Good Manners and Sharing Shirts

Eight-year-olds have pretty entertaining outlooks on manners.

"Okay," Tyjah began his FHE lesson on Monday, "I want you to stand if the story I tell is an example of good manners and sit down if it shows bad manners."

After reading the first scenario, his brothers and sisters were all in.

"Tommy was curled up on the couch watching his favorite movie.  He had his favorite blanket and was picking his nose, " he read.

At least he didn't ask us to act it out.  Acting came later.

After the lesson, Lyla chose a general conference story scroll.  I have to say that I'm loving these things!  We've acted out stories from conference in years passed, but I've never prepared them all in advance.  I'm definitely doing this again after the next general conference.

The story came from Elder Bruce D. Porter's talk, "Beautiful Mornings".  He relates a short story illustrating his roommate's perpetual optimism:

When I was a student at Brigham Young University, I lived in a house with several young men. My roommate, Bruce, was the most optimistic person I have ever known. We never once heard him say anything negative about any person or any circumstance, and it was impossible not to feel buoyed up in his presence. His good cheer flowed from an abiding trust in the Savior and in His gospel.

One cold, wintry day, another friend of mine, Tom, was walking across the university campus. It was only 7:00 in the morning, and the campus was deserted and dark. Heavy snow was falling, with a brisk wind. “What miserable weather,” Tom thought. He walked farther, and out in the darkness and snow, he heard someone singing.

Sure enough, through the driving snow came our ever-optimistic friend, Bruce. With his arms outstretched to the sky, he was singing a number from the Broadway musical Oklahoma: “Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day! I’ve got a beautiful feeling, everything’s going my way” (see Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” [1943]).

When it came time for the skit, Beau and Tyjah fought over who would get to play Bruce.  So they decided they could both play Bruce...at the same time.  Sophia buttoned them together into one of their dad's old shirts.  By their faces, you can tell what a miserable experience this was...

So miserable, that Halle and Sophia decided they needed to play Bruce at the same time, too.

After topping it all off with some of Sophia's chocolate chip cookies, everyone headed upstairs, where I spent the next two hours trying to calm the little girls down for bed.

Weekly family home evening with five children.  Easy?  No way.  Worth it?  You bet.