Mourning With Those That Mourn, Comforting Those In Need of Comfort

This week in Come Follow Me we are in Mosiah 18. Tonight we had a hands-on activity. LOL (I think teaching strategy planning is taking over my life) 

Our friends, the Payne's lost their dog, Meira. We took them a little aloe vera plant I had re-potted with a message that it will help them with their healing. I think they were surprised and we had a great visit. We sure love them. 

After that Jill and Peirce went to YSA FHE and Allen and I took another plant over to Becky for her birthday. We had another doorstep visit. We sure love those guys too. 

We are blessed. Actually, we are doubly blessed. Jill and Peirce both had to get tested for covid-19. Jill got sent home from work one day last week because she had a sniffle. They are overly cautious, and rightly so. She got word yesterday that she was negative. Peirce was also feeling sick so he got tested on Sunday and heard today. Phew! Negative!

This was Jill's first order of biz when she was sent home. 

Family Chess

I have a goal for 2020 to have Family Home Evening each week. We started off today by learning to play chess because I bought us a vertical chess game to put on our wall. We watched a video to review what moves all the pieces can make and then we were off. Everyone really liked it. Games of strategy are always a hit with our family. After, Peirce even thanked Allen and I for playing with him. That always warms my heart!

Day 32 FHE

Watching a video we got from the Stake President.

Sometimes it is just not that spiritual.....

Me: Peirce, will you say the opening prayer?

Peirce: Why me? I said the blessing at dinner!

Jill: Your prayer sucked. That's why. Vain repetitions! Totally!

Peirce: You're not supposed to judge prayers! Evil!

*sigh*

Family Home Evening

Tonight Allen taught the lesson. We were recently talking about a situation and said that you could see the writing on the wall. Our kids didn't know what that meant so tonight's lesson was from Daniel where he interpreted the writing on the wall.

Gee, I love him!

Family in the Trees

Tonight we were invited by another family in the ward to come pick apples for a couple in our ward who cannot do it all themselves. There were 3 families there, and we sure had a great time! The kids all loved climbing the tree and it didn't take much time before they had the entire thing cleared of all the apples. It totally took me back to reading Baron in the Trees when Allen and I were first married and joined a young married's book club. It was the weirdest book - but it really left an impression on me! I also was reminded of The Giving Tree. I think that tree was very happy tonight.

...and I was happy too. It was great to visit with the other moms, great to see our kids have a great time, great to give some service, and great to spend some FHE time together with great friends. It was a great night!

Peirce Paints God

Today after school I told Peirce that he was in charge of the FHE lesson. He was excited about that and got busy right away on his lesson. He decided he'd paint a picture of God and Jesus and have us write down things we know about them. He said this was one of his Faith in God requirements.

The picture didn't go quite as well as he'd hoped it would. He's been wanting to paint on a canvas so I finally let him tonight. He was a little disappointed in the finished product but when he explained the picture to me it all made sense. Most of all though I loved the process! We had a great conversation.

P: What do you think God looks like anyway?
Me: Well, when Moses saw him he said he had a face. And the Brother of Jared said he had a finger. And Joseph Smith said he wore clothes and had hands and feet and a chest and stuff.

P: Oh! That must mean he looks like us. Okay

P: Why do you think Jesus always wore sandals?

Me: Well, probably because it was really hot where he lived.
P: Where did he live anyway?

Me: In the place what we call Israel now.

P: Oh ya! I saw that on the news when it was Easter. I'm going to paint him in the desert in Arizona.

P: Why do you think God is always shiney?
Me: The scriptures say he knows everything, and knowledge is light, so there must be a lot of light that just shines around and out of him

P: Oh ya...I know that.

P: What do you think the Holy Ghost looks like?
Me: We don't really know. He doesn't have a body. If he did he couldn't do it job.

P: Oh. Okay. Do you think the Holy Ghost is the same as God?
Me: No. They're 3 different people: God, his son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

P: Oh ya...I know that Article of Faith

And on and on it went. We had the greatest conversation while he painted and I made dinner about the nature of God, and seeing God, and the Godhead. It was terrific.

The yellow around God is him glowing. He took great care with the bottom portion of the picture to make it look like a desert. The white clouds represent the Holy Ghost.

