Fab Feb.

February was split between a trip to see the Hatfield's new house and the rest of it. Preston and Brenden slaved away pulling wire and getting outlets in the garage for their freezer and tools. Cart, the kids and I got to play. It happened to be the second annual Friend to Friend Event. The church is so smart. It was a fun, short, interactive message about staying on the covenant path. I call it "Conference for Kids".  Each child's picture was so meaningful. A sweet testimony.  From the mouths of babes.  They explained their pictures as follows: Katana- Jesus is the biggest light we can follow. Axel- Angel Moroni is like a golden light on the temples. Mace- this is a man praying cuz that's what you do to talk to Jesus. Zara- Jesus loves color. Baler-This is God sending someone in the darkest forest a bright flashlight. Zaleah used orange and yellow which Axel says represents light currents. To finish the wire we couldn't be in the house. Something about hot wires, open panel and no electricity. So we went to the Discovery Center. The exhibit was called "Exquisite Creatures, an artistic experience that unravels humanity's intimate relationship with the natural world"  The kids were mildly disturbed at first that everything was dead and that they cut the birds heads off to make art. The colorful bugs were my favorite.  Axel found a "Spiderman" lizard.  And we can all agree snakes are gross even stuffed  behind glass.   

Axels come follow me inspired by Grandma Dixie was to learn the rubix cube. I watched a dozen videos to learn the steps to teach him. He excels in this stuff. Patterns and puzzles. He can solve it in less than 5 min. I got new scrape leather from Dad to make earrings. Spurred a few hours of being "creative." Got new nail stamp polish. Fixed a new dress for our naked Barbie's. Harvested buttons off old shirts. Zara remined me of Betsie Ross. Mom made the little girls "jingle socks" not sure Zara has taken hers off yet. Katana has really taken to the Recorder. They do Recorder Karate earning strings and beads for each song. She is the fastest, highest earner in her school ever. So proud of all of them.

Slippers were on sale Zara picked the last pair of boys green monster feet. I have actually been looking into this concept lately of gender-izing objects especially children's items. Girl colors. Boy toys. Williams Doll is a great book that highlights this concept. A girl can be a Tom boy and its Ok but a boy in tune with his famine side is negatively labeled as a "Pretty boy" "Sisssy" or "fag". Copying Persia fashion 17th century European aristocrats men adopted heels as a symbol of virility and military prowess. They danced, wore makeup, wigs and skinny jeans and no one cared. I think if we were more open to search the creative outlets of both sides of our sexuality we would be healthier overall. I feel society is pushing our children to pick a gender based on their interests. A women with short hair isn't a Lesbian. A man with painted nails isn't a Queer. My Daughter can like Green monster feet. My son's favorite color can be Purple. Exploring your sexuality doesn't have to be about SEX. My Mace for example at 3 wanted to be a girl...because his baby girl sister got to wear diapers and big boys wore underwear. He got pull ups. At 5 1/2 he wants to be a girl because they look good with nice hair.....Mace got cologne infused lotion and a jar of hair gel for his birthday. Happy boy. He loves school. They make hats each week and do fun stations. Bless his teacher for sending lots of fun pictures.