Laugh.

This is a simple one.

Laugh.

Laugh at your kids' stupid, pointless, yet nonetheless hilarious jokes. That makes them feel special. Zerin told me he feels powerful when he can make me smile.

The Most Awesome Scripture Study Book Ever!

So, I love this book so much, I'm actually posting about it on both my blogs. It is called Adventures with the Word of God: Making Scripture Study Exciting for the Entire Family by Rebecca Irvine. This book is so awesome, seriously! I read it today while I was waiting for my van to be fixed, and I cannot wait to start using it for our family scripture study. It's a study guide of sorts for family scripture study. Except instead of reading a book cover to cover, you have a different theme each month (ie. Family Proclamation, Missionary Work, Charity, Testimonies, etc.). But she splits each theme up to have a scripture a day to discuss and talk about...I love that because my kids are still pretty young so actually reading from the scriptures tends to lose everyone but Zerin...and even him sometimes, so this is just awesome. The ideas are so cute and fun and seem simple and managable to implement. It takes some preparation...but I should be preparing for scripture study anyway, so why not throw a little cutting and coloring in for good measure, ey?! I am not doing it justice, so go check it out from the library. You won't be disappointed!

Things to help you remember....

One thing Bryan and I have really wanted is to have things in our home that stand as constant reminders of Christ. So, for our new home, we went through, room by room, and picked out artwork and things and themes for each room to help set that tone in our home. I think art is a powerful tool to teach different principles in different layers...like a parable.

Living Room (Time and Eternity Room):

Over our piano (don't have that yet either) I want to put this picture of the Bountiful Temple. On opposite walls, we are going to put 2 framed mirrors that will face each other. We'll have a sepia wedding picture on another wall, and over our door I am going to put in vinyl letters "Remember...." Helaman 5:6. On our biggest wall, that will be my clock wall, and I will have all sorts of clocks, big and small kind of scattered. Then, between the 2 windows, I'll have this picture of Christ.

Kitchen (Sacred Grove/Pioneer Room):

There is really only 1 wall in here that I can use between the window and what will be our new french door, so we are going to put Greg's Olsen's rendition of the Sacred Grove there. Then I will decorate with antique kitchen items.

Dining Room (Gratitude/Prayer)

This room may very well end up being my favorite :) We are going to put Brian Kreshisnik's painting "Ten Lepars Healed" on one wall, and on the opposite wall in vinyl letters, have Alma 37:37 37 "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for bgood; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the cmorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Family Room (Family)

On one wall, I am going to make a picture family tree like my aunt did. I may use wedding couple pictures instead of individual pictures, I am not yet sure.

In Zerin's room (Heroes)

I love this pic "Come Forth" by Walter Rane. Captain Moroni is so awesome, isn't he? In each of my kids' rooms they will have a temple pic...they can pick their favorite one...Zerin's favorite changes from week to week so we'll see what it is when we come around to buying it :) On another wall, I'll have Alma 48:17 " 17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

In Liah's room (Real Princesses/Learning)

I'm a bit of a Walter Rane fan I suppose, but Liah will have "Add to your faith" by him on one wall. A temple picture on another wall, and the Young Women's theme in vinyl letters on another wall.

Main Bathroom (6 B's)

I am going to use vinyl letters and write the 6 b's by President Hinckley around the room. Then, I will have a 4 original artwork pieces by my kids (or more if I have more kids). These will be hung on a curtain rod and suspended by ribbon on one wall. The pictures will be of one of the 6 b's.

Chores and the Candy Store

This idea is kind of a splicing of ideas from my friends Kathryn and Angie and my Mom.

The problem: Being consistant with enforcing chores, teaching my kids to love work, and giving them an opportunity to buy things on a meager allowance.

My solution: The Minute Game, and the Candy Store!

