Journey To Adopt-The Beginning

Remembering Baby

That I love children has never been questioned.  Since a child, as I watched my mother care so tenderly my younger brother and sister, the desire to have my own baby to hold, feed and love was great.  I was always ‘collecting’ children where ever I went, in fact I often would rather ‘play’ with younger little kids then kids my own age.  When I was 12, I we went sailing to the South Pacific with my family.  It was a trip that was never to be forgotten.  Beautiful weather, pungent pua-scented air and loving open people.  On each island being members of the church made making friends easy.  My sisters would alway attract the island boys, my brothers would attract the island women, and I, well, I attracted the island kids, and could not have been happier about it.

Writing In Chocolate Tutorial-Perfect For Mothers Day

I still get teased about often our boat was awakened by the early morning chanting of my name. As I grew into a young women, and watched my mother continue to mother foster children, the neighborhood children and her own grandchildren, my desire to have a large family grew.  This desire was often questioned and mocked, even within my church circle of friends.  They would question my sanity and call me naive when follow-up questions would reveal that I expected to be a stay at home mother I was ridiculed and discouraged on many fronts.  Those desires so deep in my heart never faded.

Easy Rose Cake Decorating Tutorial

When I told my husband-to-be (we were chatting on the phone) that I would love 12 kids there was silences for several minutes.  At that time, I was only thinking about having my own kids. When I was still in University, my parents started officially fostering kids.  I was so excited.  It was so fun moving back home and having our house full of little people.  They were noisy, they were messy, they were defiant, but oh so fun.  I remember how some of my young adult friends would come visit just to be attacked by a hoard of Pre-schoolers.  The happiness these kids, who had had such a hard life, displayed as they romped through the forest, or went swimming with us was so rewarding.  They soaked up the love that was poured on them eagerly.  I am not sure my mom and dad had as much fun as me since they had to deal with bedwetting, hitting, night time wake ups, family visits ect. . .  They didn’t complain, but now that I have children of my own in that age range I know that it was hard.  In time my parents arranged to be a ‘forever home’ for three very active, amazing young boys who struggled with dealing with Fetal Alcohol.  That was one of the best gifts, besides the gospel, that my parents could have given me.

Yummy Orange Cupcake Recipe

The love I feel for those boys are deep and strong.  Life has been bumpy with them since Fetal Alcohol is such a challenging disability, and there is so little known about it. Just before I was married, and right after, I have had many experiences to work with people who are mentally challenged, have different emotional and physical needs.  Each person has blessed my life and my realization that God had  a specific plan for me grew.  I did not know what that plan involved but I knew it involved children.  One evening, after our first baby had been rocked to sleep, my husband and I snuggled in and watched a movie called “The Inn of The Sixth Happiness”.

Yum-Easy and Unique Cupcake Recipe and Tutorial

When I watched the main character lead so many war orphans across the mountains my heart wanted to burst.  Something in my heart was touched and that night my husband and I had a very serious conversation about adopting. That was about 14 years ago.  The desire to adopt never left me, I have just been so busy having my own seven children, and working towards finding a place to settle down.  In the last 14 years I have been inspired by people like Michelle Duggar (she seems like such an incredible mother of many), Sandra Hanna, and Mary Beth Clark-all mothers of very large families.  My husband especially liked the story about Hanna and Darrold because they worked so hard to be self-sufficient-his biggest concern besides lack of space is how he is going to pay for all these kids that he imagines my heart might prompt us to have. Last year, after countless of prayers our family moved out to the country.  The move has been amazing for our family and we have felt very blessed.

Mother’s Day Cake Topper

Recently the scripture “Where much is given, much is required” has been awakening my desire to adopt again.  When I approached the family about my desires, I was thrilled to see how excited everyone was about the prospect. I thought that I would blog a bit about the journey, struggles, thoughts and feelings.  Since I am at the beginning of this process I do not know what if any children will be matched to our home (after all, I do have seven of my own kids the youngest still a baby) or when it will happen.  I still think that exploring this option will be beneficial for my family and me.  I am always interested in adoption stories and would love to hear from anyone who would like to share their story.

