Yea! We're back up!

On Sunday morning my email account was hit by something and I couldn't access it. Then my blog disappeared completely to which I almost cried with over 3 years of blog posting apparently gone (I had backed it up in November at least)! Thank goodness Blogger got around to reviving my blog, and countless others, from the deep recesses of cyber space. It appears that someone in China is successfully hacking Google/Blogger accounts (although they are not openly admitting it).

So, if you tried to get on and read it Sunday or Monday morning to find it "gone"...we're back!

Adult Transitions

I've written several posts about young adults (teens) transitioning to Scholar Phase. But, as I move into mentoring adults it is trickier to describe, analyze, and portray what transitioning to Scholar Phase looks like in an adult. This is largely due to the fact that we (the adults) all had a full conveyor-belt education. For those of us using Leadership Education methods, our children have been removed from that system (or are in the process of being removed) and being mentored by adults who are at least aware of what needs to change in some fashion. We did not have the luxury and we have several years of conveyor-belt thinking to "undo".

Adults transitioning to Scholar Phase are mainly blocked by fear -- fear of the unknown, fear of success, fear of worthiness, fear of being different, etc. I'm sure you can fill in your own fears quite well. I had a list of 12 fears when I made my list.

Here were my list of fears:

1. Age of when Scholar Phase "should" happen - I'm so old! Am I too old?
2. Impatience - I want it now!
3. Overwhelmed - It is too hard!
4. Time Commitment involved - I'm a working homeschool mom! When do I have time to study?
5. Application - "HOW" do I do it?
6. Preconceived ideas - Getting off the conveyor-belt.
7. Personal Experience - I was a good conveyor-belt student, but will I be a good Scholar?
8. College - Will my kids get into college?
9. Diploma - Will my kids education be accepted?
10. Graduation - Will they need this? Will they miss it if they don't have it?
11. Career - How will they make a living?
12. Initiative - I don't know if I have the "right stuff" to do this.

Maybe your list is different or maybe some things are similar. It doesn't matter if your fears are the same or different. What does matter is getting all your fears listed so you can face them...that's right. Make a list of all your fears so you can see what it is you are up against.

After you have made your list of fears, spend some time thinking about why you are afraid and how you might be able to overcome that fear. Is it a "real" fear or an excuse? Is this something that a change of attitude will cure or a challenge that needs to be rectified (example: spousal support, more education on the subject, etc.)? Is this fear a "stall tactic" to keep you from moving forward?

You...the Barrier

The biggest barrier to your success is...YOU! I have read countless self-help books that all pretty much describe the same thing...self-defeating behaviors because of fear hold us back from the things we want and need.

Some food for thought:

• Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. — George Washington Carver
• Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.  — Winston Churchill
• Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.— Thomas Alva Edison
• Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas Alva Edison
• The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it - so fine that we often are on the line and do not know it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. — John W. Gardner
• We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure—all your life. — John W. Gardner

One Second After

This book is patterned after "Alas, Babylon", which I liked better. "One Second After" has tons of language which I felt was very unnecessary and is quite graphic. I know that in that situation it would be horrific and graphic, I just don't need the gory details.

However, I feel this topic is a real possibility. The US could be hit by an EMP and have all the electronics fail at once, leaving the human race to scrounge for food and survival. We are a soft generation that is far from prepared to live without electronics/electricity. In other words, this is not a fantasy/sci-fi book, it could really happen. I do think that the scenario is realistic and correctly depicts how people would react (not a comforting thought).

One positive to reading this book is that it made me truly think about what we would need to survive such a drastic circumstance. It is not a very comforting thought and I am loosing sleep just thinking about the book and what we would need to do to be prepared, not just having food on hand and what not, but to survive raiders.

Nayna's Christmas Concert

Nayna joined a homeschool choir this year and they are fantastic! I walked into rehearsal to pick her up and thought, "That is a really good Christmas CD they have playing." Only to realize it was the homeschool choir. Unfortunately, my little camera did not do the sound justice. It has a terrible microphone, which I am bummed about (not that the video is that good either).

You can see Nayna in the third row up right next to the young men. She is wearing black and has her hair up. I tried to keep her in the middle of the frame. The second song is Nigerian, but I couldn't hear all of what they said about it. There is also a full orchestra behind them.

For Nayna, this is a big accomplishment. She is very shy and has difficulty being up in front of people. We are so proud of her!

