Contributors

Obviously, I have not been very good about posting regularly.  I do have a lot of stuff that I am going to post very soon, but know that I am working on getting more contributors so that you all can get more ideas and stuff.  And feel free to email me with anything that you would like to contribute.

Wow - Christmastime!

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile, it's a busy time of the year.  Don't worry though, we will be back with a renewed gusto come mid January or so.

I thought I would tell you quickly about the Christmas gifts we are doing for our girls.  Almost every week the girls get pretty little handouts from our lessons.  We put a lot of thought and effort into these little handouts and the girls seem to really enjoy them.  So, we thought we would give the girls little treasure boxes to keep all their handouts in.  We got wooden boxes that we will paint and decorate and maybe put a little poem about a treasure on - or maybe the princess poem.  Anyway, we thought we were pretty cute.  When we get together to make them, I will take pictures and post them for you all to see.

What are you doing for gifts?

Faith/Knowledge Value Project

When I was 19 or so, the Stake President of the stake I lived in challenged all the members of the stake to memorize "The Family - A Proclamation to the World."  My dad, being bishop at the time, encouraged us to do it as a family, and we did!  It was such a good experience and I learned so much about the essential and most basic principles of family and marriage.  One of the Faith Value Projects is to memorize "The Living Christ," which I think would be a great experience also, but we decided as a class to memorize "The Proclamation."  A couple of the girls already have a Faith Value Project done, so it can also be done under Knowledge.  We just started at mutual a couple of weeks ago (we had a personal progress night), but have been practicing every Sunday during the first couple of minutes of class.  It's fun because we are all doing it together and my advisor is bringing treats for every paragraph they get done.  We're able to talk about the things we learn and memorize and incorporate so much of that into our lessons also...  And if a 12 year-old can do it, so can you!

PS - It was Pres. Hall of the Tempe, AZ South Stake.

Mutual Activity

We had a really fun activity a couple of weeks ago where we embellished beanie hats.  We used felt flowers, leaves, stars, and hearts and sewed them to the hats with embroidery thread.  We also had extra felt and scissors so the girls could get as creative as they wanted.  There were some really cute things!

Fifth Sundays

Well, I haven't been teaching much lately, so no new lessons to post, but I thought I would post this GREAT idea.  On the fifth Sundays in our ward, we have started doing something so that EVERYONE can attend the special 3rd hour combined meeting.  We have our Young Men and Young Women teach Primary and Nursery.  That frees up the YM and YW leaders and teachers AND the Primary/Nursery leaders and teachers.  Not only does it help everyone to feel apart of Priesthood and Relief Society, but it is a great way to prepare the youth for teaching callings when they enter adulthood.  Just thought I would share that with you!

YW Manual 3 Lesson #41 - Being Dependable

This Lesson Reminded me of a seminar I went to almost 10 years ago.  The theme was "Be Your Word."  The lecturer talked about Dependability and Integrity in the context of work mostly, but it was such a good message that it has stuck with me all these years.  I have tried to be the type of person who you can trust to do what they say they will.  I have tried to be honest in ALL my dealings.  In fact, more than once I have had to return to Wal-Mart to pay for a pack of gum, or spool of ribbon which was hiding in the basket and didn't get paid for.  Sometimes I get a funny look or comment, to which I always reply that "hell isn't worth 97 cents" - for which I usually get a laugh and nod of the head.  But seriously, are we compromising what we know to be right and true for something as trivial as a proverbial pack of gum?  I hope not, and I tried to convey that to my girls.  I think they got it.

Lesson #41 Handout "Be Your Word" Download (.pdf)  

Lesson #41 Handout "Be Your Word" Download (.ai)

YW Manual 3 Lesson #39 Recognizing Our Individual Worth

So, recently they called me an advisor, so I no longer teach every Sunday.  Which I am kind of sad about, but it has been nice to have someone else to rely on also, especially since I just had a baby a month ago.  I will still teach every once in awhile and I still take care of mutual activities.  Last week and this week though, I get to teach again because of a family emergency that my advisor had to leave town for.  My prayers are with her and her family and I don't want to be insensitive to her situation, but I am grateful for the opportunity to teach my girls again.

This week was another one of those lessons that I consider to be one of the best, funnest lessons of the year.  I get to talk about being a princess!!  So, for handouts this week, I used the poem which was the inspiration for this blog and also gave each of the girls a pink foam tiara to wear.  It was marvelous!!  So, here are files of the handout I made.  You'll notice there are 3 different versions.  I couldn't decide which I liked best, so I made all three and let the girls pick.  They turned out even better than I planned.  When printed on my HP color laser printer, the colors were so vibrant!  And by the way, these are quarter page sized (300 dpi resolution so you can get a crisp picture when printed).

Green Handout (pdf)

Pink Handout (pdf)

Black Handout (pdf)