Miracles and the Lie Monster

Miracle #1: Not only was I feeling alright when i woke up in the morning, but I felt well enough to make it through all of church, including primary!! If that isn't considered a miracle I don't know what is.
We now have two new children in our primary class of five-year-olds, bringing our total to eight kids who are louder and more rambunctious than any group of children I know. If I thought I was worn out before, I really am now at 23 weeks pregnant. Whew!

Kaleb and I realized on Saturday night that we were actually one Primary lesson ahead... Oops! So we tried to come up with a lesson that would really get through to the young kids in our class. After lots of thinking and internet searching we came up with a topic: lying and making poor choices. Oftentimes we need to remind the kids in our class about making better choices and doing things that will help them feel the Spirit in Primary. So naturally, we thought addressing this may be very beneficial to our class.

Lesson Source

The first source we found gave us the idea of the Lie Monster. We basically just told a story of a young child making a poor choice and then lying about it. Because he got away with it the first time, he decided to continue lying, but what he didn't realize was that his poor choices helped the Lie Monster that was following behind him grow!
Then, to incorporate the doctrine of the Gospel, we got an idea from another source that stressed the role of the Savior in helping us make better choices and making us feel better inside. We talked a little about poor choices again and got out a bowl of ice cream. We poured salt on the ice cream and the kids were totally grossed out, but we discussed how sometimes we decide to cover up our poor choices with a lie or another bad choice and commenced to pour chocolate syrup over the salted ice cream. I let the kids smell the ice cream and asked them how they thought it would taste. All of them said it would taste bad, and yet when I asked if they wanted a bite, every single hand shot into the air.

Lesson Source

Some kids got more salted bites than others, but I quite enjoyed their faces. After they took their bites, a took out an empty bowl that was lightly salted in the bottom and we talked about how some choices are easy to make right and wipe away. Then I took another bowl out that had a large mound of salt that we had watered and let dry and harden. It was much harder to get out, but we decided that, with the help of some water, we could wipe the salt right out! So we washed the salt out (outside the church, of course!) and one smart little five-year-old girl indicated how Jesus Christ is just like the water and can help us wash away the bad choices and feelings that we have. Exactly right! 
Miracle #2: We let our class end with everyone eating a cup of ice cream (no salt included ;), and what was more impressive was that they each knew exactly what they learned that day and could tell their parents that they talked about poor choice and how Jesus Christ can help us feel better. Success!! 

Miracle #3: Homemade tortillas and a delicious dinner. With it becoming harder and harder to even bend over, I consider small things (like making dinner) a huge miracle in my life right now. I am blessed that I have the capacity to continue to do the things that I love. Like cooking!

Miracle #4: Sister Mellor, our Primary President, came to our home and let us know that they called a new "permanent substitute" to help us out when needed. Yay!! It can be really difficult for Kaleb in Primary on the days that I feel too weak or sick to make it through all of church, especially with such an energized class... On the days I can make it to Primary, I can help teach. But on those rough days, I will feel much better knowing that we have a teacher that can step in and who knows and can handle our class. This is such a large blessing!!

This has been such a a great Sabbath Day in which I have definitely felt the blessings of God :)