Order In Chaos

Today is…Wednesday Nov 10, 2010

We prayed.

We looked at our Gospel Picture:

(that’s Giant shoving Ettin’s head out of the way)

We talked about the brave warriors who fought for freedom. I tied in Remembrance Day and talked about why we honour the warriors, called soldiers, who fought for our freedoms.

Galoot woke up and joined us

My boys were, of course, paying complete attention to me and our morning work the whole time:

We finished off our Morning Message…

And left for Gym.

Afterward we played with friends and cousins galore!

Hard at work

My memory is a little fuzzy regarding his birth, but I’m pretty sure Giant was born with a hammer in one hand…

and a screw driver in the other:

Today is…Thursday, Nov 4 2010

We prayed.

We looked at our Gospel Picture:

And talked about how after the anti-nephi-lehis had learned about Jesus Christ, they felt bad for what they had done and wanted to bury their weapons. This may be a good point of reference for trying to explain to Giant why I don’t like play-fighting in the house.

Life is sacred, and even playing at killing feels wrong to me.

Yes, boys are boys.

But I don’t want my boys to think that killing is funny.

Then we looked at our Message:

And the boys had Independent Play for a bit.

Then mommy decided to make muffins, and the boys decided they needed to help:

Indeed, they brought the whole crew with them:

Half-way through, Galoot decided he had had enough:

So we took a time out from baking:

…while mommy rocked a baby to sleep:

Then back to business:

Some yummy peanut butter and jam muffins:

“Yummy dam [jam], mom.” (Ettin approved).

After lunch and the little ones were napping, it was time for more Independent Play.

And today, I think we got somewhere:

Playing pretend with his toys away from mommy:

Setting up one of Mommy and Daddy’s games:

(granted, right next to the couch I was sitting on)

And unscrewing the broken hinges of our baby gate:

Doesn’t he look like such a little man there?

How is he only just four? A

nd how did he get to be so big, so fast?!

Today is…Wednesday Nov 3, 2010

We had a prayer.

We looked at the Gospel Art Picture of Ammon :

Might I make a small complaint? I really do appreciate that these are representations of Book of Mormon heros.

But I have little boys.

And chances are that my little boys are not going to grow up to look like that guy.

Not unless they spend a whole lot of time bodybuilding and taking who knows what to help them build muscle tone.

And I like to put up these pictures where my little boys can see them. Where they can look at them and think, I’d like to be like that man (because these men are spiritual giants too).

But I don’t want to be putting up images of unrealistic male bodies  that my sons may or may not feel the need to look like.

Heaven knows I get enough of that as a woman every day.

But I digress.

We skipped our Morning Message and ran to the gym.

Then we went to Giant’s optometrist appointment, where he refused to talk to the extremely wonderful and patient optometrist at all.

Short of throttling their little necks, what can you do with shy kids to at least make sure they act polite?! I don’t expect him to chat it up, but I do expect him to at least say thank-you when the Dr. gives him a toy.

He wouldn’t talk.

Seriously, not one word the whole time.

Ahrg.

(We did some role play and talked about the situation when we got home. Just not sure it will make any difference.)

We found some friends waiting for us when we got home, and Giant and Ettin had fun playing until lunch time.

After lunch, I put Ettin and Galoot down for a nap (Ettin and no naps have not been working out. We have a very cranky and tired boy at 6pm, which makes for a very grumpy bedtime routine).

So, with lack of a playmate, Giant had a hard time playing on his own.

He built a little house from Lincoln Logs (which is actually kind of impressive. To me. Since I can’t seem to build a thing out of them):

And he very tidily kept the pieces in the bags. Thank You Giant!

And then he sat next to me.

And sat.

And opened my mail. Right next to me.

I encouraged him often to go and play.

He finally left to write some instructions for me about how to transplant plants (we’d received a Thompson and Morgan catalog in the mail which apparently inspired some gardening thoughts in him).

Then came back to show me what he wrote.

Later on, after Ettin woke up (and dumped out the oh-so-tidy Lincoln Logs) and I was exhausted by Giant’s (not so) Independent Play, I noticed a level of grumpiness in the room:

Thinking back to my teacher’s training, I was reminded that the attitide of the teacher can really affect the attitude of her students.

I checked out my attitude:

Houston, we have a problem.

(and do I seriously have that many freckles?)

So I put on my happy face (and tried to match my attitude to my face).

The results:

Much better.

Today is…Tuesday Nov 2, 2010

We started out with a prayer.

Then, after reminding Ettin not to erase the chalkboard…

No, not even with his feet…

We looked at the Gospel Art Picture, Alma baptizing in the waters of Mormon:

I’m afraid I didn’t get a great discussion out there. Ettin really wanted to sit in on the Morning Message, but there was a bit too much kicking and shoving of chairs and the chalkboard for my liking.

After things calmed down a bit (using some threats of timeouts and moving some chairs), we looked at our Morning Message:

Giant wrote the day of the week:

“toozda”

And a character off Bob the Builder:

“LoFte”

And a number:

“14”

Then Giant started asking for movies. Or games. Or both.

And I explained to him that we will not be having movies or computer games this week. That this week will be a week for playing with friends and toys, and creating fun stuff!

He was not happy.

Which is exactly why I’m having a Play week!

So the boys played with toys,

with kitchen bowls and spoons:

with a mattress (it was old and torn to start with, don’t worry):

and leaves outside:

I was dubbed “Dump Truck.” Giant and Ettin would pass by me and Galoot (in his wrap) and say, “Hi Dump Truck!” or “Hi mum dump t’uk.” I am not entirely sure how or why I was bestowed this honour. But I’ll take it.

Then they hauled out some lumber and built an airplane,

which turned out to be a great see-saw:

Good Playing boys!

Oh, and Galoot was very happy just hanging out most of the day:

Good heavens I have cute kids!!!