If you missed this Utah Homeschool Mom's Night Out, you missed...

(Picture not included on purpose)

Kelly dumping almost all of her soup on the floor of her car

A hula dance complete with floral bra, courtesy of Debbie (yeah, that's me)

Mindy's FAB dessert bars (2 of which were already missing, courtesy of her husband)

Kirstiane's "Better Homes and Garden" decorated Christmas house. . . oh my!

Some nice PADDED slippers--creative white elephant gift giving! No kidding, these were made from Poise pads and maxi pads.

A great song performed on the spot by Sarah

Diane Laughing so hard she got asthma (would not except breathing treatment from me, though).

Delicious and unusual soup . . . Thai lemon grass soup supreme!

Lies told by all, even an outlandish one by Kelly about raising dalmatians-- (is Kelly capable of such a thing?)

Angie looking like a babe--and runnin' a fun lying game!

Amy's secret desire to go skinny-dipping

A very descriptive explanation of why Hannah hates cats, complete with motions

Lisa's yummy black bean soup

A very personal discussion on armpit hair--pros and cons (along with some family secrets)

Secelie's amazin' truffles!

Can I just say, I haven't had THAT much fun in a long time.

God Bless America

This week we elected Barak Obama as the next president of the United States. I voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin. Lars voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitutionalist Party. We talked to the kids during the day about the election process and all the different candidates. We talked about redistribution of wealth and social security just enough to confuse them. Both Lars and I told the kids why we would not be voting for Barak Obama and they of course agreed with us.

Then Samantha came in from playing later, very upset to learn that Sister Cantrell had voted for Obama. She has been a primary teacher to all of them and Samantha was upset that she wouldn’t vote for the right person. Very quickly I asked Samantha, “Do you think I’m a good person?”
“Well, yeah,” she answered.
“Do you think Dad is a good person?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think Sister Cantrell is a good person?”
“Yeah.”
“We are all good people and all voted differently.”
I didn’t say anything else about it to her. She walked away thinking and that’s what I wanted.

I remember the first time in my life that I understood that not all grown-ups agree and that not all grown-ups are right. That’s a scary thing for a kid! It’s much easier to think that all grown-ups have the answers and that everything is black and white.

Well, Samantha, welcome to the gray.

We now have our first black president. That's the good part. But now I worry for our country because I don’t believe Barak Obama will preserve and protect the Constitution. He already has so many radical ideas that go against it, but as I saw the look of hope in many faithful, god-fearing people who had elected him as he gave his acceptance speech, it gave me a little hope, too. I can pray for my president. And Barak Obama is going to be my president. Some presidents may need more prayers than others! But if I pray, and all those church-going people who voted for him pray, and if a bunch of others who are now afraid for our country pray for our president, couldn’t the Lord help him?

I think so. And while I’m at it. I’m going to pray for an abnormally long life-span and good health for conservative judges on the supreme court. Federal judges, too. It is just a matter of time before not just the executive and legislative branches of our government are liberal, but our judicial branch, too. Please, God, please bless America!

Proposition 8--Too Close to Home

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1308945.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted#Comments_Container

This is the link to the online version of the story done on the front page yesterday of the Sacramento Bee featuring my sister Pam and her husband's support on proposition 8 in California. We need to have positive comments posted to the website! You will have to become a member of the Sacrament Bee by registering online for free. Then they will allow you to post your comment. This is so important! Yesterday when the story hit, there were 193 comments, most of them negative and then the comments were closed. This morning when I looked at it, there were no comments and it allowed me to submit one!

If you are not already familiar with the online newspaper culture, the words written in the article only serve as a starting point for online discussion. The readers take it from there and the comments become even more interesting and informative than the article itself. Can you help me blast the Sacrament Bee with positive, intelligent feedback today?

If you need to educate yourself more on the issue, my other sister, Sharon Slater, has been on the front lines of the pro-family fight at the UN and has condensed a chapter of her upcoming book into some talking points that may be helpful:

http://www.familywatchinternational.org/fwi/policy_brief_manwomanmarriage.pdf

I am inviting everyone I know to read the embedded resources, login to the Sacramento Bee, and leave a POSITIVE comment. If everyone helps, we could close the comments for the day on a POSITIVE note.

Please pray for my sister and her family. The negative backlash of this article is intense and she had to go get her son Caleb from school yesterday because of 10 separate threats from other children. They have worked hand in hand with the church public affairs department in agreeing to be interviewed by such a large newspaper and the paper included almost NOTHING that my sister actually said. If you are not familiar with a lot of the issues surrounding Proposition 8, view the short video on the following link. It is short and extremely informative:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1815825713

Thank you in advance for your help! Proposition 8 in California effects all of us and we need to act NOW!

My Daniel was baptized.

We are very proud of Daniel and very touched by a talk given by the aunt of another little girl, Aspen, who was baptized the same day. I made this little book yesterday so Daniel could remember the talk that was given and also made a personalized copy for Aspen. All done after church yesterday...

I think I'm starting to get it.

