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Modesty

I have been thinking about this topic for a while. My daughter is amazing. She is smart, beautiful, loving and kind. She is also easily influenced by things of the world. She wants a handsome boyfriend, she wants to wear clothes that make her look beautiful, she thinks that make up is what will make her beautiful, and she fears becoming fat one day. Oh! Did I mention that she is FOUR years old? Yeah.... I am sure this is my fault. There is really no one else to blame. I allowed her to watch some of those tween shows -- iCarly, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Good Luck Charlie, A.N.T.S, Wizards of Waverly Place and other shows of the same genre. These are not bad shows but they taught my four year old how to be a tween. 

Then there are the cartoons I grew up with and how they've changed to appeal to the children of today.

Strawberry Shortcake:

My Little Ponies -- 1980s:

My Little Ponies -- Today:

Do we see a constant theme? Skinnier, big and sexy eyes with long eyelashes, the hair... My childhood cartoons have been "sexified" for my daughter!! What?!

Also, I must add --- my son walked in here (6 years old) and was looking at the pictures. He made a grimace and a grossed out sound when I showed him the cartoon characters from my chlidhood. I asked what he thought was wrong with him. He then pointed out that the old Strawberry shortcake has ugly hair and shoes, her socks are funny, and she just looks old. The ponies, he said the old one's eyes were too small, her nose was too big and that he liked the hair on the new ones more. 

I have spent most of the morning reading articles, blogs and research on girls of today vs when I was a child. Then I started thinking about modesty and the way it is taught in the church. My daughter is four so she isn't in Young Women's (12-18 program for girls in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and realized I don't think I want it taught to her that way. In today's world it is harder and harder to find non-sexy clothes. 

One of the articles I read today discussed that it's the clothing that makes a girl "sexy". It's the tease. Give a man just enough and it's a turn on but once all the clothes are gone, it's a body.

So, is the body a beautiful thing given to us in the image of God. A temple that we should respect and care for or is it a sex object for us to get men to gawk over? (or the other way around and get the women to gawk over the men?) There is also a fine line you must travel. When I read this blog post, I realized that by teaching our children to be "modesty police", we are, in a way, teaching them to be judgmental. I have noticed this with my own children. My daughter constantly whispers to me, "her sleeves are not modest" or "her dress is too short." I don't want this for my daughter. I have decided that our next Family Home Evening lesson is going to be on modesty and it will be done in an entirely different way. 

Modesty: the definition according to the Merriam Webster Diction...

mod·es·ty/ˈmädəstē/

Noun:

The quality or state of being unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one's abilities. The quality of being relatively moderate, limited, or small in amount, rate, or level.

I am going to touch on the actual definition of "modesty" and not just the common definition given today. I want my children to learn our bodies are temples and are beautiful but are to be respected. There is nothing shameful about them but out of respect for our own bodies we don't broadcast them for everyone to see. We respect what God has given us. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to do this yet. It will be with a lot of prayer. I feel strongly that my daughter needs to learn this soon though. I worry about her and the choices I fear she will make as she gets older. Obviously my son needs this lesson too after witnessing his reaction to the 80s cartoon characters vs today's. I want my children to dress modestly but not because they think their bodies are dirty and will arouse inappropriate feelings in others but because they respect the precious gift that God has given them. 

What a week!!

Poor Paul got home this week from California and I am so glad this wasn't the week he was gone.
First off... Ryanne was sick so I took her to the doctor and she's now on meds. It's one of those feminine illnesses so I don't want to go into too much detail online but let's say... not pleasant.

Wednesday night, Paul got an urge for a glass of water at midnight. As he was walking by the sleeping Collin, Collin started vomiting. So Paul rushed to Collin to help him sit up and get to the bathroom while calling my name for help. There are a couple things you should know. Collin is a projectile vomiter and I am a heavy sleeper. Neither of these ended well for Paul. He ended up slipping and falling into the vomit. Sometime around this time he yelled for me really loud. I jumped up and ran into the living room with no idea what I'd find. In the few steps I took I envisioned robbers/murderers invading our home. I don't know what I thought I would do to help but I was going. I saw both my boys covered in vomit while one was still coughing and hacking and projectile vomiting down the hall on the way to the bathroom. I worked on helping Collin to the toilet and as soon as there was a reprieve, I got him into the shower when I realized he was still half asleep. He sleep walks so I'm not sure how much of this whole experience he was awake for. He was hopping out of the shower like he didn't know what it was. I finally got him talking to me like a normal person and he got in. Once he was taken care of and cleaning the vomit off his body I went out to help Paul clean the bedding, floors, walls, and furniture of the house. Oh, did I mention that Ryanne slept through this entire thing? Yeah, she's a heavier sleeper than I am. :) After that episode Collin was fine. He was hungry so he ate but no more problems. I have no idea what happened to him.

