Raise the Bar

Tonight, for family home evening, we talked about going beyond the mark.  I read portions of Jeffrey R. Holland's address he gave BYU students in 1980 when he became president of BYU.  I won't go into all the details, but to summarize here are two quotes.  "It has made a wonderful difference in my life to have demanded just a bit more of myself."  "Work hard, work early, be honest, knock on one more door before quitting, stand out in the crowd through extra effort and personal commitment."  We then talked about a talk L. Tom Perry gave called Raising the Bar.  His son was practicing high-jump.  He asked him what height.  5 feet, 8 inches, that is the height to qualify for the state track meet.  Elder Perry wanted him to raise the bar and see how he would do.  His son didn't want to because then he might miss.  Elder Perry asked him, "If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?"

Mike then gave examples from his work.  He talked about being the new guy and figuring out how they do things.  He would notice something that could be done better and work at home on a way to figure out how to accomplish that.  Then he would bring it back to work and present it.  He has done that several times.  Now, he has a lot of freedom at his work because they know that whatever he does, it is going to be well above the minimum required.  We decided this is going to be our family theme for the year.  Raise the bar.  Jorja wanted to make shirts.  Ha!

I tried and tried to find a good ponderizing scripture to go along with this.  We have dropped the ball on the ponderizing scriptures, but we're starting again.  I couldn't find one that I liked to go along with this lesson.  I ended up choosing a scripture that in a round about way relates to what we were discussing.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;" --Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I want them to spend this year raising the bar, but I also need them to know they do not have to be perfect.  If they try to raise the bar in every aspect of life they might become frustrated.  It is important to know where to put your effort.  Things that are required for me are not required for them.  Also it's important to know when to put effort into designing video games and when to put effort into schooling.  Elder Holland said in his talk, "You can get it all if you decide now to study first and play later.  The alternative is, as so many come to learn, to play now and study never.  You'll be surprised at how much time you then have at your disposal.  If you loaf early and try to work late, you'll be surprised at how much of your time has gone down the disposal."

Eight Not Seven

So a little over a month ago I was texted about a boy who moved into our ward.  His parents are divorced, so he wouldn't be able to come to scouts every week.  In the message it said his birthday was 12/4/07. Preston was born in 2006, so I knew this boy was seven years old.  I have been planning on him coming into scouts in December.  Anyway, his dad texted me today asking when scouts is.  I guess his boy is 8 turning 9.  Whoops.  I had no idea.  I haven't been in primary for a long time, so I didn't notice the date I was given was wrong.  All of my scouts were able to come today.  We did Code of the Wolf, which was pretty fun.  Then we played the candy bar game since it was Preston's last time with me.  Kind of sad about that.  Mike came home early and helped the scouts make apple cider with the apple press.  Luke is probably traumatized for life.  He thought it was so disgusting when the apples were coming out.  Crew and Burke on the other hand LOVED it! Crew couldn't get over how good it was.  He told me several times it is the best apple juice he has ever had. I really have a good group of scouts.

Preston picked the ponderize scripture this week.  "Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness.  Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness." --Alma 41:10

Reflections

They announced the Reflections winners today at the elementary school.  The first picture is Preston getting his certificate.  There was over 90 participants, so they called the kids up in groups of 10.  The lady behind Preston is the new principal.  Her name is Stacy Tracy.  Or Tracy Stacy, I can't remember.  I hope she is as good as Principal McKay.  He was great!

Preston's group

Audrey won for dance.  I was so happy for her!  Audrey is the one wearing the cute ears.

Audrey

Preston won in the video category.  He took a video of him playing a game he made.  There is no computer game category.  This is the only picture I got because my phone ran out of space.  I tried deleting other pictures, but I wasn't fast enough.

Preston with his trophy

Jorja picked our ponderizing scripture for the week.  It is: The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of God. --3 Nephi 16:20

Mallory's FIVE!

Happy 5th birthday Mallory!  Wow that girl is growing up fast!  We sent her a book that I think she is going to love, but in pure Stephanie fashion, it won't get there for a few days.

Maysen picked the scripture to ponderize for the week.

"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine." -- Exodus 19:5

Early Morning

I had my super hard exercise class again today.  Class today started at 5:00, but only lasted a half a hour.  That was kind of weird, but I wasn't complaining.  Some of the people in my class were.  Those people are insane.  We had our body fat measurements today.  They had us go in the Bod Pod.  It was like a weird bubble that blew air at you.  We needed to be measured three times to get an accurate reading.  I am at my heaviest I have been in years!  For sure the heaviest I have been since my surgeries.  I hope I can get back down to where I was, or at least closer to it by the end of this class.

Mike took Maysen and Zoe to early morning seminary today.  I couldn't get back in time.  He went straight to work afterwords.  He is not an early person, but says he would rather do this than my exercise class with me.

Mike was in charge of picking our new scripture to ponderize.  He picked 3 Nephi 13:33.  That's a lot of threes!  The scripture is:

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

I picked up Jorja and Katlyn from school.  Jorja sure has fun with her.  They played together for several hours today.  Jorja was loving it.

Katlyn & Jorja

Ponderize

We decided that we would take the Ponderizing challenge.  Although, instead of each of us coming up with our own scripture each week, we are going to do it as a family.  I got to pick the first scripture.  I picked:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." --Proverbs 3:5-6

Right now each of the kids have written the scripture on a sticky note that is left by their computer.  We also have it written on the mirror in the upstairs bathroom.  We'll see how this goes, but I think it should be fun.  It will be interesting to see what scriptures the kids come up with.