Wednesday, February 6, 2019

For the Strength of My Youth


You might remember that last year we spent a number of weeks in family home evening studying the different topics addressed in For the Strength of Youth (which is a guide for standards that youth and all of us should follow to remain spiritually strong & happy!)

One of the things that came out of our discussions is the idea that my children need to let their friends know what their standards are, and that they need to start gathering friends around them NOW who want to live good standards as well, because in the coming years a lot of kids will start to decide how they want to live.  So now is a good time to start building friendships with those who want to support them in righteous living and vice versa.

We realized that as parents we need to actively help them form those friendships and practice keeping the standards in our home with their friends before they have to do it on their own out in the world. (We also need to do this because we just recently moved here and they need opportunities to keep solidifying friendships outside of school!)

To that end we started having "game nights" where they invite their friends over to socialize in our home.  As parents we give them something fun to do and something to eat and then give them space from us and the responsibility to be good hosts and hostesses and uphold our family's standards.

The first time few times we did it, the kids mostly played games.  Another game night we had was so silly and fun and ended with kids doing back flips in my living room!  I really thought, this was so delightful...and a new experience for me, as a parent of tweens.

So, last week, I wanted to have another fun evening for my kids and their friends, but wanted to do something other than a game night...so we decided to have an art night, and it was a huge success.

My kids weren't too excited to paint on canvases because we had just recently done that, so I got the idea from my Art Camp Teacher sister to make "wearable art".  We used the art of Tiff Manuell as our inspiration to make clutches.  Using some canvas material that I already had on hand, the girls painted directly on the canvas material.  When it dried, we sewed them into little clutches or pencil cases.

It's really neat to connect with friends who are so kind and good and to see these girls (and boys) building each other up in friendship and making good choices together.  I could see that these friends had just as much by way of kindness, thoughtfulness, and tenderness to share with my children as I thought we had to share with them.  That is a blessing!

I will be looking for more fun ideas to do on "game night" in the future, so if you have any suggestions, leave me a comment, please!  Thanks!










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Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Remember When It Was Warm Outside




Time passes so quickly.  I have been trying to be careful not to let moments to have fun with my children pass me by.  I am also *trying* to get more physically fit so I can keep up with my two little boys who are getting more and more active and capable by the minute.

The other week, we had 65+ degree weather for a few days in January!!  I dropped everything and took the boys outside to explore the woods near our home.  Coy (age 1) looked at me like, "Mom's letting me out of the house!"  He took off walking and didn't stop.

It was really fun because this was Coy and Val's first time exploring outside together in earnest.  Previously, in the Fall, Coy wasn't yet able to walk, so they couldn't really interact.  


They sure made the most of our day together!






...as did Honor!

And the next day we were back to regular winter temperatures!





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Sunday, February 3, 2019

Seek, Feel, Act, Know




Is there a formula that leads to testimony? 

I've been thinking a lot about this as I prepared for my talk on the topic of "receiving in faith." 

I believe there is a basic pathway. 

First we seek for truth, then we feel it is right, then we must act in faith on that principle, and THEN comes the witness of that truth, the evidence or the testimony. 

Many people make the mistake of thinking that they need to know first, but in my experience knowing and understanding fully comes last. 

It comes after seeking, feeling, and acting in faith...acting being the key. Another mistake we can sometimes make when trying to build a testimony is trying to understand things only academically or logically and not giving room for our feelings or spiritual promptings to teach us.   Other ways we trip up is placing caveats or time limits on the step of "act in faith".

What do you guys think? Is my theory correct? Have you experienced this yourself? 

It's definitely been taught to us in scripture and by living prophets, but how diligently do we put this into practice? 

I'm going to try harder to actively do this in my life and to teach my children to do this for themselves! 

I hope you're having a great day! 

And no I didn't get to give my talk because we got snowed it but we talked about it on Sunday for #ComeFollowMe.
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