The King and His Hawk

Once upon a time a great king was crossing the sultry desert. He had been hunting and now was lost. On his shoulder perched his trusted Hawk. Thirsty the King yearned for a drink, desperately he looked for a stream. After much searching he chanced upon a fountain of clear water. Kneeling down he was about to drink the water, when out of the sky the hawk swooped down and pecked his hand. The King was shocked at his hawks behavior but intent on getting a drink that he once again kneeled down to drink the water. Again, the hawk pecked at his hand. In a fit of rage, the thirsty king drew his sword and when the hawk came down the third time to knock the freshly dipped cup from his hand, the King killed the bird. With the dead bird laying on the ground the King bent one final time to get a glass of cool water to sooth his thrist. Just as he was about to drink the water the King noticed something in the water. It was a very poisonous dead snake. Instantly the King understood his hawks actions. A single sip of that water would have killed him. He sat beside the dead hawk and moaned, “I have lost you because of my blinding rage. All you were trying to do was to save my life!”

General Conference, A Feast For The Body And Soul

Every early April, my kids wake up early one Saturday morning thoroughly excited.  The feeling festivity and excitement is almost tangible, for that day begins the start of General Conference Weekend.  Without worrying about breakfast, kids tumble out of bed, and make their way to the table.  There before their excited eyes is their own personalized Conference picnic.  Eagerly everyone scatters to get dressed, get their buddies dressed and to prepare the room for our Conference Feast.

About 8 years ago, when I was struggling to juggle the needs of four kids-the oldest only being 6 years old, I lamented to my husband that General Conference time was missing that special feeling I felt listening to the words of God should have.  For the last 6 years we had tried all sorts of things to make it so that my husband and I could listen to the speakers and their inspired words of wisdom they prepared so thoughtfully for us.  I always felt that Conference time was mediocre at best.  I was grateful to know that I had the internet available so that I could, at a later time, listen by my self to the talks.  As my husband and I discussed our vision for this time of the year, we both felt strongly that the feeling of anticipation and excitement was definitely lacking with our children.  Through much prayer and study, we came up with a plan that has changed the whole feeling in our home.

First, we changed our own perspective of General Conference.  Together, we decided that watching General Conference live would be the time that we focused on the children.  Our whole objective would not be how many notes we could write, but how positive of an experience we could make this for the kids.  That meant that  during conference, while we insisted the kids were reverent, we spent more time talking to them during conference, paraphrasing the stories or doctrine for the kids as they were being told during conference.

Next we started increasing our kids anticipation by talking about General Conference weeks before it was to happen.  We would gather crayons, paper and print out home made ‘conference bingo’ cards.  We made sure we showed them pictures of the Prophet and apostles.  My husband is good at remembering fun stories from past conferences, and with the recent years, we make sure we put on lots of ‘General Conference Stories’ an wonderful podcast for kids (and adults).  We also make sure we go shopping for lots of food.

Since General Conference is definitely a weekend where we get to spiritually feast on the words of Christ, I naturally thought of making it a time for us to feast physically.  This is by far my kid’s favorite thing to prepare for.  We make lists together, hunt up new recipes, go shopping and prepare days and sometimes weeks in advance.  While this takes work, it has been a great way to strengthen relationships and build memories through righteous traditions.  After the feast is prepared, our kids have the freedom to eat any time they want to during conference.  This has helped keep them quiet while watching.  We try to make healthy food for our feast instead of junk food and sweets so that we don’t associate feeling sick with Conference  As we have experimented with different kinds of ‘feasts’ we have found giving the kids their own personalized picnic basket full of food and a garbage bag minimizes the need to get up, lets them eat at their own pace, gives them a place to keep their food (and mess) contained while they watch and take notes.

Finally, we realized that it is important that the words listened to during conference sink deep into our families heart.  After a few years of mulling over this issue, and trying different things we have found a delightful way to encourage thoughtful discussion and note taking.  To do this we collaborated with other families to set up an evening where the older kids (8 and up) could get together to share their feelings, thoughts, and impressions about conference.  We call it ‘Conference Sunday’ because afterwards the kids get sundaes as refreshments.  Knowing that they are expected to carry on the  encourage the older kids to write notes and discuss their notes with each other to prepare for the evening.  When we first started this tradition, the kids were very young, most just turned 8 years old.  These discussions ended up being mini-conference lessons that the mom’s did.  As the years have passed on there has been a decided shift from parents doing most of the talking to, parents doing most of the listening.  Though it is hard for me to be quiet about gospel subjects, I have been richly rewarded with my effort to ‘talk less and listen more’.  I have got insight into my kids’ minds that I otherwise would not have had.

