What I want my kids to learn

The other week Paige asked me what I learned as a kid growing up in my family. I was surprised that I didn't have to think about it very long - FAITH and HARD WORK.

I thought more about it and decided on some family themes that I wanted to display in our home.

• I want my kids to know the importance of being a family - of working together and loving each other no matter what. A family that is sealed together for time and all eternity.
• I want them to know about faith. Faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel. Faith that is required in obedience and enduring to the end.
• I want them to learn to work hard. I want them to not be afraid to sweat. To feel the great sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done.
• I also want my kids to know how to have fun. To unwind and enjoy the good things in life that will bring them true happiness. 

I followed a tutorial to make vintage looking painted signs  and it was so easy and fun. I'm keeping my eye out for more wood and wall space and things to write. Such possibilities!
 

Silhouettes

One thing I've been trying to do to help with my weight loss is to simply find some things to keep my hands busy. I've been working on some projects to decorate around the house. I have it all visualized, but putting it together takes more work.

I decided to try my hand at family silhouettes. I've loved seeing them in other homes so, at the risk of following a fad, I figured out how to make them. I'm still figuring out the best place and way to use them in my home, but it was fun to make...and easier than I expected.

The silhouettes always remind me of Disneyland and my mom. All of the kids had their silhouettes cut out at Disneyland at one time or another. But I remember when Tasha and I got ours. We were headed to Disneyland with the school choir and my mom gave us some money with specific instructions to find the silhouette shop and get ours done together.We had a mission and we could not disappoint. Soon our silhouettes were sitting on the shelf next to our brother and sisters.

Oh, speaking of me and Tasha. I had her send me a profile pic so I could compare the two of us. Its so interesting how different identical twins can end up.

Somehow I felt that these Disneyland silhouettes must be very important. So, when Brian and I first made it to Disneyland together I made it a priority. Unfortunately it did not go very well because Brian ended up with, what he called, a melon head. They just forget to ever curve his head down before they placed my cutout next to his. It was disappointing and it never did get displayed.

But now we have new silhouettes with a whole bunch of little ones following behind. Should be fun to work with.

So, if any of you readers want some free silhouettes of your family done, just let me know. It will be good to keep my hands busy.

Putting Christ in Christmas

In an effort to not spend too much money this Christmas we embarked on a big and fun project of creating illustrated Books of Mormon to give to friends and cousins. It is something a friend gave our family when we moved from our house in Orem and we have always thought it was the neatest thing.

First, we took our boxes of old Ensign and Friend magazines. (Which I had only been saving for a project such as this, but had never gotten around to doing it.) We flipped through at least 100 magazines looking for good pictures to use in the scriptures. They had to be a good size, and hopefully correspond with something in the Book of Mormon. There were, of course, many pictures of Christ, but occasionally we'd find something really unique, like Alma the Younger, or Lehi's Dream.


After cutting and cutting, I sorted through all the clippings and arranged them into categories. We ended up with 27 groupings. Then I went through and printed out a paper of corresponding scriptures to go with each category. The hard part was finding scriptures that would space out the pictures nicely throughout the book, instead of clumpings in a certain chapter.


Then we took glue sticks and pasted in the pictures throughout the scriptures. We also marked the scripture that went along with the picture. Now we had an illustrated Book of Mormon with more than 30 pictures to look at.



We've found these to be really useful to bring to church to look at pictures and talk about what is going on. It is always exciting during family scripture study to turn the page and see a new picture as well.

Although it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed making these presents. It was a big learning experience for me to get deeper in the scriptures and make connections between stories and important gospel principles. It really helped strengthen my testimony and turned out to be an easy way to think about Christ during the Christmas season.

Interesting fact: This is the most used picture of Christ in the Ensign,
in various stages of cropping.

Oh - and now I can't open a church magazine without automatically flipping through it and seeing if there are any good pictures to cut out. I hardly even bother with the articles. Guess I'll have to get over that.

The Rumor is I made something

Normally, that would just be a rumor. But surprisingly this time it is true.

Next week is girls camp and I had to come up with a home-made gift to give my secret sister. I don't know her yet - since I'm going with the Stake and this girl is in a different ward - so I wasn't sure what to make. I decided some kind of cute hat, and the easiest one I could find was a beret. I don't know if she likes hats, but I hope so. I ended up with enough fabric and made three hats. I'm not sure which one I should give away. They are cute, as long as you don't look too closely. I don't know why I have such a hard time sewing. Guess that's what happens when you only take the sewing machine out once a year.

If you are interested, I found the pattern at this site. It was a simple enough idea. I bet you all could do it.
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/woolen-beret

Here's hoping my secret sister likes it!