Menu Chart

I created this menu form yesterday to write down my dinner plan for the week.  Since I put it up on my fridge and have to look at it every day, I wanted it to be cute.  I know, I know, not really necessary but it makes me happy.

I left it pretty generic so that I could use it a variety of ways.  This week I just put the days in each little label spot and wrote my dinners in there.  I could also put lunches and dinners on there if I felt like it and have it only last for 4 days.  At any rate, I thought I'd share.  Feel free to try it out and give me feedback.  Since I designed it, I can make changes.

The Magical History Tour

I took my parents and kids on The Magical History Tour this summer.  I had the desire to do some family history and wanted my kids (and me) to know the stories of my parents' lives and also to see important places in their life history.  My parents were in a terrible roll-over car accident last summer so I feel like I am on bonus time having them around.  I want to take advantage of every moment with them.

My parents' car after the accident.  They were on the way to visit me, driving across the hot desert.  It was a miracle they came out of this relatively fine.  No major injuries and several good Samaritans to help them.

I put the cheesy sign at the top of this post on each side of my mini-van.  True, we got a lot of funny looks from people as we drove around Orange County and Los Angeles County. 

My parents knew we were going to do a family history tour but I decided to be playful and call it The Magical History Tour (a pun from The Beatles, The Magical Mystery Tour).  My sons and I played THIS SONG early in the morning to introduce the theme of the day and sung to it (I'm sure my teenagers loved it). 

We had snacks or little gifts at every stop.  For instance, at the temple where my folks were married, we got Ring Pops.  At my dad's childhood home we had oranges and raisins, his favorite childhood after-school snack.  You get the idea.

They were great sports and we had a wonderful 13 hour day driving all over southern California where they grew up and still live.  We visited their childhood homes, where they were married, relatives graves, old church buildings we attended, colleges, elementary schools, old hangouts, etc.  We took pictures, did video recording and my parents spoke into a digital recorder about their memories.  It was a day we'll never forget.  PRICELESS!

My dad at one of his childhood homes.  My grandpa was a builder and designed and built this house.

UCLA - One of the colleges my mom attended.

The church building that our family attended when I was young.

My mom's childhood home.

My Aunt Nancy's headstone.  She drowned in the family pool as a toddler.  Very tragic story.

Of course I had to make a themed poster representing our day.  I put this on the goodie bags and also printed and framed a copy for my parents.

I would highly recommend having a Magical History Tour of your own.  Worth all the preparation and time for sure!

Helpful Household Tips

 Socks always drive me nuts!  I have to wash them, match them, sort them by each child, put them into the kids' rooms... all to have them grab socks and bring them back downstairs every morning.  So my husband had a brilliant idea.  He said, "Why don't you just put a big basket of socks on top of the dryer and just store them all there?" BRILLIANT!  This saves me so much time and since the laundry room is downstairs, the kids can just grab their socks out in the morning instead of running back upstairs after breakfast.  We've been using this system for a few years and still love it!

 Another thing that drives me nuts is toothbrushes.  After my son told me he accidentally used my toothbrush because it was the same color as mine, I freaked.  I came up with this fun idea.  I just repurposed jars that I had washed in the dishwasher.  I glued them together with E6000 glue and then put binder clips to hold the names.  I took this picture before I put the names on there.  So far, so good!  And I can rest easy knowing that my son isn't contaminating my toothbrush.

 Another area that needed to be controlled was jackets.  We don't have a mud room in our house (I wish!).  We have a laundry room that leads from the garage to the house with limited space.  So my handy dandy hubby made us a storage area for jackets and such.  There are two levels (one for the taller people to use and one for the younger kids).  In the summer, we put away the jackets away and hang out bathing suits, towels and goggles on the hooks.  We REALLY use this area a lot.

Stair Picture Collage

We have a large wall space that is by our stairs.  It always drove me nuts to have that much empty wall space, so I decided to do a picture collage like I saw in a Pottery Barn magazine.  Everything is monochromatic.  Most of the frames came from IKEA though because I like IKEA prices better than PB pricing!

I arranged the pictures on the ground to get a good idea how I'd like them to be arranged.  Then my sweet hubby hung them all for me while I watched and told him to slightly adjust things.  It looks great and was inexpensive.

Arizona Art

My husband often says, "I need a wood project."  I think it is his outlet or hobby.  But I won't complain!

He made this out of "repurposed" wood (and the star came from Hobby Lobby).  The wood was mainly from a crate that our movers had packed our large mirror and artwork in when we moved from CA to AZ.  We let it sit on the side of our house for a few years and it was all weathered looking.

It is quite large (probably 4 feet by 3 feet).  It is a twist on the Arizona state flag, but he used more neutral colors.  I helped him paint the wood, but other than that, he just came up with this on his own.  I absolutely love the finished product and I love that my husband likes to make fun things.

