However, unlike a lot of our previous YW events, we have all of the various tasks divvied up between the YW classes. Mostly the reins has been turned over to the girls, within reason of course based on the maturity of each age group.
My Beehives were in charge of planning the program, including finding the musical numbers and speakers. We've also been in charge of designing the programs that each guest will receive that night. Again, back to the limitations of maturity, what the other Beehive leader and I have found is most effective with our girls is to have a pow-wow, get an idea of what they like, then away from that meeting we organized a plan A, plan B & plan C, and then have them make a final decision between the two. MUCH EASIER, especially if there are any ADD/ADHD types in the mix. Best to keep the distractions to a minimum.
All that being said, our patience and hard work (sitting on our hands as much as possible) has paid off. So much so, that AFTER I had finalized the program design, I finally opened our invitation that the Mia Maids handed out last Sunday... and frankly, we are all SO very much in-tune!
As I mentioned to another of my fellow leaders, it's times like these that I can truly recognize that we are on track and following HIS will. Such a good feeling!
I won't actually share the program out of respect for those names listed on it, however know that extending below the evening's theme is the program's line-up. Takes my breath away kinda.
In addition to invitations, our Mia Maids are handling all the decorations. So that's Mini-Me & her presidency's ball of wax. The fruits of their labor will be EPIC!(Helps that the creativity was fostered at a pretty rad IHOP planning brunch Mini-Me called for a couple weeks back. She's so awesome!) Rest assured, there WILL be pictures that follow.
Our Laurel class is handling a skit for the program, as well as the light soup dinner. What was awesome is that they're thinking of a parting gift of a giant cookie. As soon as the leader and I were talking about this, my mind raced back to a packaging idea I once saw from Martha Stewart involving plain white CD sleeves. Considering that idea, I decided to throw together our own versions of sleeve labels that matches this year's Mutual theme "Stand Ye in Holy Places," as well as what we've already got going on with the programs. Continuity is a BEA-U-TI-FUL thing!
Figured I'd share if anyone else out there was searching for YW ideas this year, whether for their own late New Beginnings or for YWIE (Young Women in Excellence) or simply a great gift (I think Easter's coming up pretty soon, just sayin'). Feel free to use these as you feel inspired to do so:
2013 has brought a new curriculum & approach to teaching our Young Women every Sunday.
Long gone are the old teaching manuals I grew up with. Now the lessons are updated using more current technology and teaching them is to be patterned after how Christ, our Savior, taught:
with love, patience, and through the Holy Ghost.
We as teachers are now encouraged to be more facilitators rather than sermon-givers. Silence is encouraged as well, for in moments of silence there stronger bonds with the Holy Spirit can be forged, testimonies fortified, and life-changing lessons can be learned.
As a Young Women's group, we had a chance to experience the power of silence in a Sunday lesson for our Christmas lesson. It was humbling & empowering all at the same time. It felt as though Jesus Christ were sitting right there with us in that room!
(Pretty sure our YW president borrowed from THIS lesson idea, but changed some stuff up. Also a member of our ward already had the stable & manger set-up, and were kind enough to let us borrow it. The manger was empty, and we had multiple different pictures around the room depicting different events in Christ's life. Each seat was assigned. Those are LED candles in clear cups, so each girl had her own light by which to read & write. The entire room was dark except for the faux candles, a few strategically placed lights to better emphasize the pictures, and the video screen. Only sounds were prayerfully selected songs and videos of the Savior. It made me tremble inside with joy!)
Now, granted the lessons shouldn't be great productions, and not all of our lessons are to be in complete silence either. Spiritual discussion amongst the youth is ideal, as often some lessons are learned better from each other, as they are more receptive to their peers and often tune adults out. Journaling & meditation play a big role in this new curriculum as well.
Needless to say, I am very excited about this new direction. Our youth are pretty brilliant, and very in-touch with the Spirit. I adore playing a small role in facilitating opportunities through which our youth can grow in spiritual strength. Think back to ancient scripture... often great spiritual epiphanies & miracles came about on mountain tops. Now we live in the desert here, with the nearest mountains about 90 minutes away. However, even our humble classroom can feel as removed from the outside world if we've work hard to make it a refuge. So I am hoping these Young Women will have mountaintop experiences together in our class.