"It Is Not Meet That I Should Command In All Things"

I am working through my Personal Progress along with my Beehives. That is one thing I should have been doing with my daughters all along, but being called to Young Women's has sparked my drive to do so again. I was looking through my Personal Progress book and found a value experience to work on which required I read the following scripture:

Doctrine and Covenants 58: 26-28

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

I had always associated this scripture with service, but this time I saw the correlation to many other things...education...work ethic...etc. The footnotes mention; dedication, diligence, good works, industry, and zeal. I think we are missing the mark if we associate this scripture strictly to service. Industry relates to all that we do; to be industrious with our time in family work, making a living, our duty to God, etc.

Applying the Scriptures to Ourselves
We are admonished to apply the scriptures to ourselves. That is the best way to learn from the scriptures. So, here are my thoughts on applying these scriptures in my home.

I am often asked how I get my kids to study at home. I used to wonder how homeschool moms could possibly do that as well, my kids barely listened to me about anything, much less school work. Over time, I've come to realize that I needed to teach my kids to be industrious in all things...chores, church callings, and their education. Once they understand the principle, it is easier to apply in all areas of their lives. Now they fully understand that getting an education is their job, not mine. I lead them and guide them, but the work is theirs to do.

The second big question I get is how can I homeschool without requiring a set curriculum for them to study. The answer to that is to provide an outline for what constitutes a great education and then provide them the means to obtain it. I model getting an education myself and show them my enthusiasm and zeal for being an educated person.

"Slothful and not a wise Servant"
The biggest difference is that public schools "command" and "compel" in all things. We learn from the scriptures above that this leads to a "slothful and not a wise servant". So, why then are we surprised that so many leave public schools without a good education (not wise) and cannot find sufficient drive (slothful) to be successful in life? The answer is in the type of education, force rather than inspired self-education.

The "reward" for being a self-learner through inspired mentoring is that they will retain much more of their education (be wise) and have learned the power of self-motivation (industry) from the beginning of their education, or at the very least, have changed over to being a self-learner once they left public school.

I, for one, have learned more in the past 5 years since I read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" than I ever did in my public schooling education, including college level classes at a university. My eyes are now opened to the possibilities and excitement of shedding my slothfulness and learning to be industrious in all aspects of my life. I am so thankful to have this knowledge now!

The Making of America

I have a profound respect for our great country and especially for our Founding Fathers. I know that the United States of America was divinely founded for a righteous purpose and that it takes a righteous people to uphold those freedoms which we have taken for granted far too long. I have read and studied a few books and videos that I think every American needs to know in order to stop the loss of freedom, regain freedoms we have lost, and to correct our downward spiral into crisis.

I read an article titled, "The Big Crisis is Coming" and felt the truth of it fill me with a need to prepare myself, our family, and others. I hope you will read it and come up with your own knowledge of what it means to you. Our family has been studying how our country was formed and what principles it is based upon. Sadly, these principles are becoming forgotten or downright disowned by society as a whole. It takes individuals, families, communities, and churches to decide we will stand up for what is right and do all we can to preserve this blessed country of ours.

These videos are easy to understand and give an overview of Principles of Freedom found in The 5,000 Year Leap with this simple study guide.

Political Spectrum Explained



More Food for Thought:
Making of America free Webinars

No Surgery - Yea!

We finally got the results on Chris' MRI of his foot...the ligaments are all attached! Yea! There was a concern that a ligament was not attached and would need surgery. Thank goodness that it is just broken. But, he did get this cool "robot boot".

Temple Trip

We had a fabulous day at the St. Louis Temple yesterday with 24 of our 50 youth attending for Baptisms for the Dead. They did approximately 240 names. I heard several people talk about various temples they have attended and about past Youth Temple Trips. My youth was rather boring since we traveled 30 minutes for our temple trips. I heard of people traveling 8 hours to go to Dallas or Chicago once a year. Our ward had the added blessing this year of going twice to St. Louis.

As a leader, those trips to Dallas or Chicago would take a lot of commitment to take two days away from your family, spend a night in a motel keeping track of all your youth, and the 16 hours of driving round trip. Kudos to these dedicated youth leaders who sacrificed so much to fulfill their callings. A one day trip to St. Louis and back seems such a small comparison, not that I'm complaining, just comparing the differences that members face around the globe.