Simple Paintings on Canvas

 I was inspired by some pictures online, so I asked my mom-in-law to paint some for my kitchen.  She just used simple craft paints and canvases that I bought on sale from Michael's/Hobby Lobby.  These are hanging in my kitchen, above my pantry.

 I loved the playfulness of these flowers.  I also liked how my mom-in-law made the canvas looked a little worn.

She made this chicken picture for us since we had recently started raising chickens.  It just makes me happy!

FHE Idea - Creating a Strong Foundation

FHE Idea - Creating a Song Foundation (based off a Sharing Time by Michelle Walton)

Have the mom or dad dress up as a builder. (Have a construction hat, tool belt and an apron that is orange. Have 2 long rolled papers as your blue prints.) Hi. My name is _______ the Builder. I’m an architect in your neighborhood. I have come to your home to find 2 builders to help with 2 homes I have to build.

Call up your 2 builders. (Give each helper a hat and an apron) Hand them each a bag with materials and the blue prints to build one of the homes you have for them. (Tell them they have 1 minute to build. Set the timer!)

Note: As the two houses are being build, talk about what the home might look like and how much fun it will be to live in it, etc.

Home #1: The first home will be built with toilet paper rolls. (Have an adult do this one) Have a 9 x 13 pan and put sand in it. Have the adult build this house on the sand.

Home #2: The 2nd will be built with bricks (Give this one to a child) Have a 9 x 13 pan and put a flat rock. Have a child build this house on a rock. After they are done building there home, talk about how nice it looks etc.

Note: Share with them, that in life we will have trials. These trials are like, a raging storm with wind, lighting and darkness.

Question: How strong is your home?

Turn on CD player with a CD that has sounds of a storm (or just make your own storm noises) and turn off the lights.

Discussion: As the CD is playing, share temptations that they might face: Listening to bad music, being immoral, having bad friends, breaking the law, being disrespectful, stealing, not coming to church all the time, drugs, alcohol, smoking, cheating, yelling, fighting, anger, watching bad movies, pornography on the internet, being in modest, dishonest, selfish, etc.

Demonstration: Turn on the fan towards the 2 houses and then pour water over both.

Question: Why did the first house fall?

Answer: Because it wasn’t build with strong material or a strong foundation. This house represents those of us who don’t live the commandments and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. (These are the temptations we talked about we might face)

Question: Why did the second house stand strong?

Answer: Because it was built on a strong foundation. This house represents us as we live the gospel and do all we can to be like the Savoir. (Going to church, paying tithing, living the word of wisdom, service, keeping the Sabbath day holy, being modest in our dress, watching good movies, scriptures, prayer, FHE, telling the truth. You might want to add if you want!) Share thought and scripture:

Let us be sure the spiritual foundation of each home is the rock of our Redeemer, as Helaman taught his sons: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12.)

Building our third home.

Today we’re going to build our Celestial home. We will need to find another architect.

Show a picture of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our Master architect of building our celestial home.

Start Building: Have the children pull out a piece of the puzzle from the bag and read it. Have the put it on the board. The rest of the children will do the same. When all the pieces our put together, it will be the temple.

Scripture: D&C 88:119
"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." (D&C 88:119.) A House of Prayer and Fasting - To make our homes become houses of prayer and fasting, we "pray always, that [we] may come off conqueror; yea, that [we] may … escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." (D&C 10:5.)

Have personal and family prayer.

Fast for a purpose

A House of Learning and Glory - Every home is a house of learning, either for good or otherwise. Family members may learn to be obedient, honest, industrious, self-reliant, and faithful in living gospel principles, or they may learn something else.Learning the gospel in the homes of Church members should be centered on the scriptures and on the words of latter-day prophets.
The Lord has commanded parents to teach their children. King Benjamin instructed parents: "Ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil. …
"But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." (Mosiah 4:14–15.)

The ideal way to transform your home into a house of learning is to hold family home evening faithfully. The Church has reserved Monday evening for that purpose. In 1915, the First Presidency instructed local leaders and parents to inaugurate a home evening, a time when parents should teach their families the principles of the gospel.

The Presidency wrote: "If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influence and temptations which beset them."

A House of Order

To instill order in our homes, parents should be in charge and exercise parental authority in righteous dominion and establish acceptable standards of behavior for their children, setting limits and adhering to them consistently. They are to teach and guide their children "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness.”
Other safeguards of order in our homes include assuring that children are blessed, baptized, and sons ordained to the priesthood. In addition, they should be worthy to enter the holy temples, become missionaries, and receive the crowning blessing of an eternal marriage.

A House of God

If you will make your home a house of prayer and fasting, faith, learning and glory, and order, it can become a house of God. If you build your homes on the foundation rock of our Redeemer and the gospel, they can be sanctuaries where your families can be sheltered from the raging storms of life.

TESTIFY