Finally ... a video!

Yay!  I finally figured out the following things: 1) How to download from Evan's camera to the computer 2) How to edit the movies on the computer 3) How to upload the edited movie to the blog!

I tried to make it short, while still allowing you to catch some of Joel's highlights.  Hope that you enjoyed!

Spring has sprung!

Have you enjoyed your first few days of spring?  We have!  We decided to spend our first Saturday of spring and a beautiful day out on a hiking trail.  We drove about 30 minutes east to hike up the Twin Falls hiking trail.  I am pleased to report that the boys had a great time!  We have had a rough couple of days with them, and had a rough morning, so I wasn't sure how this was going to work out.  They had so much fun on the trail, that Steve had to keep reminding them to slow down so they wouldn't tire out. 

I love how they are all holding hands in this pic.

 

After hiking, we went to an outlet mall, but the boys managed to get really tired there.  Of course, the drive home re-energized them, and they are bouncing all around the house now.  I think that they have spring fever!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What a rollercoaster of a day!  I had all of these plans to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but the boys' emotional ups and downs kept me guessing as to whether we would be able to get it all done.  (BTW, all of the things I did were from ideas got from other blogs and from pinterest.)

The boys started the day with a breakfast of Lucky Charms.  I don't think that they have ever had these before and apparently they really like them.  They snacked on them all day long and most of the box is gone now.


For lunch we had rainbow fruit kabobs and quesadillas.  The blog I got these from had cuter quesadillas, but we enjoyed these just fine.

In the afternoon we watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  Steve and Evan saw it for the first time.  Joel had a hard time not telling them what was going to happen.  If you get a chance to watch the DVD, I recommend watching the bonus features.  It was so neat to see how they accomplished the special effects.  Such craftsmanship!

As we began the movie, we enjoyed a shamrock float (lime sherbet and lemon-lime soda).

A few minutes later, we snacked on sweet and sour frozen grapes.  Everyone seemed to enjoy those.

Dinner was Irish stew served over colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage and kale).  Well, the boys ate theirs separately, but at least they ate it.  I am pretty sure that was only so that they could get dessert.

Leprechaun surprise!  Eat the (pistachio) pudding to find the leprechaun's treasure.  I was so tired and hungry that I forgot to take pictures of the treasure.  Steve and I found gold-covered rolos, while the boys found gold-wrapped chocolate coins.  I got the coins from the chocolate factory we visited several weeks ago and have been hiding them ever since.  The boys didn't like the pudding as much, but they did like the chocolate!

So, we made it through the day!  The boys are resting well and it's about time for me to do the same.  Good night!

The Kinder Star of Stage

Joel's first school program was last night, and it was so cute!  The kindergarten and 1st grade students performed "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears". 

 Here is my precious little bear.

It was fun to watch him interacting with other kids in his class before the program started.  It confirmed how well he has adapted to being here.  He had come out of his shell so much in the last year or so in Texas, and I was concerned that the move would be hard for him.  So far he seems quite happy.  He has made lots of friends, even being in school for half a day while most of the kids in his class are there all day.

Here is my precious ham. 

(He also had them turned around to the front while upside down and they looked like blinders.  I couldn't get a pic of that, though.)

We got some video of him, too, but I haven't figured out how to download it from Evan's camera to the computer yet.  Hopefully I can figure that out soon and update the post.

Lots of parties!

I like planning parties and this past week gave me two great opportunities to do that!  First we had Leap Day on Wednesday.  I already blogged about it, so let's move on to Friday's celebration - Dr. Seuss's birthday!

This one was more last minute, but I also already had most of the stuff I needed, so I decided to go for it.  We started off normally enough, but for lunch we had green eggs and ham.  That was supplemented with one fish, two fish, red fish (but no blue fish because they were colored naturally).  Dessert was the cat in the hat's hat.  Oh, and the beverage was pink ink - like the Yinks drink.  Evan had the same lunch with a note explaining it all.  He is normally blase about his lunches from home, but he really liked this one.  It made it all worth it!

