Easter

We changed plans unexpectedly for our Easter weekend and it ended up being really fun!  We got up early and headed down to North Ogden Saturday morning to spend the weekend with the Bernings.  We pulled in just as the opening song was going for General Conference.  We got settled and were able to take part in the solemn assembly (more on that later).

Teresa and Daniel and their family were down visiting and it was fun to spend some time with all of them, Brian, and, of course, Gus and Darlene.  After the afternoon session, Grant and Kristen and their family also came over and the kiddos had a big Easter hunt!  Most of the kiddos are getting so big (our little family is the youngest by far!) but the big kids are so great to get in there with the little kiddos!  

It was a great weekend of visiting and inspiration from our leaders.  I can't wait to get my hands on my copy of the Ensign so I can dive into what was said more (also, I know that I can look it up online, but I much rather read something not on a screen...just call me "old school").  

The week leading up to Easter we hit "pause" on our normal family scripture study and each day spotlighted what the Savior did on that day during His last week.  It was actually really impactful to me and I am always amazed at the insight the kids have.  We are definitely entering a really neat stage with them and their understanding.  I love it.  

"It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow...

I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world's history, that Friday was the darkest.  

[But} the despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death.  He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.  

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried.  The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as...proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.  

Each of us will have our own Fridays - those day when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces...

But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death - Sunday will come.  In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.  

...No matter our grief, Sunday will come.  In this life or the next, Sunday will come.  

May we understand and live in thanksgiving for the pricelss gifts that come to us as sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father and for the promise of that bright day when we shall all rise triumphant from the grave.  

...No matter how dark our Friday, Sunday will come."

By Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (Sunday Will Come)

Easter Egg Hunt

Today we went to our town's Easter Egg Hunt!  It was so fun.  But it's always funny to me that it's all over so fast!  The kiddos probably had just as much playing at the park afterwards and enjoying the sun and friends.  

Sarah and Benjamin were in the littlest group while Jacob got to be in a bigger age group.  It was funny though, afterwards, Jacob looked at Benjamin's basket and said completely straight-faced, "I think Benjamin was confused."  Basically, Benjamin just wanted to put leaves in his basket and that's it!  I was totally okay with that.  ;)

Anxiously waiting for them to say "GO!"

Love my bunnies.  

HS: March

Time is FLYING!

I cannot believe how fast this year is going!

This month has continued to go well.  The biggest thing on my radar with our schooling is getting prepped for next year {I felt like this year was more about survival than anything else and has actually gone way better than I thought it would} and getting a better system for where and how we do school.  Right now, Sarah and Benjamin are pretty much just up in a room playing the whole time I am doing school with Jacob and while that works - we need something better!  It is definitely not a good long term solution.  

Anyway...on to what we've been doing.  

Language Arts is going awesome.  I am so impressed with how well Jacob is reading.  We are nearing the end of our program and I am just so proud of him.  He has grown leaps and bounds - especially when I compare to where we started in August.  It's amazing and incredibly fulfilling when I stop and think about it.  I still haven't quite decided whether we will just move on with the next level or take a break.  We are leaning towards taking a breather and just reading and hop back into it in the fall.  Jacob finished all of his sight words that he needed to learn this year and he was really excited about that.  Every time he mastered a "sight word ladder" he got to color a part of this picture and he was really excited to finish his picture.  Friday we review his phonics cards (which he has already mastered) and his sight words.  

This was such a great example to me of Jacob's growth.  Occasionally, our program will have Jacob read a passage or a poem and I time it and count the errors.  I am amazed at his growth in just a few short months.  

Jacob also finished his third spelling chart which was great.  Spelling is definitely Jacob's least favorite thing we do in school.  He hates it.  And it's not so much that he struggles with spelling but he is his own worst enemy with it - he just shuts down and doesn't even want to try.  Uggg...but we are working on it.  And I am hoping to find some ideas about how to change up how we do it to hopefully boost both of our spirits during that part of our day!

Jacob also finished another poem this month and a big scripture.  This might be an area where we take a little break this next month.  He is getting frustrated with it and that's not how I want that to go.  But I will say, listen to him tell me a scripture from memory, warms my little momma heart.  

