cruising through the drive thru right after church

i just survived nursery party

when someone shows up after church and interrupts your nap

why are you posting so many activities?

no, no one actually asked me that question. except, maybe my mom. she would ask me that question. because she would legit want to know why there are so many "activity" ideas and other garbage on this blog. ha! the grams (what we've nicknamed her since she became a grandma), is ALL ABOUT THE DOCTRINE. seriously. when i emailed her to tell her about my super awesome nursery party social media idea, she emailed back with:

"Awesome!  Don't forget Jesus.  Put a lot of Jesus pictures around in nursery."

and then later when we were emailing back and forth about her upcoming winter trip to visit her grandchildren she said...

"Wow!  I'm to excited.   Whatever you decide and however you want done.   Let me see.  Right now you are a little frustrated because you feel alone in what has been going on.   PRAY AND LISTEN!   HE'S RIGHT THERE AND KNOW EVERYTHING!  I know some things and I hope I'm helping you know what HE knows."

guys, now that i am a mom, i am totally obsessed with my mom cause she's a genius. i'll be bragging about her all the time cause she's so great. 

anyways, to answer the self-imposed question of "why are you posting so many activities..." since you talk about teaching the doctrine and keeping it simple is because of this. 

nursery is two hours. TWO HOURS people. some of you have classes that are as small as two kids and they might be your own. some of you have 72! (seriously, 72, see here). and the rest of us i am guessing have everything in between. so with all of those 18 month olds to 3yo in your class and with attention spans of ants, you need a lot to occupy them. you need amo! 

besides, all the lesson help you need, is IN THE MANUAL. (obsession with the manual in this post) that's the best part. is you don't have to rack your brain trying to figure out what to teach, you just have to figure out all the other stuff that takes up about 115 minutes. the manual makes our lives so much easier.

so i hope i answered your question. i want this blog to be more than lesson helps because you already have lesson helps, the Church provided it. i'll just add a few lesson applicable craft ideas for keeping the kids busy post-lesson and other helpful survival tips. 

having two toddlers and trying to sit down to eat something when i am starving...

how YOU who are not called to the nursery can help with the nursery

there is one job that i never, ever, ever want. it's a division one football head coaching job. if you are doing well, then awesome, everyone loves you. but the second you slip up, look like you are failing, then everyone on every form of social media wants you gone. all of a sudden they forget all of the amazing things you did before that one moment of weakness. there are open letters that float around saying how you can do this and this better and why aren't you doing this. tweets and retweets about your terrible lack of character, etc. sometimes, often times, from an outsider perspective, we think we can do better than what the current person is doing. and unlike a head football coaching job where we can't call them up and share with them what we think they could be doing to be better, we can with other things.

enter the point of this post.

i've heard from a few people, "i wish my son was in your nursery class" or "i wish our nursery leaders were like you." we all wish for better things in different areas. i'm flattered, don't get me wrong, and would love to visit (with the nursery guru aka my mom) and teach in all the nurseries of the world, but there are some things that you, as parents of nursery party goers and auxiliary leaders, can do to help a nursery leader out! maybe you have tried to suggest a few things, and they didn't go well. but maybe, just maybe you are the answer to a desperate prayer that a tired, stressed out nursery leader has sent up to the heavens week after week. so...make friendly suggestions without overstepping (you know, like refer them to my blog or instagram ;), let the nursery leader know that he/she can ask you to help in the nursery when they are short-staffed, or even better, ask the bishop for a calling in nursery! oh wouldn't that just be the ideal!

and now...

here are a few ways that have helped us get what we need for the nursery:

UTILIZE OTHER AUXILIARIES
 -The Young Women Auxiliary: ask the YW president if there are any girls who are in need of personal progress projects (like a Good Works value project) that would like to take on a project for the nursery i.e. organizing toy/puzzle/book donations, putting together DIY motor skill activities. Maybe the YW could use a few mutual service mutual activities. If you are in another type of religious congregation that has a youth program, ask their leaders or the youth themselves if you can organize a service activity that will help the toddlers. Or if they need to take on a community service project!
        - The Relief Society Auxiliary: meet with the RS president and ask if they would like to                       organize an activity for enrichment night. Kindly tell her what you need and let them run with             it.
        - The Young Men Auxiliary/Scouting program: Find ways that the boys can fulfill scouting                requirements/service projects that can help with the nursery like cleaning all of the nursery                  toys, repairing broken toys, organizing donations, etc.
        - The Primary: Activity Days girls: Activity days girls love doing DIY projects, so why not                meet with the leader to ask them to help with the nursery?
     
       

nursery party is over

until next sunday...

what i look like when i planned a really awesome activity and there is utter chaos