Primary

I have never had a primary calling - ever.  Not nursery, not teaching, nothing.  To be brutally honest that has been the prayer of my heart the last 10 years, "please don't put me in nursery or primary".  I actually avoided subbing like the plague.  I ALWAYS came up with a reason I couldn't sub.  I would sub - but I would keep it limited - truthfully with 4 kids in primary I could sub almost every week if I did it every time someone asked me, I would usually do it once a year per kid - other than that I would come up with some lame excuse.  People are pretty shocked when I let them in on my little secret because... I TEACH PRESCHOOL AND LOVE IT!  Why would I HATE primary?  I can't really answer that.  Some of the answer is that I had 4 young kids at home all day for several years I NEEDED that 2 hour break (although LOTS of other women do and they are in primary/nursery).  Another is that primary really is so different than preschool - philosophically I actually have a hard time teaching young kids the gospel becasue most of it is abstract and you really shouldn't teach young kids abstract things.  Another is I actually LOVE church.  I love all three hours.  I love Gospel Doctrine, I love Relief Society - I love discussing the gospel; I am one of those people that reads all the lessons before hand and has them marked up with questions or thoughts I have.  Three hours of church is like food for my soul.  Every time I have subbed in Primary I leave feeling drained instead of full and I miss second and third hour so much.  I knew one day I would have to "take my turn" in primary but I hoped I could fly under the radar a few more years.  Spoiler alert: I am now in the primary presidency.

But lets back up to how the spirit prepared me for it:

About 9 months ago I was asked to sub for Madison's class.  I RELUCTANTLY said yes.  The lesson was about the Holy Ghost.  I decided to prepare it like I would a preschool lesson (since they were preschoolers/kindergarten).  To make it concrete I had them bring in their favorite blanket or stuffed animal that they have had since a child or sleep with.  I will spare you all the details of the lesson but in the end I brought a paper that said, "The Holy Ghost gives me comfort like ____________ gives me comfort".  Then they wrote in their stuffed animals name and drew an observational drawing of their stuffed animal.  It was wonderful.  I had so much fun and they got it!  As we were wrapping up a voice came into my head that said, "see you can do this, you can teach primary".  I didn't want to hear that voice so I pushed it out - but I did recognize it and tucked the prompting away - knowing that if I did get called I had at least been prepared - I recognized that I could do it and be good at it and like it.  But I didn't want to like it - yet.

About 4 months after that I was visiting teaching.  My companion was in the primary presidency - as one of her MANY callings (4 actually).  The woman we were visiting mentioned how many callings she had and why and Mandy said, "hopefully I am being released for one of them on Sunday".  She never said which one and one would assume it would be a "less important calling".  But that same voice said to me immediately(even before she was done talking), "Mandy is going to be released from the primary presidency on Sunday and you are going to take her place".  I didn't fight the voice much this time, actually I didn't really listen either, I kind of just moved on and forgot about it.  Until... later that night I got a call from the bishopric asking if Jason and I could come meet with him.  I am embarrassed to say that I didn't even remember my prompting, Jason and I started to guess why they wanted to visit with us and who was getting a new calling and what it would be.  About 5 minutes into our debate my prompting came into my mind like a flash of lightning and all of the sudden everything was clear.  I told Jason, but he disagreed and thought it was something else (I don't remember what).  Obviously we went and I was indeed called to the Primary Presidency, first counselor.  I was released from my previous calling: ward missionary - which I LOVED and absolutely did not want to be released from.

Now, you would think I would have the faith to move forward and know that this was the calling for me.  But I instead was still a little bit upset (prideful) about the whole thing.  I gave myself a day.  A day to be sad/mad.  A day to mourn.  Mourn my old calling, mourn Sunday School and Relief Society, mourn my new TWO hours in Primary.  Then, I promised myself, after that day I would pony up and be in it 100%.