For our after school snack, we had more fish, but this time they were in a jello sea with whipped topping waves.

Joel asked if the fish were salmon.  They do kind of look like it, huh ...

After that, we read some Dr. Seuss books.   Actually, I had Evan read There's a Wocket in My Pocket on the way to school that morning.  Then after snack I had Joel start reading Great Day for Up!  I finished it, and then read Oh, The Places You'll Go!

For dinner I had already planned on making a spinach and pesto lasagna.  I knew this would not sound good to the boys, so in honor of the day I decided to rename it "Grinchy Lasagna".  Evan ate it right up, but Joel wanted to know what was in it.  I wouldn't tell him, so he wouldn't eat it.  If I had told him, he wouldn't have eaten it either.  He did get a couple of bites down.  He will not be happy when we have leftovers. 

So, as far as I know the next holiday we get to celebrate is St. Patrick's Day.  Plans are under way.  Joel will also be working on a leprechaun trap for his classroom at school, so "stay tuned" for more exciting updates on that adventure. 

Evan will begin work on his science fair project (hopefully) soon.  I am trying to talk Joel into doing a project, too, but he only wants to do the leprechaun trap.  That is what I foresee in our immediate future, but I am sure more stuff will pop up!

Lots of thoughts

So, my last blog post was vague on purpose.  It was a journaling of sorts of the process of coming to terms with my own wrong-doing. 

Let's back up a little.  I tend to be a people-pleaser, and I want for people to like me.  I really don't like to be judged and found "wanting".  As a result of this, I tend to be "well-behaved".  As a result of that, I don't like to admit when I have done something wrong - even to myself.  I see this in my children (especially one of them), too, and I will admit that it drives me crazy!  He is never wrong.  If he says something wrong it is because you misunderstood him, or he misunderstood you.  If he misunderstood you, it's your fault for not being clear enough.  I could go on, but it just frustrates me to even write about it.  It is not fun to be around him when he gets like that.  I am sure that I was like that at some points as a child, too.  I hope that I have been civilized enough that I am not that annoying now.  I am trying to civilize him to reach the point of not being that annoying.  We have told him over and over that people make mistakes, and it is okay.  You just apologize, try to make it right, and go on.  I am usually okay at doing this myself, but not always.

The other day, I was facing that same struggle myself.  What I did wasn't that big of a deal.  As I said, nobody got hurt or was in danger of getting hurt.  I couldn't have gone to jail or anything like that.  And the point of the story isn't about what I did, it was about the struggle of my heart.  And I realized today that there is still a struggle going on in my heart over this little episode, only it is different from what I first thought.  Today I think that my real struggle is over the motive of my heart.  Am I worried about what people think of me, or am I worried about what people think of my God?  I want to be a good witness for Him, and I know that I fall short way too often.  When I do, am I grieved over how my actions reflect on Him, or what people will think of me?  I know what my heart and my attitude should be, and I am praying to be conformed to that every day. 

This blog has been serving a sort of 2-fold purpose for me.  I get to update extended family and friends on what is going on with us.  But I also get to be real and share my personal struggles and joys.  I have decided that I am going to split these purposes into two blogs from now on.  I will start the new blog with my previous post and this one.  But from now on this blog will be more about family activities, and less my personal journey.  If you are interested in reading the personal journal stuff, you can go to this blog. 

Confession and forgiveness

I did it, and I am not proud of it.  I did something I knew I shouldn't do, even if I had a  "good reason" for it and knew that it wouldn't hurt anyone else.  But others saw me, and I got caught.  Then I got mad at the person who caught me.  I tried to justify what I had done.  I struggled for a few moments.  And finally admitted to myself that I was wrong.  It was hard.  Now I am just embarrassed.  I can't really take away the impression that I made with the person who caught me and others who may have seen.  I can ask God for forgiveness - for what I did and for my attitude.  I can evaluate my bad decisions from earlier in the day that led me to justify this bad decision.  I can ask for strength to do better in the future.  And I can work on forgiving myself.