My charming niece came over for forty-eight hours of crafts, conversation, and lots and lots of snacks. Here are some of the things that she did during her visit: She also had a piano lesson, baked brownies, learned how to hunt like a mountain lion and protect cubs like a mama wolf, and ate plenty of pizza, pasta, and pancakes! I hope she will come over again some time. :)
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It's turkey time! Some of these birds went to Primary yesterday, and the rest are at home contemplating their fate.
Food52 recently published this quick-and-easy cookie bar recipe. It looked like a great way to use up the free dark brown sugar from Wholesome and the not-free partially-used malted milk powder from Amazon. Alas, the quantities required were insufficient to use up either ingredient, but I did empty the chocolate chip container! Clearly, more malted milk and dark brown sugar recipes are in our future. I did not try these or take a picture of them before they went to church for Primary and Sunday School class treats. The students gave them multiple thumbs up, though, as evidenced by the scarce leftovers after our meetings. I deducted about four minutes from the minimum recommended baking time, and used regular butter instead of browned. Otherwise, this recipe was quick and easy, and everyone loved it.
A quick and easy baking project on a busy Saturday. Recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour, with festive Easter M&Ms substituted for some of the chocolate chips. The Primary and Sunday School students were very excited to eat them! One of my students said she had only had a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast, so perhaps our next snack should be bran muffins instead of cookies. Perhaps not!
There was a canister of malted milk powder in the pantry (left over from making malted chocolate sandwich cookies and malted chocolate cupcakes, of course), so when Imperial Sugar e-mailed this recipe last month, it seemed like these cookies were meant to be. The preparation process was somewhat fraught, as the cookie dough refused to submit to the treatment suggested by the author of the recipe. The eleven- to thirteen-year-old taste testers, however, were completely unaware that these were supposed to be elegantly piped and dipped cookies rather than modernistically drizzled rounds, and pronounced them delicious. The baker plans to use familiar recipes for all subsequent projects this winter!
We had some aging packets of hot chocolate mix (because we usually make homemade hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows!), so The Girl Who Ate Everything's Hot Chocolate Cookies sounded like a good recipe to try. I made the cookies smaller than she did and used about 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips instead of two kinds of standard size chips. Instead of mixing frozen marshmallows to the batter, I waited until the cookies had cooled, then made sandwiches, using marshmallow cream as the glue. Here is how they turned out:
. . .or that is where the photograph would be if the baker had remembered to take one before giving them all away to family and Sunday School students. Everyone who ate one said it was delicious, so maybe I will make another batch some time and document it properly. Today was almost a very sad day in our little class. It was Fast Sunday, so Sister Combs had not brought snacks, but the Primary President had saved cookies from an event earlier in the week, so nobody starved to death. It was also Sister Combs's last Sunday as a CTR (she is moving to a Sunday School class several years older), but the children seemed blissfully unaware of the fact, so we continued class as usual and left it for mom and dad to explain matters to them at home. We talked about some of our very special treasures, such as piggy banks, stuffed animals, and toy trucks. Everybody could think of a treasure and what made it so important and valuable. Then we took turns pulling objects from our treasure box: a photograph of the Houston Temple, the scriptures, and pictures of Jesus. We talked how all of these treasures teach us what Heavenly Father wants us to do and help us to be happy. We learned that many people came to learn from Jesus when he lived on the earth. No matter how tired he was, he always found time to teach them. Jesus wants everyone to know the truth. We reviewed some of our favorite stories from the life of Jesus Christ. We learned that prophets teach us what Jesus wants us to know. We talked a little about Joseph Smith, and how he studied the scriptures and prayed to know which church was true. He had a vision and learned that none of the churches then on the earth were correct. Later, Jesus sent angels to help Joseph Smith restore the true church on the earth and become a latter-day prophet. We always love talking about our current prophet, President Thomas S. Monson! He has many great stories that teach us how we should live and treat others.