All of these things to make Conference time special, have taken a lot of work and preparation on the part of my husband and I but the effects of this effort have been well worth it.  Many times during the years I have heard “I love Conference time”, “Yah it is Conference”, “Hurry clean the house so we are ready for conference” and lately I have heard more tender expressions of  ”I love Elder Uchdorfs” talk” or “Remember that story last year. . .” or “Mom, when I hear the voice of the Prophet I feel his love”.   I hope that as the years compound upon one another until they truly come to hunger after the words of Christ.

Permaculture And Giving Others The Room To Make Mistakes And Learn

Recently I have been reading all I can on on permaculture-a consciously designed way of homesteading (and living actually) that works with nature instead of against it.  Because it is working as much as possible with the natural world each garden, each homestead, and each system following the same principles will end up looking very different.  Where one plants their tomato’s on one farmstead, will be different on the next because the climate, soil conditions, and physical features will be different.  While this seems obvious on the mental level, on the practical level it can be frustrating and mind boggling because there are no hard and fast set rules-just principles to follow (which means you need to use a lot more of your own brain power to make it work).  When trying to use permaculture principles there are no web search out there that will tell you exactly what to do.

Abundance Is Possible When Working With Nature

One of the beauties of Permaculture is the fact that you are working off of principles.  Since every piece of land, every climate, and every location is unique, the responsibility of ‘doing it right’ the first time is greatly alleviated.  Working from principles, who’s application changes from place to place and time to time, allows one to try, fail, succeed, try again, improve and continue on improving indefinitely without feeling like they are failures.

I knew homesteading would be difficult, since I know so little, but I had no idea what I was in for when I purchased this raw prairie land.  As you can see, my neighbors have been kind to me, and have allowed me to make lots of dumb mistakes without ridiculing and belittling my efforts.  What little success I have found has been so thrilling to experience since I have not had to worry so much about keeping up with the ‘Jones’.  The ‘Jones’ in these parts are so far ahead of me in wisdom, experience and understanding, that I don’t even try.  I am grateful that they are also infused with an extra loving and tolerant natures that while I am sure they get a few chuckles from me, they have been so kind and generous.

This whole process is like Life.  We are all sent to earth with different skills and desires and opportunities.  We are all sent here to try, to fail, to try more, to succeed, to experience joy and to impor ve indefinitely.  Just like permaculture is based on a series principles, so is the gospel.  It reminds me of Joseph Smiths comment to a members of the legislature who had asked Joseph Smith how he was able to organize so many people.  His reply-now a classic quote was “I teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves”.  This governing of ‘oneselves’ is a challenging concept to truly grasp and implement in my life.  I can not tell you how many times I have said to my husband when faced with difficult decisions “I just wish God would tell me exactly what he wanted from me and I would do it.  It is so hard trying to figure it out myself”.  The fact he requires us to ‘figure it out ourselves’ on so many issues, questions, challenges, trials and situations tells me that it is okay to make mistakes.  This is a comforting feeling, and the older I get, the more I am grateful that I have a whole life time to stumble, learn, succeed, fall and learn some more.  I am so overwhelmingly aware of my own failings, that I keenly feel the need for the atonement and also the need for us as individuals to have room to learn and grow daily towards Christ.  I love the thought that “it doesn’t matter where on the path of exaltation you are, just in which direction you are facing”.  This has also helped me be able to be more forgiving and kind to the other humans around me who are learning, falling, forgiving and growing as well.

Recently I was reading about Alma the younger, and it struck me that likely, a huge part of Alma’s success in being able to lead the members of the church would have been the type of community in which Alma lived in.  If Alma, was surrounded by people who would not let him repent of the awful things he did, and become new in Christ, I doubt he would have been able to have been as successful as he was.  The community that he grew up in, obviously knew of his past sins, and yet they let him move on to become the man that Lord desired him to be.