During the lesson Jill and I wrote down things we knew about God. He wouldn't let Jill see things I was writing down (didn't want her to cheat) and when we were finished he graded us. It almost turned into a fight - but something must have touched Peirce's heart and instead of having me be first place and Jill be last place he gave me a red ribbon and Jill a blue ribbon. Phew!

I tried to find the place in his Faith in God book where it says to go through this process - but I couldn't find it at all. It was a great lesson though!

Priorities and a little quiet time

We had a great FHE tonight. Funny thing was it wasn't even planned - but it ended up great in the end.

At the dinner table Jill was reduced to tears over her stressful life. It drives her crazy that she doesn't seem to ever have time to lay around and read for hours at a time. As we talked about it we came to the conclusion that school is really what's in the way! Unfortunately it's not really optional right now, so we had to figure out a solution.

Peirce soon joined in on the song to complain that he never gets to watch TV anymore. I said we could quit swimming, and then we'd have more time after school - but they weren't willing to do that.

We talked about it for a while and Jill decided to figure out all the things we normally do in a day and figure out how much time that stuff takes. Then she was left with a block of time that we couldn't figure out what it's used for. This seguayed into a great discussion about using time wisely and we talked about how we could make better use of our time in the morning and in the evening so that we could all have a little quiet time to read or study or watch TV or whatever we want to do. Its was quite an answer to prayer because the kids have been driving us crazy in the mornings lately! Getting them to quickly get ready for the day is more like pushing a rope. Impossible!

We wrote down the things they needed to do in the mornings, and then figured out how long they take (they actually went and got their backpacks ready, laid out clothes for tomorrow, washed their face and brushed teeth, etc.) and we timed each step to see how long it takes. Turns out they could probably get ready for school in 15 minutes in the morning if they did about 10 minutes worth of getting ready the night before. Faces were much brighter after that realization. We figure if they get up and get ready right away, then we have breakfast, then everyone can do their own thing from 7:30 - 8:00. At 8:00 we always read scriptures together for about 15 minutes and then go to the bus.

Tomorrow we're going to give it a try. I'm really excited about the idea!! Imagine.....30 minutes to myself every morning for quiet reading, study, prayer, or whatever I want!! In the evening we're going to all go into our rooms at 8:00. At 8:30 Peirce's lights will be out, and at 9:00 Jill's light will be out - but for that time they can read or play with lego, or whatever they want - as long as it's quiet and in their rooms. They were as excited about the idea as I was! :0)

Thanks Jill for prompting a great FHE lesson tonight! She even came up with a great scripture that applied to it all. Mosiah 4:27

27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he
should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things
must be done in order.

FHE - Forgive and Forget

One thing I've learned is that FHE gets easier the more regularly we do it. It isn't always a beautifully heart warming experience - but it does become a habit!

Yesterday in primary Sharing Time was about forgiveness. Sister Payne played a game with the children called Forgive and Forget. Peirce was clearly engrossed and when it was over he came to me and said, "Can I do the lesson in FHE tomorrow?" He scooped the game board and brought it home and we played that for FHE.

It all devolved from there. Peirce then decided should have colored marshmallows for our FHE treat. Then since Allen doesn't like colored mini marshmallows he decided to stick it in his nose and see how far he could blow them.

....family life....isn't it heart warming.




I guess I'll have to forgive Allen for his leadership on this one and just forget about it! LOL

Strong Links

Today we did the FHE lesson that our kids got from primary last week. On the 5th Sunday we decided our primary would do a Sharing Time on FHE and give the kids a lesson they can do for FHE that week.

The lesson was about being a strong link. We made a chain and we wrote things on each link that make our family strong. Things like: scripture study, family prayer, sacrament meeting, and we even wrote each other's names because we all make each other stronger. It was a good lesson - made me think they're really starting to get the whole gospel thing.

....of course, now and then they have to steal something from the teacher's desk, or something like that just to make sure it's front and center in my mind that they're still normal kids!

After FHE we went to the mall...and I drove the van! We've been having trouble with it for a week. Now it has a new starter, a new battery, and we figure what was wrong may have just been that the battery cables weren't connected properly. LOL It sure starts like a charm now though! I guess that's what we get for thinking we could fix it ourselves.

