Family Joy is Found in Righteousness

If you've read any of my other posts you've most likely discovered that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love my church, and the gospel that I have found within its bounds.
One aspect of my church (differentiating from gospel here) that I have come to love is the concept of Home and Visiting teaching.
Each willing adult member of the church is given an assignment to minister to other families in the congregation (we call it a 'ward'). It's an assignment that can be really difficult for some.
It can be hard to go out of your comfort zone and befriend and try to converse with someone you know nothing about.
The first visit is always the hardest to set up. It's not that you dislike the person you've been assigned to visit with, it's just scary to reach out to someone who might say, "Eh, no. Don't come by and I don't like you."
I've been fortunate to cultivate many relationships through Visiting Teaching, and each time I'm nervous about an assignment it always becomes less of an obligation and more of a desire to actually love, serve, and minister to my assignee.
The church puts out a short message each month that we believe is inspired, and we're asked to share the message with our families.

This months message is "Family Joy is Found in Righteousness" and I love it. My favorite quote from the message this month was as follows:

And while our family members can sometimes drift away from righteousness like the Nephites did, Elder Scott said that a Christ-centered home still “provides the greatest assurance for peace and refuge in our homes.” He acknowledged that “there will still be plenty of challenges or heartaches, but even in the midst of turmoil, we can enjoy inner peace and profound happiness.”

I found this to be true in my home growing up. Every family has their struggles and mine was no exception. But as my siblings and I lost sight of our righteous goals, we always felt the peace and refuge that our home provided. My mother always made our home a place where the spirit could dwell, and I think that's why so many of our friends liked to congregate there - unbeknownst to them, what they were feeling was the presence of the Spirit.

I've seen something similar in my own home since starting my own family. My husband is a student and his classmates often choose our home for social events, even when our home may not be the largest or the most accommodating. It could be that it's just easier since we're the only ones with kids that need to be sleeping while we're playing, but I believe there is an additional element there, that others can feel something different when they enter our home.

My second favorite part of the message that I loved was one of the 'Additional Scriptures', 2 Nephi 5:27 says, "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." I love that! I hope that as I continue to try my best to live in righteousness that I, like the Nephites, can live after the manner of happiness! My husband actually shared this quote from Elder Jeffery R. Holland on facebook today, and I thought it fit right along with this message:

"If we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow—and every other day—is ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always recognize it as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be! He wants to bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth “that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever." Elder Jeffrey R Holland.

I made up a few printables with my visiting teaching ladies in mind, and thought I'd share them with you if you'd like to share them with your families (and those you teach) too! They are sized at 16x20, but you can easily print them as 8x10s.

Download the Green one here

Download the yellow one here

Download the chalk one here

My Fall Simmer

When I was young I remember my mom putting some things in a small foil pie plate and setting it on the stove to help our home smell like Fall. When I saw Becky from CleanMama.net's post a few weeks ago I wanted to try it out for myself.

I didn't have any fresh cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, or sage leaves at my disposal (and I wouldn't have a use for them outside of this activity) so I just faked it. I simmered this all morning and when I came out of my room to grab a drink (I work in my bedroom while a nanny sits my kids for a few hours) I was so happy to smell deliciousness wafting through my home! Here's what I did:

1/2 water
1 tsp vanilla (I just did a lidful)
1 slice lemon (it was even old)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

I placed that in a glass oven-safe dish on LOW on my back burner for several hours. I'm pretty sure that Pyrex isn't 'stove safe', but I have done this with wax melts and haven't seen any issues because it doesn't get very hot. I was able to move the dish off the stove with bare hands, but if you're uncomfortable with it, you could probably just throw this in a pan like CleanMama does.

Here's the thing. It's not near as pretty as fresh herbs and spices........

My husband says that it smells like Christmas, which, if you're like me (and not ANTI Christmas until after Thanksgiving), that is a great thing!

What are some cheap ways you like to scent your home? Let me know if you try this!

Be Our Guest - Setting up a guest bedroom

When my sister told me that her and her husband were planning on coming to visit (there's always an open invitation for any of my family or friend's to come visit!) I was excited to transform our room into a guest bedroom for their stay.

Something to note: we live in a two-bedroom apartment.

Housing guests is always a little bit of a challenge, but I try to make all parties comfortable. I wanted to make this visit as comfortable as possible because my sister is expecting her first child. If there's one rule I follow, it's that pregnant ladies get treated like royalty.

