Lesson 17/Manual 1

I know I didn't post anything for lesson 16 and I'm sorry. But I do have a link for you to a great idea for that lesson so if you need a little inspiration go here to check it out.

Ok with that said, as this coming Sunday is Mother's Day the men come and teach all the classes so that all the women can go to Relief Society for a treat and great lesson. BUT I thought I'd post a few ideas anyway for what this lesson should be, Lesson 17 "The Purpose of Covenants & Ordinances"

First I like the idea of the Payday candy bar that goes with the part of the lesson about not getting paid all the time. So I would attach a mini Payday candy bar to my quotes and scriptures that I would have the girls do during the lesson. 

I think I would also use the video by Quentin L. Cook "Seek the Higher Ground"

Also be sure to read the extra talks on the side bar of the lesson for more great inspiration and insight.

As a hand out I found a cute idea over at "The Three Sweet Peas"  (via Sugardoodle) and she even has the printable for you.

I also thought how covenants are "binding" and thought for a handout I would make a rope bracelet (ya know being bound at the wrists) and attach this scripture Doctrine and Covenants 82:10.

I found some cute bracelets on Pinterest that would be great.

 How to found here

How to found here

This is the source but the how to link didn't work for me, sorry. But being the crafty people you are I'm sure you could work it out on your own.

Hope this helps. : )

Lesson 15/Manual 1

This next week I do actually get to teach. So here is my start at preparing my lesson. I found a great idea for teaching this lesson by doing it in game form. I'm so thankful for those that are creative like this, I know I wouldn't have thought to do this. Here's her link to "Who Wants to be a Celestial Heir" (who wants to be a millionaire). I hope to also have time to cover a few more points from the lesson about supporting the priesthood. 

 I also saw this great idea to demonstrate using the power of the priesthood at Sugardoodle. This is the link. For the hand out I would attach a cookie to a hand whisk that you can get at the dollar store.  

Or I also found this great idea as well. 

 Source

I also love the short video of President Monson speaking about the priesthood which you can find on the side bar to the lesson under media. 

If I have any other bright ideas I'll be sure to update this post. : )

lesson 14/Manual 1

I realized after talking to some friends of mine that some of you may come here looking for ideas for lessons. I don't teach every week but thought that I would start posting ideas I had for lessons because inevitably one day I will teach these again. So for my own resource in the future I will try to post the lesson coming up the following Sunday on Sunday (does that even make sense?). 

This next Sunday on our wards lesson schedule lesson 14 will be taught. The title of the lesson is Patriarchal Leadership in the Home.

First I would like to say that the resources on the side bar of this lesson are the first place I go for any additional help I may need. I love to use the media that they have provided to add a little variety to my lessons. They also have great talks like THIS one to go along with the lesson and I highly recommend reading those for further inspiration. 

For the beginning of this lesson they have you give the girls a quiz. On Sugardoodle I found a few ladies that turned it into a game instead and had great success, sounds like fun to me. But if you'd like to do the actual quiz I did up a digital version you're welcome to use. It can be found HERE. 

And of course I would have to have a handout for the girls and right away ties and mustaches popped into my head because this lesson has to do with fathers. 

So here are few ideas I found.

I thought these (only using a more manly colored straw) tied to the "pop" below would be cute. Or you could attach the quotes and stories from the lesson that you want the girls to read to them

 source

Cute. add a tie to a pop bottle and add the saying "you are the best POP" (this is what I'd add the straw to)

source:

Love these mustache suckers. Would be really cute packaged up in a cello bag and tied off with some twine. 

 source: 

Super cute shirt bags. Great to put a little treat in for dad. 

 source

Also super cute would be these tie cookies. I'd leave out the stick and stick them in a cello bag. 

 source

And last are these cute candy ties. 

source

I hope this helps anyone else preparing this lesson. 

High Heels High Standards Night

In one of our meetings recently we were talking about the concerns we had for our YW. One that came up was the short shorts that seem to come out when summer comes. We decided to address this issue with a Standards night before the summer came and it felt like we were pointing fingers. 

Lucky for me I had the next available combined activity coming up. So I put together our 

High Heels High Standards Night.

I had been racking my brain for a theme to use so that I could make this fun and I came across the "High Heels High Standards" over at Sisters In Zion. Also there they had posted pictures of these high heel cupcakes that I had also seen on Pinterest and wanted to use. 

I went with a boutique feel for the evening and loved how it all came together. 

This is the invitation that I created that I gave the girls the Sunday before.

Sets the tone for the whole night don't ya think?

 

I had each girl bring their favorite pair of high heels to the activity. I was going to use them as display and to incorporate into the lesson I was giving. 

