Campfire Recipes

Tin-foil dinners (wrap ground beef, potatoes, carrots and onions sprinkled with salt and pepper)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_H249Lojzo
(Orange Brownie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b48ZHOFCyO8
(S'moreo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igUTBlpLnAE
(S'mores Dip)

I think I've been cruel to my Best Friend!! :O ...Have you?

Think for a moment of a friend you've had since childhood. And you're either still friends or you would be if you had the chance. You could play with this person, laugh with this person, and maybe even cry with this person.
They have always been there for you when you're feeling down, and wanted you to be amazing!

Now what if I told you that there is someone like this in your life, and there is a chance that you have been badmouthing them to your other friends!
Are you as horrified as I am??!! Good. Let me tell you their names:
Mom and Dad.
Do you like the smell of poo? Well they changed your diapers.
Do you like getting up early? Well they need to make you breakfast when you do.
Do you like to work hard? Well they do while you play.
Please show your parents how much you appreciate them.

Now wait, you say, All my parents do is tell me what to do and what not to do.
Let me show you a little video:

This video is talking about Heavenly Father, and we've all learned that challenges and standards are there because God sees the big picture, and we don't. God's been there, and we haven't.
Hmmm.... who else knows more than we do?
Who else has been where we have not?
You guessed it. Our parents.

Of course, there are some amazing, upright, brilliant people who have always stood by their parents and who have never complained about them or their rules.
To you, I say: GOOD JOB!! YOU"RE AMAZING!! YOU'RE AWESOME!! and you will LIVE LONGER.
Let me put a scripture into plain English:
"Honor thy Father and thy Mother, and you will not die a premature death."
There is actually some logic to that scripture. Not because your parents would punish you in a very bad way, but because if you don't know how to honor your parents, how are you going to get your kids to honor you, and then who will take care of you when you need help?

I know a mom who is very confident about what is right for her children. She's close to the spirit, has had many life experiences, and is intelligent. So she and her husband set up rules for their kids. However, at least one of their kids think that (S)HE knows best!! While that mom is very firm and sticks to the rules she's set for the improvement of that child, she is very sad that she needs to enforce them. She honestly wishes that her children can just live righteously, grow, and enjoy their lives. But they're fighting against it!! They seem set on destroying themselves! Sometimes this mother cries after such an encounter. But the child she cares so much about never even knows.
This scenario could be happening in your own home. Please, try to stop it if it is happening, and keep up the good work if it isn't.

Many people who read this are already amazing, talented, respectful, and courteous to their parents.
My hope is that these thoughts can inspire you as much as they have inspired me to become a better daughter or son.

Please join the HONOR Movement!! Do something to show your parents how much you love and appreciate them. Then share a story about how phenomenal your parents are with your friends.

Finally, here's my story about how awesome my dad is. He challenged me and my brothers to do his exercise program for one year, at which point he'd give us $100.
Part of this program was running 3 miles twice a week. This was my least favorite part! I've never liked running, and this was miserable. Listen to this-- it took me 50 minutes!! to run 3 miles. That's more than 15 minutes for every mile!!
And I kept on getting worse! After one run, I was sure I'd beaten 40 minutes (isn't that sad :S). However, when I checked the clock I found that I had been running for more than an hour! AAAAAAAAHHH!! I hated running like never before.
My dad was concerned. It shouldn't be taking me that long just to run 3 miles.
So he took the time to take me up to my grandparent's treadmill, and had me run for him.
"Aha!" He'd found the problem.
Normal people run like this:

both feet pointing forward, thus momentum going forward.
I was running as if I was in first position in ballet.
 Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was pretty close. My momentum was going side to side instead of forward.
So my dad had me run on the treadmill so that I could focus on realigning my feet to go the proper direction.
With his encouragement, I'd decided to improve myself. When I ran into problems he was there to take the time to help me and to guide me. It took a few months, but in that time I dropped almost twenty minutes off of my mile.

So join the HONOR movement!!
Prepare for Mother's and Father's Days!
Appreciate your parents! Talk nicely about them to your friends! 

Family Dinner

Dallin H Oaks is a great advocate of the family. I loved his thoughts on Family Dinner:
(basically) "Children are less likely to smoke, do drugs, and other degrading acts when they regularly have family dinner altogether as a family."

Here is another girl who talked about how her family's daily gathering at dinner helped them stay close to each other and to the gospel: https://www.lds.org/new-era/2014/05/time-out-for-dinner?lang=eng

Jane Austen and Love

My mom and I have recently started a book group. We read one Jane Austen book (ie, Persuasion) or something similar per month, and then get together and discuss it with other moms and their teenage daughters. After the discussion, we'll watch the movie that went along with the book.
Along with it is a "Dating Notebook" where we record things about guys and relationships.

Here are some of the questions we were asked to ponder and write about:

How they make choices:

• What most often appears to motivate them to act the way they do or say what they say
• How do they decide how to live their life?
• What epistemology do they use? For example:  revelation (spiritual confirmation), reason (intellectual), feelings (romanticism), empiricism (science), pragmatism (it works), credentialism (the experts say this is how to live), fraternalism (it is the way my circle of friends lives), traditionalism (it's always been done this way), historisism (learning from the past), aesthetism (if it is beautiful, it is good)
• What are the consequences of their choices?

Their relationships:

• How do they treat or talk about people they dislike and what do they do about that relationship?
• How do they treat or talk about people they like and what do they do about that relationship?
• How do they treat their family or those closest to them?
• If your character falls in love - how do they act toward the person they are in love with? 

How they change:

• How do they find out what they nee to improve on?
• What do they do to improve themselves?

 

 Feel free to share other questions or things you find interesting to discuss and take notice of.

 

 It would be ideal for you to keep your dating notebook for when you date or start dating - you can start writing down the names of the young men you date and their characteristics you liked and disliked while you were on your date.  Just be sure you keep it in a safe place - or make code names for the young men just to be safe ;-) I remember Gordon B. Hinkley telling the youth to "be wise beyond your years" when dating and choosing an eternal companion.  A study of character will greatly help you - particularly if you take this character study to improve your own character. You will largely attract the kind of young men who value what you value.

Beautiful Quote

“There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.”
Pres. George Q Cannon

Meals

1) I lived with my aunt for a couple weeks this summer. It was fun to see her style of meals. It opened my mind to other possibilities besides those I'd grown up with.

2) I have a friend who's family has meals together, but they don't eat the same thing. They generally just cook whatever they want.
While this sounds fun, it doesn't sound easy. Especially if your kids aren't grown yet. I think I'd just make my kids eat what I give them. :) As my family says, it prepares you for visiting other countries (or just other houses!) and eating what you're given.

Toothfairy Chant

http://thesingingbees.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-tooth-fairy-chant.html

I'm going to continue this tradition :). I'm also going to make this cool pillow to be used only for the tooth-giver: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tooth-pillow-holder---tooth-fairy-helper