Missing Something...

I know that I have blogged about Legos a lot lately, but this was just too good not to record/share.

The girls have been obsessed with playing Legos lately. Jarem often plays with them too.  They have created a whole village with houses, stores, etc. They each have their own Lego family (Jarem too) and they even have an enterprise system where the Lego people have jobs and earn Lego money, and then they spend their money on things like Lego food, etc. It is pretty cool. Alex has a house in the village, but he doesn't usually play.

Inside their houses, they have created bedrooms for each person and kitchens with appliances, living room furniture and etc all made out of Legos. Jesikah has redone her kitchen like 3 times in recent weeks.:)

A few Sundays ago, the girls decided that their town was missing something...it was missing a church. So, they got on Lego.com creator and built a beautiful virtual Lego church. On that site, you can purchase anything that you create, and it comes with instructions, box, and everything. It is really very cool, and their finished product came out very beautiful but at a hefty price of $143.00.

They didn't have that much money, and while I was very tempted to step in and offer to help pay, I am really trying to help them learn about money management with our token economy plan. We are trying to never lend them money to pay back because we told them that they have to live within their means. They don't have a line of credit. It's tough sometimes for me not to step in and pay because it really was a cool church. Anyway, I did tell them that I would buy it (because they lose the design if they don't purchase it in a set amount of days), and when they earned enough money they could buy it from me but they wouldn't get it until they paid for it. They weren't sure how long it would take them to earn enough money, so they didn't know what to do.

They decided to think about it.  They went downstairs and in a few hours they came back up to show me what they had created:  their own church with the Legos they already had. They said, "You know how people used to have to sacrifice to build churches and temples? Well we did the same thing. We each sacrificed by "donating" some Lego pieces off our own Lego houses or buildings that the church needed."  I know our experience in Nauvoo this past summer was what they were thinking about when they thought of sacrificing.  The early saints had sacrificed so much to build the Nauvoo temple.  It was very sweet and heart-warming for me to see that our children are applying things we are trying to teach them.

1) It feels good to sacrifice for a cause you believe in
2) Resourcefulness (sometimes we can use the resources we have to create something we want rather than spending money we don't have).

 In the end, they couldn't decide whether it was a church or a temple, so they just count it for both.  But, I believe they found more joy through saving their money and sacrificing a few of their things to build something they felt was worth it.  I was really proud of them.

Meetings are now being held in the new church. :) Not long ago, I came downstairs and Jesikah, Tessa, and Jarem's Lego people were having a testimony meeting in the new church.

Picture from above: Inside there are pews, a pulpit, a clock on the wall, and a phone off to the side.

It looks even better than it does in the picture.  It is really very nice with the windows and all that they have chosen throughout.