Nursery Lesson #42

I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

I made up a puzzle where I wrote each of the kids names on a piece of paper and then cut them out. I started with putting the puzzle together and told them that Just like every piece belongs to the puzzle, every on of them belong to our class. I also explained to them that belonging to something means being a part of it.

I asked them what else they belonged to. IE: family, neighborhood, pre-school class.

I then told them that each one of them belongs to Jesus' church.

Picture 1-39 What is happening in this picture? When they were born they each received a name and blessing and their names were put on the records of the church.

I had them all say "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"

I then did the little hand play "This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people, close the doors, hear them pray, open the doors and they all run away."

We come to church to learn about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and what They want us to do.

I made signs that said:

Jesus' church has the Priesthood.

Jesus' church has a prophet.

Jesus' church has the scriptures.

and

We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I held up the sign (I mostly made these so I could know what I was talking about) and then showed the pictures.

Priesthood: Pictures 1-8, 1-12, 1-40 and 1-39 and we talked about the different things that men who hold the priesthood do.

Picture 1-18 we talked about Jesus being baptized and that when they turn 8 years old they'll be baptized and officially become a member of the church.

Prophet: Picture 1-4 talked about the first vision and that Joseph Smith was the first prophet of the restoration.

I brought in my Ensign from November (conference issue) with President Monson on the front and told them that he is our prophet today. I had them repeat his name for me. I told them that a prophet tells us what Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to know and that it's important that we have a prophet today to know what to do.

We sang Follow the Prophet.

Scriptures: I held up my scriptures and told them that we have the scriptures and that they teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus and what they want us to do. I also told them that other churches have scriptures but that we're special because we have the Book of Mormon.

We sang Book of Mormon Stories.

I had them say "We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" again. And then asked them whose church we belong to.

To finish up I did "Jesus Christ Names His Church".

And we colored a picture.

Also, since it was the last Sunday of the month I asked the Sunbeam teacher, Sister Johnson, to come in during singing time so that she could meet the kids going into her class so they wouldn't be so afraid. I also gave them Graduation Certificates with a little story on the back. I'm going to Primary can be found here (the words) or you can find it here (it's a word file so you have to click on the right link.) I actually cut out the pictures and re-typed the words using the actual Sunbeam teacher's name.

My frustrations this week included: once again, my little tornado who tore one of the pictures, no helper at all for the first hour (even though one was supposed to be coming) and the helper for the second hour brought her husband and it was just TOO much for the little room we're in. Plus he kept making comments about it being a torture chamber, and the pits of hell, and if he were ever called to the nursery he'd go inactive. And he and his wife spent the whole time talking to each other. So, in all actuality it would have been easier to just do it myself. I found myself rushing through the whole lesson and wasn't happy with the way I presented it. I was disappointed because the girl who was going to help me is my friend and she babysits 10 kids every day so she would have been really helpful if her husband wasn't there.

Nursery Lesson #46

The Christmas Lesson

The Birth of Jesus Christ

I started out by asking if they were excited for Christmas. Of course they all said that they were. Then I asked them if they knew why we have Christmas and explained to them that at Christmas we are celebrating when Jesus was born.

I then used the "New Testament Stories" book (picture scriptures) put out by the church to tell the story of the angel visiting Mary. Chapter 2 in the book.

Then I used picture 1-76 and told them that the people had to pay taxes so Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem. I also told them that there was no room at the inn.

Picture 1-75 I told them that Jesus was born in a stable, laid in a manger and that Mary and Joseph named him Jesus.

Picture 1-77 Angels came to the shepherds and they went to visit Baby Jesus.

Picture 1-78 The 3 Wise Men saw the star and came to find Baby Jesus.

Picture 1-16 We want to be like Jesus. The birth of Jesus was one of the most important things that has ever happened on the earth. I love Jesus very much and want to be like Him. Then I asked them how they can be like Jesus and gave examples like being nice to siblings, minding parents, etc.

I had them color a picture. Actually they didn't get to color the picture that I'd originally intended because the new librarian lost it so we did the nativity from the December friend. The one I wanted them to color was this.

While they were coloring I acted out the story using these which I cut out and colored and mounted on colored paper.

And then I read them my favorite children's Christmas story "Room For A Little One" written by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Jason Cockcroft. Go get it. You'll love it.

My frustrations for the day included my little tornado, no help in the nursery (my partner is out having heart surgery - which they were planning for, just not that week) and having to cut things a little short to go into the Primary and get Christmas treats (it wasn't that bad, it just would have been easier to not have to control 4 kids while they said the closing prayer in nursery when they could have just as easily just brought them to us.) Luckily I only had 6 kids and 2 of them left early to go to a family Christmas party.

New Goals

I'm adding:

Discovery Health Challenge

Cook Breakfast

Cook Lunch

Cook Dinner

No Eating Out

Discovery Health Challenge

I'm going to be participating in the Discovery Health National Body Challenge.

