Oh My Eric!

Many of you know that my boys are VERY different from each other.  I have no idea what is "normal" as both of them are like night and day and I often don't know which end is up.  Well, my grandma found this on facebook and shared it with me.  Often times when I am on the phone with her she hears at least one of my children yell out about something.  Nine times out of ten...it is Eric.  Often times we aren't sure why he is so upset, he just is.  I love my Eric with all my heart.  He is so full of joy and excitement about life, but with that comes great emotions on the other side of the spectrum.  I often refer to him as "highly emotional"...meaning that whatever emotion he is having, it is displayed at a high level.  He is never mildly irritated or content...he is either really excited and happy or really unhappy and frustrated.  I can't say much as I am often the same way.  Sometimes I struggle with Eric, but I think it is because we are so much alike.  We often joke around that it is a good thing that he is so darn cute, otherwise I might have lost my marbles completely by now.  Anyway, here is the list...and even though it says it is for 3 year olds...well, my Eric is 4 and this describes him to a T.  I have BOLDED the ones that we have experienced...

46 Reasons My Three Year Old Might be Freaking Out

DECEMBER 13, 2012

Some of these are total guesses. Educated guesses, but guesses nonetheless. Seems like it’s hard being a kid.

His sock is on wrong.

His lip tastes salty. (well, buttery after eating popcorn)

His shirt has a tag on it.

The car seat is weird.

He’s hungry, but can’t remember the word “hungry.”

Someone touched his knee.

He’s not allowed in the oven.

I picked out the wrong pants.

His brother looked at him.

His brother didn’t look at him.

His hair is heavy.

We don’t understand what he said.

He doesn’t want to get out of the car.

He wants to get out of the car by himself.

The iPad has a password.

His sleeve is touching his thumb.

He doesn’t understand how popsicles are made.

The inside of his nose stinks.

Chicken is gross.

A balloon he got six months ago is missing.

A puzzle piece won’t fit in upside down.

I gave him the wrong blue crayon.

The gummi vitamin is too firm.

Netflix is slow.

He jumped off the sofa and we weren’t watching.

He’s not allowed to touch fire.

Everything is wrong with his coat.

There’s a dog within a 70 mile radius.

A shoe should fit either foot.

I asked him a question.

His brother is talking.

He can’t lift a pumpkin.

He can’t have my keys.

The cat is in his way.

The cat won’t let him touch its eyeball.

The inside of his cheek feels rough.

Things take too long to cook.

He has too much food in his mouth.

He sneezed.

He doesn’t know how to type.

The DustBuster is going to eat him.

His mom is taking a shower.

Someone knocked over his tower.

He got powdered sugar on his pants.

The yogurt won’t stay on his spoon.

EVERYTHING IS TOO HOT.

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Now when I say that I have heard these, I don't mean that he has mentioned them or even whined a bit about them...he has SCREAMED, CRIED, WAILED, and let the world be well aware of his despair and discomfort.  So, if you have a child as fun as my Eric, you have my sympathies...isn't it fun!  The good thing is when he is happy, the whole world seems happier.

This is ME-Week 8 (oh yeah, it is MONDAY!)

Week 8: How do you study your scriptures?

I seriously LOVE reading my scriptures.  I used to think of it as a chore, but now it has become something I NEED to do, or my day just doesn't start off right.  Monday-Friday I study my scriptures at the kitchen table with my boys over breakfast.  We read a chapter in the scriptures and discuss it as they slurp down their cereal.  I read while they listen.  We stop to discuss certain verses that I feel are important and if we are in the middle of a story, we do a little recap and start to guess what might happen next.  This has become a wonderful habit for us.

My husband goes to a religion class once a week.  When he gets home we discuss things that were talked about in his class.  We talk about the things we have learned from the scriptures that week and how they have helped us through our personal trials and questions.

My new goal is to be more regular when reading the Ensign.  I often only pick it up to read the Visiting Teaching Message.  I want to read it cover to cover as I do my fun magazines.  These are words from our prophet that I get in my mailbox every month and I need to take advantage of it.  Also, I want to make sure that I share the home teaching message with my kids since our home teachers don't come over to share the message with us.  These things are important to our family's spirituality and I want to make sure we fully utilize the Lord's blessings in our lives.

