Daughter of God week Days 2-6

Every day I thought of putting these on here, but was not sure who was really interested. So, I didn't want it to be a wasted effort. (Insert crickets chirping.) Today I realized that even if one person was in fact interested I should do it. I now apologize, and am playing catch up.

In the envelopes each girl got a packet of M&Ms with this:

 Day 2 accompanied by a pencil (I had to come up with something fast since the person did not come through for this day. Hope it turned out okay.):

 Day 3 (by me) on being a temple:

 Day 4 on the atonement:

 This made me cry. I have read through it a few times now and am grateful that I read it.

Day 5 on Integrity - the woman that wrote it had her a baby boy on August 19th. (She named him Samuel David which I think is fabulous.)

 Day 6 on Choice and Accountability:

Remember those M&Ms I lovingly put into the envelope for the girls? Well, apparently dogs like them. One poor girl lost several letters because her dog ripped into the packet. I was able to replace the missing ones except I gave up my Day 7 envelope so she could have one. I hope to post Andy's so it is on here. 

Tomorrow night is a pizza party at my house for everyone and then we start our fast. I have completed the slide shows and now need to figure out how to put them on DVD.

Daughter of God week Day 1

For a while now we as a Young Women presidency have been planning this week.  We prayerfully thought about what the girls need to better know they are daughters of God. We attended the temple together and everything. 

Each day this week, starting with today, there is an envelope to open. In the envelope is a letter or story or activity or something to think about, and journal about. On Saturday we are having a pizza party and starting our fast together. We will be asking to better know ourselves, individually as His daughters. Then on Sunday we will have a testimony meeting and a meal with our families. It has now begun and I invite you to share with us as we go. Each day I will post what is in each envelope and you can read it if you would like. 

The weeks worth of envelopes. (The big one in the back is the one that contained them all.)

Oh, and I am teaching next Sunday...and the stake leaders will be there. No intimidation at all.

Mascot

We went to the open house at my children's school in Friday. I was a bit disappointed by who they both got as teachers, but they both seem happy. There were owl pictures everywhere!! Then I realized it is the school mascot. This may be a long year for me each time I have to go there.

Kick Off

On Sunday we start Daughter of God week. (Details coming on Sunday.) I put together a sweet slideshow. The problem is that the DVD burner doesn't work on this computer anymore and my email won't let me send it to Andy. Now I am not sure what to do. Hey, I just had a thought...maybe I can put it on my flashdrive. Well, until I figure it out I wanted someone to see my efforts, so you get the not quite finished version. (Go to the full screen version to see it clearly and I am in it a few times, too, by the way.)

Super Heroes again

This is probably the last installment of my Super Hero logos for YW in Excellence. I will make one for myself (or have Andy do it) later, which will be Batman of course. Here is what we now have.

The Incredibles logo

 Sister Branske's logo

 The Man of Steel

 Sister Stevens and one of my young women

 The Avengers

 My A girls

 Flash

 Sister Tyler's

 Wonder Woman

 Flipped over it is for my M girls

 A little reworking and it is for my N

 Green Lantern

 The B babes get it

 X-Men (my favorite)

 For the Ks

Phew, that was fun. Now to actually make the capes. It is quite daunting to me.

Super Hero Symbols

You may think we have Super Heroes on the brain in our family. You may be right...

 The young women in our ward are not very girly. There are a couple who are, but really, most would rather be super heroes than princesses. For our Young Women in Excellence night we are going to have Super Young Women be the theme. I am going to make capes as take home handouts in the color of their value project (ie Faith=white, Divine Nature=blue, etc). They will have CTR shields with the value printed on them for the cape for the night, but I thought it would be fun to have their own logo. Based (sometimes loosely) on other super hero logos I have completed a few.

Based on Daredevil

 For the hard to figure out initials. (I can so use the one on the right for me, too, if I wanted.) Andy sketched it out for me. I designed them.

 Based on Aquaman:

 Turn it to the side and add a line for my 2 E girls. Again, Andy sketched it out since my artistic skills are lacking.

 Not so loosely based on Robin

 For my R girls (Want one, Mom?)

 The mighty Captain America:

 I messed up. I didn't do enough circles. I knew it looked weird. Now I need to decide if I keep it or let it go...

 The Amazing Spider-Man

 For Sister Yi. Amazing!

I started out with a nice Fantastic 4 logo for Sister Yi, but it wasn't working. Andy came up with this and it looked great. I cut it out and glued it down. 

I have to make 2 Superman symbols, Flash with a T, 2 Green Lanterns with a B, 2 X-Men with a K, 2 Wonder Woman flipped over for M and then reworked a bit for N, 2 Avengers for A, and an Incredibles logo with a b instead of i. Almost halfway there...then onto the capes. Those will be interesting, I am making up the pattern on my own. I have made crude capes for Marcus before but this is very different. (My logo for the night is the batman symbol Andy completed a while back using out last name in the bat part).

Extraordinary

Yesterday for young women's activity we finished tying quilts. The girls started them at camp but didn't finish. (I was in the kitchen making dinner.) There were a lot of complaints at the time about the yarn not pulling through the fabric very well. Anyway, we felt we should finish them. They are lap quilts for local cancer patients. In 1/2 an hour I finished 2 and helped one girl finish hers. (She didn't do much, she just kept talking.) I think only one girl finished hers last night. It wasn't that hard. I don't see myself as extraordinary but how is this possible? I could have brought the rest home and finished them, but that defeats the purpose of the girls serving. 

Then last night when I couldn't sleep (big surprise) I was looking at my book section of Pinterest. As I read the lists I had pinned I realized how much I know about children's books and early chapter books. I could totally make a list like those. The worst lists were the ones where the person would say they had never read a book, yet put it on the list. Most of those I was thinking that it was not appropriate for the age they were recommending it for. I knew probably 95-99% of the books. Now, what do I do with this knowledge? Why do I have this knowledge? (This is not quite as articulate as it sounded last night in my half asleep state.)

I see things as common sense or ordinary knowledge, but I guess that is not always the case.

Preschool

I have been convinced to start a little preschool in my home. I was planning on doing it 3 days a week with Luke to keep up my creativity and such. Then another mom asked if I would be willing to add her little guy to the mix. She mentioned it to a new mom in the area and she seems interested, too. I am nervous and excited. I haven't done this in 4 years, well, really 5. Reading books and putting together related activities a couple times a month kept my hand it, but it isn't really teaching. I have watched children, but not put together curriculum. I have been brain storming and coming up with ideas. I am trying to sort through all the random thoughts and find what will work best. Doing it at home could definitely be a challenge. We will see how this new endeavor goes. For now, if you want to give me some input, I am open.

Update - I just spent the last hour, at least, trying to plan my first week. I am so overwhelmed and out of practice it makes me sad. This shouldn't be so hard. It is what I love doing; books and playing. I will keep plugging along.