Sunbeams

First of all, there are sunbeams outside.  On Sunday, we woke up to beautiful weather.  Yesterday was warm and wonderful in only my long-sleeved shirt, no jacket or coat or anything.  Sunshine really does make people feel better.  I know I felt more cheerful.  I was singing "You Make my Dreams" by Hall and Oates.  It is one of the songs on 500 Days of Summer.  Anyways, I was singing it on my walk to school and throughout the lovely day.

Now, to another type of sunbeams.  We had a very successful day on Sunday with our little sunbeams.  The lesson was on being thankful for flowers, plants, and trees.  Choco is amazing with them.  He started by drawing on the chalkboard a beautiful picture of a landscape while explaining the creation.  The kids were super excited to draw with chalk, so he assigned different parts to color once he finished the whole picture.  One girl colored the river, then preceded to draw her and her new dress.  One boy colored the tree with great enthusiasm.  The other boy was assigned to the sun.  After he was done with that, he continued to draw unknown shapes into our picture.  Overall, they were loving it.  It was great to stand back and watch them at work.  They may have been a bit messy, covered in colored chalk, but it was worth the fun.

Other activities of the lesson included pretending to be a seed growing up into a flower.  We let the kids create flowers on the floor with our colored construction paper (thank you sugardoodle.net).  Then we tossed a shoe to try to land on them.  We also let them jump on them and name the colors.  We acted out that we were trees.  Everyone did great swaying in the wind, reaching up tall to the sky, shaking off the snow, and growing blossoms.  Of course, this was followed by a beautiful rendition of "Popcorn Popping."  It was so fun to see the kids engaged and learning.  What a blessing to hear and see the funny and insightful things these little people say and do.  We love them a lot.

On Saturday, there was another kind of sunbeam or extra light in my life.  My dearest cousin Katie invited me to her stake's Relief Society women's conference to celebrate the birthday of the Relief Society.  Sister Beck came and spoke to us.  It was amazing and so uplifting!  One of the things she focused on was the purpose of Relief Society and what should also be our purpose in life as women.  The purpose includes three points:  to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen home and family, and help those in need.  These really are what we must focus on in our lives.  It was good to refocus and think of the things that I spend my time doing.  There is so much I need to work on.  What a blessing Heavenly Father is patient with us.  It was a splendid morning with one of my best friends!  Thanks Katie.

Dear Teresa and Katie.  Love them

Those are just some of the delightful sunbeams in my life.  Yay for sunshine, primary, and spiritual light.