I am now 4 months into my calling and I have to say I LOVE IT!  I have loved it from day one.  I don't miss Gospel Doctrine at all or Relief Society.  My cup is full after Primary every week.  I just love those kids and get excited to see them again each week.  I love my presidency and love working with them.  It has been 10 years since I have been in a presidency and I didn't realize how great the love and support is in a presidency.  I feel like I have 3 new best friends who love and support me - which I have really needed these past 4 months.  At one point we thought we might be moving and my first thought was how sad I would be to leave me calling (which 6 months ago I thought I would have wanted to move just to get out of a primary calling IF I got called).  I am grateful for a church who pushes me.  I am grateful that I was taught early on to not say no to callings and to do what we are asked to do - becasue if not I really would have said no.  I am grateful Heavenly Father knows what I need more that what I think I need.  I am grateful that I have learned to love these children and have received revelation for them when I have needed it.  I am also grateful to learn that it isn't all about me and what I need - but I can be selfless and do what the ward needs or what Heavenly Father needs. And now I am grateful to be humbled each week and repentant as I struggle EVERY WEEK to find teachers and subs for these kids - pay back can be brutal - I judge my former self!  ha

Preschool

I don't blog about preschool much.  I am not sure why.  I have a few theories.  One of which - this is not a private blog and I don't want to post about other peoples kids who are not my own.  Two - I compartmentalize it pretty well.  When people ask me if I work I say no, or I tell people I just stay home.  Eventually in the conversation it comes out that I teach preschool and they say, "I thought you don't work" - "oh, well... yea.. but its not really work." I say back.  The truth is, I hate the thought of working, I love staying home and being a stay at home mom, or a house wife, or what ever you want to call it.  And teaching preschool for me is just a hobby, something for fun.  The fact that they pay me actually makes me a little uncomfortable.  

This is my 4th year teaching.  It gets easier and easier every year, I know (almost) never have to do anything the day (or night) before.  I can take down the previous day and set up the new day all the morning of, after my kids go to school and before the preschoolers get there.  I have everything down to a science.  Honestly, though, this is the first year I have done it having all my kids in school all day, and it has changed it a little bit.  I don't know exactly how yet.  I think I need to start looking at it like a job if I am really going to be doing this for the next 10 years or so.   But I wanted to put a few pictures up of my centers and the different things we do.  I didn't include any of kids - just my centers before the kids come.  I change them either every day or every week - depending on what we are doing.  

Dramatic play: restaurant 

Math table

Challenge table:

Sensory table: wet, colored spaghetti

Draamatic play: Apple market

Math table: Apple patterns

Science shelf

Large group activity: apple math

Another large group activity: apple poll and graphing

Apple books

Dramatic play: Doctor's office

rainbow/color books 

Large group - making a 3D rainbow

Math table: playdough tree

apple/tree books

halloween books

Writing center: Halloween

dramatic play: grocery store

sensory table: marbles game and water beads in water

Large group: candy cane science

Dramatic play: wrapping "presents" (blocks)

Dramatic play: Christmas scene (and making ornaments)

Writing center: Christmas

Match table: make a forest

Art table: playdough on pumpkin

pounding pumpkins

dramatic play: toy store (for Christmas)

Block center: Christmas train village

Large group: Making wreaths

Sensory table: Cutting

Art table: Glue designs

Art center: easel starter

Sensory table: water play

Large group: painting names (this is our first day of preschool activity)

Math table: tin can robots

Science center

school books

Block center

writing center

morning time center

Challenge table

art table: painting with cans

One  day in the summer I was setting up my supplies room (it is actually my favorite part of the preschool - it makes me so happy to see all my supplies), one of the bench marks for kindergarten is "uses a variety of writing tools", so obviously I need a variety of writing tools for the kids to experiment with.  After I was done organizing I thought, I think I may have gone a little over board.  I need to take some pictures of my supply room and post them.  It is fantastic.

Around the house

Madison is just so cute.  I love watching what she comes up with.  She is so creative.  She often sets up her toys all around the house.  I find her absolutely adorable. 