The scriptures have become an amazing tool in my life and I often find that I go to them for answers and I seek them out.

2 Nephi 31:20
     Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father:  Ye shall have eternal life.

A Sunday Smile

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook last week and it really made me smile.  Check it out.  It's worth the 5 minutes (at the most) to read it.

What Being Homeschooled is Actually Like

Have a happy Sabbath Day.

Valentine's Day Party

Can you tell it is nap time?  This is my third post!

I really am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day.  I was when I was younger and in school.  Then I married a man whose birthday is the day before Valentine's Day and it just became another day.  I try to make sure his birthday is special and not covered in hearts and chocolate.  Also, last year when Alex was in school I really got irritated at the push for romance on Valentine's Day.  I mean, he was in kindergarten and was being told to write little love notes to people.  Granted, most of them he wrote to me, but still it seemed excessive.  you should be showing love all year, not just when chocolate and flowers double in price and everyone else is doing it.  With that said I do have a slight Pinterest addiction and I do love kid's valentines.  I like the catchy little phrases that go with treats and, call me cheesy, but I can't get enough of them.  This year I let the boys pick out what they wanted to do off of my Pinterest board.  Eric had a class party on Valentine's Day and I organized a little party with our friends on Friday.  So Eric made 2 different sets of Valentines and Alex made one.  We had a blast putting them together.  I didn't get a picture of the ones Eric made for his class.  They were mini cereal boxes that said "I Cereals-ly Like You".

Eric's--"You Make My Heart Race

Alex's--"You Blow Me Away Valentine"

Friday's party was so much fun.  We had a HUGE turnout and everyone told me they enjoyed it, so I think it was a success.  We had the kids each bring Valentine's to exchange and a snack to share.  The kids decorated their bags first.  Then we had snacks.  Then we had a craft for them to do.  I am so grateful my mom gave me the idea.  I was really struggling to find something for ages 3-13 to do that wouldn't be to messy or involved.  We made "busy bottles".  We had the kids put glitter, confetti and other little things into their bottle.  Then we put about 2 Tbsp of oil in each bottle.  Then we place a few drops of food coloring in and filled them with water.  The kids loved watching them turn colorful when we added the water.  Everyone made one and they all enjoyed playing with them.  The girls thought they were pretty and the boys used them as light sabers.  Then we finished up with exchanging valentines and conversation heart graphing (gotta get a little education in there somewhere).  All in all it was a success and Alex loved having his friends over.  It even spawned off discussion of who was going to host an Easter activity!  I love our community and I have amazing friends.  We all support each other and work together to show our children that they are loved.

Here are a few pictures.  I don't want to post many as I don't think it is right to put pictures of other children all over my blog without their parents permission.

Decorating his bag

Graphing

Graphing

Silly boy

A Trip to the Museum

So if you look at my blog you may wonder if I am even still homeschooling.  Yes, yes I am and it is going well.  Alex is a self-teacher.  He just likes to go and get it done on his own.  Every once in a while I have to review some things with him and then we discuss things.  We are currently struggling with word problems.  I can't blame him, I can remember my own mom ready to pull out her hair because I could never understand them either.  Mixing English and Math is just wrong.

Anyway, I think I have mentioned before that as a family we love museums.  It is funny to people when we tell them we are going to the museum with all of our kids in tow, but really they want to go.  Well, for my husband's birthday he decided to take a day off of work and he wanted to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  I had been DYING to go since I heard that they had gotten some new dinosaur fossils.  We loaded the kids into the car and off we went for the day.  We had planned on just doing the main exhibit hall and the planetarium.  I had told Alex that he didn't have any school work to do that day other than to write in his field guide.

