Family Friendly: Scripture Study Timeline Characters

The girls and I had lots of fun creating characters to put on our timeline :)
See Stripling Scriptures to see what we did.

Be Inspired,
Janell Joy

Family Friendly: Am I a True Sister to All?

"How happy it will make you, if when that time comes, when you stand in the presence of the great Judge to give an account of the few years of life that have been spent in mortality, if these our Father’s children that He loves as much as He loves us, standing by us, say, 'Heavenly Father, it was this man, it was this woman who first brought to me the information of Thy glorious truth that provoked in me a desire to seek after Thee more fervently than I had done before. It was this man or this woman who did this blessed thing for me.'

"And that is not all.

"When that time comes, when you go down through the ages of eternity, that is a long time, you will have the love and the gratitude of every man, woman and child to whom you have been instrumental in bringing eternal happiness." (Teachings of the Prophet George Albert Smith, Chapter 12).

What better way could I be a true sister to all the many brothers and sisters around me than to share the precious gift of the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and His Gospel? How well am I doing? I hope that someday I will be able to hear those wonderful words words (from the above quote)from at least two people: my daughters. I want them to be able to say that it was their mother who was the first to teach them of God.

Be Inspired,
Janelle Joy

Truly Tender: Rubber Band Bracelets

My little one noticed my rubber band I had put on my wrist when I took out my ponytail .  She found another rubber band on the ground and brought it to me.  I didn't realize what she was wanting for a minute but soon saw her looking at the one on my wrist.  She got so happy when I  helped her put the one she found onto my wrist with the other one.  We spent a couple of special minutes trading the "bracelets" between her wrists and mine. I love being a mom! 

Be Inspired,

March Mommy Moments

I will emphasize these things with my girls whenever possible this month:

Prophet:  Brigham Young
Gospel Principle:  "Jesus Christ Created the World for Me"
Song: "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" I love this song! :-)
Scripture Mastery: 2 Nephi 2:27
Scripture Memorize: Alma 37:35: "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God"
Scripture Stories: Book of Mormon
Article of Faith: One:  "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost"

Self-Review: how did I do last month?

February Mommy Moment Plans

Prophet: Joseph Smith 
We finished reading a book about this Prophet--a few pages at a time in the mornings. (I used "the Illustrated Story of President Joseph Smith" by Della Mae Rasmussen).

Gospel Principle: Prayer  I paid more attention to how much effort I put into my prayers myself and continued to help encourage the girls to say their own prayers.  I am thankful we remembered family prayer almost every morning and evening!  I am thankful for the times we remembered couple prayer and want to do even better.

Song: "I Pray in Faith"  I sang this song several times as a lullaby or whenever I thought of it. I used it in nursery music time at church and made up actions to do with the second verse. I was excited whenever my littlest one seemed to recognize it and got a smile on her face.

Scripture Mastery: 2 Nephi 2:27  We did a little more work on this one.

Scripture Memorize: Mosiah 2:22: "If ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you"   I especially had fun with this scripture since we worked using these words to work on rhythm and adding sounds to compose two different songs.

Scripture Stories: Book of Mormon
We have almost finished listening to the Book of Mormon Scripture Stories by listening to one on most mornings while getting ready for school.  We made it to episode 32 so far.

Article of Faith: 2
I worked on this one a little bit by composing my own easier melody to the words.  I decided I like that idea and want to start over with number one next month and use that idea with all of them in order.  I think the easier melody I composed (Using Kodaly Level 1 Principles I can easily change the song often)  will help make it easier for my littlest one to learn than the song versions in the Children's Songbook. 

Truly Tender: February Family Fitness Fun Moments

I feel that my February Mini-Mission was successful.  I noticed that we did many more active family activites which brought us more joy.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Several park playdates meeting friends from school and/or church.
• Family bike rides
• Patiently turning my Mommy yoga time into Mommy and Me yoga time
• Encouraging outside play even when it cut into normal homework scheduled time.
• Turning on music and playing Bunny Hop, Chicken Dance and Chicken Fat (with Robert Preston) games with my girls and their friends over at our house joined in too.
• Taking time to stop and play "Elefun" game with my littlest one when she asked me to and playing it slowly enough to allow her time to bend down and pick up individual butterflies to put in her net after they came shooting out of the elephant's trunk and onto the floor.  Then being patient enough to allow her to pick up one butterfly at atime to hand to me so I could put it back into the trunk for another game.  All the bending over added to the fitness!
• I found myself doing squats and stretches while performing normal house chores like laundry and dishes.
• My daughter came home so excited that she didn't give up when one day playing basketball she couldn't catch a chest pass correctly in pe class.  A couple of days ago she jumped into the car and excitedly cried out: "I caught a chest pass today!"

