Joy School

Hyrum is enrolled in our neighborhood Joy School. There are 5 other kids in the group, so I get to teach every 6 weeks. Last week was my turn and the lesson topic was The Joy of Spontaneous Delight. It was so much fun to teach! We blew bubbles in a cup with straws. We acted out "Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business" by Esphyr Slobodkina. We watched popcorn be popped without the lid on the hot air popper. We shook hands with a doorknob. We played with balloons. We learned the finger plays "Grandma's Glasses" and "5 Little Monkeys". We sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" with actions that each of the kids chose - bite your sleeve, jump up and down, run around the room, clap your hands.



I'm glad I am doing this with Hyrum. It is good for me to be a formal teacher for him. And it is helping me to see joy all around.

Simple Joys

Last Sunday, our lesson in Relief Society was on joy. Our teacher gave us all a small stone. She asked us to put it up against one eye and shut the other. Then, she asked us what we saw. I had a little peripheral vision, so I could see a few people next to me, but other than that, there was a giant unsurmountable black object blocking my view. She likened the rock to trials that we encounter in life. When we're in the think of one, that is all we are able to focus on, yet on the periphery, there are others who can help us get through or put things in perspective. Then she had us hold hte rock several inches from our eye and look. We now held our trial in its proper perspective, and it was no longer giant, insurmountable or blocking my view.

Others can help us, but also we can help ourselves by remembering things that bring us simple joys. Here are some of mine:

• The smell of someone peeling an orange
• Christmas lights
• Watching a fire burn
• Reading a good book
• The distant sound of children playing
• Hot chocolate with a melted candy cane
• Funny things Roderic says (have you read his recent additions in the side bar?)
  
• Good music
• A well written blog entry