Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year Curious George is a Green Dinosaur and Jesse Bear is a Green Monster. CG had a Halloween program for kindergarten this week. It was adorable - all the kids were dressed up in their costumes. Today the Mom of the girl sitting next to C in the program talked to me and told me that her daughter thinks C is her boyfriend. In the program when they got bored after like 10 minutes, they started measuring their costumes to see whose horns were the biggest. It was really cute.

At another point they were both picking their noses. When the Mom asked her daughter why they were both picking her noses the girl said, "See Mom, we're perfect for each other!" :)

Here is the green monster doing gymnastics at his class this week:

Potty Training

Jesse Bear is almost completely potty trained now - it happened a lot faster than I thought it would. Here's a cute shot of him washing his hands and getting a drink while he's at it. :)

Love One Another

I loved this little ceramic doodad when I saw it first at my sister's house. A few weeks later I was shopping and saw it and had to buy it. We happened to be remodeling our bathroom at the time and I had the perfect shelf to put it on. It's sat there fairly untouched for about a year. Then when I was dusting a few months ago my arm bumped it and it fell and broke into three pieces on our bathroom tile floor. At first I was heart-broken (silly, huh?) and it was all I could do to pick up the pieces and set them aside. For a few days they sat there and I cringed every time I saw them. Finally after a few days the thought came to me that I could glue it back together. I used some ceramic glue and rubber bands and the next day it was whole again (although not without scars).

Today as I was looking at it, the thought came to me that maybe I like it a little better the way it is now:

I think the reason I like it a little better is because it more closely represents real life, especially family life. We love one another and then something happens - maybe a trial, maybe a hurtful or unkind word, maybe a mistake or a sin. Our love sometimes gets broken. It hurts to think about it, so we just set it aside for a little while. After a while (minutes, hours, days, weeks or years sometimes) we start to patch it back together until it's whole again. We have scars, but we've forgiven and we love again.

And after a while...we think to ourselves, maybe I like it a little better the way it is now. The thing about love is it it grows with each forgiven mistake and strengthens through each trial endured.

Angelus

This is the painting we chose to hang on our newly remodeled kitchen wall. It was painted by Jean-Francois Millet and entitled "Angelus" or the painting of a prayer. I found this site that gave the description of this painting from a sales catalogue when it was up for auction in 1899:

The night is coming: the sun, already below the horizon, is still shining with a warm and golden light on the lower part of the sky and the vast cultivated plain that stretches away as far as the horizon.

The countryside is already radiating the mysterious quietness coming with the end of the day.

On the foreground, in a potato field that they are harvesting, two young people, a young peasant and his companion, have interrupted their work. They are standing up and out against the bright sky. The young man has taken his hat off and his pose expresses a feeling of innocent and touching respect. His is holding his beret in his hands on his chest and his head is bowed. The young girl is joining her hands up close to her face. The two of them are bending their heads; they are meditating and praying to the Creator silently. Actually the Angelus is ringing in the distance, from the steeple of the village church that can be seen on the horizon on the bright sky golden with sunset.

A deep religious feeling radiates from this famous painting that is said to be the most beautiful painting of the modern school and that is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Jean-Francois Millet."

The Angelus was the ringing of the church bell every morning, mid-day and evening. The faithful would stop at the sound of the tolling bell and pray. I love the message of the painting - a poor couple hard at work, stopping near the end of the day, interrupting their work to call upon God. I hope that when I look at it, I can remember to call upon my Heavenly Father and thank him for all of my many blessings.

New Profile

I'm excited to announce that I have recently created a profile on Mormon.org! You can check it out by following this link or click on the "I'm a Mormon" button to the left on this blog. If you have any questions about our religion and beliefs, feel free to make a comment and I'll try to answer as best as I can!

Are You Listening?

This question is a popular one in our family. I find myself asking it to my kids several times a day when I ask them to do something and I'm ignored. Sometimes I say it once softly then louder and louder as if I'm doing a hearing test or something. Sometimes I try different voices - does a manly voice make it more effective? An old Lady voice? A ghostly voice? It's hard to say what works the best. It depends on the day and circumstance I think. Sometimes I wonder if my kids really do have hearing problems, but testing has shown otherwise.

So the conclusion I finally came to was that they're kids. Kids sometimes don't listen.

Then one day not too long ago I was busy doing something while Jesse Bear was chattering in the background and I heard a little voice say, "Mom, are you listening?" It startled me and my mind jumped back from whatever I was thinking back into reality and I realized that no, I wasn't listening. Later I thought back to all of the many times that I haven't really listened to them. When I try to do too many things at once or spread myself too thin. Sometimes I may actually be listening but doing something else and to them, that's still not listening.

So I guess my conclusion was wrong. Listening is something that we all need to work on. Listening with our bodies as well as our ears. As good as we may think we are at it, there's always room for improvement.