Happy Mother's Day To You, Mom!

If Mom's the type of person who likes to laugh, here are some poems that will tickle her pink.

Proud of You

Mom you are a shining star though the world doesn't know your name.
You have no fancy title like Baroness or Dame.
Mom you really are a star, my mother mentor and friend.
A Nobel Prize for motherhood is what I'd recommend.
And if I won the lottery I'd share my win with you
I'd take you Mom on a spending spree each day the whole year through!
You may not be famous, as your face is known to few.
But Mom I think you are wonderful and I'm so proud of you!

Great Sabbath...

We went to church yesterday and have all fun! Learned a lot from Sunday School as well as from the talks given during the sacrament meeting. I felt bad because I have to missed Relief Society class because I was so sleepy. I have to stay in the car and tried to sleep. For me, it is embarrassing for me if the teacher to see me sleeping, so I decided to skip the class. So far, our Sunday was great! We took a nap after lunch and then family night afterwards.

Preventing Summer Brain Drain

Even though my son is only at Pre - Kindergarten, I am worried he might suffer brain drain because of the long summer vacation; I am glad to have found these tips that can help him avoid it. With my help, he will still learn using these tips.

Summer is a much-needed break, but with all that time off it can be difficult to jump start again in September.

According to Sylvan Learning Center, students often forget new concepts within 24 to 48 hours after learning them unless the information is reinforced or applied immediately. And the Journal of Educational Research found that the average child loses 2.6 months of grade-level math skills alone during summer break!

Everything around you can be used to reinforce critical thinking concepts. Here are a few ideas to incorporate into your summer fun that will help prevent that dreaded summer brain drain. Your child will be off to a great start come fall.

Stories in Space

Create a space themed room as you go through summer. A good amount of satisfaction and motivation can come from seeing what you've accomplished. Displaying all the books your child read over the summer helps them retain the stories and the desire to read more. Use a black marker to write titles of the books your kids have read on glow-in-the-dark stars and tack them all around their room. Use planets when they've finished a series.

Talk the Talk

Ask questions about anything and everything, but not the kind that elicit "yes" or "no" answers. Instead, ask "What did you like about . . . ?" "What was your favorite part of . . . ?" Get kids talking and you'll find wonderful opportunities to turn life's normal experiences into teaching moments. Encourage them to write their thoughts as little essays in a summer fun journal.

Got Game?

Hosting neighborhood game nights can be a fun way to get to know people, and can help the kids stay mentally active. Games like Scrabble, Uno, crossword puzzles, Sudoku or basic card games can make for a fun night and reinforce memory, concentration, logic, and reasoning skills.

Smart Vacationing

Take advantage of the knowledge you can gain on summer vacations. For every new thing your kids learn about the vacation spot, put a certain amount of money in a jar for their vacation spending money. Use the library and Internet to learn about the destination's sights and history. Study maps, books that feature the area, and plot mileage.

Add It All Up

Start at the grocery store to reinforce math skills. Teach kids how to add up coupons, discuss decimal points, and stay under a budget! When you get home, help them use the measurements in a recipe to decide how many cups of finished product it will make. Then figure out the nutritional value per serving.

Steps to a Healthier and Happier You

Giving to yourself, honoring yourself and loving yourself is important. As you take the time to eat right, exercise, meditate or fulfill your own need, you will begin to experience a sense of empowerment, peace and harmony. Each step that you take will help to bring the scales back into balance.

Exercise

Balance in all things is critical to maintaining health, not only physical health, but emotional and spiritual health as well. In the hectic drive of today's world, many women forget to take care of their most important asset, themselves. In an effort to help people of all ages learn to take care of and nurture themselves, here are some easy ideas you can use to bring balance and harmony into your life, starting with exercise

Eat Right

Eating right is another key toward having and maintaining health and balance in your life. As our society changes and the basis of life becomes accelerated, many of us get trapped in the idea that faster is better. How many times have you found yourself getting frustrated as you sit in your car waiting in line at a fast food restaurant? Or watch as the clock ticks away, counting down the seconds until the microwave announces that your food selection is ready?

Take Multivitamins

Hand in hand with eating healthy is the use of vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. Food production has dramatically changed the nutritional value of the foods we eat. As plants grow, they absorb minerals from the earth, making them available to us in a form our bodies can utilize. Modern farming has stripped the soil of many of the minerals we require. Common industrial fertilizers, while providing the plant with the basic nutrients it needs to grow, lack the full spectrum of minerals originally found in the earth, many of which we ultimately need to survive.

Have a Blissful Day

Stress is a word we are all too familiar with. If it is not the job, it is the kids. If it isn't the kids, it is some unexpected expense you haven't budgeted for. Let's face it, stress is accepted as a basic part of our lives.

Meditate

Meditation is a great technique to use for stress reduction. Meditation can be either active or passive. Active meditation includes exercise, drawing or dancing. Even activities such as doing the dishes or raking the lawn can have a relaxing therapeutic effect. Meditation can also be passive utilizing techniques such as concentration, breath control and even creative visualization. Each of these activities distracts the conscious mind and allows unwanted thoughts and emotions to drain away.

Reduce Stress

Through my work, I have found countless woman who do not know what they want, need or desire. They have spent a majority their lives "taking care" of someone else. When asked what they want, many of them just don't know. They have never taken the time to ask themselves these important questions. They were not taught to take care of themselves or the importance of honoring their needs or their needs and desires are just as important as everyone else's. Why should they? It is not part of our society.

So how do you figure out what your needs and desires? I have found journaling to be an excellent way to help you clarify your thoughts, needs and desires. Journaling gives you the opportunity to separate out your feelings from those around you. It gives you the opportunity to figure out who you really are.

Write a Journal

Journaling is an easy technique to master. Buy yourself a blank writing book, staple together some scrap paper or sit in front of your computer, taking a few minutes each day to write to yourself. As yourself questions like: What do I want? What do I need? What kinds of things make me happy? Where am I going in my life? Where do I want to go? As you start to explore some of these questions, take the time to listen to your answers. Be honest with yourself. What is the point of lying, you will only be deceiving yourself.

Have Fun

That's right, just go ahead and do it. You never know, you may enjoy yourself. Take the time to give to yourself daily.

Talking About Humility

Thoughts:
Pride is the great enemy of unity. (Henry B. Eyring, "Our Hearts Knit as One," Ensign, Nov 2008, 68 (71)

Scripture:
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

When we are humble we can be shaped and molded the way the Lord needs us. If we become stubborn we harden ourselves to the guiding influences of the Lord and we become unworkable. Discuss ways in which we can become more humble. (Beth Lefgren and Jennifer Jackson, Building Blocks for Better Lessons, [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1998], 35.)

Humility is one of the qualities that helps build faith. Would a missionary be successful if he were not humble? He has to be teachable, with a receptive mind, before he can teach others. And to be teachable, he must be humble. And we should all be missionaries.

All the requirements of living the gospel become easier through humility.

A young man told me his experience in becoming a member of the Church, which is typical of many in their activities of investigating the Church. He said the missionaries came to the lesson on the Word of Wisdom. He and his wife were both users of tobacco. After the meeting was over and the missionaries had left, they talked it over with each other and decided among themselves, "Well, if that is what the Lord wants and if this is the Lord's Church, we will try it."