Finding Balance...

Seasoned Sisters

This past Tuesday night, our Young Women’s group met all together. The class (girls ages 16-18) that I help with (The Laurels) were in charge of this activity.  We decided to try to bridge the generations of women in our church congregation with these teenage girls

I oversaw the activity and gave instruction when needed, but really, it was up to these girls….and THEY DID A FAN-FREAKIN’-TASTIC job!

I was so proud of them – like I normally am!

We hand delivered invitations and questions to 11 ladies in the ward (9 were able to make it that night).  The girls were responsible to pick up the questions prior to the night and also contact the women to see if they needed rides to the activity.

We planned the evening at a prior activity and decided what questions would be fun to ask to get to know these ladies as well as teach the girls something from these ladies’ life experiences and wisdom.

We had simple decorations that night and were excited that all but 5 of of our 32 girls were able to be in attendance at the activity.

The Laurels handled pretty much the whole night (I chimed in when I wanted to – just like normal). Jessica, Jessica and Taylor did so well and I did get teary-eyed with emotion because I was so proud of them.

The ladies were awesome sports and made us all laugh, especially when they talked about their first kiss…so funny and human and relatable for the girls.

 

After the ladies were done being spot-lighted, we had each of the girls stand up and introduce themselves to the ladies (we have only been a new ward for a bit over two years). The girls told who their parents were, if they had a sister also in Young Women’s and what their hobbies, activities, accomplishments are/were.

We even made our Bishop get up and tell a bit about himself (he’s a newer Bishop to our ward). He was a great sport and told about his first kiss (in front of his two daughters who are in Young Women’s).

Our treats were simple cookies and water.

We sent each lady home with a little spring floral arrangement that the girls and I put together, so they would remember the night.

Also, all 17 of our Beehives (girls ages 12-14) were there that night. So, their leaders had me get a picture of them all together - and, of course, we had to get a silly one after the serious one!

We all laughed a lot and I think everyone came away from that night feeling happy and more connected.

We have 20+ more women to ‘highlight’ when we do this activity again – which I truly hope is sooner, rather than later.

Thanks for letting me share and remember!

 

 

 

 

CPB (Conference PJ Breakfast)

I will admit that when I thought of the CPB idea, I was hopeful that 10 of our 32 girls would participate and ‘complete’ the challenge. I find that for myself, any time I can make something fun or involve food in anything….it sure helps!

So, I was SHOCKED when 18 cute, little girls (and 4 leaders) showed up at our house on Saturday morning – all ready to eat and share their favorite quotes, speakers and feelings from conference.

We also had 3 complete their 10 hour project in Personal Progress by completing this ‘challenge’.

I made up 3 big pans of our favorite breakfast casserole. I will admit to baking a couple of them a bit longer than needed because I got all caught up in the news coverage of the manhunt in Boston. The girls didn’t seem to mind, they slathered on the sour crème and salsa to cover up the ‘overdone’ stuff! We made up 8 batches of Orange Julius – this has become a tradition with the girls when we have anything at my house.

I was so impressed with all they shared – TRULY taken back by what they remembered, what touched them and even some of the personal tears and feelings they shared with us! So cute and powerful! They ROCK!!!

The girls admitted that they enjoyed conference – they loved looking back through their notes and plan to keep their notes and add to them each conference. I love that they would willingly do all this – possibly a great habit and keepsake to have!

I shared two of my favorite quotes. I found them already typed up on Pinterest and printed out 12 per sheet on photo paper here at home. I had also found some cute little flower-clothespins at Michaels for $1 a package. I quickly glued some of Logan’s job magnets (don’t worry – this totally freaked him out and I promptly went out and bought more Saturday afternoon for him) on the back, so they could put them in their lockers or on their fridge.

I have found that when you get them in a home, they are so easy to get to know better – they show you their cute personalities and it’s easy to enjoy being around them. I’m truly blessed to get to be with them as much as I am – truly!

Two of the girls had to leave early – one for a track meet and one for driver’s ed – so we are missing Taylor and Ashli Young in this picture. Saydee is somewhere in there, too – but I don’t know why you can’t see her – the ding dong!

I hope to be able to do this again in the fall and cook up stacks of thick French toast or something fun!

Zones

Today marked the day I finally put into action something I’ve thought about for a long time.

ZONE CLEANING/JOB/MONEY EARNING

And let’s be honest here – I truly haven’t tried too many cleaning and/or job chart systems in my lousy parenting career.

Normally, the kids are responsible for their bedrooms (one does a SUPERB job and one does an absolute LOUSY job) and any other ‘tasks’ we ask of them as the ‘tasks’ present themselves.

