Conference Highlights - It's better to look up!

A great reminder of where to look when the going gets tough - It's better to look up!  

Picture taken from HERE

Conference Highlights - President Monson's Talk

I love President Monson, I love to hear him talk!  He touches base on a variety of topics in this talk, The Ten Commandments, Prayer, Personal Revelation,



The story he tells of how he gained a testimony of prayer reminds me of a similar situation I remember as a child.  The Lord hears prayers, I gained a testimony of this as well, I was probably 8 years old, and though many would think this is a silly child's story, I know that the even a simply insignificant prayer (by others standards) is meaningful to our Father in Heaven, who loves us.  My younger brother and I had gone on a beach trip with my grandparents, we drove to the shore, and after stopping at numerous hotels with no vacancies, we stopped to eat dinner.  My Grandfather told us that we would be headed home, I begged him to try one more hotel, and as I silently said a prayer over my food, I prayed that the next hotel would have a vacancy.  We stopped at the next hotel and it had an available room!  I will never forget this story as long as I live, and the testimony it gave me of how Our Father in Heaven loves us and answers our prayers!  I know that our prayers may not always be answered the way we WANT them to, but non-the-less they are answered, when we pray in faith.

Conference Highlights - To the Fathers of Daughters!

We don't have girls, but I still LOVED this talk!  And who knows, maybe one day we'll have one!
A great listen for fathers of girls!!

Father's LOVE YOUR WIFE, revere your marriage to her; this is the best example you can give your daughter!

Taken from pinterest, unsure of where it originated

Conference Highlights - of God or the Devil?

I LOVED this talk. It was such a great explanation of the Book of Mormon, why we believe it is a second witness to of Christ and why we use it as a companion to the Holy Bible. If you are curious as to what the Book of Mormon is and why we have this book, this is a great explanation!

Conference Highlights - Teaching by the Spirit!

A great reminder, we must invite the Holy Spirit as we teach our children, which also means the environment must be conducive to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and worthy ourselves of it's presence.

Somethings I need to work on:  Starting my day and our school day in better spirits so that the Holy Spirit can be a part of our school day.  I need to complete my personal scripture study and prayer before I start the day, and be sure to start our school day with scripture study and prayer as well!

In what ways to you yield to the Spirit when teaching your children?

Conference Highlights - Use Time Wisely!

This was definitely something I needed to hear, I know I spend way to much time on the computer, between email, facebook, my blog, other blogs, twitter, etc.... I don't have smart phone or Ipod Touch b/c I KNOW I would just waste even more time.

Another great reminder for people of all denominations!

I would love to hear your strategies for managing your time wisely.  How do you fit it all in, how do you make time for what matters most?  Do you limit your media time?




Taken from HERE

Conference Highlights - Forget Not!

We are on Fall break this week, with conference having just passed this last weekend, I thought it would be a good time to share with all of you my favorite messages that were shared from the leaders of our church.
(**I will still host the Field Trip Friday Blog Hop this week)

The first is from the Women's Conference, this was broadcasted the last weekend in September, and has great advice/messages for all women, no matter their denomination.  I hope you'll take the time to listen.

Photo taken from HERE

Conference re-cap

So, I implemented the ideas I shared (from pinterest) in my last post.  (you can read it HERE, including the French Toast Recipe I have pictured below)
I did have 2 more bags on the list that I forgot to mention, #14) I made a game from the friend to go with the song Follow the Prophet (it had pictures and words for each verse to match up) and #15) a bag of Cheetos to share.   (NOTE:  The Friend is a great resource for games and activities for conference, quiet sacrament activities, family home evening, etc..)
I also decided to number the bags and the General Authority cards to correspond, instead of having two pictures of the General Authorities.  Then when that GA spoke, we looked at the number on his card and picked the prize bag that corresponded.  I also  laminated the General Authorities picture page from last conference issue of the Ensign, to have on hand for the kids to try and find the speakers that we did NOT have cards for (like the Quorum of the Seventy and their Presidency). 

