Explaining difficult things

Isn't it a sad world we live in when we have to explain to our children about homosexuality and abortions. It makes me so grateful to have the church in my life and that I know about Christ's teachings and the purpose of life and families. Tonight I overheard my children having a conversation about how Barack Obama thinks it's okay for girls to marry girls and boys to marry boys. Then I heard one of them say that it is because girls marry girls that babies are killed in the mommy's tummy. I had to correct their ideas and explain things that I never imagined having to teach to my children especially being so young. We talked about how Heavenly Father wants babies to grow up with mommies and daddies and how life is special and every baby deserves a chance to get a body and have a family. We also talked about how it is important to vote for good leaders, who believe the same as us about right and wrong. I am glad that my children feel they can talk to me and ask questions but it also makes me sad that I have teach my children about such things. I can see now, more than ever why it is important to have Family Home Evening and build good relationships with your children. The family is truly under attack and it is up to us to strengthen our families individually and teach our children the importance and sanctity of families. I am so grateful for living prophets who teach about the importance of families and how to strengthen them. How blessed I feel to have such knowledge in times like these.

It's November already?

I can't believe how fast October flew by. There is much to say and so little time. So I'll just share a little bit at a time. My precious angels don't afford me much alone time for posting without some sort of disaster lurking or a fight on the horizon. Although, I have come up with a pretty effective solution to fighting in our household. I told my children I did not like the sound of fighting and bickering or whining so if they found it necessary they were going to have to sing because I only wanted to hear pleasant sounds. This is now the Mair House Musical. (I am forever making up songs to my kids about all kinds of silly things especially in the morning when I wake them up, so they are used to hearing singing in our house on a daily basis). So now when I hear them fighting, I say, "Wait, stop, I need to hear singing. Now, go!" Which is then followed by silence and a lot of smiling. I try to help them out by giving them an example of what I want to hear, by singing to them whatever they were fighting about for instance, "I want the lego, give me the lego." Not one of them has sang yet. I told them that if the fighting was so important then they could sing about it, I guess none of their fights have ranked high in importance. As I said is has been pretty effective because the fighting immediately stops.

Now on to the recap for October. Austin turned three on the 2nd, which was celebrated with the immediate family. He absolutely loves Lightning McQueen. And had to have a Lighting McQueen birthday cake. Be it known, I do not have any cake decorating skills or training so this was quite a feat for me. In the process I learned you cannot make red icing with liquid food coloring. You have to use paste which I did not have. This knowledge came after several attempts with food coloring and a phone call to McCormick. So Lighting Mcqueen was dark pink with lots of red sprinkles. At least my little boy was able to recognize him when I was finished. We, then had a Cars birthday party the following Saturday. Including my kids and cousins we had 21 little ones running around. We started out by making a license plate to wear and then divided up into groups to play a few games. We played musical cars, pin the winner on the race track, tractor tipping (bowling with tractor pics taped to the bowling pins), and red light/green light (which did not fair so well, the little guys would run even when I held up the red light and said red light-- oh well, what can you expect of two and three year olds) and finished off with the piston cup race. We then took a pit stop and had some tires (cupcakes) and motor oil (root beer) or gasoline (apple juice). It was a good time.
A continuation of the recap for the month gone by, to come later.

A failed promise with a resolve to keep moving forward

So I didn't keep my goal to post on Sunday as planned, but I did help my kids write in their journals. I have been trying to get in the habit of helping my kids learn to keep a journal (at least a weekly one.) This has been our Sunday activity for the last month. I am hoping that it will be a lasting activity. So often I have all these grandiose ideas that end up falling by the wayside or never get implemented. However, I am trying to simplify and enact or at least follow through on some of these grand ambitions in perhaps a not so grand fashion. My sister, Linett, once told me (while we were in college together) that it was far better to do something simply than to have great intentions that never get done. So here is my simple post.
I took my son, Austin, and the two children I babysit to the library for story time. Today they got to dress up, so we had a pirate, a fairy princess, and a witch. They listened to a Halloween story, sang a song about a spider, made a paper jack-o-lantern and finally paraded in their costume to trick or treat for some stickers.
Of course, we didn't make it back to the car with all of the costumes intact, that would be too much to expect from a three year old. Needless to say our pirate will not have his eye patch for Halloween. Although it was very unlikely that he would have worn it anyway.

It's been a while

Well, it's been a little while since I last posted and this Sunday I am going to give the low down on the Mairs. I thought I would just take a minute and get into the fall spirit and revamp my blogs look. To be honest I've been down in the dumps and and am now pulling myself out and getting things organized and setting small goals. So posting this Sunday is one of my goals. I have missed the blogging scene. Looking forward to sharing thoughts and experiences.

What a precious baby

Here he is, my nephew, Edward Bradshaw Hazelwood the 5th! Welcome to our family, we love you!

Prayer, what a wonderful blessing!

I just wanted to take a moment and express my gratitude for prayer. I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father, who has given us a means whereby we could communicate with him. Although I may never understand all the reasons and purposes for the trials each of us face, I do know that we can find peace, comfort, and strength in the midst of them. There is such power in prayer. Just recently, my sister, Linett, had her first baby, a boy. He was about 4 weeks early, in comparison to his due date. Everything was wonderful when he was born into this world. We were so happy and excited for her new little family. However the very next day he was having difficulty breathing and was having seizures and it was discovered that there was bleeding in his brain. He was immediately flown to the Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. For three days there was not good news. I poured my heart out in prayer along with so many others on behalf of my sister and her husband and especially their new precious little one. Finally, on the 4th day we received good news. The baby was breathing on his own and was able to eat and keep the food down and the seizures were under control and the damage to the brain was not as great as was thought and that there is great hope for full recovery being he is so little and his brain is still developing. I know this 180-degree turnaround was the result of prayers being heard and answered. My sister has since been able to bring her new bundle of joy home and he doing well. I am just so grateful for all the miracles God grants us, both big and small and that He hears and answers our prayers. What a blessing it is know that in this vast universe He hears our simple and humble prayers and cares enough to respond to our petitions. I know there is a God and that he truly does love us. And I am so thankful we can speak with him and feel and see his hand in each of our lives.