new calling

Two weeks ago I was released from young women's. It is a bittersweet release. I LOVE the young women. But it is a time consuming calling with the midweek activities. So it will be nice to be home with my family more. But I will miss working with the girls. And they are great examples for my own girls.

Today Alfredo and I were called to be primary teachers (together). We will also be on the activities committee. I liked teaching primary in the couple of months I did it two years ago. I'm sure I will like it. I hope Alfredo will as well. I'm hoping it will be good for him.

dead dog

Our dear Chester is lucky to be alive tonight. Alfredo came home from work and found that he had chewed through the wood on part of our deck. He loves wood and has chewed his way through a lot of our wood pile. We've given him rawhide bones to chew but they don't seem to hold his interest. But Alfredo built our deck (he tore out the old one) a year ago and Chester chewed a huge hole in one of the side walls. I'll post a photo tomorrow, but he is seriously lucky that Alfredo didn't kill him. Alfredo spent untold hours (plus a healthy amount of money) to build the deck. Darn dog. He really is smart and sweet and he is learning things quite quickly. But he is a chewer. Aargh!!!

funny things my kids have said

12/3: On the ride home from school, Michelle was telling me about her day. She got a treat from her Spanish teacher and she told me she ate it at the beginning of after school program. She was jabbering away about her treat and how good it was. Then she said, "Rivka (spelling?) was jealous. What does jealous mean?"

12/3: After getting home tonight, Michelle said, "What day did we do FHE?" I told her it was Monday. She asked when we'd do it again. I told her next Monday. She begged, "Please, oh please, can we do it again tonight?"

12/1: In Michelle's prayer to begin FHE tonight, she said, "Thank you for us to be nice so Santa will bring us lots of presents."

12/1: Alfredo told Ella to sit. She responded, "I'm not a dog.... Grumpy old man." (He did say it a lot like he was talking to our dog.)

11/23: Ella was cleaning up her toys. She was tired and didn't want to clean up. She said, "I can't. I don't have a lot of arms."

11/11 Today I stayed home with Ella. She seems to be feeling much better, but I don't feel great. She looked at me at one point and said, "Maybe you're going to blow up."

11/10: Ella is sick today. She was sitting in my lap and looked up and with her lips in a pout and her big brown eyes on me, she asked, "Is I going to die?" (I, of course, assured her that she would not.)

11/5: Janene was watching Ella and Gabrielle while I was at work. Janene had just finished feeding Gabrielle. Ella said, "Now you have to pet her!" (Of course she meant pat, to burp her.)

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