Millie and Leslie come to visit!

My aunt Leslie and cousin Millie came to visit.  Millie's best friend moved to Colorado and was having a birthday party and getting baptized so they decided to come out and surprise her.  They stayed with us for 3 days and it was so fun.  Millie also brought clothes she has out grown and the girls have loved their new clothes (some of them they are wearing in the picture).  Millie slept in the girls' room and Leslie took me out to dinner one night.  It was great - we love visitors!

Halloween

The day of Halloween was pretty busy.  First off I had preschool.  The kids wore their costumes and then we had a parade at pick up.  I just love my preschoolers!

Then I went to the school for my kid's parties.  Since I have 4 in elementary school I didn't commit to help at any party.  I just spent about 15 minutes in each classroom.  It worked out great becasue I just got to hang with my kids AND got 4 different cupcakes!

Then they had their Halloween parade.

For trick or treating we went down to Jen's house and took a neighborhood group photo.   All these kids live with on our street with-in about a 6 house radius - our neighborhood ROCKS!!

My cute kids. 

The Harry Potter clan.  Can you even stand Megan's pose!?  She did that ALL on her own.

Noah and his best friend, David.

Noah was Harry Potter.  He loved reading the books and watching the movies.  Like I mentioned earlier, we read the first 3 as a family and then after that they have to be in 4th grade and read it on their own.  Noah has now read the 4th book and is on the 5th.

Once Noah said he wanted to be Harry, Megan quickly decided she wanted to be Hermione.  This ws really sweet to watch.  Megan and Noah don't typically get along - but they were really sweet with each other this Halloween since they were in matching costumes - I think it was great for their friendship - AND SHE IS KILLING ME WITH HER POSES!

As mentioned before, we still didn't have a job around Halloween and the thought of the cost of costumes was giving me some anxiety.  I hate Halloween to begin with (I am NOT crafty to make costumes) and the added stress of trying to do it cheaply was really getting to me.  I had a chat with the kids about it and I tried to convince them to pick something out of what we had from previous years (or in dress ups).  Madison decided she wanted to be the same thing as last year.  I, of course, didn't want them to feel "slided" or sad about it - so I double (and triple) checked and she was really happy to be a witch again.  Last year we borrowed a purple wig from our friend, the birch's, but they had given it away, so this year we borrowed a green wig from the Marriott's.  She also wanted to carry around a wand, a book of magic spells, and a broom.  She wanted to carry all of those things while trick or treating, along with her pillow case.  It lasted about 5 houses (more than I thought) - before she reluctantly gave me all of her accessories.

Brock went back and forth about what he wanted to be (like most years)  In the end he wanted to be a detective.  This costume gave me the most trouble.  It took me hours and hours of looking for that dang trench coat - but in the end (in the final hours) I found it at the 4th Good Will I sent to.  He was happy - Woo Hoo!

The Harry Potter costumes were borrowed from my friend, Heather.  I put a request out on our Ward Facebook page for some help with Halloween costumes and EVERYONE offered up what they had to help dress my kids.  I am so grateful with all of the help we have gotten over these past few months.

We all started out as a big group trick or treating, but that is not sustainable.  In the end Brock went off with a group of boys.  Noah went with David and his dad. And me the girls went (but just right behind Noah).  Megan and Noah gave up after about an hour and a half, then I took Brock, Lincoln, and Madison to another neighborhood where they went another hour.  Then Madison kept going for another half hour!  She was our winner and was done trick or treating about 8:30.  Now we have more candy than you can even imagine.  What we have decided to do is let them pick 20 pieces of candy every Sunday and they can eat them when ever and how ever they want.  With a few rules though: 1 - you can't steel other peoples candy once you eat all of  yours.  2 - you MUST throw away your wrappers (found wrappers will result in one lost piece of candy).  3 - you have to eat breakfast before you eat candy.  And 4 - no candy after brushing teeth at night.