funny

sometimes my students make me laugh. we do dialogue journals. the kids write twice a week and once a week i read their entries and write back. (twice would be too much for me to respond to 25 kids... it already takes me about an hour to an hour and a half per week to respond once to every kid.) anyway, last week i asked them to write about what they would do for thanksgiving. (i usually give them ideas of what to write about, but they can also write about anything else they want to.) so one of my boys wrote this: "I will eat ribs. They are not people ribs. They taste good." Hee, hee. Glad he's not a cannibal. :)

Chores

I've been planning to pose this question for over a week now. We had a discussion about chores during book club and I've been thinking about it since. One person in my book club started reading a book about parenting. It had a list of responsibilities or chores that kids should be able to complete independently at different ages. She thought some of their expectations were pretty high or perhaps unreasonable. For example, one was that a 3 year old should be able to make his/her bed alone and should be able to make a PB&J sandwich alone. I have a 3 year old and she can't/doesn't make her bed and I wouldn't want her to make PB&J by herself... peanut butter and jelly would be everywhere. Plus she can't get the twist tie off the bread by herself. However, we do expect our kids to get dressed, put their dishes in the sink when they are done eating, pick up their toys, brush their hair (with help), put on socks and shoes, and help with other tasks when asked. I feel like these are reasonable expectations. Alfredo sometimes thinks they should be doing more.

So, my question is: what responsibilities or chores do your children have? How old are they and what do they have to do? Or what do you think are reasonable expectations for a 3 year old and a 5 year old?

FHE: The Plan/Free to Choose

So I mentioned a month ago that I was really going to make a concerted effort to hold FHE. Last week, we had a short lesson on the prophet. This week, we had a lesson on Heavenly Father's plan and on our agency. We talked about Christ's plan versus Satan's plan and how in Christ's plan we get to choose. I asked whether they like to make choices or be told what to do. We talked about some of the choices they get to make (what outfit to wear, what toys to play with, etc.) and also which choices are good and bad (listen to parents/not listen, go to church/stay home, hit others/be kind to others, etc.). They had a page to color and they actively answered questions and really seemed to grasp the idea. Michelle even came up with several good versus bad choices to ask Ella. We sang "I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me" and talked about living with Him again someday. For dessert, I'd made a cake yesterday. So they got a choice since that was what our lesson was about tonight. They could have cake, ice cream or a little of both. The girls chose ice cream, Alfredo had both, and I had cake. (Although I may have a small bowl of ice cream in a minute.) It was a successful FHE and I really want to continue doing it each week.

November Reads

Along Comes a Stranger by Dorie McCullough Lawson
German Boy by Wolfgang W. E. Samuel
Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan
Epicenter by Sonia O'Brien
Lottery by Patricia Wood

TTA: Giving Thanks

This post may end up being a jumble of my thoughts, but I hope it will have a theme of gratitude. I could do a top ten list like Shannon or a daily theme of what I'm grateful for like Leslie or a 100 things I'm grateful for like Brandi. But while I have been touched by each of theirs, I wanted to do my own thing.

On Sunday, the talks at church were on gratitude. One was based on President Monson's talk "Joy in the Journey." He talked about not getting caught up in life and stopping to enjoy the ride. One thing he said was to never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. I've reflected on that a lot over the past couple of weeks. I am so grateful for people in my life who have taken the time to love me. I hope that I show my love and keep my focus on people, not problems or tasks or to-do lists.

I am grateful for my family. I adore my children. There are days, though, when I get aggravated or annoyed or frustrated by the endless tasks associated with being a parent. This quote from President Monson reminded me how fleeting these years are:

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." (I don't think I will ever miss the laundry though!!LOL)

Said one well-known author, Sarah Ban Breathnach: “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

During college, I read Sarah Ban Breathnach's book, Simple Abundance and I kept a gratitude journal. Every day I would record 5 things I was grateful for. She says that you won't be the same person if you take time to express gratitude for the abundance in your life daily for at least a month. I found that to be true. Gratitude changes our outlook, our attitude, our thoughts for others. Which "secret garden" do I tend?

I wish I could find the exact statistics but a year ago I read something that was along this vein. If you live in a house with more than one room and something else (I don't recall what) you are wealthier than something like 50% of the world's population. If you have flooring (carpet, wood, etc.--not dirt) and glass in your windows, you are among the top 20% of the world's population in wealth. (or perhaps it was the other way around, but you get the picture.) Again I'm not sure of the exact statistics, but this hit me profoundly when I read it a year ago. It is easy to want more and more or to focus on what we don't have. But we are so blessed! 80% of the world has less than we do when it comes to material goods.

And then you add to that the fact that we live in a free country where we are educated, we have the right to vote, we can choose what church to attend (or not to attend at all), we can read what we choose, choose what profession to have, choose who to marry and how many children we will have and on and on. And most of us come from loving families and have never been abused. Most of us have the problem of deciding what to cook for dinner, not how to find food to eat. We live in a country that is (relatively) peaceful where no war has occurred on our soil in a very long time. Where we can change leadership (president, etc.) without any major uprisings or difficulties.

I'm not saying life is easy. We all have our challenges. But we are so lucky to live here and to live now! I know I need to be careful to not take these and many other things for granted.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

Dear Tooth Fairy,
Please come and visit our house tonight. My tooth has been loose for at least a month now and finally tonight, I let Janene pull it out for me. For the last week or two, I have gotten out of bed each night to ask my daddy to pull it. He keeps saying that it isn't quite ready and to go back to bed.
Today Janene offered and after some convincing, I finally decided to let her try. And she pulled it right out. It only bled a little bit and I didn't cry at all.

Tooth fairy, I am wondering: Where do you live? What do you do with all those teeth? Do you like collecting teeth? How much money will you give me? Do you get paid to collect teeth? What do you look like?

Sincerely,
Michelle

our new family member

We adopted a new family member from Alfredo's boss yesterday. His name is Chester and he is a borador (border collie and black labrador mix). His mom is a border collie; his dad a lab. He is 7 months old. Alfredo's boss' son has asthma/allergies and the dog was exacerbating the problem, so they needed to pass him on to a new family. Alfredo has been trying to talk me into taking him for a week or so now. He originally told me that his boss had emailed me and to read the email and tell him what I thought. So I checked my email and it says that they have a dog that they need to give away. Attached is a picture of a 4 year old boy playing in the snow. I went to Alfredo and said, "I don't get it. Is it some kind of joke? Because I don't understand." He came and saw the email and said there must have been a mistake made, but that his boss wanted to give away his dog and was I interested in getting it? I must admit that I was surprised. Alfredo has always said we wouldn't get a dog... and if we did it would definitely not be until the girls were older and could help take care of it. Now he was trying to talk me into a dog?!

My main thoughts on the matter were that a dog would provide one more mouth to feed, one more living thing to clean up after, one more thing to train and teach. Almost like having another child. With a full time job and 3 kids (one a newborn), I'm still not sure if I'm up to having a dog. But the girls and Alfredo fell in love with Chester and last night he made our home his own. He'll be a (mostly? entirely?) outdoor dog. And he seems very nice. He needs more training but I think he'll be a nice dog. But I'm still filled with mixed feelings, I must admit. So all of you dog lovers, reassure me. Tell me how much I'll grow to love this dog and how good it will be for my kids and such. (Don't lie and say it won't be more work or anything, just tell me all the good parts of having a dog! Please!) He is cute.