Happy St. Patrick's day next week. Don't let the Polynesian looks fool you - I'm Irish. And the part of me that's the most Irish is the kissing part. Yeah I like to kiss. Probably has a lot to do with the Boyfriend I kiss. But I digress. 

Since we're talking about kissing, some of my kids (they're 8 of them) have come to me in their teens and asked, "How old do you have to be to kiss?", "When is kissing alright?", or "Is kissing wrong?" That's such a loaded question for a parent!

On the one hand you don't want to encourage it, like it's all good, go ahead, kiss whoever you want. Then on the other hand you don't want to discourage it, make them all freaked out and repressed as if it's wrong. And sometimes kids just want to find out what their parent's are going to say just so they can do the opposite. But you're not sure when they're going to use that tactic. See the problem? So I've always handled it this way - with the truth.

I tell them kissing is fun. Very fun. That I really haven't met too many people who are just starting out on the relationship road say that kissing is boring. I tell them it's exciting. I tell them it drives a mix of emotions. I tell them it's meant to lead us to greater intimacy.  I tell them once you start you really don't want to stop. I tell them that it's very hard to go in reverse once you start. Lastly, I don't tell them when it's okay to kiss. I just say, "Put it off as long as possible." That's it. I put it back on them to decide. Risky I know. But to my surprise most of them have put it off much longer than... well never mind. My kids read my blog sometimes.

Okay, so we were talking about St. Patrick's day. See how sidetracked I get with the kissing stuff? Go get my gift Kiss O' The Irish print here. Then kiss someone. And then tell me how you've handled the kissing question in your family.

Reading an article this month in BYU Magazine made me think of this little kit I did for some of my fam. It's the Compliment Kit and it's been downloaded over 4000 times between the 2 files. It seems we all want to write random compliments. They call them "praise notes" in this article. Call them whatever you like just write them. That's the important thing. Read this if you need more convincing. 

We've been having a terrible time with our download site (ge.tt). It's a free service so we can't complain much but it's frustrating. For you and us. It's been down on and off for the past month and many of you have tried to download our nestibles and haven't been able to. Some of you have emailed us to ask for files and we try to get back to all of you. (Sorry if we've missed someone.)

The nice thing about the download mess is that we get to meet some of you, Nesties, through email. One such person is Janelle J. She emailed about some files and said she was doing them for YW. She had a great idea that we have to share.

If you've been around LDS NEST you know about our Compliment Kits. The first file had over 3000 downloads and the new one put up a couple of weeks ago has a few hundred. A few of you like it.

Janelle liked it and did the Compliment Kits with her YW. But, the fabric covering was going to be trickier than she wanted to do so she came up with an alternative. Duct Tape Covered Tins. Genius easy. I asked for a photo and her's turned out so cute that I asked if I could share it with you. She kindly said yes.

Do you have any photos of your Compliment Kits you want to share? Share them on our Facebook page.

Update 4/2019:
There's been so much trouble with the free download site that I've put this on my 
 ShannonsStudio.com Etsy business site for $3. Hope this helps

Contention. I hate it. Ironic huh? 

Contention is a part of what happens in families but something we all try to stop in our homes. I was thinking about it and what I could do to help our family lessen it when I came across Gordon B. Hinckley's quote - 

Compliments. How easy. I thought this would be a super first step for me to take. And then I had this idea (the Boyfriend calls me "the idea woman"). I could make little Compliment kits. I love kits. (You can see a collection of kits on my Pinterest board.) 

I was heading down for a trip that some of our family had planned when we had Leila's funeral. We also decided to do devotionals when we got together. I wanted to do the compliment kits for them as part of mine. Here's what's inside and how we use it.

I really like how they turned out. I Mod Podge® fabric to the outside of an Altoid® tin. Inside, I added some fun things. Here's the nestibles for you. Print. Cut. Put together.

Here's a FHE lesson to help talk about with your family. 

You'll have to tell us what you think and any of your experiences in using it. 

Alisha did a graphic design "Kind Words" here and put it to a t-shirt. It made me think that I wanted to have Leila's words, "I Choose to be Happy" and Alisha's design on a t-shirt so I could order it. Alisha did it for me. (Thanks Alisha) When I went to look at it I saw these other things. 

But then I saw this pillow and decided that I wanted this instead. 

Not that you have to buy anything. I just thought I'd share because it made me happy.

Come, Follow Me this month focuses on "commandments". I came across this scripture while planning my talk for this Sunday: 

"...choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you." {Moses 6:33}. I love it! It just really spoke to me. So I made some handout for you to use in your classes, going along with the theme of "How Can I be in the World but not of the world?" Just click on the images and "save as", or click here to download all.

{Journal Cards}

Let us know if you use them in your classes and if they were helpful for you! 

PS. You can get more products like phone cases, cards, and pillows here.