IDEAS

So, um, sorry I missed my devotional last week. I guess Heather was right, I'm not righteous enough to pull it off every week. But I'm back this week. What does that mean, Heather?



A couple of weeks ago Matt and I went over to a friend's house for dinner. We got to talking about family traditions, in particular father's interviews. So, she pulled out her old family videos (now on dvd) and we watched her Dad giving her and her siblings father's interviews as children. I was RIVETED! Matt actually does interviews, but I had never seen it and it was fascinating to watch this total stranger interact with his kids. They prayed together, memorized a little poem that taught a lesson, talked about how things were going in the kid's life, and he told them how much they meant to him. It was incredible, really.



It's a tough world our kids are growing up in. How can we help them to make it through without too many permanent scars? We need ideas! Things we can do, traditions we can start, that will help our kids through the rough times. An extra coat of armor. So, here are a few of mine. I'd love to hear yours!


1. Old standbys, I guess, but the Prophet thought them up (or the Lord) FHE, Family Scripture Study, Family Home Evening.

2. Father's interviews. (I also do "Mommy time" where I spend a little one-on-one time with each kid before bed just talking and even playing with their favorite toy.)

3. Matt and I have bought a set of scriptures for each of our kids. I read through the Book of Mormon and mark it in red, then Matt reads it and marks it in Blue. When we're finished, we each write our testimony and glue it in the front cover. I'm not sure when we'll give them to them. Maybe their missions or when they graduate from highschool. We're done with three sets (not finished with Norah's yet). Hopefully, it will strengthen our kids to know their parents believe in the Book of Mormon. And I mark according to which kid's scriptures I am doing.

4. I haven't put this into effect yet, but I think it would be cool to let each kid choose a scripture that is "their scripture" something they can memorize and use to define them in a way. This could also work with a hymn. They choose it and then I would frame it or put it in their room somehow. Still working on this one...

5. I loved President Monson's talk about service. What a cool idea he shared about asking "what did you do for someone today?" at family dinner. That reminds me, family dinners are a great idea...

6. I've been really thinking about the principle of work lately. Are we teaching our kids by example to be hard workers? The scriptures often interchange the word "wicked" with "idle". It makes me want to implement hard work at home. I love living near so many farmers! These people know how to work!

I guess this gives us something to think about. I would love some comments with more ideas!

Oh, and P.S. I would love some ideas on how to keep kids reverent during church. Ideas I don't want to hear:
1. NO toys or snacks --tried it.
2. LOTS of toys and snacks---tried it.
3. Take them out an punish them---tried it.
4. Keep them in no matter what--tried it.
5. Have FHE/mulitple discussions about the importance of reverence and why we should be good in sacrament meeting--tried it (Joel yelled "I don't want to think about Jesus!" when I shushed him during the sacrament last week.

Good Times

In all my life, I have had very few friends to rival my brother, Joel. We were close as children and inseparable as teenagers. There were a few years there where we had very little contact (missions that overlapped by only 2 weeks). When he left on his mission, I was just graduating from highschool. When I got home from my mission, Joel was married with a kid! And we're only 18 months apart in age! Anyway, besides that little gap, we have been close our entire lives. When Melanie entered the picture, I just adopted her as my new best friend--a big plus for me! So, you can imagine how excited I was to have them stop by for a little visit on their way to Seattle this week. They were here for 36 short hours and we packed in the fun!

Melanie and I went for a nice walk in the morning, and the men went golfing in the afternoon. We took some much needed family pics, took the kids bowling and then went on a wonderful date and left the 10 kids (under the age of 10, mind you) with 2 sweet teenage babysitters. It was so fun!

Little Pumpkins

Some of you may remember these darling pictures I took of Merrody when she was a baby. So, I tried to duplicate it with Norah. Of course, Norah is 6 months older than Merrody was in these pics---pretty hard to find a huge pumpkin to put her in. She only liked it okay, as you can see...

































































Oh, and Justin, she doesn't look like a boy--even without a hairbow.

