The Sprinkle on Top

The past month or so, we have been working on the dreaded sleep training. And let me tell you, I dread it. Every. Single. Night. Sometimes I win and Evie and I both get a solid nights rest, but then there are those off nights. You know the ones, where I'm up for 1.5 hours with her screaming... It's cliche, but life would be so much easier with a manual. But there isn't a manual. Just hundreds of thousands of opinions you can pick and choose from. The more I've practiced sleep training with Evie bug, the more I've come to realize it doesn't really matter what my system is so long as I do one thing: Be Consistent.  Unfortunately for me, that means having to remember at 3:00 in the morning what I'm supposed to do to teach her to sleep on her own instead of just doing what I know will put her back to sleep immediately. Because my memory at nighttime isn't the best and, after long nights, it's not worth much during the day either, I decided to ...

Photo Credit: Greg Olsen I recently started re-listening to the talks given in the October 2017 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of my favorite talks from all of the sessions came from the Women's session. A talk titled Turn On Your Light by Sharon Eubank .  In her talk, Sister Eubank describes how we can turn on our lights. One way is to be articulate.  "Being articulate means to clearly express how you feel about something and why."  As I thought about this I realized that I don't often get up to share my testimony. For other members of the LDS church, I'm sure you're familiar with the heart pounding sensation that fills your entire being when the Spirit works on you to stand up and walk to the front of the congregation to share your feelings and to testify of the gospel. For those who aren't members, just know my fear of that long walk is quite strong. I often only bear my testimony when I've been ...

It's a new year which means it's a new topic for study in Primary: The Old Testament. I'm excited for this change because, I'll be the first to admit, I've never read all the way through the Old Testament. I always start completely motivated but before I get out of Exodus I've moved on to the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, or the Doctrine and Covenants. Since I have to teach the Old Testament, I have added motivation to actually study and learn what I'm teaching. The first lesson is "Heavenly Father's Plan for Us" meaning the Plan of Salvation. Justin and I used this activity years ago when we taught the Plan of Salvation to 11-12 year olds. They had a blast and I'm sure 8-9 year olds will enjoy it just as much. Below is helping your class create the Plan of Salvation. Creating the Plan of Salvation It all starts with a test. A test of how well your students already understand the Plan of Salvation. I made cards for each of th...

Hey Baby Girl, I'm so in love with you! You're 5 months old today and my how time has flown. I catch myself reminiscing to the first few weeks and months of your life and how difficult they were as you and I both adjusted to a new world with each other, but mostly how hard they were because you didn't feel good and I didn't know any better.  The past month has been a whirlwind of fun as you've reached and surpassed milestones and as your sweet personality has shone through your smiles and chuckles and brightened our home.  Over the past month you had your first battle with a cold - dry cough, very stuffy nose, and worst of all, a double ear infection! You and daddy both got sick over Thanksgiving and despite my best efforts to keep everything clean so the germs wouldn't spread, I got sick too. (I'm not blaming anyone but you did sneeze and cough multiple times on me while I was playing with you and I got sprayed in the face... mouth open in ...

New Year's is an interesting holiday to celebrate - a time to overeat while withholding yourself from the sweet calling of sleep, and, most importantly, to set new goals that you know you'll forget about within a month's time. I'm not cynical towards New Year's. I love the idea of setting new goals to become a better person. I'm just realistic that 99% (my own statistic, not a fact) of people never reach the goals they set on New Year's. I do  still set New Year's resolutions, but a better way to think of these goals is to initially set them on New Year's, but reevaluate and readjust come February and beyond. That's the only way I can accomplish my goals. 2018 New Year's Resolutions Publish The Harvest trilogy I've given myself a strict production schedule to write, edit and publish all three books by Fall 2018. The strict deadline is a bit daunting but I know me and if I give myself too much time, then it's too easy for m...