"Monday Nights in Jerusalem"

Hello everyone! Yes, I am still alive. And my latest book "Monday Nights in Jerusalem" will be available soon.

This book is based on the Old Testament, which can seem overwhelming to study from. But this book makes it easy. There are 30 stories and lessons that are ready to go. NO preparation or prior understanding of the scriptures needed. Quick, easy, and effective!

Each lesson includes a background story with questions that help with comprehension and also with application of the important lessons taught in the Old Testament. There are easy to understand definitions for difficult or unknown words, and thoughts and quotes to help enhance your study. The verses that pertain to each story are also included for scripture study.

This book is a great tool for family home evening, family scripture study, and for primary and sunday school teachers. Don't get overwhelmed; preparing fun, spiritual experiences with stories and principles from the Old Testament is a snap with "Monday Nights in Jerusalem".

Book Signing

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know I'll be signing books at Provident Bookstore in Pleasant Grove, UT on Saturday night from 6-8 pm during Ladies Night. If you get a chance, please stop by and say hi! They will be offering prizes and discounts all night long. I look forward to seeing you all!

Here's a link to their blog for their address and more information.

Long Over Due Post - "Our Family is Great" FHE lesson

Isn't it ironic that when you work really hard trying to come up with great posts that hardly anyone visits your blog? And then when you go a month and a half without writing ANY posts, you check your counter and see that you've gotten more visits than ever? I find that both humorous and depressing!

Anyway, I thought I'd write a post today to keep my blog alive. I just need to think of one....
Hmmm...good Family Home Evening idea.....what should I write about????

Ok, here's one!

Gather your kids around you tonight, open up your old picture albums that you haven't looked at in years (or drag out the shoebox full of good intentions) and talk about what a wonderful, loving family you are (even if you don't feel like you are). Take time to look at each picture and reminisce about the things you've done together.

And be sure to take the time to point out all the GOOD things you're kids have done over the years and why you are so grateful Heavenly Father sent them to you. Tell them specific things that you love about each of them; make them feel loved and wanted. Who could ask for a better family night than that? Easy, effective, and enlightening!

P.S. If you try ANY of these ideas and like them, please comment or email me and let me know.
Thanks!

FHE Theme Idea - "Love at Home"

Below is a reader submitted idea. Thanks Debs, I appreciate you sharing your idea with us! And please fellow readers, if you have any ideas (while my well is still dry) please send them my way, I'd like to keep the blog going since I know that soon I will be up and running and feeling more like myself (I have started writing my next book, so that is a big accomplishment!)

"I would like to share an idea that i have had recently in my attempt to make my single parent family that bit stronger in these trying times.

This year i have given us a theme, Love at Home. Each fhe we shall be working though various parts of family life, personal roles, financial freedom, preparedness, organisation and temple and eternal perspectives to name a few, and doing all we can to strengthen and encourage each other.

So far my two children that are still at home are loving it and we get to have some fun scripture chases, share some simple and radical ideas, we identify with each other a little more and have a lot of giggles along the way. learing new hymns and giving thanks to our wonderful Heavenly Father is humbling and eye opening!!"

Yes, I'm a slacker!

I apologize for not posting any great, new, fantastic FHE ideas lately. My well of creativity is dried up at the moment (must be due to stress in my personal life...my husband lost his job last month). But my New Year's goal is to somehow get it back. Not just for the blog, but because I need to write my next book A.S.A.P. if I want it to get published. So until my fountain begins running again, I would LOVE some reader ideas. So if you have ANY ideas you'd like to share, please email them to me and I will get them posted.
Thanks everyone!

Making Family Scripture Study More Enjoyable

Scripture study is an important activity that we have been asked to do regularly in our homes. I know many of us struggle with this, but it doesn't need to be difficult. Here are some tips to making it a more enjoyable experience for everyone:

*First of all, set a comfortable, peaceful tone. Make sure the spirit is present. This is more important than what you read or how long you read.

