SEED 2012

Every October the local university has an education day for elementary school kids that is completely FREE :) I love free educational opportunities!!! :)

Glass blowing

Petting a baby gator

Wild birds

There were many other things that we saw. Ryanne even went to her first planetarium show. It was quite exciting! We made slime, Collin got a bunch of different rocks, and they made paper. I had a hard time taking a lot of pics b/c it was just the kids and me w/ hundreds of ppl and I was afraid of losing them.... so.... yeah, not many pics but fun times!! :)

Funniest response ever!!!

Okay... so Paul showed me this first and as soon as I saw it, I knew that I needed to share it.

Bodyform is a company for feminine hygiene products (pads for periods). A man named Richard Neill posted this on their facebook page:
"Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn't I get to enjoy this time of joy and 'blue water' and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger"

So, they responded with this spoof video... HILARIOUS!!! :)

Daughters of Zelophehad

Artwork by Elspeth Young.

Scriptures to read: Numbers 26:33, 27:1-11, 36:1-13, Joshua 17:3-6, and 1 Chronicles 7:15.

Genealogy
Joseph, who was sold into Egypt
                      |
              Manasseh
                      |
                 Machir
                      |
                 Gilead
                      |
                Hepher
                      |
               Zelphehad
                      |
Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, Tirzah (5 daughters of Zelephehad)


What did these 5 young girls do? They went to Moses to appeal the inheritance policy. Zelophehad only had daughters, no sons and just because they were girls they could not own property. They were fatherless. So, five little girls went before Moses to appeal this law.
This was not a selfish thing to do. They did not desire wealth or economic status but wanted the inheritance in their father's name so the family line would not become extinct.
"Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son?" Numbers 27:4

The law was revised:
           Order of the Right to Inheritance (Numbers 27:8-11)
               1. Son or sons
               2. If no son, then daughter(s)
               3. If no daughter, then a brother
               4. If no brother, then an uncle
               5. If no uncle, then the next closes male relative.
*Restriction: The daughters inheriting property were required to marry within the same tribe their father had been affiliated.



In the Gospel, we are taught to stand up for righteous desires but many times we fear doing that. How often do we back out of a missionary discussion because we are afraid? I am guilty of this. What would we be like if we had the courage of these little girls and stood before our governments and leaders and asked for what we feel is right? Or... we took the courage of these girls and gave out a Book of Mormon? They were very courageous at an amazingly difficult time in their lives and quite the example to me. Maybe one day I'll have the courage of these five little girls.

My little dancer

Tonight Ryanne went to her first dance class! She will be taking a ballet/tap combo class. It's once a week for 45 minutes. I have learned that I am a bit picky about the places my kids go. Collin's TaeKwonDo place has spoiled us. They are so friendly there and just have fun with the kids while teaching them. I took Ryanne to gymnastics a few weeks back and it was certainly not like that. No one spoke to me before or after and completely ignored me. They didn't even ask me if they could take our money at the end of class. So, I was nervous of what I'd find at the dance studio today. I was pleasantly surprised. My GPS took us to the wrong place and I called, the lady who answered the phone was so nice. Then I got there and her teacher spoke to us, the office lady talked to me about things while Ryanne was in there and afterwards her teacher talked to me about how she did (awesome!) And helped to fit her for shoes. They let us buy used clothing and shoes (except the tights) from them. The tap shoes that fit her need some shoe glue so they just gave them to us. Yeah! Awesome!

On top of how awesome the owner and staff were, Ryanne absolutely loved it!! She and the students performed their tap routine at the end for all the parents. She was smiling the whole time. Her teacher said she never stopped smiling through the entire class and caught on to everything really fast and obeyed. Haha! Her grin just made me so excited for her.

101 Uses for Lavender, Lemon, and Peppermint

Okay, I am putting this here for my benefit b/c I find this really handy to have handy and my blog is fairly handy. :) It came from here.

LEMON

Home Use

1. A Cure for Laundry Neglect. Lemon essential oil takes out ALL odor when you forget and leave your load of laundry in the washer way too long!

2. Tame Oozy, Sappy Trees. Whether the sap is on your carpet, clothes or seeped into your skin, lemon oil is excellent for removing pine gum and tree sap.

Almost time....

Yay!! I can't wait!! :)

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.