Living in this farming community, realizing how little I know about homesteading, reminds me daily about the need to be the kind of person that people feel comfortable being around, failing around, and succeeding around.  In Conference they talked about our home being a refuge for not just our own families, but for anyone who needs a safe place to be.  I have been so grateful for this community that is willing to help me become self-sufficient.  Even when my idea’s seem bizarre, they have listened to my reasoning, agreed with some of what I have said, and have gently offered advice.  More often than giving advice, my neighbors have been willing to give us a hand.  Without such caring neighbors, there is no way I would have such a beautiful house to live in and be in a position to work on my homestead as much as I can.  This is the kind of person I need to be.  I need to always remember that we are born to different circumstances, with different weakness’s, skills and talents.  Our Heavenly Father has given us this whole lifetime to learn what we need to learn to return back to him.  I need to follow his example.  He is ever loving, caring and forgiving, I need to strive to be so.  He gives us room to make mistakes and repent, and so I need to allow others that same opportunity.  He celebrates with our successes, I too need to celebrate more with others.  He allows us to ‘start small’, I need to allow others that same grace.

17 Super Fun April Fools Jokes For The Family, Friends and Neighbors

In our home, humor is appreciated.  With seven kids, 3 dogs and a dozen of cousins running around, you need a good sense of humor.  My oldest son especially has this sense of weird micheviousness about him.  His wit gets him into lots of trouble in classes (because he always is making wisecracks) but it also makes him able to enjoy a good joke.

Tricks And Fun At Home

I remember one year, his tooth fairy was a little late in coming because he didn’t write her a note. Frankly, he was too old to pretend to believe in a tooth fairy by this time, but he staunchly insisted that she needed to come and that he would write the note soon.  I was out with my girlfriends one day, and came across this shrivelled up fairy on sale.  It was really ugly and so I bought it.  That night I put it by his pillow with a note that basically said “I am sorry you have not written me a note for so long.  I waited and waited and while I waited I got very old.  As my time on earth is almost over I thought I would have a statue of me made for you to always keep and remember”.  When he woke up that morning and saw this ugly figurine he gave me this “Is this for real look?” I just laughed and laughed and laughed.  After his shock, he laughed and showed his friends the ugly gift he got from his tooth fairy.  His friends were kind enough not to mention that fairies weren’t real and they all laughed before throwing the figure down and running off to play.  As they left, I saw my 4 year old daughter grimacing at the fairy and then she said “Mom, I sure hope this fairy dies before my tooth falls out!”.  I still chuckle at that joke and every now and then when the ugly fairy pops up we all laugh.

With this in mind, it is no wonder my kids love April Fools day.  I have worked hard on helping them learn the difference between a mean prank and a nice one.  They all have to okay their pranks with me before they proceed just to be safe.  I am constantly reminding them that pranks should always be used to make the person being pranked upon feel happier. This take planning, but so far it has worked great in our home.  Last year we had a blast together.  We stayed up really late the night before and played a ton of pranks on their uncles and aunties.  They had a hoot.

Here are some of the pranks we pulled:

1) We sprayed cars’ with fake snow

April Fools Day 2012

2) Put a for sale sign up on my brother-in-laws new suburban asking only $1000

April Fools Day 2012

Fake For Sale Sign

3) We made fake cupcakes out of spray foam and cocking

Fake Cupcakes Aprils Fools Day 2012

Fake Cupcakes April Fools Day 2012

Bathroom Filled With Newspaper-April Fools Day 2012

4) We snuck into an aunties house during a party and filled her bathroom up with crumpled newspaper

5) We toilet papered one of the cousins back yard

6)  We filled an elderly neighbors freshly turned garden with fake flowers

Cookie Noodles And Sauce

7) We made home made spaghetti and sauce out of cookie dough and jam, and brought it over to our neighbors.

It was one of the funnest outings I have had with my kids for a long time.  They laughed so hard and I have to admit that it made me feel like a teen-ager again (I used to do such fun silly things).

Not to let my kids down, the next day was General Conference, and for their ‘conference feast’ I played all sorts of tricks.

1) I put makeup on all of them when they were sleeping

2) I opened their chips bags and filled them up with carrots, resealing them so they didn’t know until they opened the bag.

