Family Home Evening & Church Ideas

Ok, so I try to do family home evening every Monday night with my girls...and now that Bachelor is over it's much easier to accomplish haha! I just thought I would share a few ideas and tips I have on making it really easy(because fitting this in with everyday crazy life can actually be very difficult sometimes).  So first, I put together an entire book of ideas. Now this took me a few weeks to do, but man it is worth it!  I used a lot of lesson ideas from the Primary manual and that is really useful.  I also have living scripture movies and books so that was my main source too.  Now I can just flip through every Monday and just pick out what activity I want to do and it's all done. There are 40 lessons in here and the way we do FHE is like this.....There are usually 4 Mondays in every month, so I split them up by doing 2 gospel lesson-activities and 2 Mondays doing a family activity like going to the indoor pool, a park & picnic dinner (if nice weather), going to the movies, game& pizza night, etc.  This pattern works really well especially because I have younger kids that can only handle a 15 minute church type lesson! Anyway, maybe try making a binder one week like this and just devote your time to it bc when it's done and you have lessons every Monday for a long time....it's well worth the effort!  

I also keep a church bag for every Sunday...ready to go, all I have to do is add the snacks!  I don't know if your like me, but I am ALWAYS late for everything with my kids trying to get out the door! So this really helps me always be prepared. I got a bag that you can put the crayons in the little slots, and I went to the dollar store and got bible coloring books for 1.00!!! I put in church related book and magazines and something to draw with, a few snacks and you don't need a fifty pound bag for church anymore( unless you have a baby of course...then you will always need an extra bag!) 

Here is an example of a fun lesson I have done with my girls last week....I found a bunch of church related pictures( of Christ, and things Christ wants us to do here on earth, etc) and I made little word strips to describe them.  Then I hung with sticky tack all around my house ( kind of hidden) and we went on a scavenger hunt for The Teachings of the Savior! My kids thought it was so fun to look around for them and when we found one, we talked about it!  Sometimes there was a song we had to sing or act out praying and being reverent in church hallways, etc. It was really cute and easy!

Those are my tidbits for the week on church life made a little easier! Hope you all enjoy!

Must Have Tasty Tuesday!!

OK...so I know I have been terrible at  posting this last week but my girls haven't been feeling well and it's been a crazy week so I am back...I promise! And it's tasty Tuesday again hehe! I have a great one for you ladies today.........Strawberry Chocolate Trifle....uh yeah...

1.) Make a 9 by 13 pan of any kind of brownies you like and let them cool completely, cut into cubes.
2.) Slice a pint of strawberries.
3.) Combine a 3.4 oz box of chocolate pudding mix, 1 cup cold water, and 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk and mix well and stick in the fridge to cool for about 10 minutes.
4.) In another bowl, whip one pint of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add a little powdered sugar.
5.) Once the first four steps are completed, start layering in a trifle bowl-pudding, brownie cubes,whipped cream, then strawberries. layer over and over until complete!  Enjoy!!!

Ps- I added bananas! THIS IS SO DELICIOUS!!!!!

Tasty Tuesday!!

OK, so I have been getting more into cooking lately and I am loving the Best Bites cookbook recently so I wanted to share some recipes every Tuesday that I try and from now on it shall be called.....Tasty Tuesdays! This is a terriaki chicken I tried and it was amazing!!!!

-Cut up chicken into bite size pieces and put them in a ziplock baggie(freezer size) and marinate in the sauce for a couple hours(leaving some aside for brushing on)
-SAUCE:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 TBS cornstarch, 1 TBS cold water.
- Combine sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and pepper in a small saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
-While that is heating, whisk together cornstarch and water. When sauce mixture comes to full boil, whisk in cornstarch and mix until becomes thick...set aside to cool...then put chicken in with to marinate like stated above...
- Put marinated chicken and pineapple chunks onto skewers and grill(basting with extra sauce) or put into the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes!

* I served mine with white rice favored with a little butter, parmesan cheese and salt/pepper, and also a salad! It was sooooo good and a very easy dinner!