Or at least, it's working. Ruth went to sleep in her own bed and so did Moroni. I only had to return Ruth to her bed twice tonight. I took Moroni into his bed a few times... of course he wasn't getting it. He just wanted to play like he did all day today. Joseph took him in and shut the door. I went in to check on him and Mo was right behind the door and got knocked flat on his butt. Man did he howl. After some reassurance and comfort, Joseph took him back in and laid down with him. I guess that's all he needed. Joseph came in at 11:30 to report that he was asleep. Hopefully we can move that a *wee* bit earlier in the evening. I wasn't going to let him nap today, but he just fell asleep next to me. After a couple of hours I woke him up, but he just kept rolling over and going back to sleep. I think his nap was about 3 1/2 hours total. Hmmm... one thing at a time.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Musical Bedrooms
We've been in a quandary with bedrooms lately. Mostly it's that we want Ruth and Moroni to sleep in their own beds in their own bedrooms. This morning at breakfast Rebekah asked if she could move her things into Rachel's room, since that's where she spends much of her time anyway. Now mind you, I've already suggested this and each time I do, it's met with resistance. I guess now that it's their idea, it's okay. Joseph is taking Rebekah's spot in with Moroni.
The kids spent the time changing rooms this morning. It also took most of the afternoon to clean up the leftover junk from Rebekah's room. We still have to tackle all of the stuff that Joseph left behind and clean up the room for Benjamin and Samuel. And we do need to clean out the room for Mary and Ruth (in hopes that Ruth will finally feel okay about staying in her room).
Moroni really likes the new set up in his room. He was playing in it all day today. When we first cleaned it out and we were getting it vacuumed he was playing on the carpet on his stomach. It looked like he was swimming on it. I joked that he was amazed by the floor since he's never really seen it. Mo, Orion and Ben kept playing hide and seek in the closet. Then Mo would climb onto his bed and pull his blanket up. Then he would climb off the bed and pull the lion onto the floor, then back into the closet he would go... around and around he went.
Unfortunately this afternoon nausea hit quite miserably. I popped a frozen lasagna in the oven and Robert came home and made cheese bread and fed the kids. Ironically, about the time he got home the nausea had gotten considerably better.
For FHE we discussed Elder Hale's and Elder Oaks' talks from this weekend's conference. We also read a quote from the Brigham Young manual about how we shouldn't let our children waste a crumb or crust of bread. Then we took them into the dining room to see the food that didn't get eaten from dinner. Don't know if they 'get it' but we could evaluate that Ruth and Moroni are consistently getting too much food since they always have plenty of food on their plate. Isn't FHE great.
The kids spent the time changing rooms this morning. It also took most of the afternoon to clean up the leftover junk from Rebekah's room. We still have to tackle all of the stuff that Joseph left behind and clean up the room for Benjamin and Samuel. And we do need to clean out the room for Mary and Ruth (in hopes that Ruth will finally feel okay about staying in her room).
Moroni really likes the new set up in his room. He was playing in it all day today. When we first cleaned it out and we were getting it vacuumed he was playing on the carpet on his stomach. It looked like he was swimming on it. I joked that he was amazed by the floor since he's never really seen it. Mo, Orion and Ben kept playing hide and seek in the closet. Then Mo would climb onto his bed and pull his blanket up. Then he would climb off the bed and pull the lion onto the floor, then back into the closet he would go... around and around he went.
Unfortunately this afternoon nausea hit quite miserably. I popped a frozen lasagna in the oven and Robert came home and made cheese bread and fed the kids. Ironically, about the time he got home the nausea had gotten considerably better.
For FHE we discussed Elder Hale's and Elder Oaks' talks from this weekend's conference. We also read a quote from the Brigham Young manual about how we shouldn't let our children waste a crumb or crust of bread. Then we took them into the dining room to see the food that didn't get eaten from dinner. Don't know if they 'get it' but we could evaluate that Ruth and Moroni are consistently getting too much food since they always have plenty of food on their plate. Isn't FHE great.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
General Conference
The day started out very frustrating. Nobody wanted to get up and nobody wanted to eat. they were all excited for General Conference to begin. We made sack lunches (we did this yesterday) and spread a sheet out on the basement floor. They really enjoy watching conference this way. We could tell they were listening when they would make comments on the talks.