At the beginning of this month, we spent almost a whole week working on an art project together.  I've contained myself through all of the other projects but I had to join in on this one!  We had a lot of fun doing it together.  We also studied plural nouns, "EE" words, read a short story about bunnies (and then Jacob made his own story!), "AR" words, "ED" and "ING" inflection endings, and "TOO, TWO, TO" homophones.  

And Jacob is still doing his handwriting pages.  Not that exciting but going well!

We are still working on our meteorology unit in science.  This month we talked about wind, what clouds are and the different types of clouds, rain, and thunder and lightning.  Our new vocabulary words were: wind, water vapor, and precipitation. 

We made a windsock during our wind lesson!

Our lesson on water vapor...

...which we did while I made lunch.  

Making a cloud in a jar.  

We learned how to tell how far away a storm is by counting the seconds between when you see the lightning and hear the thunder (aluminum foil!).  

Made "lightning" after rubbing a balloon on our heads and putting a metal spoon by it!

Something new this month was that we started a history program.  I absolutely love history and have been itching to start something.  I know what I want to do for next year but I found another program that I thought might be fun to do in the summer.  It's more of just reading historical picture books and discussing different things about it.  And Jacob and I are not loving it.  It's a little disappointing.  Not too much because I love what I have planned for next year and we can just throw these books in when we talk about the same topic - so it won't go to waste.  I don't really know why we aren't loving it but we just aren't.  So, we will probably change things up a bit but at least read what we have until we are done.  The books I got were about early American history.  We talked about Leif the Lucky (who I am pretty sure I had never heard about before) and Christopher Columbus.  

Another {kind of} new thing was that I decided to spotlight a new state every month (like what we did with Texas).  This will take several years, of course, but Jacob and I are both excited about it.  I thought about doing it geographically or in statehood order but ultimately I typed them into a randomizer program online and wrote it down.  So we are doing the states in a completely random order and it is kind of fun.  That way we get to bounce around a lot and keep things exciting.  This month was California!  We just started it this last week and have some more we want to do with it still.  But we talked about where it is, the different state symbols, the amazing trees that are there, influential people (Robert Frost and General George S. Patton Jr.), significant landmarks (Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island) and our U.S. President from there - Richard Nixon.  Plus, it was fun to show Jacob pictures of when Mark and I went to San Francisco on our 5th Anniversary.  

This week we also made Cobb Salads for dinner to spotlight some of the food California is known for - AVOCADOES!

Jacob and I love our snuggle read aloud time.  This month we read Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson.  We loved all of these books!

I am so grateful to be on this journey with Jacob.  It has its challenges and we definitely have our struggles but the good far outweighs any of those.  We've decided that we will probably do some version of year round school.  We love the flexibility of doing it at home and taking breaks when we need to.  And Mark and I definitely believe in being life-long learners and feel like the best way to live that is to always be learning!  We will, most likely, do a more relaxed version of school this summer to give us both a break and get us excited for next year - which also includes SARAH!  Ahhh!  SO exciting!

Spring

The kiddos were SO excited to celebrate spring!  We all wished we had more snow (we can NEVER get enough!) this winter but it is always exciting to celebrate a new season.  I am so grateful for the seasons and even more grateful that we live in a place where we get to experience all four of them!

We have enjoyed going on walks and the feeling like a change is slowly happening.  We have gotten some snow showers since it "turned" spring and it makes me laugh when Jacob will look outside and say to the sky, "You are not supposed to snow anymore.  It's spring."  In his very matter-of-fact voice.  Kids are the best.  

Happy Spring!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day!  Next year, I definitely want to to do a little more with these fun holidays with the kiddos.  We found some fun things to dress up with and we mostly spent the day going through boxes and sorting through stuff and putting things away or in storage.  Doesn't sound that exciting but we had a good time + it was productive.  WIN!  Also, after living here a year and a half we finally set up the kids teepee.  They loved it.  

We also had our traditional St. Patrick's Day feast and Jacob "decorated" the table and it was so cute.  He has done this for the last couple holidays and it is awesome.  He then made a game where you had to get to the rainbow.  He loved it and I love his creativity.  

