Evening in Excellence

  So far our Stake YW Presidency has gone to 3 out of 5 of the wards in the stake for their Young Women Evening in Excellence. All 3 were very different and all wonderful. The first ward saw an opportunity to meet and really introduce the Personal Progress program to the parents of their young women during this evening. Even though that is normally done during a new beginnings activity, our stake does New Beginnings on a stake level so the individual wards can't personalize it and speak to the parents as much in the beginning of the year in a group setting to get them excited about it. After their YW presidency introduced the program the 3 class presidents then spoke on different values and the bishop rounded it out challenging them to be Excellent. Lovely.
  The second ward had each young woman speak on a different value. They all prepared a couple songs to sing as well. Their president took time to spotlight each girl and talk about why they are so great. When their bishop spoke, he added his love for all the girls. We ended the night by looking at tables filled with their interests. I always love that part since I, as a stake leader, don't get to spend a lot of one on one time with the girls and need to catch up on their interests and desires there at evening in excellence. It is wonderful to see how they are growing every year and what they have accomplished. By their works you shall know them.
  The third ward had each girl choose a value to speak on. They then told what it meant to them and what personal progress project they had or were working on in that area. We found out how they grew from that experience. Each was short since they had so many girls. Then they had a video where they showed personal interviews of the girls interlaced with interviews of the former and current bishop and yw photos. Not only did it spotlight each girl but the questions they answered helped bring the spirit to the meeting. An example would be, "What is it important to have a testimony of Christ?" They also had tables to help us get to know the girls better. Theirs had tangible results of value projects they had made from the personal progress program though so it was a little different. They also created and printed up newspaper clippings of each girl so you could get to know their thoughts better. All in all a very good experience in spotlighting the girls in a night of their achievements in personal progress.
  Can't wait to see the last 2 wards.

Sandy and other stuff

  So on the east coast they are experiencing a huge hurricane called Sandy. Apparently they haven't had one this bad in 21 years or so. There is a religious guy out there saying they are being punished for "the gays". If that were true, I think CA would really be in for it. Honestly, if you are going to say God is punishing you with natural disasters then wouldn't HE pick something that is abnormal for your area so it would be more obvious to you He is upset. It seems that they get hurricanes every year and that it is bad almost every year, and the President gets blamed for it. Lol. (well he gets blamed for how bad FIMA messes up afterwards) Anyway you would think if God were punishing the east coast He would send an earthquake or tornadoes to that area. Then people would take notice. "Hmmmm, something isn't right. Maybe global warming???" LOL. If Southern California had tornadoes we would be beside ourselves in fear. We barely can handle rain. Earthquakes are second nature to us and really wouldn't send us to the first thought that God was punishing us. Why would Hurricanes do that for the east coast? If I were to venture a guess as to what we should interpret from God and "normal" natural disasters in our area would be a reiteration of the parable of the 10 virgins. In the literal sense, were we prepared? Did we store up supplies in case of a disaster? Are there sneakers next to your bed?(that is an earthquake thing for all you east coasters. We don't like to step on broken glass) No one is going to be able to share their sneakers with you when you are laying there in your bed with broken glass laying all around your house. No one is going to be able to share their food with you if they only bought enough for their family. I heard about one guy yesterday that was only able to get to the deli on the first floor of his building and grab a few sandwiches and chips to last him the time he was going to be stuck in his apartment. He won't have enough to share. So in the spiritual sense you can remember to store up your "oil" or learnings of the gospel so that you are prepared. As you burn the oil in your lamp and keep filling it with gospel truths your light will stay strong and guide you to the Savior. Bammm! How do you like that! Natural disaster to parable of the 10 virgins. Rock on.
   The Tomb of the Lost Soldier at the Arlington Cemetery got a lot of attention throughout this storm. The men who guard it kept vigilant and watched over it through the hurricane. Very touching. Maybe it is the side of me that can't handle seeing any present unopened but I want to know who is inside. The soldiers inside are from different wars and all before DNA technology came around. Could they test and find the soldiers' families? Would the families want to know? Would they want their family back or be happy to have their family member as part of this tribute to the many men who died anonymously for our freedom. I would want my family member back.

Reading THE HOBBIT

The kids and I have started The Hobbit. The last time I read it was in high school. Literally I read it in 2 hours and then wrote a book report on it. I was the poster child for procrastination as far as book reports were concerned. I must have driven my mother mad who had a masters in library science and could never be seen with out a book in her hand. I read the first and last line of every paragraph the first time so needless to say this book seems all new to me. I can't remember what I got on that book report but it couldn't have been  a very good score. In my defense reading always gave me headaches. It was something in the paper or ink that triggered migraines. I don't know but I think I have grown out of it because it doesn't really happen much anymore.
On to the book. So far we have read the first Chapter together and enjoying all the descriptions of the characters and scenery. I love the poetry or music and can't wait for their journey to start.  I am realizing that all I remember about the book from before is Gollum, Bilbo and Gandolf so all this backstory has been wonderful.
Xander is in love with the story but i wonder how much he really understands since the vocabulary is so tough. Lila is enjoying it and hanging on every word. Charlotte is...well...I can tell we are going to read this again another day. (after all she IS 4) It is so fun to read to the kids though.

