a warm saturday

started my saturday bright and early at our stake farm.  where i spent a couple of hours with my hubby and kids, and one of my beautiful mia maids, picking up rocks.

then it was back home to finish cleaning our home and yard.  afterwards, i spent some time in the backyard playing with these two on the swing set.

i wish my behind would fit in one of those swings.  i tried and it wasn't pretty!

after a while, i got cleaned up and went to the yw general meeting broadcast at my stake center.  such good stuff.  i definitely encourage you, if nothing else, to watch this video.

after that i hurried home to color easter eggs with my kiddos.

what a good day!

personal progress - knowledge value experience #1

completed another personal progress experience.  this time it was knowlege value experience #1.  the requirements are:

Learn about the importance of gaining knowledge by reading Proverbs 1:5; 4:7; 2 Nephi 28:30; and Doctrine and Covenants 88:78–80, 118; 90:15; 130:18–19; 131:6. Think about why you need to gain knowledge and understanding about how to apply gospel principles to your present and future home and family life. Write in your journal what you have learned about knowledge, and discuss it with a family member or Young Women leader.

in keeping with tradition, i pulled out my study journal and went to work.  i looked up each scripture and thought about why we should try to gain knowledge and how we can apply what we learn to our family life.

i wrote the references for each scripture passage you are supposed to read and then wrote what stuck out to me in the verse(s). 

that cute little "knowledge" sticker? i got it here

once i finished reading all of the scripture references and writing how i can apply what i learn to my family life, i discussed it with nathan.  the poor guy can't do anything anymore without me spouting something about personal progress or what i recently read or thought about.

personal progress - individual worth value experience #1

recently, i completed individual worth value experience #1 for personal progress.

the requirements for this experience are:

You are a daughter of Heavenly Father, who knows you and loves you. Read Psalm 8:4–6; Jeremiah 1:5; John 13:34; Doctrine and Covenants 18:10; Abraham 3:22–23; and Joseph Smith—History 1:1–20. Write in your journal how these scriptures teach you that Heavenly Father knows you, loves you, and is mindful of you.

this was a pretty basic personal progress experience.  read a handful of scriptures, ponder about how they tell you that Heavenly Father knows you and loves you and then write it down.

(note: that cute little value sticker at the top of the page, i got it here)

so i got out my study journal and wrote down what i was looking for, "how do i know Heavenly Father loves me?"

then i wrote the scripture passage and what the scripture taught me about my Heavenly Father's love.  again, this is a personal thing, so my answers might not be the same answers you get. you may write more or less than i did.

when cousins get together at grandma's house

make-up happens!

i love that she even has the open mouth action going on.

a sister sleepover

this past friday night, the girls had a sleepover - a sister sleepover.

amelia brought all of her pillows and her doll down to clara's bed and we hung out for a while talking and combing hair.  clara thought it was so neat to have amelia in her bed and amelia was just as excited.

i tried snapping some pictures with my camera, but amelia kept closing her eyes because the flash was "freaking out my eyes". 

 super excited!

so i turned off the flash and got a blurry, dark picture.

this coming friday, they want to have a sister sleepover in amelia's bed.

pantry organization and cleaning

this past weekend, i cleaned out my kitchen pantry.  it wasn't super cluttered - i went through it not long ago and pulled a bunch of old stuff out and got rid of it.  but, a while ago, i had bought some contact paper to put on the wood shelves to make it easier to clean.  i have been wanting to tackle this project for quite some time.  but i knew it was going to be big. 

this is what it looked like before.

at first i thought i would just clean off the top two shelves and leave the rest for another day, but once i got started i didn't want to/couldn't stop there.  so soon everything that used to be in my pantry was out of my pantry and all over my kitchen.

 it looked like this.

thankfully, i had my kiddos to help.  they were great at taking stuff as i handed it to them and finding a space for it in the kitchen. 

once everything was out of the pantry, i cleaned the shelves.  i used clorox and a rag and wiped them down really well. after i had wiped them all down and let them dry, i started applying the contact paper.  i bought a pretty neutral color.

