Opposite Day

Gabby goes to preschool at Write Start Preschool. Her teacher is the wonderful, Mrs. Barnett. I really only know Brandi from preschool...and since I've always had someone take my kids (Janene took Michelle and Ella, Aly takes Gabby), I guess I don't know her THAT well. But she has been a wonderful preschool teacher for my girls...they all love her. And we've been friends on Facebook and read each others' blogs for years now, so I feel like I know her pretty well. And I'm so thankful that she's been such a good teacher for all 3 of my kids.

Well, this past Thursday (Feb. 7) was Opposite Day since that week they were learning the letter O. They were allowed to wear their clothes backward or inside out or do anything that was opposite of what they normally do... But what Sofie and Gabby were thrilled to tell Aly and I was they could wear their underwear on their head. So Ella helped Gabby pick out some crazy clothes and put Gabby's pants on backward and her shirt inside out. She wore mismatched shoes and mismatched socks. And at our house, she wore her underwear on her head. As soon as we got in the car to go to Aly's, she decided not to wear them after all. (And since she didn't want her hair in pigtails under the underwear, when she took her underwear off, her hair was standing on end and looking much like Albert Einstein's hair. Ah well!)

Aly said that when she picked the girls up from preschool, Mrs. Barnett said, "Hello. Have a bad day." So I'm sure that it was a very fun, totally opposite day throughout preschool. So much fun!

Here are a few photos of Gabby at our house, ready for opposite day. (With the underwear still on her head).

Science Fair

Michelle participated in her first science fair two weeks ago. She was partners with her friend Jasmine. They completed their project over Christmas break and then Michelle assembled the board a couple of weeks ago. Their project was to test what happened when dry ice was added to different liquids: vegetable oil, milk, cold water, and hot chocolate. They recorded what happened. They thought there would be some kind of explosion (and there would be if this was done in a closed jar) but there were no explosions in their experiment. (Thank goodness! They did the experiment in my kitchen!) They found that the best reaction was in the hot chocolate...it created a lot of gas and a lot of bubbles. The milk also created a lot of bubbles (but no gas) and the water created a lot of gas. Nothing really happened when the dry ice was added to the oil. What is happening is sublimation...the dry ice is changing directly from a solid to a liquid. The warmer the liquid the faster the dry ice sublimates.

The school held a family night for us to see all of the fourth grade projects. They had to explain their project to judges, but no awards were given for the 4th grade projects...it was more a learning experience for all. They will be judged and awarded prizes in 5th and 6th grade.

Here is Michelle with her partner:

Impending Death

On Wednesday, while picking up Gabby, my girls mentioned my birthday. One asked if I will be 40 and I said, "In three more years." Then Gabby said, "You're going to die!" We all burst out laughing and she cried (because we were laughing, not because of my impending death.) Such a funny, sweet girl! (She did mention yesterday on my actual birthday that she knew I wasn't going to die yet.)

Visiting Teaching

Visiting teaching has been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe because so many people have told me that they don't feel like they are as good as visiting teaching as they should be. Maybe because I don't feel like I'm as good at visiting teaching as I should be. Maybe because now I receive the visiting teaching reports and I know who is being visited and who isn't...and I worry about those who aren't. Maybe because I have been listening to President Monson's biography To The Rescue since November (it's long and I only seem to get to listen to it in short snatches but I am learning so much from it!) and he is constantly noticing the one. He truly "lifts up the hands which hang down and strengthens the feeble knees". He is such an example. Anyway, I sent an email to a friend about visiting teaching after she was asking me some questions. This has been on my mind so much, that I decided to jot down my thoughts and share them here too.