I would love your comments with suggestions or your own experiences making Fitness more fun for yourself and/or your family.  I will be continuing this mini-mission throughout the year.

Be Inpired,

Willingly Waiting: My Lessons from Three Miscarriages

My strong desire to have children has never been completely vanquished even though sometimes seemingly endless obstacles assail me as I work toward becoming a wise mom.   It took a while, and many tears, before I was blessed with my first daughter.  I was so thankful that my waiting had ended and enjoyed being a mother so much.

 I soon realized that my waiting had only begun.   It was seven years of hoping before I finally found out I was expecting my second child.  Only a few days later, I found out I was going to miscarry.  I wondered why I would finally be allowed to carry a child only to let it go so soon.  My daughter had prayed so often for a little sister.  My husband and I had prayed countless times.  However, I tried to make sure that my prayers always included the words “according to thy will.” 

I knew I faced a critical decision after that miscarriage:  Do I become discouraged and disheartened?  Or do I decide to be thankful for even that brief time of the joy of carrying a new life within me.  I had enough experience with disappointment.  I wanted to be grateful.  Another miscarriage followed and I again chose to be thankful for the miracle of pregnancy no matter what happened. 

I was traveling in Guatemala a few months later when I found out that I was expecting again.  I knew there was a high chance I would miscarry early (I have Graves disease which often is related to high thyroid levels and can make it difficult to keep a pregnancy), but the happiness I felt in becoming pregnant for a third time in one year after enduring seven years of unfruitful hopes, was stronger than my fear.  I decided to climb the ruins and experience the other things on my vacation and focus on enjoying the journey whichever direction it took me. I was blessed with another beautiful baby girl.

It has been almost two years since I had my second daughter.  I was thrilled to discover that I was not required to wait seven years this time.  Then the miscarriage started the next day.  Once again I am doing my best to willingly wait on the Lord’s will for me.  I have decided that being willing is more important than being successful .  I know my Heavenly Father accepts my desires and my best efforts even when they don’t seem to bear much fruit.  I am so thankful for His lessons in patience.

Lessons from my Experience with Infertility and Miscarriage

Since I just experienced my second miscarriage this year, after seven years of infertility and hoping, I have had some time to reflect on the lessons I have learned. I am grateful for the lessons because I would have assumed that a miscarriage would bring more heartache into my life but instead has been a very hopeful and exciting experience that I am very grateful for. I know if I gave myself license to think of the sadness of it too long, I might change my mind so I have decided to think only of the wonderful gift it is even to have only a few days or weeks of participating in the wonderful creation of a new life.

It took just over a year after my marriage before I was blessed with my first pregnancy and a few months later blessed with a beautiful daughter. Even that year was hard for me even though I know in comparison to many, one year is not long to wait. I thought my dream of at least six children was on it's way. But after this first pregnancy there were no more for seven years.

For the first several of those years, I spent much time praying and reading infertility articles and taking infertility tests which never revealed the reason I was not becoming pregnant. I felt confused and saddened when I was around others who were able to have children even when they were not married, or did not want their children or . . . many things seemed unfair. I wondered what I had done to make me unfit to have the many children I had hoped for.

Eventually, I fell into a deep depression and for some months was unable to even care for myself properly. But during that time there were many miracles.
1) I learned that it was important for me to be happy being me and to find out who I really was and what God wanted me to do.
2) I learned that God loved me and had other purposes for me along with the important opportunity of being a mother.
3) I learned that sometimes less is more and that I had a singular opportunity to give everything I had to my one precious daughter
4) I learned to desire what God wanted for me instead of what I wanted and to trust in His direction and His timing in the events of my life
5) I learned the probable cause of my infertility and depression when tests revealed thyroid problems and Graves Disease.
6) I learned to be thankful and that gratitude brings the light back when depression threatens to cloud it.
7) I learned how to feel the true sadness in some things in my life without losing the gratitude and the hope.

Because of those lessons I was able to see these miscarriages as blessings. I don't know God's plan for me and my life but I do know that He is aware of me and that I can be happy in whatever that plan is. I was even able to have great discussions with my daughter about why her consistent prayers for a baby brother or sister have not been fulfilled yet and she has been able to happily decide to keep praying and never give up but also to see the blessings she has by being the only child in our family.

I feel so happy to see the great strides and progress I have made so that now my emotional health is much more stable and disappointments, even very large ones, do not have as many detrimental effects on me. Even when my thyroid and hormone levels are not right and things are more challenging I am learning to be a better mom and enjoy each moment as it comes.