After an entire year of being a Heritage Maker, I think I am finally starting to get it. In the last week I made my first card, my first family fold and this morning just finished my first poster. My poster is the text of my great-great-great-great grandfather's patriarchal blessing. It is something that until this morning, sat in a filing cabinet, hardly read except for by the die-hard family history bugs in the family. Now, it can be displayed in my home for my children to see and made available to the descendants of Elisha Cragun at our HUGE family reunion next week.

You won't believe how happy this poster makes me. Words cannot express the power I feel as I read it and contemplate the promises that extend, even to me, four generations later. These promises strengthen my faith and help link me to my past in a way I can't even describe. This is something I would have never thought of doing if I wasn't a Heritage Maker.

This morning I am grateful and feeling that I am doing my part in preserving my family's history. It's a great feeling!

Oprah Called...

You are not the only one who LOVES Heritage Makers.
Whether you love Oprah or not, you've got to admire her taste. And guess what Oprah loves now? Her Heritage Makers book. HM Consultant Brenda Kruse made a special book for her and Oprah called. Here are the details:

http://www.buildyourheritage.blogspot.com/

This is just one of the ways in which lives are touched, and changed and comforted through the power of story. As a Heritage Makers consultant, I hear things like this all the time.
It's just really fun to hear it from Oprah! Stay tuned in the coming months for even more from Oprah about Heritage Makers...

I love what I do. I would do it for free because it is an integral part of my life's mission. I just came back from Anaheim, California, home to the happiest place on earth, but I think my Heritage Studio is the happiest place on earth. It's the place where I write my stories in the present, create permanent records that pass MY values on to future generations, and link my children with their past so they know who they are and where they came from. It's a place where I am creative. Do you know what creativity means? It means bringing something into existence that wasn't there before. Pictures without stories are memories lost. Without stories, there is no heritage. Is there something that you need to start creating today?

Heritage Makers is poised to launch a Heritage movement across the country. This company has a vision and a mission like no other company I have seen. I am part of this movement and that vision, but I need help. Heritage Makers is about to go HUGE nationwide and when you logon to your heritage studio today to create something you will see why, but we need more consultants!

I NEED people to help me. Have you ever considered doing what I do? Do you know someone who might be? Please call me. I can't think of anything more meaningful than a story under every tree and a book in every home this year for the holidays. Please let me know if I can help you make this happen for your family this year.

I'm Not Perfect--Yet

I had a thought just the other day about the fact that my children, so far, were not growing up in an immaculate home. Don’t get me wrong, we are not living in squalor, it’s just that even though we clean, the entire house is NEVER clean at the same time. I may have five loads of laundry on the homeschool table, but the toilet is squeaky clean; fresh oatmeal may be on the wall, but the bills are all paid, annotated and filed in the appropriate place; Toys strewn all around my feet, but experience an overwhelming sense of peace having just finished the fifth interview with my father about his life.

It doesn’t always look pretty.

My friend Wendy has perfectly white teeth.
My friend Roseann has a perfectly clean house.
My friend Diane is the perfect homeschool mom.
My friend Shelley lives in the house of her dreams.
My friend Aimee is a super-frugal savvy shopper.
My friend Isabelle has a perfect marriage.
My friend Nina is a good saver.
My sister Sharon has the faith to move mountains and courage to match.

Although I have experienced flashes of these things, perfect moments here and there, I am not and do not do all them all. BUT let me tell you what I realized today while studying about hope in the Preach My Gospel manual. I learned that being an example of diligence and hope and patience, even in all of my imperfection is as important as doing the right thing all the time.
Do you know what that means?!

It means that I don’t have to obsess about that fact that I’m not perfect all the time.
It means that I can take a breath, scan the room (or the mirror, whatever the case may be), soak up my own reality, and move forward doing the best that I can.
But more important than anything, it means that my children get to see how to move ahead in life and not get discouraged or paralyzed even when everything doesn’t go their way.

Because my home is not clean all the time, my children get to learn from me how to clean it and actually get the satisfaction of seeing a corner of it change from chaos to order.
Because my body is not perfect yet, my children get to see me go from struggling to jog for one minute to running a 5K.
Because my husband and I fight sometimes, my children get to see how we always make up and truly enjoy each other.
Because I am not a perfectly patient homeschool mom, my children get to learn that even adults need to apologize to kids sometimes.
Because my teeth are a little yellow, we get to see if Crest Whitening Strips really work.

It’s direction, not speed! Stephen Covey said something about successful families that rings very true to me. He said that successful families are off track about 90% of the time, but the difference is that they know what the track looks like and they keep going back to it.

Today, I am going to feel GREAT about looking completely derailed, because I know what the track looks like and I’m going back to it every time. Wanna come?

Rasmussen 2007 Yearbook

Joshua's Book is Published

Joshua's book finally came. Star Wars, Episode 13, More Sith Appear. This book is SO funny. He really has the knack for creating humorous stories. It has been so fun using Heritage Makers for homeschool! We write and rewrite and when it is perfect, we publish. Many people have already enjoyed Joshua's book and we hope you enjoy it, too.