Role of Parents FHE

In continuing to talk about families for FHE this month, we focused on what daddies and mommies do in a family. Train lover started FHE with a prayer, and then we sang The Dearest Names.

We first talked about Daddies. Train lover asked the questions, with some help, and Brent answered them.

Then we watched the video "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father".

Next we talked about Mommies and I answered the questions.

Then we watched the video "Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God".

That was the end of the lesson, but Train lover wanted to play a game. We weren't really wanting to, so instead I pulled out a page of a quiet book I'm working on for him and let him color on it. We were really impressed when he drew 2 eyes, a mouth, and some hair on the face outline. I've never seen him do that before - proud mommy right here!

Family Proclamation FHE

This month's topic for FHE is the family. Baby #2 is coming less than a month from now, and we're trying to prepare Train Lover as best we can. This past Monday for FHE we focused on The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

We started by singing A Happy Family from the Children's songbook. Then Brent said the opening prayer.

We then watched this video by Elder Ballard. Afterwards, we took turns reading a line from the Family Proclamation summary.

http://mormonmomplanner.blogspot.com/2013/07/family-proclamation-summary.html

Then we made our craft project. I found this at A Year of FHE blog. It's a great resource with tons of printables. With each strip of paper we created 3 goals to work on in the different areas. I liked doing it because it helped us see how we can apply the Proclamation to our lives, and it's a great visual so we can all remember. It's hanging on our fridge and a great thing to see everyday.

Family Tree FHE

Our theme for this month's FHE lessons is Family History. We focused on the family tree tonight.

We started by singing 'Family History - I Am Doing It' from the Children's songbook. Then Brent said the opening prayer. Afterwards we read this poem:

Oh so many branches

Are on my family tree.

Each one tells a name from

My family history.

Grandma’s there and Grandpa,

And lots and lots of greats.

Each of these fine folks gave

Me all my many traits.

Branches that are empty

Show names we haven’t found.

But I’m sure to find them

If I just look around.

Filling in the branches

Sure makes my tree look neat.

When I know them all, then

My tree will be complete.

Then came the lesson and activity part. I found the idea for it here and used the tree template they had.

Train Lover was excited for this part!

I found pictures around the house and traced circles around all the faces. Brent cut them out and Train Lover and I glued them to the tree. I just used construction paper and scrapbook paper for the background. Once we completed the tree we talked about our family and had the little guy point to family members when we asked where they were. We also asked to point out where his 2 grandpas and 2 grandmas were, and he did it no problem! He seemed to think it was cool he had 2 of them.

Here's the finished product! 

I think I'm going to hang the original in a frame and then print out a smaller copy to put in the little guys Sunday bag. Such a fun and simple lesson that everyone enjoyed!

January Goals I Completed

At the beginning of the year I made a post of the goals I plan to achieve this year. It was a busy month, but I'm happy to say that I did accomplish some of the goals for myself. I hope to get better and better with each new month.

Marriage Goals: Brent and I finally had a date together! Granted it was at home, and Train Lover was still awake, but it was a date nonetheless. Thanks to a sale from Hy-Vee, we both got a lot of Chinese food for less than $7. We love their Chinese food - who knew a grocery store could make good food? After we ate dinner we had a YouTube Karaoke night! Using my hairbrush as a microphone we took turns singing songs. We've done this date before and had a great time doing it and we got to enjoy it again.

I also read a marriage book this month entitled Becoming One: Intimacy in Marriage. It's a good read for all LDS people that are dating, close to getting married, and even those who have been married for awhile. It explains the differences between men and women, intimacy issues and concerns, and answers general questions most members of the church have before getting married. I read it shortly after we were married 3 years ago and enjoyed reading it again.

Personal Goals: I started two other books this month and will finish in the first week of February (I was close to finishing this month!)

Stand for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes was the book club book for the month. It is written by late prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. He writes about 10 virtues he feels have been neglected and put aside in our modern world and society, and what we can do to bring them back into our lives. I've enjoyed it so far and have learned a lot from it.

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change your Life is a book I cannot put down. I started a few days ago and love it. It is about a woman diagnosed with MS and how she takes the advice of a spiritual leader and friend to give away 29 gifts in 29 days and the impacts it has on her life. I love the book and think it's really inspiring. I'm hoping to start my own 29 Gifts challenge soon. If any of you are feeling down about your life right now, I would encourage you to read this book.

Spiritual Goals: We had FHE every Monday this month! That is such a huge success for us. We have always struggled to have it. It's hard to do when it's just two people, and then you add a toddler and it gets more difficult. But I know it's important; that's why it's one of my goals this year to have FHE every Monday night.

For Christmas I got a planner. I've been using it every day to write down appointments, to do lists, and to keep track of praying and scripture study. I also printed out monthly and weekly FHE charts that I found on Pinterest and just changed the size of the image to fit in my planner. I cannot for the life of me now find where I got them from. I'll try to find them in case you want to use them too. Then I cut out the pages and glued them into the section in the back of my planner labeled 'Notes'. Now it's our year schedule for FHE. Brent and I came up with the following topics to focus on each month:

January - Church
February - Family History
March - Family (since #2 joins us this month)
April - Godhead (to focus on Easter)
May - Service
June - Joseph Smith (because he was martyred in June)
July - Emergency Preparedness
August - Scriptures
September - Prophets (to prepare for General Conference)
October - Prayer
November - Covenants (since we were married that month)
December - Christmas

Anyways, here is a look at our FHE plans for the month of January.

Here is one of the weeks lesson plans we had on Tithing.

I'm so glad I have goals to focus on this year and that I am working towards accomplishing some of them!

Sunday Can

A couple weeks ago for FHE (Family Home Evening, you can learn more about it here) we talked about the Sabbath Day and how important it was. Lessons in our home are short for Train Lover to stay focused the whole time. For this lesson, we created a Sunday Can. It's a can filled with strips of paper that have different ideas of things you can do on Sunday to keep it a holy day. The list can be found here. Some of the ideas included writing letters to family or missionaries, reading about an ancestor, visiting a neighbor, and drawing a picture of what you did for the day.

Each Sunday we choose a strip of paper out of the jar and do the activity. We know he is young, and he doesn't understand what he is doing right now, but that doesn't stop us from teaching. Parents need to teach while their kids are young. As Alma 37:35 says, "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God."

Today's activity from the can was to write in our journal. Two year old's can't write, but I knew he could help me do something. I talked to him about his day and asked what he remembered. Then I wrote down what he told me and had him color the paper after.

Here is his first journal page:

I know that it is by "small and simple things are great things brought to pass" (Alma 37:6). I'm grateful for the chance I have to teach my little guy good values here in the home.