but you will see the result" Our translation, 6 years from now, you won't remember why you were excited for Conference but you will see the result of a habit of watching all sessions with fondness.

We have one session to go and the kids are still excited to listen!! By the time the kids figured out who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve and match it with the gift, open the gift, and played with it for a few minutes it was time to move on to the next activity. No one got bored and I could listen while they hopefully listened and learned by osmosis.

Our tweaks that I found worked best for us:

The members of the Twelve got various dollar store wonders. Play dough, egg dying kit, water bottle drink mixes, those capsules that dissolve in water and become some animal, etc. The best find for us were 100 piece puzzles. They took about a talk and a half to finish and took everyone of the kids working together to do it.

Then for the General Authorities, we had bingo cards. Each time a kids got bingo, they could pick an easter egg out. Inside each easter egg was a treat and quantity. Some of the treats were raspberry lemonade, yogurt smoothy drinks, mandarin oranges, carrots with dip, graham crackers, mini nilla wafers, chocolate chips, etc

Kid History

Umm. . .I don't really know how to explain how our family has watched all of the kid history videos and quote them and laugh heartily at the retelling of family stories. Thanks Aunt Sulay for Guy on a Buffalo and now this:

Not Milk?

There are two possibly three things you should know in order to appreciate this post. First, my three year old is a typical inventive wonder who believes (as do I) that she can do anything she puts her mind to. Second, I have an abhorrence to wasting food. I feel strongly that those who have been blessed with abundance should share the wealth in whatever way possible and when you can't (in the case of food prepared at a given meal), be respectful of the blessing you've been given. Food should really only be thrown out when bad and even with that said, try to only make what you will consume. SOAPBOX Finally, I love whole milk. Adore it. I would love to drink it, but my genes and my doctor husband suggest else wise. I have slowly watered my milk taste down to 1% and feel pretty good about doing so.

With that understood or at least stated, I happened upon Talia a week ago busy at the kitchen sink. She was filling up measuring cups with water. I then glanced down at her cereal bowl to see what appeared to be a combination of milk, cereal, and water. I bit upset at the wasted food, I reprimanded Talia for playing with perfectly good food. She protested as I dumped the watery cereal and poured her another bowl. Almost as soon as I finished my lecture and poured milk into her bowl again I understood Talia's confused face. The wasted watery cereal was merely cereal drenched in Skim "Milk". I still feel like the cereal was a watery waste, but that's because as aforementioned I adore the pure cream of whole milk.

Zoo Day

Thank heavens people can help pull us out of ruts. I have been so concentrated on getting our home ready to sell that we have been homebound for weeks. Luckily my friend Wendy was good enough to invite us along. The weather this time of year is beautiful but can get warm. By hour number 3 the kids were whining for the beach area. Though they were ok when I agreed to let them feed the birds.

Then off to the beach. Joaquin was loving the rocks.

Or may be not!

Random

Here are a few unexplained shots to enjoy.

I think I am going to die up in Alaska--that's right, Alaska is our next duty station come July (buy my home). Anchorage is mild comparably speaking, but still. I busted out these beauties a few weeks ago because I was too cold in Texas.

SABOT

A little acronym that stands for San Antonio Botanical Gardens. We decided to hit up this gem during the last few days of the winter break. It was definitely one of those places that needed some serious running around exploration excitement, but I held the group back with my new gimpy toe (read the previous entry if you are not sure what I am referring to). Though I tried not to, it was almost impossible not to compare this botanical garden with the Dallas Arboretum. Really it was like comparing apples to Cara Cara oranges--try them they equally stunning as they are tasty. Who couldn't love a place that looked like this:


(don't judge a place by my iphone photography. . .it is amazingly beautiful. If you are in Dallas, it is a must see)

and had all sorts of free fun including a petting zoo and face painting!

This place wasn't bad and is probably better in the springtime. The kids loved the amazon room with constant mist action.

The cactus area to imitate

and a metal scorpion


And the butterfly exhibit:

One Too Many

WARNING>Contains graphic pictures of torn toenails. Be advised!

I have a pathological problem with status quo. Not that I am good at changing stuff that should be changed (eating, sleeping, and exercise habits to name a few that need this attention), but I often go around rearranging my furniture every few weeks. Now that we are attempting to sell our home (any buyers interested, feel free to buy), I find the need to change things up comes more frequently and with a greater intensity.

So a about a month ago, I was moving around some couches in our family room. They really aren't that heavy and slide quite easily across the carpet. When I slid the couch a bit too quickly and close, I ended up with a toenail 90 degrees away from its home position. I attempted to push it back into place and stop the bleeding, but then some of my kids needed help and walking while holding down a toenail just isn't a function.

I decided to do a little research on ripped toenails and realized that I needed a doctor visit. ER's with 4 kids are never a charm, but no one was home to watch the kids. I debated between going to a hospital 5 minutes from my home or heading across town to the hospital where Fernando was working in hopes that he might have the chance to watch the kids while my toenail was fixed. It just so happened that Fernando's family left the day before which was too bad. Free babysitters who love getting the chance to watch your kids makes such unfortunate events so much better. I took my chances with the hospital across town.

Mia reminded me that it was such a blessing that my left big toe was damaged because driving to the hospital would have been impossible. Fernando came after we were triaged which I think ended up being beneficial. No one wanted to rank me as a wait for space ER candidate with four kids buzzing with nervous energy. It was now a couple hours past the injury and the adrenaline had definitely worn off. The doctor tried to touch the toe and I almost screamed. He numbed up the toe (even more painful than the toe touching) and proceeded to sew my toenail to my toe. I waddled out to enjoy a little gyro sandwich with the kids before heading home.

Church was fun with flip flops. I am sure no one cared, but it was quite ridiculous wearing flip flops with a nice dress and a wool coat due to the colder temperatures. With over a month and a half healing time, the toenail is gone with a new one on the way. The next two pictures after the now picture are increasingly more graphic FYI.