and i repeated for each shelf

and the little cubby in the corner (this space really needed the contact paper.  my kids use it as a stool to get stuff off of the top shelf)

once all of the contact paper was down, i took an impromptu visit to the dollar store.  they have great organization stuff there.  i bought a bunch of plastic baskets and bins.  then i hit up family dollar for a storage bin with drawers.  i really recommend buying all of this stuff beforehand, but since i didn't know i would be tackling this project all in one day, i wasn't prepared.

once i had returned with my organization tools, i got to work.  the kids helped out here as well.  i would say "hand me all the pasta containers", "hand me all of the school lunch stuff", etc... they made an assembly line and loved it and i loved having there help.  they also took a laundry basket full of food and other items that i deemed non-pantry worthy down to our storage room.  they also had fun "shooting baskets" into our big garbage dumpster of food and things that just needed to be tossed.

at work, we get snacks from costco.  these containers hold peanut butter filled pretzels.  each time the container is empty i snag it and bring it home.  instant pasta and baking mix holders!  they're all the same which i love. right now, i store all of my pastas, my rice and my pancake mix in them.  over time, i will gather more and use them for more mixes.

i used the bin with drawers to organize and store my paper plates, cups and utensils as well as extra ziploc bags.

used some of the stackable bins to sort out my little plastic containers.  i use these for my kids' lunches and they were always a mess before.  still not in love with the set up here, but it's a work in progress.  should have bought more black bins but i seriously thought 9 would be enough!  had to reuse my old orange bin for the lunch boxes and thermos'.

i used the black plastic baskets to organize "like" food items (lunch things, snacks, breakfast stuff, baking supplies, etc...) 

over in the far corner where it is hard to get to, i stored stuff i don't use often but still like to have on hand.  sprinkles, tube frosting, cupcake wrappers, cookie cutters, and cake decorating supplies.

anyway, it took quite a while to get it all put back and there are a few odd items still hanging out on my kitchen counters that i don't want to shove back in there, but i'm still not sure where to put them.

what's next?

how to catch a leprechaun

according to amelia...

translation
1. get a net.  make sure the net is green.  get a fake pot of gold and set the fold on the net.
2. put a box on the closest tree.
3. now the leprechaun will come.

personal progress - divine nature value experience #2

several weeks ago, our mia maid class decided to work together on divine nature value experience #2 for our class activity.

here are the requirements for divine nature #2:

As a young woman you are blessed with divine feminine qualities. Increase your understanding of and appreciation for womanhood. Read Proverbs 31:10–31 and two talks on womanhood from a conference issue of the Church magazines. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” says about being a wife and a mother. Then ask your mother or another mother you admire what she thinks are important attributes for being a mother. List the attributes in your journal. Then choose one of those attributes and strive to develop it. After two weeks report your success to a parent or leader.

to prepare for our night, our class presidency reminded each girl to bring her scriptures, personal progress book, and if possible, her mother to young women's with her.  they were also encouraged to bring a copy of a recent conference talk on womanhood.

also in preparation for our activity, i made copies of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" that were small enough to fit in each girl's study journal.  i also, printed copies of a few conference talks for each girl booklet style so that they could be glued into the binding of their study journals. 

i brought copies of these talks:

find talk here

find talk here

find talk here

at our activity we had big plans to discuss with the mothers what attributes they felt were important for motherhood, read the proclamation, and separate into groups to read the conference talks.  the girls would then decide which attributes they would like to work on for the next two weeks and we'd review with them in a couple of weeks.

we started with talking to the moms who came about the attributes they felt were important.  many of the girls took notes while they spoke.  then we started reading the family proclamation.  we each took turns reading a paragraph.  i asked the girls to stop whoever was reading when they felt like we had read an attribute of motherhood.  it was a little slow going at first - i felt like i was the only one stopping their reading to point out an attribute, but after a little bit the girls seemed more comfortable and started pointing them out on their own.  the girls brought up some great questions and we were lucky enough to have a member of the bishopric pop-in and join our discussion.  we were having such a great discussion that before we knew it our time was up!

