Life of Fred Math Review - Day 1

About a week ago I heard about Life of Fred, a math book series, for the first time. After laughing (ha, laughing!) my way through some of the sample pages, I showed it to Adam and Sammy. They laughed as well and wanted me to go through more of it ("Sorry kids, they don't put the whole book online because they want you to actually buy it"), so I bought it. Another bonus to the fun content, they are not expensive!

It arrived today. "Hey look kids, Life of Fred came!" I set it down and promptly forgot about it.

I was gone for a few hours this evening, and when I got home I went in to tell Adam good night. He said something I thought I would never hear from him. "I read seven chapters of that math book." Picked myself up off the floor. "Did you do any of the math?" "Yes."

For a day 1 review, I would have to say I like it.

One of My Favorite Things

I consider myself a very simple person. Easily pleased, easily amused (ask Adam - at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple today he quoted something from Kung Fu Panda, "I've only seen paintings of that painting," every time we walked past a picture and I laughed EVERY TIME), and I don't need too many creature comforts. So even though Holly inspired me to want to post about my favorite things since she likes to post about her favorite things and her things that bug, I haven't come up with much of anything. But here, at last, I'm going to share one of my favorite things. I've been meaning to for a while, but I was urged on today by a quote in "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis.

In the story, King Peter is getting ready to send his challenge to the fake king Miraz (Caspian's uncle). He turns to Cornelius, Caspian's teacher, and asks him, "Have you pen and ink, Master Doctor?" Cornelius replies, "A scholar is never without them, your majesty."

These awesome little pencils are how this scholar always (or close to it) keeps her "pen and ink" with her.


These Mini MVP pencils by Pentel are just over 4" long and fit happily into my back pocket. When I was in AP English my teacher, Mrs. Barry, told us that we should never read without a pencil in hand. I took that to heart and love to underline and jot down notes while I read, so my current book usually has one of these pencils hooked onto it. I get a little frustrated with myself when I go to write something down while reading and that pencil has been removed. I have them everywhere in the house, but they hide any time Jamie needs to write down a phone message.

I first found these at our local Wal-mart, but I went looking for them recently and couldn't find them. Ours is undergoing some remodeling (who knows why, it's only something like 5 years old), so I'm hoping they were out or they hadn't been moved to their new place during the whole presto chango. But I checked another Wal-mart and they didn't have any either. Unnerving. In searching for a picture to share (too lazy to pull the picture I took off my camera) I found this eBay auction for 11 packs of these wonderful little guys, coming out to only $.56/pencil, $2.81/pack (normally about the $4 range). Don't be surprised if one of their auctions comes up sold soon...

Isn't Jamie a lucky guy? Most women want clothes or jewelry. I'm drooling over pencils.

Someday I'm probably going to give this my strangest post ever award. Thanks Holly for the inspiration.

Google It

I love the internet. I initially met Jamie there, so what's not to love? Anytime I need to know anything, I google it and find my answer. Jamie and I were just sitting and watching a show on BYU-TV, one of the people introduced sounded familiar, so I googled his name and we learned some interesting information about him that enriched what we were watching. Using Pledge for cleaning tips? Google it. Temperature of the sun? Google it. Great chimichanga recipe? Google it. Catch part of a C.S. Lewis quote and want to know the rest? Google it. Want to know how many queries google gets per day? I just googled it - a statistic from 2006 said 400 million per day.

I was very happy in that life until I listened to a CES talk by David Bednar called "Things as They Really Are." Excellent, very doctrinal talk about the counterfeits Satan presents before us, including many things he uses so we are "bodiless" like him. For instance, people that get so involved with video games that those become their life when they should be out experiencing things for real.

So what did we do before the days of google? Many things would involve a lot of research. Finding answers now at our fingertips would have been significantly more difficult to come across, and I'm sure many questions just went unanswered. But in many more everyday cases, is the ease of googling stopping you from going to someone you know would have the answer? In my googling at least, probably. Am I choosing to be bodiless because it's so much easier than making a phone call? Am I making this out to be more than it really is???

It's not just about google either. When I was a newish mom I learned about yahoogroups and joined a few for moms like me. When I had a question about potty training, sleep issues, or what to feed a child that won't eat anything, I would toss a message out on there knowing I would immediately have a pool of a few hundred women and their variety of experiences ready with willing support and answers. I enjoyed that for a long time until I realized that those women may have a lot of experience, but they really didn't know me. They didn't know my background, my family, my friends, or my experiences, only the small dimension of myself that I shared on there. And likewise, I didn't know them at all. I've been on small, closer knit groups as well, but even those left me feeling the lack of real shared personal in-body everyday experiences.