I had my good friend who is a whiz at cakes come over the night before to help me do them. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out and now that I've made them will totally be doing them again (I've got more color and design combos I want to try). 

 Once upon a time I wanted to do my laundry room in pink and black with a Parisian/fashion them going on so I happened to have a few things on hand that I could use. 

I set up five classroom tables and on each table put a box of some kind because I wanted to display the girl's shoes that they brought. Each table was a little different.

 Their favors to take home were those little shopping bags on the classroom tables. Inside I put one of those glass slippers you get in the wedding section at the craft store with some Hot Tamalies. The tag on the front said "Modest is Hottest".

I wish I would have gotten some pictures with the girl's shoes on these tables but alas, the night got away from me. 

In the center of the room I set up a long table for the high heel cupcakes.

Here are a few shots of the whole room.

 

To start off I asked a few of the girls to tell us why the shoe they brought was their favorite and how they felt when they wore it. Then I picked up a shoe (which happened to be a zebra print in sequins) and asked them to tell me about the person who would wear this shoe. Things like fun, confident, attitude, stylish all came out and then we asked who's shoe it was and if all those words described that person, which they did. I then related that what we wear tells others about who we are and explained that we were going to be focusing on modesty for the evening.

 During the course of the program we went over the guidelines in the For Strength of Youth book and talked about those. I also wanted to emphasize the "why" we have been asked to dress modestly so we talked about their divine role and used some great quotes from the apostles.

I had gathered some magazines and asked them to find the modestly dressed women in them and we taped them up on the board and pointed out that sometimes it may not be easy to find the modest clothing out there but if we look hard enough we can always find it.

 I also found a You Tube video that was titled "A guys view on modesty" that we played at the end. And to make it a little more personal for them I had two Priests in our ward write letters (because they had their own activity going on) about their thoughts on modesty.

I ended with this quote (and it being days later that I'm doing this post cannot remember who it is that said it, so if you know please let me know so I can give credit)

"In the classic fairy tale, Cinderella wore a magnificent gown to the royal ball. Even her slippers reflected the significance of the evening! It would have been unthinkable for her to come in her working clothes. In fact, no one arrived at the ball dressed in inappropriate, casual clothing. They were all elegantly dressed for the occasion."

I then explained that our life here on earth is our "ball". At this ball we can even find our Prince Charming, and that we need to be appropriately dressed for the occasion.

It was a great evening and I hope the girls had their testimonies of modesty strengthened from it.

coming up

So right on the "heels" of our New Beginnings I am in charge of our Standards night. We wanted to address modesty at this standards night because as the warm weather approaches we see too much skin. Living here in Las Vegas the warm weather comes soon and stays for quite a while so we wanted to address this before it became and issue. 

I pinned these high heel cupcakes a while back and then saw that the girls over at Sisters in Zion put a really cute twist on them. I have been racking my brain for a theme for this Standards night ,because well I just work better when I have a theme, and they had a perfect one for me to run with.

So I introduce to you the invite for our High Heels and High Standards Night.

The heels play right in to "attire" and more specifically modest attire. 

So here is the invite I created for this night. 

 

I've had them printed off and then I added some black boa to the top for a more boutique kind of feel to them. 

I'll post more soon about the program and what else I've got cooked up for the night. I'm so excited about this one!!!!

Valentines Day treat

I took a little treat around to my beehives for Valentines Day to let them know I love them. 

I saw this on a great blog Inking Idaho and I know I'll be doing lots more of these in the future. 

You can find these mini bags HERE, but find a friend who wants to get some as well or plan to buy a bunch because they charge for small orders, but it's still a pretty good deal. I sorted a bag of Valentine M&M's to put in them.

I also later added a tag with their name but didn't snap a picture of that~ sorry.

A Sunny New Beginnings

Our Sunny New Beginnings was a great success. I was so proud of all our girls who participated, they did such a great job. I took a few of the ideas from my idea board to put together our refreshment table, that was the extent of our decor for the evening. 

I chose to to the ruffled crepe paper for a backdrop for the table (which I love, love, love, and won't do plain crepe paper ever again).

 

I also loved the lemons under glass and did a mini version using glass from 8x10 frames.

I added a little sparkle and shine to the table with some mason jars and glittery letters which I found at Hobby Lobby. I made mini cake stands from candle plates and candle sticks (which I got at the Dollar Tree) to put the jars on. I also added some glitter around the jars for a little more sparkle. 

 I also made a little bunting for the front of the table.

For our refreshments we had Lemon bars, lemon cheesecake, sunshine cookies, mini lemon cupcakes, and cake pops for them to take home.

It was a great night and I hope all the girls felt the spirit of Personal Progress and will be inspired to be more diligent in doing theirs.