Opening Song: I Like to See the Temple

Prayer

Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 64:9-11

Lesson: Hymns

First we shared a few of our favorite hymns.

• Praise to the Man
• Spirit of God
• As Sisters in Zion

Next we discussed the purpose of hymns.

• They are a prayer in song
• They show our devotion to our Heavenly Father
• They are a form of worship
• Hymns invite the spirit
• One of my kiddos said the hymns during the meeting helps them stay awake during the meetings

The preface to the hymn book states, “Three months after the Church was organized, the Lord, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, instructed Joseph’s wife, Emma, to make a selection of sacred hymns for the Church: “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads” (D&C 25:12).” It’s easy to understand why we have been counseled to memorize a few hymns so we can sing one when we are facing temptation or need to have His spirit with us.

Activity: Apples to Apples – my favorite game

Closing Song: Once there Was a Snowman

Prayer

Treat: Muddy Buddies

What hymns have inspired you or brought you comfort?

• We attempted to attend the MCC Planetarium Night, but we arrived to late to get tickets. No matter, we watched a show about Pluto (poor demoted planet), looked at Saturn through a telescope and shot film canister rockets.
• We had our family book club for Deadweather and Sunrise.
• We tried frying an egg on the sidewalk, but it was too cold. (There’s something you don’t hear about an Arizona summer day very often!) We’ll have to try again when it hits 115.
• We made Father’s Day cards.
• Our ice cream social was a delicious success! There’s even some ice cream left over to make milkshakes; a list item for another day.
• Not a summer bucket list item, but we had another meeting planning the ANWA Writer’s Conference. It’s going to be so cool!

Were your Friday Favorites also you Summer Bucket List items? Share your favorites so I can use them for my family too!

After a narrow escape from Deadweather Island, Egg and his slightly deranged partner Guts head for the remote New Lands. They’re in search of the lost Okalu tribe, who hold the key to the mysterious treasure map that Egg can’t decipher. But the ruthless Roger Pembroke is hard on Egg’s trail, and the New Lands are full of new enemies—against which our heroes’ only weapons are their brains, their courage…and the two dozen swear words Guts just memorized in the local tongue.

They’re going to need help. But who can they trust? Is Kira, the beautiful and heavily armed Okalu refugee, their ally…or their enemy? Is Pembroke’s daughter Millicent on Egg’s side…or her father’s? Why on earth is the notorious pirate Burn Healy being so nice to them? And the biggest question of all: what shocking secret is Egg about to discover in the shadow of an ancient Okalu temple? {Amazon}

With the last book, one of my kiddos got to it before me; this time two of them did. I had to work twice as hard to make sure they weren’t book spoilers! Now there are three of us anxious for the release of the third and final book in the series next year.

As Egg continues to face odd situations and challenges, he gets more confident and mature, as does Guts. Despite the strain of new friends and their unique talents, their friendship grows stronger. Millicent is as overbearing as ever, she also struggles with the realization that her father, Roger Pembroke, isn’t the hero she thinks he is.

New Lands was released about a month ago and is available in stores near you. I would like to thank Media Masters Publicity for sending me the ARC of this exciting book. Now, how do I get my hands on the next one?

• The kids and I had some Minecraft fun. We took virtual and made it reality by building towers to destroy with Nerf guns. It reminded me of our Angry Birds party. We even had a cupcake challenge to create something from the game. I totally winged it, but somehow my creation still connected to the game.
• Started planning our ice cream social. I’ve always wanted to hostess something in addition to kids parties and now I can!
• Wing night at Native New Yorker. I tried 6 or more flavors of their hot wings. Last week, I’d never even thought about other flavors. My favorite is a toss up between the garlic Parmesan and the honey hot.
• My ANWA critique group met again. This time we had a special guest; one of my kiddos joined us and even shared a poem and gave feedback on one of the other stories.
• We made some serious progress on our Summer Bucket List! We visited a library, Half Price Books, and a yogurt shop. The kids took an art class and we made ice chalk (perfect for the heat). A week into our summer, we’ve completed six things!
• Is it vain that one of my favorites is having 21 likes for my Summer Bucket List challenge article?
• Had my new favorite chicken recipe (again) – Sweet and Sour Chicken.
• I cooked up a great family book club plan (minus the cooking) for Deadweather and Sunrise. Now we just need to find time to actually hold it. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow!

See, I told you I have a lot of favorites this week! Don’t let me hog them all, tell me what your favorites are this week.

1 – Article written. I actually wrote two, but my latest, Summer Bucket List Challenge, wasn’t live on Today’s Mama until a couple of days ago.

1.2 – Pounds gained in May. That’s totally the wrong direction. Of coarse, the day after my official reading, I was back to where I was at the beginning of April. Overall, I’m still doing good this year. But May’s hiccup was a good reminder to rein in the snacks and late night eating.

3 – Job interviews. I even got a job from one of them!

8 – Blog posts written. So much better than last month, but so far to go to where I want to be!

10 – Books behind schedule on my GoodReads goal. I did finish reading The Chronicles of Egg: New Lands. I’m hoping to post a review next week.

13 – Social events. The end of the school year, among other things, added a bunch of activities to my calendar. We had concerts, awards ceremonies and even a art show. On top of the kids activities, I went to a celebration for WordPress 10th anniversary.