*Connect scripture study time to a daily routine like after dinner or before bedtime (or if you are so inclined, first thing in the morning...yikes! I wish I could pull that one off).

*Assign a child to be the "reminder" person each week.

*Make sure everyone has their own set of scriptures.

*Let younger children follow along with their picture scriptures if they prefer.

*Have a scripture jar with titles of favorite stories in it. Have one family member choose a title each time you read.

*Snuggle together on the bed while reading.

*Make your own picture scriptures by having the children draw pictures of the stories after reading them. Put them in plastic sleeves and place in a notebook.

*Tape record yourself or your family reading from the scriptures for your children to listen to later.

*And most of all, KEEP TRYING! DON'T GIVE UP! If you haven't done it for a while, start now. And if you miss a few nights or weeks, or months, or even years, just start again. You'll notice the difference and it will be worth it, I promise!

Movie Time

Sorry for not posting in a while, we've had a tough few weeks here. But if you're stopping by to get a quick, easy, fun, and purposeful FHE lesson for tonight, you've come to the right place.

I was speaking at an Enrichment night this last week and one of the women in the audience commented that her kids (ages 4 and 2, I think) love to act out scripture stories for FHE. And then I remembered that another friend had mentioned that they do this also and that they video record the movies. How fun is that? What kid doesn't like to watch themselves on TV? And what a great way to remember the story.

So pick a scripture story, tell it to your family, and then have the family act it out! Easy! And for the treat, pop some popcorn and watch the show.

(If anyone tries this idea, I'd love to hear about it.)

Great Christmas Gift Idea (or Shameless Self-Promotion)

Ok, this is my blog so I can write what I want, right? Right. So I'm going to plug my own books. I hope you don't mind.

My books Monday Nights in Zarahemla and Monday Nights in Nauvoo are excellent resources for teaching your family about the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. My newest book Monday Nights in Nauvoo will help you and your children better understand the Doctrine and Covenants. I don't know about you, but that book is a tough one to read with children so I included only the sections that contained gospel principles and topics that would apply to their lives or that taught about important events in Church History. I also included a few Church History stories to fill in the gaps. The book is arranged chronologically and includes passages from Joseph Smith History in the Pearl of Great Price. Each lesson is divided up into sections that contain the verses to be read, questions to ask, and
"treasures of knowledge" that help explain words or phrases that might not be known. You can read just one section each time, or you can read several; whatever best fits the needs of your family.

I wrote these books to help transition my children from the picture scripture books into the actual scriptures because just jumping straight into the scriptures was a little overwhelming and confusing. So many of the chapters contained deep doctrine that my young children were not ready for. Most of the lessons in my books contain the same verses found in the picture scriptures so there is already some familiarity for the children to connect with.

Even though the title of my books suggest that they are for Family Home Evening, I actually wrote them for family scripture study and that is what we use them for. They work great for both FHE lessons and scripture study (personal and family). Each time we get together for scripture study we start where we left off, and sometimes we only read a few sections at a time (once and a while we only read one!).

If you have younger children you can still use these books. I would recommend reading a story from the picture scriptures and then finding that story in one of my books and reading just a few verses at time. This helps children to learn where the stories are coming from, and the language of the scriptures. After reading a verse, ask questions to see if the children comprehended it. If they don't know the answer, read the verse again and have them listen to find the answer.

I know from experience that family scripture study can be a struggle for families and wrote these books to help make it easier and more enjoyable. So if you're looking for something like this for yourself, or if you're looking for a great gift idea look no further!

You can buy them at any LDS bookstore or online at deseretbook.com and amazon.com.

And if you don't believe me on how great they are, you can read some unbiased book reviews here and here. :)

Book of Mormon Reading Chart

"If you don't have time to pray and read your scriptures, you are busier than God ever intended you to be"

I love that quote (don't know who the author is though) and think it's a great reminder for all of us who sometimes put these important things off. I KNOW it's hard, we struggle with doing it consistently in our home too. So I found this great Book of Mormon reading chart (click here) that you can use for family scripture study or for your kids personal scripture study. I recommend printing it out and hanging it where you'll see it everyday to remind you to make reading the scriptures a priority. I plan to have a family home evening lesson about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and of gaining a testimony of it for ourselves (yes, we've had this lesson many times but it's one that needs repeating). Then I'm going to print a chart for each of my kids and hang it right by their beds so they can read a little bit each day and mark off their chart as they go a long.