We had planned for all of us to attend, but because of Chris' broken foot, Mike stayed home and took care of our boy. I was sad about that because I wanted all of us to be in the temple together. But, I came home to a sparkling clean house and the laundry all done. I have the best husband! Even though our men couldn't attend the temple with Nayna and I, we can be comforted with the knowledge that our family is eternal, no matter where we go or what happens to us in this life.

I remembered a talk that touched me deeply called "Steadfast and Immovable" by Silvia Alred at the last Relief Society General Broadcast where she related this story:

Soon after my husband was called to preside over the Paraguay Asunción Mission in 1992, we attended a branch conference in an isolated community in the Paraguayan Chaco. We traveled four hours on a paved road and then seven more hours on a primitive road. The perils and discomfort of the long trip were soon forgotten when we greeted the happy and welcoming members of Mistolar.

Julio Yegros was the young branch president, and he and his wife, Margarita, were one of the few families who had been sealed in the temple. I asked them to share their experience of their trip to the temple.

At the time, the closest temple was the Buenos Aires Temple in Argentina. The trip from Mistolar required 27 hours one way to reach the temple, and they had gone with their two small children. It was in the middle of a very cold winter, but with much sacrifice they made it to the temple and were sealed together as an eternal family. On the way back, the two babies got very sick and died. They buried them along the way and returned home empty-handed. They were sad and lonely but amazingly felt comforted and peaceful. They said of the experience: “Our children were sealed to us in the house of the Lord. We know we will have them back with us for all eternity. This knowledge has given us peace and comfort. We have to remain worthy and faithful to the covenants we made in the temple, and then we will be reunited with them.”

Giving Thanks

Every year I usually list all the things I am thankful for in an effort to recognize my blessings, more, recognize Heavenly Father's hand in my life, and have a more positive attitude. While I love doing that each year, this year felt like something else was needed...a change...in my thinking, attitude, and behavior.

I prepared two Young Women lessons this month, one on Attitude and one on Giving Thanks. Both lessons were profoundly personal for me as I recognized areas I need to improve...still! After years of working on myself, especially my attitude, I can still see so much room for improvement that it sometimes gets very discouraging. So discouraging that I feel overwhelmed and dissatisfied with myself as a person.

The Challenge
I decided to challenge myself with a new Thanksgiving tradition...to be thankful for people and not just a list of things (which often included people). The list of things is a great starting point, but I felt that my focus was on little things sometimes, which are important to recognize as well, but I think for me, I needed to focus on the people I am thankful for and the relationships in my life.

So, I embarked on a plan to give thanks for various people in my life. This has worked so-so...it has been more challenging than I thought. It is easy to be thankful for things, they are easy to list, but how do I show gratitude for people? I realized I needed to be more vocally thankful for individuals in my life.

So, thanks peeps! I am so thankful for my core family (pictured above), my extended family, all of our friends, our ward family, and our homeschooling friends. We have so many friends from former wards that we love and miss!

This year as we embarked on the Missouri Adventure, it has been very apparent to me that what I miss the most from Arizona is the people we love that we left behind. I do not miss the desert, but we very much miss our family and friends.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Acquiring Food - Part 4

Now that I have chosen a menu, calculated the ingredients and taken an inventory of what I already have it is time to calculate what I need to acquire. This seems VERY overwhelming, especially if you are like me and start running totals in your head...48 lbs. of chicken at $1.70 per lb. (if I get it on sale) equals $81.60...yikes! That's just one ingredient on this big list. (I will be talking about canning meats in a later post...you don't need to buy another freezer!)

Step #4 - Acquiring Food

Now we need to determine how much we need by subtracting the total we need from what we have. I fill in my third column in my list that I created when I took an inventory which is "What We Need". Because I have a list of what I need, I can now watch for sales and buy what I need when it is priced decently. I often take my food storage spiral notebook with me when I shop so that I can remember how many I need of the items I might want to buy.

Take a deep breath! You can do this over time. I decided to take $10 a week...that's just $40 a month...and in the last month I was able to buy...

• 36 small cans of tomato sauce = $7.50 (25 cents each)
• 12 cans of diced tomatoes = $7.08 (59 cents each)
• 8 cans of cream of mushroom soup = $5.52 (69 cents each)
• 8 cans of cream of chicken soup = $5.52 (69 cents each)
• 8 cans of cream of celery soup = $5.52 (69 cents each)
• 12 16oz boxes of rigatoni noodles = $10.68 (89 cents each)

Total = $41.82

Money? What is that?
Finding the money to acquire our food storage is overwhelming to me. Since Mike was laid-off almost 2 years ago, money has been...shall we say...more than just "tight". We make a little bit more than half what we made 2 years ago. That is a big difference! Some things we have had to do to make ends meet, pay down our debt, and buy food storage.