Fake Cupcakes, Jello Eggs, Jello Juice, Pre-sliced Banana’s, Tricky Chips

3) I cut their banana in pieces using a needle (so when they opened it it was already sliced).

4) I made them jello drinks.

5) I toilet papered their bedrooms.

6) I actually even hallowed out some eggs, and taping the bottom hole shut, filled the egg with jello!!

For me it was so fun dodging their pranks

1) They put food coloring on my toothbrush (my toothbrush was green for months).

My Toothbrush Was Green For Months

2)  They stuffed their Daddies shoes with toilet paper so it felt really tight when he put them on.

3) They turned the toilet different colors (thanks to easter egg dye).

4) They froze water in the breakfast bowls and then covered the top with cereal so when we went to eat our food we hit ice.

Our jokes became the talk of their friends and cousins.  This year all the youth and kids came to me for advice on new pranks to pull on new  ‘victims’ friends.  Some of our new ones to try are:

1) I got my toothpaste tube filled up with salad dressing-yuck-he was supposed to do that one on his siblings NOT me!!

Mine Was Full Of Salad Dressing-Yucky April Fools Day Prank

2) My 10 year old son made a pan of Brownies for breakfast.  He made a treasure map and when the kids get them they are going to see a pan of ‘Brown E’s’

3) We are buying some oreo cookies and replacing a bunch of the middles with toothpaste

Yummy Toothpaste Oreo Cookies April Fools Day

4) This morning, when I woke up the whole living room was turned around, couches upside down, picture frames backwards ect. . . (they thought of that one all by themselves)!

5) For lunch I am making grilled cheese sandwiches out of white cake and icing.

Grilled Cheese Pound Cake April Fools Day

6) For our neighbors we are going to hand out a plate of ‘sponge cake’ -a decorated cake with a sponge in the middle.

My sisters were wondering why I spend time on such foolishness.  While I admit, I really love tricking my kids, it is actually more work than I normally would want to do.  The reason why I do do it, and why I am going to start planning better for such shenanigans in the future (my kids are getting older and tired of the normal tricks) is because of the bonding that happens with my kids and I over it.

Having them come to me in secret to get a new idea, or share with delight in what they figured out themselves is priceless.  Hearing them laugh at their sweet tolerant uncles and aunts not only make my kids like their relatives better-it helps form a history of stories to share with each other in the future.  Not only that, my kids’ friends have started to come to me for idea’s, which bonds their friends to me (which helps bond my kids to me  )  Like Gordon Nuefeld says, there is a ‘collecting dance’ parents and adults need to constantly do with their kids in order to keep them close.  This dance takes time, effort and lots of ‘thinking ahead’.  While this dance is definitely worth doing, it can be exhausting, especially with 7 kids.  I have found though, that the more effort I put into this dance, the more I realize that Sister Hinkley was right when she counselled to her daughter that “It is the relationship that matters most”, and the easier parenting gets.  Unfortunately I don’t always remember this.

Too often I let undone chores, messy school work, untrained dogs and ‘a problem to be solved, matter more than a person to be loved’.  Not only does focusing on ‘outcomes’ with my kids wreck havoc on our relationship, it also makes parenting harder to do, which ends up causing a cycle of destructive parenting ‘skills’ to be used (time out, grounding, missed privileges ect. . .).  When I watch an amazing mother at work, like Michelle Dugger for instance, I notice constantly the kindness and love in which those mothers are using when directing and interacting with their kids.  Often I am more like a military sergent, “do this”, “do that”, “not good enough” and “hurry up” are said way too much in my home.  To help combat that I try hard to follow the Arbinger Parenting Pyramid-repeating often “It is the relationship that matters most”.