Go here to sign up or find out more.

I have gained back 5 pounds since my accident and having not worked out since then. So I'm up to 163. My goal for the 8 week challenge is to get down to 147.

I'll be working out between 60-90 minutes a day and making sure to eat properly.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I eat. I've (mostly) gotten under control the amount of food that I eat. Now I need to think more about the quality of what I eat. I'm going to make sure to be eating better foods. No fast foods. (prices have all gone up anyway - who can afford to eat out any more?) That means I'll be cooking 3 meals a day. Which means I'll be keeping up with dishes. Which means I might as well keep up on the rest of the house. It's all a big continuous circle.

Also, my friend Amanda has put me in charge of helping her keep her New Years Resolutions. Luckily she has all the same goals I have. Getting up, working out, getting ready for the day, keeping the house clean and feeding her family. So it should work out pretty well. I don't really believe in New Years Resolutions because I think you should make and keep goals at any time and it seems like a lot of people make these HUGE, outrageous goals at New Years and keep them for about a month then give up. I believe in making small achievable goals that you can reach and then going on to the next step.

More Time Off

With Christmas just around the corner my husband has decided to take the next week - or so - off. So I'll be back when he goes back to work.

3 Things

1. I am so grateful that we got the Tahoe yesterday and that it seems to be working well.

2. I'm thankful for my sweet Daddy who spent the entire afternoon running me and the boys around.

3. I' glad that Tyler isn't extremely sick and that we didn't have any more croup episodes last night.

Word of the Day

kickshaw\KICK-shaw\n. 1: a fancy dish 2: a showy trifle

Example Sentence: The shop was filled with refrigerator magnets, back-scratchers, snow globes, and other kickshaws, all adorned with images of smiling pigs.

Did you know? "Kickshaw" began its career in the late 16th century as a borrowing from the French "quelque chose" - literally, "something." In line with the French pronunciation of the day, the "I" was dropped and the word was anglicized as "kickshaws" or "kickshoes." English speakers soon lost all consciousness of the word's French origin and, by taking "kickshaws" as plural, created the new singular noun "kickshaw."

Getting Going Day 16

Today I got up at 7:30 and straight into the shower. We had to get ready early today to go have breakfast with Santa at school. It was so much fun. And then I've been working on getting carseats together.

Going to Bed Day 14

I got to bed at 10 last night. Good thing, once again, because I was up 3 times with my youngest and for an hour and a half straight with my oldest.

Cleaning Day 35

So I didn't really do a lot of cleaning. Just some picking up. I ended up dealing with my sick-o kid, putting carseats together, going to the doctor and going to pick up my Tahoe. Yea!!!

Word of the Day

remora\rih-MOR-uh\n. 1: any of various marine fishes that have a suction disk on the head by means of which they cling especially to other fishes 2: hindrance, drag

Example Sentence: Remoras feed on parasites culled from their host's skin and scraps from their host's meals.

Did you know? Also known as "shark suckers" or "suckerfish," remoras are long, thin, dark fishes that are distributed throughout the world in warm seas. Ancient sailors believed remoras had the power to slow or even stop a ship by attaching themselves to it; the name "remora," which means "delay" in Latin, arose from this ancient superstition. The poor remora's reputation isn't much better today. Even though remoras don't harm their hosts, they are popularly thought of as unwanted guests who get a free ride and a free meal by way of the efforts of others. It is therefore common to see "remora" used metaphorically in such contexts as "hungry paparazzi who attach themselves like remoras to celebrities."

3 Things

1. I am grateful that I went to bed at 10 instead of staying up late like I have the last 2 weeks.

2. I am grateful that they had one of the two carseats I need and am hopeful that I will find another one today... somewhere.

3. I am grateful that Tyler only had one episode of croup last night and that he seems to be doing much better today.

Getting Going Day 15

So I'm up but not moving real fast. I'm trying to get ahold of the Dr. to take Tyler - which will be something seeing as I still don't have a vehicle. I'm also trying to get ahold of my parents to see if I can mooch off of them for a ride. If I get a chance my goal for today is to clean up upstairs.

Personal Scriptures/Nightly Routine/Going to Bed

I went to WalMart last night to buy new carseats (we have to replace the carseats that were in the Tahoe) and they only had one of the two we need so I came home mad and got the, "you should have done it last week when I told you so." So I went to bed mad - no scriptures, no nightly routine but I was in bed by 10. Luckily.

Ethan was up 2 times before 2 am. Tyler was up at 2 with croup and I was up with him and going in to Ethan occasionally until about 6:30 this morning. I got to sleep until about 8:30. So I'm tired.

Cleaning Day 34

I cleaned up my main level other than my kitchen counter has some paperwork I need to go through. And I still have a few dishes that need to be done. I even vacuumed! My goal was to clean the upstairs but didn't get to it.