General Conference and FHE lessons

In the October 2007 General Conference, President Hinckley encouraged us to study the talks in Family Home Evening.

"All of the proceedings of this conference will appear in a subsequent issue of the Ensign and Liahona. We encourage you again to read the talks in your family home evenings and discuss them together as families. They are the products of much prayer and meditation and are well worthy of careful consideration."

Here are some suggestions on how to do this with both younger and older children. Please comment if you have additional suggestions.

* For younger children: Show them the magazine and tell them what it is. Show them the picture on the front of President Monson and teach them his name and that he is a prophet. Explain what a prophet is (someone who speaks the will of God for the church). Look through the photographs taken during conference and talk about them. Show the page with all the General Authorities and explain who they are. Have the children point out President Monson and his counselors, and teach them their names. You can have them look through the magazine and try to find which talks were given by the First Presidency or other apostles by looking at their pictures.

*For older children: Choose a few talks that you feel your family might need at this time. Write down the title of each of these talks on seperate pieces of paper. Then read through the talks and copy and paste from your computer (or write on paper) a paragraph or two from that talk that best summarizes the objective. Place the talk titles on the floor and then pass out the paragraphs to each member of the family to have them read a loud. Try to match up the paragraph with the title. Remind the family that the topics of each talk were prayed about and given for the membership of the church at this time. Discuss why each talk is important to your family and how you can apply the teachings in their lives.

It might also be helpful to have the children find each author of the talk on the picture chart in the magazine. This is a good way for them to learn the names and faces of the General Authorities.

*For teenagers: Have them read through the Conference talks and choose one to give a lesson on. Giving a lesson on a talk is a great way to learn and reinforce the principles taught.

Book Signing Cancelled

In case you saw the post I had up here yesterday, I wanted to let you know I will not be signing books this Saturday. They moved it to the following week and I will be unable to attend. But I'll be sure to let you know when they reschedule me. Thanks!

Help Needed!

I'm doing an Enrichment presentation on Family Home Evening next month and need your help. I'd like you to be honest and open and answer a couple of questions for me. It would really help me in preparing this talk.

#1 - To you who infrequently, or never have Family Night, can you please tell me why? This includes those who are single, married, kids, or no kids. (And if you feel more comfortable, you can answer anonymously in the comment box). What are your obstacles, what are your reasons for not having it?

#2 To you who frequently have family night, I want to know Why do you do it? What keeps you going week after week? And where do you get your ideas?

#3 I'd like to know if you were going to an enrichment night presentation on family home evening, what would you like the speaker to talk about? What questions might you hope get answered and what would you want to take away from that talk?

I have a presentation already prepared that I've given before, but I want to add some things and make some changes to it so your help would be much appreciated! And if you'd like to direct some of your friends and family here to help answer my questions it would help me out. Thanks so much!

Contest Winner!

The winner of my blog contest is Ruby.

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy the book! Thanks everyone for entering, and please continue to comment, it makes it so much more fun.

"Practical" FHE Lessons

I like to use FHE for teaching my kids "practical" stuff as well as spiritual lessons. It is the perfect time to discuss manners, safety, and money topics. We like to use role play activities because the kids have fun and they remember it better.

Does anyone have any other "practical" lesson ideas and fun ways to teach them?

Ides for FHE with Toddlers

Okay you guys, since I know that many of you who read this blog, have little children, I'd like you to share what you do for Family Home Evening. I think that there's a misconception that everyone else is having these long, elaborate, consistently great family night's, but I don't think that's the norm. So SHARE! Even if you think what you do is lame, or boring, or not spiritual enough, it doesn't matter, I want you to share some of your ideas.