Trying to stay away from facebook. lol. Yes I am blogging or journaling to stay away from facebook. Honestly, I told myself facebook was okay because it was a form of journaling everyday but really it has turned into a time waster! ok. My kids are so cute. Lila had a great day at music class. She plays the clarinet this semester and I taught her how to breathe from her diaphragm this week so she could get the notes out. YAY! She lit up when it worked and this week at her lesson she said that the other kids were still puffing into their clarinets while she got compliments from her teacher. One other student figured it out too. I wonder if they have a voice teacher mom too. lol.
Xander went to Chess class today and lost one of his matches but came back strong in the second to take their queen before time was up. He really enjoys it. I am so proud of him. Chess is beyond me. I can't think more than a move ahead.
Charlotte is moving forward with homework and reading. I am nervous to talk to her school about applying to Balboa school. She is in the Transitional Kinder and should go another year in Kinder before entering 1st grade but if she is ready they will send her on after one year. The only thing is I need to send in her application for Balboa this month. Do they feel confident enough now that she can jump to first grade next year? I don't know. Maybe if I give them the option to hold her back even if she is accepted. That way they don't have to make the decision of moving her on to 1st grade until the end of the year but if they do she will have a place to go. I think I need to get materials from Mrs. Albert to prepare Charlotte. She is ready for 1st at Tarzana but I am not sure about 1st at Balboa. It is pretty intense but wouldn't it be incredible to be gifted AND actually be challenged. Intriguing.
That's what is on my mind today.
Oh I folded the laundry to music and cleaned part of alan's office. yay me! I am also doing my new mary kay face regiment. I feel like my face is a little smoother already. I need to take pics.

Treasures in heaven

Today in church we concentrated on our treasures that we store up in heaven. Are we storing trivial things right now or stuff we can actually take with us. Made me stop to think of my last post and how I want to refocus my life a bit. I need to get off facebook and the tv and fill my time with stuff that will promote family and self growth. I do waste too much time. I don't think you can ever stop a bad habit. You need to replace it with another one. Soooo blogging/journaling is the new facebook for me and maybe I can only watch tv if I am cleaning. I am not sure yet. I think I will create this plan more thoroughly after lunch but I had to get my thoughts down.
So many thought occur to me during church. Here is the most crazy one.,,
I would love to record myself reading the Book of Mormon. That way I could send it off to the young women in spurts for them to get their virtue value done AND my kids could also have a copy of me reading to them for years to come. Even my grandkids. I have been given compliments on my reading for years. I think it would be fun to add commentary into the reading as well but that probably wouldn't be appropriate.

Checking off for today.

Detox Time

So My Life needs a little bit of an overhaul. I tend to be lazy. I go to bed late, never drink 8 glasses of water and boy do I hate planning meals. SO what comes from a life like this? Well... headaches, acne, irritability, stressed out and bad posture. There are other things too but I think that is enough whining. I am getting older and my 3 kids are all in school now. I finally have time for my self and I don't really know what to do. So here is my list

Go to bed by 10pm
Drink that water
Exercise 30 min a day( really I want to start taking Karate but don't have the money for that-more to come on that plan)
Plan meals
Cure my acne, AND wrinkles. (I am not that old yet! I should be able to take off a few years. I just bought a book on acne detox from the inside out. That should help with meal planning.)(also starting a new skin regiment with mary kay! so excited-will post pics)
Yoga with Mary Skinner( seriously i am leaving that posture thing up to her.)
Read my scriptures daily(why is this so hard)

I figure if I am getting more sleep, eating better, cutting out the caffeine(also an acne trigger apparently) and exercising, I should be less irritable and stressed. Right? Well that is my plan. Right now I feel tired and I am sick of it. I do a lot of things right but I need to do a lot more. So instead of sitting on facebook tonight I am writing and planning. Good night. :)

Sunday musings

Church was fabulous today. Not only did my 3 kids behave pretty well, I actually heard what the people were talking about. I woke up this morning determined to help my children to get along and keep my patience in tact.  I said a prayer with my husband asking for guidance and walked straight out and engaged the kids. My husband was right there with me telling the kids that he hoped that they would help us eat the cup cakes that got tussled around in the car  yesterday(totally a mess). Happiness filled the air. We went to church and the topic that my lovely friend spoke on was listening to promptings. Apparently she was getting a strong feeling to speak at her father-in-law's funeral and didn't feel like it was her place.  Ended up that she wrote this whole talk(speech) and in the end handed it to her husband who was so distraught he couldn't write his talk for the funeral.  Fabulous. I love that she was prompted to do something that ended up helping her own husband. Most of my promptings have something to do with my children's education or helping someone out that i didn't know was in need.  I tend to take on a lot and run into those promptings a lot. Her talk made me think to focus more on my sweetie and what he could need from me.  Not so much waiting for promptings but supporting him in his amazingly stressful life.  Later I taught the 5-7 year olds at church all about reverence at church and other places; Knowing that the things we do affect not only how much we take in from our surrounds(church, school, etc) but it also affects those around us and the decisions they make.  I gave them an "I caught you being reverent" chart with 100 points sectioned off in groups of ten.  They would received 10 points every time their actions showed reverence like raising their hand to answer or sitting quietly while paying attention.  The kids really loved it and rose to the occasion. When they reached 100, they got to pick from my grab bag.  I received so many well thought out answers to my questions. Would you believe that I had 6 boys and 1 girl all sitting with their arms folded or raising their hands for 45 minutes. wow.  After church we came home and I started sweeping the floor. Was the floor clear of toys and papers? No. I started sweeping it all into a pile and all of a sudden kids came running to rescue their treasures. Ha! No stress, just a fun game of keep away from mom.  Right now my 6 year old is playing chess on my phone, my 8 year old is reading Harry Potter and the 4 year old is coloring disney coloring pages I printed out. Rock On! They are awesome and I am so grateful that I obeyed my prompting and prayed this morning about our family.  Now if I could just get the kids to clean out the duck crate...