Arbinger Parenting Pyramid

In Abridgers Parenting Pyramid, it is important to remember that if what you are doing is not working well, the answer lies in the level below it.  For instance, if you find that your kids aren’t wanting to be ‘taught’ by you, you need to work on your relationship instead of looking for more ways to teach.  Or, if you find that your relationship with your child is poor, you need to focus working on your relationship with the child’s  significant other first-which in my case would be their father.  When the problems on the level below are solved, often you will find that the problems on the level of concern have been taken care of.  While very simple, this pyramid has been one of the building blocks of my parenting philosophy.  It has helped me diagnose the ‘real issues’ with my kids when nothing else seemed to work.  It also has reminded me over and over the important role taking care of my relationship with my Heavenly Father through daily scripture study, it reinforces my desires to make sure my husband and I are strongly connected, and it is a constant reminder for me to take time to build my relationship with my children (instead of constantly focusing on their mistakes and correcting them).

April Fools day-or pulling harmless fun pranks is a great way to build these relationships as long as every one plays nice.  We have some very clear rules about playing jokes.

1) Can’t wreck anything

2) Can’t hurt anyone

3) Must be something that makes the recipient feel good, and laugh.  Some jokes are funny for some people and not so for others, we talk about each person we prank to be sure they will like it.

With these rules, my family has formed a great tradition of laughter, creativity and fun.

Free Easter Posters

I was fooling around with Photoshop today and made some fun Easter posters just in time for the Holy Week.  I am excited for this next week and hope the flu goes away so we can enjoy it. This year someone invited us over to do a ‘christian’ passover. I think it will be really fun.  We normally do passover with my sisters, but this year we are doing a larger “Passover” evening with a large group of friends.  There is going to be 5 rooms to go to, each room having an activity that explains a bit about the passover.  The families go in groups from one room to another until they have done them all.  It was super fun last year.  This year we are doing the “Passover” evening on Monday for Family Home Evening so I was happy to be able to accept the invitation. 

It was cute how the invitation was given.  I was chatting with a friend of mine while we both watched our sons play basketball.  I don’t go to sporting events often, but when I do I always bring a video camera (to prove that I came) and yell really really loud (to remind my kids why they aren’t too sad when I don’t come )

Anyways, I had been yelling and video taping for the last few hours and decided it was now okay to chat (with one eye on the court of corse).  While we were chatting she looked a little embarrassed and said “I was wondering, if you, well you know, umm, well in our family we celebrate passover on Thursday and wondered if you guys would want to come?”  She looked relieved when I told her that we do passover (of sorts) every year “Oh good, I just didn’t want your kids to come over and think that we were lame for just feeding them goat cheese and bitter herbs”.  I laughed and assured her that we would be delighted to come.

It is great to see that so many Christians are able to see the symbolisms in the Passover Ceremony. Here is a link to a great talk on the subject.

Free Download Holy Week Pictures and Scriptures

Today I read a brilliant talk explaining some of the lessons we can learn studying the last week of Christs life-known as the Holy Week.  The yucky flu is running around our home, so tomorrow, instead of going to church I am going to discuss this talk with the kids.  I have really been wanting some pictures and scriptures to put up depicting Christ’s last week, known as the Holy Week.  Since I couldn’t find any already done, I did some my self.

Holy Week Sunday

Holy Week Monday

Holy Week Wednesday

Holy week Wednesday

Holy Week Thursday

Good Friday

Easter Quote Saturday-Read The Intercessory Pray

Holy Week Sunday

Holy week book free download

Christ Centered Easter Avent Calendars

Names Of Christ Easter Eggs

This year, I decided to make a simple Avent Calendar to help our family celebrate the Atonement more thoroughly.   Since I got this great idea just a few days ago I was looking for something fun and easy.  Since my kids love breaking things, and love coloring Easter Eggs, (and because I had 6 dozen Easter eggs in my fridge) I decided to use Easter Eggs as my Avent calendar.

Advent Easter Egg Calendar with Scripture

All I did was blow the Easter Eggs, rinse them out, color them, stuff them with a scripture and some stickers and then close them up again.

The idea is that each morning one of the kids get to crack an egg on a siblings head to read and discuss the scripture inside.

It was really fun. I know they look like they were done fast (and today when we cracked one open, the scripture was all wet which means I didn’t wait long enough to let them dry) but I think they will work.  I like this idea because afterwards I don’t have more ‘stuff’ to deal with.  If I were in a pinch, and didn’t want to blow and dye the blow the eggs I could alway use plastic ones.  I also think I might look for things that symbolize Easter and have them hang an ornament on the tree each day.  I have seen people who sell a set of 12 like this.  I have never bought them because we don’t do Easter Egg Hunts at Easter time (instead we do them at our Big April Birthday party).  I found a blog that tells you how to make your own-which I think I will do next year.