At the mall Jill bought the new 39 Clues book that she has been waiting for. We tried to get it in Lethbridge the other day when we were on our way out of town and they hadn't heard of it...so Jill was quite disappointed. She was ready to read it all the way home! Then she had to wait until today to be able to get it. I had to go tell her at 10:30 that that was enough - and she had to shut the lights off.

Peirce bought a Fly Guy book. It's so fun to hear him read to us! He's really good at it!

FHE: Happy Birthday To Me!

Usually I plan everything for FHE. If I don't get it planned I'll say to Allen at 4:00 or so, "Could you be in charge of FHE?" and he'll ask what he should do and we usually come up with a story from the scriptures he can tell. So, today when he said, "You don't get to plan anything for FHE today." I had to wonder what was going on. Turned out they wanted to celebrate my birthday! Allen is going to be out of town on the day of my birthday so he decided today was the day to celebrate (I was quite impressed with his planning on that!)


So, I made dinner and after dinner we had presents and cheesecake! They got me a couple new shirts and a facial! I think I just might schedule that facial for the actually day of my birthday. The cheesecake was deeeelicious! It was a rolo cheesecake. Truthfully, I don't think there's a bad kind of cheesecake. They're all delicious.

( hmmmm....I'm 42 (thus the four and two single candles....no, I'm not 411!)..and we're celebrating on the second day of the second month....maybe my lucky number this year is going to be two!)



After we went bowling. I was the clear champion....smoked everyone! They said they let me win because it's my birthday...but don't believe them. I defeated them on pure inner strength and skill (oh, and it's a good thing we still have young enough kids that we can justify using the bumper pads) :0).....maybe there was a lot of luck thrown in there too. LOL

Thanks for the fun birthday party my little family. I sure do love you! :)

FHE Lesson - Goals

I wanted to do a FHE early in January on goals...but it never worked out. Yesterday in church one of the speakers talked about goals. It was a great talk, and great timing! I was reminded of the goals I was so excited about at the beginning of January. So I decided to take that and use the same idea for FHE. Tonight we made goal sheet collages. We cut out pictures from magazines that represented our goals and each of us had a big sheet of paper to make our own goal sheet. The kids loved it. Now we have our goals for this year up in our bedrooms. Here's to New Year's Resolutions!

....which reminds me, we were in an article in the Calgary Herald this month! I've come to know someone that writes for the Herald and she used us for an article. :0) Enjoy!


It's time for new resolutions
By Karen Rudolph Durrie, For Neighbours January 8, 2009


For some, making New Year's resolutions instills a sense of dread.

The turning of the calendar acts as a reminder of a laundry list of failures strewn across the past year, and the coming year represents a fresh slate that might just go the same way.

You didn't lose the weight, you still bite your nails, your kids still spent too much time playing video games and 15 years' worth of accumulated clutter still teeters in boxes in your basement.

This year, why not approach resolutions with a new sense of resolve?Make them, but go easy on yourself.
Despite their bad rap for being quickly broken, research has shown that those who make New Year's resolutions are 10 times more likely to succeed in making changes than those who don't.

Psychologist John Norcross, co-author of Changing for Good:A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Over-coming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward says more than 40 per cent of people, make New Year's resolutions will be successful.

And one way to succeed is to drop the grandiose goals and concentrate on realistic, attainable ones that include an action plan.

That's what Laurie McKendry, 38, of Langdon plans to do this year.

After years of making and breaking the typical resolutions like losing weight and becoming more organized, she is taking a new approach this year.

"I've come to realize that while I have two small children, I am never going to become completely organized, and our house is not going to look like a show-home. My resolution this year is to be happier with who I am, and to somehow find a little more me time," McKendry says.

An avid follower of "FLYLady", aka Marla Cilley ( www.flylady.net),whose baby-steps approach to home-organization and goal-setting tips include things like decluttering for 15 minutes each morning, McKendry firmly believes she needs to adhere to one of the main principles of the philosophy of FLY-- which stands for finally loving yourself. "I am overweight and need to accept myself for who I am. I am not going to be a size zero, and only once I accept that maybe things will start to change."

