Honoring Parents FHE/Sharing Time Idea

Jessica at Latter Day Chatter has a "Honoring Parents" Sharing Time idea posted.  It would also make a great FHE lesson.  Take a peek . . .

http://latterdaychatter.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-sharing-time-wk-3-honoring.html#

Why are People so Scared? Are we THAT bad?

I think not! It looks to me we are a pretty good bunch!

Food Drive - Phase II

Today was the big day for the Amen House Food Drive.  It was the day of PICK-UP!  We meet up with our friends at 11am and off we went.  We were fortunate this year to have 3 trucks to split up the duties.  It was great!

Food Drive 2011 - Part 1

Today we did Phase I of Operation Amen House Food Drive.  It consisted of putting out 300+ bags around the neighborhood.  We had a lot of GREAT help to make things move quickly and efficiently.

Here are pictures from Phase I-a
We had to break Phase I into two parts.  We ran out of prepared bags and had to regroup and do the remaining bags after Matt got home.

Ryan and Brinley

Brinley and Ryan

Brinley with friends "Merinda & Lauren"

Brinley and Merinda

Brinley and Merinda

Ethan, Allie, Maddie (standing), Ryan and Merinda

Here are pictures from Phase I-b

Brinley

Our friend "Tyson"

Ashton

Our friend "Jaden"

The Smith and Clayburn helpers of Phase I-b

Phase II is Saturday - gathering the goods! - More pics to come!

Follow the Prophet

While blog stalking today, I came across this post from http://murrayandmathews.blogspot.com/.  I thought what she wrote was excellent advise.  She writes:

If you have a planned surgery or having a baby, you should plan accordingly and stock your freezer full of meals for your family. It's a different scenario of course for emergency illnesses. Somehow, we need to re-educate people to be self-reliant and pre-plan for when you are ill. Freezer meals are an excellent way to take care of your family when you are unable cook dinner - everyone should check it out.


Freezer recipes from One Crazy Cookie here.


Freezer recipes from Mom's Budget here. She also has basic information on Freezer Cooking here.


I found a great link to a book - but she also provided lots of recipes. The Cream Cheese Chicken recipe I made last week was one of the recipes she listed. The book is called 30 meals in one day and at this link she provides many free recipes.


There are many great sites and ideas out in blog land. Here are just a few to help you plan to be self-reliant, save money and time at the same time.


She pretty much gives you all the info you need to begin.  What a wonderful way to eat healthy, save time, save money, and Follow the Prophet by becoming more self-reliant!

Go get'em!

So I recently became a "Chatter Bird" for an online store called Latter-Day Chatter. That means I am going to "advertise" for them about once a week on my blog. They have many FREEBIES and other items that cost a dollar or two. Many, many cute things. There are great items for Visiting Teaching, Primary, Young Women, Relief Society, Teacher Gifts, etc. You can even request something and most likely Jess will create it for you.

If you "Like" Latter-Day Chatter on Facebook I would be grateful. She is having a contest for us "birds" to see who can get the most referrals. If you "Like" them, please follow up with a comment saying that I referred you.

Another great thing that Jess from Latter-Day Chatter does, is several times a week she does a "Facebook Treat" and the first 5 or so people that leave a comment receive one of her downloads for FREE. This is how I got hooked on LDC. I have received many of her downloads and am super impressed with them.

Go take a peek! Here is her latest FREEBIE!

Oh My!

So this past Sunday I received an email from our Bishop prior to church.  It was a forwarded message from our Stake President.  It wanted to let us know about a "special meeting" our Stake was having in lieu of regular Sunday meetings on February 6th.    We were also told that a General Authority from Salt Lake City would be present.  Oh, how exciting!!!

There has been quite a bit of chatter regarding what the "special meeting" may be about.  Is our Ward going to be split?  Are they going to re-align the Stake boundaries? . . .

Then on Monday, Matt got the (dreaded) call from the Stake Executive Secretary to ask if he could offer the Opening Prayer at the "special meeting".  Thank heavens they know that I would PASS OUT FLAT if they asked me!!  Of course, Matt said YES!

So this brings us to about 5 minutes ago when I received yet another email from our Bishop.  It was again, a forwarded message from our Stake President.  It was just letting us know that David A. Bednar will be presiding.

Poor Matt!

In case you are not LDS and are unfamiliar with who David A. Bednar is . . . he is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  HERE is more info . . .

Day of Service 2010

For the past few days our family has participated in the "Day(s) of Service - 2010" . . . First we had the boys put 225 bags/flyers around the neighborhood. They did this Thurs/Fri. Today we hooked up with another family in the neighborhood (who had also put out bags - 150+) and gathered all the donations. All the kids (ages 3 to 12) did AWESOME! Look at some of the pictures from today's events HERE.

Pass the Geez, please!

Tonight before family prayer, Ashton (7) brought up the letters, LDS. He said, "We are LDS? Doesn't that mean we are old people?"

My reply was, "No, Ashton, old people are L-Der-Lee!"

Fun Saturday Drive

Today we were asked to drive down to Scout Camp and pick up all the gear. (One of the perks of driving a truck!) We got up bright and early and headed towards Eastern Kentucky (1.5 hours away). The scenery was beautiful. Here are a few pictures from the event! And yes, Matt is wearing a tye-dyed shirt. Don't ask!

Service Day Part I (In the Beginning)

For Stake Service Day our ward decided to organize a food drive for the local food pantry, The Amen House. They asked each family in the ward to help participate. Our assignment was to deliver bags with flyers attached to a number of houses in our neighborhood. A few days later we were asked to go around to the same houses and pick up the filled bags. The boys had such a wonderful time participating in this service project. It was a great experience. We even received help from the neighborhood kids in helping deliver the bags/flyers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys delivering the bags.

Service Day Part II (The Collection)

Today was the day we were to go pick up the donated bags of food/toiletries. We began on our street only to be met by another family in the Ward. They obviously wake up much earlier than we do on Saturdays and had already completed their assigned streets. The kids had so much fun doing this service project. Once our streets were completed, we drove over to the other side of the neighborhood and met up with one more family from the ward. With all 3 families working together we were able to knock it out lightning fast. It was really fun watching all the children working together to get the job done.

Once we gathered all the food we drove it all over to the church where they separated it into different categories and got it ready to deliver to the food pantry.

Thanks to all who participated - whether by helping organize the routes, print the flyers, deliver the bags, picking up the bags, donating the goods in the bags, sorting, etc. It was much appreciated.

"To serve others willingly and unselfishly should be one of our greatest virtues. It is not even a matter of choice. It is an obligation, a sacred command.... "Therefore, let us serve one another with brotherly love, never tiring of the demands upon us, being patient and persevering and generous."
-Ezra Taft Benson (Thirteen President of the Church)

Trunk or Treat at the Church 2008

Tonight was the Georgetown Ward Trunk or Treat. It started off with a chili cook off followed by games and trunk or treating. I was in charge of the cake walk. It was a fun time.