Lift Up Your Voice and Sing

Last Sunday was our Primary Sacrament Meeting program at church. I have been thinking about it a lot since then, so I thought I'd just share a bit. I've been serving in Primary pretty much since we moved here (over a year ago), but in August, I was called to serve as the Primary President. I absolutely love Primary and am so grateful for the chance I have to work with these kids. This new calling has been a bit overwhelming at times and not without challenges, but I love it.

The theme for Primary this year is "My Eternal Family." Since we have a relatively small Primary (just under 50 kids), every child got a speaking part in the program (except for our little Sunbeams who got to sing a song together). McKay even had a couple of different speaking parts. Hannah, Courtney and Hayley all memorized theirs (and Hannah and Courtney had fairly long ones) -- and they all spoke loud and clear and made me so proud. All of the kids did great! (But note for next year -- the Spanish translator wished he had a copy of the program to make his translating easier!)


Leading up to the program, I was a little worried about a couple of the songs, but as usual, the kids came through fabulously! It just warmed my soul to hear them sing their hearts out.

The first song in our program was one of the new ones we learned this year. It is called "The Family is of God." It has four verses and lots of words to get in (one of the songs I was worried about!) so by the time we had practiced it and practiced the kids knew that chorus. While they might have missed a word here or there in the middle verses, they came in loud and strong on the chorus. It has been in my head all week.

God gave us families
To help us become what he wants us to be.
This is how He shares His love,
For the family is of God.

(If you want to hear it, click here and then click on the MP3 Music & Voice icon for "The Family is of God")

I love the simple truths that are in Primary songs. I love the simple and sincere testimonies that come from the hearts of these little ones. I am so grateful to have four choice spirits in my own eternal family. Many days I feel discouraged and lacking in my abilities as a mother and panicked about the things I'm not doing or teaching that I should be. But when I hear their little voices singing out these words, I know that I'm doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do, even if I'm not doing it perfectly. I love my eternal family!

Books and More Books

A while ago I finally decided I needed to start a "TBR" list -- you know, books "to be read" someday. When I heard about a good book, I didn't want to forget it the next time I was looking for books to put on hold at the library. So I made a list of a few books. Then I started to read a little more, and got some more recommendations, and found some book review blogs with tastes similar to mine, and now I think my TBR list is out of control. I don't think I'll ever catch up, but at least I should always have something to read!

Sometimes I'm still surprised with this new reading hobby of mine. I have certainly not always been an avid reader. It's not that I hated reading -- it's just something I rarely made time for. Even throughout all those years before the kids came along, I hardly ever read for fun. And then after the kids came, I used to always ask people, "How in the world do you have any time for reading?" I read a book here or there -- I finally started Harry Potter after the 4th or 5th book was released -- but it was definitely not something I'd consider one of my hobbies.

Fast forward to about a year ago -- my friend Emily had been trying to convince me to participate in the small Relief Society book club. I finally did (see my post here), and the rest, I guess, is history! Now I find that I cannot get enough of these books and stories. And I find that, as with so many things, I can make the time for it if I really want to!

I was thinking the other day about some of the odd little tidbits I've noticed about myself and my reading -- my "confessions" as a reader:

• I have a bad habit of skipping ahead in the story -- sometimes all the way to the ending! I'm trying hard to stop doing this so I don't always ruin all the surprises for myself, but sometimes I just can't help it. I notice it most often when I am in the middle of a very engaging, suspenseful story that I need to put down for the moment, but I just have to know what's going to happen, so I'll skip ahead a bit to see if I can find out if everything works out okay. Bad habit, I know.
  
• I hardly ever sit and curl up on the couch or lay in bed to read. For some reason, this makes me feel more guilty about all the things I'm currently not doing. Instead, you will probably find me reading standing at my kitchen island counter or once in a while sitting at the kitchen table. (Plus, it's easier to appear like I'm being productive when somebody walks in on me.)



(This is a really bad picture, but all I had!)

• I tend to learn towards young adult (YA) and even middle-grade books (they're usually "cleaner" and they tell fun stories) -- especially fantasy and fairy tales. I also tend to lean towards what could probably be called "fluff" books -- they are quick, easy reads that I enjoy. But I'm trying to incorporate more books with "substance."


• As soon as I'm finished with a book, I immediately go back and re-read my favorite parts. (And yes, I admit it -- often these parts are the sweet romantic moments...) I usually do this repeatedly for as long as the book is sitting on my counter!


• I can read fast and frequently finish books in a day. (Not that much else gets done on those days...)


