Something to think about

I recently finished reading both of these books. I started with A thousand splendid suns. I started the book not knowing what it was about. By the end of the book I was in disbelief that women could be treated so cruelly! I just finished the Princess book last night and can't seem to quit thinking about it. I can't understand how in the late 1900's and still today this kind of treatment toward women is allowed!! How can it be allowed? I keep thinking there must be something I could do - but not sure what. Although I feel like I can't help I do keep thinking about the fact that I am FREE to do what I want and when I want. I am educated. I got to choose who I married. I can state my opinion without fear of being stoned to death. I don't live in fear of my husband and and other men. I am FREE. I think of freedom as a right - something everyone is or should be granted but am reminded everyone doesn't enjoy the freedoms we do. Sometimes when I think life is hard or not fair or I'm bugged because the kids are getting on my nerves hopefully I will remember these books and realize life just isn't that bad for me. All day today I have felt that because we have these great freedoms we better not sit around and be idle. We better enjoy these freedoms and do GOOD things with our lives. Some people would give anything to live like we do. If you are looking for a good uplifting book these are not the books for you. They are a bit depressing and unfortunately there is no happy ending. The stories in these books are tragic. However, they were eye opening and reminded me of the good life I have and like we've heard often "where much is given much is required".

Time out for Women!

I am getting caught up on my blog (once again!) so, this happened several weeks ago but it was so much fun I couldn't NOT post it. I went with a bunch of friends to stay the night in Chicago and attend Time out for Women. It was so uplifting and rejuvenating. I loved every minute of it. I think every woman could benefit from Time Out for Women on a yearly basis. I absolutely loved it. Not to mention I was with some really fun friends. We had some pretty good laughs throughout the course of the weekend. Thank goodness for a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL husband who was encouraging of a fun get away for myself and willing to be with the kids all weekend. It was just what I needed!!

Wacky Hair Day

Lucy thought it was funny her school was having "wacky hair day" but she sure loved going with crazy hair!!

Better Late than Never!!

Happy VERY VERY Late Birthday to Ethan who turned 4 in February!! I had my birthday then 2 days later we had his party and one day later I got REALLY sick. It took 2 weeks to get better so I never blogged his b-day. We had a fun spider man party.

He loved the cake I made for him

We played lots fun games. We made a giant web throughout our house for one of the games. Here is Ethan standing in part of it.
Here is the birthday boy with all os his friends!! It was a big group for a small house!! We survived and although it was tons of fun Andy and I both let out a sigh of relief when it was over!!

I'm declaring myself a non-sewer!!

We have lots of remnants of fabric and Lucy has been eying it for a while. She finally asked me to teach her to sew. So, I had fun teaching her. She mad a very cute sleeping bag for her baby doll. However, I have declared myself a non-sewer. I am glad to have a machine and glad to know how to do some basic sewing but other than that I have decided I don't sew. I guess I'm declaring it so i don't have to feel guilty for hardly ever using it. Sewing stresses me out more than anything. If I don't cut exactly right or sew a bit off chances of having a good final product aren't good and then all my time is wasted. Let's face it - i should have declared myself a non-sewer the day I was doing a Young Woman project and sewed the shoulders to the waist!! I think that was a pretty big sign!! ( I will admit that I have been saving stacks of jeans to make a pic-nic blanket. So, I am in the middle of making one but that will probably be my last major project for a while!)

Maybe it wasn't such a great lesson after all!!

Funny story!! I was in charge of sharing time. I put a lot of effort into preparing a lesson on the atonement and repentance. I used an idea i saw on line. I won't go into all the details but I started by showing a dirty plate and comparing it to sin and how we can be clean (like the clean plate) when we repent. Anyway, I'm all about visuals so thought this would be a great idea to use. So, at dinner tonight Andy asked the kids what they learned at church. Lucy replied, "We learned that Jesus doesn't like us to have dirty dishes." Oh my!!! So much for my great lesson!!