Easter in Primary

Now that I have a few weeks of experience, I have decided I like to teach sharing time.  Last time the object lesson with dishes was really fun. I think this week's Easter lesson turned out well, too. At the urging of my president, I am documenting the lesson here (you're welcome, Sandi).

I wanted the kids to learn about some of the things leading up to the Savior's death and resurrection, and to make the lesson interactive and meaningful. I wanted to teach doctrine and invite the Spirit. I think all of those things happened, so I consider the day a success.

In Junior Primary, I passed out word strips that said: (1) Triumphal entry; (2) Jesus prepares the sacrament; (3) Jesus washes the apostles' feet; (4) Garden of Gethsemane; (5) The crucifixion; (6) The tomb; and (7) Jesus shows his wounds.  In Senior Primary, I taped these papers under chairs, along with about a dozen papers with scriptures that corresponded to these seven events.

We talked about each event in order. The child with the word strip came to the front, read it to the group, and then looked at a table where I had displayed objects that correlated with each event. They chose the object and showed it to the group. In Senior Primary, the children came to the front and read the scripture verses, but in Junior, I summarized the stories. I also had pictures from the Church's online image gallery that I used to tell the stories. I asked questions and the kids gave some very thoughtful responses. We sang songs for each topic, as well.

Here is a summary of each discussion.

Triumphal Entry: The object was a plant, used to represent the palm leaves that believers waved as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem during the Passover.  I used this lesson as a reference for the story (which I obviously simplified), and displayed the picture below. We sang "Easter Hosanna" (Children's Songbook, 68). While the children sang the chorus ("Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the most high God!"), a few of them waved scarves in the air.



Jesus Prepares the Sacrament: The objects were a plate with bread and a cup of water. I told the story of the Last Supper, and how Jesus told his apostles to partake of bread and water to remember his body and blood. The children actually explained these things to the group when I asked them questions. They sang "The Church of Jesus Christ" (CS, 77). I showed this picture.



Jesus Washes the Apostles' Feet: Sandals and a towel symbolized this event. Not as many children knew the story, but they quickly understood its meaning--we can serve others as the Savior served his disciples. We talked about ways to serve each other, and then sang "As I Have Loved You" (Hymns, 308). The kids linked arms and swayed together as they sang.



Garden of Gethsemane: The object for this topic was a borrow of soap, which represents the gift of repentance made possible by Jesus' suffering in the garden. I used an example from this talk by Merrill J. Bateman (I remember sitting in the Marriott Center when he gave this devotional), that highlighted how the Savior took upon himself our sins one by one. I love that imagery. From this discussion we went straight into the next one without singing.



The Crucifixion: The children quickly picked the right object: a hammer and nails. I explained some of the events leading up to the crucifixion. I showed the picture below and we talked about some of the details of the story. I told them about the storms and darkness that happened both in Jerusalem and in America. Then the children sang, "To Think About Jesus" (CS, 71).



After this, we watched an excerpt from the video, "Finding Faith in Christ." The clip (from 19:20-22:53) depicts Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, his "criminal" sentencing, and his death on the cross. The children were riveted to this sensitive portrayal of events and I think everyone was touched. We sang, "I Stand All Amazed" (Hymns, 193), and I wasn't the only one who was emotional.

The Tomb: A flat rock and a folded white pillowcase were the symbols for this story. The rock represented the stone rolled away from the entrance to Christ's burial tomb, and the pillowcase symbolized the folded napkin found within the empty tomb on the Sabbath. We sang, "Jesus is Risen" (CS, 70).



Jesus Shows His Wounds: I brought a statue (like this one) of the resurrected Christ as the object for this topic. It shows the prints of the nails in his hands and feet. We talked about Mary Magdelene seeing the risen Lord outside of the tomb, and others who saw Jesus, including the people in America documented in the Book of Mormon. A few weeks ago I gave a lesson on the resurrection, so we referenced that, as well. We sang, "Did Jesus Really Live Again?" (CS, 64). 





Then I shared my testimony of all the things we had learned and shared together. We closed by singing, "He Sent His Son" (CS, 34), which I think had more meaning after talking about Easter for 45 minutes.

This sharing time lesson wasn't perfect. The kids weren't always quiet and a technical glitch prevented us from watching the video in Senior Primary. Some of the scripture excerpts were too long to read and should have been summarized (Primary children aren't Young Women... sometimes I forget to shift my expectations). But overall, I think the spirit was present enough to make an impact. All of my studying certainly prepared me to have a more meaningful Easter, and I hope that at least one child or teacher benefited from that, as well.

Sparkles and a Nephite

Recently our Primary president hatched the idea to present "Scripture Spotlights" during weekly opening exercises instead of spotlighting the children.  What a great idea, right?  I love it. We have been looking for ways to better incorporate the scriptures into Primary, and this seems like an excellent start.

