Some Advice on Government from the Engineer!

My Engineer has been learning about the Revolutionary War in his first grade class. When he was asked to write a letter to King George III giving him some advice on how to be a better ruler to the colonists this is what he came up with.



I'm not sure that any American would disagree with him......

Why should I be a Missionary when I grow up?

A few weeks ago we had Stake Conference and so many topics popped up in discussion with our boys. Our little Engineer came away with many questions among them were WHY would he need to be a Missionary, and what exactly was the gospel, and why didn't people already know it, who had the priesthood authority for our ward, stake, etc. Anyone who has been the parent to a six year old is likely familiar with the unending questions that they can come up with. On the positive side this meant that he WAS actually listening even while drawing pictures of police cars, doing word searches, and writing in his notebook.

My husband and I tried to address his questions at the dinner table that night and soon just realized that somehow our verbal explanations were simply not making sense to him. So we asked him if he would help us figure out some of the answers the next night at Family Home Evening. That was definitely a good suggestion and was met with much cheering and speculation about what the treat would be. Family Home Evening (or perhaps it is the treats that accompany it) are definitely a hit in their minds.

That night I had prepared various cut-outs from the Primary 6 lesson book. Chapter 1 is about Heavenly Father’s Plan for Us. I had the boys explain to us what each part of the Plan of Salvation and had them help me place it on a piece of paper in the appropriate order. Unfortunately our poster was much too big to scan so I was thrilled when the boys brought home the below graphic from Primary yesterday. Our poster looked quite similar with the exception of less professional coloring and not nearly as fancy.




As we were completing the poster we had some great discussion about what each stage of life was like, what we did in each stage, and how wonderful it was for us to know what came next. Mr. Engineer was quite impressed that the whole plan made sense and kept telling us, "I already KNOW that!" We told them that in its most basic form this plan was the gospel.

Then we covered up most of the poster so it looked like the picture below....





...and asked them how they would feel if all they knew about was that they were born, would live on Earth and then Die. Everyone agreed that it would be very sad and scary too. The boys were quite concerned when we told them that there were many people on earth that only knew this part of the plan. They didn't know that they would be together with their families after they died and didn't even know where they would be after they died. That the missionaries job was so important that they went and found people that didn't know the whole plan and shared with them that we lived with Father in Heaven in the Premortal world before we were born and that if we lived righteously we could live with Him again and our families after we died.

I thought that our lesson was pretty much concluded when Engineer boy asked what would happen to people who didn't learn the gospel while they were on earth. Obviously we had glossed over the role of the Spirit World a little too much. So we explained about others being able to learn about the gospel while they were in the Spirit World and have members be baptized for them in the temple.

When we concluded both boys wanted to be Missionaries so that people wouldn't have to be sad or scared about what would happen to them after their life on Earth.


I know I haven't done the experience justice here, but it was truly a wonderful night with the Spirit present in our home.

Wait! What month is it?

It feels like just yesterday when the snow had melted (wait it was just yesterday....), we were outside raking up the left over leaves off the ground, and getting ready for spring. Here is the Comedian and NT using the fronds from the Christmas Tree to become turkeys as they strut around on the snow-less front yard.




Evidently Mother Nature became confused by their pretending to be turkeys and thought that it must be almost Thanksgiving again. So we woke up to a change in the weather.

All the boys groaned and wanted to know who prayed for snow this time. Everyone here denies being the culprit. Even Monster Baby shook his head emphatically when the Engineer gave him the third degree wanting to know if he had prayed for the snow.




So just want you to know that if you keep praying for snow my Engineer is going to find you and he has some pretty tough questions prepared for you as he says, "in regards to their intentions, Mom. Somebody out there doesn't know how great Summer is going to be!"

Snow, Snow, go away!
Don't come back until after April or May!

Help! I've Fallen and Can't Get Up!

I've been having a rough couple of weeks and have been pushing myself to keep going by trying to think of all the sayings people say when hard times are found in abundance.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

If Life were easy, it wouldn't be hard.

Don't cry over spilled milk.

All's well that ends well.

So what about it? Do you all have some encouraging words to help me get through this rough patch?