• It seems like I always have a book or two "on hold" at the library waiting to be picked up (sometimes they're books for me and sometimes they're for the kids). I love the library and most of the librarians know us by name now! (I just wish sometimes there was a larger circulation, but it's still great!)

I'm still working on balancing all these books with the rest of my life -- some days I do better at that than others (as my family will tell you). But I'm also excited to have some fun stories to look forward to reading! So if you have a favorite or two to add to my list, I'd love to hear about them. (One of the book review blogs I recently found and really like is this one.)

And I'll end by sharing just a few that I've read recently that have been added to my favorites:

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (second book of The Hunger Games)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Happy reading!

Warriors

Hannah's latest obsession is a series of books called "Warriors" -- about these clans of cats out in the wild. I have not read any of them yet, but she has just practically inhaled these books -- she read all 18 of the "regular" books (divided into three "mini" series) and now she's reading one of the "super editions". It's the last one our library has available, so I don't know what we're going to get her to read when she's finished with it. She's convinced herself that these are the only books she likes.

In a way, it's been really good for her -- they are the first chapter books she's really gotten into where she can't read the whole thing in one sitting and has to stick a bookmark in it. The reading level is about where she should be reading. But on the other hand, she stays up late almost every night trying to read in the dark (she lays at the end of her bed and tries to use light from the family room to see). And according to her teacher, she hurries through her work at school just so she can get back to reading (she even got a discipline warning once for not paying attention because she wouldn't stop reading).

She's been convinced the author (Erin Hunter) is the most amazing author in the whole world. She was quite surprised to find out that Erin was a girl. And she was even more surprised to find out (after being assigned a special author research project by her teacher) that Erin Hunter is actually a pseudonym for three different authors!

She found the Warrior Cats Web site and has been playing the games and making everyone in the family take the "Find out Your Warrior Clan" quiz and learning your new Warrior Name (mine is "Fuzzyfire"). One day while looking around the Web site, she came across a little story written in script format. She printed it out, recruited Courtney, assigned parts (they each played 5-6 different parents), made scenery and put on a little performance for us!

Here they are with their scenery -- a forest and a river (plus some sort of bush made out of the blanket).

The girls just read their lines, but they were both quite dramatic about it! Very cute.

So if anybody has any suggestions for what I can get this girl to read next, I'm all ears!

Creating Cat in the Hat

Somehow I ended up as a room mom for Hannah's 3rd Grade class this year. I didn't really volunteer, but also didn't say no when they called and asked me since no one else had volunteered. I've always said that being a room mom just isn't my thing. Don't get me wrong -- I absolutely love to be involved in my kid's classrooms -- reading stories, volunteering in the science lab, even helping the teacher make copies and stuff in the workroom. But planning parties and fundraising for the PTO aren't necessarily my favorite things.

Nevertheless, 3rd grade room mom I am this year. (Fortunately, they also asked another mom so we get to help each other.) My first assignment as room mom was to decorate the class pumpkin for the Fall Festival. This is the big PTO fundraiser -- as part of it, each class submits a decorated (not carved) pumpkin which is on display for a week in the cafeteria. The kids bring their pennies and nickels and quarters to vote for their favorite. Then, at the Fall Festival the pumpkins are auctioned off to some lucky parents.

I asked Hannah's teacher how much she wanted to involve the class in decorating the pumpkin. She said it's just easier for the room moms to do the decorating. But we did decide to have the class vote on how the pumpkin should be decorated. I gave her a few ideas I found online and the kids got to vote. The winner? Cat in the Hat!


(I'm actually relieved they picked this one because I think it ended up being the easiest. A couple of the ideas were really just ideas with not a lot of concept as to how they would be turned into reality. If you're curious, the other choices were Cinderella's Pumpkin Carriage, a Pumpkin Turkey, and a Pumpkin Armadillo.)

Now I am also not the most crafty person around, so I was a little worried about this project. Sometimes my "vision" of how something will look and the actual reality of how it turns out are quite different. But I'm happy to say this project turned out pretty darn good!

I found a few ideas online and bought a few materials and got to work. I started with the hat. I decided to try sewing some felt together. Normally I do not do well when sewing stuff without any type of pattern and just trying to make it up as I go. And I did have to unpick several seams and my resulting hat did have several, ah, anomalies. But it worked.

Then we got out the paint and brushes and transformed our little pumpkin!