Sometimes, I will write them up a job list while they are at school or for a Saturday morning and then they will have to get those jobs done before any kind of free time. Again – one does SUPERB with this ‘system’ and one does LOUSY.

One thing Steven and I really feel strong about is instilling a love (ok that’s kind of a strong word – let’s go for appreciation instead) for hard work and an appreciation of a job well done in our kids. We also want them to learn to manage their money and be able to spend it on what they most want.  

I attended a church meeting a couple of weeks ago and they talked about different ways to incorporate your kids in helping and working and also managing their money. This meeting and the ‘reasons’ above are just some of what has motivated me to implement and try a ZONE JOB SYSTEM.

And, I felt strongly that I couldn’t wait until just the right time – NOW was the time.

 And so….we jumped off…..and started our zones today.

The kids knew it was coming – we talked about it most of last week and then I had them create their job ‘pages’ on Saturday. I put them together in Photoshop, but each of them sat right by me, picking the pictures, fonts and TITLES of each of their ‘sections’.

We had another friend who shared their ‘pages’ and we copied a lot from their ideas.

These are printed on legal sized paper. And, after a week or two (when we work out the kinks/make adjustments, etc), we will print them on photo paper at Sam’s Club, then laminate them and put them back on the fridge. We know that after school lets out we will have to make some modifications, and if all goes well, will do that in a few weeks.

Each kid has 4 SET SECTIONS – 4 ways to earn $1 for each section completed. They each were adamant about what those sections should be called. Essentially, they each have a morning and evening routine, their zone responsibilities and homework/reading or letter writing and piano/violin practicing. These 4 sections are expected to be done six days a week. Each kid has the potential to make a minimum of $24 a week.

 

 

 

You will notice that Logan’s is set up to keep track of individual tasks completed each day, while Saydee’s is done on a weekly basis (she knows what she has to get done in each section).

For the first couple weeks we will be paying out every night at bedtime. This will hopefully keep ONE OF THEM motivated to see his efforts are worth it.

Here’s how the zones will HOPEFULLY work (again, we will change and make adaptations as we find they need to be as we go):

Our home is divided into four zones (yes, this means Steven has a zone, too – and he was HAPPY to participate and help out – but he and I discussed that I will help him with his zone when he is busy – but whenever possible, he will ‘look’ like he is helping in his zone so the kids see that it is a full family effort/system).

Here’s the current zone cards we are using. This morning we each drew our zone for the week – then we will rotate each week to a different zone. We will be responsible for our zone for an entire week, then rotate.

You can see that most ‘daily’ tasks in a zone are quite easy (hopefully 30 minutes or less).

On Saturdays, they have more time-consuming jobs in their zone and this will earn them $2.00 that day for completing the zone responsibilities. So, on Saturday, they could earn $5 instead of $4.

They each, also have the option of earning additional money each day . They can ask me for jobs they can complete for additional money. Also, if they ‘move’ (exercise) for 30 minutes, they will get additional money (this is a sensitive subject for me, so I’m trying to make it fun for them-they can jump, ride bikes, walk around the farm, etc….just MOVE for 30 minutes).

Anyway – we will see how it goes.

I’m hopeful – they both want to save for ‘bigger items’ and I’m hopeful this will be a way they can do that.

I’ll keep you posted.

Wonder-mom-wanna-be-OUT!

 

 

I hate cupcakes!

True Confessions: I do not like to cook. I do not like to bake. It does not come naturally for me. But, I am DRAWN to pretty food. Truthfully, I like food that LOOKS good even more than I like food that TASTES good (although that is a plus!).

I also love cupcakes. I love all the creativity that has come into the cupcake world over the past few years. I love it! I am NOT opposed to spending $3.00 for one cupcake if it looks pretty and tastes divine. I’ll drop those $3 bucks – LIKE THAT, JACK!

So, when we got back from Hawaii, I said to Saydee “We should make the Young Women some Hawaiian themed cupcakes”.  And of course, she rolled her eyes.

But, we plowed forward. Cupcakes from a box, CHECK! Sick, Crisco-ey frosting (not to be made again anytime soon), CHECK! Little Hawaiin ‘treats’, CHECK!

These things, other than the stinking frosting tasting yucky, weren’t too bad. And, the girls gobbled them right up – chucking the little trees in the garbage and chewing on the straw, snorkeler things, in like…..5 seconds (ha!).

So, because the Hawaiian cupcake ordeal didn’t scar me too bad, I decided to tackle another CC adventure. I saw the idea/recipes on Pinterest and it looked easy enough and they sounded delicious!