McKendry plans to relax about the state of her home and not sweat the smudges on the walls or the toys on the floor.

She also plans to reclaim some of the joy she got from spending time doing things just for her, including, belly dancing and aquasize classes and enlisting the help of relatives to look after her kids.

"I need to learn to pencil it in like an appointment, and do it,"McKendry says.

Indeed, writing things down is a hall-mark of those who are most successful, Norcross says. Tracking progress by charting or recording changed behaviour has shown to increase the probability of sticking to resolutions.

Keeping track of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals has been an incentive to spur on many of Dawn Ackroyd's achievements.

"It's interesting to me when I come across old goal sheets. I often find I've accomplished things without even realizing it,"Ackroyd says.

Then there are those that keep reappearing each year.

"I keep the ones that are important to me, because I have hope that some day I will accomplish those things,"Ackroyd says.

Therefore, though she may be one of the many who has resolved to lose weight "about since I was 12," she laughs, she has faith she will do it one day.

Meanwhile, she sets numerous small spiritual and emotional goals for the year, and revisits them monthly.
For 2008, one of Ackroyd's successful resolutions was to make a better effort to keep in touch with her husband's large family. She spent more time with the ones who lived close, and called or mailed the ones who were further away. Journaling her activities helped her track how long it had been since she had seen or corresponded with people.

Her goal-setting mentality has also rubbed off on her children Jill, 10 and Peirce, 6.

"Jill's big goal is to go to the Olympics in swimming. She is in swim club, and sometimes she just doesn't want to go to a meet or a practice, and we will say, 'OK, and you don't have to go to the Olympics, either,' and she will go," Ackroyd says.

At five, Peirce made three resolutions and accomplished each one: to make cookies, to be in a play and to become a better swimmer.

This year, Ackroyd's goals include setting an exercising schedule and to read the entire Bible.
"If I don't set goals, I find that lives take over, and kids and family take over, and if I don't decide there are some things that I want to accomplish for my-self, it is easy to lose yourself."

Losing himself is perhaps part of the reason why 43-year-old Kelly Proctor, a field service supervisor in the oil patch, has found himself setting some important goals for 2009.

Recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, Proctor instantly began to make changes to his lifestyle and eating habits.

Vowing to lose 50 pounds in the next year, Proctor has already analyzed why he's experiencing health issues and decided his life-on-the-road existence involving a lot of fast food and getting from point A to point B by driving there had to change.

"I am making time out for me instead of going for fast food. I will order off a menu, sit down and have a dinner."

He has also quit smoking with the aid of Champex, a smoking cessation medication, and his mood has improved.

His lifestyle changes have also had a positive effect on his family. His wife has cut back on fast food,--"We haven't bought McDonald's in over six weeks,"-- they've stopped buying pop, and she has started a binder of chef Rachel Ray's simple, family-friendly recipes.

Cultivating support from family and friends is another tool Norcross says helps reinforce success.

Articles of Faith FHE

I bought one of those books finally with a bunch of pre-made FHE lessons. We used one tonight - and it was GREAT!! It was quick to prepare, looked cute, and was fun!

First we played a game where we had to say the Article of Faith for whichever square we landed on.


Peirce was in charge of treats so after school he and I made sugar cookies. We numbered them 1 to 13 and before you could eat one you had to say the Article of Faith. I found later wen I snuck a couple cookies I only could let myself take the ones that had a number that I knew for sure I could repeat that article of faith.

FHE Job Charts

Last week at Activity Days Jill made a FHE Job Chart. I always thought those were just nice decorations...not really that useful. However, it made a difference in our FHE tonight! Normally I plan and run the whole FHE. This time we did all my ideas, but everyone felt like they were contributing a little more. :0)

After we finished dinner I was checking the job chart and mentioned to Allen he was in charge of the lesson. He groaned and so I suggested he start us off on our Christmas Jar (a jar that has a scripture to read each day that all have something to do with the life of Christ and his love for us). Then Peirce asked what his job was. He was in charge of treats. He had a look of alarm and so I whispered in his ear, "Why don't you go get your Halloween candy and we can have some of that?" He was thrilled. Jill was in charge of the activity....and so she decided we should play name that tune with Christmas songs. I was in charge of conducting and prayers. Love that job!