Cracking the Christian Easter Advent Calendar

My Easter decorations are a little bit plain (too much white) and I needed some color to bring in spring so at the same time we decided to dye some eggs and decorate them with different ‘Names of Christ‘.

Names Of Christ Eggs

Those turned out really pretty as well and as long as we have enough stickers or a permanent marker my kids will be able to dye as many eggs as they want without running out of names to decorate them with.

Here are some commercial or other Easter Avent Calendars available.  What is more interesting to me than the calendars themselves are the blogs they come from.  Reminds me of my researcher husband who tells me all the time that he finds the references to his ‘academic’ articles usually more interesting than the article themselves.

This one is super duper cute! I love it!!

Comercial Resurrection Eggs-Love the idea to use as an Easter Advent Calendar

Get your kids involved toilet paper roll Avent Calender

From HeartFelt-Not my style but durable and kid friendly

This Wooded Avent Calendar can be used for Christmas too-comes from Holy Experiece

 

Meaningful Christ-Centered Easter Traditions and Activities

FROM PAST YEARS AND FOR YEARS TO COME!

I started blogging because I needed a venue to put my thoughts, pictures, activities, and to share any exciting thing I stumble across.  I want to keep a record of what I am doing with my kids, what works and what doesn’t work.  So far I have enjoyed blogging more than I ever imagined I would.

Remember Easter Past

With Easter just around the corner I wanted to create a space for my past and hopefully future traditions to help keep this holi-day Holy.  I am grateful for the plethora of idea’s others have shared to help keep the holi-days, especially Easter and Christmas, Christ focused.  Reading their idea’s and experiences has helped me be more deliberate in my celebrations (for instance, this is only the second year in a row that I actually thought about Easter more than then week before).

Morning Devotionals are the one thing I try really hard to do each day, especially during Christmas and Easter. Last year I made up some devotionals for the week before Easter and I still refer to them.

Some of our favorite Easter activities-many coming from the devotionals are:

Orange Oil Lamp-clean out a half orange leaving behind the white pithy part (kinda hard-better with a thick peeled orange). Pour in olive oil and light.

–Making Clay lamps- if you let them dry they really work.  We also make lamps out of orange halves

Easter Tree Tutorial

—Putting up our Easter Tree-we love to put it up and decorate it with different clay doves that represent the “Names of Christ” (over 200), and other objects the testify of Christ and His mission-this year I found some branches that light up at our local thrift store.  We just glued tissue blossoms on them and ‘ta da’!!

Repentance Box Tutorial and free graphics

—Putting out our repentance box-it doesn’t get used as well as it should-I need to work on recognizing my sins and repenting of them better.

Clay doves tutorial

—Making Clay dove and stamping them with different ‘Names of Christ’

—Writing in our Easter Journal-Each year we try and write things we are grateful for during the Easter season.  We pack these journals away each year and bring them out at Easter.  It is so fun to read what we wrote there.

Drawn by my 10 year old niece

—Easter Art-Spring is a time of creation and birth.  We celebrate this by making unique Easter art each year.  My kids love painting, getting messy and creating.

—Memorizing the Living Christ-We have been working on it for two years and this year I think we will nail it thanks to our inspired Bishop who suggested that we all memorize it as a ward

Easter Garden

—Planting a Easter Garden-Early in the month we plant an Easter Garden with wheat grass and any available potted plants-this year we planted tulips, it will be interesting to see if they will grow.  Last year I filled part of my Easter Garden up with crushed Oreo cookies and used it to teach a lesson on faith.  My kids still remember and requested for that lesson again

Easter Quill Pen

—Making a Quill Feather-One of the ‘Names of Christ‘ is Author and Finisher.  We love making our own ‘pens’ out of feathers, and ink out of berries or juice.

—Learning about the Apostles-Since Easter always comes around the time General Conference is held, we spend much of the month learning about the lives of different apostles

Ukrainian Easter Eggs

—Dying Easter Eggs-Since Jesus died for us, we make sure we spend a few different days during Easter to ‘dye’ for him too  We do normal dying and dying Ukrainian Easter Eggs.