Went to my beloved Target where I spent far-too-much on these RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS chocolate bunnies….(I may have kept a few after I was FORCED to eat one that broke while I was unwrapping it – they MAY OR MAY NOT still be hidden in a PRIVATE spot).

Here’s where the adventure begins: It called for butterscotch chips in the cake batter. The problem was – the chips completely SUNK to the bottoms of the cupcakes-NOT the idea situation for me, an aspiring perfectionist! 

Also, it called for a butterscotch egg to be in the middle of the cupcake, too – and again – it sunk to the bottom of the cupcake. This small DETAIL stressed me out – I wanted those chips to be all over in the cupcakes and that chocolate egg to be right smack in the middle of the CC, too – COME ON, is that too much to ask?

I was worried about having enough CC for the activity that night because the boys were coming with us girls – which could easily put us over 50 people. After I ‘SAMPLED’ a few of the CC and determined the were QUITE TASTY, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough – so I made up a whole other batch (3 boxes of cake mix later).

This time, I was all out of the butterscotch chips, so I threw in some cinnamon ones I had gotten at The Prepared Pantry in Rigby.

THESE little SUCKERS were delightful (and this box was a different brand of cake mix and it was a MUCH thicker batter – don’t ask me which brand – I’ve erased this day from my memory forever).

Now – here lies the next problem: Cinnamon chips with caramel and butterfingers….what the CRAP was I thinking?

I’ll tell you what: the same, DANG color chips as the butterscotch – THAT’S WHAT!

Here’s what else happened: the DAMN ‘roofs/lids/tops’ came off that third batch when I was trying to get them out of the pan.

So….I was given NO OTHER OPTION, but to eat them – the tops that is….and THEN, of course I was going to be short CC for the activity! BTW – the LIDS were DELICIOUS! I won’t divulge how many ‘broke’ when I was getting them out…..let’s just say….quite a few!

When I picked the kids up from school, I decided I had better get some cookies from the grocery store just in case we needed them.

Saydee calmed her freaked-out mother down when we got home. We frosted (this frosting was YUMMY - I'll share the recipe IF and WHEN I ever find it again), TESTED and decorated the cupcakes and I thought they looked pretty DANG cute when they were all done. And honestly, they tasted pretty good, too!

The youth ate them right up and we had lots of them to bring home, too.

After it was all said and done, I did learn a lot and had a terrible stomach ache, but would do it again in a heartbeat!

That’s why I take on these STUPID ideas – to learn and share and laugh, (even when there is plenty of swearing going on in the actual process) right?!

And these DING DONG teenagers are worth every stress, swear word, calorie I'm forced to eat, and minute of my time to ATTEMPT to bake them a homemade treat! I love it and them!

Easter 2013

Our Easter Sunday was pretty boring this year.

The kids woke up pretty early and were excited at the simple gifts the Easter Bunny (they knew we helped him this year) had left. Logan was especially excited about a huge, Styrofoam airplane he received. It was cute to watch Logan fly it and he is still happily playing with this airplane everyday.

Steven fixed us a yummy, big breakfast. Saydee and I were heading to our local retirement center with some kids/adults from church to do an Easter service for the people who lived there. This was truly a COOL way to be able to spend Easter morning. The service was quite short (Saydee gave an awesome talk) and the youth did a GREAT job interacting with the older people.

We all arrived at our church early. Steven had some business to attend to and Saydee and I had a song practice. We sang in our Sacrament meeting with all the girls and leaders from Young Women.

In our lessons about Jesus Christ and his Atonement and Resurrection for us, a 12 year old boy from our ward was incredibly moved talking about that gift. It was super powerful for all of us to be part of and something I will never forget. So glad Saydee & I were able to be there.

After church, we came home to a quiet evening. We ended up at our neighbors, Hansens for some ice cream sundaes and a visit. We love the Hansens so much!

A good day.

 

Conference 2013 Spring

One Sunday Steven came home from church and was so excited! He waved some tickets at the three of us and proudly said “Do you know what these are?” And, we were like….um…….no.

And he said – “CONFERENCE tickets and a PARKING PASS! Doesn’t that ROCK?!!”

And…after we had successfully NOT burst his bubble……I asked him quietly “Steven, why in the crap are you so excited about these tickets?”  To which he replied “THEY ARE GREAT SEATS, ROBYN!” (It was obvious that he was irritated with me that I didn’t know this fact.)

