What Else Can One Do?

This past week has been frigged COLD! Our high on Tuesday was 1 degree! So this week I pulled out my scrapbook supplies and began working. I put in Pride & Prejudice and have enjoyed staying in where it is warm.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

I thought I was until this year. With three girls in fifth grade I have had a double, triple dose of the fifth grade curriculum. I glanced over at the end table in my bedroom, where I was attempting to blog and saw a copy of the kids science packet, How Is Energy Passed Through an Ecosystem? I am a mom who doesn't mind helping my kids with their homework, but after an hour I want to be done. I want my kids to well educated. I want them to know the things they are suppose to know in the grades that they are suppose to know them, but do I really have to learn about energy and the ecosystem again? I was once in fifth grade (28 years ago) . Where I am sure I learned about the ecosystem. I am just having a hard time reading about it again these many years later. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am done doing homework. I am burned out with homework. Sometimes I envy June Cleaver. I want to live my life in a 30 minute episode, come home from school, do homework, fix dinner and enjoy the evening sitting around the table talking, laughing and enjoying each other. That is what I envision. It just seems that homework seems to consume our evenings at times and I just want to be done.

So, to answer my own question...No, I am not smarter than a fifth grader. If I was, I would know the answers to everything they brought home, we would be done with their homework in less than an hour and we would be having dinner on time every night:) Wishful thinking.

What I Do ALL Day

This morning I woke up early, put in a load of laundry and began to make breakfast. The kids all have their own alarm clocks They usually set their alarms for 6am so they can get their instrument practicing done before they leave for school. This morning, being the end of the week, everyone was done with their practicing so all of them had hit snooze to get a few more minutes of shut eye. I decided to read a few blogs and enjoy a minute to myself this morning. Just a few minutes into my indulgence I had two children join me and continue reading the blog with me. It was now 6:45 am and we decided to stay on task and get our morning reading in. I turned off the computer and we finished our morning routine. Everything was going great and Bruce offered to drop the kids off at school (which I usually do) so that I could get going with my day. Sidney said, "Ya, so Mom can make herself some hot chocolate, get back in bed and BLOG all day." Now you know what I do all day:)

Pure Joy

What an amazing day. We went to the Rexburg Idaho Temple. It was beautiful! It was so fun to watch the kids reaction and to see the anticipation in their eyes. It brought me joy to stand in the Celestial Room with my children. I hope they will always remember the feelings they felt and have a continual desire to return to the temple. It was a trip to remember:)

Our ride home through Island Park was like driving through a winter wonderland.

our trip home

We left Idaho around 11am and headed back to Montana. There was a lot of reading, sleeping, and eating on the way home.

The Rest of the Story

Sunday night we had a great evening. Enjoyed a yummy meal of shredded pork (you would think that is all we eat anymore) and visited with family. We were at Troy(Bruce's brother) and Shelly's house with Ben(Bruce's nephew), Cindy and Claire . It was a great Sunday night.

Today's Lesson

I have not been to relief society for almost 21/2 years since I was called as 1st counselor in the primary. Since we are in Idaho for the weekend I attended RS. The topic of discussion these next two years is going to be great. I am so excited to learn more about the prophet Joseph Smith. She mentioned a church web cite http://www.josephsmith.net/ that is amazing. The photographs and time table is what I loved. enjoy (photo above is of the Sacred Grove 1907)