I bought a notebook for Alex that is just for trips to museums and the zoo.  The pages are blank on top and lines to write on half of the page.  He was so excited to get it started.  It is all his, I don't tell him what to write, but I do help him with spelling.  The rule was that he had to take a picture of what he was writing about, title the page, and write at least three facts about that thing.  He was told that he had to make at least 5 entries.  At the end of the day he had ten!

We walked into the main hall and stopped at the first thing you see...a towering Diplodocus.  That dinosaur has been there forever!  I can remember seeing it as a very small child.  Alex immediately started writing down information when a museum employee waled up to us and asked if we had seen the new exhibit.  Of course we hadn't, so he led us to the WAY back of the hall, somewhere I didn't even know existed (hence it being NEW).  AWESOMENESS!  There are no other words to explain this exhibit.  It i set up chronologically and goes all the way up to modern man and mammals   We literally spent hours here!  We took a break for our planetarium show and lunch and then we went right back to where we left off.  I learned so much!  Oh, the kids learned a lot too.  When we were close to the end of the exhibit we were greeted by a paleontologist who answered EVERY question Alex threw his way and even Eric's silly questions too.  He was so patient with us.  I even had a question and he knew exactly what I was asking and he explained it in terms we could understand.  He did tell us that they offer group tours during the week for $30 for a group, or individualized tours...I forgot how much those were.  I really want to go back soon with some friends we homeschool with.  I know I could go endless times and not see everything.

Well, before we knew it, we were out of time and it was time to go home.  We didn't even see anything else in the museum!  We will be going back soon.  Alex and Eric still talk about it and ask when we are going back.  Alex learned a whole lot from the things he saw.  Since Alex likes to teach himself and take his learning into his own hands, I really tried to take a step back and let him make deductions and hypothesis on his own.  Towards the end we saw how the mammals changed and evolved into animals we see today.  We talked about the natural changing, adaptation and evolution of animals.  We also talked about what scientists believe were early man and how they looked different from us today.  He is a bright boy with a good head on his shoulders.  He had some amazing questions and when the answer was "I am not sure" to his questions, he nodded and said that we are still missing pieces to the puzzle.  He is 100% right and I couldn't have said it any better.  I am so grateful for children who want to learn and understand.  They aren't little geniuses and they are still 100% boy, but at the same time they appreciate knowledge and understand that without knowledge, there is nothing.

Eric liked this guy

This picture cracks me up!

Coprolites  Click the link and educate yourself.  The boys LOVED this

I love sloths... especially a GIANT one!

my boys

This is ME-Week 7 (At least it is in the right week, give me a break!)

Week 7: Record Your Testimony of the Book of Mormon

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. --Article of Faith #8

When I joined the church at the age of 13 I can honestly say that I didn't have a testimony of the book of Mormon other than it was scripture.  I wasn't looking for further instruction from the Lord at that time.  I was looking for guidance and a strong moral compass to follow.  I did as I was told, I read the scriptures assigned to me by the missionaries and my youth leaders.  I continued on in my youth to go to seminary and study my scriptures.  I never felt like I had any doubt whether or not it was true, it just made sense to me.  I had no reason to deny it.  I can remember the day that it all hit me like a ton of bricks and I literally was so overwhelmed by the Spirit that I bawled like a big baby.  I had gone to Salt Lake City with a friend and his family.  They took me to see The Testaments-Of One Fold Of One Shepherd.  Finally it all connected for me.  The light came on and I realized how deep of a love I had for the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon Church) we believe that the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ.  It never has, nor will it ever replace the Bible.  I am grateful that we have another record of the people who were on the Earth.  Jesus Christ loved them and desired that they too be known.

