Drawing for Stake Conference

In the book "Hidden Art of Homemaking," by Edith Schafer she has a chapter on drawing. Her husband was a preacher and as he preached on Sundays she would draw pictures of the sermon for her children, so that her children could understand. I draw a wonderful stick figure and have been thinking about doing this for awhile with my children. This Sunday was Stake conference, and as their was no classes for the children I decided to leave the younger two at home with Kevin, who is not active in the church and doesn't go to conferences. This was a perfect time to try drawing the sermons. The first man spoke of Nephi who was praying for his people on the wall, so I drew him standing there and the people around him pushing each other. I went on to draw the rest of the story and then at the end I drew a boy and girl with the question "what will Kamron and Aubrey be asked of God to do?"

The next talk was about how important it is for the mother to guard her home and that we should have families. I drew a mom with a big shield and several children behind her. I then asked what she needed to defend the home and children from and in a whisper the children told me while I drew the following; robbers, drugs, bad words, bad TV, bad music, people who don't like families, and people who might hurt them. I then talked to Aubrey about how she would have this job when she grew up and she swelled with pride.

I continued to draw what the rest of the speakers spoke about and one thing that suprised me is how much I got out of those talks. I geuss drawing is not just for teaching the kids.

Grocery Shopping

Shopping has become more difficult for me as walking for over an hour usually exhausts me. I must admit that this pregnancy, though not particularly difficult does make me feel a lot older all of a sudden. I try not to take the kids shopping with me and have really been limiting how often I go to the store. Anyway, yesterday Kevin didn't have any jobs until 11 a.m. so in the morning I took Logan, 21 months, with me to do the shopping, as Kevin had things to do. I had the most fun shopping! Logan wanted to sit in the back of the cart and as we went along he would say to everyone hi and then bye. Then he started pointing everything out, the lights the colors, everything. Then he started counting spanish-I didn't even know he could, but he can count to sies, quite well and did so over and over. As the cart started to fill up I moved him to the front seat, and he wanted to sing, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I have a horrible singing voice and can't stay on tune even on that one, but I figured there were plenty of people who walked around WalMart looking like they were talking to themselves (they have funny things in their ears though=)) that I figured noone would mind if I sang so I began, but Logan stopped me saying, "No, do this," with his little fingers starting the hand motions. I kissed him and said he would have to do the hand motions, because I had to push the cart. He seemed okay with that, but really wanted the hand motions for "Itsy, Bitsy Spider," so I had to stop a minute for that one. I tell you that little boy just made my day. I think he made a few other people's day too.

Logan

I just love being a mother and watching all of the personalities of these little ones unfold. Logan, who is 22 months, is so fun to watch lately. It is as if he is realizing that these people around him are his very own family and he just can't stop being excited about it. He'll just be sitting there and he'll begin reciting everyone's names, "Aubrey, Logan, Brennen, Kamron, Mommy, Daddy." Then he'll smile. When he wakes up in the morning, he is usually one of the first of the kids and when he first sees the others he'll go, "Aahhh, Kamron," or whoever he sees and then he wants a hug and will often repeat the, "aahhh." This sure emakes everyone start their day off feeling loved and connected.