Family Blog 2: FHE Lesson, Embarrassing Moments, Grosser Than Gross, Worlds Fair, Fashionista

Family Home Evening this week we did a lesson from Elder Holland entitled The Laborers in the Vineyard. I found a quote that basically sums up the whole talk, "Jeffrey R. Holland gave one of the best analogies of the "everyone got paid a penny at the end of the day" parable from the New Testament (Matthew 20:1-15) I have ever heard. Just to quickly set the background, this is the parable where the householder gathers workers at the beginning of the day to work in the vineyard for a penny. The householder returns four more times during the day at later and later hours to gather more workers. At the end of the day, he pays them all the same wage. Some workers in the story were put out over the seeming unfairness...

But just at day’s close, the householder returns a surprising fifth time with a remarkable eleventh-hour offer! These last and most discouraged of laborers, hearing only that they will be treated fairly, accept work without even knowing the wage, knowing that anything will be better than nothing, which is what they have had so far. Then as they gather for their payment, they are stunned to receive the same as all the others! How awestruck they must have been and how very, very grateful! Surely never had such compassion been seen in all their working days.

It is with that reading of the story that I feel the grumbling of the first laborers must be seen. As the householder in the parable tells them (and I paraphrase only slightly): “My friends, I am not being unfair to you. You agreed on the wage for the day, a good wage. You were very happy to get the work, and I am very happy with the way you served. You are paid in full. Take your pay and enjoy the blessing. As for the others, surely I am free to do what I like with my own money.” Then this piercing question to anyone then or now who needs to hear it: “Why should you be jealous because I choose to be kind?”

Brothers and sisters, there are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition. May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another person? We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed. The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those.

Furthermore, envy is a mistake that just keeps on giving. Obviously we suffer a little when some misfortune befalls us, but envy requires us to suffer all good fortune that befalls everyone we know! What a bright prospect that is—downing another quart of pickle juice every time anyone around you has a happy moment! To say nothing of the chagrin in the end, when we find that God really is both just and merciful, giving to all who stand with Him “all that he hath,”2 as the scripture says. So lesson number one from the Lord’s vineyard: coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image. So be kind, and be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live."

We really liked this talk and wanted the kids to hear it for FHE. To drive home the point we let everyone drink some pickle juice to see what it tasted like. Aaron and I tasted it then Daniel. Daniel was not a fan:

Matthew didn't care for it either:

Sarah actually liked it if you can believe it. Josh didn't care for it, though:

The other day I had to run some errands and let Noah get his own shoes on. This is what he chose--socks with flop flops. He must have gotten his fashion sense from Aaron--haha!

Noah was having a rather difficult day the other day. Everything seemed to be a tragedy that he needed to cry about all day. I thought it would get better after preschool, but I was wrong. Noah has some strong opinions about how things should be. He wanted to go outside and play the other day. However, he wanted me to sit on the porch and watch him at all times. I couldn't do anything else, but watch him. If I even tried to do anything else he came unglued. Well the porch was in the shade and I was getting cold so I walked over to stand in the sun while I pulled weeds. That was too much for Noah and he threw the tantrum of all tantrums. I had to take him back inside so he could calm down. Within 5 minutes he was fast asleep in my lap. Wow. I can't say I was complaining about getting Bubba lubs, but enduring the tantrum was not fun at all. He seemed to be a lot happier after having a power nap, though--thank goodness!

Sarah and Daniel were at a friends house playing outside when Sarah got a bright idea. She thought it would be a good idea to throw a dirt clod at Daniel to be funny. However, after the dirt clod hit Daniel next to his eye and he realized it wasn't a dirt clod at all, but a cement rock he was not happy. He got a nice lump from it, but I think Sarah learned her lesson, though--at least I hope so!

It was a big week for Josh last week. He did his big country report during the 6th grade Worlds Fair. He got assigned Mongolia as his country and did a lot of research and work into his presentation. All the 6th graders got to show everyone their report and answer questions last Friday.

In addition to the Worlds Fair it was also Jr. High registration for Josh. It is crazy he is old enough to attend Jr. High next year! Josh has decided he wants to take Band as well as Theater in addition to his other assigned classes. It will be interesting to have Josh and Matthew at the same school. That has only happened once in the last 7 years. However, in going around to meet Josh's prospective new teachers they all recognized his last name and then asked Josh if he was Matthew's brother which Josh wasn't too happy to hear. Josh doesn't want to be known as 'Matthew's brother', but what can you do?!

Noah can be a little stinker. He got a hold of my phone the other day and took some selfies. What a crazy kid!

