Making Liahona's

The Liahona is:

1. Liahona

   Web definitions

   1. According to the Book of Mormon and other Latter Day Saint movement sources, the Liahona is a brass ball that operated as a type of compass with two spindles. One of the spindles was said to point the direction Lehi and his party should travel after their escape from Jerusalem. ...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liahona_(Book_of_Mormon)

Here is our attempt at making a Liahona.  I scoured the internet for help.  Found the elaborate to the simple...Here is what we came up with for our Seminary Room.  We used two clear bowls from the dollar store, some tape, some cardboard, spray paint and nuts and bolts.  Here is how it came out.

I also created mini Liahona's for each kid with fishing bobbers.  I hung them and spray painted them.  I had the kids decorate them with sharpies and then write a direction they wanted to go with their life.  ie: goal.

In the pic they are upside down.  I didn't take a pic of them decorated but they came out cute.  I loved reading the goals the kids had thought of for themselves.


Here is the color spray paint I used if anyone is interested.

Football Season!

Curtis is playing his first year of football.  He is having fun.  Here are some pictures of his game.  He is one of the biggest on his team.  He is number 62.  As you can see in the group shots he is about a helmet above the other boys.  They won this game 19-6.  Yippee!

4-H Pictures 2013

 Curtis's First Year Project.  Really cool Robot/Alien thing.  Has a zipper for a mouth.  

 Maggie's Loungewear project.  It came out super cute.  

 Maggie's robe.  She learned how to do a crocheted edge.  It is so fuzzy but lightweight.

 Jacob's Wool coat.  He did a great job.  

Doug's Biking outfit.  

 Doug's First Day of High School.  Love that he has to wear a uniform!  Bio-Med Science Academy Ready or not here he comes!

One Month

Well it has been one month of my "new uniform".  I have to say I did deviate I think two or maybe three times.  One time we were going to the fair in the heat of the day and I really didn't want to wear black, standing on pavement, in the sun for hours, while the kids rode the rides.

It has been much easier to keep up with my laundry at least.  Limiting myself and only wearing from those few items, it is easy to see when you need to do the wash. Also I can do everything of mine in one load.  That is awesome.  If I could get the kids to follow suit.  That is another post.

 This is more clothing that I have stuffed everywhere on shelves.  Need to clean it out and put it away.

 Picture of some of the ribbons the kids earned at the fair this year and in years past.

 Even Maggie's little bunny is into the black look!

 Sometimes at my house you never know what you are going to find when you come down the stairs.

 Doug and the kids playing dungeons and dragons.  Lots of Laughing around here.  I am not sure D&D is suppose to be comical. 

"Uniform" one month.  Time spent standing in front of closet trying to figure out what to wear. 0 minutes. I love that!

The New Seminary Teacher

Guess what.  I am our Ward's new Seminary Teacher.  For those of you who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Ward is like a congregation and the Seminary Teacher is responsible for teaching the 9th grade to 12th grade youth every morning.  We are having early morning seminary which means we will start at 5:55 am and end at 6:40 am.  We will all gather at our church building and have hymns, prayer and a spiritual lesson to start our day.

I am a convert to the church, I did not go to seminary as a youth.  Maybe that is good, maybe not?  I know I have a lot to learn and I know that being the seminary teacher, I will have to learn it!

Tomorrow is our first day.  It is 3:04 am here and I cannot sleep.  I am a bit nervous and at the same time pretty calm. (I think)   I am worried about the "grind" of having to do this every morning for the entire school year.  I just hope I can have the stamina to not only serve in this way, but to serve well.  I guess I will just have to take one day at a time.

I am sure I will have good lessons and lessons that fall flat.  That is the nature of teaching.  I just hope that the spirit can help me to know what I need to say and what I need to do to help the youth.  They are so bombarded in this world with craziness and unpleasantness.  I feel like I am going to the front line to help protect them from the war.

Anyhow.  I am wide awake with a million thoughts.  I am sure about 4:30 am I am going to be really tired, just in time to get up and get ready.

Wish me luck.

Minimalist Wardrobe

I have never been a fashionista, not even close.  Last time I really cared about clothes was in high school.  That is when neon shirts, mini skirts, stirrup pants, parachute pants and china flats were in style.  Oh and don't forget the huge earrings.

