Good Tidings of Great Joy

I love this video. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy Friday!

[image by Sergiu Bacioiu]

Need a good time-waster on this Happy Friday? Try Cat-Bounce.com. It's strangely addictive to watch. And to play with. And...well, just go bounce some cats.

Dear Internet, Carry on without Me...

[This...just made me laugh. I'm not actually deathly ill. Photo by Monceau.]

Hey, everyone. Just wanted to check in and say that I haven't been feeling well, and that I'm not sure how long I'll be out. I'm still around, reading blog posts and stuff--but evenings are my usual writing time, and I've been going to bed early.

Hopefully, I'll be back in the swing of things soon. Carry on!

What Are You Thankful For?

Random people on the streets of New York answer this question: What are you thankful for?



Happy Thanksgiving!

For God So Loved the World

Beautiful video. Enjoy!

The Boy's Favorite Halloween Song

...is this:

He hasn't seen the movie. Or this video. And watching this now, I don't think he's going to; not this year, anyway.

Maybe something more innocent, like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! I think he'd like Snoopy.

Anyway, Happy Halloween!

Paaaaaaaiiiiiiiintiing! Boooo!

We painted our pumpkins last night for Family Home Evening. (The Boy hates pumpkin guts. So, paint.)

"Marceline, the Vampire Queen"

"A Colorful Pumpkin with a Face"

"Pumpkin Pi"

Heh.

Happy Halloween!

Why Are We Here?

Here's a quick, simple explanation of what Mormons believe about our purpose here on earth, how we got here, and where we're going. Enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Hey, it's Friday! I've been saving this one for today, the Friday before Halloween:

You are never truly alone. Comforting, right?

A Giveaway!

...on my other blog. Heehee.

It's a good one, though. We're giving away some kids' art supplies--scissors, crayons, fun stuff like that. And you know every mommy needs a stash of extra art stuff. I'll be totally honest with you here: we don't have very many readers yet, so your chances of winning are pretty darn good.

So head on over and check out Pie for Breakfast's first giveaway!

Like God

[photo credit]

"The Atonement was designed to do more than restore us to the 'starting line'--more than just wipe the slate clean. Its crowning purpose is to endow us with power so that we might overcome each of our weaknesses and acquire the divine traits that would make us like God."

-Tad R. Callister

...What Now?

The Boy had his sixth birthday a few weeks ago.

I'm very proud of him, and all that, but...six? We're pretty much out of the "early childhood" stage, here.  And almost all of my experience with kids is with early childhood. 

I don't really know anything about six-year-olds. At all. So I kind of feel like we're flying blind. We'll see how it goes. 

So far, six seems a lot like five--but with the ability to say a lot more. Our conversations with him are more involved. But conversations in front of him are pretty much over. Unless we want him repeating things to his Primary class that he, uh...shouldn't.

(As far as I know, that hasn't happened. But it's just a matter of time.)

Pie for Breakfast?!

Hiiii! I'm really excited today because...you know how I used to have a separate homeschool blog, called Pie for Breakfast?

(If you don't, just play along.)

Well, my super-awesome friend, Melissa, and I are starting it up again. Today! And I'm pretty sure it's going to rock, because Melissa has the best, most creative ideas ever.

So head on over there to see what's new!

Happy Friday!

It's Friday! And I'm totally not freaking out about everything I have to get done today. Heh heh. Heh.

Anyway, here's a Friday funny for you. I'm not saying anything political here, one way or the other. I just really like unexpected puns.

[image via]

Happy Friday!

Aaah! General Conference!

{photo by More Good Foundation}

General Conference! It's soon!

That's what went through my head yesterday.

[Here's more info on the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.]

So I've been gathering ideas to keep The Boy busy and at least a little bit engaged. Aaand...I've been thinking I should share my favorite resources for General Conference kid stuff. There are tons of awesome ideas out there. These are just some that I think will work well for The Boy.

Let's start with my favorite favorites:

Moms Have Questions Too has several posts with super-original General Conference activities for toddlers and preschoolers.

Katie's Blogness has a note-taking activity that I think will be perfect for The Boy, since he loves wheeled things.

More sites that were helpful:

Food Storage and Beyond has her own activities, as well as links to others.

Sugardoodle has new packets up for this conference, of course.

Lady Create-a-Lot's activities are good for the whole family.

Here are some activities for different age levels, plus snack ideas.

About.com's LDS page has some of the usual ideas--bingo, matching games, that kind of thing.

And LDS.org has activities for getting your kids ready for General Conference, which I think is a really good idea. I also like their Games & Activities page--it's got fun stuff that you can do anytime.

Are you guys getting ready yet? What are some of the best General Conference resources that you've found?

Built of Trials and Testimonies

[photo by More Good Foundation]


"My brothers and sisters, temples are more than stone and mortar. They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are sanctified by sacrifice and service."

