Seeing R.E.D.

Since our kids daily scripture reading is a wee bit shy of stellar (read:  nonexistent!), I decided to blatantly copy an idea from one of the primaries that we visited in the stake:

We are officially declaring February our R.E.D.  Scripture Month:

Read

Every 

Day

We had our kickoff during family home evening last night, complete with letting the kids choose the reward at the end of the month if everyone gets all of their days filled in.

(They chose Chuck-E-Cheese... .sigh... I knew when it opened here last month that it was only a matter of time before they wore us down enough to get us there...)

We even had some red(ish) treats to help usher in our Fabulous February

Okay, so these weren't quite as elaborate as our last years Valentine's Day treat...

but c'mon, those things took forever... and then they were gone in 2 minutes flat!  At least with rice krispie treats, the proportion of making to eating is a bit more homogenous :)


Here's to a Fabulous February (and GOODBYE January!!!)

My ensign moment...

All through my mission, when I would read the things that ubber creative moms did with their families, I would pull out the pages of their stories and began painting this utopia picture of my future husband and myself surrounded by our little perfectly-dressed-not-a-hair-out-of-place children as the Heavenly Angels sang in the background and we participated in all of the cutesy little enriching family activities.

... Fast forward 5 kids and 8 years of still trying to get my footing in the whole family/home/church/social/work/cooking/cleaning/teaching/crying/laughing/and just plain surviving...

... and, well, those 'ensign' moments kinds of flew by the wayside. 

This year, I finally decided to take a little step and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we had a Family Home Evening Lesson on being thankful, and started a thankful jar:

... along with 100 strips of paper that we get to write what we are thankful for each day, with a goal to fill in all 100 strips before thanksgiving.  (with a reward of a family outing once all 100 are filled...c'mon you know that I'm not above a little bribery :)  ).

... and I did have to laugh at the way that the kiddos dove right in... thankful for everything from family, to Santa, to  the TV...  

  I realize that for most of you, this is old news and you probably have huge elaborate activities that you do with your kiddos, but just this once, give me my ensign moment... a little late in the making, but here nonetheless :).

Ta Da!!!

If any of you have had any type of conversation with me in the past couple of years, you know I have a huge thing about giving people "Ta Da's"  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, give me a call, it's obviously been too long since we have last talked!... or just tell me to explain myself and I'll write a whole post about it... yes, I feel that strongly about the Ta Da factor!)

... anyway, when Ben came home from his 3rd day of school with his first art project and walked around with me to find the 'perfect spot' to hang it up, I thought, "He needs his Ta Da moment"  

... and as we were walking around, I suddenly noticed how barren this wall looked:

 ... and how much it was just screaming for a little spice in life.
... and then I thought, "hey how about a Ta Da WALL??!  (with 5 kids, we've got to think global here, folks... no piddly pin up board is going to hold all of the masterpieces that grace the threshold of our household!)

... So after a bit of research, and a great big deep breath, I dove in and started...

and quickly got a little scared to see the BLACK magnetic paint all over our once beautifully neutral walls, and suddenly panicked, thinking this may be one of my (many*ahem*) hair brained schemes that looks a lot better in my brain than it does in real life...

... but we forged ahead... through all the layers, spills, and smells...

to give birth to the "Official Ta Da" dwelling in our home.

... so if any of you are needing a little recognition, pat on the back, or any other form of Ta Da... send it here... we'll put it up in your honor :)

Home...

used to be full of walls like this...

... that turned into my general conference project...

... and slowly...

Turned into walls that looked like this...

Ta Da!

... okay, so this is just the first draft of the frame arrangement... It will probably go through about 5 morphs before it finally becomes that "ahhh, that's it"  arrangement.

But at least it's not bare anymore, right??!

EAT...

YOUR

HEART

OUT

I am always so anxious for January to be gone, and this year it has seemed to drag on forever, so I couldn't wait even one more day to start the February celebrations...

The kids and I did a layered Jell-O heart dish (finally I found an advantage to having 1:00 church... enough time to let all of the layers set!!)

... and this is about how long they could handle it until they dug in and demolished the hearts :)

Happy Heart Month!