The plan is to give the kids clues about a person or object in the Book of Mormon (and other books of scripture as we go).  We will offer four possible answers, and then the kids have to guess. For example:

"Heavenly Father told me in a dream that a hungry man named Alma would come to my house. When the man came, I fed him, and he told me about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believed what he said. Together Alma and I taught many people.  We watched members of the church die for what they believed, and we were put in prison. The Spirit of God helped us break free from our chains, and the prison crumbled around us, killing the guards and many wicked people."

1.  Alma the Younger

2.  Omni

3.  Enos

4. Amulek

If the majority of the kids chooses the right answer, then Sam the Scripture Man (haha) gets to advance a square on the path I made on this poster.

Hopefully making progress on a sparkly chart will get the kids excited about the scriptures, one story at a time. That would a wistful little ending to this post, but what I really want to say is: hopefully the laminating will last...it's a little sketchy...no endorsement for Mardel's laminating machine today. Ha.

If you want a copy of the scripture spotlights, email me at heidi[at]thebartles[dot]com.  I can't figure out how to post a multi-page document here, so I am embracing my imperfections and offering what I can! I do hope to make spotlights for the Old and New Testaments, and also the Doctrine & Covenants.  All in good [nap]time, right?

Pictured & Not

Welcome to another episode of Pictured & Not Pictured, wherein I share the stories behind the photos of Bartle family life. Here we go.

Pictured: Zach playing YMCA basketball.  He is wearing white shorts.

Not pictured: Zach's 57 rebounds.  His team won 38-17.

Pictured: Gavin and Lexi in their "nests," which were set up in my bedroom.

Not pictured: The birthday party going on next to their bedroom downstairs, which led to the sleeping in my bedroom.

Pictured: Garry sawing umpteen pieces of wood for Cub Scout toolboxes.

Not pictured: The painstakingly slow process of getting said Cub Scouts to assemble the toolboxes.

Pictured: The song I'm writing.

Not pictured: The notebook pages where I scrawled lyrics, and the frustration at discovering timing mistakes and not being able to figure out the Coda.

Pictured: A measure from "How Firm a Foundation." Not pictured: My awesome Facebook friends who helped identify the notes in parentheses, and also how to insert such notes into my score (Sandy, I'm looking at you).

Pictured: The beginnings of bulletin boards I designed for two places at church (isn't wrapping paper awesome?).  Not pictured: Karla getting a break from her calling on her birthday, and the awesome Cricut machine that Mindy loaned me.

Pictured: Gavin next to his name letters, and the "Keep it Clean!" sign he insisted I make so that he and Lexi wouldn't forget to clean their disaster of a bedroom on a daily basis.

Not pictured: The entire calendar year it took to hang those letters, which process took exactly five minutes.

Pictured: Bronco pride.

Not picture: Their horrific performance at the Superbowl.

Pictured: Four kids playing with exercise bands anchored to the wall.

Not pictured: Laughing parents.

Pictured: Our stake center on a cold winter's night (Superbowl night, actually).

Not pictured: Me walking into a stake training meeting that I thought was a fireside.  Haha.

Pictured: A darling little girl in her favorite shirt.

Not pictured: The swimming suit with a tutu that she insists on wearing 90% of the time, and her habit of slipping into it right before we need to go somewhere, as she did about five minutes after this picture was taken.

Also not pictured: The poor way that I handled that situation.

Pictured: Some of the (approximately one million) rubber hair bands that used to be sorted by color in that pill box.

Not pictured: The five times Kate spilled the bands on purpose in about three days, and the plastic cup the elastics now live in, all haphazardly.

Pictured: A girl sleeping in the van.

Not pictured: Newspaper delivery.

Pictured: An icy goatee.

Not pictured: Sub-zero weather.

Oh, wait.  That is pictured.  Notice the -17 degree bit toward the bottom. (That is about 20 degrees above the lowest temperature last week).

Not pictured: Kids who had two snow days and three (ten?) late-starts in two weeks of school.

Also not pictured: One frazzled mama.

Notes to self

Dear self,

Buying those big coloring books for the kids for Christmas was a stroke of brilliance.

Kate is not always going to be this small and charming, so treasure your time with her.

Indulge in make-believe.

Learn to laugh with this boy, and somehow teach him to laugh at his own mistakes.

Buy milk in mass quantities, since a full gallon can turn into this in 30 minutes.

You will always lay claim to "your" young women and enjoy supporting them in their endeavors.

Get this girl into ballet lessons as soon as she's old enough.

When your room looks like this, and the non-matching walls, the un-made bed, the stacks of un-read books, and the three-days-old laundry are driving you c.r.a.z.y, you can either spend some time taking care of it or walk away and stop being bothered.  You've got to pick one or the other and just do it.