I really thought it was cute that he was so zoomed up over these seats, as if it were a Garth concert or something.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to conference and it is powerful! I love going and will make a huge effort to go anytime I possibly can. But, to see Mr. Longhurst all excited, was really cute.

We got ourselves a room at the Little America and we had a speedy trip down and back home again in 24 hours.

I said to our family that morning at breakfast, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could see Sister Long?” (She was our neighbor and is now serving a mission on temple square.)

And what do you know? She had tickets, too – and sat right by us, as well as one of Saydee’s Young Women leaders, Sister Lindsey. So fun!

We enjoyed conference. Well, let’s be honest – Logan endured conference. He and I wrote cute notes back and forth and I saved them because they were so cute. He looks so handsome in his suit. I love to see him all dressed up - I especially LOVE that he has his Allegiant Air wings pinned to his pocket. When he opens the doors for us he says "Allegiant Air, at your service". Goofball!

I made everyone take some pictures outside because the flowers at temple square truly make me giddy and happy. I don’t care what religion you are, you cannot deny that those flowers will make you smile!!!

Saydee was NOT in the picture taking mood, so we made her feel guilty about not being a team player, then took a few of Logan….she obviously didn’t feel guilty enough to jump in the photos.

We stopped at a floral wholesaler to grab a couple things I needed. Then, headed back home. We stopped for lunch/dinner at Maddox in Brigham City. We love to eat there! Steven stopped at a couple tractor dealerships and we were all happy, happy, happy to get home to check on our baby kitties!

I spent some time in the car getting myself set up on Instagram. I love pictures and anything visual – so I wanted to try it out – I’m hooked! I cannot wait to print out some of these pictures to do SOMETHING with…..eek!

 They are square pictures, which sucks me in right away – I love that it is a QUICK and CREATIVE way to take photos, share photos and save photos – LOVE IT!

XOXOXOXOXO

Quick and needed trip to fill our spirits/laugh at each other and enjoy some 'road time' up some more! Love it!

Conference Cookies and CPB

As many of you know, last weekend was the LDS Church’s semi-annual General Conference. This is a full, two-day conference that members, including our family, try to watch, listen to, and hopefully gain some spiritual growth, guidance and knowledge. It just makes me happy to be part of it.

And, I’m human and cannot lie – watching and listening for 8+ hours can be hard to do.

Most of the time, we DVR all of it and what we aren’t able to watch on TV live, we watch later or I will try to listen to the talks I missed later from LDS.ORG. I also enjoy printing off some of the talks that were really inspiring to me and dissecting them and highlighting excerpts that touched me.

When you are a teenage girls, participating in this can also seem daunting. So…..as I would like it – I try to spice it up a bit for the girls. I try to make it fun and of course, treats are always a part.

This year I tried a new recipe that is HOT on Pinterest right now. SWIG sugar cookies. We have been HUGE fans of SWIG in St. George since we were told about it a couple years ago. We stop there multiple times a day when we are in St. George and I ALWAYS get one of their sugar cookies (or 3). YUM!

I loved that this was an opportunity for me to try this new recipe. And you know what?! IT was a keeper!

I always try to provide something fun for the girls to do while listening, etc. This time I challenged them to take some notes and if they did, they could come to a breakfast at my house and we could all share what we learned, felt, etc.

I also gave them an idea I’ve seen on the internet for them to complete a 10 hour project in their Personal Progress while participating in conference.

I’ve heard from several moms already that these two ‘invitations/challenges/ideas’ helped their girls complete and enjoy conference this time – Eeek!

A picture of my messy kitchen while in this process…


And this is what the girls got when they were delivered (thankfully another leader and my kids helped run these in to our 32 girls and 8 leaders – whew!). LOVE THEM!

HAY BALE PROM

Because I get to hang out with lots of teenage girls, I also get to hear what they like and don’t like about boys in general.

One time we were talking about school dances, etc., and the girls mentioned that boys don’t ‘ask in very fun ways’ for girls to go to dances (and honestly, girls may be lacking in the same area). 

I saw an idea somewhere and posted it to my Facebook account with the offer that I would help any of the kids who wanted help asking in this fun way to a dance.

Thankfully, one of our friend’s mom, saw the post and told him about it.

Cooper called me and asked if I would help. Me helping with big, huge hay bales…really meant Steven had to help, too! And of course, he knows and loves Cooper and believes in the ‘cause’ of encouraging and helping teenagers, so he was totally on board.

We copied the idea pretty much as I had seen it. Although, we added some red bandanas Cooper had. We tied them to stakes and pounded the stakes in the bales.

