We've been having a great week- Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn are here. Camping in our driveway. The weather is great and we are going to have a great last week of summer!!!

Things to do this week....
1. School Supplies
2. School clothes for Maddie
her old clothes are mostly covered in paint and grass stains. Yesterday She and Caleb were snakes.
3. sign the kids up for classes with the MSCR
4. Plan Martin's Baptism, friday at 7pm. I love Martin. He really is a great kid and understands the gospel enough to be baptised. So far so good with this one. "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it" I hope we are doing enough to help him and his siblings learn everything they need to know in this life.
5. Plan a small birthday Party for Martin
6. Run Half Marathon Saturday
7. Lose weight- this week I started a diet, but lost nothing despite being tired and counting calories and running 40 miles this week. Next week this will be better.
8. Enjoy all of the visiting family. It really is fun!
9. Get everyone up to the WI dells Thursday. We are going to a smaller water park, and all of our relatives are coming along. It will be fun if no one drowns. the children are 3mo, 6mo, 2,3,5 and 8. There will be 6 adults and they will all be busy.

Our scheduled is pretty full.

Library Time- the video game problem

We have some great local libraries.

In addition to books, there are play areas. Caleb and Maddie played with the toy kitchen for a long time.

Reed watched them.













Martin played too,
but he spent most of his time playing on the library computers.

I HATE the library computers in the kids' area. We go to the library less frequently because of them. Our first strategy was to go the library but not do computers. My kids would watch other kids play, which was the same thing. I couldn't read to the kdis or help them get books because Martin and Maddie would sneak onto the computer. It made library time difficult, but overall worked out alright.
Our current strategy is to only have computer time at the library. That way I can read to the kids and help them get books without having to constantly tell Martin to get off the computer.

I hope we can teach Martin to use his time wisely.
This is my job; raise the kids. So I get to help him avoid video game addiction.

VIDEO GAME ADDICTION
I once heard a podcast about addiction, and Its premise was that addictions start and can be prevented young. It said that alchoholics began drinking on average at age 13.

At what age, I wonder, are video game addicts formed? perhaps the stereotypical video game playing nerdy middleschooler is not as innocent as we would imagine.

That being said, there is a world of difference in degree. I know lots of people who recreate responsibly with electronic games. It really is a social skill that boys need to develope.

The people with actual 'problems' I suspect, would have trouble without their videogames. It is the addictive personality. Some take this as an excuse "video games are better than crack-cocaine!". True. However My kids isn't going to have either problem.

He is going to have a moderate supervised childhood, and will neither suffer from 8 hours of video games a day nor from a 'Mother' who would let him play video games for 8 hours a day.

Weight Loss Activity

So....
I am awesome. I can to this conclusion a few evenings back, I was running, which always makes me feel good,* Anyways I just thought that my body is incredibly awesome it can do all of this exercise, it can do it well. I can feel myself getting stronger every week as I get back into shape. My body also can feed my baby, and I use it to move around, play with my kids and do everything else.
I need to lose some weight so that my body can function better. I joined a weight loss blog with some friends. I don't plan on losing the entire 10 lbs in 6 weeks, but maybe. The myfitnesspal.com site is awesome. It feels alot like weight watchers, with a database of all food and its caloric value. Seems like a good way to track my eating.

I am losing weight because it is better for my body, however If I don't lose it, I will still have an awesome working body that can do lots of stuff. The Book of Mormon says "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy". I really believe this. If I were to be unhappy with myself to the point of moping about bemoaning my extra weight I believe I would be committing a big sin. I am made in the image of God. How can one criticize that?

I love this talk.
It is everything I believe expressed in an inspired way.
http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-559-9,00.html




*intense exercise can release the same amount of dopamine as a prozac, though the 2 are not completely interchangeable, so consult your doctor before starting this or any self medicating/exercise activity

Martin's Talk

Martin gave a talk in primary class last sunday. He is gettong old enough to actually understand the scriptures. Martin told us his talk, and Ben wrote it down. Ben fact checked, and gave a tiny bit of help-mostly editing for length and helped with the 'conclusion'. In primary Martin read his talk. It is great that Martin can do stuff like this. He is growing intellectually and spiritually as well as physically.

My Talk: the story of Ammon
Ammon went on a mission to the lamanites to teach them the gospel. The Lamanites brought him before their king. when he met the King he said that he wanted to be his servant. The king said that Ammon could be a shepherd, and ammon accepted.
After he started his job, the servants told him that some robbers scattered their sheep when theyy tried to water them. A while later , they went over to water the sheep. the robbers came and scattered the sheep. Ammon helped them gather the sheep, then the robbers came again. This time Ammon was ready with his sword and sling. They started throwing rocks at him but they couldn't hit him because he had the power of God. Ammon started throwing rocks at them and killed some of the robbers with his sling. The robbers that were left started trying to hit him with swords and clubs. Every time they lifted their arm to kill him, Ammon cut off their arm. After the battle there were still some left , but htey ran away because the saw such power in Ammon.
The sheep got a drink of water as Ammon's fellow shepards picked up all the arms he had cut off and out them in a cloth. they went to the king and showed him all the arms that Ammon had cut off and told him what had happened. The king was so happy that he offered Ammon anything, but all Ammon wanted was for King Lamona to listen to the Gospel.

Like Ammon you can overcome tasks that are hard with the power of God. You too can have this power by going to church on Sunday being baptised and accepting the holy ghost. Be kind and gentle and love your enemies. Don't hurt your enemies back.

In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

art cart

the art cart came to a park near us recently...

The project was making a sculpture out of kid clay. Martin created an alien spaceship.
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Caleb and Maddie both dressed up as Rabbits. Caleb made a rabbit sculpture.. it looked like a blob, but Caleb had fun

Maddie made a heart sculpture, but she was most interseted in being a rabbit. She had fun hopping around the playground.

Then she decided to climb a tree.

Does she know that Bunnies don't climb trees? She got pretty high up in the tree.

Good job Maddie!

Purpose of a Garden

What is the purpose of having a garden? To save money on vegetables? Well, not really they are actually cheaper from the store.

I have a garden so that my kids can learn about plants and eat fresh vegetables.

So Our garden is serving its purpose. Caleb has learned that carrots grow in the garden, he can identify them and he knows that it he pulls on the tops enough he can get a carrot.

He also like to eat them. He eats a couple of little carrots everyday.

So next year I am going to plant more carrots. Maybe a couple of different types. Caleb also loved the pea plants that were ripe last month. however he never really ate them, he just played with them like a bunch of little marbles.

We went swimming recently.... Isn't Reed cute in his little towel suit? The other kids also enjoyed the pool. Martin was old enough to go off the diving board and on the water slides by himself.

Caleb loves being in the water.