I'm going to go ahead and open myself up here. Let it all hang out. I am terribly self-conscious about sacrament meeting. I am constantly asking myself things like... "Is it okay to let her wave to the people in the pew behind us? How many waves is too many?", "Can she walk up and down the row?", "How many snacks are appropriate?", "How loud does Maggie have to cry to be distracting?"... and the list goes on. I see these cute ladies with their children all entertained and quiet and think to myself, what the heck? What am I doing wrong here? And their hair and clothes still look nice, while I look like I just finished a race!
One more thing... Rachel is two. I bring her out of the meeting at least once every Sunday. She knows that when I take her out to the foyer bad things happen, but that doesn't seem to deter her from throwing fits here and there. But we keep going back in until she get's the hint. You WILL stay in sacrament meeting! There are some Sunday's that I come home feeling like I just completely failed.
{sigh}
I have been thinking of ways to help make Sunday's more pleasant, while still keeping it gospel related. I saw someone with one of these and thought I'd make one too. Let me just say that it took me way longer that I had expected! I am not a scrapbooker. I always like the end result, but I don't necessarily enjoy the process. If I were to do this project again, I'd definitely use a 4x6 photo album instead of an 8x8. I found almost all my pictures from old Ensign magazines, and what I didn't find I found at the church bookstore and on the internet.
It's a Sunday ABC book. I started and soon realized that there's 26 letters in the alphabet! I have a feeling this realization is going to hit me about 26 miles as well. One page at a time, one mile at a time...
A- Atonement
B- Baptism
C- Christ
D- Daddy
E- Eternity
F- Faith
G- Gratitude
H- Holy Ghost
I- Independence
J- Joseph Smith
K- Knock (I put a picture of Christ knocking at the door)
L- Love
M- Mommy
N- Nature
O- Obey (I found a picture of people being happy... When I obey, I'm HAPPY all day!)
P- Prophet
Q- Quiet
R- Resurrection
S- Scriptures
T-Temple
U- Universe ( This one was tricky. I found a picture with the Christus and the universe behind him, and an awesome quote about how 'such order bears witness of a Supreme Creator')
V- Values ( I put all the YW values... I'll have to add YM values once I have boys, and I WILL have boys... I hope.)
W- Word of Wisdom
X- Exaltation (can you think of something better?)
Y- You
Z- Zion
And there you have it. Sorry for the suspense, I know it's not THAT amazing, but I'm so glad that it's finished! And I'm happy to report that it DID help today.
10 comments:
Okay, I officially love this book...and this idea. I need to make one for Jayce, even though he's six. He can't sit still in sacrament meeting and I wonder what I've done wrong (why do we do that?...blame ourselves...mommy fail...sheesh!). But, I think this will help, both him and me, because I will make the effort and he will love it (right?). I just have one question...I think K would have been tough! Maybe King? But I like Knock, especially for Jayce because he is starting to read and spell.
You rock, girl! And for your information, I love to hear little children in sacrament meeting. So, stay in as long as possible! And, Rachel WILL get it, she's just two and this is her job right now...making you crazy :).
Awesome awesome! I need one, max has so much energy and it always seems that during sacrament everyone else's toys are better than his.
AWESOME. PURE AWESOMENESS!!! I LOVE IT!!
That is fantastic! And you did a GREAT job! I'm definitely going to have to copy this for Emma!
This is amazing Jessica! I am completely impressed, and wish I could pay you to make me one because I'm like you and don't love to scrapbook, but always love the product. You seriously did awesome. Love the word choices. Exaltation is PERFECT. And hello...I just need to remind you of how Sadie acted when we were in that ward. She was two...do you remember Ranger School Sundays? Probably not. But I DO. Awful. She ran up onto the stage on more than one occasion. She couldn't sit still. It was just awful. But she is doing a lot better just in the last couple of months I've noticed. I have a friend who keeps her three children entertained with only a paper and pencil for each of them, and she flat out told me she thinks it's ridiculous when people have food and toys for their kids in sacrament meeting. I felt dumb, but I tried to be more conscious of it. But we still take Goldfish and books and a small toy sometimes. I tried stickers with Sadie back in GA and they were a big hit. It kept her entertained for at least half of the meeting. They have a huge pack at Walmart of "success stickers" or something like that that isn't too expensive. Rachel will get there. And this book really will help, I'm sure. It is so awesome! Maybe I'll have to start a project of my own...although it would never look as good as yours!
You are not alone in your feelings about sacrament meeting. But trust me, you are probably way more distracted by them than anyone else. Most people think it's cute or funny to hear little outbursts from kids. But I understand how it can be stressful. Your books are AMAZING!
Thanks for the great idea. Sacrament meeting is hard and thank heavens for nursery workers. I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with them for all three hours! Your book is adorable but I'm like you, I don't enjoy the process but the finished product is so satisfying. You never fail at the church thing as long as you keep going and partake of the sacrament. You are such a cute mom and it is fun to peek in on your life every once in awhile. Hope all is well. We miss you!
INCRÍVEL!!!!! = AWSOME in Portuguese!
cá e lá (my blog that doesn`t exist!) Anna
I absolutely LOVE this idea, Jess, and I can't wait to get started on one for Kenzie! You are soooo creative! I'm glad you put your alphabet list too--definitely going to be using the same exact one!
Thanks dearie!
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