In between sessions we played "Nice Kitty" and "Swoop Bunny." The girls didn't like Swoop Bunny until they 'got it.' Joseph and Ben were the last to 'get it' and were such great sports about it.
Everyone was kinda restless during the last session. I came upstairs with Ruth and Moroni and they went down for a nap and I got to hear the last of the last session in peace. I remembered to record the last three sessions (Saturday afternoon and the two Sunday sessions) so I can watch some of those until the conference archive comes out online with the PDF versions. They already have it split into a recording for each talk so I could put it on my flash drive and listen to it in the big van. I loved doing that last year. I guess the one down side to having the minivan is that I don't have to drive the big van as much and that's the vehicle that has the USB port. Maybe I should make a CD up since the minivan has a CD player.
We ate cinnamon rolls during the last session too. It's a great tradition to have cinnamon rolls (I have found that a lot of people have the same tradition), but the infusion of food/sugar might, in part, be responsible for some of the craziness. I think for next conference, we'll have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pop some popcorn for the afternoon session snack. Robert thought the idea a bad one since we'd have to vacuum, but I think I'm going to push to at least try it. Vacuuming's not so bad when it's already been vacuumed once and you're just cleaning up immediately after.
When General Conference was finished the BYU channel had "The Other Side of Heaven" playing. Rachel and I sat down and watched it. She really enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching something uplifting with her. Since I was occupied watching the movie with Rachel, Robert made dinner. We didn't eat until 7pm -- but the movie finished just before that anyway (and I suspect they were all full on cinnamon rolls).
After dinner we cleaned up and talked with the older kids about what needs to happen if they're going to stay up after younger kids go to bed (ie, not be grouchy the next morning, wake up by 8ish, help get younger kids to bed, no computer/tv after 10). We had commented that ideally they'd be in bed by 11 and either Rebekah or Rachel said, "I know, the spirit goes to bed at 11."
We read some Huck Finn together and then sent everyone off. Joseph had to carry Sam to bed since he fell asleep listening to the story. Ruth, however was still wide awake. I put her in her bed, got her woobie, a sippie cup of milk, and a kiss good night. I took her to bed several times more. At 10 I sent Mary in with her so someone else would be in there, reading stories etc. Between 10 and 10:30 Robert was the one taking her back to bed each time she came in. She looked so sad, "I want my mommy." One point even Robert asked if we should cave. We decided to just keep putting her back into bed. She finally fell asleep. I suspect a few more nights like this and then she'll be used to it. I also need to have her stop napping so she's more tired at bed time and it's easier to fall asleep. It's so hard to do that because they are so tired in the afternoon and the peace during nap time is nice. Moroni will be next. Hopefully we can get Rebekah's room cleaned out this week (it's spring break) and we'll start tucking Moroni in. He's going to be a hard one. Robert's going to have to give up his Harry Potter blanket since it's Moroni's favorite blanket (with the ties). I guess we all will have sacrifices to make.
In between sessions we played "Nice Kitty" and "Swoop Bunny." The girls didn't like Swoop Bunny until they 'got it.' Joseph and Ben were the last to 'get it' and were such great sports about it.
Everyone was kinda restless during the last session. I came upstairs with Ruth and Moroni and they went down for a nap and I got to hear the last of the last session in peace. I remembered to record the last three sessions (Saturday afternoon and the two Sunday sessions) so I can watch some of those until the conference archive comes out online with the PDF versions. They already have it split into a recording for each talk so I could put it on my flash drive and listen to it in the big van. I loved doing that last year. I guess the one down side to having the minivan is that I don't have to drive the big van as much and that's the vehicle that has the USB port. Maybe I should make a CD up since the minivan has a CD player.
We ate cinnamon rolls during the last session too. It's a great tradition to have cinnamon rolls (I have found that a lot of people have the same tradition), but the infusion of food/sugar might, in part, be responsible for some of the craziness. I think for next conference, we'll have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pop some popcorn for the afternoon session snack. Robert thought the idea a bad one since we'd have to vacuum, but I think I'm going to push to at least try it. Vacuuming's not so bad when it's already been vacuumed once and you're just cleaning up immediately after.