-President Thomas S. Monson

Meanwhile, on the Internet...

I spend a lot of time on the internet.

My husband, Isaac, has a life or something. So he misses out on some of the memes and viral videos that go around. And I consider it my duty, as his wife, to educate him on the viral whatnots.

Tonight's lesson was Gangnam Style.



Just trying to do my part to spread edification and enlightenment within my family. And among my blog readers. Because this is totally important stuff to know.

If Ye Have Desires

[photo by More Good Foundation]

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work."

-Doctrine & Covenants 4:3

Happy Friday!: Still Classy

It's Friiiiiiiday! Sorry if I offend anyone, but I just couldn't pass this one up:

via Pinterest

Happy Friday!

The Mysteries of God

[photo credit]


"[A]nd he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full."

-Alma 12:10

Turn, turn, turn.

The leaves here are starting to turn. I'm not amused.

And that leaf? It really was as ginormous as it looks. He's holding it right up against his face. I thought about keeping it, but it wouldn't fit in our tiny car.

In Which The Boy Doesn't Go to Kindergarten

Good news: I'm fi-nal-ly done with that infernal awesome Humanities class.

In theory, that means I'll have more time for blogging.

I'm not going to try to catch up on everything I haven't blogged about for these last six months. That would be silly of me. I figure the important stuff will come up in my normal blogging, anyway.

So here's what I want to blog about today: today would have been The Boy's first day of kindergarten, if we weren't homeschooling him (and by "we," I mean "hardly ever Isaac"). Isaac and I made this decision after a lot of prayer and a lot of research...but mostly prayer. We're very sure that this is what we need to be doing. But that doesn't make it easy.

Here's where my conflicted feelings come in. On the one hand, The Boy loves homeschooling, and I'm having a lot of fun teaching. He's already halfway through his kindergarten work. It's good to know that we're doing what's right for us. And homeschooling has a lot of benefits that we're already seeing. But on the other hand, I could have saved a lot of money, time, and sanity by sending him to a traditional kindergarten. I'm happy that I don't have to deal with adjusting to a new schedule, but I'm sad that he doesn't get to experience a first day of school--new teacher, new classmates, new pencils. (I'm a nerd; I loved the first day of school. Shut up.)

I'll probably be over it by tomorrow. Maybe. Until next year's "first day of school" rolls around. And then I'll just re-post that last paragraph, and nobody will notice. Haha!

Troubles of Every Kind

[image via]

"And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me."

-Alma 36:27

Happy Friday!

Hey! We haven't had a Happy Friday video for a while. This video makes me say, "Wheeeeee!"




Happy Friday!

Proportions.

"Our eternal happiness will be in proportion to the way that we devote ourselves to helping others."

-George Albert Smith

Happy Friday!

How's your Friday? Here's a little giggle for you:

If your Friday's been anything like mine...well, I'm sorry. After getting our turtle treasure, let's just all take a nap, mmkay?

A Mighty Change

Photo credit

"And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts."

Mosiah 5:2

Too silly.

In our family, we say "silly" instead of "stupid." As in, "That was silly of me," or "What a silly TV show," or--my personal favorite--"Why is Facebook so SILLY?!"

Anyway. This summer has been pretty silly. And I mean that in both senses of the word. We've had some really goofy, silly fun this summer; we've also had some really silly, stupid stuff going on. It's just been too silly around here.

So, Silly Summer, here's what we think of you:

And now...I think we'll go to the beach.

Bright

[photo credit]

"Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith."

-Thomas S. Monson

Happy Friday and/or Saturday!

Here's a little poem I wrote.

Okay, I didn't write it. But I do recite it every single day.

Happy weekend!

Happy Friday/Saturday!

I'm posting this late on Friday night, so I guess it's really "Happy Saturday" to most of you. Anyways, here's a little happiness food-for-thought:

Happy Friday and Saturday!

Angels Speak

[image by Kevin Lau]

"Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

-2 Nephi 32:3

Happy Saturday!

It's been a crazy weekend...

...I shall return presently.

Small and Simple

[photo by Kai Schreiber]

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

-Alma 37:6

Happy Friday!

Happy Farty Party Friday!

Lift Up Your Voice

[photo by Tristan Martin]

"Lift up your heart! Lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!"


-"Rejoice, the Lord Is King!," Charles Wesley

Is There a Person in There?

So...just letting you know that there's still a person behind this blog.

Y'all know that my schoolwork and writing jobs are eating up my blogging time. But I thought I'd just pop in and say hi, since all of my posting has been "Happy Friday" this and "Happy Sunday" that lately.

I'm still here.  :)

Fabulous Friday.

Holy crap, you look fabulous. Happy Friday!

Dig Yourself

"It's very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don't dig you."

