AWESOME FHE

Tonight for FHE we finally had the right mix of assignments to do a lesson I've been waiting to try. Stuart had lesson, I had activity and Maija had treat. So, we started the evening out by having the kids watch us make our very favorite brownies. The kid were salavating pretty good by the time they came out of the oven. However, in the meantime we started FHE and started talking about Charity, Sacrifice and Service. Right as the brownies were done we got to the part of our lesson where we told the kids that our plan was to give our brownies to another family. Neither KatieJo or Samuel were thrilled (Phillip didn't take a nap today, so NOTHING thrilled him tonight). So, we loaded up in the car and took the brownies over to a family that has been remodeling their house and have just moved back in during the last week and a half. They were THRILLED to be on the receiving end of the brownies. We don't know them very well, and so I think they may have been shocked to receive them from us. As we got back in the van we started talking about how good it felt to give them our brownies. KatieJo really got the point of the lesson, but Samuel was still a little bummed that he didn't get the treat. The last part of the lesson was about the blessings we can recieve from serving and sacrificing. As we were discussing that last part what do you know...the van was pulling into the McDonalds parking lot. Our "blessing" was to have ice cream at McDonalds tonight. They were all excited to be at McDonalds and not only get ice cream, but get to play as well.

Even though I knew that we were going to give the brownies away, I still felt AWESOME handing them over. They are our FAVORITE, but I'm so glad we decided to do this tonight. I think I needed the reminder as well what it feels like to give of something I'd rather keep to myself. We also had the opportunity to talk with the kids about Christ and Easter. They are finally beginning to understand what he did for us! Yesterday in Church (and before & after) Samuel kept telling us that he was thinking about Christ and asked if he could watch a conference DVD. Now, I was shocked off my rocker. This is my child that I worry about the most, and to have him tell us that made me feel like maybe what we are teaching him is somehow slowly trickling into his head!