When General Conference was finished the BYU channel had "The Other Side of Heaven" playing. Rachel and I sat down and watched it. She really enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching something uplifting with her. Since I was occupied watching the movie with Rachel, Robert made dinner. We didn't eat until 7pm -- but the movie finished just before that anyway (and I suspect they were all full on cinnamon rolls).
After dinner we cleaned up and talked with the older kids about what needs to happen if they're going to stay up after younger kids go to bed (ie, not be grouchy the next morning, wake up by 8ish, help get younger kids to bed, no computer/tv after 10). We had commented that ideally they'd be in bed by 11 and either Rebekah or Rachel said, "I know, the spirit goes to bed at 11."
We read some Huck Finn together and then sent everyone off. Joseph had to carry Sam to bed since he fell asleep listening to the story. Ruth, however was still wide awake. I put her in her bed, got her woobie, a sippie cup of milk, and a kiss good night. I took her to bed several times more. At 10 I sent Mary in with her so someone else would be in there, reading stories etc. Between 10 and 10:30 Robert was the one taking her back to bed each time she came in. She looked so sad, "I want my mommy." One point even Robert asked if we should cave. We decided to just keep putting her back into bed. She finally fell asleep. I suspect a few more nights like this and then she'll be used to it. I also need to have her stop napping so she's more tired at bed time and it's easier to fall asleep. It's so hard to do that because they are so tired in the afternoon and the peace during nap time is nice. Moroni will be next. Hopefully we can get Rebekah's room cleaned out this week (it's spring break) and we'll start tucking Moroni in. He's going to be a hard one. Robert's going to have to give up his Harry Potter blanket since it's Moroni's favorite blanket (with the ties). I guess we all will have sacrifices to make.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Family Home Evening
Our family is often blessed as we have family home evening. I know that as we follow the counsel to reserve this time for our families, we allow the Lord to bless us. Our children enjoy getting together and joking as a family, but more importantly it allows us the opportunity to teach our children. What a wise and loving Father in Heaven we have.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday Teachers
The Lord has blessed my children with wonderful Sunday teachers who help my kids feel the spirit and learn of the gospel.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Three Fold
Mary had Selma over today. They were watching a movie on the "Family Channel" and someone in the movie swore. The kids insisted on turning the movie off. Selma really wanted to finish watching the movie, but Mary stood firm that it was not a good movie to watch because they swore. Selma was upset and went home, and while Mary was hurt, she still chose to stick by her values. As a family occasionally there is a swear word in the movies we watch (not many have absolutely no swearing, sad, yes). Robert always says, "we don't say that word," and it's become a funny that our kids will even now repeat while watching movies. I'm pleased that our kids chose not to watch a movie without us present when there was swearing.
I love General Conference. I get more excited for it each year. This year I am even more blessed by the opportunity to listen to the Lord's message with my daughter during the Young Women's General Broadcast. What a wonderful chance I had to listen to the message and be touched by the spirit and share the moment with Rebekah.
We are also blessed to have Young Women leaders for Rebekah that will be a second witness of the Lord's gospel. To have righteous sisters who will only enhance and bring more of the spirit into Rebekah's life is truly a blessing.
I love General Conference. I get more excited for it each year. This year I am even more blessed by the opportunity to listen to the Lord's message with my daughter during the Young Women's General Broadcast. What a wonderful chance I had to listen to the message and be touched by the spirit and share the moment with Rebekah.
We are also blessed to have Young Women leaders for Rebekah that will be a second witness of the Lord's gospel. To have righteous sisters who will only enhance and bring more of the spirit into Rebekah's life is truly a blessing.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Peace
I loved the peace this morning after breakfast was cleaned up. The kids are getting really good at seeing what needs to be done and just taking care of it. (Though I do struggle with getting Ruth to come help out.) I got to sit on the bed with Mary and Ben and work through some art lessons and then let them loose to go paint (with Sam and Ruth at their heals, of course). I love feeling the peace promised me in my patriarchal blessing, and I know it comes from our Father in Heaven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)