Stuff you need:

• A decorated can or jar
• LOTS of popcicle sticks
• Sharpie marker (fine tip works best)
• Paper or plastic cups (1 for each child)
• Stickers and stuff to decorate cups and can with
• Candy jars (I have 4, but you can do however many you want)
• A timer
• Penny candy
• Nickles (about 3 rolls worth)

I have a decorated can of popcicle sticks...each stick has a different chore written on it. All of them are chores that can either be finished or worked on for a minute or less. For jobs that can be done more than once, I have on more than one stick. At different times throughout the day, I will set the timer for one minute, let the kids pick a job, and we have a mad dash to each do our jobs for that minute. They think this is so fun, so we usually do it for about 20 minutes, but it's great because you can do it as long or short as you want. When they complete a job, they get to put their stick in a cup with their name on it. They can also earn blank popcicle sticks throughout the day if I see them doing something awesome or uber-wonderful. Then once a week (usually Family Night), we have our candy store. I got a few of those little candy jars, and bought a bunch of penny candies. I have candy corn, gumballs, swedish fishies, dum dum suckers, and so on. In one jar, I also have a bunch of nickles (the cash value of each popcicle stick is 5 cents). So they can use their sticks that they have earned throughout the week to either buy candy, or trade them in for money to save up for something else that they want. This has worked so great, because they know they can't earn popcicle sticks until their own basic chores are done, so they are more motivated, which is wonderful for me! They do get candy, but anymore, they usually only pick a few pieces, and then they just want money, so that has worked out well also.

My kids now ask to do chores so they can earn sticks. It works the best when I do it with them (which is a fun opportunity for me to be productive WITH my kids). When I am consistant, I have noticed a huge difference in their attitudes regarding work! It has been wonderful :)

Family Home Evening - Music

I have to say, this was one of my favorite family home evenings ever :) I wanted to do something about music, because Zerin and Liah now want to check out music from the library, and I wanted to somehow show them how powerful music is...either for good or bad. I definately had help with this lesson...thank Heavens! :)

Preparation:
1. Copy pictures (or draw) of different emotions and things (happy, sad, angry, excited, money, cars, Jesus, etc.) enough for 1 set for each family member. Tailor the pictures to your individual family.

2. Glue each picture onto a paper plate, and tape a popcicle stick on the plate so it has a handle.

3. Gather different types of music...instrumental, hard rock, church music, I did 7. My music was a song from Polar Express, If I Had A Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies, 3 songs from Def Lepard (my guilty pleasure), and then a couple of children's church songs. To make it really easy, make a playlist of the music or a cd ahead of time.

3. Make sure each family member has scriptures with them they can mark, and a coloring pencil...no matter how old the child is...they need to participate in this part!

4. Ask one of your kids to perform a church song, either singing, or playing an instrument. If this isn't a possibility, play them a full song of something that will invite the Spirit.

Working your plan.

1. We started with a song and a prayer, then I handed out everyone's signs (for little toddlers, you could do one sign with a happy face on one side, and a sad face on the other). I told the kids that they needed to hold up the sign of what they thought about with each song. Almost all of the kids (and Bryan) held up the picture of the car when we played Def Lepard :). I played just a short snippet of each song.

2. At the end we asked if we could think about Jesus during some of the songs, or at least feel the spirit. We talked about how we don't have to listen to Church music all day long, but our music shouldn't make it so we can't feel the spirit. We talked about the For Strength of Youth pamphlet and what it says about music. For teens and tweens, there is a clip on "Standards Night Live" with John Bytheway about music that is about 5 minutes that is awesome! I have it if you want to borrow it.

3. We then read Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 and had each of the kids highlight it in their own scriptures. We talked about the scripture and how this applies to music.

4. The last few mornings, I have been walking in on Liah singing this song about Baby Jesus...she plays it over and over...and has a whole dance routine to go along with it...it's pretty cute :) So I asked her ahead of time if she would sing the song for family night. She did such an amazing job!!! Not only could you totally feel the spirit when she was singing, but she can be, shall we say, difficult, during family home evening. Last night she was an angel. I can only attribute it to her having an active important role...it was awesome, and definately not my idea :)

5. We wrapped up by talking about how having a primary song that we can think about when we have bad or mean thoughts, or when we are scared...so we all picked out a song.

6. We closed with a song and a prayer. We should have played a game or had a treat, but it was after bedtime, so we skipped that part. Next time :)

Reverence Ride

Today's idea comes courtesy of my cute husband. To help set the mood of our sabbath day, Bryan helped me get the kids ready, and we went on a drive. He had made a cd with all of the music from past conferences, and we went on a slow drive prior to church. He talked a little about reverence, but then he was just quiet. By the time we got to church, the kids were all calm, and they filed out of the van into the chapel...arms folded! Now granted, about 10 minutes into the meeting, Aeden was ready to leave, but it totally helped. After church, we made sandwiches, kept the kids in the van, and went on another short van ride...same thing. I really think it helped!