YW Manual 2 Lessons 2 and 4 combined

I love making lesson handouts. I love making sure that the girls have something that they can look at and remember.
Let's face it...whatever I say in a lesson will be forgotten, but hopefully the feelings, the testimony, the visual reminders will stay with them.

I know my Laurel leader, Valerie Hauber, made a huge difference in my life as a young woman. In fact, how I teach is very much how she taught me. I am a fan of following good examples, when they do something I admire.
I wish I could find Sister Hauber and tell her how grateful I am.

Reminders

Of why I'm grateful.

For a husband who takes a completely chaotic kitchen and turns it into this.



For learning how to make my first apple pie...even if the apples turned to applesauce.


For forts, scary stories, games, and imaginative play...on a rainy, rainy day.






For tea and honey.


For brief, sunny park days, and skittles before the storm.

Diagnosis

It's official.

The self-diagnosis is:



Seasonal grumpiness, with a dash of monthly grumpiness, and don't piss me off when I am, or am not grumpy, for there will be danger to be had.


A week of rain...storming... bleakness... heaven help me.

Cotton Candy

It's been one of those weeks.

One I'd rather just have Topher put me in the chair and erase. But that would make me a doll and that would be worse.

Sunday I spent all day enjoying a pressure filled migraine. I did notice though, that as I taught my little lesson during Young Women - I didn't feel the pain. I've always noticed that when the Lord needs me to serve, He finds a way to help me do it.

Monday morning brought my poor AGG down with a horrible cold. She was constantly having problems breathing due to a stuffy nose. She was melodramatically annoyed. My husband would say she gets that from me. Unfortunately, I can't find anyone to blame for this personality flaw.

Monday also brought a package from my sister. God bless my sister. She gave the girls their own laundry hampers. And you thought they were just for clothes. They were cocoons, potato sacks for racing and jumping, back packs, cages, houses...I love imaginative kids.


Tuesday my little DD came down with a cold and a fever. Her little body always seems to spike up into a a fever anytime she catches a cold. When a fever strikes... forget sleep. She also tends to milk it for all it's worth. Which is both adorable, intelligent, and unproductive. I get absolutely nothing done when she's sick. But she's so darn cuddly.

Meanwhile... I also have a migraine...and did I forget to mention, Sunday brought evil Aunt Flow. (blah, blah tmi... deal with it)

And... the weather... have I mentioned we've had more than 2 weeks of gloomy, foggy... gloom, doom, GLOOM? There's also been rain, and clouds...and in a rare moment today the sun broke through for a mere moment. It was a moment I tried to grasp and cling to. I miss my sun. I need warmth. This boring grey is driving me crazy!

So I am Grumpy Dwarf... the gift that keeps giving - my poor, poor husband. Men really put up with so much... in my case, he has to put up with me. (queue Godzilla) I am a total grumpasaurous when I am not feeling well, the weather is awful, etc, etc...

Last, but not least... I was supposed to teach my daughter's kindergarten class about Chagall today - we were also going to create these fun, fantasy pictures with pastels. I made cupcakes last night... to go with the lesson. I ended up postponing due to my 3-year-old, portable furnace. So what to do with the double batch of cupcakes? Since cupcakes stay fresh for only three-days - I figured I'd better get them out of my house before I consumed them all. These fluffy, moist applesauce spice cupcakes (minus frosting) are so easy to consume. So the kids all got a treat today.

With sick kids, a miserable excuse for a Mommy, and getting ready for school - I still had my cupcakes to decorate... This morning I didn't have the time, nor the energy to make my cream cheese frosting from scratch. It physically hurt as I spread the pre-packaged cream cheese frosting on the homemade applesauce spice cupcakes... it hurt... but sleep-deprived, migraine, flow woman had already thrown up the white flag in desperation.

I was so glad adding the cotton candy was easy. I loved how whimsical they made the cupcakes. (side note, the cotton candy dissolves quickly...so add them right as you're going to serve, or add a giant glob...because there will be shrinkage - heh) Chagall was imaginative, used bright, bold, fun colors... so I thought little clouds of happy fluff would work well - and today, when I needed it most, they made me happy.

ps. My little DD is currently sitting on my lap as I post this, playing on the iPhone because the motrin kicked in and she is feeling happy herself.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.........

So my hubby took me to see Avatar over the Christmas break. He and I had both mocked all the commercials and the crazy hype. Then his work team went to go see the movie - and he loved the special effects, and the amazing world created in the movie. So he had to take me to see it. I agree the story, dialogue etc... were completely cliché and preachy - but I felt myself melting into this imaginative world.

I will say I wouldn't mind being able to grrrrrooooowwwwwl, with sharpened canines, at annoying, bothersome, terrified of any emotion, small-minded people now and then... or even adults that act like babies... who know nothing. (heh) I kept trying to find a picture of the blue, girl alien growling...but the guy pictured above was the best I could find.

An empathetic heart

Today and Saturday my oldest, Avant Garde Gal will have her dream from a year ago, come true. She'll be on stage. She's been in a performing group since school started. The video below was taken at her second rehearsal night. I happened to get on video my brilliant daughter's empathetic, giving, sensitive heart. This is just who she is. Our family is blessed because of her example.

Below is AGG, singing her "boring" song. Her sister Dauntless Daughter is often found singing to herself as well, this time it happened to be in her own made-up language. I will say, in our family, we like to make up songs, we like to sing conversations to each other. Granted, my hubby and I are not great singers...but we don't give a darn. The girls love it...and I think it helps them with their own creative expressions.

You'll also notice they are sleeping together in the guest bed. They've been doing this again...for months now. They love being together. I think they actually sleep better - once they decide to go to sleep. There's something peaceful knowing you're not alone. Plus, it's sweet catching them cuddling, or in the same sleeping pose when I check in on them at night.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We drummed our way into Twenty-Ten

With Chinese Hot Pot



Chocolate Fondue


Bubbly


Candyland & Ryan Seacrest


and... K-I-S-S-I-N-G


CHEERS!!!