“Harmonious Homes, Family Memories & Flowing Laughter”

Jane Worthington

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before–colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.  -President Dieter F. Uchtdor, “Happiness, Your Heritage“

Some of the things I do with my family:

Back to School Parties

I have a circle with numbers written on the sidewalk like a cake walk. Children walk around the circle while the music is playing when the music stops they must be on a number that is called out to get a prize. The prizes are pencils, paper crayons and other school supplies. We play musical chairs with the same supplies given out. Everyone gets the same gifts–no one is left out, the games are just to facilitate the giving out of the prizes

Halloween Parties

We Decorate pumpkins, no cutting, just drawing and pasting. We have apple dunking, pizza and Jell-o to eat.

Easter Parties

Easter egg hunt giving out a basket for each child to gather their own eggs for candy and money

Other Family Parties

There are birthdays, baby blessings, baptisms, weddings, [baby or wedding] showers. We also just get together because we like to get together. You don’t need matching plates, silverware, or cups to have fun and laughter. You come to enjoy family not all the decorations.

Sleep-over Parties

Every Thursday grandchildren would call and I would pick up the phone and they would say, “Grandma…” and I would say, “Yes you may sleep over.” They would say, “How do you know what we’re going to ask?”

Every Friday night was sleep-over night. This is a wonderful time for cousins to get together and enjoy each other. Grandsons and granddaughters that have grown up together, have stayed close because of this early associations. Grandsons as adults even play together on the same ball teams because they still enjoy each other. Sleep-over morning I served scrambled eggs, toast and jam. Grandpa would serve colored French toast. Grandpa would let the grandchildren put curlers in his hair and style it. [Jane explained how he was always the ‘softy’ of the family.] There is always lots of fun and laughter.

Worthington Summer Ideas

Picnics: When my children were young I would gather them and the neighborhood kids. Tell them we were going on a picnic, make peanut butter and jam sandwich, pile in the car (this was before seat belts) I would drive until I would see a park and that is where we would stop and eat and play. I found many parks that way. You can even have a picnic in your own backyard.

Drive-in-Shows: I’d have my kids go out and get the kids in the neighborhood who would like to go to the show. We would load them in the car (this was before seat belts) and head off to the show, it was $3 a car.

Spending evenings alone with my older children: While my husband was doing his bishop [congregation leader] duties, I would talk with my older children. I found out how things were going in school and in their social life.

Go on family trips and brings others with you: When I was down to two children at home I told them they needed to go out and invite someone to go with us, we’re not used to going with so few children.

One summer I had fourteen children staying at my home. I thought my fridge was broken. I made sure it was plugged in and called the repair man. After checking he asked how many children were at the home and when I told him. He said, “Lady there isn’t anything wrong with the fridge, just make sure when the children open the fridge they know what they want. The door isn’t closed long enough to keep things cold.”

Dinners

Every three months, I get together with my children and their spouses to have dinner. They rotate homes where the dinner is served. Every three months I have a pot-luck dinner with everyone at my home, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I have door prizes and other surprises for them to enjoy. I have the young-adult aged grandchildren over for dinner and give out door prizes and play games. I have individual families over for Sunday dinner. We love Thanksgiving dinners. Our Christmas parties rotated yearly to a different child’s home. My husband always would sing “White Christmas,” even though he has passed away we will still sing it as a tradition. [I think she said they have a recording of him singing this, also.] The yearly General Relief Society Meeting is a special time for me to take all the girls 18 and older to dinner after we listen to the conference. We’ve been out to dinner and we have had others stop by and wonder what we were laughing about but we were just enjoying each other.

Family Reunion

This reunion has been going on for 47 years in the same place. This is my extended family reunion. My immediate family are the only members of the Mormon Church. I started having family home evening one night during the week and even now when I get there the kids will ask “Aunt Jane,” which is me, “when are we having family night?”  Even though we have boats and all the water gear the first thing they want to know is when we are going to have family home evening.

Some of the games we play are:

-Money in the sand: We take a small pool and put sand in it and bury money (don’t use pennies they’re hard to see). Children put one hand behind their backs and with the other reach in and grab for the money. It helps to have someone standing behind them with a sandwich bag to collect the money for them.
-Sling shot game: Flexible surgical tubing with a pouch in the center filled with candy or water balloons is shot out over the sand for the children to pick up and gather. When playing other games the children are given tickets for participating. 
– Then they use the tickets as money to pick gifts from things I have bought at the dollar store. You should see how big their eyes get when selecting what they want with their tickets.

Conclusions

What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. Have fun with your family. Have love and laughter. My family is kind of like the show “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” My one son-in-law when first married into the family couldn’t believe all the conversations going on at the same time. We told him if he didn’t like one conversation he could go to another.

My grandchildren and great-grandchildren call me “the party grandma.” You can have a party for anything anytime! Just enjoy your family.

My children always ask me, “How are you feeling?”

I tell them, “I’m great.”

“No really, Mom, how are you?”

I tell them, “I’m great.”

I feel if you say this long enough, in time, you will be great!

Life is great so enjoy your family!

——-

What things do you like to do to create memories and opportunities for fun and laughter with your family?

The post Family Friday: Jane’s Family Fun appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

If you are a mother, you participate with God in His work of creation—not only by providing physical bodies for your children but also by teaching and nurturing them. If you are not a mother now, the creative talents you develop will prepare you for that day, in this life or the next.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Happiness, Your Heritage“

When I think of being creative, my mind often goes to the creative arts, and quickly, I feel out of my league. But as I thought about it, and pondered President Uchtdorf’s amazing talk, I realized that as a mom, in simple ways, I do have opportunities to create. And as President Uchtdorf said, engaging in the work of creation does bring me a deep sense of joy and a deepened love for and appreciate of my children.

