Star Wars

 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

 You knew it was coming, right?  With so many boys in our house, I'm actually quite surprised that they hadn't discovered Star Wars before now.  It all started back in February after we bought our iMac. Since my iTunes account was hacked twice last year (and money stolen off our debit card...twice), I bought iTunes gift cards so we could purchase some programs through the App store.  We had a few dollars left over and decided to let the boys download Angry Birds Star Wars. Pretty soon they were asking if they could watch the movies and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were rated PG. 

So on a snowy February day, and on our way home from a Jr. Jazz game, I stopped by my friend's house and picked up all six movies.  Even though I really regulate my boys' TV time, the plan was to let them watch the movies while Jeff and I painted our bedroom as part of our bedroom re-style. After all, it was a snowy, icky Saturday, and I needed them distracted so I could get my project done. As it turns out I was the one distracted and ended up watching most of the first two movies with my boys. Over the next week or so we watched all six movies (in order).  This is the first time that I'd ever done that and the saga made so much more sense to me. When it came time to return the movies, my boys cried...and cried. They went two whole weeks without Star Wars before I texted my friend and asked if we could borrow her movies again. She was so kind and let us borrow them for a whole month.  Seriously, how awesome is that?

Mason became obsessed with Darth Vader.  Obsessed.  He made a mask out of a milk box and walked around the house saying, "Luke, I am your father." One day my sweet sister in law, Kris, showed up at our house with a Darth Vader costume!  It was one of her boys old Halloween costumes and she thought Mason would love it.  Cue evil Empire music now....dun, dun, dun, da, da, dun, da, da, dun...

 Pretty soon, Darth Vader, was everywhere I looked...taking a nap on my couch, in my bed, on the patio, playing outside...he even tried to go to the store with me.

Since my boys were making Light Sabers with anything they could find, we soon invested in some "real" Light Sabers.

And the epic battles began...

I have to share a proud mom moment with you.  One day Carson came home from school very sad.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me that all of his friends at school had Star Wars Legos and he didn't.  At first my mind turned to the old "you need to be happy with what you have...wanting things makes you sad...don't covet..." train of thought, but before I said anything something stopped me.  I looked at him and said, "Well, you can be sad about it, or you can do something about it.  If you want those Legos, you will find a way to get them. What do you think you could do to get them?" At first we talked about him doing chores to earn the money.  He decided that it would take him a long time to earn the money because Mom doesn't pay well (I like to make him actually work for a dollar not just have it handed to him!).  There is a Facebook page for our community where you can post items to sell and we've had quite a bit of luck selling things on it. I asked him if he had any old toys he would want to sell.  He went to the basement and picked out four toys he hardly played with.  I snapped a picture of them on my phone, uploaded it to FB, and within 10 minutes all four toys had sold and he had the money he needed for his Star Wars Legos.  It was a great lesson for both of us.  Carson and I talked about how we need to look for solutions instead of whining about our misfortunes. We also talked about how if we really want something, and we put forth the effort to work for it, that Heavenly Father will bless us. I often think of how that day could have went.  I would have told him not to whine about it and that he had a lot of other Legos, and he still would have been sad that he didn't have his Star Wars Legos.  It would have caused contention in our house.  I'm thankful that I was able to listen to the Spirit and teach him.  He sure has been crazy about those Legos, and I'm happy that there are four less toys in my basement!