I can call on the Power of God

This morning Roderic got to go to the dentist to have two teeth filled. We found out yesterday at his semi-annual dental cleaning that he has 4 cavities.  All on his left side, two upper and two lower. Two permament and two baby.

As I was telling him what to expect as we were driving to the appointment, I could tell he was starting to get nervous. The great unknown of having your mouth made numb and all. When we parked, I asked him if he'd like to say a prayer before going into the dentist office. He said yes. I asked if he would say it or if he'd like me to pray. He designated me. And so I prayed. Asking for the Comforter to be with Roderic throughout the procedure and in the lingering numbness afterwards. Asking for the Spirit to guide the dentist's hands. What a rush of the Spirit of God was felt in our minivan. It was amazing.

What's in Nutella

We are a reading family. Books, Comics, Billboards, Signs, Food Packaging.  So it should come as no surprise that Leo would come up to me and say, "Mom, do you know what's in Nutella?"  I like to engage my children in a conversation, so instead of being a know-it-all, I replied, "No, what?"  Without missing a beat he says, "Coconuts, flowers and bushes. Crazy huh? But it still tastes good!"

Well, if you read the picture on the Nutella packaging with some awesome 4-year-old eyes, it sure does look like Nutella is made with coconut, flower and bushes.  Yum!

As I'm writing this post and Leo sees the picture, he asks, "Why is it called Newtella, cause that {container} isn't new it is old!"

 And yes, today for lunch he had a Nutella and Grape Jelly sandwich.  So did Hyrum. They said it was the best ever.

Finding my groove...

I have had a feeling for quite some time that as a mother of 3 boys, I would have the opportunity to be a Cub Scout Leader.  I was asked to serve as the Wolf Den Leader in July 2013 - about 6 weeks after Roderic graduated from the Wolf Den.  Hyrum will join the Wolf Den in October and he REALLY wants me to still be the leader.  Let's just say that if I had my way, I'd be den leader until Leo is done with Cub Scouts. I love working with 8-year-old boys! 

One of the first things I worked on as a new den leader was my uniform.

I made the pattern from Caitlin's vintage Den Mother Dress.  It took a few months and finally I had the push to get it finished in time for "A Century of Honor" the broadcast celebrating 100 Years of Scouting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Our stake watched the broadcast together on November 6, 2013.  So my uniform is home made, but I feel justified in that because the one I copied is also home made.  It makes sense because in the 1950s off the rack dresses were out of the budget of many.  I found the vintage hat and 'den mother' badge on ebay. I do also have a yellow uniform shirt that I wear with pants when we're doing an activity that isn't comfortable in a dress, like picking up litter in the neighborhood.

In January, I got really excited to build a pinewood derby car to race against my 7 wolves.  Ryan worked hard with Roderic to design and build his car.  Ryan also worked with Hyrum, who was able to be in the "Open Class" of racers.  My car lost every race against the wolves, however it did finish the race ahead of CubMaster Midgley's Model T.

 

Soon after the Pinewood Derby, I was asked to serve as the Pack Committee Chair while still being a den leader.  That added a new layer of scouting for me and requires some leadership and communication skills that I'm still working on acquiring.  The thing that has tried my patience the most though was when my assistant den leader was released and it took a couple of months for a new one to be called.  The moms of the wolf scouts did a great job of coming and assisting each week, but it was quite stressful to have to come up with ideas, plan and execute a den meeting each week.

 

On occasion I have brought the 3 younger kids with me to scouts, but usually Sabrina is able to stay home with Hyrum, Leo and Beatrix for the 90 minutes on Thursday afternoons.

 

Now we're gearing up towards Day Camp and then a summer full of  Cub Scout Adventures!

What would you do?

What would you do if when you tried to do your homework right afterschool you discovered that you left your booklet at school?  Would you ask your mom to call your classmate who lives next door?  What if she isn't home and your mom leaves a message and then the friend calls you back close to bedtime?  Would you run next door and borrow the book by yourself?  Would you barely enter the house, lay down on the floor in the entryway and read the assignment, finishing in less that 2 minutes?

If you said yes to these questions, then you must be Hyrum!

Our Parade of Nations

One thing we've done during the Olympics since 2002 (thank to Grandma Gibby for buying us Betty Crocker Olympic sugar cookie mix complete with flag cookie cutters) is make flag shaped cookies and frost them to be flags of countries competing in the Olympics.

This year, I made the rule that if they wanted to eat 1 cookie, they needed to decorate 5.  Otherwise they wouldn't help.  That is, until we got going, then they were sad when we ran out of cookies.

We had fun asking "OK Google Now" to show us images of the flags of the different countries.

Roderic designed Great Britain, Japan, Israel, Italy, and Latvia.

Hyrum designed Russia, Argentina, Venezuela, Switzerland, Spain, China, and Norway.

Leo (with Mom's help) designed Ukraine, Armenia, Brazil, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Jamaica, Sweden

Sabrina designed USA, Greece, Mexico, Canada, Poland, France, Denmark

 We let Ryan eat the Russian flag.

Uncle Conan

My boys have named a new "Favorite Uncle".  They have lots to choose from and it changes from time to time.  This time it goes to my brother Conan.  You see, he drives a big rig and stopped in Boise and had a short visit with us.  During that time he let them climb into his cab, see his bunk beds, and pick up and KEEP all of the loose change on the floor.  He also took us to eat at their favorite restaurant, Fiesta Guadalajara, went to Pack Meeting and played Wii.

3 months

I plan to share the normal things of today because I realize in a couple of years what I'm doing today won't be the normal anymore and I will forget.

Beatrix is now 3 months old and about 11 lbs.  I don't have anything more accurate because the bathroom scale needs batteries.

# of times I drove to the elementary school today: 3 (bringing Hyrum & Rachel home from Reading with First Grade, taking Hyrum to Kindergarten, bringing my 2 boys and the neighbor's 3 girls home after school)

# of laundry loads washed & dried:1 (Leo's; it has yet to be put away)

What we ate for dinner tonight: Chicken and Rice casserole, steamed Brussels sprouts, baby carrots straight from the bag, and homegrown grape juice

# of diapers changed: 4 (two were poopy - one of those a blowout)

I didn't  keep track of the hours sitting nursing Bea.

I made 8 tissue-paper pom-poms for tomorrow night's Relief Society dinner.  I have 36 more to make.  It seems like a million.

I read the beginning of Chapter 5 in the Lorenzo Snow Teachings of the Presidents book.  This opening paragraph just makes so much sense to me.  It is logical.  And I have had a witness that it is true.

We were born in the image of God our Father; he begat us like unto himself. There is the nature of deity in the composition of our spiritual organization; in our spiritual birth our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which he himself possessed, as much so as the child on its mother’s bosom possesses, although in an undeveloped state, the faculties, powers and susceptibilities of its parent.

I completed 2 levels of Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire.  It took me many tries to accomplish this.

I took Hyrum to the dentist (after reading but before kindergarten) to get his teeth cleaned.  He has no cavities!  The dentist and hygienist both told him that he should brush his teeth twice a day and for longer than 30 seconds.

I didn't get an email from my brother Carson (serving a mission in Armenia).  Most likely because I didn't send him an email last night.

I encouraged Roderic to practice his violin.  He played a 2-octave G Major scale and Allegretto.

I practiced "Time After Time" for about 10 minutes using the interpretation from our coaching session yesterday.  And I learned that Spontuneous Quartet will perform 12th out of 26 and Syringa Sound Chorus will perform 8th out of 19 at contest.  I'm pretty excited about that!