Talk Me Into It

Our Speech Homework for the Christmas (I mean Winter - I'll never get used to that) Break - is practicing the art of persuasion... not begging... persuasion.

Definitely a worthwhile activity for this time of year!

So, for the next two weeks we will be practicing how to persuade someone, without begging, demanding, shouting or losing our temper.

OTG Boy's Ornament

OTG Boy was so excited about the ornament he made in Art Class on Wednesday he wanted to show it to everyone. He made it using tin and a stylus - and obviously had a lot of fun working on it!

Piano Man on My Hands

Bubba has been begging for piano lessons for a couple of months now - he just wants to be able to play songs like his brothers. Finally, I decided hey let's go for it - we started about a month ago with some very simple lessons.

Today, he was practicing by showing me all of the "E keys" on the piano... when all of the sudden he started swaying back and forth, moving his head from side to side and broke out out singing, "My baby loves me..." then threw in a few, "down down babies," (from the playground rhyme). I couldn't believe it, Ray Charles was being channeled from the great beyond right into my living room - the only thing missing was the sunglasses!

The Best Christmas Party Ever!

For anyone interested - Bubba's Primary Teacher held a wonderful Christmas Party for her Primary Class this last week. Bubba had a great time! For anyone interested in seeing the party pictures click here!

My Time of Year

My parents tell me they brought me home from the hospital - put me under the Christmas tree - and I'd stare at the lights for hours. Maybe that's why Christmas is one of my favorite holidays! I love everything about celebrating Christmas!

Good thing I love making homemade ornaments - it can be done while sitting! I also love watching my kids make ornaments - again... perfect for sitting.

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday time of year! I absolutely love it!

Perspective

When we lived in California Handsome Hubby and I were soooooo excited to plant our very own orange tree! Having grown-up in Idaho and Utah we'd never had a tree like this and couldn't wait to see what happened.

We were so proud of our little tree when it actually produced 5 (or maybe it was 6) delicious oranges!

Then we moved to Mesa and bought a house with 3 orange trees. We still love oranges... but I have to be honest - we are so thankful our biggest tree has only about half of it's usual amount of fruit this year!

In a year that's been so busy... and I've been so unable to help... I am so thankful for a smaller harvest!

Funny how your perspective can change.

Keep It Going

It's been a few weeks since we've had speech homework, but here's the latest... how to keep a conversation going.

When someone tells you something about their day, ask a follow-up question beginning with - how, who, where, what, when, or why.

This lets the other person know that you care about what they have to say.