We loved coloring treasure boxes and other items to review what we learned in class today! The children ate their chocolate-chip cookies and had a long discussion about muffins for a future snack. They helped Sister Combs figure out why her flashlight was not working -- she hadn't turned on the power! We talked about some of the things that we can do using electrical power, and then discussed that there is a much greater power: the power of the priesthood. We watched a Bible video reenactment of when Jesus calmed the stormy seas. Most of the class enjoyed seeing the weather change and the looks of astonishment on the disciples' faces. We learned that it was through the power of the priesthood that Jesus could command the wind and the water to be still. We learned that many people hold the priesthood, including the current and former prophets and our fathers. We learned that Heavenly Father gave them this power to bless and help us, and we discussed some of the ways that the priesthood is used. We reviewed last week's lesson about healing the sick. We learned that the young men who bless and pass the Sacrament hold the priesthood. We talked about what we should do during the Sacrament; the children said we should think about Jesus and not talk. We reviewed what we had learned in prior lessons about baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The baptism lesson must have made a big impression, because the children remembered all about when Jesus was baptized and some of the steps they should take to prepare for their own baptisms when they reach the age of accountability! Syler looked at a picture of a baby blessing and remembered when his father blessed his baby sister. If Mees had been in class, he probably would have been happy to share about his baby brother's blessing, too. The children were very excited to see the picture of a couple who had just been sealed in the temple. We discussed that temple marriages last forever, not just until we die. The children each said that they will be married in the temple when they grow up. We looked at some other pictures of temples and discussed how they are all beautiful and special. We learned that fathers who hold the priesthood can give their children special blessings if they are nervous about school or worried about other things.
The children were very excited to have little "I Love to See the Temple" books to color. They especially liked drawing a temple with the Angel Moroni on top on the blank page! The children were overexcited from Mother's Day, but they were still able to focus on their chocolate-chip cookies. We looked at items that one might find in a first-aid kit and discussed how we would use them. All of these things can help us to feel better when we are sick or injured. The children had trouble thinking of anything else that might help us to heal, so we listened to a story about Jesus to try to figure out the answer. The children enjoyed hearing the story of the daughter of Jairus. They were horrified when some of Jairus' friends laughed at Jesus for saying that the child was not dead, only sleeping. They thought it was good that those people were not allowed to stay when Jesus blessed the girl, because they were so rude! We discussed that Jesus was able to heal the daughter of Jairus because he held the priesthood and because the child's family had faith that she could be healed. We learned that we can receive blessings of healing, even though Jesus is not on the earth with us right now. Righteous men who hold the priesthood have the authority to act in the Savior's name and administer priesthood ordinances. We talked about how they anoint our heads with consecrated oil (at least one of the children remembered seeing this done) and how usually there are two men giving us the blessing. We discussed how we need to have faith, like Jairus did, that we can be healed.
We learned about the first time President Monson gave someone a blessing. We love hearing stories from the life of our prophet! Our coloring page shows several pictures related to essential elements of priesthood blessings. The children added lots of smiley face stickers, because it makes us happy that we can receive blessings when we are sick. The children loved their little round carrot cookies, especially the frosting. After snack time, we watched a little video to introduce our topic for the day. We talked about what the missionaries in the song were doing. We learned that the sons of Mosiah chose to become missionaries rather than staying to advance their political careers. Mees pointed out that most kings in the scriptures were wicked, so being a missionary was much better. We learned that King Mosiah (who was a good king!) was worried about his sons' safety among the Lamanites, but Heavenly Father promised him that they would be safe. We talked about how Ammon and his brothers prayed often and made good choices. We learned that Ammon became a servant to King Lamoni. He protected the king's sheep and showed love and respect for the Lamanites, which made the king want to know more about the Gospel. Eventually, thousands of the Lamanites joined the church because of Ammon and his brothers.
We learned that we can be missionaries, even though we are not on full-time missions right now. We role-played inviting a neighbor to an activity, playing nicely with others, and helping a neighbor pick up her spilled groceries. We learned that we can follow Jesus's example and be kind and loving to everyone, and sometimes people will want to know why we act and feel the way we do. Sister Combs brought a bag of warm fuzzies, and the children felt inside the bag and tried to imagine what could be so soft and wonderful. They wanted to learn more about the warm fuzzies! Learning about Jesus makes us feel warm and happy inside, so the children agreed that they should share what they know about Jesus with their friends and neighbors. They were very excited to take a warm fuzzy home and explain to their families how they can be member missionaries. We had two coloring options, but most members of the class liked the full-time missionaries better than the member missionaries. |
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