Easter is coming! Did you know?
I am accompanying our choir at church this year. We're doing a newer composition by Rob Gardner. If you click on the link, you can listen to a snippet of the piece we're doing - "Gloria". I had misgivings at first, but it will be pretty awesome. We have a violinist coming as well. I haven't really had time to fully practice my part - and it challenges me at times, but the violinist will help cover up my trouble areas. ;-)
For school this week we've been studying Ancient Israel. As part of that, we've gone over some of the holidays that the Jews celebrate. It's reminded me of my favorite book, "All-of-a-Kind Family". Brynne made Harvest Muffins to celebrate Sukkot, and we made potato Latkes as a Hanukkah treat. Next week we will talk about Passover, of course. The timing for that has worked out excellently! Our activity day girls made a 12-day countdown to Easter activity - the thing with the scriptures and small items in the easter eggs. I'm always on the lookout for ways that I can include the Gospel without losing the attention of the less-active girl. She doesn't like to sing with us (I found out), but she certainly liked this activity. She knew all the answers! If anyone has suggestions for activities..I'd love them.
On Wednesday Josh and I took the three younger kids with us to the high school track meet. We watched our friend Skyler, who competed in the discus and shot-put. Being on the track brought back many memories of competing against Fort Bragg just a few short years ago.
I've been experimenting with sourdough the past week. Yesterday I made THIS recipe, as well as my usual weekly 5-loaf bread baking. It turned out so tasty. There are a lot of steps, but that's just because it's broken down so completely so that you CAN'T screw it up. I just happened to have leftover, unseasoned black beans from another meal so I was happy to stumble across the recipe while doing my sourdough research. You can adjust the heat level based on the kind of peppers you used. I used basic canned chile peppers instead of chipotle, because that's what I had on hand.
I know a bunch of my family is on Goodreads, but if you read this and you are not yet using that website, I wish you would. Especially if you read lots of books! I would love more suggestions on books that are worth my time. I've been trying to be more choosy in my reading. I'm also getting tougher in my rating system on Goodreads. So if I rate a book a three it means I like it, and while I might not read it again, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend someone else try reading it. Four stars means I REALLY liked it and definitely recommend it. Five stars means I consider it a must read, and one that I will go back to repeatedly throughout my life. Most of my book ratings are three stars because I try to only read books that I think have potential to be at least decently good.
These last six months have been one huge, long thought-train about choosing only the best things to spend my time and effort on, and being more purposeful in life. I need to set goals and then make sure that my activities reflect my commitment to those goals. If I want my children to know the Gospel, I need to be very specific in how I'm going to make sure they do. Everything gets evaluated, and re-evaluated to see if it is in line with my goals. Along with that, it's time for me to go through our home and evaluate all the STUFF that we somehow collect and make sure that it also helps us. Does the care and keeping of all this stuff take time away from my ability to do those activities that help me reach my goals?
One of the things Josh and I started doing last year was calendering in certain activities that we wanted to be sure to do each year. Some of them are basic yard/house care things like cleaning the gutters, putting up and taking down Christmas lights, rotating 72-hour kit food, etc. Others are more fun and family-oriented such as whale-watching, kite-flying, camping, attend a concert at the Music Festival, etc. I have 1-2 things scheduled on the first of each month. We don't always get to it that month. Sometimes we've had to reschedule and other times we've had to skip it completely. But it's definitely helped us focus on in things we wanted to be sure got done. I have started using my calender for EVERYTHING that I want to be sure to remember. Some of the other items on our calendar include: family gospel study, remember to be worthy to exercise the priesthood (that's Josh's, obviously), menu plans for the month, and the birthdays of the sisters I visit teach. It's not perfect, but it helps.
The other thing I try to remember to do is a daily docket. You can use a form like this one: http://simplemom.net/tools/downloads/ (scroll down to the "pocket docket"). Or you can do what I do and just use a Mead Notebook and do a page a day. I have found that if I don't do my daily docket, I don't get nearly as much stuff done. I write everything down - packing lists when we're getting ready to head out of town. Grocery lists, menu plans, thoughts on a kid who needs help, everything. It's not a journal. It's not a diary. It's just...my life!
Anyway, it's a work in progress. But I think it's important. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts I would appreciate hearing them. I'm trying to be more disciplined in my life. Some days are better than others.
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