Look, Feel, Help

Last week for Family Home Evening we had a lesson on service. The boys listened fairly well, and then to put it all in action we made cookies and delivered them to some people in the Ward. The boys loved it. Everything about it. We delievered a plate to our Bishop, and the following day the Bishop called to thank Will for the cookies and the note that Will wrote him. After Bishop was through thanking him I prompted Will to tell him "you're welcome", which he did, but followed it up with a, "Maybe you could make me some cookies now too!" I swear that wasn't part of the lesson.
The rest of the week when I needed them to do something like put their clothes in the dirty clothes or run and grab something for me I was sure to phrase it with "Will you do me a service?" Each time I said it, they almost always were quicker to respond and do. It was amazing.
As a follow up lesson to last week we talked about kindness, and made these rockin' glasses that I found in an old Friend magazine. In addition we made thank you cards for Grandma Hall since she sent the boys snuggly Christmas blankets. I was sure, though, to allow them to practice what they had been taught by simply bringing up how nice it was of Grandma to do that for them, and had them 'look, feel, and then do' which made Will think that thank yous were in order.
Why this terribly long story? I am amazed at how little effort it takes to teach these young kids some really solid and sound principles and virtues. 15 minutes and a coloring page, with some minor modifications in how I talk about things there after, and hopefully, I've planted the seeds for service and genuine kindness. Pretty stinking amazing. In comparison to most of the other moms I know, I am mediocre at best, so just think what you all are capable of!

An Answer to Prayer

Monday night we had gathered around the table for dinner, and Will offered up a very fervent dinner prayer, that went as follows:
"Dear Heavenly Father, help up to follow the prophet, help us to follow the commandments. Bless this food that it will get better..."

Tell me how I'm not supposed to take that personally. Ouch. Well, as was pointed out to me by my dad last night, perhaps the happenings of yesterday are a direct result of Will's humble prayer.

In the last 6 months we have had to replace our washer, dishwasher, and now our oven. Apparently 12 years is the lifespan on appliances or something, because our garage was beginning to look like an appliance grave yard. So, yesterday, in an effort to make us appear a little less trashy, I called an ad from Craigslist that some guy had posted who was just itching to have our junk, and sure enough within a half hour of calling he was here in his beat up, rusty toyota, threw all three appliances in the back, and just like that he raised our class level from "yes we park our cars on the lawn" to "we are just as sophisticated as you, we just choose to adorn our yard with tonka trucks instead of cherub fountains".
Which brings me to this beauty. I used it for the first time this morning, and I think I'm in love. No, it isn't THAT fancy, but it isn't a fire hazard (as was the one it replaced) it is A LOT nicer and the price was incredible. $170 at Sam's Club. The stars aligned...deal of a life time, right? or perhaps, just Heavenly Father extending his tender mercy on my little Will in an effort to help make this food better.