Family Home Evening - Prayer

I know prayer is something which we alk about a lot with our children and the importance of it. But It is a topic which I just dont think we can talk to much about. So last week I decided to go over prayer again in out home. I hope this lesson idea can help to inspire each of you.

Opening Song: A Child Prayer
Opening Prayer:

Lesson: Mommy


I started by asking the children if Mommy had to go away on a long trip and I couldnt see them for a few days what are some of the ways that we could keep in touch. Since times are so modern and we are so far away from my family in the states they had a few answers which included, Letters, Email, Skype and of course talk on the phone (which is what I was looking for). I then explained to the children that before we were born we lived with Heavenly Father and that we loved him the same way as we love Mommy and Daddy. Heavenly Father wanted what was best for us which is why he let us come to earth so that we could do everything we can to go live with him forever. But Heavenly Father didnt want to not be able to talk to us or hear from us just like if Mommy was away on a trip I wouldnt want to not talk to them. So Heavenly Father gave us a way to talk to him through prayer.

I then showed them a paper which I had made with the Four Parts of Prayer on it:

1. Dear Heavenly Father
2. We Thank Thee.....
3. We Ask Thee.....
4. In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen

We then discussed things we could thank Heavenly Father for. There are so many.

We then discussed the things we could ask Heavenly Father for. Again the kids had a great list of things.

Finally we discussed why we say in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen to finish our prayers rather then just stop once we have Thanked Heavenly Father and Asked him for the things we need.

Next I told the kids this picture:



I asked them the story of Daniel and the Lions Den and we discussed it. We love this story in our house so the kids knew it well.

Lastly I played the song: "I pray in Faith" from the Childrens song book, (the song and music can be found for free on LDS.org)the words say:

I begin by saying “Dear Heavenly Father”;
I thank him for blessings he sends;
Then humbly I ask him for things that I need,
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Lastly for our activity I gave the children the following Maze to complete:



Closing Song: I am a Child of God
Closing Prayer:



For a treat why not try this Banoffee Pie. It is so lush!!

Halloween Ghosts

It is time for the church Halloween Party again and this year Ive been asked to decorate a door for the children to trick or treat to. Im excited. I love Halloween. Ive also decided to go all out and make these little guys for the children.



Yep.... Lollipops made to look like ghosts. They are a favorite for friends this time of year so Ive made 50 extra to hand out to the children. Im going to attempt to go dressed as a hillbilly this year. My 6 year old will be a scary with, my 3 year old Mr tickle and my 10 week old..... a baby :) If you cant remember how to make these little ghosts I did a small tutorial here last year. More Halloween crafts to come before the end of the week I promise!

Family Home Evening - Scripture Study

Recently I was speaking with a good friend of mine who is on the Primary Presidency about my children and scriptures. See my daughter is 6 and we send her to church with the scripture readers. I thought it gets her in the habit of taking scriptures and she can understand them so I was doing the right thing.... WRONG!! My friend explained to me how my 6 yr old was the only child without her own "real" scriptures. What did I do? That afternoon I rushed out and bought her her own set of "real scriptures" I also bought them for my 3 year old cause he will need them soon too. Apparently it isnt cool to wait until you are 8 to get scriptures anymore the cool thing is to get them straight when you go into primary. Man I am so behind on these kind of things. I felt terrible and thought what kind of mom am I to not have known this. We are back on the right track again. So what do you think FHE was about the week following the new scriptures? Yep Scripture study and Marking Scriptures. Anyway here is what we did and I hope that you can get a good idea for your FHE tonight from whaat happen in our home.

Opening Song: Search Ponder and Pray

Opening Prayer: Assigned

Lesson: Mommy

How many books of scripture do we have: (answer 4) We have the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctorine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

The Bible has stories written by Prophets who testified that Jesus would come and by people who knew Jesus when he was alive on the earth. These people lived where Jesus came from, in the East.

The Book of Mormon was written by Prophets who lived all the way across the world from where Jesus grew up. But they wrote the same things...Prophets told that Christ would come, they shared their testimonies of Him and they saw Him after his resurrection.

The Doctrine and Covenants was written by modern Prophets, like Joseph Smith. As he was organizing Christ's church on the earth he had many questions. The Doctrine and Covenants has the answers to many of those questions and is a history of the early Latter Day church.

The Pearl of Great Price contains many sacred writing that were lost many years ago. The Lord guided Joseph Smith to find those lost writings and translate them for us to read today. It also has a history of Joseph Smith's life and the Articles of Faith.

President Howard W. Hunter said, “When we … read and study the scriptures, benefits and blessings of many kinds come to us. This is the most profitable of all study in which we could engage.”

I told of experiences when the scriptures have helped me make decisions.

My Husband then did a little bit about marking scriptures and why we do this. He explained that we dont just write in our scriptures for no reason but how we mark things which are important to us. Things which we want to be able to find again quickly. He showed his scriptures from his mission and all the markings in them. The kids thought they were pretty cool.

We both bore our testimony about scriptures to the kids and then we moved on to our favorite part of FHE the activity. We made Scripture cookies. Fun and Yummy. This is also the dessert.