The best cure for a bad day is to make a yummy dinner and take it to someone else.  Get out of yourself already.

The second best cure is to go out for ice cream with friends and laugh until it hurts, even if you stay an hour past closing.

Love,

Me

Gavin's talk

Gavin's reading interest and abilities have really taken off. He has the confidence to pick up a paper or look at a sign and try to read it, no matter how difficult it might be to decode. So this weekend, when I prepared a talk for him to give in Primary on Sunday, he was determined to read it all by himself. I helped him "read" the big words, which I'm sure he just memorized, but I'm still so proud of him for delivering an excellent talk. And he was certainly proud of himself. He shares a story about Lehi in the Book of Mormon. For more information about the story, go here.

Joy

Last September, my neighbor, Jennifer, and I were talking in my driveway.  Somehow the fact that I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came up in conversation.  She said, "Technically, I'm a Mormon, too!" Immediately we had a common bond.  A few days later she accepted my invitation to attend the General Relief Society Meeting broadcast at the stake center, and the next day her husband and two daughters came to church with us for the first time.

Since that time, the Beverage family has come to church regularly. They have been taking lessons from the missionaries, and a few weeks ago, the girls decided that they wanted to be baptized!  Watching Steven, Jennifer, Emily, and Edynn grow in the gospel has been a joyous experience for me.  Last night, I had the opportunity to speak during the baptismal service.  Those few moments were sweet for me, as well.  Garry was involved, too; he baptized Edynn.

Here are some pictures from the baptism last night.

The Beverage family with Elder Kesterson (yellow tie) and Elder Evans (blue tie).  

Garry, the missionaries, Emily (13), and Edynn (8).

Edynn and Emily.

Edynn with some of her classmates from church.

Emily with some of the Young Women.

The Beverage family and me.

There's a scripture in Section 18 of Doctrine and Covenants that has been on my mind the last few weeks.  It reads: "Remember the worth of souls in great in the sight of God....And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!  And now if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" 

I also can't help but think of our friends, Danny and Annie, who were baptized a few years ago. Sharing the gospel truly brings joy.

Primary pillowcase

Several children in our ward Primary are turning eight and getting baptized this year.  After some discussion among the presidency, we decided to give each of the children a white pillowcase at their baptisms.  As the only sewer (um...seamstress...I guess there's a reason for such a formal word) in the presidency I was elected to make the pillowcases.  Making a pillowcase is pretty simple, but the process became kind of tedious, as I made ten.  I made more work for myself by adding a ribbon trim to cover the seam where the end piece connects to the main part.  There is probably a more technical way to describe that...

This lady provided the inspiration for the gift, but I re-wrote the poem that goes with the pillowcase.  The poem talks about repentance, and how that relates to using a washing machine to clean the pillowcase when it gets dirty. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

The first pillowcase will go to my neighbor, 8-year-old Edynn, who will be baptized along with her sister, Emily (13), next Sunday night.  The girls and their parents have been meeting with the missionaries for a few months!  Their mom, my friend Jen, has also returned to activity after a long time. The whole process has been a happy part of my life since October. Hooray for the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Flying monkeys

I have mentioned complained about how much work I have been doing for my new calling in the Primary organization.  I have been pretty overwhelmed with it all, but I think that I am nearly finished with functional paperwork and 2014 preparation.  The last step for the new year was decorating our ward's Primary bulletin board.  The whole thing has been a comedy (or tragedy, since I am dramatic) of errors, including today when I left my adhesive putty at someone else's house and then locked myself out of the church building.  But today it is finally done, and I feel like several large and crazy monkeys have flown off my back.  Now I can just do regular secretary stuff and sit in the back row at church.

With all of the work I've done in the last two months, next December should be a breeze, right? Generally I keep a calling for less than a year, so we'll see....

Apology Letters

Dear couple sitting next to us in church,

I'm sorry.  Just really, really sorry.  I avoided all eye contact with you and sent many a frustrated eye-roll at the ceiling as I tried to manage the small people who alternately ALL wanted to sit by me/you and then down on the other end of the bench, raising Cain as they walked to and fro.  Good grief.  It was like a clown car on a seesaw.  I promise to leave you alone next week, even if it means sitting in the back on the hard chairs.

The mom of those kids

...

Dear Gavin,

Sorry, bud.  Your hair is not turning brown, even when you plaster water on it.  I'm not sure why you are so disappointed.

Used-to-be-a-towhead

...

Dear new-to-me chair,

Sorry for taking you apart.  Even as I am painstakingly (no really, it actually hurts) removing all of your staples and brackets, I feel like I'm stripping your dignity, one layer at a time.  Now you're standing naked in my living room and I want to cover you with a sheet.  And sorry also for being really weird about this.

