As We Bloom: Weekly Recap: With Fancy Hot Dogs

Prayer is an amazing thing. Everyone can receive answers to sincere prayers. Do you remember from last week that my youngest had been sick? She prayed Thursday night that she would get better, and Heavenly Father answered her prayers. She asked Him to help her get better so that she could go to her cousin's baptism Saturday morning. Her fever was gone sometime Thursday night, so she had a good 40 hours fever free before the baptism. I am always humbled to see children praying and receiving answers. What great testimony building experiences for our little ones!

The baptism was beautiful, every time I attend a LDS baptism I cry. The spirit is so strong there. After the baptism and confirmation, we celebrated at my brother's house. Since that portion of my extended family is Brazilian, and my nephew got to pick the food he wanted on his special day, we enjoyed Brazilian hot dogs for lunch. That was a new experience for me! It started with a bun and hot dog cooked in seasoned tomato sauce. Then they added mayo, pico de gallo, corn, peas, mashed potatoes, parmesan cheese, and shoestring potatoes! It started to remind me of Rachel's trifle. But... it was delicious! Impossible to eat without making a mess, but so yummy!

I remember a picture of my brother and sister-in-law at a dinner with friends, back when they were first married. Everyone in the picture was holding up a hot dog and looking thrilled at what they were about to devour. I thought it was just a fun group of people, certainly this all American food wasn't that nifty, but it turns out the way they eat hot dogs IS a pretty exciting ordeal!

On Sunday my oldest spoke in church about following the prophets. We had a fun afternoon together as a family.

Monday we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. We didn't do any school work, but we did go grocery shopping. I also picked out a new purse (that was a hard decision!).

Tuesday was a short school day. Our literature lesson was on Nat's character traits and how they helped him through his trials in life. My husband took half the day off work to take our oldest three children to see Rogue One!

Wednesday was an exciting day... my new THM cookbook, Necessary Food finally came! I pre-ordered it in October and it was supposed to ship Dec. 9th. When it hadn't arrived by Dec. 28th, my husband called and was told that it was damaged in shipping. He asked why another one hadn't been sent, why he had to call to find it and they said they had no good answer for that. When we still didn't receive a book by Jan. 10th, he called again... to find out that they never sent it. So he requested they send it Priority Mail right away. They did, but it still didn't arrive for 8 days! Whew.

We also received our subscription to Hoffman Academy 2.0, the website my kids use for piano lessons. We LOVE the new website and subscription! Our science lesson was on Newton's third law and the children designed balloon powered cars.

Thursday was a geography lesson on why censuses are taken, and my son got to pretend to be a census worker for our home. They can't wait until 2020! It started snowing today.

Friday morning we parked ourselves in front of the television to watch the inauguration ceremony and do school work. We took a long time to finish school today! Our art lesson was on the Palace of Versailles. What a beautiful place!

At end the day, we went to the Hof Festival, a German festival held near us every winter, with my parents. We enjoyed delicious German foods and music, and grandpa bought each of my kids a Kinder Egg! They were the Kinder Joy kind that is split in half, so the legal kind, but still a fun treat.