So I'm totally not saying google and mommy yahoogroups are evil, but... well, I remember hearing once that you should never leave a compliment unsaid, because in not giving it you are losing an opportunity to lift that person. Maybe it's similar when you could go to someone for information.

Just for a moment, think how it feels to have someone call on you for your experience and expertise, not to even ask you to do something, just to pick your brain. Don't you feel wise and knowledgeable? Probably feels good to help. And when someone comes to you with a need they need filled, even just to ask a question, the relationship is strengthened. Even if only a bit, it is strengthened. So in going to sure and easy sources instead of someone you know, are you missing out on a good in-body experience?

It makes me want to try an experiment, that for one month every time I come up with a question or the kids bring me one, I try the question on as many "real" people as I can for a week (without being ridiculous about it like stopping people in Wal-mart) and see what we can learn from the "real" people we know. For the first question, Sammy told me earlier that Playdoh was originally created to use as a cleaning tool (he learned that in a game we've got). I asked him what it was used for and he said it didn't say. I have an idea, and like crazy I wanted to google it and find out, but for now, anyone know? (Without googling - google it for yourself if you'd like, but don't tell unless you really know.)

I don't know. Maybe I'm just up in the night, but it all makes me want to pick up the phone more. You?

P.S. I apologize in advance for the loud children background noise. I promise it's a recording we play just for fun, and I respond to it sometimes as part of the ploy. My children don't sound like that at all.
P.P.S. Jamie just showed new gaming technology to the boys and me tonight. While freakishly cool (really, watch it), where does it fall in light of all this?

P.P.P.S. I should have kept track of how many times I googled during this post, because there were several, going back to look, at least 6 or 7.

Walkin' Down Bead Street

I haven't had a lot of jewelry orders for a while (a nice break really), then suddenly the past couple of days I got seven orders to finish up and get out today. In helping one customer see what I was imagining on a customer order she wanted, I looked through some older pictures of bracelets I've made. I used to be involved with an online boutique group (they made the amazing clothing, I made the jewelry to match), so I used to do a lot more custom orders than I do now. At this point, when I'm sick of a style I pull it off my website or jack the price up high enough that if someone buys it at least I feel like it's worth it. I haven't added anything new to my website for a while and have been sticking with the standards that I know sell. I should really keep up with some of the matching I used to do for different commercial clothing lines, but haven't for a long time.

As I was perusing the bracelet pictures, I saw a lot of my favorites and thought I would share them.


Nice colors, and the big flower with the little one inside made it unique. This one still has a home on my website.


This one is one of my all time favorites. Not overly difficult or fancy, but I love the colors and different bead styles. I would have this up if I could, but alas, I bought some of the beads locally and I can't find them anymore. Maybe I need to find a good substitute.


I've done a few binky clips as well, but have never put them on the website, just on eBay. Here's a fun style.


Another of my all time favorites, maybe even my very favorite favorite. Made for a Halloween or Fall themed group launch. Very pumpkiny, eh?


I got a lot of sales out of this one (it sold in other colors as well). Listed as a fairy bracelet, the little treasure box dangled at the clasp with extra "fairy dust" included. Clever.


This was very cool but very annoying (time consuming) to make. I called it the Let Freedom Ring bracelet because of the bells. Maybe I should try one of these on etsy for a ridiculous price and see if it sells.


When people say things about me being so talented, I tell them that all I do is string beads on wire, which doesn't take talent. My sister on the other hand? Talented with a capital T. Look at these cute cute cows and lambs! Never in a million years could I do that. I tried a little bit on really simple things, made some really ugly beads (the Easter bunnies looked outright evil), then gave her all the beads and paints I bought for it. You can see the results. She rocks.

I Went to the ZOOOOO!!!

I don't want the title to be misleading. Really we go to the zoo several times a year. Buy a yearly zoo pass, get your money's worth. Know what I mean? If you don't, for us to go to the zoo and just pay regular prices it would currently be $48 ($55 when Erin turns 3!), family zoo pass is $80. When I renewed it last, we went three times within the next month, which rounds us out to it equaling $26 each time, not to mention how the $80 price gets divided even more every time we go (at least five times now). Now that's value!

But that is entirely beside my point. The kids and I decided Wednesday morning that it would be a great day to go to the zoo and we went, only this time I decided that it was high time that there was proof that I actually went with them. All the other moms out there know exactly what I'm talking about. Every family activity shows dad and the kids having a great time, mom is nowhere to be found. Well THIS time, *I* went too.

That results in pictures like this:




I deleted many overly terrible ones, but I got several that weren't too terrible.

Isn't this almost perfect - all of us getting ready to watch the bird show together. Would have been totally perfect if Carolyn hadn't leaned back right when I took the picture.

I also handed off the camera to the kids a few times so they could get something more than a head shot.