Those days are long past for this chick.  I stopped wearing earrings when I taught at Head Start.  I stopped buying expensive clothes when babies came into our family.  I think everything I wore for 10 years had a spit up stain or worse on its shoulder.  Couple that with being a stay at home mom with one income and the days of mall shopping were over.

Enter in Minimalism...I have been chucking stuff my whole life, but with a family things get messy.  You hate to throw stuff away that belongs to someone else.  How long do you wait for someone to pick up their "junk" even when you have asked time and time and time again?  Well...fed up mom.  I just started chucking stuff that obviously they didn't care about.  No complaints yet.  Amazing.

We have cleaned out closets, drawers, bathroom supplies...almost everything has had a round of tossing. It is amazing, but believe it or not...the house is still a mess.  I removed furniture, simplified the kitchen, organized the cupboards...it all needs another round of decluttering.

 I think it was last year I quietly did the 33 items of clothing challenge.  No one noticed. Not one person.  I wore things for three months from a closet full of only 33 items.

Anyway.  Add some extra stress, new demanding church calling, homeschooling, football, piano, flute, and a million other things I have to accomplish each week and I decided spending time peering into my closet to figure out what to wear was a huge waste of time.

So I found some pants and shirts I like. They are comfy.  Oprah would have a fit.  I am not the stylish "yuppy mom" oh well.  I am sure she would deem me worthy of a makeover.   I bought 4 black shirts, 4 black pants, added them to the other black items in my wardrobe.  I am done.  Finished.  My new "uniform" has emerged.  If I want color, I can add a scarf.  I can add accessories, change shoes etc.

Here is my new "uniform"  I of course am the one in the black.  I will see how long I can hold out with wearing the same thing day in and day out.  So far I like it.

It is only the beginning of August, but it is time to start getting our classroom ready for the new year.  We have 24 days and counting until our first day with OHVA aka Ohio Virtual Academy.  It will be our 3rd year.  This year Jacob will be in 11th grade, Maggie in 7th and Curtis in 4th.  Doug is starting high school at Bio Med Science Academy, so he won't be home with us.    Here are some pictures of the classroom so far.  I still have a long way to go.

I think I saw this idea on Pinterest.  It is a shoe holder that I got cheap at a store called Marc's. I used paperclips and note cards to label each section.  It holds lots of little things that get scattered around the house.  Hopefully this will save us time finding supplies for a project or lesson.

It is doing double duty. It is hiding this shelf from my view.  I just see the organized beauty from the front.  On the side you can see all the "extras" that I have waiting to use throughout the school year.  Such as, notebooks, loose leaf paper, composition notebooks, folders, and file folders.

I found these at Marc's also.  They were $1.49 for 100 file folders. I thought I would have the kids use them to make lap books to go along with lessons.  I think I saw a box of these at Staples for about $30.  So that is a huge savings!  

Books and Supplies.

Curtis's Books from OHVA.  I have found keeping all the books in one location helps to keep things organized. I also put all the 2nd semester things away for the time being.  Otherwise it looks very overwhelming.

These are the teacher manuals for Maggie and Curtis.  I also need them in one spot.  Then when I need to refer to something, they are easily accessible.  

Maggie's books for the year.

This is something new I am working on for this year.  Writing anything in our house is equal to torture!   Since Doug is at school this year, I am taking over his space to create a writing center.  It will get them away from the computer when they have to write.  

I am finding things on the internet to put on the board.  For example:  words to use instead of bad, good, happy, sad, asked, and very.  Hopefully this will lead to more interesting and  creative writing.

This is more for Curt.  Some of those words that can be confusing to use. 

Commonly misspelled words and some spelling rules.  

Hopefully the writing center will help.  I am sure it will not take away the torture, but it might help.  I hope it helps.    Cross your fingers!

Well this is it so far.  I still have to deep clean.  Get rid of tons of boxes and junk.  Hang a bulletin board and clean the carpet.  Oh and try and keep it clean...  Wish me luck.

Never a dull moment here.  It rained and rained and rained.  Flash flood on the property.  It went down quickly though.  We spent an hour or so in the basement with tornado warnings.  

Tree Down at the house.  We had a few days of clean up.  We have to hire someone to take the rest of the tree down.  It is totally rotted on the inside.  Believe it or not this is only part of the tree.  There is more sun in the house now...so it isn't all bad.