He's spoiled

I didn't even get breakfast in bed for Mother's day. Oh Kathryn had talked about it, but then when Mother's day came around she forgot, or slept in. It's clear to me, that Daddy must be their favorite. Kathryn made him pancakes and scrambled eggs and chocolate milk and brought it to him in bed.

She also came up with a very brilliant idea to make him a scrap book entitled "My Dad is Awesome..." and then each page had a picture of dad being awesome at something.

For example

"My dad is awesome at wrestling"

"My dad is awesome at playing the piano"

"My dad is awesome at being a flower holder"

"My dad is awesome at hiking Mountains"

And it goes on and on. If you want to see it all, you'll have to stop by his work and ask him to see it, it's in his office.

Hanging Gutter Garden

Here is another great idea for small space gardening. I plan on making one of these for my patio to grow some yummy herbs in.

How to Make a Hanging Gutter Garden | aHa! Home and Garden: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

shoe store planter

Here is an interesting idea for small space gardening.

Check it out here.

Sprout a Couch

Doesn't this look like a fun thing to do in your yard. I'm half tempted to try it.

Sprout a Couch: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Cookies for the school bake sale

We had so much fun this afternoon making cookies. I wanted to do something different. My first thought was to make some cool cupcakes like the ones I made for Tansley's Birthday,

but I was out of decorating bags to make the cool icing flower on top. So this was our second choice.

Coloured sugar cookies!! The kids had a blast creating creatures of all kinds and swirling the colours together and then using cookie cutters. I hope they are a hit at the bake sale tomorrow.

Thunder, flyers and prayer

We were just out doing flyers and we are soaked. It has been raining off and on all day with bouts of thunder. After lunch the sky looked less dark and the rain had slowed down to a slight drizzle. So we figured we would head out and see how much we could get done. We have our route divided into two main sections. We do the first part on one day and the second part on the next day.

Here is a map of the first section we do and what we actually got done today. The nice thing about this first section is that the streets are narrow on usually only have one or two houses on them so we can just walk up and down the avenues and get all of the houses. This first section is just under 200 papers and takes us about 90 minutes. We delivered 100 papers today in just under an hour.

View Flyer route part 1 in a larger map

(let me just suggest that if you care to see an accurate map of our real route to click on the map. for some reason when I embed it here everything looks messed up, but it gives you an idea. OK never mind, it's all messed up there too. I don't know what is wrong with google maps, or maybe it's me, but neither of these maps look like the ones I created, and when I go to edit them, they look like what I did create....I've spent far to much time trying to figure it out and can't so we'll all just have to make do with the messed up ones.)

This is a map of the second section. This part is about 150 papers.
This part is a lot less nicely laid out and although it is less papers, it takes us the same amount of time.
View Flyer route part 2 in a larger map

We were just about done the first chunk of section one when the thunder returned and with it came the pouring rain. The thunder was loud. I had Kymberly and James in the chariot trailer keeping nice and dry. I was so proud of how my girls held up. At one crack of thunder Tansley started running, but she didn't freak out. Kymberly kept saying something about "Playing right now" but I couldn't understand what she was saying the rain was so loud pounding off of the chariot. We quickly finished up the first chunk of the first section and headed inside to wait for the rain to stop. Tansley asked Kymberly if she was scared of the thunder, and she said "Nope, because I prayed three times". It was then that I realized that she wasn't saying "can we PLAY right now" she had said "can we PRAY right now". Tansley then said "me too, I prayed before we left."

Here is a little back story. Last summer when we were camping at Eureka Montana we got caught in a big thunder storm. We hunkered down in our tent while it poured and poured and poured. The lightning was so bright because it was so close and the thunder was near deafening at times. The girls were completely freaked out and hysterically crying. Later that night when the rain and thunder had moved on, we were sitting around the campfire and Kathryn was giving us a Family Home Evening lesson from a story she had read in the friend. It was about a little boy who was scared during a lightning storm. His mom taught him that he could pray for Heavenly Father to comfort him. Ever since then Tansley has applied this lesson to her own life. Remembering to pray when she feels scared. She has told me that it really works. I was surprised however that Kymberly would have remembered this lesson...or maybe she didn't but has had similar type lessons in primary. Either way, all on her own she applied it to her own life and it really worked for her too.

I love seeing my children learn and grow. I love to see them making connections and building their own faith. It pleases me so, and brings a smile to my face.

I'm Sorry

I yelled at my oldest daughter this morning. She was acting ridiculous, and I lost my cool. She left for school crying. As I sat and fed James breakfast, I felt terrible. No girl should head off to school crying because her mom yelled at her. They should leave the house with a smile, knowing that mom loves them and will try to solve any problem, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem to mother. I failed this morning. But as I sat at the table I had an idea. Amanda over at I am Baker is always making cookies for every occasion, so I thought that I could make an "I am sorry cookie" and take it up to the school to leave on Kathryn's desk while she is out at recess. Then she'll come back in to school and have a nice fun surprise on her desk. Kymberly and I made sugar cookies and I used up some of the coloured icing I have left over from James' Birthday cake(which I have a lot of in a variety of different colours). And this is what I came up with.

I chose a smiling sunny face for two reasons.
1) I had plenty of yellow and orange icing.
2) It's cloudy and raining today, and we all could use a little more sun in our life....especially my sad little girl. :(

I know this won't make what I did better, or any more right. But I hope that it will brighten her day, and when she gets home I'll give her a nice big hug and tell her I am sorry. And then I will try to be a better mom.