Within our ward, our Bishopric procured a case of small composition notebooks for each of our kids, so as to further encourage them to journal their spiritual experiences or favorite quotes or scriptures or lessons learned. Kind of like how Nephi kept plates: the historical record went on large plates, and the sacred spiritual record went on small plates, this Bishopric has asked that our youth each keep their own "small plates" along this new journey.
So as to keep these small comp books in better shape, and unique for each of my girls, I spruced them up a tad. I can't WAIT to give them out on Sunday!
If you'd like to do something similar, you're welcome to use the simple bookplates I whipped up for the covers. Enjoy! My Small Plates Book Plate
Well, my 33rd birthday came & went uncelebrated for the most part, since apparently 33 is a busy age....or perhaps it was just an insanely busy week. My vote is the latter, since I don't care for the outlook of another 12 months of an increasingly busier rate of living than we already live. (Probably why my immune system tanked the past few days & my body's in recovery. Simply put, I am certainly NOT 23 anymore, and it is obvious!)
That day we were building & decorating the gym at church for our Young Women in Excellence night. It was more casual than usual with a carnival theme, but turned out better than expected. Plus, Mr LKP is THE most phenomenal guy in the world and was in the shop building free-standing display panels for either side of each of our 8 value booth until 5AM the morning of my birthday. They were massive at 7'x2.5' --- major labor of love there. He laid down for only about 3 hours sleep, then we were up and rolling again + he still had to put in at least a few hours at work! Yeah, pretty sure Mr LKP knocked Captain America & Thor both down a few pegs. He's definitely my superhero. :)
(He made 'em from reclaimed wood used in the shipping crates his family's company receive their metal buildings in, so it cost us zilch! However, the downside is that after 10 panels he ran out of materials before completing the 16 total panels we needed. So for the remaining ones, Sister Hatch swept in with her genius-ness and slapped metal brackets on the bottom of old reclaimed doors & voila! Worked like a charm.)
The Value Booth line-up was:
FAITH... Blindfolded Putt-Putt Golf
DIVINE NATURE... Face Painting
INDIVIDUAL WORTH... Photo Booth
KNOWLEDGE... Educate the Clown (bean bag toss)
CHOICE & ACCOUNTABILITY... Plinko
GOOD WORKS... Service Can Knock-Out Selfishness (tennis ball tossed at cans)
INTEGRITY... T.P. Toss ("Gotta keep your integrity spotless!")
VIRTUE... Gold Ring Toss (canning rings tossed on water bottles)
I also had Booster Club shirt peddling to do at the HS volleyball
game that night, so the extent of birthday celebrations consisted of
some FB wishes from friends, a fabulous hiking26.com t-shirt from my
aunt & a raspberry smoothie from Burger King from Mr LKP. No
bigs. Was too exhausted by the time the day was over that I went home
& crashed. No cake or ice cream, but I plan on enjoying some of
that sometime this week.
Day after my birthday I found
out that our Round 2 efforts to overcome infertility were in vain. Not
an easy blow at all. Left me pretty heartbroken. Am too emotionally
raw this time around, so we're waiting a spell before beginning Round 3.
Also
on the day after my birthday, we had that Carnival of Excellence to
make happen. And boy did it ever happen! I was too busy running my
Individual Worth Photo Booth to get any shots of the concession stand
& the rest of the booths in action, but I do have some that
Mini-Me & her friends took, plus a couple shots from our booth.
Complete with hats, feathers, polymer clay mustaches & lips on sticks!
It's hard to tell from some of the pics above (since they were taken right before the Carnival really got going) but we had a packed midway that night! Oodles of caramel apples, corn dogs, cotton candy, sno-cones...all the typical carnival grub! Plus, the trinkets each girl picked up at each booth were pretty dang rad, if I do say so myself... (Please forgive the fuzzy phone pics.)
Each YW got their one trinket per booth. Beyond that, each time they or their family members participated at a booth, a piece of value color-coordinated candy was the reward.
What made that night most special for us is the fact that Mini-Me received her Young Women's medallion. She's the only Mia Maid in her ward to have earned it, so she's still pretty elated. She knows she's not off the hook for the last few years in the YW's program, as she's helping do Personal Progress by proxy for one of the girls in our organization who cannot accomplish all of her requirements alone, due to physical limitations.
Three days after my birthday, creating Mini-Me's sophomore class float for Homecoming was underway. Their theme was their school colors, so the kids decided to run with the newly restyled mascot logo and dedicate the entire project to one of their classmates who passed away this summer. He was the most phenomenal kid, with the greatest outlook on life. He loved every moment he had here on earth, despite the limitations Down Syndrome had on his time here.