i quickly distributed the copies of the conference talks that i had brought and went over the remainder of the value experience requirements with them to work on at home.

i finished the rest of the requirements on my own as well.

i read proverbs 31:10-31 and wrote the attributes of a wife an mother that i felt like they were talking about and wrote them in my study journal.

i read through the conference talks and marked what i felt was important relating to my role as a wife and mother.

one of my favorite quotes from Elder Holland's talk:

then i picked an attribute that i wanted to strive to develop for the next two weeks.  i chose to try and focus on, as Elder Holland put it, to "show others, including your children, the same caring, compassionate, forgiving heart you want heaven to show you..."  i also wrote a few ways that would help me in trying to develop this attribute.

i wish that i could say that i did stellar with my goal and that i accomplished it with no problems.  not so!  i've said it before, and i'll say it again. whenever i try harder to better myself, satan ALWAYS ups the ante.  that is not a reason to give up and i haven't, it just going to take a little longer than two weeks to get it right.  but i have had moments of clarity and times when i was able to listen to the spirit speaking inside me, instead of reacting with my "natural man" instincts.  it's all about PROGRESS!  it is after all called personal progress.

worst parents, ever!

this was the scene in my car the other night. nathan had told the kids several times to eat their dinner.  he told them they would regret it if they didn't eat.  he "strongly encouraged" them to eat.  only isaac ate his dinner.  only isaac got the reward. the others were not pleased. 

its hard to follow through with rules and consequences.  when we got home, nathan talked to the "angry" children.  he told them that even though they didn't get the treat that we still loved them and we didn't like to have them unhappy or mad at us.  we also explained that nathan had given them multiple warnings that they didn't listen to.   jared replied that if he had known about the treat he would have finished. it was a perfect teaching moment laid at our feet.

we took a minute to talk about how we don't always get to choose the consequences of our actions, but they are always there.  we also explained that sometimes we don't get a heads-up that a choice is going to bring undesired results.

i hope that they got something out of our unplanned lesson.  well, something other than mom and dad are mean.

personal progress - divine nature value experience #1

these are the requirements for divine nature value experience #1.

What are some of the divine qualities of a daughter of God? Read “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”; 2 Peter 1; Alma 7:23–24; and Doctrine and Covenants 121:45. In your own words, list the divine qualities discussed in your reading. Think about how you can discover and develop each of these qualities. Record your ideas in your journal.

i started by printing out a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" that would fit nicely into my  study journal.  i glued it in and then i read through the proclamation, highlighting anything that told me of the divine qualities that i posses and can develop.

next, i wrote the scripture references in the side margin of my study journal.  each reference got its own color. (i like to use color!)

next, as i read through each scripture reference, i looked for words or phrases that describe the divine qualities that are given to women.  as i read each one, i listed it on the journal page in the same color that i wrote the scripture reference with. some words were in more than one of the references and so they got decorated with each color.  for example, the quality of "faith" appeared in all 3 scripture references, so it was written in blue, underlined in black and re-underlined in red.  the quality of being "humble" only was only in the reference i wrote in black (Alma7:23-24) so it only appears that color.

 when i was all done, i ended up with a whole page of divine qualities.

the last thing to do for this value experience is to think about how you can discover and develop these qualities. on the next page of my journal i wrote down a few of the ways i could do this.

pedicures with my girl

my girl and i escaped the confines of our home on saturday and hit up the local nail salon for a pedicure.  the place we go to has a deal where girls can get a mini-pedicure and mini-manicure for only $15 while their mom is getting a treatment.

this is a special treat for both of us,  but especially amelia, who loves it!

she insisted that i take a close up of her flower.

tiffer comes for a visit

nathan's sister, tiffany, came into town this past week for a visit.  we went to dinner and hung out catching up.  it was nice to see her since it has been a few years since the last time.

right before she had to leave to go to the airport, we took some photos...

nathan and tiffany

tiffany may have been pinching nathan in this picture to get him to smile.

nathan's family

tiff and i also took some random photos...

they go from normal, to kind of normal, to "what are you guys doing?"

i think we had the most fun out of anyone taking photos.

then we took some pictures of my family.