A Week in the Life

This week has been filled with fun and doing. With a new baby coming, my life will probably have to slow down dramatically. So I wanted to remember what may be my last week as a mother of two...

Monday:
Merritt doesn't usually get the luxury of taking days off work. When you're self-employed a day off work is a day without pay. But Merritt actually took Monday off (which was President's Day) and took the boys to play in the snow. Because we live on the coast, we have to drive about two hours to get to snow. But it was well worth the trip. Collin was on his sled up and down the hill non-stop the entire day.

Two other families came along too, the Wherity and the Larsen families. So it made it even more fun that Collin had friends to sled with. When he got home Collin said, "This was the best day ever!" Luke enjoyed it too, but he was not quite big enough to climb hills in the snow. And he seemed a little more bothered by the cold. Yet he still enjoyed putting freezing cold snow in his mouth. I guess it just looked tasty.



Tuesday:
Tuesday we had a fun day at Mom's School learning about Presidents. We read the book Duck for President and told stories about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Then we pointed out how these presidents are pictured on the coins we use. We sorted and counted coins. Then we traced the profile of the boys' faces onto black paper and glued the silhouette to a large circle. They colored the circle brown to look like a penny with their own face on it.

For science, we investigated how hot sauce from Taco Bell cleans pennies. We observed how clean our pennies became in the taco sauce. Then we tried to figure out which ingredient(s) in the sauce were actually doing the cleaning. We tried tomato paste, vinegar and salt in different combinations. We discovered that it's actually a combination of the salt and vinegar that cleans the pennies.

Finally, we read Caps for Sale and suggested the boys set up a toy store in their room and assign a price to each item they'd like to sale. Angie and I came in when they were ready and got to "shop" for toys. We paid them with real money, as long as they promised to give it back when we were done pretending. They loved it. For homework, we asked them to draw three pictures to help them retell the story Caps for Sale. We're trying to teach them that stories are a sequence of events and have a beginning, middle and an end.

After school, Collin and I were discussing what he'd like to save his money for. The thing he wants most is to go to Disneyland. We looked up on the Internet how much a ticket to Disneyland costs these days. Collin set a goal to save $59.00 (the price of a child's ticket to Disneyland). We started a chore chart and he is now earning $.20 for every chore that he does. He sorts silverware, cleans toilets, washes windows, vacuums and picks up toys (even when he didn't make the mess). He's a great helper.

This photo of my door shows off some of Collin and Luke's latest art work from Mom's School. Check out the penny with Collin's silhouette on it. So cute.

Wednesday:
Wednesday we had family night, since Monday night the boys were home too late from playing in the snow. We read a story from the Friend about a mother who needed help with her children during an airplane flight. We talked about the new baby coming and how the boys could help. The boys helped their dad assemble the crib. Mom showed them where the baby's clothes and diapers and blankets would be kept.

We talked about the needs of a baby and explained that the baby will require a lot of our attention. But we promised them that we love all our boys. Each is special and adds something unique and wonderful to our family. We expressed that our family was really blessed to have three beautiful boys that can grow up to be best friends. We ended the night playing a game of baby bottle bowling and enjoying Merritt's famous no-bake cookies. Yum!

Luke and I also saw a beautiful rainbow while we were out playing in the rain this afternoon. Check out Luke's cool Lightning McQueen umbrella he got from grandma.

Thursday:
Thursday evening I hosted a family night discussion group. This is a discussion group that I started last fall to promote the concept of family night. My friends in the church, of course, already know about family nights but there are also four other women attending who come from various religious backgrounds. When we all come together I'm amazed by the strength that I feel from these women, who are all my dear friends.

We meet once a month to discuss different topics and share ideas. We are challenged to prepare a family night lesson on a particular topic, then come together to share our experiences. For example, last month our topic was Love at Home: How to Strengthen Family Relationships. This month out topic was Anchoring Children in the Scriptures. We were each challenged to use a scripture story from the Bible to teach a family night lesson. We shared our family night experiences then had a general discussion about how to raise up children that love and understand the scriptures. I always enjoy our meetings and conversations. I have been blessed with many friends here who inspire me.

Friday:
Friday night we had a surprise birthday party for Merritt, who is turning 30 this year! A friend and I set up a drive-in movie theater. (I used to love going to those when I was a kid.) We had a movie projected onto the wall, and had large boxes decorated like cars for the families to watch the movie in. (Actually, the box car thing didn't work out but I'll just pretend that it did so I'm not disappointed. It was a good thought.)

We had popcorn and cake for singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out candles. I brought pictures of Merritt when he was a little boy and prepared a little quiz about 1979. It was fun to hear how much things cost, the politics of the day, who won a grammy for album of the year, the average household income, the price of minimum wage, etc. It's amazing how much things change in thirty years. Happy 30th birthday, Merritt!

Saturday:
Saturday we took the kids bowling for the first time. They loved it of course. Since we had just taught them the game at family night earlier in the week, they were excited to see the real thing. We went with the Sneed family and set up one lane for adults and another lane for kids (having guard rails over the gutters). It was so cute to see both Collin and Luke carrying a heavy bowling ball and getting so excited when they knocked over the pins. I'm sure it was entertaining to watch me bowl as well, seeing that I've got a bowling ball in my stomach!



Sunday:
The last Sunday of every month we have the missionaries over for dinner. The missionaries here now are my favorite so far. They are such neat young men. They always share a message with us and their presence invites the Spirit into our home. It makes Sunday feel even more like the Sabbath. Having the missionaries in my home often is hopefully great for my boys too. They see such good examples in them. This Sunday I was having contractions every ten minutes. I cooked dinner anyway. And I took a picture of me in my church dress (see photo above) because I realized I didn't have any pictures of my belly and the baby might be coming! Unfortunately, the contractions stopped when I fell asleep that night. But it can't be long now! Hopefully the next time I blog, I'll have newborn baby pictures to post!