Did you Sing Ahead?

So this past Sunday I lost an hour.

No, I take that back.....the government in their
infinite wisdom
took an hour of sleep away from me
an entire month early.

"The federal law that established "daylight time" in the United States does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. From 1986 to 2006 this was the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but starting in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time."


For some reason it seems so much more of an affront to my senses to have this happening in March instead of April. Maybe I'm just grumpy from lack of sleep and need something to grumble about.



Trying to get everyone up, dressed for church and out the door was almost beyond us. Thankfully Sister Taylor was patient with us as we picked her up 15 minutes later than normal. After unloading her wheelchair and parking the van and trailer we walked into a packed chapel amidst the strains of the opening hymn all the way to the very front pew, right under the podium. I don't know why but it always bothers me more when the boys misbehave if we are at the very front. Normally we sit over on the West side and back a few rows. For some reason this comforts me that we aren't as bothersome or disruptive when the boys act their age. However by the middle of the final speaker I was done juggling Monster Baby and the two of us went out into the foyer.

When we got home from church there were no arguments about quiet time. Everyone was ready to grab a quick lunch and rest their weary heads. I didn't even wake up when DJMan headed back for his meetings with the Elders Quorum Presidency.

Oddly enough Monday morning was fairly easy to get all the little people up and moving out the door. I was still dragging however. The rest of the day went fairly predictable. It seemed like we had made an unusually easy transition to Daylight Savings Time.

So I was somewhat surprised to hear the chorus of "I Am a Child of God" being babbled out by Monster Baby early Tuesday morning. I pried my eyelids open and looked at the clock which was blinking 5:11. It was still dark out and just a couple of days ago it would have been 4 AM. So I did what any overtired mother would do, I pulled the pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep. I must have dosed off a bit because the next thing I knew it there were three voices singing from the other room. Except this time it was their version of the Star Wars theme intermingled with various Lego ships taking off and dinosaurs roaring. This time the clock said 6:15.

And thus started the day of no naps and slightly grumpy kids and a really grumpy mom.

As I went to bed early that night I was certain they would sleep all night long. Alas at sometime around 5:45 I again awoke to baby talk for "lead me, guide me". My husband rolled over and started singing "you're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back". And he's right it was really sweet and precious and yet I was still so tired I couldn't think straight. Wednesday both Monster baby and I took a pretty good nap.

And that must have been what he needed to get back on track because this morning he rubbed the sleepy bugs from his eyes somewhere around 8:15. Both his older brothers had been up, dressed and eaten breakfast and ready to run out the door for the morning carpool to school.

I have to admit, I missed his singing this morning; and yet sleeping until the alarm clock beeped at 7:00 was totally welcome too.

So how about you did you Sing your way into Daylight Savings Time?

More Benjaminisms...

"Mama, do you know what I want to drink with my lunch? Hot chocolate because my brain needs warmed up. I know we don't have hot chocolate on just any snow day but this is a super duper cold snowy day and my brain is cold and so is my body, so I need some hot chocolate to warm me up"

"Wow! I think it is almost Christmas again!"

"When I go to storytime after storytime I'll buy a book and a movie and a dinosaur movie with my library card. First I have to take my only one movie back, but my Christmas dinosaur movie can stay here because it isn't a library movie it is a Christmas movie from Santa and it can stay here"

"Mama can you snuggle me when I'm watching the show"

"Mama see these straight pretzels that I got from Emma's house? They taste better than those curly knotted up ones you buy. They are better for me because I'm a straight boy and not a curly knotted up boy. So next time buy straight pretzels so I'll know you love me okay?"

Flying South....

Last Tuesday I went for a walk with the two youngest boys around 8:30 in the morning it was so warm we only wore jackets. There is a wetland restoration area less than a block or so from our house and they have a paved walking trail all the way around it. So we went on a hunt for signs of spring....You'll be amazed at what we saw

A pair of ducks swimming in the river
Grass peaking out from under the melting snow
Puddles to splash in
A few Robins and other early spring birds flying through the trees
Signs of a couple of beavers starting to build a new home
Fuzzy buds on a few trees
and even a Mosquito that tried to bite my cheek

It was very reassuring that Spring was definitely on her way. It was totally the best thing for the winter doldrums that we've all been facing. I didn't post about it then because I hadn't brought along my camera and wanted to go back and get some pictures to go along with it all....

