Homemade Christmas: Blanket and Juggling Balls

My older ds made these Christmas gifts. The first was for one of his cousins on my side. He designed it himself, I sewed the candy cane on and we both tied the edges. The beanbags he made all himself. The juggling balls were for a cousin on my dh's side. He cut out the fabric himself and sewed them together with some help from me. They turned out so cute! I had to hide them after he finished so he and his brother wouldn't play with them!

Resolution Update

1. Keep up my exercise routine.
I am especially frustrated with this one. Because I injured my knee I have not been able to exercise much for the last month and a half and I am going crazy!! I've been doing some upper body weight training, but it just isn't the same. Thankfully, I think my knee is finally up to exercising again, if I take it slow. So starting Saturday, I plan to go walking for at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. Of course, that all depends on how my knee handles it.

2. Eat more.
I have really been making a concerted effort to buy and eat more fruits and veggies, especially veggies. So we are now eating more legumes, more whole grains, more fruits and veggies, and more things that are homemade (like tortillas, refried beans, hummus, and yogurt) and I'm working on eating more slowly. I don't know what more I can do!

3. Write in my journal once a week.
Going great! I'm almost done with my current journal (from my mission, 10 years ago, yikes!!).

4. Write in my blog once a month and once a day for one month.
Also great! And hopefully I'll be able to keep up the daily blogging this month. It's going well enough, that I'll think I'll add to this goal. So in addition I will blog once a month on the family blog and post on the LDS homeschooling Yahoo! group I'm in charge of (I've been really slacking on that). You won't get to see those posts since the groups are both private, but I thought some public accountability would help me there.

5. De-clutter one room a month.
I totally slacked off on this one for March. But the boy's room is already pretty organized, out of necessity. Anyway, it's a new month, so I get a new start! I'm going to change the schedule a bit. The living room really needs to be decluttered this month. I've got a pile of choir music that I'm organizing and cataloging before I return it to the church and a pile of stuff to get out of the house, either through Craigslist or Freecycle. So that's my goal this month.

6. Find some service to do.
Sighhh. Nothing here again. There must be a good way for me to do some service, but I'm really stuck. Any suggestions you have for me would be very appreciated!

7. Say "I love you" to my children and husband every day.
I think I'd like to add to this one too. I'm going to make "I love you" the first thing I say to my boys every day. I think it will help set the tone of the day for all of us!

8. 'Compact' participation (not perfection)
I'm still trying to reduce my junk mail load. Any ideas on how to stop them from sending me those annoying packages of local ads?

Thanks for keeping me motivated!

Easter

This year for Easter we decided to celebrate the whole week. The events of Easter are too important to our beliefs that we wanted to make sure it would be a holiday that they boys would enjoy, maybe not as much as Christmas, but at least more than Halloween! Basically we decided to have a devotional every day based upon the events in Christ's life for that day plus some little activity related to it.

We started out Palm Sunday by making 'palm leaves' out of construction paper and sticks and then doing a readers theatre (with simple costumes) of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It was a big hit with the boys. They read the script probably 5 times through before I made them stop. On Wed. we acted out the parable of the talents and showed them the 30 pieces of silver (quarters) that were promised to Judas Iscariot. Thursday we had a meal like the meal Jesus may have eaten at the Last Supper. The boys liked eating on the floor but they weren't too crazy about the food. Friday we watched "To This End Was I Born". A bit graphic, even for me. Sunday we woke up the the Hallelujah Chorus and had fish and honey (minus the comb) for lunch.

In all, I think it was a good experience, though there are a few things I will change for next year. But I think the importance of the message got through to them, as evidenced by this picture my younger ds drew:

He told me the first person, in red, is Mary, the one in brown is Joseph, the other two are disciples. They are thinking about the tomb.

Maybe I need to focus more on the resurrection next year. ;)

30 Days

I have chosen April as my "blog every day" month! I've never attempted this before, so we'll see how it goes. I hope I can think of 30 interesting things to blog about! Okay, so being "interesting" is not a requirement, but hopefully most of them will be interesting.

As April 1st approaches every year, dh and I contemplate announcing an "April Fools'" pregnancy, but so far we haven't been brave enough to do it. It's sometimes hard to tell if an April Fools' joke will cross the line, and I suspect an "April Fools'" pregnancy just might be one of those. So instead, late last night, we moved the boys into each other's beds. My older ds woke up at about 11pm, called my dh in and said "I think something's wrong here." We convinced him to stay there so his younger brother would be surprised in the morning. Younger ds was surprised, but I think they both didn't know quite what to think. Our final prank will be played on the ward choir. My dh signed up to bring the refreshments tonight and so we're bringing "french fries". We even got bags from Burger King to pack them in, and we'll buy a few bags of real fries to add the signature smell to the deception. We'll see if anyone is actually fooled. Food pranks are my favorite!

OK. You've fooled around long enough...

Need More Holidays?

Here's how they extend Valentine's Day in Japan and Korea. (Thanks to my friend in Japan for cluing me in to these!)

White Day
In Japan, girls give boys chocolate on Valentine's day. White Day (March 14th) is the boys day to reciprocate. The generally recited rule is that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift. Sounds good to me!

Black Day
If you didn't get to celebrate Valentine's Day or White Day, you celebrate Black Day (April 14th). Basically, you go to a restaurant with similarly single friends and eat white noodles with black bean sauce. Wish I'd know about this holiday when I was single! I might celebrate it anyway, just for fun.

Book Meme

I was tagged (voluntarily) with this by a friend from CA. Sounds fun, so here goes!

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123
3. Find the first 5 sentences
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people

I have a whole bookshelf next to my desk. "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler" seems to be the closest.

Weaning during pregnancy the 'natural' choice? The widespread taboo against nursing while pregnant is probably natural in the strictly biological sense of the word. Pregnancy is a state in which your system focuses its resources on the needs of the new baby, no matter what you may think about it intellectually.

Interesting.

Now it's your turn, if you want. Tagging is totally voluntary here. You can respond in the comments or post on your own blog. Be sure to let me know in the comments if you do.

Opera!

I love opera! For those of you who don't, here are some lighter looks at it that may just change your mind!

All The Great Operas in 10 Minutes
(Warning: may not be suitable for younger viewers)



What's Opera Doc



The Rabbit of Seville