Before I say more about visiting teaching, I had a little bit of an A-Ha! moment this evening. I realized that in the past couple of years I have been so busy and I have often allowed that busyness to prevent me from doing some of the things that I know are important. Because of that, I wasn't as close to the spirit as I could be and I felt a lot of guilt. I felt guilty that I wasn't a better visiting teacher, that I wasn't serving more, that I wasn't attending the temple as often as I should, etc. I wasn't doing bad things...but I felt guilty that I wasn't doing more of the things I should be doing. Guilt is not a positive emotion as I'm sure we all know. Here's the truly miraculous thing. I am doing better at all of those things...not perfectly, but better. I still work full time. I still have three kids and I'm not neglecting them. I am still cooking dinner and cleaning house and helping kids with piano practice and homework...but somehow, I am able to do what matters most in the same number of hours I had before. I am happier than maybe I've ever been. I still get stressed out sometimes. I still get impatient sometimes. I am still me. Imperfect, full of flaws. But making sure I do what is most important has brought me piece of mind and a happy heart and has strengthened me in ways I would never have imagined possible just a month ago. I hope it is a lesson I never forget again. If you do what is most important, then the other things will fall into place and/or you will be given strength and wisdom to decide what you can let go of and how to deal with the inevitable trials that will come. I'm sure everyone else knows this...and I think it is something I've known before and just not lived as fully as I could have this past couple of years.

Anyway, back to my rambling thoughts on visiting teaching....

I've had a few good visiting teachers, but one really stands out. She was my visiting teacher for about 4 years... from the time I first moved into my current ward until Ella was about 2. For a year, Alfredo and I only had one car and he worked most Sundays. He left at 5:30 in the morning to go to work. Michelle was a baby, and I got up at 5:30 at least 3 days a week to take Alfredo to work. THen came home, got ready and went to work myself. On Sundays, I wanted to sleep in a bit...but that meant I'd need to walk to church. This wonderful visiting teacher called me most weeks to see if I wanted a ride. She had us over for dinner. Her husband helped Alfredo give Ella a blessing before her open heart surgery. She watched Michelle when I delivered Ella (and actually helped me deliver Ella, but that is another story.) She was someone who I felt like I could call when I needed something. She came and had a sit down visit most months, but she ocassionally missed a month. But it was okay, because I knew I could ask her for help when I needed it. She still holds a special place in my heart and always will.

The purpose of visiting teaching (as I understand it) is to meet the needs of all the sisters (and their families) in the ward. These include temporal and spiritual needs. The purpose of Relief Society is threefold: 1...to increase faith and personal righteousness, 2... to strengthen families and homes... and 3... to seek out and help those in need. Visiting teaching helps the Relief Society to meet those needs.

For some, it may be the only contact they have with the church. The ideal is a monthly sit down visit with each sister, with a brief lesson or spiritual thought from the Ensign. But visiting teaching isn't meant to be rigid or to really be something you "get done". It is an assignment to minister, to care. In fact, in Relief Society training I watched online, they talk about counting the caring (not reporting visiting teaching visits). The ideal is to pray daily for each sister, to listen to the spirit and to respond when you feel a prompting. The ideal is to look for ways to serve...whether it is noticing that one of them has her hands full with little kids during sacrament meeting and helping her out, taking a meal when she is sick, watching her children when she has a doctor's appointment or needs to run errands, etc. It is all about observing and serving like Sister Burton talked about in conference. And it doesn't have to be huge things. It is about helping that sister to feel loved by you, but more importantly helping that sister to feel loved by her Savior and Father in Heaven. That sister should know that if she needs something, she can turn to you. Maybe she never will ask, but sometimes it is just knowing that there is someone you COULD ask that helps most of all. When Ella was 1 1/2 she had open heart surgery. So many people offered to help. We received meals for several days. But others also called to see if we needed them to pick anything up at the grocery store or to see if I needed a break and wanted Michelle to come to their house. I don't think I actually took any of them up on these offers (although maybe I did) but it felt so wonderful knowing that if I DID need help, there were many people who were willing to help me. There have been times since when I've felt lonely or overwhelmed that just remembering those offers of help has cheered me up because I realized when I reflect on it that many people are willing to help if they realize there is a need.

In addition, if there are more serious needs, the visiting teacher should discuss it with the Relief Society President. It is impossible for the Relief Society President or Bishop to visit every sister/family on a regular basis or to be aware of every need. So visiting teachers are there to inform the RS President of needs so that those needs can be met...