I should note that motherhood has not come naturally to me. It has stretched me out of my comfort zone and exposed many weaknesses, and continues to do so. But I do find that when I put my heart into it — for example, by creating in ways that I share below — I find a great deal of growth and satisfaction in this eternally-important role.

Creating Teaching Moments

I like to create teaching moments for my children, whom I will sometimes affectionately call little spiritual sponges; they soak up so much if I’m willing to put in the work to teach them. We have had some fun along the way learning together. I also like creating visual reminders with them of what we have learned.

For example this is a “Gratitude Poster” that we did for Family Home Evening several years ago. It still hangs on our wall. Between photos and magazine clippings, we had quite a fun time creating our poster. As you can see, we are grateful for the Savior (He’s at the center), for prophets (President Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet at the time, and we also included some ancient prophets, like Nephi), for family, for the temple, for the  priesthood, for covenants, for the beautiful earth God has created, for friends, for books, for food, church….and the list goes on. At the time, our girls were taking ballet, so there is even a big ballet shoe there at the bottom.

During another Family Home Evening, we did a “Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy” lesson. I think Grandma and Grandpa were there. We talked about the things that are good to do on that day, and the things we should avoid. We took turns drawing strips of paper from a hat and gluing them one one side or the other; the children loved it. (For more information on the history of Family Home Evening, see here.)

We still have that poster in our family room as well. (So much for fancy decorations, huh?)

Creating Memories

Once in a great while, though, we do get a little more fancy.

I like creating memories with my children in our day-to-day life. Several months ago, our eight-year-old daughter had an etiquette lesson at school. She learned the ropes about table settings. On a whim, I decided to help her make a nice dinner, using our fancy dishes. We surprised Dad with it all. During the dinner, she also taught us things she had learned about manners. It’s a night we will all remember.

On another whim, just a few weeks ago as school ended, we decided to have an end-of-school party with the neighborhood children. We just played games, watched a movie (we picked from one we already had), ate some snacks (including the simple graduation treats below).

Recently, while on vacation, each of my girls wanted to help in the kitchen, and each time, we decided to turn it into a “let’s play restaurant” game. So I tried to step back and let them create. One daughter had an idea for a fun dessert with what we had on hand.

One another day, my youngest daughter really went all-out, including fancy (plastic) glasses with fruit punch…

And hand-made menus and bills.

Creating as I Cook

Lastly, I like to create food that uses food storage and hides healthy food for my children. Of course, sometimes the experiments don’t work so well, but there are a few things that have become standard fare.

For example, rather than using canned cream of chicken soup for tuna casserole, I  make a sauce with boullion cubes dissolved in water, thickened with 2-3 T canola or olive oil and the same amount of wheat flour, 2-3 T of ground light flax seed and/or quinoa flakes, and enough milk to make it the right consistency. Oh, and I puree a can of white beans, too. I add two cans of tuna and that sauce goes over 16-24 oz of cooked, shaped pasta.

I use this sauce for other recipes as well, like Hawaiian Haystacks (rice covered in chicken, sauce, pineapple, and other toppings, including chow mein noodles).

Recently, I experimented with making cookies with egg substitutes and wheat flour. I used a regular recipe for chocolate chip bar cookies, and just used wheat flour instead of white, and an eggs substitute and ground flax seeds (mixed with the allocated amount of water) instead of eggs. They didn’t turn out too bad. I’ll probably need to tweak them, though, before I’ll take them to a ward party. [Update: I tried them a second time and they turned out yummy!]

Don’t ask me about my broccoli lasagna, though. I am sure my children will talk about that someday at my funeral. “Mom liked to experiment with hiding healthy foods as she cooked. But that broccoli lasagna was dis-gus-ting!” (Actually, one child liked it, but even I found it intolerable. I won’t ever use raw broccoli again in such a recipe….)

How do you create in your day-to-day life? Send us pictures or just share your thoughts below by submitting a comment.

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. —Pres. Uchtdorf

The post First Person: How I Create as a Mom appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Below enjoy a video that the Church recently put together with some of the words of his talk. And take a minute to read the talk and share with us how it inspires and helps you.

(We have appreciated those who have sent links to some of their creations and expressions of faith, and look forward to sharing them here in the coming days and weeks. Please keep them coming.)

The post <i>Review, Reflect, and Return</i>: Create! (Video) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

But here’s our first “Review, Reflect, and Return” post. We want to share articles, talks, videos, etc. that we have found interesting and meaningful, and invite you to share your thoughts and feelings about them. Simply use the comment form below, or you can email us at ‘mormonwoman’ AT ‘gmail’ DOT ‘com.’ The hope is that we can learn and benefit from each other’s reflections.

This week, we will focus on two talks, actually, both by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

The first we think is a fitting message for a new year, especially given all the difficulty we have seen recently with economic struggles, political unrest and conflict worldwide, and many other challenges. President Uchdorf’s message, “The Infinite Power of Hope” reminds us that hope can be an anchor in our lives, even — or especially — in difficult times. We look forward to enjoying your thoughts about this powerful principle.

His second talk, “Happiness, Your Heritage” was directed to women, and was one that touched a lot of people. We would love to hear your thoughts about it. How does this talk help you think about your day-to-day life? Your talents? Making choices about how to spend your time? How do creation and compassion help you find happiness and peace in your life?

Whether you are LDS or not, we hope you take the opportunity to read these articles, and come share your thoughts with us.

If you have an article, talk, video, or other material you think would be good for this feature, please let us know!

The post New Feature: <i>Review, Reflect, and Return</i> appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.