Castles in the Sky

This month for Princess Academy, Elena and Alexia and I are reading Little Women. We just finished the chapter entitled Castles in the Air. It was very inspiring and we decided to make our own "castles" by writing down some of our dreams and the things we would like to accomplish into our princess diaries. This was a great opportunity for me to see what is in my girls' hearts and will help me better plan my educational goals for them. I have been thinking a lot lately about creation, and what a beautiful process it is. When God created the Earth, he created it spiritually first. What a beautiful concept. I have been feeling the need lately to "spiritually create" my realities. This also agrees with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey wherein he states the first habit as Begin with the end in mind. If we have a plan, we can create. I am so excited to create beauty in my life and teach my children the principles to do the same. What an amazing world we live in. The opportunities are there. We just have to imagine them and they will be ours, with a little work and a little faith.

Our Hope Chest Journey

In times not so long ago, little girls created hope chests. These chests were filled with things that would help them to be wives and mothers. Maybe an heirloom family bible, christening suit, wedding dress, hand made items, etc. would be included in the chest. What you could not see in the chest was the education and training that went into each item placed therein. Often a girl would begin at around 8 years old to fill her hope chest assisted by generations of women in her life. This is the vision of Donna Goff, the woman who created Princess Academy: daughter of a king and the Hope Chest Journey. I am so grateful for her vision and for sharing it with others. I desire to begin documenting our hope chest journey, or the things that we are learning to prepare us to be queens. Some of the things we are working on are:

Pillows: The girls decided they wanted to learn to sew little pillows to put on their beds. They are each making two, one to keep and one to give away. Elena wants to hand sew her pillows and Alexia wants to use a sewing machine. So far we have gotten the fabric and have cut it out.

Princess Diaries: At our last meeting for Princess academy, (which consists of a group of mothers and daughters) we each made princess diaries to record things that we are learning on our hope chest journey.

bedroom designing: The girls cut out pictures of bedroom sets that they want for their bedrooms, and glued them in collage format into their princess diary. (I am doing the same thing for my house) We are going to work on finding older but sturdy furniture so that we can learn to refinish and reuse.

Baking: Elena has been doing a lot of baking. At least once a week she helps me bake bread or she makes snacks for everyone with me loosely supervising. She is getting quite skilled in the kitchen. This is a picture of some cookies she made completely on her own. I just answered questions.

We are having a wonderful journey thus far.

Princess Academy

McKay will be attending Liberty Academy this year. He has grown to a point where he needs mentors to guide his education, because I can no longer keep up with the things he is doing and learning. I have spent many years focusing on creating an environment that would allow McKay to foster a love for learning and a sense of mission, and I believe he has started on the right track. I erroneously believed that if I could create this environment for McKay, the girls would magically follow. That has not happened. My girls have largely been ignored in their education and they are bored. They have learned things along the way. They are both doing really well with reading and a few other interests, but they need direction and more one on one time with me.

The last few months, I have been pondering and praying what to do with my girls this year. I think I have found my answer. Last week, we were at the library looking for books to check out when the title of a book jumped out at both me and Elena. The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. Then as we were walking through the children's section another title begged to be checked out. It is called Daughter of a King. I can't recall the author. We checked out all of our books then went home to enjoy our spoils. A few hours later, my good friend called. She told me about a training meeting she was attending that evening for an educational program that someone in the homeschool community had created for girls and mothers. The title? The Princess Academy: Daughter of a King and The Hope Chest Journey. Coincidence? I don't think so. I attended the meeting and was very inspired to start a princess Academy circle in my community. I can not wait to learn with my girls about who we are as daughters and study other women and girls that are emulatable. We will be striving to gain an education of the mind, heart, and hands. I am so excited to start this year.

Birthday boy

I remember as a child thinking that people who are the parents of youth are really old. Well I am now that parent. McKay turned 12 last Saturday and his dad took him on a great fishing trip at Yuba Lake with some buddies from work. As you can tell from the pictures, he thought it was the greatest time. In June, we went on a family vacation to Minnesota and South Dakota, and McKay fell in love with fishing. He has since borrowed a field guide from the library and has studied every fish in our lakes. He has become quite the fish expert now to add to his extensive knowledge of birds and other wildlife. He also gets to go on a 3 day backpacking trip next week with his scout group, and is so excited to do some more fishing, and try fly fishing.

McKay has recently started drum lessons and is doing really well with it. We picked up a drum set for him for his birthday and he practices every day, much to the annoyance of his sisters. He is able to keep the beat on some songs, and he is learning to add his own flare to the drum beats he is learning. It is really fun to hear him practice.

McKay is a great example to me every day. He is so excited to receive the priesthood. He is a leader in his peer group. He makes decisions based on what is right and not on what every one else is doing. He has an amazing thirst for knowledge that inspires me every day. When he makes mistakes that he recognizes, he apologizes and tries to do better. He is responsible and helpful to me, and if the truth be told, I rely on him for many things in our family. He truly is growing up to be a young man. Happy birthday, McKay! I love you very much.

Great Webinar

This is how I will be spending my evening tonight! I am SO excited.

The Making of America , Part 1 of 4
Join us for a Webinar on July 7

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
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(Description of Part I)
*Participants should download Study Guide for Part I at
www.nccs.net prior to the webinar.
**This webinar will be recorded and archived at www.nccs.net
***There is no cost for this webinar

Title: The Making of America , Part 1 of 4
Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM MST
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

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Macintosh®-based attendees required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

New Kids Pictures

Blessings

It has been such a long time since the last update. Sorry we have been crazy busy. The loan on our house did go through and we are now happy homeowners. We moved in April 2, and I still find myself putting things away. Clarence already has many projects going on, such as cleaning up the yard, building a pantry, moving walls, etc. He is in his element now. Clarence's company has now been put on a furlough program, where they work 3 weeks and then get one week off unpaid. Scary. But on the bright side, the kids and I are working at a local raw milk dairy and getting lots of great, fresh, delicious dairy foods and meat. I feel extremely blessed. I'm not posting pictures of the house, you will just have to come and see us. The kids are loving it here. They have already made lots of friends. This neighborhood has been very welcoming. We are definitely meant to be here right now. Here are a few more recent pics of my little man. He is such a sweetheart. He rolls all over the place now. Pretty soon, he'll be into everything.

6 months old!


This is how Oliver uses his pacifier now.



Clarence got these shirts from a buddy at work. He thought it was pretty funny, so he had me take a picture. If you can't read Oliver's shirt it says "I was in for 9 months now I'm on probation." Clarence's shirt seriously makes him look like a jail inmate.




This is a short video of Oliver's first time eating food. Pretty cute, but not a very clear picture.