-Bob Dylan

A Desire to Be Free

"We have implanted in our souls a desire to be free. The Lord understood this when He granted us our mortal probation. With that freedom, however, comes accountability. We are instructed not to idle away our time nor bury our talents and not use them. We are expected to make our lives better through our own initiatives and efforts."


-L. Tom Perry

Behold, I Am Jesus Christ

"Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and daughters."

-Ether 3:14

The Return of Farty Party Friday

Happy Friday, everyone!

A Family Needs a Father

[photo by Rebecca Weaver]

"Satan, in his carefully devised plan to destroy the family, seeks to diminish the role of fathers...A family needs a father to anchor it."

-L. Tom Perry

Life Is to Be Enjoyed

"In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Hands

"Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?"

-Mormon 5:23

Happy Friday!

This is one of the truest things I've ever heard:


"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."


It's been attributed to a lot of people, but Ian Maclaren probably said it. Anyway, whatever your hard battle is today...

[image source]

Happy Friday!

Home Schooling with the Pinterests

[This wouldn't be a true homeschool photo if
he weren't wearing pajamas.]

Just wanted to drop in and let all you home school types know that I've started a few home school boards on Pinterest. I don't have many pins up on them yet, but you should still go follow them. Because you're nice. And pretty.

I Know Thy Heart

"I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers."

-Doctrine and Covenants 112:11

Think-think-think...

[photo by Dano]

I've been thinking.

About this blog. I haven't blogged in two weeks--that's a record, for me. I've been studying and whatnot, which is good, but I really miss blogging.

So I've been considering what I want this blog to be. I changed its focus a few months ago, but I didn't really say anything about it--I just changed the description in the side bar. I wanted this blog to be a place to gather up the little happy, beautiful things that I see around me, because I'm not very good at remembering them once they're gone. I wanted to be able to go back through my posts and see a lot of happiness and beauty. There are two problems with that, though:

1) I don't want anyone to look at my blog and think I have a perfect life. I don't. I have a very fallen life, actually...hence the desire to have one place to collect the happy things. But I don't want anybody to be comparing themselves to my very one-sided blog.

2) Sometimes I have something to say.

I've gone back and forth on this since I've been gone. And I think the only real solution is for this blog to be a combination of happy moments and of...the rest of my life, I guess.

I'm only halfway through my humanities class, so I won't be blogging regularly for awhile yet. I'm going to keep chewing on this, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.

Happy Friday!

Just popping in for a little thought:

You, my friends, are absolutely gorgeous monkeys.

Happy Friday!

The Next Generation

"I believe it is by divine design that the role of motherhood emphasizes the nurturing and teaching of the next generation."

-L. Tom Perry

What Think Ye of Christ?

I know that this is true.

General Conference Is Coming Up!

[Image by Knut, via Wikimedia Commons]

"The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet. The living prophet has the power of 'TNT.' By that I mean 'Today's News Today.' God's revelations to Adam did not instruct Noah how to build the ark. Noah needed his own revelation. Therefore, the most important prophet, so far as you and I are concerned, is the one living in our day and age to whom the Lord is currently revealing His will for us."

-President Ezra Taft Benson

Be Awesome Instead

I've probably posted this before, but I'm seriously thinking about making it my official motto. Because my life needs less sad and WAY more awesome in it. Happy Friday!

[Disclaimer: For the life of me, I can't find the original source for this image.
If you know the original source, please let me know.]

They Say It's Your Birthday!

Today is not Friday. It's Thursday. But I'm posting something silly anyway.

Because besides being Thursday, today is also my brother's birthday! I know, it's like all-birthdays-all-the-time around here lately.

Sooo...in honor of my brother, Thane, turning really really old, here's a funny little song. [Please ignore Ringo. He apparently doesn't like birthdays.]



Happy birthday, brother!

Added Unto You

[Photo by Alvesgaspar]

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

-Matthew 6:33

Happy Friday!

It's my best friend's birthday today! So, in honor of that, here are some adorable birthday-themed coloring pages:

Happy (birthday) Friday!

Fingerprint Shamrocks

...in the dark!

Just kidding--I forgot that I had the flash on when I took this photo. I promise that we were doing this craft in the middle of the afternoon, with the blinds open and everything.

Anyways.

We're on a home school break this week, doing all kinds of Irish-y things. (I stole our schedule from Megan--we school year-round, with a break every few weeks, and I try to make the breaks fall just before a holiday so we have time to do holiday stuff.)

This wee little craft is pretty simple--just make green fingerprints for the shamrock leaves and use a green pen to draw the stems. I made a shamrock with four leaves first, and Little Boy went along with it for a few minutes, but then he informed me that shamrocks have three leaves and he made only three-leaved shamrocks after that. So there.

When We Know Who We Are

[Photo by Eustaquio Santimano]

"When we know who we are and what we are supposed to do, it is easier to make important decisions about education, careers, and marriage. It is easier to shine our light in our families, with our friends, and in all other places."


-Julie B. Beck