Saturday we did some yard clean-up and I even put the snow shovels away in the shed and set the leaf rake next to the porch. Well this morning we woke up to a blanket of snow, so I set off with my leaf rake to make a semi-path over to the shed to get the snow shovels out.

The Comedian says, "It will be Christmas again soon!" He's uber excited because his birthday is just a couple weeks before Christmas.

And I just decided to go out and get some wood and start a fire to warm us all up and saw a large V of Canadian Geese headed south again....so maybe he's onto something.

I knew there was a reason that I hadn't put the last of the Christmas decorations in the eves....

Oh the weather outside is frightful...but the fire is sure delightful.....

Bringing Down the Lights. . .

One of my fondest memories of High School is going to dances. I loved being with my friends, hearing all of my favorite songs, the lights, dancing and just relaxing. I still love to dance, although I have come far from the whole 80’s rocking two-step. It is one of my husband’s top choices and mine when we happen to get a night out together. Being married to a wonderful man whose hobby for the last 15 years has been DJing means that I get a critique of what is going well and what could be improved each time we go out dancing. Since our marriage 5 years ago I have learned that there is much more to being a good Disc Jockey than tossing a few songs on the cd player and plugging in some fancy lights. One of the most challenging things to perfect, and is a sure way to identify an amateur from a professional, is lowering the houselights in the room. Bringing the houselights down requires subtlety, patience and if done well isn’t even noticed by the crowd. I have been pondering the implications of this. We are told in the scriptures that we each bring a light to the earth, the Light of Christ. “I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” (D&C 93:2.) the Savior said.



As young children we learned how to keep darkness away by turning on a light. My own boys don’t want to go to sleep without their “night light” on in the hallway until they fall asleep. I remember being a teenager at home alone and turning on every light in the house! I realized that the instinctual physical law is also a spiritual law: light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time.





“Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More importantly, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs. When the spiritual light of the Holy Ghost is present, the darkness of Satan departs. Beloved young men and young women of the Church, we are engaged in a battle between the forces of light and darkness. If it were not for the Light of Jesus Christ and His gospel, we would be doomed to the destruction of darkness. But the Savior said, “I am come a light into the world.” John 12:46. “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12” (Robert D. Hales, “Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light,” Ensign, May 2002, 69)





Satan works on us like a Good DJ in lowering our lights. He has had millions of years to perfect his methods. We can be entrenched in darkness before we even notice or realize that there is any dimming of our light at all. I know this because I have been entrenched in a deep depression for three and a half years. Now the depression itself was due to a hormonal imbalance but the additional darkness I was plunged into was very scary and very real. In addition to the depression I found myself letting the essentials of the gospel fall by the wayside. Studying my scriptures regularly was one of the first things to go, then praying became more haphazard, and so on. I never realized how much of my personal darkness was simply a lack of the spirit in my life. I blamed everything on my depression and the lack of understanding on the part of others. As the depression began to lift (much as walking off the dance floor and into the hall) I began to recognize that I had been in the dark.





The Lord is our light and, literally, our salvation. (Psalms 27:1) Like the sacred fire that encircled the children in 3 Nephi:16; His light will form a protective shield between you and the darkness of the adversary as you live worthy of it. You need that light. We need that light. As we study the scriptures, the teachings of the prophets, pray, and learn of Christ we can by obedience to wise counsel, learn to claim the protective light of the gospel as our own. There is only one way to claim this protective light we “must learn to generate that light each day by believing on Jesus Christ and following His commandments.” By our diligence and obedience we will keep so much light inside of us and in our daily lives that Satan will have no opportunities to fill us with darkness.

Use the Force. . . .

Star Wars is having a revival around our house lately. And my Lego Engineer has been inspired. He really wants me to share with you some of his incredible creations. Above is an x-wing...or I've just been corrected. It's knick-name is "the long eyed fighter" and the code name is the "4 eyed ship that drops off clones".


This one was crafted by the Comedian. It is a clown ship...or so I've been told.



Here is a group picture of many of the creations.

And this one was made especially for Monster baby (who is less of a baby each and every day). So he wouldn't feel left out of the zooming and zipping flying all over the house.

So now just remember to wear your shoes inside my house because the pain caused from stepping on one of these things is excruciating!

He Stands at the door and knocks.....

This week has been a struggle for me. And so I started looking back at some stuff I wrote awhile ago. I wrote the following in the early spring of 2007.

I wonder who will I open the door for today?



Monday, Monday……was an awful day. Nothing terrible happened, it was just one of those days when I didn’t get any housework done (and the house was in desperate need of it as we had weekend visitors that we had not yet recovered from), the kids and I had no structure and so just kind of did whatever we wanted (read books, watch a show, play trains, legos, Lincoln logs, etc). My motivation was low, I had errands to run but never put forth the energy to get done what needed to be done to herd the children into the car.


Okay, well that is the sugar coated, head in the sand version. Truly I was fighting a seemingly un-winnable battle with depression. I spent most of the day alternately sleeping or bawling in my bed. Leaving only to referee arguments between my 5 & 3 year old, slap peanut butter on bread for them for lunch, or to put in a new DVD for them to watch. The fear that this was the beginning of the seemingly unending depression that I suffered with the births of my first two boys was looming with palpable darkness over me.


There was nothing written on my calendar and yet I remembered at 4:30 that my Visiting Teachers had made an appointment to stop by around 5:30. So after spending half an hour deciding whether or not I really could just not open the door (I even called an out of state friend to get her to agree with me that I didn’t have to open the door if I didn’t feel like it.) …I started the mad dash to try and make the living room livable before they arrived. With the floor still un-vacuumed (and spotted with bread crumbs), toys still strewn around the corners, the stairs covered in tossed dirty laundry, shoes shoved under the sofas, and the piano piled high with papers the dreaded doorbell rang. I admit there was a moment of wondering where I could hide so that they would think no one was at home. Then I walked to the door and opened it anyway. There was nothing profound that happened in the visit, in fact I sat numbly just focusing on breathing for the entire time when I was not attempting to keep the boys from climbing all over them. This was a really big step for me as it has been my habit to hide from the world when I am struggling, other than posts to sisters far away on internet groups. When the sisters left I felt like I had not only opened the door to my Visiting teachers but I had also opened the door to my Father in Heaven inviting him in to help me in this battle with depression.


Elder Henry B. Eyring, May 2007 Ensign pg. 89-91 “In the hardest trials, as long as you have the power to pray, you can ask a loving God: “Please let me serve, this day. It doesn’t matter to me how few things I may be able to do. Just let me know what I can do. I will obey this day. I know that I can, with Thy help.” . . .Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if you choose to serve the Lord this day with your whole heart. Your circumstances may not be improved in all the ways which you desire. But you will have been given new strength to carry your burdens and new confidence that when your burdens become too heavy, the Lord, whom you have served, will carry what you cannot. He knows how. He prepared long ago. He suffered your infirmities and your sorrows when He was in the flesh so that He would know how to succor him.”

Alma 7:11-12 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

New Snow Elimination Plan.....

My Engineer has decided that if Mother Nature won't cooperate in removing the snow that he'll take it into his own hands. here he is using his shovel to remove the snow from our yard. I'm not sure what he is going to do when it snows again later this week.

While the boys were getting into the van the other morning to go to school he and the Comedian were arguing. I came in on the middle of the argument and the Comedian was already in tears and wanting to know if big brother made all the praying rules because he felt like he still wanted to pray for more snow. I'm not sure that my Engineer totally agrees that we each get to pray for what will meet our individual needs. He is now lobbying for a new family rule that will prohibit any more praying for snow. Luckily for us he is not in charge of prayers for tonight's Family Home Evening, although he is the song leader. It will be fun to see which songs we will be singing tonight.

As for the mommy she is ready for warmer weather so we can get outside and play. I am truly getting tired of being cooped up inside these four walls.