It started when I was pregnant with my first child; I was blown away at how much nicer people were to me: offering chairs and beds, making sure I always had water, carrying things for me, and overall, being concerned for me - asking how I'm feeling, etc. After experiencing all that kindness, I felt a duty (gladly accepted) to do the same for other expecting women.

And so (segue back into the main point here) I set out to make my sister's stay as luxurious as it could be - bar staying in a two bedroom apartment with four other people, two of whom, are less than three.

We had a great time during their visit, and after one night of sleep my sister said, "I woke up and I was so comfortable I didn't want to move." Success!! :)

I could have sworn I'd read a post from Clean Mama (a great blog that I follow - go follow her, too!) about prepping a guest bedroom, but when I searched for the post I couldn't find it anywhere. Therefore, I had to make it up as I went, trying to dig through the recesses of my brain to remember some of her tips.

1. The Bed
This is where I started. I made sure to wash the sheets the day they came so that they smelled fresh and hadn't been slept in. I also changed out our 'shammed' pillows for some normal matching pillow cases in the event that they forgot their pillows (my sister is not the type to forget pillows. She brought six and still used the ones I provided). I also pulled in the pillows from the front room for throw pillows. I added a throw blanket on the end for added warmth if needed. As a tiny extra touch, I exchanged my wedding photo for this print I found at LollyJane.com.




2. The Nightstands
Because I wanted to make this a luxurious stay, I set out some foot cream (for my brother-in-law to use on my sisters cute pregnant feet) and some men's lotion. Alarm clock, bowl for pocket contents, tissues, remote to the fan, lamp and some reading material.



On the other side I simply set out my extra set of scriptures, a lamp, and a massage roller.






3. The Bathroom
Luckily I keep the majority of my 'get-ready' supplies in either baskets or drawers, so my counter is generally pretty cleared and I simply moved them to the other bathroom.




Hey There!

I moved our toothbrushes and pill reminders out and added a few touches. Bath salts (in a cleaned out spaghetti jar with some paper letters taped to it), a shower cap (from our last stay at the Little America), new disposable razors, face mask, and Indulgent Eye Gel (love me some Mary Kay!).






Have you ever been a guest somewhere and you need something desperately but were too embarrassed to ask? So there you were, trying to open, sift through, and close every drawer and cupboard in the powder room as silently as possible, praying your host didn't hear you snooping around.

Something I'm always secretly hunting for when I am a guest is Q-Tips. Seriously, do most people keep these guys in a hidden closet I don't have access to?? To save my guests from having to peer into every drawer in the bathroom, I made sure cotton balls and Q-Tips were in the open and ready to use.






And lastly, towels. Because we don't have a linen closet, I always keep my towels rolled and in a basket in the bathroom. Lucky for me, I didn't have to do anything to ensure that my guests had direct access to a towel. I'm pleased to say we had no occurrences of our guests standing wet and nude in the shower hollering for a towel.







4. The Suitcase Stand & Wall Decor
At the end of my list comes this little tidbit. I'll be honest, prior to reading Clean Mama's post, I had no clue what these little do-dad's were for in hotels. They always sat idling in the closet waiting for me to discover their use. Now that I know, I've become more cognizant of keeping my suitcase elevated so that I don't have to sit on the floor to access it. We don't have a suitcase rack, so we used this little beauty we had lying around instead: 

Aren't we so fancy? 
I didn't want my sister to be subjected to my bridals so I covered them up with these beautiful printables from Elise Creates and [I don't know where!!! I tried for 1.5 hours to refind it online and I can't!!]



I can't keep this little clothed these days. #pottytrainingprobs

And that's a wrap. I had such a nice time hosting my sister and her husband, but you know what? They couldn't have cared less about all my preparations! I'm not saying I'm bitter about it. I'm just saying, as a guest, they had pretty low expectations. It wasn't until I asked if they liked the quote above the bed that they even noticed it! My sister didn't need all the extras and I didn't need to go out of my way to make it so complicated, but I enjoyed doing it! I am discovering that I am a little over-the-top and, for the most part, I like it!

What are some things that you like to prepare for as a host?
And better yet, what are some of your best/worst experiences as the guest? I would love to hear your stories and suggestions!