Those are the ideal. I think a lot of us fall short of the ideal, though, and then we spend a lot of time feeling guilty that we aren't better at visiting teaching (or whatever area it is we fall short at). I've decided that guilt is productive if it leads us to repent and change but otherwise it is a wasted and negative emotion that we should try to expunge. I'm certainly not good at that...I feel plenty of guilt about plenty of things. But I'm trying to let it go and do the best I can. So I've written about the ideal and I think that is what we should strive for. But I think we also need to give ourselves a little room to do the best we can when life is not ideal. Things come up. We get sick, we get depressed, we get busy. So if a month comes that you don't get to have the sit down visit with a lesson, then call your sisters on the phone to say hi or send them a message via Facebook or email. Talk to them and see what they would most like... do they want a monthly visit or would they prefer some other type of contact. I do think we can try to pray for them daily or nearly daily...that's not difficult to do. And I think when we do that, the spirit will help us find other ways to serve. I also check Facebook to see if they've posted anything. Sometimes that gives me ideas of what is going well for them or when they might need help. If a month is super busy, sometimes I do just drop off a little treat and visit with them at the door for a few minutes... I think that is okay as long as you shoot for the ideal but allow yourself some flexibility when life happens.

There are some great videos online at www.lds.org that teach more about visiting teaching and inspire me to want to be a better visiting teacher (as well as a better RS President).

Click here to watch them.

Click on the tab that says visiting teaching and there are 5 short videos.

Two quotes that I want to share that go along with this:
In Relief Society auxiliary training last February, Sister Bradshaw (part of the former General Relief Society presidency) said, “We have been invited by the Savior to participate in His work and that is a privilege.”

Pres. Kimball said, “There are many sisters who are living in rags--spiritual rags. They are entitled to gorgeous robes, spiritual robes…. It is your privilege to go into homes and exchange robes for rags… You are going to save souls.”

MLK Art Project

I really admire and respect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One of the things I love about my job is that I feel like each day, I get to see and be apart of his dream coming true. My classroom is very multicultural. In my 15 years as a teacher, I have taught students from nearly every continent (no one from Australia...or Antarctica) and from a wide range of countries, ethnicities, languages, races, religions and cultures. And for the most part, these children do judge each other based on the content of their characters and not on the color of their skin. (Not that this never happens, it does.) We have come a long way in the past 50 years. There is still room to improve, but I am grateful for the progress that has been made. I love teaching about MLK to my class each year. I love reading "Martin's Big Words" by Doreen Rappaport. I love singing "Freedom Three" and "Once There Was a Man Named King". I get choked up year after year when I listen to an excerpt from his "I Have a Dream" speech.

This year, I promised my girls we would make an art project on Martin Luther King Day. So I googled MLK art projects and found simple peace sign and dove projects on paper plates. Gabby, esp., loves to paint. So we listened to most of the "I Have a Dream" speech while my girls painted.

Hummin bins

Most months, Michelle, Ella and I go to a mother-daughter book club at Kearns Library. My good friend Becky goes with her daughter Maggie as well, and there are quite a few others that come. We read a book in advance, then everyone talks about it a bit and there is a craft that relates to the book.

This month we read "True...Sort of" by Katherine Hannigan. This is a story about Delly Pattison and her brother R.B. Delly is a bit of a handful. She is full of adventure and is always getting into trouble, although she doesn't really mean to most of the time. She has a lack of impulse control...she doesn't stop to think about consequences or to ask permission. I love Delly, almost right from the start. She would be one of those students that would drive you crazy but that you'd still love. I love her silly vocabulary, especially her "surpresents" (a present that is a surprise) and her "holidellydays". (holidays for Delly)

Delly's little brother R.B. and her new friend Ferris Boyd teach Delly how to stay out of trouble...R.B. by teaching her to count when she is upset and Ferris Boyd by teaching her to ask questions and by being her friend.

Ferris Boyd is new to their school, and she doesn't talk. No one is allowed to touch her. At first, I wondered if she fell somewhere on the autism spectrum, but it soon became clear that she was being abused by her father. Delly suspects this but it is a long time before she really accepts that it is true and she doesn't know how to help. There are some very touching parts and it led to a few uncomfortable and sad discussions with my kids. They are getting older and know that there is evil in the world, but they are still fairly sheltered and while the book doesn't delve too deeply into the abuse, it was still something I felt we needed to talk about. I'm sad that it exists (and angered)...but it is real and I wanted them to know what they should do if they suspect abuse was happening to a friend of theirs.