There have come many opportunities for me to deny my knowledge of the Book of Mormon.  I have been offered jobs and schools for my children, but part of their requirements was that I sign a statement of faith saying that I believe that the Bible is the ONLY written word of God.  I know that this is not true, and I know that I cannot deny something that holds such a place in my heart.  I have loved sharing my knowledge of the Book of Mormon and what I understand.  Every morning (almost) the boys and I sit at the table and study a chapter in the book of Mormon.  The boys are really developing a love for the scriptures and are able to apply their teachings in their lives.  Every time I read the scriptures I learn something new.  Many times the answers I need are right in front of me and I gain new insight when I study.  I am grateful for the power of the scriptures and I believe that if more people took a few minutes each day to read some form of scripture of positive affirmation, then things would be better in the world, and we would be more unified as children of God.  I invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon.  Just because you read it, doesn't mean you have to convert or even believe   However, I do know that it will only do positive things in your life and I know it has taught me about who I am and my individual worth.  If you want to know more, please ask.  You can always go check things out at Mormon.org or LDS.org.  I am an open book and I don't have all the answers  but I will tell you what I can and if I don't have the answer I will find it for you.

The video I spoke of can be seen on youtube here, or if you want a copy I will get one for you.

This is ME Monday (Crap, it's Tuesday again...)-Week 6

Week 6: When did you really have to forgive someone?  What was the process?  What did you learn from it?

Okay, so to protect myself and others I will not use names.  Forgiveness is HARD!  I have struggled with it and wrestled with it and I am still really bad at it.  I have had many things that I have had to deal with and to forgive and I find that if it just involves me, its not so hard, but if it involves people I love....well, that's a whole different story.  I can think of one instance that I really had to work at forgiving and to be forgiven.  It too a long time, over a year to finally get to where I am now.  Even now, the adversary tries to creep in from time to time and stir up contention in my heart and I have to put it in check very quick.

I had been friends with someone for a while.  We liked to get together from time to time and it seemed to be a nice relationship.  Suddenly we were not friends anymore.  This was hard on me, as I wasn't sure why this had happened, but I was really sorry it had.  Then I found out that this friend had started talking about me to other people that I didn't even know and the rumors started flying around.  This broke my heart.  I lost sleep over it and cried regularly   I couldn't figure out what I did wrong.  I agonized over this and even asked the person, to which I received no reply.  I started then feeling ANGRY!  I was mad that this person wouldn't even respect me enough to hear my apologies, let alone let me know what I had done.  I started justifying my anger with "How can I fix something, if I don't even know how I broke it".  This led me down some dark paths with some dark feelings.  Finally one day I decided that I had to let it go!  I had to, because it was tearing me down and keeping me from my personal path of growth and learning.

It started with me saying that I had to let it go.  I had to forgive her.  I had to forgive her for the rumors, the ignoring and the frustration.  I also had to be forgivable   I couldn't be forgivable if I couldn't forgive. That became my goal.  I worked hard to pray for her, myself, and our past relationship.  I worked towards positive thinking and positive association with her, and if ever I thought something unkind, I would cast it out as soon as I could.  This sounds easy as I type it out now, but it really wasn't.  The hardest part was coming to the terms of not knowing if I will ever be forgiven for whatever I had done to cause my friend such pain and heartache.  The scripture that rang through my head constantly was Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-11

9. Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
10. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.
11. And ye ought to say in your hearts-let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.

Finally I decided that as long as I did the best I could and I did all I could, the Lord would take care of the rest.  I will admit that at times it is still hard to think about what happened and what could have been.  However I now look back on our friendship as what a wonderful thing it was and not how it ended.  I continue to only wish wonderful things for her and her family.  I also try to remember to keep her in my prayers as I only want good things for my friends, past, present and future.

There is a song on the radio right now that really is one of my favorites and it really encompasses forgiveness and how hard it is, and how important it is, and how it is essential for our salvation. THe song is FORGIVENESS by Matthew West.  I get teary just reading the lyrics.

You can watch the video here.  WATCH IT!  It is worth the 4 and a half minutes

Here are the lyrics:
It's the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those that don't deserve

It's the opposite of how you feel
When the pain they caused is just to real
It takes everything you have just to say the word...

Forgiveness
Forgiveness

It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It's always anger's own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge 
Say you gotta right to hold a grudge
It's the whisper in your ear saying 'Set It Free'

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible

Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

It'll clear the bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what it's power can do
So, let it go and be amazed
By what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

I want to finally set it free
So show me how to see what Your mercy sees
Help me now to give what You gave to me
Forgiveness, Forgiveness