On my fourth day into being 33, we had our Community Chili Feed fundraiser for Mini-Me's after-grad party. (We're trying to raise a little money here & there as they move through high school so that when Senior year rolls around, we can enjoy that year with our kids rather than scramble to raise money & hate every second of it.) The Chili was awesome, the cinnamon rolls were the absolute best with my new most favorite homemade cream cheese icing! There was candy bar bingo, board games to play, and raffle prizes to win. Once clean-up was done, we were back over to my In-Laws' shop to continue building the kids float.
Last Monday came, and Homecoming week officially commenced with Spirit Days. There were some more conventional days like "Favorite Hero Day" (Mini-Me rocked her Superman shirt like a beast) and "School Colors Day"....but there were also some less than obvious choices like "Greasers & Preps Day"(throwback to Grease & Happy Days) and "Feudalism Day" complete with hierarchy (Freshmen were to be peasants, Sophomores were to be knights, Juniors were to be nobles, and Seniors were to be royalty--or something like that). Mini-Me & her friends were LESS than thrilled at the thought of Feudalism Day, let alone the fact they couldn't come as anything other than knights, so they refused to participate. I, personally, supported them in their boycott. (As if the seniors needed another reason to feel cooler than everyone else in the school.) Besides Superhero Day, I'm pretty sure Mini-Me's favorite day was 60's day when she went as a flower-child. Worked out perfectly for who she is: kind, beautiful, and the sweetest peacemaker. (Even though she's quite a bit more conservative than the original flower-children of the era.)
Got part way into last week and was handed 1 free ticket to see "Finding Nemo" in 3-D. Since around here it's only showing during the school day now, it was my free birthday date to myself. Forgot how priceless all the dental humor is in it! (And for being 3-D, it didn't make me sick like usual, so double-kudos for that.)
In addition to dress-up days, each night there was a different activity going down at the school. Monday was the JV football game, followed by Movie Night (Yeah, "The Avengers" on the big screen at the school pretty much dominated the movie nights of the past). Tuesday was an away volleyball game + Capture the Flag afterwards. Wednesday was Powder Puff Football immediately followed by Buff Boy Volleyball. Thursday was a home volleyball game, and the last minute details were added to Homecoming floats.
The Homecoming float incorporated the truck in with the trailer because their classmate, Justin, adored trucks of all kinds. He would beg for various high schoolers to sell hime their truck. So the kids claimed my BIL's truck for Justin. In the bed of the truck rode the boy's mom, flanked by a couple of the Sophomore girls. The back of the float paid tribute to him with part of a saying the kids have adopted in his honor that goes, "Fight Like a SAVAGE, Win Like a Coyote." Savage was his last name, and orange was his favorite color, so it was a wise choice to put his last name in orange. The entire float materialized over 4 days of hard work, and here it is:
Last Saturday was the big dance. She's still got another year before she can go with a date, so she tagged along with some of her volleyball teammates. Her corsage was from her daddy, and splendid with rich burgundy cymbidium orchids. They had a great time scarfing down dinner at a local buffet, and then showing some of the foreign-exchange students around the mall.
While they had a blast, Mr LKP & I spent some time helping out at the Grange's Old Time Fiddlers event, and then burned the few hours away with a quick bite to eat & then saw the movie "Here Comes the Boom." Seriously? GO SEE IT!!! Great movie....rated PG so the language is fine....and if you need another reason beyond that, well The Fonz is in it! Henry Winkler's character is hilarious, and I simply love him. (When my daughter was little she wanted to grow up to be a Jedi Knight. I, on the other hand, wanted to be The Fonz when I grew up!)
When I got to the dance to pick the girls up, the room was filled with pretty good
looking guys in their duds, and some lovely girls all glammed up. But of all that were
there, my daughter certainly stood out, in the radiance of her
spirit, her smile, and her beauty!
I'm so grateful she is confident & strong, knowing that she
is a daughter of God. I'm grateful for the example she sets for her peers. I'm grateful for her self-respect & modesty. I'm
grateful that she is a positive influence on all she comes in contact with. She is
so very precious to me!
Other than all the commotion above, some laundry's been folded...and Sir-Tuff-a-Lot's been picked on...and THAT is what we've been up to.
(If you listen closely you can hear him snoring!)
So far, 33 has been demanding. I'm ready for another nap.