Synopsis:  All in all the kids did really well during conference, I feel like for the most part we were able to listen and get something out of it. 
Most of the activities were over Z’s head, but he loved the treat.  C didn’t want to do the activities, but I told him if he wanted the treat prizes, he had to do all the prize bags, once he started doing them, he was fine.  (Also C was caught sneaking a few of the treats last week, so he did not get those ones when that speaker spoke, I was worried how that would work out, but he accepted it.  By sneaking I mean, I found them AFTER he ate them)
The Jenga game was more of a building blocks thing, which kept them quiet, but when they wanted to play the actual game it was quite distracting.  The play dough was also a distraction, as we were constantly having to tell them to keep it at the table, and well the Cheetos were just messy! (not sure what I was thinking there, haha). 
and during the last session there were a lot of speakers that were not Apostles or part of the First Presidency, so I pulled out the last two activities/treats early to tide us over until the end.
All in all I rate the conference activities a SUCCESS and I plan to implement them again in some form next session!  I think I will add a few blank cards and activities for the ‘extra’ speakers.

(taking pictures proved to be a distraction, which is why I only have one picture of ‘during’ conference)

By the way – the blueberry French toast bake was DELICIOUS!  I made a homemade loaf of French bread that I used to make the recipe.  I just need to come up with one more easy breakfast for next session…..suggestions?

Getting Ready for General Conference

This is the first conference where I actually have a game plan for the kids.  Probably a year ago now, I printed off some of those color pages for C (who was then only 4) in hopes it would occupy him, knowing full well he doesn’t like to color…and well, of course it didn’t.  This year I was on the hunt for ideas that did not involve coloring, and that would also grasp the attention of my 2yo as well. 

Here in Hawaii we are lucky (or unlucky) that conference starts at 6am…though my children are usually up bright and early, it still buys us some time for the morning sessions before everyone is up and at ‘em. 

So of course I hit up pinterest for some great ideas!

My goal this year is to have some sort of breakfast prepared the night before and baking in the oven to be eaten at the conclusion of the morning sessions (8am).  I’m thinking this blueberry french toast bake, I pinned it here.  Now that takes care of ONE morning. 

In regards to keeping the little ones busy, I have combined a variety of ideas that I have found on pinterest and other blogs. 

First off I have hung a row of church related pictures on the wall by our TV. 

This will be used for this activity – Conference Wall, which I pinned here.

I am combing this activity that I pinned here, Each bag will be labeled with a picture of an apostle, the bag will contain and activity and an extra picture.  They must match the extra picture to the picture on the wall that matches the topic the speaker is talking about. 

We are moving the little kids table into our living room so they can sit and do their activities in the room while watching conference. 

So…what’s in the bags?
I’m still working on them, but this is what I have planned so far (listed in no particular order):
1.  mini M&Ms
2.  mini containers of playdough
3.  Juice boxes
4.  M&M cookies
5.  Little panda cookies
6.  Popcorn kernels (to pop) with a popcorn bowel
7.  Cookie dough (to make fresh baked cookies)
8.  Jesus Puzzles (pinned)
9.  Book of Mormon Match up cards (pinned)
10.  Temple Matching cards (pinned)
11.  Apostle matching cards (pinned)
12.  Conference Jenga (pinned)
13.  Build a Temple, activity taken from The Friend magazine…I would like to mount it to some duplos or wooden blocks, but we don’t have any.

And I may throw a few extra in there, since they  usually have some other speakers, like The General Primary President, or someone else. 

I also went through the friend magazines and cut out the search puzzles, and the last page with the picture and scripture on it…for quiet books for sacrament!  I’ll put them in coversheets in a binder, so they can be reused again and again.

For Family Home Evening this week we talked about Prophets, we sang Follow the Prophet, talked about who the prophet was today and talked about General Conference and why it’s important for us to watch it.  I introduced the basics of their activities, so they have something to look forward to this weekend!

I’ll post how it goes after this weekend!  Happy Conference everyone!

For those of you that are not LDS – twice a year we have large meetings which include all of the church membership worldwide, it is held in Salt Lake City and is broadcast throughout the world in many different languages.  This is when we hear from our church leaders.  We believe that there is a living prophet on earth today, and our church is set up like Christ’s church was in the bible.  There is a prophet (or president of the church) and 12 apostles.  Conference is when we are able to hear from them, and receive instruction.  Feel free to tune in, many places broadcast it on their local cable channels, you can also watch it or listen to it at www.lds.org.