Legacy

Today is my Dad's birthday. The older I get, the more tender I am when I think about my parents. They are such amazing people! Seriously, I know few people who inspire me more than they do. Most of my life, I took for granted that everyone must have amazing parents like mine. But I am realizing that that is unfortunately not the case. Most people do not have parents like mine. As I think about the memories I have of my life with them, I wonder what kind of memories I will leave with my children. What kind of legacy am I leaving behind? What kind of strengths (or weaknesses) am I building in my children? What little habits will they remember me doing? What phrases will they remember me saying? And so, in the spirit of good examples and amazing legacies, I give you my Dad's most quoted phrases:

"Break the sweat barrier early in the day, then work your guts out. "(he used to say this to his missionaries every chance he got. He still says it to us...)

"Pour it on, Lord!" (In reference to trials and sacrifices required for blessings)

"Don't be high maintenance."

"Don't hold a grudge--that's so lame."

"Son las escrituras, mi hijitas lindisimas. Y la pagina es..." (he used to say this at the beginning of every family scripture study)

"Prayer, prayer, prayer in the living room." (he still says this at every family prayer)

"Don't offend. Don't be offended."

"It's not my church, it's the Lord's church."

"Self-Denial is good for the soul"

"To what defect in your personality do you attribute your dislike of that person (or lack of faith)?"

"It's an evil spirit that teacheth a man not to pray"

"Who will be the peacemaker?"

"Half of the world's work is done by people who are sick."

"Arise from the dust, my sons, and be men" (this is how he would wake us up)

"No one can make you angry, you allow yourself to be angry."

"Let's Talk about Heaven" (he always says this when the conversation is degenerating to something negative or off color)

"Let's Plan, Simplify and Be Strong"

"Don't be mean to your kids"

"Don't get blase about...(insert anything we should be grateful for: the gospel, the view, the good food, all being together, etc.)"

After every General Conference: "I'm going to be a better boy. I've turned over a new leaf".

"Isn't the church wonderful?"

"Mind your mother"

"You're real nice for doing this".

"May the Lord bless you kids."

This list was contributed to heavily by my 10 brothers and sisters. We had a lot of fun compiling it and reminiscing about the many life lessons we learned from our amazing Father. And this was just the highlights! We have a lifetime of inside jokes and memories with our father. I hope I can provide more than just "please don't make your brother cry" and "get in bed right now" as memories to my kids. The opportunity to compile this list has inspired me to be a better mother and remember that what comes out of my mouth may be remembered for my childrens' lifetimes.

In Elder Bednar's General Conference talk, he said,

"May every spouse, every child, and every parent be blessed to communicate and receive love, to bear and be edified by strong testimony, and to become more consistent in the seemingly small things that matter so much."

That's what we had at my house. That's what I hope to give my children.

Thanks, Dad (and Mom). I love you so much. Happy Birthday!

Devotional

I've been feeling a tug lately telling me to use my blog for more than just cute pictures and craft tutorials. Don't worry you loyal friends, I will continue to post those things. I will also be trying my hand at something new. I have decided to try and post a little spiritual devotional each Wednesday morning. Hopefully it will be something to help us all. What I really hope is that some of you will choose your own day and join in! Wouldn't it be fun to find a little spiritual uplift on each other's blogs? So, here goes...

Does everybody LOVE the youtube Mormon messages channel? I hope you're checking it! I forget to check a lot of the time, and then I find my way back and am reminded again what an amazing thing it is! Three minutes of spiritual fuel. I just love it. Here is a link to the most recent video about procrastination and serving the Lord:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cw8I8eukaI

I love the point Elder Eyring makes about not allowing ourselves to become complacent in what we've already done OR to allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by life that we don't do what we really should. Remember that guy in the Sunday afternoon session of conference who spoke about not allowing ourselves to become too casual about prayer and scripture study? So, I guess that's my challenge and my goal: to not become too casual. To not procrastinate the little things that are really the big things.

Oh, and also, watch this video of my cute 2-year-old neice identifying all of the apostles and first presidency by sight. I guess that's what some people do during Conference. My kids were so loud my brother had to turn on the closed captioning so the grown ups could know what was being said.

P.S. You may notice I added a link from my blog to the Mormon.org website. I had seen this on other peoples' blogs, but never knew how to get one on mine. I finally found a link here: http://leeloublogs.blogspot.com/2008/05/lds-link-buttons.html


P.P.S. In other news, I redid the toy room. And Norah got fat.