The interesting thing is that we did all the things I had planned we would do - but with each of the kids having an assignment you could see that they were enjoying the responsibility. It made it all better! Our FHE was still quite simple....but I dare say it was one of the best we have had in a while! We'll definitely continue with the FHE job chart!

FHE

The kids were off school today and we could have had a lesson some time during the day - but we didn't. I had planned to go out with a couple friends tonight so Allen took the kids to eat at the mall (their favorite dining experience) and then got some videos and came home and they all snuggled on the futon together to watch them. When I got back at 9:30 they faked that they were asleep...but the party was clearly still going.

Oh well, gotta have a little fun for FHE sometimes, right??? It still counts if one parent is missing right??? After all, we often do FHE without Allen!

FHE: The Law of the Harvest

Today was one of those FHEs when I wonder why we bother.

Allen wasn't home.
Jill and Peirce were obnoxious (they insisted I had read them those stories before and they already knew all this stuff)
...and I was tired and didn't feel like doing it anyway.

But we did it, and I suppose that's a good thing.

We talked about the Law of the Harvest. I read a story and told them I was going to ask at the end what the Law of the Harvest was. Then we each colored a picture with the scripture on it and as we colored we talked about different ways we see the Law of the Harvest in action.

I still think we're all suffering from sugar hangovers.

Booing the Neighbors

In primary yesterday the kids got a handout that they were quite enamored with. It was a cute little poem that you could use with treats to drop off to someone in the ward. Funny thing was I had been thinking of doing the same thing for FHE this week! We did it, but with a little twist.

First I read the scripture from 3 Nephi 13:

1 aVerily, verily, I say that I would that ye should do alms unto the poor; but take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.

2 Therefore, when ye shall do your alms do not sound a trumpet before you, as will hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have aglory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth;

4 That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.

We talked about what alms were, about giving anonymous service, and what we could do to share with others around us. We made some cookies and then printed off some cute poems from Organized Christmas.com We took them over to one neighbors house, rang the doorbell and ran like mad to a hiding place...but they must not have been home because they didn't answer....so the kids decided to go take back the cookies and try someone else! LOL We then did the neighbors on each side of us. It was a LOT of fun!

Here's the poem we put with the cookies (if you click on it you can see it a little better):

And this is the note they're supposed to leave in their window:

After that we decided we'd try and do some secret service every day. We each made a little poster to put by our beds or in some secret place to remind ourselves to do service for someone anonymously each day. The kids were really excited about it. We'll see how the week goes!

The Ackroyd Family Title Of Liberty

I've decided to start a new label for our family blog and share what we do for FHE each week (perhaps a little self-imposed pressure to plan and hold FHEs with a little more substance?)

Tonight for FHE we did the lesson suggestion from the Sunday School lesson yesterday. It said to: read the account of Captain Moroni raising the title of liberty (Alma 46:12–20). Then work as a family to create your own title of liberty. Ask family members to list a few important principles that would remind and inspire them to take the name of Christ upon themselves. Then write those principles on a large piece of paper. Encourage family members to live according to the principles you have written on your family’s title of liberty.

I figured out how to work the timer on my camera! YEA! I get to be in a picture. lol

We had actually made a title of liberty a few years ago for our family.....so we dug that out of Peirce's toy box and talked about it.

The kids thought we should each make our own - so we each got a flag from some craft I prepared for a ward party a few years or so ago. My flag has our family reading together. We're reading the word of God, learning about the whisperings of the spirit, and preparing to go to the temple together.
Allen drew me (that'd be the chubby lady in his picture), Jill (the crazy looking child) and Peirce (the scrawny kid) for what was most important to him.



Jill wrote, "In memory of our religion, our goals, our love, and our unity." She also wrote Aaaaackroyds....because that's the cheer we do after family prayer and eternal family to remind us that we're stuck together forever.....I'm not sure how the Olympic rings fit in, except that she sure wants to go to the Olympics one day!

Peirce drew a bunch of aliens and a picture of me farting. (????) I guess we still have some work to do with that kid.
Sometimes FHE doesn't go quite as well as we hope it might. (sigh)

Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen for a treat. That is always a hit!