All in all, a wonderful day. On the way home we even stopped at temple square to track down where a falcon family is nesting that we've been watching on a live cam. And guess what! I went there too.

Good Friends

Last week we had a lot of this around (pay special attention to the buckets in close proximity):



When this lovely unexpected package arrived at my door filled with this:



The note says, "a little chocolate goes a long way when you're worn out." A good friend goes an even longer way. Thank you, thank you, my wonderful friend!

Scriptures with Children - Final Thoughts

The ultimate goal in reading the scriptures with your children is to help get the gospel into their hearts. Even if they have hundreds of scriptures memorized in their heads, if it doesn't get into their hearts it won't matter. That's why we pray before we begin - so the spirit can be there with us.

When we put on the whole armour of God we only get one weapon - the sword of truth. What sound does the sword of truth make when it's unsheathed? An unzipping noise!

From President Henry B. Eyring:

“Whether what you do is to correct or to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will do it better if you remember what success will be. You are to help Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, make eternal life possible for those you serve. To do that, the Spirit must take a testimony down into their hearts. And that testimony has to lead them to choose to keep the commandments of God, whatever storms and temptations may come.

“With that in mind, the Spirit will guide you in teaching.”

Old Brother Higgins built a shelf
For the old family Bible to rest itself,
Lest a sticky finger or a grimy thumb
Might injure the delicate pages some.
He cautioned his children to touch it not,
And it rests there with never a blot,
Though the Higgins tribe was a troublesome lot.

His neighbor, Miggins, built a shelf.
"Come, children," he said, "and help yourself."
Now his book is old and ragged and worn,
With some of the choicest pages torn,
Where children have fingered, and thumbed, and read,
But of the Miggins children I've heard it said,
That each carries a Bible in his head.

Get reading!

Scriptures with Children - How We Do It

We start our scripture reading with music. We've got a stereo with a timer on it, so I set it to got off at scripture time and let the music call everyone to scriptures. It was a huge help when we started our latest push to read the scriptures almost a year and a half ago. The music reminded me on days when I wasn't thinking about it, and helped make it a habit. It also helps to set the tone, and gives the kids a couple minutes to finish what they're doing and gather. When people start getting slow, I will give a surprise reward (small treat or something) for those that show up on time.

We start with a prayer, and read together for about 20 minutes, taking turns as we go. Even the two littlest get their turn, repeating a few words at a time after me.

When we're done with our reading, we work on memorizing a scripture. Our original goal was one a month, and we were doing it so the kids could learn the Articles of Faith, but they learned those surprisingly fast working on them just a couple minutes a day, and we just kept going. In about 14 months we've learned 28 scriptures, involving about 38 verses.

I got a new perspective on our memorization a few months ago when Jamie read President Benson's vision of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon during family home evening:

“I have a vision of thousands of missionaries going into the mission field with hundreds of passages memorized from the Book of Mormon so that they might feed the needs of a spiritually famished world."

Adam has seven years left before he turns 19. I wonder how many we'll have by then. We just finished learning the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood, we'll do the Young Women's Theme sometime, and we keep talking about doing the Family Proclamation. So far the hardest to learn (I never got really good at it) was Alma 7:11-12. If you memorize it really well let me know the trick.

The cool thing with memorizing scriptures is that even if the kids aren't listening to anything else in church, when they hear a scripture they've memorized they'll look over at me and mouth the words. Of course I make a mental note of the scripture and what they were talking about that included it, and we can talk about it when they get home.

I'll finish this off with a few final thoughts next.

Scriptures with Children - GOALS & OPTIONS

There are a variety of goals you can work towards in reading scriptures with your children, and deciding yours will help make your scripture time more beneficial.

Do you want them to be familiar with scripture stories? Then using the scripture stories for children are fine, or jumping from story to story in the scriptures. Ask the kids what their favorites are and read them. Go in order, or don't worry about the order.

Do you want them to be able to read well from the scriptures? The language of the scriptures is definitely different. If you want them to be able to read them well, you need to have them reading in the scriptures.

Do you want to be consecutive, reading every day? If that is your goal, then what you read or how much you read might not be a factor, as long as you read something.

Do you want to finish in a certain amount of time? In August 2005 President Hinckley gave a challenge to members of the LDS church to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. If you want to set a goal with a time factor in it, figure out how much you need to read daily and run with it.

Determining your scripture reading goals is a huge help in deciding just what direction you need to take, and also helps in deciding just what you'll read. There are a variety of options really.

When the boys were very young we started with the scriptures stories books for children. We really enjoyed that time and it helped them learn the stories in the scriptures. It got to the point that I felt like they were missing out on the power of the words in the scriptures, things like "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded," so we switched to the real deal. I wish someone had told me it was okay to jump from story to story back then, because I think if we did that we would have stuck with it better. But we didn't, so it stopped being fun for the kids and we got out of the habit.

