Magazine "Blinders"

You CAN make a difference!
So, Publix puts magazine blinders on many of their racy magazines in the checkout lines - for which I am very grateful.
Kroger, on the other hand, did not (at least not the Kroger closest to my house). I grew very tired of trying to distract my boys from looking at the magazines as we waited in line. I finally called my Kroger to ask that they place blinders on their mags.
It was quite the process - I didn't give up!
I was first told that Kroger Headquarters has to make that choice. Individual stores cannot.
I called Kroger Headquarters to inquire about the blinders and was told that individual stores can request them from Headquarters.
I called my local store and gave them the information on how to request blinders.
Headquarters calls and says that they will talk to the store for me. Gee, thanks! :) They also ask which magazines I wish to see covered (I wanted to say "Anything that shows cleavage!"), but instead I asked that magazines that boast racy Headlines be covered.

Do you know . . . in about a week my store had BLINDERS on some of the mags??
Do you also know that I got a Thank You card from Kroger for expressing my concern?
Do you further know that Kroger also offered me a gift card for expressing my conern???
I'll give my gift card to someone else - lest anyone think that I am "in it" for freebies. lol.
So, for those of you who shop at the Kroger close to my house - look for the blinders. When you see them, you'll know how they got there!

Anyway, I feel quite accomplished in changing my local Kroger. Now, I think I will call them up and ask that they DO cover the cleavage. Good luck to me.

I hope that anyone who wants to see a change in their neighborhood or community will "just do it." I hope that we are not the type of people who will sit back and "hope that someone else will do it."
One person can make a difference.

One more example: During Calvin's first year in Kindergarten I noticed that his cafeteria was using styrofoam lunch trays. What a huge trash haul!! I put in a LOT of time to do research and at a PTA meeting I again expressed my concern. I even made charts that showed just how much Styrofoam our school system was putting into the trash. ha ha! That chart was even sent to the county!
Do you know that in a matter of weeks our cafeteria was using plastic resuable trays??
Yep, that is ME at work. One person. :)

Survival Parenting vs. Intentional Parenting

A follow-up on my last post.
I went to bed last night thinking that I was solely a Survival Parent. I was discouraged!
Being a homeschooling mom with a toddler running around . . . being the wife of a firefighter/bishopric man (who isn't home much) . . . being a homemaker/housekeeper/chauffer/cook/counselor and all the rest that comes with being a MOM (I know you can understand) makes being a parent HARD. Parenting doesn't always bring out the best in me. I wish it did.
I went to sleep with thoughts of how I can improve my attitude and my thoughts towards my life at this time in my life. I went to bed feeling overwhelmed - not only am I in charge of a house (big task, anyway), but I am in charge of a HOME. I am in charge of my children . . . not just the day-to-day nose-wiping, diaper changing, meal-cooking stuff. I am in charge of their education, their emotional/physical/and spiritual well-being. Of course Greg is a big part of this as well, but as his attitude is so often on the "up" side, I figured I would focus on me that night. :)
During the course of this morning something happened that gave me a thought . . .
I am not ALWAYS a Survival Parent. There are times (often, there are times) when I am an INTENTIONAL PARENT. Yay! I was able to recall some recent times when parenting was a true joy. When homeschooling was running as smooth as it could be. Where the house was clean and we were working together as a family.
Why, then, was I so consumed with my thoughts last night of being (what I considered) a failure? I am sure Satan was working hard to discourage me. I KNOW he was - my SURVIVAL Parenting moments were simply magnified last night. lol.
I am grateful for the insight I received this morning.

I am reminded of some recent quotes that helped me along today.....
"Every cloud we see doesn't result in rain." Quentin L. Cook
"We each have moments of spiritual power, moments of inspiration and revelation. We must sink them deep into the chambers of our souls. As we do, we prepare our spiritual home storage for moments of personal difficulty" Neil L. Andersen
"This life is not always easy, nor was it meant to be; it is a time of testing and proving" Quentil L. Cook
"The sharp, side-by-side contrast of the sweet and the bitter is essential until the very end of this brief, mortal experience." Neal A. Maxwell

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught-to those who have ever felt discouraged or overwhelmed (all of us):
"What is our Heavenly Father's happiness?
Creating and being compassionate are two objectives that contribute to our Heavenly Father's perfect hapiness. Creating and being compassionate are two activities that we as His spirit children can and should emulate.
The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.
Creation means to bringing into existence something that did not exist before - colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter."

Yep, I am creating a home. I am creating a life for me and for my family. I am creating my own traditions. I can creating memories. I am creating ME as an Intentional Parent (exact plan to follow. ha ha!)

Trials are going to come - tomorrow may be "one of those days" - it is how I respond to those trials that determines what I am creating.

