Monday Mom-blings

Just a few random questions today. Feel free to enlighten me if you so choose!

Why is it that....

...your children wait until you're on the phone to ask you for something???

...the flowers in the yard finally start looking good only days before it's supposed to freeze??

...you can go without food any other day but fast Sunday???

...and speaking of fast Sunday, why can't it be more like it's name...FAST??

...you never notice that hole or stain on your clothes until you get out in public???

...children can't possibly keep a room clean for more than 5 min.??

...the kiddies always have to wait until you have a cart full of groceries at the store to decide they need to pee???

Joy In the Journey Week 7

Read and mark Exodus 25:8. Our homes can be like the temple. Today do one thing to make your home feel more like the temple. Examples: listen only to appropriate music, speak in a soft voice, express your love to your family, study the scriptures. As you fast tomorrow, consider asking the Lord to guide you this month on your spiritual journey.

Monday Mom-blings

Time seems to be getting away from me lately.

I thought that with the summer, and fewer places to be at specific times, I would be able to get a lot done. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case.

Simply keeping the kids on task, keeping track of where they are, who they're with, and when they're going to be home, and keeping them from killing each other has become a full time job. Not to mention the fact that occasionally we like to try to get out to do something fun! (Although one could argue that doing anything with 5 kids in tow is anything but fun.) Regardless, summer seems to be flying by...and as I watch it fly by, I find myself thinking about all of the things that I should have done (including my posts) which haven't been done yet, and wondering when I'm ever going to do it.

I've put myself on a new schedule for the summer. I used to try to wake up, do a post first thing in the morning and then try to get everything else done during the day, but it didn't work very well. Occasionally I would get the post done, but for whatever reason, nothing else would be accomplished during the day. So I'm starting a new routine (actually the whole family is starting a whole routine.) We'll get up, and we'll have until 10 am to get done all of our WORK. After that will come all of the other stuff...in order of importance. Hopefully this will ensure that at least we do some kind of work for the day and then give us time to play/relax/learn/whatever during the day too. I'm sure it won't work like that everyday. I'm sure there will be days when we'll have to work much longer, and then there will be days when we'll just want to play, but hopefully this new little schedule will at least give us some degree of organization to our chaos!

Anyhoo...

Did anyone have a chance to do the week one assignment from last week? How did it go? What did you like about Pres. Monson's talk?

Here's the Week 2 Assignment

President Monson states: "Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings." Read and mark 1 Thess. 5:18. Make a list of 100 things you are grateful for.

This should be a fun assignment, but you may be glad that you have the entire week to complete it. It may take the entire week to fill the list! Good luck everyone! Feel free to leave a comment when you've completed the assignment and let me know if you made it to 100...that's a lot!!

Monday Mom-blings

I consider my blog to be my journal; A record of what I've done; Somewhere to record my feelings, so imagine my surprise the other day to find myself contemplating starting a "real" journal. Actually, I've done it on and off ever since I was a teenager. I worked in spurts. I would write in it consistently for a while, and then just stop. Well, I'm on a "stop." I think I have been for about (get ready to gasp)....ummmmm, 10 years now! Yikes!!

So, I'm thinking about starting a written journal to record my progress on personal goals that I'm working on. Ways that I'm trying to be a better me; be a better wife; be a better mom. The things that I have a tendency to fall short on quite often that I don't want the world (or maybe my minions of readers...hehe!) to read. I'll let you know how it goes...but just in case you're wondering, I've been THINKING of starting now for about 2 weeks. Thinking is about as far as I've gotten thus far.

Here's a little program to help me out with my journal writing. I'd love to have you join in if you'd like. The program is based around Pres. Monson's conference talk from Oct. 2008, Joy in the Journey. (I've mentioned it before.) The program is a 31 day program, but I think I'm going to do it a little differently. Originally it was one of those "daily assignment" programs, but life is busy, and after starting it, I quickly found that I didn't have time to do a daily assignment. As such, I think I will make it into a weekly assignment...obviously, this will really stretch the program out, but I think it will work. Here's the general idea: Each Monday I will post the assignment for the week on this blog along with links for any articles, etc. that you will need to accomplish the assignment. You'll then have the entire week to work on the project, so if you don't have time right then and there, or if you want to think about it a little, or if life happens, don't worry, you'll have 7 days to do it before I post another assignment. You can do this project on your own, with your spouse, or with your friends.

That said, here's the general purpose of the program, and the first assignment.

Finding Joy in the Journey Program - This is a program focussed on preparedness. We all know we need to be physically/temporally prepared (food storage, etc.) but we also need to be spiritually prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

Week 1 Assignment:

Read Finding Joy in the Journey by Pres. Monson. Ponder and highlight points that inspire you. (If you are doing this with your spouse, or friends, share these points with each other.)

Opt. - Enjoy an Almond Joy candy bar!

Tuesday - Switcheroo

I had good intentions today. I really did.
My plan was to make an easy, cost efficient skirt...and then give you some ideas to do the same.
HOWEVER...my sewing skills are a little rusty. I had everything all cut out ready to sew and as I began to put the skirt together I realized that I had cut the wrong piece out of the wrong fabric and when I went to right the wrong, I didn't have enough of the fabric left. (Rrrrrrr.....I'm a little annoyed with myself right now, but I'll go back to the fabric store tomorrow and hopefully they'll still have some of the fabric left, then I can get back on track.) Hopefully tomorrow I will have the tutorial/tip for you. Keep your fingers crossed!!

In the mean time I thought I would share with you a little project that I stumbled across on another blog. This project is called, "Finding Joy in the Journey" and it is focused on preparedness. We all know we need to be physically/temporally prepared (food storage, etc.)
but we also need to be prepared spiritually for the challenges that lie ahead. Participation in this program entails a small daily task for 31 days.
*Please note that this is not my program (nor did I actually finish all the tasks when I originally started them) so I will using the instructions given from the other blog (with permission) verbatim...and I'll be doing this with you.
Let me know if this would be something of interest to you, and I'll get it started. Tell your friends about it. Talk to your hubby about it. I think the more people we could have join us on our journey the more fun it would be. I'll do a follow up post later in the week if I get any response to this and let you know when we'll start!