Click for a free download

—Participate in a Passover type activity-Some years we do a mini passover, meaning, we eat lamb, bitter herbs, ect.  . . and discuss the symbolisms.  Other times we do a big dinner with a script, and other times we do a passover rotation activity.  During the passover rotation activity, 5 adults make passover stations where different families can come one at time to learn about the ‘four questions’, blood of the lamb ect. . .  We ask participants to dress up (now you know why I like it) in a biblical (AKA-bathrobes) garb. It is really great.

—Singing-We love to sing to the Elderly, especially at holiday times when they may be especially lonely.

—Secret Service-We try doing as much secret service during Easter as we can.  This usually is done in the form of making goodies, and dropping them off at someones house, ringing the doorbell and running.  My kids want any excuse to do this.

—Family History-Since Easter is all about the Atonement and Resurrection, I think doing family history work, indexing or learning about your ancestors is a great way to celebrate the fact that the Savior ‘broke the bands of death’.

—Visiting our neighbors baby lambs-This is one of my kids favorite activities.  They love visiting the lambs, and if possible feeding them. It is one of my favorite too.

—Watching Ten Commandments-Sometimes we just watch the ‘Passover’ part, or we did one year watch “The Prince Of Egypt” and the kids really like that

Wrap pastry dough around large marshmellows and cook

—Resurrection rolls-On Easter Sunday night we made resurrection rolls last year.  We just made a yummy white bread roll recipe and wrapped the dough around a big marshmellow.  This sight shows you and even easier way to do it.

Recently, while browsing the internet I came across a blog that listed a whole slew of websites that have idea’s to make Easter more Christ centered.  I have spent a little time on the different sights and can’t wait to try some of their ideas, especially the one about visiting a family grave on Resurrection Monday.  I love it when someone does all the work for me when planning activities.

Lamb of God-Christ Centered Easter

Cousins

I was driving home from cubs when I caught a glimpse of my sister disappearing into her vehicle.  I wondered out loud where she was going, and then remembered.  Earlier she had issued an invitation that I barely acknowledged, caught up as I was in the state of my house and my empty stomach.

Now,  I had a chance to replay our conversation.  What a gift that invitation represented, and how ungratefully I had responded.  Ashamed, I rushed home and gathered my crew.  “Our neighbor has a whole batch of new lambs and wants us to come and help feed them”.  My kids roared with excitement.  With squeals of delight and a mass of confusion and chaos, we found ourselves loaded and on our way.

The farm smelt of sweet musty hay.  The salt of the earth neighbors greeted us warmly and showed us the sheep.  Those lambs, so small, so energetic eagerly came to the kids hands, sucking on fingers and nibbling on boots.  A little black lamb was picked up and passed from child to child. The noise was deafening.  Bleeting and snorting mingled well with the squeals and laughter of children.  It was warm outside, and even warmer inside.

Drawn by my 10 year old niece

Once the kids were tired out of holding lambs, mimicking mothers, petting horses, chasing puppies and wading through mud, we moved to the backyard.  The sun’s slow descent painted a blush on the cheeks of the sky.  In it’s rosy light, the kids jumped and played tag, thoroughly enjoying each other and the crisp mountain air.

Parents discussed trees, sheep, wind and gardens until it was time to return home.  Tearfully kids gave hugs, ran around the yard one last time and then tumbled back into the suburban.

Surely He was Without Blemish

We talked of lambs, of spring, of hope and of THE LAMB.  Why did Christ come to earth ‘like a lamb’.  The Lamb of God, so pure and innocent, calls each of us.  His invitation is clear; it is sincere.  As stated in the LIVING CHRIST, “He entreats all to follow his example”.

This Easter, our family committed to do all we could to come closer to the Savior and follow Elder Holland’s Easter plea:

That these scenes of Christ’s lonely sacrifice, laced with moments of denial and abandonment and, at least once, outright betrayal, must never be reenacted by us. He has walked alone once. Now, may I ask that never again will He have to confront sin without our aid and assistance, that never again will He find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along His Via Dolorosain our present day. . . —may we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,”  for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone.