Tuck In

In the summer after lunch,

I have my older 3 children help 

tuck in my younger 3 children for a nap.  

They play/sing/read to them and I supervise.

It's great training for the older children and bonding for all.

I captured each of them today on camera so I could remember such great moments.

 Packer and Benson

 Sadie and Holland

Myriam and Hunter

The Tennis Bug

Donny and I just finished playing 

in our second tennis tournament together.

We started up the Millville Days Tennis Tournament last year

and both years it has been so much fun.

We have gotten so obsessed each time

with learning and practicing this great sport.

(Thank you Elisabeth and Logan for encouraging us to 

build our house by the tennis courts!)

We've made it to the finals both years 

and we are consistent at winning 2nd place.

 All our kids, especially our oldest have also got the tennis bug.

After breakfast and morning chores are done,

everyone runs out to the tennis courts.

All the neighborhood kids join us-

it looks like we have a huge tennis lesson going on daily.

I have often wondered why I get so obsessed with things.

Whatever I get into, I GET INTO it until I have mastered it.

I just finished reading "Peter Pan" 

and at the end of the book there was this quote I loved:

"Whatever Mr. Darling did, he had to do in excess;

otherwise he soon gave up."

It felt so good to know Mr. Darling had my same tendencies!

I Can Do Hard Things!

 MILLVILLE 5K RUN

 Myriam made a goal to run the Millville 5K Run this summer.

She has been practicing for months with mom and dad.
Sadie and Packer decided to join her and have also practiced with us.

This morning, she woke up very sick.

She ran the race anyways! 

She can push herself to do hard things.

 Packer woke up and decided he wanted to only run the 1 mile.

Mom and Dad pushed him to run the 5K instead.

He was so proud of himself and he got a great time (29:10).

He even made himself a shirt for his first 5K and had us sign it.

Packer really experienced
FAITH=
Assurance to try something required of him that he was afraid of and 
Evidence afterwards that he can do it and will be able to do more hard things in the future.

Sadie did great- no pushing or complaining, she just did it.

Holland and Hunter ran the 1 mile run 

and they biked in the parade.  

Holland waved to everybody- like a princess-

as she rode her spider-man bike 

that had red streamers to make it kind of pretty.

Summer Earnings

So, I tried to tell myself that I was going to relax-

and really let the kids have a summer vacation.

But...

It's in my nature to drive myself and everyone around me to excellence.

So, 

Here's our summer earnings:

When they have their housework done, they have me check it off 

and I hand them a breakfast ticket.

When they have a piano song perfected,

(or the younger kids memorize/sing a primary song)

they pass it off to me and I hand them a lunch ticket.

And so on... 

They each have their own box garden and an area around the house 

that has to be weed perfect and passed off by dad for dinner.

The best part is scripture study.

During the day, we each read the same chapter from the Book of Mormon on our own.

I have made up "search" questions for each verse

and I print them out each day- they complete it like homework-

that earns them their evening fruit/protein snack.

(just like the iron rod "word of God" led Nephi to the "fruit" on the tree)

We then eat our snack and read through our answers.

It has led us to the most awesome discussions-

Donny and I get into "teacher" mode and the spirit has testified 

of the truth of the Book of Mormon to each of their hearts each day.

Feel free to use our same questions to help you

with your own individual or family scripture study.

http://ourchildrenmayknow.blogspot.com/