FHE and Hello Kitty Storm Troopers

Yesterday we came together for what we Mormons endearingly call Family Home Evening (or FHE for short). Every Monday night, we gather as a family to sing gospel songs, read scriptures, teach a lesson based on a gospel principle, and play a game or do some other activity. We always end with a treat! Some weeks I have planned ahead better than others; you never know what you're going to get at our house. The important thing is the consistency, as it is with many gospel-oriented things.

My older boys LOVE FHE! B prays for it every night. And they both request it most days. Last night we talked about how the Lord will never ask us to do more than we are able and will always provide a way to accomplish His commandments. For an example, we reviewed a story from the Book of Mormon. A man, Nephi, is asked by God to do the seemingly impossible, and responds by saying "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commanded them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

We wrapped up the evening with Star Wars sugar cookies that the boys helped prepare earlier in the day. As I was putting the cookies into the oven, M said, "Mom! You are SO GOOD at this!"

 However, as soon as I started decorating them (in a hurry, as the spaghetti noodles were cooking for dinner), M stated, "Umm, Mom...these look...kinda...disgusting. Why does Yoda look so sad?" My husband said my Storm Troopers looked like a combination of Hello Kitty and Angry Birds.

Ugly cookies or not, they are mostly gone by now. And the boys sat still for several minutes of scripture study. And both boys asked to have FHE again tonight! I'll call that a success.

Published by Jen

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Serving Up Cupcakes!

I spent today baking!  It pretty much was an ALL DAY endeavor... not what I had planned on, but I went a little crazy and made FOUR DOZEN cupcakes!  If I'm going to all the trouble of baking, I might as well double the recipe... And then I decided, since the recipe I chose involved some waiting time (with cooking down then cooling of coconut milk), I could try another flavor too!  Add in the help of my kids, the extra bath around lunch time because they were both covered in chocolate, and 'Lil M spending most her time on my hip... it took all day.

But they were delicious!  Thanks to Cupcakes by Cami for the new recipes!  Against my nature, I actually followed the recipe too, which doesn't always happen, but today I wasn't baking for us.  

Typically, Monday nights at our house we have "Family Night".  One night a week, my husband, kids and I, all come together as a family to sing songs, pray, and have a short lesson together; the best ones, according to my kids and husband, end with a treat!  My kids are still young enough, they LOVE family night!

Today's lesson was on service.  We learned that service can be fun, AND tasty!  We took the cupcakes to our neighbors, and people from church who had a birthday this month.  B was so excited to carry the plates of cupcakes to everyone!  

We discussed that if Jesus were at our house, we would want to serve him!  We talked about the nice things we would want to do for him.  Then we read in Matthew 25:40, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And I explained that when we do nice things for others, it is like we are doing it for Jesus! 

Of course, family night doesn't always go as planned, and we had to finish up early because 'Lil M was tired and whining because she thought she saw a dog out the window, that she REALLY wanted to go pet!  

Oh well.  I'll finish the deliveries tomorrow.  However, family night ended with everyone happily eating cupcakes!

(If you are interested in the recipes, here is the link to Garbonzo Bean Chocolate Cupcakes and Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream Frosting... 

My favorite was the coconut ;))

Also, some of my lesson inspiration came from Parenting in the Latter-days, FHE lesson.  We didn't get much further than the scripture tonight, with all the time our deliveries took... I'll save the rest of the lesson for next week!

Published by: McKell

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