• Downsize our home - we actually live in a larger home in Missouri than our Queen Creek home for less money...because it is a Duplex. A bit of a sacrifice for us, but it saves us over $150 a month. I would love to live in a regular home again, but this has made life quite a bit easier.
• Got rid of paid TV (it's free on the Internet anyway - hulu.com, channelsurfing.net.)
• Got rid of a home phone (we paid $40 for one year of MagicJack)
• Reduce eating out - Mike and I pretty much eat out once every two months for a date and we try to use "buy one, get one" coupons.
• Reduce our heating/cooling costs - we have turned down/up our thermostats by one or two degrees. It took a couple weeks to adjust, but we are now comfortable at the changed temperature. We also keep our thermostat very low in the winter over night. We have plenty of blankets.
• Reduce classes, clubs, and sports - Our kids are very talented, but we decided that it is more important to feed them and be debt free than to participate in costly events. They have ONE thing each that they participate in and those are often chosen very carefully.
• Make homemade items as much as possible - we are having another homemade Christmas this year. Last year was a big success!
• Use cheap cleaning products - except for the dishwasher and clothes washer, we use bleach or vinegar for all of our cleaning. I do have some items I got for practically free with couponing. Also, I have learned we can use less than half of what the product recommends and still have clean dishes and clothes.
• Go without! - There are many things we had grown accustomed to that we have given up. I am careful how much I drive, we cut our own hair as much as possible, I stopped coloring my hair, etc.

Pantry Inventory - Food Storage - Part 3

Whew! All the brain power I used to tally my recipe ingredients wore me out! Don't worry if that part takes a week. It is a bit of work. Take the time you need to not feel overwhelmed and to make sure it is is right.

Step #3 - Pantry Inventory
I actually like this part even though it takes a bit of time. I stand in my pantry and just start recording everything that I have into my spiral food storage notebook. Many of the items in my pantry are not on my Week 1 ingredient list. That's OK! I still record it in my notebook.






I have three columns:

1. Item Name
2. How much we have
3. How much we need (don't do this part yet, just leave a column for it)

If you have a small house like we do, you have food storage located in several areas of the house...under beds, stacked in closets, in our garage storage room (in the Midwest you can do that, but in Arizona do not store anything in your garage!). I tally what we have on hand right now. This can take awhile if you have a lot or a depressingly small amount of time if you are just getting started. Don't worry! You are getting prepared and that is what counts.

Since we do have items scattered around the house, we made "maps" of what we have and where it is located. For example, we have boxes stacked in our closet and under our bed. The boxes are labeled from the top and the end so that we can see what is in each box. We have a diagram of what is under our bed so that I know which side and whether I should pull from the foot of the bed or the head of the bed if I need green beans for example. Mike is a great organizer and has helped me with this part a lot. We keep all the diagrams, "maps" and list of things together in a food storage binder that also has my spiral notebook in it. This way as we rotate it is easy to find what we need.

Broken Bones

Every now and then in the life of a family, a broken bone comes along...or maybe several broken bones come along. Chris is laid-up from breaking 4-5 bones in his foot, with one bone also being "buckled". We have not gotten into a specialist yet, so we do not have any idea how bad it really is or how long it will take yet. Hopefully we will get into someone early next week.

The good news is that nothing was sticking out of the skin or even looked broken. I truly thought it was sprained and was in complete shock when they showed me the x-rays with all those little fractures near the joints. All he did was slip on the basketball court. His own weight and the way that he fell snapped the foot too far towards his shin and broke the bones all the way across his foot. Ouch!

A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time is a fascinating book. I am truly surprised at how detailed a "brief history" can be. I was very overwhelmed by the subject in the first few chapters, then I realized, this was going to take more study and more time than what I had originally prepared myself for. Thus, it took me several more weeks than anticipated to finish.

Do I understand everything in this book? Absolutely not! I have a basic overview, or outline as Hawkings would put it, of the string theory of the universe. I have a limited understanding of relativity and the workings of gravity, but I am happy that at least I know more than what I did before. It can be so easy to get discouraged by an overwhelming subject of study, but I have learned that everything takes time to digest, especially subjects that are not my easiest subjects, like science and math.

