Monday, August 17, 2009

Praises of Family Home Evening

Our Monday has not been the best. There has been fighting, whining and crying...ALL DAY. By dinnertime I think we had all had it. I even had to start yelling. That is something I don't like to do - it make me too cranky. Don't get me wrong...I'm pretty good at it. If it were an Olympic sport I would be a returning champion many times over...but, I digress. We were supposed to have FHE but I was not in the right frame of mind and knew the lesson I had planned was not the one that needed to be given.

**For my wonderful friends who are not LDS, we have been counseled to set aside one night a week (Monday) as family night. We have lessons, sing church songs and even have a treat.

Everyone took their baths/showers and got ready for bed. We calmed down and listened to Fiona practice the piano. Once we all got in a better frame of mind and mood we sat down. Our lesson was how we talk to others and how that makes others talk to us. Our challenge (and I mean everyone!) is simply to remember to say "Please" or "Thank you". Each time I hear one of these wonderful things I will put a check mark by their names. It was so nice to close by singing "Families can be together forever". Almost immediately following the lesson a wonderful change of air blew in. And, by the end of our closing song, we all felt much more peaceful. Porter said the closing prayer and he made sure to remind us to be friends and to "say please to play with my tractors".

I'm so thankful for the inspiration and revelation of FHE. It is one of the quickest ways to bring all of us back to where we need to be. Now, I don't need to accept my earlier nominations of meanest mom ever and most likely to pop a vein in my neck while yelling.... :)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Porterman!

On Wednesday the 5th, Porter turned 4 years old! Time flies...when you don't have time to realize it's flying by.....(think about that one for awhile...)

We had his party today (Saturday). He is our John Deere lover and we did our best to please him. I made him a frontloader cake (that had an odd resemblence to Mater), and another smaller cake with the John Deere logo on it. He recieved many articles of JD clothing, as well as some fun toys and Thomas the Train books and stickers. He had so much fun and was surprisingly patient. We didn't give him any presents on his actual birthday and told him he had to wait for Saturday. He didn't complain once!

Here's some pics of the party.