Another option is to read talks from the most recent general conference. Buy each of the kids their own copy of the conference issue of the Ensign, and choose a day or two each week to read from it.

Use your scripture reading time as an opportunity to teach them about the scriptures. Teach your children to use the topical guide and read by topic, read from the Bible dictionary, or learn the songs that teach the books of scripture in order. Some neighbors of ours are reading from the True to the Faith book and discussing it with their children.

Now that some of our kids are older and some young, I've had to do some reevaluating. We read from the scriptures together as a family in the morning. The two youngest are in and out, and don't listen to much of what we read. I finally realized that I need to start from the beginning with them too, so I've been reading to them from the scripture stories books at night. They LOVE it.

To help children be familiar with the scriptures, draw a simple picture next to the stories so they can find them on their own, like a flag next to the verses about the title of liberty, a sheep next to the story of Ammon, and a bow and arrow next to where Nephi breaks his bow.

Next: how it "looks" in our home.

Scriptures with Children - WHY?

I gave a talk last night for our Relief Society on reading scriptures with young children, getting them excited about the scriptures, etc. I thought it might be fun to share on here.

First of all, why does it even matter? Even after being diligent about this for over a year, the kids still have their whiney moments or choose to disrupt. Every so often when it gets really bad I make them chant, "We're doing this every day! We're doing this every day!" It's as much for me as it is for them, reminding myself that even though it feels like nobody wants to do this and nobody seems to care, we need to keep going.

From President Ezra Taft Benson:

“I challenge all of us to prayerfully consider steps that we can personally take to bring this new witness for Christ more fully into our own lives and into a world that so desperately needs it.

“I have a vision of homes alerted, of classes alive, and of pulpits aflame with the spirit of Book of Mormon messages.

“I have a vision of thousands of missionaries going into the mission field with hundreds of passages memorized from the Book of Mormon so that they might feed the needs of a spiritually famished world.

“I have a vision of the whole Church getting nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon.

“Indeed, I have a vision of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon.”

From Gordon B. Hinckley:

“A week ago a conference of the young women was held in this tabernacle. It was an inspiration to look into their faces, thousands of them. One could not do so without a feeling of peace and certitude concerning the future of this work. The theme of the conference was an appeal to the young women to read the scriptures.

“I look back to my own youth. Neither young men nor young women were doing much scripture reading at that time. What a marvelous change has been wrought. A new generation is arising who are familiar with the word of the Lord.”

From Boyd K. Packer:

"The plan designed by the Father contemplates that man and woman, husband and wife, working together, fit each child individually with a shield of faith made to buckle on so firmly that it can neither be pulled off nor penetrated by those fiery darts.

“This shield of faith is not manufactured on an assembly line, only handmade in a cottage industry. Therefore our leaders press members to understand that what is most worth doing must be done at home.”

From Marion G. Romney:

"And so, I counsel you, my beloved brothers and sisters and friends everywhere, to make reading in the Book of Mormon a lifelong practice... I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity - the pure love of Christ - will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness."

To be quite honest, we don't have angels singing in the background in our home, but I do feel like our children are getting their own testimonies, and that our family is blessed for our efforts.

The prophet Haggai rebuked the people with a description of scarcity, saying that the Lord had this message for them: “Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages…put[s] it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:5-7).

The people had poured their efforts into projects that had not paid off. Even when it gets hard, reading the scriptures in our home is something that will pay off. It definitely takes commitment and sometimes even creativity to make it happen, but we’ve been given promises by prophets that it will be worthwhile. Doesn’t make it easy, but we do have that promise.

Hebrews 10:35-37 states “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

I've got a neighbor that tested the "spirit of contention will depart" promise. She told me they were having one of those night where it feels like everyone is grumpy. She finally told everyone to go grab their scriptures, it was scripture time. They moaned and groaned, but they gathered together and read a chapter. "Are we done?" she asked after each chapter. If there was any griping, they kept going. After four chapters everyone was calm again, the spirit was back, and they stopped.

Trust in the promises of the prophets, and get started!

Next - what are your scripture goals?

Success!

I've been making fabulous rolls for a few months now, but I made my best loaf of bread EVER yesterday. Not only did it look good, it was soft, moist, and yummy inside. I've been playing with cooking times/temps a bit. This loaf cooked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then 350 for 20 more minutes, so maybe that's the secret. It was about half wheat, half white flour.

I'm addicted to this bread. I'm excited for my new wheat grinder to show up in a couple days so I can play with that too.

My Life is But a Weaving

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I do not choose the colors,
He worketh steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow,
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not ‘til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the skillful weaver's hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern God has planned.

--Author Unknown