My favorite scene occurs after a bully has teased Ferris Boyd and called her an it. She runs home and is very upset. RB and Delly follow her and RB says that Ferris isn't an it. She's a hummin bin. Then Delly tells her a story. She says when she was young and learning to read, she read to her mom one day. The book was about hummin bins. Here's what she said:

“In the book, hummin bins made castles, and towers up to the sky. They tamed the animals and took care of them. And hummin bins helped each other. They were always good.
"When I was done, Ma asked, 'Delly, what are hummin bins?' 'They're like people, but better,' I said. Then I told her, 'When I grow up, I'm going to live with the hummin bins,' and she smiled.
"But Galveston grabbed the book, 'Let me see that,' she said, and started laughing. 'This says human beings. There's no such things as hummin bins.'
"'Ma, is it true?' I asked, and she nodded. 'How come you didn't tell me?' I cried.
"'I liked the hummin bins better, too,' she said." ...
"RB's right, Ferris Boyd. You are a hummin bin." Her eyeballs were wet, like they were swimming.
It was quiet, then, till RB's soft cloud voice said, "You're a hummin bin, too, Delly.” (I don't know what page this is on, as we listened to this on CD.)

I think there are such things as hummin bins...all people who try to make this world a better place. Any one who helps a child to feel safe is a hummin bin. Any one who finds ways to bring happiness to the life of another. Those who help the poor and the needy, who are friends to the lonely, who go outside themselves to cheer and bless others lives are hummin bins. I am trying to be a hummin bin. I fall short, but I won't give up. I will keep trying to be better than a human being, to become a hummin bin.

I thought this book was well worth reading and look forward to our mother daughter book club this week.

Love My Blender

As I mentioned before, I got a Blendtec blender for Christmas from Alfredo. I LOVE it! Love, love, love it. I've used it 44 times since I got it at the beginning of December (it keeps track for you!) There are lots of things I haven't tried yet that I plan to try eventually. Mostly I use it to make smoothies, whole juices and milkshakes.

I am loving the whole juice option. I am planning to branch out soon and try some more unusual combos, but I love loading it with fruits and getting a thick, yummy juice. So far our favorite combo is this:
2 tangerines or mandarin oranges (peeled)
1/2-1 whole banana (fresh or frozen...when bananas get too ripe, I just peel them and stick them in a freezer bag and then I can pull 1 or more out for smoothies and other recipes)
6-10 strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 - 1/2 cantaloupe (peel, remove seeds, cut into chunks)
1 apple (cored), cut into 1/4's
1/4 of a pomegranate
1 kiwi if I have one on hand

We've tried other variations, and really I often just throw in whatever fruits I have on hand. But the cantaloupe adds a nice flavor that I don't think you get without it.

I make these whole juices several times a week ...or I'll make a smoothie with similar ingredients but include yogurt and/or milk along with the fruits.

But perhaps our favorite new thing to use the blender for is to make homemade milkshakes. My girls and I really like to go to Arctic Circle (or occasionally Abs) for milkshakes. We probably go about once a month. But now there is no need...I can easily make them at home and they are just as good or better. (Really I probably could have made them with my old blender, too. I just never thought about it. But this blender is amazing because you just push the button for milkshake and it does all the work and makes it perfectly each time.

Alfredo is partial to the fresh fruit milkshakes...either raspberry or strawberry. When we don't have fresh fruit, frozen will also work...although the flavor isn't quite as good.

The girls love Oreo shakes. We've also tried M&M shakes and Reese's peanut butter cup shakes. My favorite are shakes made with mint oreos. I bet shakes with Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies would be heavenly as well. Maybe when I get my girl scout cookies in a month, I will make some.

Anyway, I don't even measure anymore... just pour in some milk, add some vanilla ice cream and the fruit. Then press the button, wait for it to do its magic and voila...yummy goodness. For the nonfruit shakes, I make the shake with just the milk and ice cream. THen when it is done, I add the oreos or M&M's or whatever and press "pulse" 2 or 3 times. Perfecto!

I seriously love this blender! It can turn sugar into powdered sugar, grind wheat, chop nuts and even make soup. I haven't tried these features other than the soup feature (and it wasn't a big hit...but I'll try it again with a different recipe one of these days)...but I will use them eventually.