Why didn’t other moms feel warm and fuzzy about their kids like I felt about mine? I smiled to myself as I thought, “Oh, that is so sad. I’m so glad that I have this whole mom thing together, and love my little girl so much.” Most of all, I thought that I must be doing something right and they must be doing something wrong. I totally judged! Read the post to find out how my perspective changed.
Be prepared for a Family Night full of action and adventure! This lesson is perfect for active children. Sometimes (usually), my kids like to fight during our Family Night lessons. This week, fighting is encouraged. How cool is that?! Read on to find out why…
Friends! Have you ever wanted to try your hand at yoga?? I know I have! In fact, I have a little brother on an LDS mission, who LOVES yoga. Before he left, he made me promise that I would learn yoga and be able to show him a “sweet yoga move” by the time he gets home. Eeeek!
That promise, coupled with the fact that two of my brothers are in film production (they’re amazing) and my blog assistant, Liv, is also a yoga instructor, gave me an AWESOME IDEA! We put our heads together and decided to create a Yoga for Busy Moms online class, right in my own home.
As far back as I can recall, I was taught to treat others as I have would them treat me. I grew up with the understanding that all men were created equally precious in the sight of God, that He was no respecter of persons, and that everyone we interact with was to be given our respect and love.
I believed in what I was taught. I have always known in faith that we are spirit children of God and have an infinite capacity for good. Occasionally I get a glimpse of the love He must feel for us.
We’ve recently moved and I’ve noticed how the stress and chaos of it all has started to affect our family. We’ve had more contention, less patience and you know the rest of the story. We all have those periods of time in our families.
One night recently, we sat down as a family and I asked the simple question, “What makes a strong family?”. One by one we talked about that question and made some decisions of things we could do to strengthen our family. That sparked an idea for a Family Night, so that’s what I’m going to share with you this month.
t’s just about time for the kids to head back to school—if they haven’t already started! From meeting the teachers, to checking out textbooks for the year, to shopping for school supplies, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about learning and study. I recently ran into a great article with seven learning strategies used by kids and how they can help everyone learn better. I love the idea of incorporating childlike learning strategies into lifelong learning, but as I was pondering how to adopt some of these skills into my life, I realized that each of the seven strategies could revitalize scripture study as well!
I calculate that it has been 7 years since I have been truly “off the grid” for longer than 24 hours. Even when I went to Italy with my wife 4 years ago, I would check my inbox at least twice a day to make certain I wasn’t getting too behind with work. Sadly, there are just truly too few places left in the world where we are no longer easily connected to our electronic lives.
My status of being constantly “plugged in” changed this last week. My father in law, after many years of trying, was finally able to convince our family to find a break in our schedule – not an easy task – to accompany him on a backpack trip into the Uintah Mountains. So we took a 3 day, 2 night venture out into the wilderness. To a place where electronic service of any kind was unavailable. There was a sense of satisfaction when I put my vacation response on my email settings as not having any access to my phone or email during my time away.
Summer means travel! Even if you’re not going on a big vacation, you’re probably road-tripping for a family reunion or taking off for an afternoon at the mountains or the beach. Getting out of the routine can be invigorating, but sometimes these trips can disconnect us from the small habits that keep us close to the Spirit! Traveling can mean we miss church services, daily scripture study, or regular prayers. With this in mind, I created printables of eight travel related scriptures verses to help keep you and your family a little more connected to Him during the summer travel season.
I love summer time with my kids, but I’ll be honest: the days can get a little long! Without the school routine, it’s easy for me to feel drained by the late mornings, with melting popsicles, and wet beach towels. This summer, though, instead of focusing on activities for the kids I decided to make a list of the things I want to do to be a better mom, starting with the things my kids need to hear me say. Hopefully this will help reinforce good behavior in my kids so we can all get along during the school break.
The way we view the world, situations, and our relationships ultimately determines our happiness. It is called perception. Have you ever heard the expression, “She looks at the world through rose colored glasses?” What does that mean? It means that a person looks at the world in a positive or “rosy” way. What if we looked at the world through Jesus, the Son of God’s, eyes? How would we view ourselves? How would we see others? Would it change the way we act and think? I believe it would.
What is Visiting Teaching? As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we are in a congregation where we are asked to go and visit assigned ladies each month to really get to know them, share a quick message and find out if they have any needs to be met. It’s one of the ways we build friendships and help our leaders know any needs that families have (there would be too many for leaders to visit them all individually!).
For those of you who aren’t members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I hope you can use these quotes and scriptures as well. Most of the subjects are universal Christian subjects and the quotes and scriptures are inspiring and helpful for everyone!
My first-born child just turned 13. We have high hopes for his happiness and well-being. Though we as parents recall navigating our teenage years, we understand that each teen’s experience is their own and comes with its own personal form of awkwardness and insecurity. Deanne and I are looking for ways to influence and advise him during these years without squashing his budding personality and independence. That’s why I’m hopeful you’ll benefit from these “Rules For My Teenager” that I have today.