Now, fast forward to today.... Friday. It started as a typical Friday morning. Paul was home from work, I was studying for my enormous exam that I had today (I passed) and Collin came in here telling me about the ways he was going to save up to buy Ryanne a Christmas present. So sweet. Then, he was heading back to the living room and as he passed the piano and dining room table he decided to do this swinging thing that all kids do. Admit it, you have done it too. Where you put one hand on both objects, life yourself a couple inches off the ground and swing your legs back and forth. Well, his legs went backwards too far, his hands slipped and his face smashed into the floor. I ran to him and saw only blood gushing from his face. I got him to the bathroom to try and slow down the bleeding. Then, I realized one of his front teeth was gone and the other was crooked. As I stared, I realized his gums were already turning purple. I called the dentist immediately (I was a panicked mom, okay. :) Here's a picture.....

The dentist thinks it's okay. He was so swollen she didn't want to x-ray him so in 2 weeks we are supposed to go back so they can make sure everything else is okay. She did look at his x-rays from February and thinks his permanent teeth were far enough up in his gums that they hopefully sustained no damage. Poor Collin though. He is on Tylenol and ice packs for a while. He can eat soup and applesauce and cannot use a straw. :/

At least I can say.... this week has been anything but boring!! :) 

Lemon Honey Tea

Anytime anyone in the family is sick I make them honey lemon tea. I was introduced to sucking on a lemon when in college. I had a voice recital coming up and a cold so I sucked on a lemon. Honey isn't very good if you're about to sing b/c it coats the throat but if no sign of singing in the near future then honey is good too. So, I boil water, add lemon juice and a glob of honey. Yum! So, I was very intrigued when I read an article about a woman who had a Korean neighbor with something like this in her cabinet...

Apparently it's a common thing there. So, I had to make one. You just plop lemons and honey in the jar whenever you feel like it. The honey acts as a natural preservative and the lemons sort of dissolve into the honey. No real recipe... just a genious and fairly obvious idea that I hadn't thought of. Now, I just need to let it sit a while so I can have some lemon honey tea. Yay!

Breakfast...

This was really yummy!!

Sundays are always crazy because we're all getting ready and at different stages of the getting ready process. So, this morning I tried something new. We all got together and blessed the food but I had food that the kids could serve themselves. I had a plate of buttered toast. Yumm.... and a bowl of fruit salad. Here's how I made the fruit salad.....
You can probably use whatever fruit you have on hand but I used blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and kiwi. Then I added 3 drops of Wild Orange Essential Oil (you have to use caution because not all essential oils are okay to eat so it has to be a certain type). Then I put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. I pulled it out and mixed it up. The oil and all the fruit juices had mixed together to make a wonderful dressing on the fruit. It was so yummy. The kids were able to just scoop the fruit on their places and grab a piece of toast. There is also a water dispenser in the fridge so they got their own water. It worked out so well. Loved it! I may have to do this more often!! :)

New Callings.....

Paul has been serving as a Young Men's advisor (assisting with the 12-17 year old boys in the church) and has been the Scoutmaster Assistant. Well, a couple of weeks ago he was asked to serve as the Second Counselor in the Young Men's Presidency and is also now the Scout Master. Congrats Paul!!

As for me...I have been serving in primary (18 mo - 11 year old children) since 2008. For a little background, I served as second counselor in 2008 then in 2009 I was asked to be the president. The end of 2011 I was released but asked to be a primary worker and was the pianist for a couple of months and then in January of 2012 they moved me to Sunbeams (3-4 year olds). Today, I was asked to be the second counselor again to the same president who asked me to be the second counselor in 2008. haha! I think I'm stuck in a loop and starting over again. haha! That's okay though. I LOVE primary and love all the kids. I am super excited to serve a larger group of them again but will miss being able to spend so much special time with all of my little Sunbeams. They have been so much fun to work with and play with!! :)

So, now you know what the Smiths are up to at Church... ack! We are both second counselors. :/

Random mobile pics

Giant mushroom we found....

Ryanne and I had a girly afternoon. We had rootbeer floats and painted our nails. Of course, we had to go and buy nail polish first b/c I didn't have any. ;) We did french manicures to mine and Ryanne's were sparkles.

With white toenails. Unfortunately, she touched her toe before it was dry and then wiped it off on her foot. LOL! So, she had a little white spot on her foot when this picture was taken. ;)

Then she and I went outside and played tag then hide and go seek and then baby. Then we went on a walk with our cat, Baker. When we got home we realized we had locked ourselves out of the house so we had to wait for Paul to get home to let us in. hehe... oops!

Climbing in the tree after church.

