I thought January was supposed to calm down after the holidays...

... but instead it's been just as busy. This week I had things going on every single evening, and while they were fun things, I was definitely ready for a weekend come Friday night. (So much so that I bailed on my Friday night obligation in favor of staying home and playing Diablo III.)

So, quick recap:
- Monday was my birthday, which was delightful. Coconut milk ice cream, fun presents, and sushi, not to mention crepe paper covering my doorway in the morning.
- Tuesday we hosted book club, but it turned out only one other person showed up. It was actually quite nice. My dairy free/gluten free brownies turned out well, and I got to eat a lot of them myself since nobody came.
- Wednesday we went to the temple.
- Thursday I attended a service project extravaganza at church, where I helped make 100 valentines with goody bags for orphans. Then I hit up the Target for their clearance event, but I only found a few things that were worth buying.
- Friday we already covered.
- Saturday was Stake Conference. So was today, for that matter, though thankfully not in the evening for this session.

Work is going well, and Nathan's new batch of classes seem to be interesting (if a bit heavy on reading). I've been listening to audio books on my way to and from work (it's a 35 min commute each way; not terrible, but long enough that radio wasn't going to cut it) and in the last month and a half have managed to finish 4 and start on a fifth, all adult fantasy (two epic by Lois McMaster Bujold, two urban by Patricia Briggs, and the newest is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman). I am definitely soliciting suggestions for what I should listen to next, so let me know if you have any favorites you think I'd like! I'm limited to what the OC public library offers, but they do have a pretty good selection from what I've seen.

Oh! And of course I almost forgot to mention our super secret project that has officially launched as of last Monday! Nathan is reviving his YouTube channel and has begun posting new videos every day. They're "let's play" videos, where he records himself playing a game with him offering commentary throughout the gameplay. As a special feature, once a week (on Mondays), the "let's play" he posts will also feature a simultaneous video of me making a perler bead sprite related to the game. These are called "Perler Play" videos, and after they are posted, we also offer the featured perler sprite in our etsy shop. Check out the first one here, and stay tuned for a new one tomorrow!

Church Callings

Today was our last day of teaching the 3-4 year old children at church. It was quite the adventure this year. I still can't quite believe how much they grow up in a year: we went from having 8 little 3-year-olds, most of whom could not stay in their chairs for an hour, wiggling all over the place, none of whom could make it through the full hour of class time without multiple snack breaks... to having 6 four-year-olds (two moved out) who are relatively well behaved, can (mostly) sit still throughout Primary and class time, and are able to wait patiently until the end of class to get some fruit snacks. I used to have at least one on my lap the entirety of Primary, and now they all can sit in their own seats, and they even mostly stay in the same seat the whole time too. They can take turns. They remembered most of the basics of what we learned this year when we reviewed last week. (Very basics. I didn't want to tax them too much. "Are you a child of God?" "Yes!" "Excellent. Moving on.") It's been challenging at times, but overall it's been a pretty amazing experience.

Some things I've learned:
- Consistency is crucial for young children.
- Don't bring frosted cupcakes unless you also bring full body bibs to protect their Sunday clothes from getting stained.
- Pick low sugar snacks OR don't give them the sugary snacks until the last two minutes of class.
- Always have a lot of short activities. Coloring, fishing, finding hidden objects around the room, and bean bag toss games are all very popular.
- Have a very flexible lesson plan because it's probably going to change as soon as they start losing interest.
- The lesson manual for Sunbeams is not that great. However, www.sugardoodle.net has a plethora of lesson helps and activity ideas and is vital to having a lesson that lasts the entire class time.

Next year we teach the 5-6 year old class. We will have five children (I think), one of whom is our niece. (Our nephew was in the Sunbeams this year. Gotta keep this tradition going I guess.) I am interested to see how much of what I learned with the Sunbeams transfers over to slightly older children. I'm guessing the constant hope for treats will at the very least.