The girl Cooper asked to prom lived right in the town of Shelley, so these hay bales sitting in her front yard were TOTALLY out of place and COULD NOT BE IGNORED! So fun!

We put them out while she was in school and Steven and I really had fun helping.

Cooper said it was a big hit and he had lots of guys talk to him about it at school.  Plus, the real point was to make this girl feel special, which I’m sure it did!

I slapped a picture on my new obsession, Instagram and of course, Facebook and it received TONS of ‘likes’ from our friends. LOVE THAT!


GREAT job, Cooper! Glad you let us be part of it! It keeps us young!

Sunny Spring Monday

So we had a GREAT spring break last week – post on that to hopefully follow later today.

I didn’t do any office work nor laundry – so I’m paying for it today. Neither child had clean clothes today to wear back to school, so I’m working super hard on the laundry!
The weather has been beyond amazing. I heard yesterday that it was like 25 degrees above normal over the weekend – which would explain the temperatures near 70 degrees in IDAHO ….the end of March – SWWEEEET!

Anyway, quick little photo here for fun – I’m tired of laundry and paperwork for a minute:

This shows two fun things going on at our house today:

This celery idea has been all over Pinterest lately – so we are trying it – cut off the end and have it sitting in a bit of water. It is growing….so we will see how it does – I hope to plant it in the garden in a few weeks.

The other picture is of some chicken ‘toys’ I bought at Christmas. 3 of them are already hanging in the coops – this one will be filled with volunteer spinach that is growing in my garden already. The idea is that the chickens have to peck at the balls (which have a little bell on the bottom) and it gives them something to do. Apparently chickens get bored, too.

Kinda fun – for a chicken lover!

Have a great Monday!

Hawaii 2013 - HOME!!

We slept in until 9 on Sunday. We ate a breakfast at the Hampton and ended up hitting the road around 11:30 to drive home.  We had a 3 ½ hour drive and we were anxious to get home and check on everything.

Saydee was feeling 100% and Logan was great about taking all his ‘stuff’ to heal his ear and help it not hurt. It was good for him to sleep on the drive home and I was thankful he wasn’t crying.

We had a great drive home laughing and remembering all the fun stuff we had done the last two weeks. It had gone by too fast.

When we flew out of Maui, Saydee & I cried because we love it there so much. We knew we wouldn’t be back too soon and we were sad. Plus, Saydee hated that she was leaving not feeling good.  And we just love it there!

As ready as we were to be home, we all agreed that two weeks wasn’t too long (which we had worried about). We could easily enjoy three weeks there if we could do that with school sometime in the future. Both kids are convinced they should be home schooled so we could go to Hawaii for a month in the winter.  I’m convinced they should NOT be home schooled so I can not have to worry about how dumb I really am.

When we got home of course, Hank was so glad to see us!

He really had a hard time this time. He went on the road and had to be tied up. He quit eating and was quite depressed. So, it was super obvious that us being home was such a GREAT thing for this dog. We truly love Hank!

Logan was super droopy from the Hydros, so he laid on the couch most of the day. Later that night (DON’T FREAK OUT), we put an ear candle in his ear. This is suppose to help draw out the wax, etc. We were hoping it might pull out some of the infection or sand or wax with infection or sand in it….anything to speed this silly thing up. It didn’t. But,  it sure made us laugh when it was all done and we didn’t burn anyone or catch the house on fire.

Logan ended up missing 2 more days of school because his ear hurt so bad. It drained puss and infection 10 times more than last time. We have since learned all there seems to know about Swimmer’s Ear. We plan to get some custom fit ear plugs made for him and we will always pack a mixture of vinegar and rubbing alcohol we read and heard about from lots and lots of places and people. This is NOT something we want to go through again.

I had a goal to have everything unpacked and all the laundry sorted by the end of the day. I was just THRILLED with myself for accomplishing THAT PLUS sorting the mail and even entering a few receipts.  I’m completely aware that on a rare day…I’m SUPER FREAKIN’ WOMAN!

Anyway, we were all glad to be home and in our own beds that night. We love our home, our animals and each other.

This was another GREAT vacation for our family! We can’t wait to do it again!

 

P.S. We found some cheap airfare the week after we got home (about $350 each before ‘good-seat’ upgrades – from Boise to Honolulu---but, really for us - $0 after cashing in credit card points – GO CAPITAL ONE VENTURE – WE LOVE YOU!).

So the kids and I will go back to stay with my mom and dad when they get out of school. Points paid for our airfare and free couches and blow-up mattresses with grandma and grandpa = a very inexpensive way to start our summer vacation – we CANNOT WAIT!