Last week I had an embarrassing moment. After the kids got home from school I was working with Sarah on doing her homework in the family room. Josh was in the living room by the front door practicing the piano when I heard him yell, "MOM WHY IS THERE A BLACK MAN IN OUR YARD? MOM WHY IS A BLACK MAN WALKING UP TO OUR DOOR? MOM WHY IS THERE A BLACK MAN RINGING THE DOORBELL?" Now let me say that we are not racist and that you can pretty much hear what anyone screams in our house while standing on the porch. I was hoping that the guy hadn't heard anything from Josh, but, unfortunately I knew he had heard everything when I opened the door and the guy said, "Yes, I am the black man who rang your doorbell." I could have just died. I apologized for my son's behavior, but it didn't take away my flaming red embarrassed face. The poor guy was just selling magazine subscriptions. After the guy had left I looked at Josh who quickly apologized and said he wouldn't ever do that again. I hope not because that was really embarrassing. Another embarrassing moment happened this week during the young men/young women etiquette dinner Wednesday night. As we showed up there were more boys than girls so some of the leaders got to be the boys companions for the night. I was Matthew's companion. As dinner got started the presenter gave a talk on manners and why we need them. She also showed different place settings and how to use each utensil. As the dinner went on she started asking different questions. One of the questions she asked was, "What are some improper table conversation topics?" Before I could do anything Matthew's hand shot up as he yelled, "POOP!" Wow our whole table about choked on their food after they heard Matthew yell that--especially me. I can't fault the poor kid because that is a totally inappropriate conversation topic, but even so it shouldn't be yelled during a dinner! Oh well what can you do?!

The other day Josh came up to me and told me that he just made his New Year's resolution even if it was a bit late. His resolution is to do one nice thing for someone every day without being asked. I told Josh that was an awesome resolution. The next day I woke up to breakfast in bed. Josh and the other kids had made me breakfast in bed to be nice. That was a nice surprise. Another nice surprise is when I got done eating my breakfast in bed I came out of my bedroom to find the school lunches had already been packed and everyone had gotten their medications. Wahoo!! I personally love Josh's resolution!! To his credit he has done something nice for someone every day so far. I hope he keeps it up because it is great!

Wednesday morning I had the delightful experience of getting my very first tooth cavity filled being numbed up. I have only had one other cavity in my life and it was so small the dentist could fill it without numbing anything up--yes it did hurt for a minute, but not too bad. I was very nervous going in. I can now see why so many dentists now advertise that they use sedation for cavities! I did not like having it filled, but thankfully the cavity wasn't very big so it didn't take very long. However, having an achy tooth and numb mouth for the next four hours wasn't too fun either. You should have seen me try to drink from a straw--that was pretty comical! Anyway, I am glad that is done with and I hope to never have another cavity filled because I did not like it!

Friday afternoon Sarah got to go to a birthday party for a friend. She had a lot of fun, however, by the time she got home she wasn't feeling very well. I took her temperature and she had a 101.5 degree fever and was saying her back really hurt and it hurt when she went pee. Doh!! Assuming she had a UTI (urinary tract infection) I got an appointment at the 24hour pediatrician, but they didn't have an opening until 8:30 pm that night. When she finally got seen she did have a UTI and a mild kidney infection. I went and got the antibiotic filled that night and got her started on it. The next morning she still wasn't feeling the greatest so we had a relaxing Saturday at home--something that doesn't happen all too often. While we were at home we cleaned out the garage a bit and set up Noah's bike with the training wheels. He was really excited to try it out.

However, he did not like the training wheels and cried about them until Aaron took them off. After trying the bike without training wheels and tipping over he didn't mind when we put them back on:

Crazy kid!! As the day went on Sarah started feeling a bit better. The kids had also filled up their warm fuzzy jar so we took them for some ice cream to celebrate. They loved it. Hopefully, they will keep trying to fill up the warm fuzzy jar because it really does help a lot!

I have had a lot of stress in my life lately. In trying to deal with it I decided I needed some 'me' time. I started a project and got to finish it just for a break. I made a rag temple quilt. I love how it turned out. Here's the rag side:

Here's the front side:

It was a nice break. It did help to have something else to think about other than the stress. The other kids don't mind having a new blanket around either:

I am wondering what would be a good next project, though. I will have to do some research on that :).

What's grosser than gross? Let me help with that answer--what Noah ate for lunch today. I had lunch with Aaron and Noah today. While Aaron and I were talking we noticed that Noah was dipping his brownie in Alfredo sauce and eating it up. Ewwww!