The ears are also felt, the whiskers are cut from a broom, and the bow is wire ribbon. Hannah's teacher and class liked it -- we'll see how it does in the fierce class competition! :-)

Little Furry Friends

I got a big Monday morning smile when I came across this sight as everyone was getting ready for school:

This is Hayley playing "Go Fish" with some of her favorite little friends. She had a whole dialogue going and everything. So cute.

Then I found Courtney eating breakfast with a few of her friends (the two black ones are a little hard to see!).

I love when Mondays start with a smile. :)

I Love to See the Temple

Today Brian and I took a long-overdue trip down to the Lubbock Temple. We talked about needing to go all summer, but one reason or another always had our plans changing. But today we finally made it -- 2 hours down, 2 hours there, 2 hours back. Need to go back more often -- I love this place.

I found this little clip from last summer...

Sea of Sunflowers

I realized the other day that I haven't been taking very many pictures lately, unless you count all the construction "update" pictures I take for my dad. So, today, on my way over to take some more construction update pictures, I took a little detour.

Last summer I took a lot of sunflower pictures (practicing for my photography class), but I don't think I've taken any yet this year.

We have a beautiful patch of sunflowers that grows where the land is most fertile. (Yep, over our septic system leech field.) :-)

I noticed they're starting to die off... summer must be on its way out.

Layers

One of the few detriments to living out in the country and having to drive over a mile on dirt roads to go anywhere.

That's a lot of layers of dirt and dust. And I've learned it doesn't do an awful lot of good to wash it off -- the next day it'll be right back.

Five!

Hayley turned 5 this past Monday. How did that happen? I can't believe my baby girl is 5 years old -- she is growing up way too fast!

She was excited that her birthday fell on a holiday this year (Labor Day), so that meant she got to open her presents in the morning instead of having to wait until after school.

She is officially a big kid now that she has an MP3 player just like her older sisters.

But she is still a little kid who loves her stuffed animal friends.

And she is still a huge fan of books (love that!).

She wanted a dog cake this year and picked one out from a Web site that I did my best to replicate.

Hayley is a sweet girl who brings our family so much joy! She gets lots of comments on her beautiful blond hair (a Humpherys family trait) -- I was remembering the other day how even as a newborn baby the hospital nurses commented on her "golden" hair. She is loving her Pre-K class and learning new things every day. We love having her in our family!

As I've done with the other kids, here's a quick glance back at our Hayley-bug's birthdays!

4 years old...

3 years old...

2 years old...

1 year old...

True Blue

We are not huge sports fans in our house (especially now that there's not even a local professional team to root for), but we do still love our BYU Cougars.


Football season started this last Saturday and what a way to start! We had some friends over for the game, put on our BYU shirts, rearranged the furniture and cheered our little hearts out. McKay has a new favorite player -- McKay Jacobson, fresh off his mission, and who even managed to catch the winning touchdown pass against 3rd-ranked Oklahoma (final score 14-13). How could you not cheer for a guy named McKay? :-)

The First Day

School started yesterday for all four kiddos around here. What am I going to do with a quiet house all morning? (Believe me, my list is already growing...)

Everyone was very excited to get back to school.

The school has a traditional pep rally on the first day of school for the elementary and middle school kids. The middle school cheerleaders do a few cheers (which Hannah is still just enthralled with) and the superintendent says a few things that nobody can really hear very well and they send the kids off the class.

Hayley is in Pre-K this year (she missed the Kindergarten cut-off by one week). The school district offers a half-day program at the elementary school. She is doing the morning session and since she can't ride the bus, we're carpooling with our friends. That means I drive the kids (all of mine) every morning and my friend picks up the two "Pre-Kers," as Hayley calls herself. She's home before lunch, so we still get to hang out together every afternoon.

Courtney is a big 1st grader this year! And she's still got the two front teeth missing to go right along with 1st grade. She was a little nervous and kept wondering how she would know what to do or where to go in 1st grade, but she had a great first day. Her best friend Audrey is in her class this year (which could be good or bad for their teacher!) so they were both very excited about that.

Hannah is moving on up to 3rd grade. Her teacher's bubbly personality seems to match her own, so I think they will get along great! She didn't even want me to walk to her classroom with her -- she had to do it all by herself (although I did sneak in later after dropping Courtney off to take a picture).

McKay also had a few nervous butterflies the first day of school. He not only made the move to middle school this year, he also skipped up to 6th grade. Fortunately, he was able to get to know a few kids at the end of the last year that are in 6th grade with him this year so he had a few familiar faces. He is especially excited to be able to start in band, playing the trombone. He's learning about lockers and bell schedules and all that fun middle school stuff.

