The Art of Homemaking: Book of Mosiah Interactive Map

We started the Book of Mormon again as a family in January and we are nearing the end of Mosiah.

Everyone gets their own book, Erica gets the one with pictures and the other kids are jealous.

The book of Mosiah is mostly about groups of people scattered all over doing dramatic things simultaneously. It can feel a little like the Lord of the Rings and pretty confusing for kids to follow.

To cut down on endless explaining, I created this not-to-scale, not-geographically-accurate map to give the kids a visual of the different groups so hopefully they could keep the story straight. And let's be honest, it helped me too.

I created groups of people that I knew would be mentioned and had to make a couple of others as we went that I forgot.

Mulekites have no scriptures, Nephites have scriptures.

Be jealous of my artistic abilities. Alma is the smiling priest of course.

When we read about a new character or people, the kids took turns finding the stick-figure counterpart and placing them on the map.

And when they died they moved to the wall of the dead.

Great thing about it is that it evolved as we read. And there was a big hooray last week when Alma and his people made it to Zarahemla and they were all together again.

I had intended it to just be used for these confusing chapters but Henry is already telling me what the Nehor guy should look like and asking if Alma the Younger is going to look like Alma the Elder and if I'm going to draw a bunch of arms in a bag for Ammon to carry to King Lamoni (ew). So perhaps I should laminate it so it will last for years and years of studying the Book of Mormon. Gosh I love the Book of Mormon.

Nice while it lasted

James has been mysteriously moving about the house for a few days. I'd put him down in front of toys in my room while I went to the bathroom and before I came out, he was yelling at me through the gap at the bottom of the door. I didn't see how he did it.

Through a series of pivots, stretching out on his tummy, sitting up, wiggling, stretching, and down-ward dogging he could get around-- although not in a straight line and rarely in the direction he really wanted to go.

I'd try to discourage it as much as I could. "Quick! Slide that ring to James. He's trying to get it."  Or I'd keep him in his slippery footy pjs all day long.

But despite my thwarting, last night it clicked. Knee-arm-knee-arm.

I'm sad but he's excited. "Put me down, Mom! I've been given the gift of mobility!"

Later that evening I held him close and rubbed his knees that will soon rough up and was just sad that he's growing up so fast. I was really hoping he'd be like Henry and not crawl until he was 11 months old. Fortunately he uses his new skill mostly to come to me (or maybe unfortunately, depending on what I'm doing).

Today he's making his way around the house pulling the kids' art off the walls, finding Legos, flicking door stoppers. Just your typical "What's over here that I can eat/rip/pull down?" And trying to pull himself up to stuff because, heck, why not get a jump-start on the next motor skill.

On the bright side, he has the ability to clean up his own cheerios under his highchair.

I hope he never stops doing this.

Church should be fun.

Pioneer Day-ish

Remember a few weeks ago when Bill Cosby's trial was all over the news? Well apparently my takeaway from all that was that Sarah would love the Cosby Show.

And she does.

Erica peeled her own huge carrot and found a small container of ranch in the fridge.

It became less about the carrot and all about the ranch.

"What? I love ranch."

Saturday was Mapleton's Pioneer Day celebration. This is one of my most favorite holidays but for some reason I was not in the mood this year. Justin could do without all the breakfast/parade fun so he wouldn't have cared much if we skipped it this year but I couldn't see how that conversation with the kids would end in anything but tears so I sucked it up.

First off, huge pancakes and fake eggs and 4 oz cartons of orange juice.

And switch so I could be in a picture.

Then we found my family at the elementary school and watched the parade. It's slow and full of gaps. There's always a ton of primary floats and local businesses and candy.

And a lot of fun for the kids.

I thought this was pretty clever. You couldn't help but wave back at their motorized waving arms. The real stake presidency was walking right behind throwing candy.

After a long day of naps/fishing/hanging out at my mom's, we got to the sports park in time for the fireworks. Since we got there at the time when James is usually fast asleep, I was nervous as to how he'd cope with being up so late. Around 9:45 I had to feed him bits of rice krispie treats to keep him happy. During the actual fireworks show he got super excited then bored, then ornery, then excited again.

And because we're never in pictures together:

This is our pretend engagement picture. 12 years this week since our first date!

The rest of my kids just ran around shooting things into the air, eating junk food, playing with cousins.

Erica is telling me she can't find her rocket that she sent into the air.

And lots of building with glow sticks.

Lots of glow sticks.

Even though it was hot and exhausting and I still felt a little blah all day about it all, I'm glad we went. Traditions are important.

Today is actual Pioneer Day but we're spending the day doing laundry and cleaning bedrooms.

James spent much of the day doing this.

I thought his face was funny in this picture. I think he has pink eye.

He's such a big cute stinker of a baby.

I'm posting this picture for the sole purpose that I'll go "awww, they were so little" in a couple of years.

We lit off the rest of our 4th of July fireworks.

There were mostly sparklers.

Erica even got brave and tried a few.

Sarah is writing her name.

I love this picture so much.

That face.

She got the hang of it.

During family home evening, Justin asked the kids what we can do to be like the pioneers, you know, things like being faithful and brave. Erica suggested dressing up in pioneer dresses.

Jumping, curling, posing, swimming, and diving

Since it's a bazillion degrees outside, the only way the kids can enjoy the trampoline during the day is if we turn the sprinklers on too.

Which they actually enjoy more than when it's dry.

They played until they were cold and pruny then ate popsicles on the porch wrapped up in their towels. Pretty good summer afternoon.

Some Sundays I do hot-rollers in Sarah's hair and Erica wanted a turn but her hair is too short so I promised we'd do foam curlers. I put them in for her one afternoon. I don't have an after picture because she was too busy running around and knocking them out. By the time she came back in, they had gone pretty flat. We'll try again when her hair is a little longer and she's more patient.

James is now doing baby yoga in preparation to crawl.

He does this all the time and the kids think it's hilarious.

Sarah finally got her week of swimming lessons. She's finally at the level where they focus on technique and learning new strokes so it's been fun to watch her practice.

 Here she is practicing her breathing. They learned the elementary backstroke and underwater swimming this year. I am looking forward to seeing what she learns next year. Now we just need to get to the pool more so that she can be on the high school swim team like she wants.

I wonder if this dive will do her well in a competition.

Here are all the kids' underwater pictures.