Studying General Conference Addresses

I've had many goals over the years related to fitting the General Conference addresses into my life.  Some worked great and others sort of (really) flopped.  This conference was different for me.  I'm not sure why, but I was more excited to watch and be involved in the teachings that I ever have before.

My goal this time around is to learn purposefully.  To me this means to not just listen and read the talks, but to focus on what each one means for me. 

My first step, phase one of my plan, has been going on for a few weeks.  I work out every morning to a few different videos and even though I really do like Tony Horton, I don't enjoy listening to his banter the fiftieth time quite as much as I did the first.  My solution?  I downloaded the General Conference sessions to Itunes and listen to it much louder than Mr. Horton every morning while working out.  It's been GREAT so far (sorry Tony)!

Phase two started yesterday when I finally got my General Conference Ensign.  Yipee!!  At first I decided I would use two highlighters (I LOVE highlighters).  One to mark those bits and pieces that really stood out to me and the second to mark the Do's.  The main point the speaker was trying to make, as I read I ask myself over and over, "What does he/she want me to DO?"

As I've started reading it's been really cool because often those do's are connected with blessings.  When I find those great If/Then statements I use the same Do highlighter, but I also write if and then next to the section.

As I read today, I added two more pens.  First, I have a third highlighter (yes, one more), this one to mark those things that I feel will help me with my church responsibilities in the primary. 

The last bit I've added is a pen.  Just a regular ball point pen to write my thoughts and feelings in the margins. 

I am surprised and excited to feel inspired in all areas of my life.  In only the first two talks!  I am also surprised how much more I'm getting out of the talks by really taking the time to read slowly and more thoughtfully.

How do you bring General Conference into your lives?

Homeschool Checklist #3

Makenna's checklist is very similar to both Ben and James, just even more expanded.  This is my first year homeschooling her,so we had quite a bit of adjustment waiting for us at the beginning of the year. 

It was a little rough, but thankfully we've worked through it and are both really liking it now.  Looking back, the three biggest things that helped Makenna's (and my) day run smoother were:

#1. Having assigned seats.  I'm laughing right now because this still seems crazy to me, but I know it made a HUGE difference in her day.  She needed to know that her seat was in the same spot every day.  I'm not sure why, maybe to make it seem more like regular school, but I do know she needed it.  How?  Well, when she asked me if we had assigned seats, I said, "Nope."  And then when I walked into the schoolroom the next morning, both boys told me excitedly that they each had their very own assigned seat!  I immediately looked at Makenna and she was grinning like crazy.  Another reason?  They're still "assigned" 3 months later.

#2. Having a slightly more regular schedule.  Makenna is used to having the same subjects at the same time every day and she really (REALLY) had a hard time when I told her that we had to be a little more flexible than that.  We compromised by making the checklist more routine-ed by attempting to work on the same subjects in the same order every day.

#3.  The backbone of our school day is...

...the schedule/checklist.  I love that it gives the kids a sense of control over their day.  They can look at it and see exactly what they need to do every day.  The know what's left and as we've gotten farther into school (and made a few changes to the checklists), they know how long each subject usually takes.  It's even better for Ben and Makenna because there is so much they can do on their own.  For example, Makenna's blue highlighted sections are ones she either needs to do with me on or are subjects that we do together as a family.  She knows that she can do everything else as quickly (or slowly) as she wants as long as they all get done before the end of the day.

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous to have Makenna home this year.  Partly because she's older and has a more demanding curriculum but also partly because we are so very similar (in both good and unfortunately, not good ways).  What I've discovered?  I LOVE IT!  Every day isn't easy, but I love having her here with me.  I love getting to learn with her.  It is seriously fun. 

Strategic Surrender

I'm not sure why I put strategic.  Maybe it makes me feel better about the surrender part. 

I have some sort of strange the world's going to end, survivalist impulses that express themselves in all sorts of strange ways (I also think it'd be fun to live downtown in a big city where you can walk everywhere, I'm full of contradictions).

For my blog this impluse has shown up in naming my kids by an initial.  Except I didn't do a very good job at it.  I knew that as I typed my posts I frequently spelled out their names, but I thought I caught them all and fixed them before posting.  I didn't.  Shoot. 

I'm a little OCD and the thought of having two different naming systems used irratically sort of wigs me out.  Not a lot, but probably enough that it isn't exactly normal.  Don't tell.

The point to my whole post and the surrendering is that I'm going to type out their names from now on.  Probably nothing terrible will happen.  Most likely.  Chances are.

M is Makenna, my darling (and only) fiesty, sarcastic 11 year old daughter.

B is Ben, my slightly spacey and completely loving 8 year old son.

J is James, my 5 year old Jimmy James (he actually wrote his name like that for almost a year) with the biggest most charismatic smile.

P is Josh.  Yep, Josh.  Okay, his name is Joshua Paine and having two J's wouldn't just been confusing.  Josh is 3 years old and is my, "Me, too!" kid.  He wants to do everything his older brothers do and just about worships James.

Just so you know.

General Conference Goal - Family Home Evening

For family night tonight, we picked another talk from General Conference to delve into a little more and set a goal from.  The talk we picked (okay, I picked this one) was from Sister Linda Burton of the Relief Society General Presidency.  I picked a simple and powerful talk.  An easy topic for all of my kids while still teaching an important principle.

