The Clarkson Family: March 2010

Happy 5th birthday Andrew!

Andrew wanted a 5-layer cake, so here it is!

My Grandma is wonderful!

Here is my bathroom, all painted a pretty green!
Beautiful Cajun Red in family room (same as kitchen)
Yellow in home school room.
Yellow in hall.

Family Picture WallMy Grandma is such a hard worker and so much fun! Love you Grandma!

Oh! The Horror!!!!!

I'll bet no one has a picture like this! Because, if you find your child playing in the toilet, you don't leave to go get your camera! Well, my camera was in my hand, and after jumping around and screaming "Oh my gosh" a few times, I took the picture, then soaped Levi down , praying the whole time he wouldn't get sick! What a cute face though!

Do you have a girl age 8-12?

I have a book recommendation for you! (Mostly Cassondra and Jamie Sue, but anyone else as well). Even if your daughter doesn't want to read this series on her own, I'm sure she wouldn't object to staying up 30 minutes later per night to hear you read it to her! I am aching to have a girl. Boys are just different, and not into romantic, girly novels.

The books are by Melissa Wiley. They are Historical Fiction and for ages 8-12, but I couldn't put them down. There are 4 books in each series, "The Martha Years" and "The Charlotte Years" and then there are 7 books in "The Caroline Years" but they are by a different author, Celia Wilkins.

THEY ARE SO GOOD! Talk about virtuous, lovely and praiseworthy material and it will get the girls thinking about how they really want to be and who they are. It will also provide great conversations between you and your daughters. I'll bet you can find them at your library. If I had a daughter, I would buy them and have them available during those long summer months when they have "nothing to do".

Pictures by Chelsea

Cute Boys! Can I just say it is soooooooooooooo hard to get all 4 cooperating at the same time?My favorite Levi smile! This is his face 90% of the day! So fun!
Levi 8 mos old - picture for my wall
Look at Isaac's funny face! I love this!

Thank you Chelsea!

Current Favorite Quotes From My Current Favorite Books

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin

"Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw

"Rather than turning inward to 'find' herself, she has 'created' herself throughout her life by serving others, building her character, and rising to the challenges life has presented her." Maria Covey Cole

"Contentment should be the hallmark of the man or woman who has put his or her affairs in the hands of God." Phillip Keller

"If a woman wants to become a finer mother, she must first become a finer person." Maria Covey Cole

"Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms... I think also, that general virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the education of youth, than from the exhortations of adult persons; bad habits and vices of the mind being, like diseases of the body, more easily prevented [in youth] than cured [in adults.] I think, moreover, that talents for the education of youth are the gift of God; and that he on whom they are bestowed, whenever a way is opened for the use of them, is as strongly called as if he heard a voice from heaven...." Benjamin Franklin

"I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue." Samuel Adams

"Life is a mission and not a career, and the purpose of all our education and knowledge is so that we can better represent Him and serve that mission of life in His name and toward His purposes." David O. McKay

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

"I have been quoted as saying, 'Do the best you can.' But I want to emphasize that it be the very best. We are too prone to be satisfied with mediocre performance. We are capable of doing so much better." Gordon B. Hinckley

The 5 Metastasizing Cancers:
Comparing
Competing
Criticizing
Complaining
Complacency
These lead to feelings of discontentment and can get us caught in the "thick of thin things." Stephen R. Covey

"Lasting contentment comes from pursuing the true reasons for our existence: looking for, finding, loving, and serving God and His children. All other pursuits are mere distractions." Maria Covey Cole

"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." John Adams

"We frequently speak of the strength of the priesthood and properly so. But we must never lose sight of the strength of the women. It is mothers who set the tone of the home. It is mothers who most directly affect the lives of their children. It is mothers who teach infants to pray, who read to them choice and beautiful literature from the scriptures and other sources. It is mothers who nurture them and bring them up in the ways of the Lord. Their influence is paramount." Gordon B. Hinckley

"I have noticed that daily we meet moments that steal our self-esteem. They are inevitable. Pick up any magazine; you see people who look healthier, skinnier, or better dressed than you are. Look around. There is always someone who seems smarter, another more self-assured, and still another more talented. In fact, each day we are reminded that we lack certain talents, that we make mistakes, that we do not excel in all things. And amidst all this, it is easy to believe that we do not quite measure up in the great scheme of things, but are inferior in some secret way....
"If you base your self-esteem, your feeling of self-worth, on anything outside the quality of your heart, your mind, or your soul, you have based it on a very shaky footing. So you and I are not perfect in form or physical figure? So you and I are not the richest, the wisest, the wittiest? So what?" Paul H. Dunn

"To teach, encourage, cheer up, console, amuse, stimulate or advise a husband or children or friends, you have to be something yourself. And how to be something yourself? Only by working hard and with gumption at something you love and care for and think is important.
"So if you want your children to be musicians, then work at music yourself, seriously and with all your intelligence. If you want them to be scholars, study hard yourself. If you want them to be honest, be honest yourself. And so it goes.
"And that is why I would say to the worn and hectored mothers who longed to write and could find not a minute for it: If you would shut your door for an hour a day and say: "Mother is working on her five-act tragedy in blank verse!" you would be surprised how they would respect you. They would probably all become playwrights." Brenda Ueland (1938)

The Clarkson Family

Happy 5th birthday Andrew!

Painted House

Oh! The Horror!!!!!

Do you have a girl age 8-12?

Pictures by Chelsea

How many licks to the center of a tootsie roll pop?

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