Dinner Idea: Easy Lasagna

Emphasis on the EASY.  This is Erin Lamprecht's recipe.  She made it for my husband and I when I was pregnant.  It rocks for so many reasons:


1. It's homemade-but fast.
2. You don't cook the noodles before layering them!
3. Makes a lot and is great for left-overs, having friends over, or for taking to someone
4. CHEAP

FHE: Love Languages

Gary Chapman wrote a great book called The Five Love Languages.  His theory is that everyone--adult or child has a love language.  Your love language is how you feel love and typically how you show love.  Understanding you own and your spouses LL can help you to understand your relationship better.  For my marriage it has opened so many doors of communication and understanding.

Since February is upon us--have a LOVE centered FHE this week.  Take the {FREE} Love Language test HERE and then discuss with your spouse the results.  Keep in mind your love language can change over time.   If you have done this before, take the time to do it again and see if you or your spouse has changed.  If you have never taken this test then it is well worth your time.  The test can take about 10 minutes each.


Topic: Love

Objective: To understand your Love Language and that of your spouse and children (there is a separate test for children) .

Opening Hymn: Love at Home

Activity: 

Take the Love Language Test and compare results with your spouse.  Brainstorm ways you can each show an increase of love to the other through their unique love language.

Treat: Love Potion

Recipe:

12 ounces frozen pink lemonade concentrate
1 cup raspberry sherbet
1 (12 ounce) can lemon soda (7-up) or 1 (12 ounce) can lime soda (7-up)

Read more: <a href="http://www.food.com/recipe/cupids-lemony-love-potion-276548?oc=linkback">http://www.food.com/recipe/cupids-lemony-love-potion-276548?oc=linkback</a>

My Experience with the Temple

I was thinking this morning about what to post here on the ward blog.  Sometimes it's easy to figure out what to post and other times it's very hard.  This morning it was very hard but I believe I was inspired to share my experience for this past week regarding the temple.

I have pretty much always been a regular temple attendee.  Weekly or monthly, it was part of my regular life.  But for whatever reason for the past eight-or-so-months I have lacked quite drastically going only once or twice.  I felt the lack and even though it's LITERALLY right next door it got harder and harder to go.  Other things always seemed to come up.  When I would find a babysitter for my daughter the lure of a date night at the movies or a restaurant seemed to have more pull.

I reached a point where I felt my demeanor or maybe my personality(?) changing.  I would go from being happy to hurt/offended/angry so quickly. I started to scare myself at how little control I seemed to have over my mood.  It affected my day and the spirit in my home. It even reached a point where I told my husband I wanted to see a doctor to find out if it was a hormonal or chemical reaction because it was so unlike me.

That same week we talked about going to the doctor we found a babysitter and went to the temple.  I felt healed and whole as we left the temple that night.  The spirit was with me in a way that it hadn't been since the last time I had attended the temple.  The past week I have felt calm and in control of my emotions.  It truly has been a great blessing to me and my family.  It wasn't a physical doctor that I needed but a spiritual once and I received the help I needed by making the temple a priority.


"I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed; life will be better for you."

—Gordon B. Hinckley

FHE: Rice Experiment

Have you heard of the rice experiment?


NO!?...be prepared to be amazed!

YES!?..have you ever tried it?  If not, I encourage you to do it for FHE tomorrow.

It is simple and incredible.  I got the idea for this post from another blog and want to give credit where credit it due.  Click HERE to see my source.


Topic: Kind Words

Objective: To see if kind and hurtful words really matter!

Scripture:  

Proverbs 12:6  “The words of the wicked are like a murderous ambush, but the words of the godly save lives.”  

Proverbs 16:24 “Kind words are like honey– sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” 

Materials:

-Freshly cooked rice 1-2 cups

-two air-tight containers

-a small sign that says "I Love You" and another sign that says "I Hate You"
**Place one sign on each of the air tight containers.

Directions:

Use rice from the same batch and place half in one container and the rest in the other.  Close containers tightly.  Make sure each container is labeled.  Place containers in a dark place and for the next 20-30 days speak to them daily.  To the Love container speak kind, uplifting and grateful words. To the Hate container speak any unkind or mean thing you can muster.  Observe results.

Background Information:

Dr. Masaru Emoto , a researcher and alternative healer from Japan, has studied the effect that words can have on water.  He exposed water to positive words and negative words and then flash froze the samples to capture their molecular structure.  Water exposed to positive words like “love” and “thank-you” produced beautiful crystals while water exposed to negative words like “you make me sick” or “anger” took on ugly, misshapen forms.

These pictures also come from the blog I linked above.

HATE Rice

LOVE Rice

Be Inspired.

"One rainy afternoon in NYC, this woman approached a man who didn't have an umbrella and let him get under with her. When he asked her, "If you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?" she responded...

“When my husband was dying, I said: ‘Moe, how am I supposed to live without you?’ He told me: ‘Take the love you have for me and spread it around.”

Think of ways you can spread the love you have around so that others can feel it too.  Think of the sisters you visit teach, pray for them or write them a letter.  Invite a family you want to get to know better over for dinner or FHE.  Call a family member you don't talk to often enough.  Spread the love and you will feel the love.

Dynamite Dinner Idea

This dinner idea is "dynamite" because it is:

1. Crockpot
2. Cheap
3. Easy
4. Healthy
5. Makes husband, wife and kids happy

It has a clever name even, Chicken and Beans (okay, not so clever)

There are 4ish**** ingredients...

10-12 chicken tenders or about 4 breasts
16 oz salsa
2 cans of any beans--I like pinto and black
Tortillas or salad ...or both this is where it makes the whole family happy. Mom can have a salad and dad can have a burrito or whatever...
***this is where the 'ish' comes in..you can top it with nothing or everything from sour cream, ranch, corn, avocado, tomato, olives, tortilla chips, ect...


Throw chicken, salsa and beans in crockpot.  I drained one of the cans of beans so it wouldn't be too watery.  Cook 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low. Once finished cooking shred chicken and make your burrito or salad.

I know it's so simple, but trust me it is yummy and so worth the minimal effort.  Wish I had a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine what a chicken taco salad looks like or a chicken burrito.  ;)

The Potato Project

I'm not a professional blogger and sometimes I struggle to make everything work perfectly like I imagine.  Sorry I couldn't get the video posted right here on the blog.  Here is the link.  I promise it's worth the extra step!!

That We Might Be One

It's a New Year!

2014 is here and it is going to be a great year!  I'm sure for many in our Relief Society there will be big life changes, including but not limited to: graduation, job offers, pregnancies, babies born, houses bought, many, many new beginnings ahead for all of us.  It is going to be a GREAT year!

As Dr. Seuss once wrote:

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

Except when you don't.
Because sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that bang-ups
and hang-ups
can happen to you.













This year might have it's trials and there may be a little turbulence in the year ahead for you and your family.  Keep this insightful thought from C.S Lewis in mind.  It can help put your perspective where Heavenly Father's perspective is.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.