I love these little leprechauns!

Walking

This little man is WALKING!

It is so exciting and also a wee bit sad.  I feel like it is the first step {haha, but really} into toddlerhood.  Benji actually took his first steps in San Antonio last month while we were on vacation.  We were so excited but secretly hoping he would forget during those long spurts in the car.  But, alas, this boy LOVES to move!  He has made me laugh time and again the last couple weeks when he would just pace back and forth "practicing" his walking.  He has pretty much mastered it now and is actually moving pretty fast!  He definitely prefers to walk now and only crawls when he needs to move just a little.  

We are so excited for this milestone for our little man...and maybe just a wee bit sad.

Worth the Wrestle

The last couple weeks I've been reading Worth the Wrestle by Sheri Dew.  I cannot recommend this book enough!  I felt like every paragraph I was thinking..."YES!".  She articulates her thoughts so well and I really enjoyed her perspective.  This book has brought on so much reflection and I am grateful for that.  

In the last chapter, Sheri talks about an interview she conducted with Randall Wallace who wrote the screenplay to Braveheart and several other films (mostly war movies).  She asked him why he had written so many movies about war.  He replied, "I don't think of them as war movies...I write love stories.  I want to know what a man or woman loves enough to fight for."

Isn't that an amazing perspective?!

Sheri goes on in her book to say:

"Perhaps that sentiment is the very essence of being willing to engage in the wrestle: to demonstrate to ourselves and to the Lord that we care about Him and His gospel enough to fight, or wrestle, to grow in knowledge and in faith.  

There are many things that are worth the wrestle.  

It is worth wrestling to understand God's power and how He gives us access to it.  

It is worth wrestling to have a deepening understanding and testimony of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, His infinite Atonement, and the healing power that can flow through Him to those who believe in Him.  

It is worth wrestling to understand priesthood power and how that power operates in the lives of both men and women.  

It is worth wrestling to learn the language of revelation and then to seek revelation regularly. 

It is worth wrestling to gain a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that he was the Lord's instrument who ushered in the dispensation of the fulness of times.  

It is worth wrestling to know that the living prophet is the Lord's mouthpiece.  His ordained servant who holds and exercises all priesthood keys, and that the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are prophets, seers, and revelators.  

It is worth wrestling to gain a personal witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that ancient prophets foresaw our day and recorded the doctrine, truths, and spiritual patterns that would help us negotiate the unique challenges of these last days.  

It is worth wrestling to understand the gifts that come from the gift of the Holy Ghost, including the availability of spiritual gifts.  

It is worth wrestling to understand the ministering of angels and why Elder Jeffrey R. Holland counseled us to "ask for angels to help us" when we are in need of extra courage, strength, peace, and aid.  

It is worth wrestling to understand the plan of salvation and why the family as God decreed it is at the center of the plan.  

It is worth wrestling to understand the distinctive gifts and divine endowments of both women and men as well as the unique and vital contributions of all in building the kingdom.  

It is worth wrestling to understand and learn how to discuss complex social issues where our doctrine and society's views differ widely, and to do so in a spirit of cooperation and kindness but also candor.  

It is worth wrestling to understand how to keep the covenants we have made while living peacefully in a world that increasingly rejects truth and condemns religious belief and practice as provincial, parochial, and in some cases even dangerous.  

It is worth wrestling to understand how to live as men and women of God.  

It is worth wrestling to be willing to ask the right questions, questions such as "What is Thy will (regardless of the situation we may find ourselves in)?  What would Thou have me do?  What would Thou have me say?  How would Thou have me feel about a circumstance or outcome or desire?"  Sometimes accepting the answers to such questions can require a wrestle."

(Worth the Wrestle by Sheri Dew)

I loved that.  All of it.  In particular, that last paragraph, was what I felt like her book focused on.  That having questions isn't a bad thing, in fact, it's a good thing!  It's an opportunity to grow and expand in our spirituality.  But the tricky part (can be) in accepting the answers to those questions.  

I am grateful for the knowledge that I have received through the Holy Spirit.  It brings me peace.  It is more a part of me and who I am than anything else.