Yoga for Sunbeams (and Me)

As mentioned previously, I'm teaching Sunbeams at church.  It's the group of children who are three, turning four years old.  There are six, and almost all of them come every week.  The first week I taught, I was actually a sub, but the lesson was on the temple.  During part of the lesson, I did a yoga/meditation exercise thing with them.  Basically, I had them stand, close their eyes, and pretend they were a temple.  In a gentle and encouraging voice, I told them to put their hands together and raise their arms above their head like a steeple, then to "stretch, stretch all the way up.  Get as close as you can to the sky.  Reach for where Heavenly Father lives."

This week, the lesson is titled "I'm Thankful for my Home," and I plan on doing something similar.  Pretending we're building a house, which is our body.  We'll start with our firm foundation: our feet (hip width apart), feel our roots go deep into the ground.  Then, we'll sway as though the winds were blowing, and we'll want to put up something solid that will keep the winds out.  (I may mention tents like Lehi, Nephi, and their families used in the wilderness; log cabins like the pioneers built in Winter Quarters; red brick buildings like they built in Nauvoo; and thick, white, stones like are used to build temples.)  Depending on how much time/energy we all have, I'll tell them to open their eyes and pretend those are windows so you can see the seasons changing.  We'll end with our hands on our heads a shelter against the rain, snow, and hail that comes down.

In thinking all of this up, I decided that Yoga for Sunbeams would be a great idea.  In my spare time (haha....I have so much of that it's depressing) I'll go through each lesson in the manual and script a "yoga" routine.  Not strictly yoga, more like guided meditation and bodily awareness that relates to the lesson.  Once I have them all scripted, I'll see if I can find a way to record them and put them up on YouTube.  (Sounds like a good YW Value Project, am I right?)  I think it will work better than traditional wiggle activities, especially for my mixed group.
Sunbeam K: super active all the freaking time. Very into hugs and lap sitting.  Excited about being a missionary, but I had to tell him more than once last week "There's no screaming in Sunbeams."
Sunbeam C: super chill, until the other kids bring up the energy.  She often has great questions and a soft voice.
Sunbeam L: shy until she's not.  Tells about one story a week, but it's always long and involved.  Sits still pretty well
Sunbeam A: youngest and may be on the spectrum.  He's pretty well behaved, but may be easily overwhelmed.
Sunbeam T: his mom is PP, and he is almost always on his best behavior.  Except the first week, when he told me his name was "I Don't Know."  No one else in the room knew or would tell me, so that's what I called him.
Sunbeam M: the female version of K. 

Something I learned as Primary Music Leader is that sometimes, doing a Wiggle Thing can give kids the wiggles.  For this week's lesson, I saw a really cool thing on sugardoodle on turning the table upside down and using a sheet to make a tent and a boat when talking about the different kinds of homes Lehi, et. al. had in the BoM.  My kids would love that, but there would be no restoration of order after.

As for the job front....
still don't have one.

My mom sent me a birthday check for more than a month's worth of rent, and my housemate/landlord said she'd be okay if I didn't pay rent while I'm unemployed.  I have a friend who is going to be the only adult for two weeks in a household of a foreign exchange student, a toddler, and an infant.  During those two weeks, she's taking them to Vegas and the Grand Canyon.  I told her if I don't have a job by then, I'll come help her.  I can apply and take phone calls on the road, right?  Thing is, I prefer this friend in small doses, so this gives me extra motivation to turn in apps.  Also, my fifteen year reunion is coming up, and I went to the ten year one unemployed. So.....none of those kids who were jealous of me then will be jealous of me now.

Although, I have held an Olympic gold medal.  So, there's that.
Team Shuster threw out the first pitch of a Stormchasers game and then did a meet-and-greet autograph signing afterwards.  That was the whole reason I went to the game.  I took my ticket from the Olympic Trial game where I captured my favorite candid shot of Shuster's Boys: they're all in a row, leaning on their brooms in the exact same fashion.  Once I get a little more permanency in my personal space, I'm going to frame them together. By the time the line wound down to me, they were assembly line signing the provided photos. 
I asked shyly asked Landsteiner, "Can you sign this instead?" as I handed him my ticket.  He gave a small smile and said, "Sure."  Then I shook his hand (he was the only one you could since he's a South Paw) and thanked him.  Hamilton looked for a place on the ticket to sign; he seemed thrown off by having to look. 
Tyler signed it without fanfare and passed it to Shuster, who took one look at and then looked up and said, "Whose is this?!"  Before I could answer, he saw me wearing the shirt that a place in Duluth sold as a fundraiser to help get the boys and their families over.  He smiled for the first time I saw that night and made an effort to thank me for the support. 
As I was having this exchange with Shuster, Tyler pulled his medal out of his lap and said, "Would you like to hold it?"  I was flabbergasted!  I expected it to be heavy, after reading about all of the people who had had the experience before.  I started to dig in my purse for my phone, but gave up and decided to savor the moment a little longer before handing it back and saying, "Thanks, Tyler!  Of course, I tweeted about it and he liked the tweet.  Definitely made my night!