COME WHAT MAY AND LOVE IT - Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin
:)

Functional Family

We are all bombarded with the "woes" of the Dysfunctinal Family. It is enough to wear a person out and can breed discouragement.
I just read an article in this month's Ensign about just that!
And then I found a free online course through the BYU website.
Check it out. I think I will start the e-course in a few days when I can really focus on what I am reading.
Just thought I would pass it along in case anyone else was interested.

The highlights of the Ensign article are:

• In the functional family, parents focus their energy on teaching their children correct principles and allowing them to exercise their agency.
• In the functional family, parents intentionally strengthen their families.
• In the functional family, relationships are of supreme importance.
• In the functional family, parents are active teachers.
• In the functional family, parents lead by example.
• Finally, in the functional family, parents teach their children faith in our Heavenly Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The e-course:
http://ce.byu.edu/courses/pe/999001072002/public/start.htm

The Ensign Article:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=bd959d9ff732f110VgnVCM100000176f620a____

Also, while I am doing some deep thinking about my family , I thought I would throw this website in. It talks about three different types of parenting:
Survial Parenting - These parents say, “If I can just make it through the child-rearing years, I can get my life back.”
Default Parenting - These parents say, “I don’t want my child to miss out on what all the other kids have.”
Intentional Parenting - These parents say,
“I want to give my child what will be best and most helpful for him.”

Hmmm, which parent am I? KBB, NO comments! lol. There is always room for improvement!

Homeschool: Thomas Edison

He looks like the cutest little man, doesn't he? :)
His birthday was a few days ago and he would be 162 years old this year!

Homeschool: Text Messaging vs. Morse Code

Who will win?
We are studying Thomas Edison right now and learned that he was a telegrapher for Western Union. We decided to also learn the Morse Code and found this clip on YouTube.
With all the texting that goes on during church (yuck) I guess we should be grateful that the youth aren't using telegraph machines to send their messages. :)

This video goes along with the next post - how I discovered that Liv knew how to turn on the faucet.

This is what you get...

This is what happens when your child can turn the faucet on by herself. :)

This is what happens when you let a little girl dress herself. "Bubba's" hat, "Baby's coat" and a toy car in the hand for good measure. Our little gangsta!

This is what happens to brownies when they are left on the kitchen table and mom walks out of the room.

This is what happens when you have a genius child. ha ha. Just kidding - though it is exciting that she can do this puzzle.

Pretty Tricky

Poor Liv. This was just too good not to post!

Photo of the day

The story:

We have the Brady Bunch Season 1 on DVD from Netflix. We watched it tonight before bed.

We watched the first episode . . . the Honeymoon.

Mike and Carol kiss in one of the scenes.

Calvin shields his eyes from the kiss . . . not only HIS eyes - but also Olivia's!

lol.

What a good big brother!!!

Our Homeschool Happenings

Weight Lifting "Wimpy Kid" style How Calvin likes to do math

How Liv likes to read

How Josh reads to LivHow Josh reads to DadHow Josh reads.

Our Southwest Indian Study ended with our own Indian weavings.

Josh needed a scale for a math project. We didn't have one, so we made one. Cool, huh? Oh, and we discovered that 11 pennies weighs about one ounce.

Mr. Cool.

Our Fun TimeLine. We started with the Premortal Existance, and have run the timeline to the year 2000. We have added figures such as Adam and Eve, the Vikings, Mozart, Christopher Columbus, and Joseph Smith (our most recent addition is the Civil War).

This isn't really homeschool related, but I thought is was too cute to leave in a folder!

I can't remember if I have already posted this, so I'll post it anyway - Last year I had the boys do their math outside while the weather was nice.

Our most recent study for Josh's Heritage Studies was on the Croaton "tree" and the settlement of Roanoke. We hypothesized that the settlers died en route to the Croaton Indians. Josh actually thinks they were eaten by sharks . . . Calvin agrees but thinks that the sharks ate the settlers on the beach! What?!

Josh doing math . . . before he gets hot. The Story . . . Josh sits next to the window, and for some reason he hets "over heated" while doing MATH! Everytime he does math, he starts to "slump" and complains that he is hot. Then off comes the shirt - yep, he takes his shirt off every day. It only happens during math - dunno why.

Happy at the beginning of math.....
starting to slump.....

I'll spare you the "no-shirt" photo.

Calvin thinking hard during an English test.
What a pretty cursive "h".

Calvin's study on the atmosphere:

Visit to the fire station

A smug Calvin

Just Josh

Liv and Daddy

Wrestling with Rodney

Liv and Daddy

Grandma in the truck

Towards the end of our visit, Greg got a call. He was on the "tiller" truck, and this was the first time we have seen that particular truck go. I don't know who was driving, but you can see how the back driver was being bounced around - I guess they don't mess around with comfort when driving to a call. :)

Dance...or cry....whatever...

Just a quick post...

Video quality is shaky, but we had so much fun!