The title to Sister Burton's talk is First Observe, Then Serve.  Enough said.  I tried to find something online that I could use, a pre-made family home evening or some ideas for teaching about the General Conference talks.  I couldn't find anything!  I think I'm still in shock.  Google let me down.  Google found me lots of super fun activities, coloring sheets and anything else you can think to do during conference.  I wonder if there are others who use conference talks to make family home evenings.  Cute ones.  Fun ones (but most of all simple).  There must be.  If you know of any, pretty please pass them along.

Until then, I'll just limp along on my own. 

Due to my super late start, today's really was barely even a limp.  I pulled up the talk on our ROKU (I love our ROKU!) and skipped ahead to where Sister Burton introduces the idea.  Just after talking about how observing and serving are Christ-like principles, she shares a few examples from everyday life.  We watching for a few of those and then we talked about them. 

After discussing her examples, we thought of ways we could serve each other everyday.  Or serve our friends in simple and small yet meaningful ways.  Tomorrow we'll add observing and serving to our monthly chore/goal charts so we can mark our progress.

I'm still loving the conference tree.  So great.

Top 3 Favorites

#1. B often asks me what I'm making for dinner.  I always say, "Food."  He always sighs and says, "What kind of food?" I tell him, "Yummy food."  He then sighs again, a little exasperatedly and walks away saying, "Mom!"  One of my favorite things is how he's changed his question.  He walks into the kitchen and with a smile on his face asks, "Mom, what kind of yummy food are you making tonight?"  So great.

#2. I love that P always wants to sit with me.  Today, I sat down on the couch to help J with a game he was playing and P ran over and sat on my lap.  Then he squirmed for a minute and slid off to one side.  He grabbed my hand and held it up while he rubbed his face against it....and then he moved my hand down to hold his foot.  I don't know what it is, but he loves it when I hold his feet while he sits with me.  I can't decide if it's cute or just funny.

(this is P, don't you just want to squeeze him?!)

#3. M is now old enough to watch the boys.  Today Steve (the husband) and I went out and did some shopping and didn't have to bring all four kids with us.  We didn't even have to take one of them.  We took NONE of them!  Oh my heavens...it's amazing!

Goals and Chores

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away...) I made my kids chore charts.  They worked really well keeping all of us on track.  And then we started homeschool.

Our previous chore charts had four separate sections: my body, my home, my testimony and my brain.  Each category had different chores and/or goals to work on during the day, but after starting homeschool, some of the categories were redundant.

Combine that with the annual goals we make (we sit down together every January and talk about what we want to work on and get accomplished during the year in different aspects of our lives) and then hardly talk about afterwards and I knew I needed to revamp my system.  I just wasn't sure how.

After reading that Gretchen Rubin's most successful part of her Happiness Project (no, I swear I'm not a stalker...it just seems like it recently) was her resolutions chart I got excited.  After checking it out, I finally had my plan.

I combined my favorite parts of both charts and came up with this.  I think it turned out pretty good (although the real test will be over the next few weeks as we're using them).  Our previous charts were weekly and I felt like I was using (wasting) way too much paper, thus the new ones are monthly (let's just hope we don't lose them).  I broke our chart up into three sections, the first two bringing in all the items we still need from the previous chore charts but organized in a way that makes better sense for us now.

The first section includes all the things that they should (ideally) get done before our 8:30am school start time.  But if they somehow don't get to all of it (read imagining slight sarcasm and a loving/exasperated smile), it needs to be done before they can play. 

The second section says before the end of the day and really means sometime before bedtime. 

The last section is another addition/change from our old chore charts and probably the part I'm most excited about.  We now have a place for some of those annual goals, not to mark when they're done, but to keep track of how often we're actually working on them.  To track our progress.  Plus, as we set family goals (which we've started doing a few times a month) we can write them in so we don't forget about them in the hustle and bustle of life.  I purposefully didn't type these in because I'm thinking they'll change depending on what each child is working on that month.

This is B's chore chart (you might have already noticed), but each of my kid's charts looks very similar.  The differences are in exactly which cleaning chores they are currently assigned to do. 

I was thinking I'd even have them make different marks to check them off depending on how well (attitude mostly) they get their chores done.  Then at the end of the month, we can look back and see what progress has been made, which is the best part.

I'll keep you updated on how well they're working out for us!

Hurry

While I know it's important to stop and smell the roses, M takes it to a whole new level.  She gets distracted and stares out the window or ends up dancing around the kitchen (yes, it is adorable...but I REALLY want my dishes done sometime before she's ready to move out in 6 or 7 years).

She always retorts that she can't, if she goes any faster, she'll just have to redo...{fill in the blank}.  And I will admit, that does happen.  Too often.

I then tell her that I didn't mean to go faster than she is capable, I want her to go as quickly as she can while still doing a good job.

We've had this conversation more times than I want to remember.  But I now have the solution. 

Today I found the perfect quote.  I either want to tattoo it to her forhead or stick it on her wall in super HUGE vinyl letters.  Probably the vinyl, I might get in trouble if I tried the tattoo.

"Hurry up slowly."

When I read this I immediately thought of Makenna.  To me it says exactly what I'm always telling her.  Do what you can to the best of your ability.  Do it as quickly as you can, but not so fast that you're messing up or getting frustrated. 

Now I just need a cricut.