The hardest part about school is the long days. Since I'm driving them to school every day this year, they get to ride the bus home. Hayley and I went outside to wait for the bus yesterday.

Our kiddos are the very last ones off the bus and don't get home until about 5:00pm. I guess that's one price you pay for living "way out yonder." :-)

I can't wait to see what where this year takes us!

Move Over, Travel & Tourism

Tonight I was talking to my dad on the phone and he mentioned he got a really cute e-mail the other day from Hannah. I said she had asked me for Grandpa's e-mail address (after having set herself up with her own account!) but I hadn't seen a word of what she wrote to him.

He forwarded it to me and I just have to share. She cracks me up! A plethora of exclamation points, no capitalization, but wow, she's already got a way with words.

Here you go (exactly as she typed it):

hi grandpa! it's me hannah.the workers have made lots of progress on your house! they have even put concreat in the walls! and tell tyler that i'm waiting for the rest of his story. okay? by the way I just can't wait for you to come live by me! I just know that you'r going to love it in amarillow! we have even seen doble full rainbows!blisards that give lots of snow and high snowdrifts that are big enough to dig a cave!lots of thunderstoms that give amazing lightning patters across the whole sky!I love you! see you soon! love hannah.

(Unfortunately I have not been successful yet in capturing the amazing lightning shows, but we certainly get them!)

So is anybody ready to move to Amarillo? :-)

Summer Bingo

Now that the end of summer is just around the corner with school starting in a couple of days, I figured I needed to hurry and get this post done. I've been meaning to post it before now -- before it had totally fizzled with my kids (which, not surprisingly, it has, as do most of my attempts like this). But I did still want to record what we tried this year and put the idea out for anyone else. I do still really like the idea and think we'll do it again next summer, so this will help me remember how we set it all up!

Every summer I make some sort of attempt at keeping my kids busy and active and doing a little reading and math. Usually they're very excited and gung-ho about whatever program I've set up for a week or so and then the enthusiasm slowly starts to die out. And then when you throw a vacation (or a move) into the mix, it can kill it pretty quick. But still we keep trying!

This year, I saw an idea on another blog about doing Summer Bingo. I loved the idea and set out customizing it for our family. Here's the basics of how it worked:

Each week, my kids got a new Bingo chart. On the chart (different for each kid, depending on their age and interests) were things I'd like them to be doing during the day, rather than just sit and watch TV and play on the computer for hours at a time.

I decided not to incorporate chores into the Bingo charts (we tried a separate chore system for the summer). I wanted to keep it all fun and away from the dreaded chores.

I made a page for each kid with the Bingo rules and rewards and put it in a sheet protector so they would have a place to keep their cards and tickets. I decided presentation was worth some effort to get them excited about it!

The kids got one "Free" sticker each week that they could cover up a square with. I told them they couldn't cover up the same square each week (otherwise, I think McKay would have always covered up "Do Something in your Webelos book"). When they completed an item, they would get a sticker to cover it up (I just printed some stickers on address labels and cut them up). When they earned a Bingo in any direction, they got a Bingo ticket (again, just something I printed on cardstock).

With their Bingo tickets, they could purchase different rewards. 1 ticket equals 1 ice cream treat, 2 tickets equals an extra hour of Nintendo, 4 tickets equals lunch at a fast food restaurant, etc. When we first explained the system to the kids, they were all talking about how they were going to save all their tickets for fast food, but once I stocked the freezer with some pretty darn good ice cream treats that we don't usually have on hand, I found that the tickets went pretty quick for treats!

If the kids got a complete blackout (all squares done) by the end of the week (Saturday night), they would earn $5.00. The first week, all 4 kids got blackouts on their cards -- I don't think it happened again!

After a couple of weeks, I read about a modification that we also incorporated. I made 2-3 of the Bingo squares Blue, which were bonus squares and the kids would automatically earn a Bingo ticket for completing just that one square. I also made 2-3 of the squares Green, which were "must-do" squares -- they couldn't be covered up with a "Free" sticker.

So, even though their enthusiasm didn't last all summer, it did seem to last longer than other things I've tried. It was fun to see a lot of things like this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

I also have to share one other thing. One week, one of Hannah's squares was to write a poem about nature. She sat down for a few minutes and then handed me a little scrap of paper with this on it:

the river flows

downstream while

the forest spreads

out west and everywhere

the bees are buzzing

in the springtime.

(The line breaks are more because of the size of her paper, I think, but I kept it as it looks.) Usually she writes rhyming poems, but I thought this was great!

I think we will definitely do this again next summer!