March 2009 – Andelin Adventures

FHE #12

Our Extended Family Family Home Evening Manual Lesson 22

Opening Song: Children’s Songbook Pg 201 “When Grandpa Comes”

Opening Prayer: Tyra

Scripture: Malachi 4:6 “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”

Lesson: We talked with the kids about who are our immidiate family members and who are our extended family members. She showed pictures of various extended family members talking about who they are.

Activity: We are drawing pictures/writing letters to Great Great Grandma Ruby.

Closing Song: Children’s Songbook pg 199 “I have a Family Tree”

Closing Prayer: Jeremy

FHE Treat: Chocolate chip cookies.

Saying goodbye to our spot vacuum :(

Our poor little handheld spot cleaning vacuum went the way of all the earth today. It has been our faithful friend in cleaning up spills and other messes on the carpet and couches. It has been a very handy little tool for small clean-up jobs. BUT it has been loosing it’s ability to hold a charge, and today the plug that kept the yucky water from flooding the motor broke and so now, we need to find a new one. Our very handy tool has served us well, and put up a good fight against the spills and messes that kids and pets make.

FHE #11

Family Garden 52 Weeks of Family Night lesson 29

Opening Song: Children’s songbook pg 237 “The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden”

Opening Prayer: Jeremy

Scripture: Doctrine & Covenants 6:33 “Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.”

Activity: Add water to peat pellets to make them swell. And while the pellets are absorbing the water…..

Lesson: President Spencer W Kimball said: “We encourage you to plant all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees-plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities.”

I just love this quote. I don’t want to go overboard and do everything at once, but to have this as our goal “..to plant all the food that you feasibly can on your own property.” just fills me with excitement and we will get there in a few years (I hope 😉 ).

Activity: Now that the peat pellets are fully expanded, plant 2-3 seeds in each one. Tonight we are planting tomato and pepper seeds (it’s still to early to plant squash and melon seeds inside, they grow to big too fast and we don’t want them to die before it gets warm enough to move them outside).

Closing Song: Children’s songbook pg 242 “Popcorn Popping”

Closing Prayer: Tyra

FHE Treat: Swiss colony petits fours

Treasure Hunt

Our ward had what they called a ‘Treasure Hunt’ today where people from the ward could bring anything they wanted to declutter. Instead of taking it to DI they could just bring it to the church building and let others from our ward to pick through it for anything they might want or need. So I loaded up the back of the mini-van with 4 boxes a large bucket full of stuff and two more bags of stuff to take and to donate. I am SO excited to get that stuff out of our house. 😀 We have SO much stuff and we don’t even know what a lot of it is, so getting rid of a bunch of stuff that we have identified as stuff we don’t need, feels really good. And no we did not bring home more than we took. 😉 Ethan found a toy cell phone he wanted and Tyra found a care bear and a pair of snow boots that are hopefully big enough that she can grow into them and wear them next winter. Jeremy found a valentine Scooby doo that sings a song and a pair of shoes to grow into as well. And I found a costume that should be Dinah’s size come next halloween and an AWESOME kids book that I remember reading when I was a kid, “Henry’s Awful Mistake”. I am so excited about that and the kids have already asked me to read it to them many times. I just feel so good to have been able to help other people out with the stuff I don’t need, and they have announced that they are going to have another ‘Treasure Hunt’ in May. 😀 So it’s time to gather more stuff up to get rid of then……

Blueberries

I planted a couple blueberry bushes today. I am so excited to have berry bushes in our yard. I just hope these ones don’t die like the other ones we have planted in the past. But I dug up the soil, and mixed in a lot of peat moss, and some fertilizer and some sulfur (since blueberries like a more acidic soil than we have here). I would have taken a picture to post, but honestly a couple of twig bushes sticking out of the ground wouldn’t have been a very exciting picture, not to mention that it wouldn’t have turned out well since the branches of the twig bushes are pretty close to the same color as the dirt (so they wouldn’t have been very visible in a picture anyway 😉 ).