I took several pages of notes to help me remember what I studied on this book. Towards the end I was genuinely intrigued by the idea that the universe can have one mathematical theory to explain how everything works. Hawkings does a good job of touching on the existence of God while still maintaining his scientific findings, something rarely seen in a published scientific work.

Another thought I had while reading this book was that I feel outraged and cheated that so much of what is in our current textbooks is so outdated. Hawkings does his fair share of discussing how you need to be an expert to understand it all. It was another glaring example of the dumbing down of society....the general public is too dumb to understand. Will I ever fully understand string theory? Probably not, but exposure will lead to higher understanding over time.

Mockingjay

When I first began The Hunger Games I was pretty shocked with the violence and that this book was geared towards teens. A couple of my children had read the book so I decided to finish the book and make sure I knew what the whole thing was about. In the end, I allowed my children to read the subsequent books Catching Fire and Mockingjay.
I have two reasons for allowing my children to read these books and for finding them fascinating myself.

1. The society depicted in this series has completely lost their freedoms. It is a very Communist type of society with no ability to change their circumstances. I felt this was similar to 1984 without some of the adult themes. After reading all three, I still agree with this reason and feel it is important to read this with my children and discuss how they could have gotten that way, and as the story progresses, why the characters make the choices that they do.
2. This story rightly depicts a revolution with all of its gore, tragedy, heart-ache, and deception. In times of crisis, many people are stirred up to a revolution rather than seeing what will happen and pulling together as a people to reinvent themselves without all the bloodshed. I wanted my children to see the patterns and how each character's choices played into the revolution. The author seems to make it all rush along as inevitable rather than a set of choices.

In the end, I do recommend these books for older teens. There is some talk of kissing and teen relationships, but nothing terribly graphic.

Ingredient Calculations - Food Storage - Part 2

ProvidentLiving.org

Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we can care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

Step #2 - Ingredient Calculations
After I have chosen a menu for the week, I make a list of all the ingredients and how much I need of each item for 1 week of meals. This takes a bit of brain power. I add up the water needed to cook items like oatmeal and boil noodles into consideration as well. I hope to not need to ration our water, but we may need to do that, so I make sure I know how much water is needed for cooking.

An item might look something like this:

Shepherd's Pie
1 jar canned ground meat
1 can green beans
1 pkg. brown gravy mix
1 cup of water (gravy mix)
6 servings of mashed potatoes

1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. Butter (if we have it)
3/4 C. of milk (1/4 c. dry milk + 3/4 c. of water
2 cups of potato flakes

1 tsp. Seasoning Salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

This is what is written on the recipe card. I re-write the items into my spiral food storage notebook. I do this for each meal.

Next, I multiply each item by 12, which gives me the amount I need for 12 weeks (3 months) of each item. I then combine items onto another list so that I only have one entry for each item. (see pictures)

Ingredient Conversions
If you need help figuring out how many tsp. of salt are in a container or how much wheat you will need to make your bread recipe, Everything Under the Sun has a table of conversions. I highly recommend you read all of Everything Under the Sun by Wendy DeWitt. She explains it so well.

Example:
WHEAT........................... # 10 can=5.8 # =12 c=18 c flour when ground
1 c wheat = 1 ½ c flour, 1#=2 ¼ c wheat=3.37 c flour

If my whole wheat bread recipe requires 8 cups of wheat flour and a #10 can of wheat kernels gives 18 cups of flour, then one #10 can gives me 2 1/4 of my bread recipe (18 cups of flour per can / 8 cups for my recipe = 2.25 recipes). Since I plan on making one recipe of bread each day (which gives me two 5x9 loaves), that means for a 90-day supply I need 40 #10 cans of wheat kernels to fulfill that ingredient requirement (90 days / 2.25 recipes per can = 40 cans of wheat kernels).

17th Anniversary

We celebrated our 17th anniversary by going sightseeing to Branson, which is a very touristy place in Missouri. We were not able see any shows, but we had a great time just looking around. I had hoped the leaves would still be on the trees, but that was a little too much to ask for. It was a bit chilly, but we had a fabulous day!

At Table Rock Lake, someone caught us making out. Oh, well!

Nearing Sunset.

Busy Branson traffic. But, we got to look at all the pretty trees.

One of the interesting museums around.

Crazy outdoor exhibits.

A Titanic museum in the Midwest...hmm!