Cornerstones of a Happy Home

This week has been crazy.. Or it just felt more exhausting than usual. I've made so many goals I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed with everything. I took the kids to my parent's house over the weekend so Andrew could study for an exam that he had for his new job. Haven was in an unfamiliar place, so instead of sleeping 6-8 hours she was waking up every 3. It was awesome! We stayed there from Friday to Tuesday evening. Andrew took the test on Tuesday and passed. But this week was more of a week to recuperate. Since we were gone, we had FHE on Thursday. It was based on a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley called "Cornerstones of a Happy Home." Honestly, this talk is so good I think the best way to get something from it is just to read it. Which is what we did. I had Andrew read the talk during one of his lunch breaks and we just talked about it for FHE. I had some grand plans to build our dream home out of legos as our activity for FHE, but like I said, I have been exhausted this week. So we just talked about what we thought we could improve on individually and as a couple. Please, please read this talk. I loved it. Tomorrow's FHE is going to be based on a talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin called "Cultivating Divine Attributes." I've already read this talk and I really like it, but I'm having a hard time applying it specifically towards marriage. If any of you have any tips or ideas, please let me know :) I'm REALLY enjoying planning these FHE's and posting them. It really gives me something to look forward to. It's a goal that I know is worthwhile and helps me grow closer to my Heavenly Father.

Family Home Evening

Last night we had our first family home evening of the year. It was based off the talk by President Harold B. Lee called "The Constitution for a Perfect Life." Basically it talks about the beatitudes. 

Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are they which are persecuted.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

While I was reading this talk and then preparing my lesson, I tried to think of how I can apply each trait to daily life. Where can I work on it? It became humbling to think about all the improvement that I have room for. I thought of each trait as difficult to master. Which made me think of a poem that President Monson read in the October 2013 conference. 

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.⁸

I wanted to incorporate this poem into the lesson for FHE. So I created a poster board with a tree on it and glued each trait on it as a leaf, and referred to them as things that are difficult to do or be, but they make us stronger and give us great rewards. Andrew and I talked about other things that have been difficult in our lives but we are now grateful for because of the blessings and how they helped us grow. Some things we brought up was Andrew graduating college, having kids and paying tithing. All of those things require a lot of sacrifice but in the end give us so much happiness. 

We also watched a video by Jeffrey R. Holland called "Christ is the Way". He talks about the beatitudes. 

After talking things that have already passed, we talked about things we want to work on now that we know will be difficult but will provide more rewards in the end. Things like working out, budgeting our money and keeping a cleaner house. We then wrote everything that we talked about on the back of leaves and glued them onto the tree. I'm going to keep the poster board up for the week to remind us of our goals. ...I know I've become really 

cheesy. Or maybe I always have been. 

Next weeks lesson is going to be based on a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley called "Cornerstones of a Happy Home". I read the talk last night to have it in the back of my mind all week. I really loved this talk and what it teaches. If any of you read it, let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on how to present it. 

2014

Hello World! 

It has been a long time! A lot has happened in the two years I have been away from the blogging world. We have had 2 babies. Hudson and Haven. We have moved to Chino Hills, California. Andrew has graduated college and has started training to become a nursing home administrator. We are excited about all the blessings in our lives and I am excited to start sharing my life more fully again. 

We have set many goals for 2014 and I figured what better way to be held accountable for them than to post them on this blog? Some of those goals include losing weight, having regular Family Home Evenings, documenting our children's lives more, and just strengthening our family in general. So this blog is going to be my outlet for all of those. I'll be posting my lesson plan for FHE every week, if anybody wants to follow along and plan lessons with me. Since the kids can't participate quite yet it's still going to be geared towards strengthening mainly our marriage. I'll be posting tons of pictures of the kids and the funny things they do, and sometimes the not so funny... like throwing cars in church. It has become an every week ritual. I'm afraid my ward may secretly hate us. I'll even try to post motivation for any one else trying to lose weight. Our family is doing "The Biggest Loser" for 6 months. I'm very excited and hope that we can all be successful and pleased with the outcome. 

Tomorrow is Monday, which means FHE. I've planned a rough lesson manual for the year based on the scripture from 1 Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind.

Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.

Love is not rude, is not selfish and does not become angry easily.

Love does not remember wrongs done against it.

Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

I divided it up by each trait and assigned it a month. Except for January. January is four talks/teachings from the  Eternal Marriage Student Manual that are called the "Foundations for an Eternal Marriage." Tomorrow's lesson will be based on the talk called The Constitution for a Perfect Life by President Harold B. Lee. If anyone has any input or wants to "be on board" with us, feel free to let me know or share your ideas! 

I'm very excited for this year! I pray that we can all find success in the goals we have set for this year. Happy Sunday everyone!