3/4 cup _________
“The words of his mouth were smoother than ____” (Ps. 55:21)

1/3 cup _________
“Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy ____ and honey” (2 Ne. 26:25)

1 1/2 cups _________
“To what purpose cometh there to me … the ____ ____ from a far country?” (Jer. 6:20)

2 _________
“As one gathereth ____ that are left, have I gathered all the earth” (Isa. 10:14)

2 cups _________
“And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine ____” (1 Kgs. 4:22)

1 teaspoon _________
“Take thou also unto thee principal spices … and of sweet ____ half so much” (Ex. 30:23)

1 teaspoon _________
“Ye are the ____ of the earth” (Matt. 5:13)

1/2 teaspoon _________
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto ____ (Matt. 13:33)

3 cups _________
“Nevertheless … ____ for the horse” (D&C 89:17)

1 cup _________
“And they gave him … two clusters of ____” (1 Sam. 30:12)

Beat first four ingredients together. Mix in remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° F (175° C) for 15 minutes.

Recipe origin unknown

Scripture Cookie Answers:
3/4 c butter, 1/3 c milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, 2 eggs, 2 c flour, 1 t cinnamon, 1 t salt, 1/2 t baking soda, 3 c oats, 1 c

I also printed off this picture for the kids to do while the cookies were baking:

I hope your family enjoys this lesson as much as mine did!!

Family Home Evening Idea

This morning on the way to school my daughter asked if for Family Home Evening we can talk about prophets. So as I have contemplated all day what we can talk about that we havent already discussed, I started singing the song Follow The Prophet. It then hit me my kids LOVE this song but Im not to sure how much they know about all the prophets in the song. So tonight we are going to focus on two Prophets they have heard of know the stories but maybe we havent talk about them as much as the modern and Book of Mormon prophets. I hope this idea can work for you and your family too.

Opening song: Follow the Prophet
Opening Prayer:
Family Business: Daddy (We have a Young family so this doesnt take to long. But with me being on the RS presidency and my husband the EQ President we tend to discuss what we will be doing in the week. Even our 6 year old gets involved. For example tonight she will be sure to remind us of her school disco on Wednesday, School Field Trip on Thursday and Dance on Saturday.)

Lesson: Mommy



Show picture of Adam and Eve and ask children if they know who these people are? We will then discuss Adam as a prophet how he was the first prophet. I tend to wing it and answer and ask questions about the picture and about Adam and Eve.



Next I will show a picture of the city of Enoch. I will ask my husband to tell the story of what happen to the people of the city of Enoch. We will again just talk with the children about Enoch and the city and how righteous they were.

Activity: Memory game with prophet pictures. I made some of these a while ago and they have come in so handy. All I di was make this picture bigger and print it out twice. I them cute the pictures up and thats it, Prophets Memory / Matching Game.



Dessert tonight is homemade Oreo type cookies. Here is the recipe I use.



Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 boxes Devils Food Cake Mix
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup shortening

Mix cake mixes, eggs, shortening. Roll in prune-size balls. Bake at 350 degrees on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet.

Cream Frosting for middle:
8 oz cream cheese
3 cups Powder Sugar
1/4 cup butter

Mix filling - put between 2 cooled cookies. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween Swag

I love this time of year and making loads of crafts. I have so many things on the go at the moment and I want to get them all done ASAP so that I can get to display them before the end of the Halloween season.

So craft Number 1 is a Halloween Swag. I just wanted something cute to hang across my mantle piece. and here is what I came up with:




This was so simple to make. I found some paper mache letters at the local craft shop. I just painted them black and orange and then glued them to a piece of orange ribbon. I also found some cute Halloween stickers that I put on some of the letters too. It was so simple and it looks really cute on my mantle.

Like I said I have loads more crafts on the go, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas things. So keep watching for more.

How To Make Pumpkin Puree

So here in England it is very difficult to get cans of pumpkin. There is one store that sells it from the 6 - 31 of October, the rest of the year there isnt any. So I normally stock up on pumpkin but from time to time I dont get enough and have to puree a pumpkin myself. The other problem is you can only buy a pumpkin those same times of year. So I very often substitute pumpkin for butternut squash. It works fantastic and tastes the same too.

Im not too sure how many people know how to make their own puree so I thought it might be a good idea to share just how I do it. You may do it different but this is what works best for me.

Step One:
Pre-heat your oven to about 325F 170C or gas mark 4.

Step 2:
Cut your pumpkin or Butternut Squash in half and deseed it. If you are using a pumpkin you can leave it in two big sections or you can put it into quarters at this point.

Step 3:


Place the pumpkin or Squash in a baking dish or on a cookie sheet flesh side up. Fill the bottom of the baking tray with water and place in the oven for about an hour.

Step 4:


Remove from oven when the flesh of the pumpkin or squash is tender. I check this by poking it with a fork, kind of like what I do when I am making mashed potatoes. I know it is done when the fork goes into the pumpkin or squash and comes out very easily.

Step 5:



Remove all the flesh from the skin and use in your favorite pumpkin recipe. Today I made this pumpkin bread recipe and sent some with my hubby into work. Everyone loved it. I hope this little tutorial helps someone