Operation Get Through Church

For those of you who don't know, our sacrament meeting at church is 70 minutes. For adults, that is fine. Unless, of course, you have children. If, however, you are blessed with squirmy children who enjoy running around and being a kid, sacrament meeting can quickly turn into a NIGHTMARE. Especially when church does not start until 11:00- during lunch time and after they have been running around all morning. Something about trying to get kids to sit still after having a long morning does not seem to work well. (As a side, I would be OK if we decided to have a special kids sacrament meeting separate from the adults, but don't start yelling at me- I know it won't ever happen. I'm just saying I would support the idea if it ever came out)

Anyway, sacrament had become completely unbearable. Like, truly, the most dreaded and horrible hour of the week. It's not that our kids are bad, it's that they are KIDS- they would much rather be playing than sitting nicely. We knew it was really getting bad when we were sitting down, then discovered Claire was missing. In about 15 seconds Claire had climbed underneath 2 pews (what family didn't see a little girl crawling under their feet?) and had run back half-way through the back gym. Nice.

I decided I needed to come up with a plan- and fast. I researched. I photocopied. I prayed. Here is what I came up with:

I made four different file folder games. These are a pain, but also a surprising amount of fun to make. This one I designed myself based from an idea I got from a file folder game an autistic child I used to tutor used:

 White boards!!! I actually bought 2 cheap white boards from Target, but then I was invited to an Expo House Party at a friends house. This was the best party ever! Basically it's a party where you are given tons of free stuff. We got white boards and markers and an eraser for FREE!!!! Three words: WASHABLE Expo markers!

 This idea was brilliant: Take workbook pages and put them in a binder in sheet protectors so they can be used over and over again! The Expo markers work perfect on these pages! I found a million free printable pre-school worksheets on-line, and Audra just LOVES them! Every day she wants to do them. I will need to keep printing more copies.

 This idea was another super smart one: give each girl their own blank notebook and just let them draw. Colored pencils work well because they don't break like crayons.

Then, some new coloring books and some fresh books from the library, and we were ready to go.

How did it turn out? AWESOME! It has been two weeks, and sacrament has actually been bearable! This week, in fact, they didn't even ask for snacks! Now I think I am going to make two more church bags so we rotate them so they don't get bored.

Admittedly, this was a lot of work. But if it allows Ben and I to enjoy at least a little bit of sacrament, it is worth it.

Relief Society Question

This is a question for those of you in Relief Society (the women's organization at our church).

There have been a lot of changes to RS meetings (the weeknight meetings, not the Sunday ones) in regards to what is and is not appropriate. I completely support those changes, but I had a question for you guys.

Yesterday in a meeting, I learned that crafts are no longer appropriate because they do not fit the purpose of RS. There are several of us in our ward who enjoy crafts** and think they help us make our home a nicer place to live and therefore they do fit into the purpose of RS. So here is my question:

How has your ward, if at all, incorporated crafts into your RS meetings so that it is edifying to the sisters? Or, do you no longer do any crafts at all?

And here's a bonus question for you: Do you have any ideas for RS meetings of things your ward has done that you thought was so awesome every ward should do it? If so, please share!

Thanks in advance for your ideas and suggestions!!!!

**This is not a debate about whether or not you like crafts- some people do, some people don't. I am simply curious to know if other wards have figured out how to do crafts in a way that still fits the purpose of RS.

Fire? What Fire?

So, today during sacarament at church the fire alarm went off. The bishop (the spiritual leader of our congregation) gets up and says, "there is no fire, we will continue with the meeting as planned." While the fire alarms are blaring (and they are LOUD), this poor guy stands at the pulpit and bears his testimony. Obviously, nobody can hear him and our ears are all hurting. After this the bishop stands up and says, "rather then having our speakers talk over the alarm, we will have some quiet time until they are reset." He has the organist start playing the organ and we are supposed to sit quietly while our ears burst. I decide to get Audra (and myself) out of there- we went out to the hall and eventually outside where several others had also gone. It took about 10 minutes before the alarms finally stopped, and I am still hearing ringing in my ears- definitely a first for me in sacrament!