FHE

For Family Council on Sunday night, Timothy and I filled out little FHE charts for every Monday until the end of May. Yes, we're awesome. No, we don't have any fancy FHE display board where we can just move things around each week. That's okay--we have nowhere to put such an item and little to no desire for one (though if I did get one, I would pay Lindsay Ann to make one exactly like hers. It is awesome and every person in the family is represented by an animal. Love it.) So instead of a wooden board, we have a paper we stick to the side of the computer hutch with tape.

This is a new thing for us. Previously, we've just asked kids to do various things the night of and that was the extent of our pre-planning. So you should have felt the excitement in the air this morning when I pointed out the page for this week to Miriam and she read off everyone's job for today. It amazes me how excited small children can get about things like seeing their names on a paper next to "Opening Prayer." Cowen, though, was the most enraptured. He was on treat and picked choco chip cookies. Hard to believe, I realize, but we made choco chip cookies and I even let the kids help.

Tim's lesson was awesome. We're using the new Gospel Principles book for weeks 2 and 3, so this week was "Heavenly Father." Tim put a bunch of toys in a bag and then set them carefully on the dining bench asking after each item if God looked like the thing he'd pulled out. So, first he pulled out a dinosaur and asked, "Is that what God looks like?" The kids emphatically said no. Then he pulled out a motorcycle, "Is that what God looks like?" A few giggles along with the "No!" Each item thereafter garnered ever more forceful and prolonged giggling. By the time Tim pulled out a griffin and a bouncy ball, Cowen was writhing on the floor in hysterics. Fortunately, great-grandma Frances keeps us supplied with Book of Mormon figurines because Lehi is a good match for Heavenly Father.

Later on in the lesson, Miriam asked if Heavenly Father had a wife and I said, "They had kids, you have to have a mommy and daddy to have kids." Miriam said, "Oh," with that perfect moment of understanding that makes a parent glad he/she bothers with FHE . Then she giggled, "Daddies can't have babies!" So true. Then Cowen got huffy about Satan being Heavenly Father's child because it didn't seem right in his boy head that enemy number one could be related to the ultimate hero. I can understand the way his brain was working. By the time we got him off that tangent and somewhat mollified, Miriam was talking about the city of Enoch, only it was funny because she turned to me with her big eyes and awed voice, "I heard about a city where the people were so righteous they went to heaven before they died." Very funny--like she was gossiping, almost. I had to stifle a giggle. And what does the city of Enoch and Satan have to do with the nature of God?? I couldn't even begin to explain the convolutedness of our discussion. But it was fun.

Miriam was on activity and after much intense thought decided we would do origami as our activity. My kids are on this huge Chinese kick. Mostly they love the Great Wall of China. And the huns. They're very excited about the huns. I didn't plan this. We were studying geography for school by reading different picture books set in different areas of the world, then finding the spot on a map. Very low-key. Then we read a Chinese book and looked up China in our National Geographic Atlas for Kids (which I love) and then things just got out of hand. Which is why I have over thirty books about China on my bookshelf right now. And why we've painted dragons. And why we've been trying our hand at origami and largely failing. But with Timothy to help, the FHE origami actually worked!! Of course, Timothy had to undo mine and redo it, but we don't need to talk about that.

It was a fun night and it would be an even more fun night if I didn't have that huge pile of dishes to do. I shouldn't complain, Cowen dried the dishes for me after lunch today--just to hang out with me. Miriam was reading a Box Car Children Mystery (of course) on the orange chair, and the other two were napping, so Cowen and I had a nice little visit. He's a good kid. And it was a good day.