Calm Child

Just the name of this post it is kind of an oxymoron in my house, because the only time it seems like my children are calm is when they are sleeping. We have been especially concerned about Abigail because it seems like her active behavior is WAY above average for a little girl her age. I have been doing some research on ways to calm children down, and keep them focused. I do realize that I have twins that are 3 and a 6 1/2 year old and that we are cooped up in our house or school most of the day because of the lovely Idaho weather, but really, anyone who has spent a long amount of time with my children know that we are all talk and all action. So here is something that I have come across that helps my children chill out when they need to be chilled it is what I call a "Calm Child" potion. Here it is:

Mix 1 drop each of rosemary, sage, lavender, and chamomile oil in 1/8 cup of Olive oil, and use this aromatic oil to rub your child's feet.

I must note that it is very important to use pure essential oils, not synthetic ones. There is a company called doTerra that sells pure essential oils, if anyone is interested. This "Calm Child" potion smells really yummy too. You can put it on your child's spine too, but because I have children with very sensitive skin, I just stick with the feet. I don't know if just the act of rubbing my children's feet calms them down, but I do this in the day time too. I use it if the children are overly hyper and I can't seem to get them to calm down. I use it if someone is upset or inconsolable about something. It seems to help for a couple of hours at least. I am not to big into homeopathy and naturepathy, but I try to use natural things first al ot of times.

Visiting Teaching

I got my visiting teaching list the day before Valentines day and I have been trying to arrange some visits since then. My visiting teaching supervisor tells me that all of the people on my list (5) are less active or inactive including my companion, so it looks like I will have my work cut out for me. The month is now almost over and I still haven't even met anyone. No one was home when I delivered the cookies on Valentines day. I have decided that I will try one more time to go by an meet these ladies today and just take them a handout and introuduce myself. If you ever are in a crunch and need a visiting teaching message, I recommend the following sites http://sugardoodle.net and http://ldshandouts.blogspot.com/ By the way, does anyone ever feel like a stalker when it comes to church callings?

Oh, and I won't be posting any pictures on my blog for the next 4-6 weeks. My new lap top is sick, which is where I keep all of my pictures. It is at the repair shop and I will have it in about 4-6 weeks. Luckily it is still under warranty.

Love Me Tender

Here is what we did to celebrate Valentine's day.

In no particular order. At about 2:30 in the afternoon, there was a knock at my door and there were about 15-20 ladies standing at my front door wearing pink shirts. They told me that someone sent me a singing valentine. I invited them in and they filled my living room and sang "Love Me Tender" barbershop style and gave me a valentine from Darin. I was very amused and surprised that Darin thought of something like that. The girls loved it. Good job Darin. I loved it. It is rare that I get to be sung to cause I am normally the one doing the singing.



Nohting says I love you more to Darin than a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphey's. We had pizza and soda for dinner, Darin's favorite and us girls gave him a new pair of church shoes.

Valentines Cookies. Since Valentines day was on a Monday, we decided to deliver valentines cookies to our visiting teaching and home teaching families for FHE. The girls had a blast decorating the cookies.

I actually really don't like making cut-out sugar cookies because it is an all-day event. First you make the dough (which I have an awesome recipe from my friend Kristin if anyone wants it), then you chill the dough, that is when I usually make the frosting, but this time I cheated and bought Betty Crocker Frosting. After the dough chills for a couple of hours, you cut out the cookies, which takes forever, then you bake the cookies, then the cookies have to cool, and then they can be decorated. On Sunday, we made 9 dozen cut-out sugar cookies. Whew! I told the girls that we could only do this activity once or twice a year cause it is such a process.

My Little Bakers.

Valentine Boxes. Abigail's school sent a note home asking if they could make a valentine box to put their valentines in for their class party. On Sunday we had fun decorating the boxes. I love to see my little girls minds at work.

Cinderellas

The other day, Abigail came home from church and said that she learned that Jesus was the Prince of Peace and that she was his sister so that makes her a princess. She proceded to tell me that since she is a princess she no longer has to do her chores and that we need to find servents to do them for her. I followed that statement by saying, "Abigail, there are no servents here, plus Cinderella had to scrub alot of floors before she got to marry the prince and live in a castle." I quickly put them to work scrubbing sticky spots off the floor in the kitchen. The twins loved it, Abigail was not so amused that I turned things around on her.

Up To No Good

We have this railing in our kitchen that kind of seperates the eating area from the hallway. This has become the twins favorite place to play. However, they are not allowed to play on the railing because one of these days I am sure they will snap a rail off. They like to pretend that the railing is a carousel. I took this picture to catch them in the act. They knew that they were caught when I came around the corner and I snapped the shot before they could quickly jump off. Stinkers.

Snow Day

A couple of weeks ago school was delayed for two hours because we had about six inches of snow overnight. If we were in Texas, school would have been cancelled for a week. Abigail couldn't wait to get out in the powder. In the first picture, you can see our back yard and the elementary school in the back ground.

Recipe Blog

Did you guys know that I have a recipe blog? Well, I do. I didn't update it at all in 2010, but I am going to try harder this year to add some of my favorite recipes to it. These are all tried and tested, yummy recipes that are healthy and I calculated the fat and calories for every recipe except for one. Here it is http://healthyobsessionrecipes.blogspot.com If you would like for me to add one of your recipes to it, I would love to, just email me at mistyralphs@yahoo.com and I will try it out and calculate the nutritional facts and post it on my blog.

Misty