My Scripture Ponderings

Who doesn't love Captain Moroni from the Book of Mormon.  I sure do.  It is amazing to me that every time I read the Book of Mormon I can learn something new and relevant to my life at the time that I am reading it.  I have had this post on my mind for a long time, so, it's about time I post it. 

" In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives and our children-and he fastened it on the end of a pole." (Alma 46:12)

This scripture has been so relevant to me during these elections that we just experienced.  I have worried and prayed for our kids and our freedom and I feel that things might be going in the right direction.  We'll see because our leader isn't exactly a virtuous person, but I feel that we have a chance at preserving our freedom and strengthening our country. 

As I read about captain Moroni a recurring theme stands out to me.  He is constantly trying to strengthen his cities.  He builds walls and creates armor to protect his people.  He could be angry and go fight the Lamanites, but he sees it necessary to strengthen his people from within. 

I've been thinking about this in my own home. 

How am I strengthening my home and my children so that they can be prepared for the temptations that they will face?

There is a motto in the business world that I love.  It goes like this, "Prior Planning Provides Possible Perfect Outcome."  Another thing my grandpa used to tell us was, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

I love to plan.. Sometimes too much. ... I also have to realize that...

I can only control what I do and not what anyone else does. 

When I am strong, my home is strong.  

There is a lady named Donna Goff,  www.mentoringourown.com,  She feels it is her mission to strengthen Moms and help them simplify their lives so that they can homeschool and lead their kids on a good path. I was stressed out...I decided to listen to her webinar one day.  She really hit a string with me and all of a sudden what she was saying made sense.  I needed to do more little things each day instead of letting them pile up.  I needed to create better habits for myself and let my kids watch me have better habits.

I once heard from another Mom that I admire, that it's like Mom's are in a box with their kids. Unless the Mom gets out of the box with the kids and pushes the box, the box isn't going to go anywhere, it's only going to stay in place.

Donna Goff invited me to join her in a 90 day challenge on ditching the stress.  So, I decided to take this challenge.

She has a 7 point plan on what we need to do each day to feel fulfilled and put our needs as Mom's first and not get overwhelmed with life.  Here is the list:

1. Pray, read Scriptures

2. Get ready for the day

3. Get a great breakfast, dinner prep and dishes

4. Put one load of laundry to wash, dry and fold by the end of the day

5. Homeschool

6. 30 minute Power Clean

7. Exercise

I have a little card that I posted on my fridge to remind me of my goals.  Some days I don't get to everything but that's OK.  But, I can honestly say that I am less stressed, I don't have dishes piling up and laundry piling up.  It is amazing!!! As I've been reading my scriptures in the morning, the kids will run and grab their scriptures, everyone wants to read with Mom.  I can definitely see areas that I needed to change so that I would be less stressed. One thing Donna stresses is to set the timer to 30 min. for cleaning and stick to it.  Sometimes, I tend to want to finish everything in one day.  I'm trying to stick to only 30 minutes so that I have more time to enjoy my kids. 

In Conclusion...

If Momma' ain't happy ain't nobody happy!!

I invite all to ditch the stress focus on a few areas that are piling up in your lives and address them little by little each day and watch as your home turns into a happier, lovelier place.

My Horse Loving Daughter

This little girl loves horses.  She has read every single book about horses and is dying to do horseback riding lessons. 

We just found a great book.  I love to read to my kids and I love to find a good story.  It's one of my favorite things. 

Elise and I have read Black Beauty together and Little House on the Prairie and so many others.  This time we read "Misty of Chincoteague", it was such a good book.  Definitely a true classic.

This book takes place on the east coast on the island of Chincoteague.  Every year on the island of Chincoteague there is a Pony Penning Day, a day where people from the island buy wild horses.  Two kids in this story Paul and Maureen have their hearts set on this horse that is as wild as can be.  They call her the Phantom. They save up their money so that they can buy this horse.  Paul decides to go with the group of men to catch the Phantom.  Everyone thinks it is impossible to catch the Phantom, but Paul proves them wrong.  In the process of catching the Phantom he discovers that she has a foal.  He names the foal Misty and ends up rounding up the two horses to bring them back for Pony Penning day.  I won't ruin the end of the story, but we loved it.  It is truly a story for a horse loving girl like my girl.

Here's a Fun Book

We have a project based co-op that we started this year.  It has been so much fun.  This year my friend Tiffany Mcduffey  planned a fun project on the elections.  We read this book with our families and the kids all got to run for president.  We had debates, the kids wrote a persuasive essay on why they think they should be president, the kids created commercials, we learned about the branches of the government and finally at the end everyone voted for president.  It was a lot of fun.  Tiffany even planned on electoral votes so when we voted for president they won specific states and got to see that California had the most electoral votes.  It was a great time.

The elections this year were probably the most stressful I've ever experienced.  My kids got really into them and this book helped us understand a lot.  It's about a kid who decides to run for president and wins.  It was a fun read and we got to experience and discuss all the hard work that goes into running for president.  My kids all decided that they never want to run for president.