16 – Projects completed. Most of them took less than an hour, but I’m feeling very productive.

29 – Countries visited my blog. Well not the whole country, but at least one person from each of the 29 countries stopped by my blog.

44 – States represented in my blog visitors.

719 – Words added to my book. I finished 70% of May’s month’s goal. If I don’t make my goal this month, I’m going to have to ground myself from Facebook or something!

911 – Page views.

The top post from May were:

1. Book Theme Party Decorations
2. Family Home Evening: Joseph Smith’s First Vision Revisited
3. Cub Scout Annual Planning Meeting
4. Sweet Shop and Nerf Top Shot Invitations
5. Family Home Evening: Joseph Smith’s First Vision

• We had a blast a Flipside. Next time will be even better if we remember to wear closed toe shoes.

(Sandals are not allowed on the Crash Pods, in case you were wondering.)

• After we emptied our play cards at Flipside, we headed to the mall and found some killer deals at Payless Shoes.
• We finished off the evening by redeeming a ColdStone gift card from 2011. We’re quick like that!
• The WordPress 10 year anniversary celebration! I’m kind of nerdy like that – and I want to learn more to make my blog better for you.
• A fitness themed Pack Meeting. I was in charge of a relay race with spoons and tennis balls. I also got to show off my mad juggling skills.
• I found some great continuing education classes through the local library. The $120 Quick Books class I was looking at through the local college was free! And there were tons to choose from.
• One of my kiddos initiated a cleaning session!
• This week I was blessed to participate in a soldier’s homecoming. They always make me cry. I’m so grateful for their sacrifice and that of their families. Some hadn’t seen each other for almost a year. I’m so glad they are home safely.
• We filled our summer bucket list and even completed our first activity.

What are the highlights from your week?

This series is the dystopian series that seemed to start the current trend. The first book was released in 1993, while Gathering Blue was released in 2000.

Six years after The Giver, Lois Lowry ushered readers back into that mysterious but plausible futuristic world to tell the story of Kira, orphaned, physically flawed, and left with uncertain prospects. Like The Giver, Gathering Blue challenges readers to imagine what our world could become and how people could evolve. {Amazon}

For the first 50 pages, I kept waiting to for the characters from The Giver to show up. (They never did.) Instead we get to know Kira and her interesting community. It’s interesting how the town in The Giver and the one in Gathering Blue chose such different solutions to a major world catastrophe. The Giver’s community was very organized and sterile, where in Gathering Blue they were much more primitive and raw.

Kira doesn’t fit in because of her handicap and her kind heart. It’s a great lesson on the powerful influence one person can have on those around them.

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until then, I can’t wait to share my book review for the next book in the series, The Messenger.

Opening Song: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Enos 1:27

Lesson: Scriptures

Our instructor (my daughter) held up her scriptures and introduced them, “These are the scriptures. Use them!” She went on to say that they help us to ponder and apply the gospel to us personally. We were asked to open our own scriptures to a random page that was an actual scripture (as opposed to the topical guide or dictionary) and turn to the nearest page that was divisible by four. We were to read the forth full verse on the second column and think about why that verse is important and how it applies to us personally. We took turns sharing our scripture with the rest of the  family. Here’s some of what we came up with.

• 1 Corinthians 2:5 – Have faith in God, not in the wisdom of man
• 7th Article of Faith – Summary of what we believe
• Isaiah 2:21 – Fear God
• Hebrews 13:4 – Marriage is good
• Mormon 7:9 – The gospel is a series of stepping stones

Activity: We made cards for upcoming birthdays.

Closing Song: Once There Was a Snowman

Closing Prayer

Treat: Chocolate Cookies

I’m back once again with Friday Favorites! It’s been a fun, but busy week (or 8).

• Lunch at one of my favorite restaurants with a couple of friends!
• We’ve had fun with the end of school year events. Another mom said those things make May as busy as December! We’ve had a band concert, a choir concert, awards dinners and ceremonies, an art show and some other stuff. That didn’t happen all this week, but all this month. It’s good to see my kiddos involved, it just makes for a crazy month.
• We got a new board game based off the Hunger Games. It was pretty fun once we figured out the rules.
• I finally did some writing! I have a Spring into Action article over at Today’s Mama.
• I also added over 250 words to my book.
• I even did a little editing.
• Book club is always fun!
• We started brain storming for this year’s summer bucket list. The Happy Family Movement is having a Summer Bucket List Challenge to inspire to families to build great memories together this summer. After last year’s fiasco, I’m looking forward to some encouragement for a better summer.

What did you do this week that made your Friday Favorites list?

Her next post goes into detail on the difference between sex and rape. It boils down to consent. Shannon says “Consent isn’t the absence of a “no;” consent is an unequivocal and enthusiastic YES.” Rape is about power and control, consent is optional. Sex is about an intimate connection. There is a huge difference between the two!

In her third post she goes into more depth about consent. She had some comments debating an enthusiastic yes was needed for consensual sex. If everyone followed her definition, maybe we wouldn’t have the term date rape. I love her point about when a husband wants sex but his wife isn’t in the mood. If he disregards her desire, her voice, because he wants her body – that’s unhealthy. That’s abuse. What does it say about a person who is OK having sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex with them?

This is an important discussion we should be having with our children, both our sons and daughters. Education is the key to changing behavior and our culture.