Aiken's Makin. I gave each of the kids $10. I don't know if you can see it but they both have rock candy in their hands, there is cotton candy hanging from my purse. They also both bought wooden tops and Collin bought a geode rock. I think it's amethyst crystals growing inside of it. He loves rocks (it's a science so, of course he would, right? ;) and learning new things about them so now he knows how those are formed too. ;)

Beading jewelry with Mi-Mi/

 I decided to try Hilary Weeks' challenge. She heard that the average person has 300 negative thoughts a day. So, she decided to test it. She got a clicker and clicked for all her negative thoughts. By the end of the week she felt miserable so then she decided to click for all her positive thoughts. She said it was amazing the different focusing on the positive thoughts. So... I started it this past week.

After two days, this is what my clicker showed. I don't think that is possible though. I asked my family if anyone messed with it and they all said no but, I did the math, I would have to hit the clicker once a minute for 19 hrs straight to get this number. I did hit the clicker a lot but I don't think it was that often. I dunno though... it could have been. I still think someone messed with it but it's a cool think anyways. If you want more details then go to billionclicks.org. I love it b/c anytime something frustrating happened I found myself flipping that negative thought into a positive. I seem to be more empathetic and understanding as well. Awesome!

You've all been wondering... maybe not....

I know you've all been wondering how our first couple weeks of school have been! :) Today, we completed week 3 of first grade and week 1 of 4-K. So exciting!! Here are some pics. :)

 Art class! He is texturing his bunny with a fork.hehe! He was learning about texture in art this day. :)

 First day of first grade photo.

 History class.... he was reviewing geography from kindergarten and placing the proper animals on the proper continents.

 He is keeping a record book this year. It's awesome! I love it b/c it gives Collin a chance to choose his favorite part of the lesson and draw a picture or write about it. It gives us an opportunity to review history each lesson too. :)

 He is learning how to add two digit numbers and carrying the one and all. Awesome! These are some of the manipulatives he uses for math.

 This year, SCVCS now gives a Reading Eggs membership to students. Woot! Collin is so excited about this.

 Somedays, he does school in his shades. ;)

 Phonics outside. Each of those tables is a bunch of words, some are random and others are words with double letter endings. He had to toss a penny at the table and if it landed on the double letter ending we were working on in that particular table then he had to read the word. If he could, then he got a point. ;) Yay!! He had to get 5 points at a table before he could move on. We did -zz, -ll, ss, and -ff. :)

 Some days are a little more stressful than others.

 Scientific Method -- Question: Will a popsicle melt slower in the shade than in the sun?
Hypothesis: Yes, a popsicle will melt slower in the shade.
Procedure: 1 pop in the sun and 1 in the shade and Collin is documenting his observations every 10 minutes until 1 has melted.

 Frozen pop...

 Melted pop... Conclusion: Collin's hypothesis was correct. The one in the shade melted slower than the one in the sun.

 Collin checking the popsicles.

Ryanne's 4-K picture!! Isn't she too cute? She is going 3 days/week and goes from 9-11 so it's a very short day but she's having fun and it makes me feel less guilty that she is getting ignored while Collin and I do school. Next year, she'll be doing school too w/ SCVCS too so it won't be so bad. We'll just be doing school all day! :)

Fast and Testimony Meeting

Today is Fast Sunday which means it was one of my favorite meetings... Fast and Testimony Meeting. For those of you not LDS, this is a day when latter-day saints stand up in front of the entire congregation and declare what they know to be true about the gospel. Most of the time there are incredible things said and the spirit is amazingly strong. Sometimes someone will get up and the spirit is gone and it is just awkward but those moments of spiritual highs are completely worth it. The thing is, today, I wanted to get up so badly but getting up in front of all those people absolutely terrifies me. I decided to just blog about what I was going to say.

Let me just start off by saying that I am so behind on journal-ling so there hasn't been much posted here. I am sorry. I am working on catching up. That is why I was reviewing Judges 6. This is the chapter where we are first introduced to Gideon, one of the judges of Israel. I'll talk more about him later but the Israelites were captives again. This time is was by the Midianites. The Israelites were help captive by them for seven years. Finally, when everything else had failed they prayed to the Lord. I wonder what would have happened if they had turned to the Lord first. My immediate thought was, "Duh!" But, then I started thinking about my life. When I'm driving around lost and I cannot figure out where someplace is... I just keep driving thinking, "Oh, it'll be at the next place." Or, if I've lost my keys I just keep searching, sure that I will be able to find them on my own. Or, with parenting. So many times I think, "I can handle this temper tantrum. It is my job. I am the mom." But, then I was thinking about how much easier my life would be if I would just immediately turn to the Lord in prayer. How much better would my parenting be if I turned to the Lord before I had a heart to heart with my child about a choice he or she made? How much easier would everything be if we all just turned to the Lord first and let him help to guide our lives.

I am so grateful for the scriptures and all the things that I learn from them daily. I am also thankful for the power of prayer so that I have the ability to ask my Heavenly Father for help. All I have to do is humble myself enough to remember that I cannot do this on my own and we were given prayer to communicate with our Father in Heaven. What a wonderful blessing. The scriptures are true and the power of prayer is real!