Posting

So I'm a looser when it comes to posting with pictures. Now that my camera is fixed I've lost the USB cord so I can't down load pictures. I'll have to have them all burned to a disk. Ugh. Besides. Ben has pulled cords in and out of the front USB ports, it probably wouldn't work anyway.

School is a disaster for both kids. They are struggling, which makes me struggle as a teacher and as a mom. I want to see my kids succeed. The teacher in me gets frustrated that they don't find education fun and exciting. That they aren't as readily learning as I think they should be. The mom in me just wants them to be happy, and hates to hear the frustrations. But I think I've resolved some of my issues with ticket to read. Those of you who know about it yeah for you. Those who don't check it out.

http://www.tickettoread.com

It is fabulous. I love that it goes from phonics to full out reading text. It reviews what good readers do. It does: think alouds, vocabulary, comprehension instruction, and even fluency reads. It does it in such a way that my kids love it. They are excited to read and earn points. There are some games they play, but it is mostly reading and the kids don't even realize it.

Divine Nature #1

Assigned reading: "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", 2 Peter1; Alma 7:23-24; Doctrine and Covenants 121: 45

Qualities a Daughter of God should have (x = repeated several times)

faith
humble
submissive
gentle
hope
temperance x
patience x
virtue x
knowledge
kindness x
charity xx


For those whom I've called recently, you know which of these qualities I've definitely been working on. Patience is definitely number 1, next to temperance (had to look up this word). Being a single parent is hard, having a spouse that is not consistently around is just as hard. This week has been such as one as I needed this particular value this week.

Monday was great! My first official FHE dedicated to making my family run more smoothly (another value experience). My kids were happy, we painted chore markers for our family chore chart. This took no patience at all.

Wednesday everything changed. It's very hard to teach the kids I teach. I have been greatly humbled this week. I've considered myself the behavior specialist of a lot of the places I've been, because I can almost always come up with a solution to behavior problems. I've been struggling because I can't with a group of the students I teach. I have been told that I will get used to the foul language, the disrespect, the lack of parent assistance in these matters. But I'm not sure I want to. The thing I have learned is that I must turn heavenward and let the Lord guide me.
After some serious prayer, I went back to work somewhat renewed with a new idea and low and behold, my behavior problems have all been suspended for 5 days, for other things. This gives me an opportunity to implement my behavior intervention with the good kids and get them trained, so they can help me train the others. The Lord works in mysterious ways and this was certainly one of the ways I needed most.

So how do I develop these qualities of a daughter of God? Through life. I learn through my mistakes, by trial and error and definitely through faith in the Lord. I love this gospel and love knowing there is a Father in Heaven who will help me when I'm really down. What an amazing blessing I have been given.

Personal Progress Conference

Saturday was our Ward's personal Progress Conference for our Young Women. One of our young women organized it and the leaders helped her make it successful. It was awesome. We completed 7 of 8 values, and the last one was a family home evening that each girl got to take home to do. I was glad that we had the number we had. We had almost all of our active young women show up, on a saturday at 8:00, it was impressive. Thanks Kelsey for your work!