And I'll go first. Last week we decided to try one of my reader submitted responses and watch the scripture stories at lds.org. I figured I'd be lucky if little Ben sat through one of them, but lo and behold he sat through 2! And my older kids wanted to watch more (we watched about 5 of them). We also sang nursery songs that Ben knows so he was able to participate. It was fun and simple and easy. Afterwards we rode our bikes over to the gas station and got a treat.

Ok, so now it's your turn. Click on the comments box and SHARE! (And seriously, if you don't share, then I'm going to boycott you all and stop posting. Ok, maybe that's a little extreme, but come on, I know you can do it!) Oh, and by the way, my contest ends this week. I'll post the winner next week.

FHE Lesson/Game Idea - Partake of the Fruit

For the lesson read the story of the "Tree of Life" in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 8:9-34), or if you have younger children, read the story out of the picture scriptures.

After telling the story, have the family help draw Lehi's dream on a large poster board or you can have each family member draw their own on regular sized paper. If you have older children, have them write the meaning of each item also (ie. The rod of iron = the word of God).

On a separate piece of paper, have each family member draw and cut out a piece of fruit.

Now it's time to play "Pin the fruit on the tree":

Hang the poster(s) on the wall and place a piece of tape on the back of each fruit piece. Take turns blindfolding and spinning around each member of the family and have them try to place their fruit on the tree. Whoever gets the closest to the tree wins! Allow the children to play as many times as you'd like. Have fun!

(Note: This game idea can be found in Monday Nights in Zarahemla pg. 136)

Another Great Book Review

Here's a link to another book review for Monday Nights in Nauvoo. Click here to read it. Yeah!!

Scripture Study Tip

Here is a reader submitted idea. Thanks!

If you are short on time and not sure how to teach a certain scripture section for your young ones, just turn to lds.org and let them teach it for you :) They have taken all the scriptures done in kids style and put them on their website with pictures and audio. It's really neat and probably more interesting for the kids then just reading out of the regular books. Click here for the website.

Fun FHE Game

The game we played tonight was lots of fun and everyone loved it including my sixteen year old son and his friend (and if you know my family you know what a big deal that is). So here goes:

"Verse Search"

Choose any verse from the scriptures and write each word on a separate piece of paper and mix them up. Let each member of the family take a turn leaving the room while one of the papers is hidden. The family member returns to the room and tries to find the paper by getting hot and cold clues. Do this with each paper until they are all found. At the end, have everyone work together to put the words together in the right order.

Simple and lots of fun!

(This game can be found in Monday Nights in Nauvoo pg.116)

Family Night Success Story

Tonight was one of the those family nights that was planned at the last minute but ended up being one of the best. I had spent the day up at the hospital getting a check up on my oldest son so I was pretty tired when I got home at 6 pm, fixed dinner, and cleaned up. No one had planned their part (including me) and I was very tempted to just let it go. But thankfully we decided to go ahead.

A few years ago I joined a family home evening group where we made lessons and traded with each other. Basically each person makes one lesson and copies it for the number of people in the group. We did this several times and after about a year or so I had around 60-70 lessons. So right now they are all in a box and are a great resource, especially for last minute lessons.

So anyway, my daughter grabbed a lesson on General Conference - good timing, and then we played a fun game ("Verse Search" and I'll post it after this). And it was great! Why? I don't know. We do this every week and it's not always such a positive experience, but for some reason it was tonight. This time everyone participated (which is rare) and everyone was in a good mood (another rarity). But most of all, the spirit was there, everyone felt it, and we all left with smiles on our faces!

After it was over I said a silent prayer of thanks that we decided to have family night and I reminded myself that this is why I do it week after week. It brings a spirit of love and joy into our home and for that I am so grateful.

So next time you're thinking you're just too tired and want to let it slide, just "do it"! Even if it's short and you think the lesson and game are lame, just do it. It's not so much what you do as much as it is that you spend good, quality time together as a family learning about the gospel and having fun! It's a small amount of effort that has long lasting rewards.