Novice reupholsterererer

...

Dear Applebees,

Sorry I asked you to reserve seating for 16 when only 9 people actually came for dessert.  That was awkward.

Heidi, party of...?

...

Dear pants,

I'm sorry you are struggling to stay aloft when so much fat is trying to push you down.  It's easier to buy a belt than to exercise, so I'm going to the store tomorrow.  Good luck.

Muffin top

...

Dear Allison,

Sorry I quit physical therapy "against medical advice."  I know you want me to keep doing my core exercises, but my hip and back have felt better in the last two weeks than they have in the last year, and I think I have determined the connection.  Love you anyway.

Former Friday patient

...

Dear Beehives,

Sorry for sitting awkwardly in my seat every week.  My blasted feet don't reach the ground and I can't sit in those hard metal chairs very gracefully.  It's annoying, especially when people are looking at me.  Can't we just sit on the floor?

Sister B

...

Dear black pencil skirt,

Sorry for wearing you every.single.week to church.  I really need more skirts.  I guess if I really felt sorry for you I'd go shopping, but that would make me feel sorry for myself (see my letter to my pants), so I believe we are in what the cliche-ists refer to as a "Catch 22," whatever that means.  "Between a rock and a hard place" is just a dumb thing to say.  Maybe I should make up a euphemism for really stupid.  I'll work on that.

The lady with the super boring Sunday wardrobe

...

Dear Saturday,

Sorry for cramming so much into your scant hours.  Who knew that so many lame/menial/annoying tasks could be smooshed into one day? That must have been exhausting for you.  Oh wait, that was me.

Weekend Warrior

...

Dear Gavin and Lexi,

Sorry that I'm taking all of your stuff away tomorrow.  It's alllllll over your floor AGAIN, even though we cleaned it alllllll up yesterday.  I'm not a huge fan of you making messes just for the sake of making messes, so I figure if we eliminate the source of the messes, then the messes will go away.  That might mean you'll be out of underwear after two days, but what the heck.  There are pull-ups in the drawer.

The management

...

Dear Not Me,

Sorry for discovering your secret today.  Don't pretend you didn't fill that tall laundry basket with all manner of household belongings and hide it in the utility closet a couple of months ago.  You must have been so disappointed that your family recovered long-lost items like pajamas, a beloved dress-up gown, brand-new-back-then school shoes, and my favorite sandal.  I know you thrive on getting other people in trouble, and making other people miserable, etc., so I'm sorry for ruining your fun.  But seriously, don't ever do that again.

Secret Finder

...

Dear Zach,

Sorry for not believing you that you "lost" your white Sunday shirt.  How is that even possible?  Sorry for not being willing to iron another too-small plaid shirt when you opted to wear that to church after rejecting the other shirt I ironed for you.  We all survived, but you had better find your shirt for next week.  Talk to Not Me and I'm sure it will show up.

Mom

Projects

It's a season of projects, and surely it's only going to get busier the next couple of months. 

I'm still working like mad on Crèche posters and invitations. The approval process is slow, and my flaky brain has made some mistakes.  Posters are now hung throughout the community, and 1600 invitations will be distributed by full-time missionaries in the Colorado Springs mission, which has 60 companionships.  The first week of December I will be making name and story cards for about 500 nativities (Crèches) and indoor signage for the event, which happens in three weeks.

Tuesday evening (the night of Kate's Sharpie incident) was Young Women in Excellence, which is an event designed to celebrate the girls' experiences and accomplishments this year.  I recently wrote a song (which I thought I'd never do), and my friend Mindy sang it during the program.  I am doing the Personal Progress program with the girls, and this was one of my projects.  Writing music has tapped a part of me I didn't know existed.  It's been a neat experience.

Yesterday I bought myself another project: reupholstering two of these chairs. The acquisition of these chairs is kind of a funny story.  There's this house in the neighborhood of Lexi's preschool that I drive by six times a week. It often has random furniture in the yard, but no "for sale"  signs.  Yesterday these chairs were on the lawn.  After thinking about them all day, I decided to see if they were still there and ask about buying them.  The owner happened to be in her driveway when I got there.  She said I could have both for five bucks! Sweet!  They have great structure, and I think they will provide the extra seating in the living room that I have been craving.

Reupholstering is probably a larger job than I can handle. Just taking the staples out of the fabric has proved to be a Herculean task, and I'm nowhere near done. If you happen to have experience with this or other steps of the process and can offer tips, let me know.

Garry has a project too: he's been called to lead the ward's cub scout Bear den (Tyler's group) and teach Primary every week.  That makes Tuesday nights extra busy for us, but like everything else in life, we'll figure it out.