Blog Posts

JOURNALING • One List at a Time

11/15/2014

Personal and Family Histories are a big deal to us. Those who have the family stories or even know snippets about their ancestors cherish them. Those who don't have them, wish. Wish that there was something that they knew about the people they came from. Wish they could have a connection. Wish their ancestors left something.

Sometimes it's not easy to leave that record. We're busy. Or just don't think about it. Or we don't know what to write. Or, or, or. Well, here's one little help to try to get over your 'or'.

Journaling Ebook • 1 Topic Prompt List at a Time • Downloadable

It's a journaling ebook - A Little Bird Told Me. It has a topic prompt for each page and there's 70 prompts. Just make your list. It may not be perfect, but it'll be something. Here's a little extra motivational thought from Pres. Kimball -

“What could you do better for your children
and your children’s children
than to record the story of your life,
your triumphs over adversity,
your recovery after a fall,
your progress when all seemed black,
your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?”

“Begin today and write in it your goings and comings,
your deepest thoughts,
your achievements and your failures,
your associations and your triumphs,
your impressions and
your testimonies”

President Spencer W. Kimball 1975

The Ebook is found in our Etsy Shop. (If you're on our mailing list we've emailed a few sample pages to you.) You can buy ours or make one of your own. Just make a little list. Begin today.

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MANUFACTURER • DIY Young Women Lighted Torch Tabletop Decoration

11/9/2014

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If you're looking for a tabletop or buffet table decoration for your YWIE or NB then here's a DIY Lighted Torch that just might do the trick. I made 2 of them and I've used them several times.

I enlarged the YW Torch image to about 15". Then I used a carbon sheet to trace the pattern onto the masonite board. I used a drill to make holes into each section to be cut out. Then I used my handheld jigsaw to cut out the design. These are painted white, though they could be painted the value colors if there're 8 of them.

Next, I bought small battery operated lights (very handy so I don't have to mess with finding a plug and having an extension cord), and hot glued (low melt) them onto the back of the board. I made sure the lights were visible from the front side and that the placement was staggered. And lastly, I took a tie wrap and tied all the loose wires from view.

The masonite torch slides in and out of the approximately 1" x 3" base board. Using a table saw, cut a channel the same thickness as the masonite board. With this base, no glue is needed and it pulls apart so it stores away nicely.

The little holes seen at the end of the boards are for dowels to slide into. Flags, bandanas, buntings or anything can be put on a dowel and slid into the holes. This makes it versatile.

Enlarge Torch • Trace Torch & Cut Masonite • Paint • Hot Glue Battery Operated Lights • Tie Wrap Loose Ends

Good luck on your upcoming Young Women In Excellence and New Beginnings.

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I Can Pray Always

10/23/2014

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A Simple Way to Teach Your Child When to Pray #lds #primary #prayalways

I Can Pray Always

I took this idea from one my mom had forever ago...like in 1991...whoa. Anyway, she made puppets with faces on them and I gave a primary talk where I showed each face and said, "I can pray when I am happy [shows happy face on a stick]." "I can pray when I am sad [shows sad face on a stick]." You get the idea.

Here I am about to give my first primary talk...let's just not talk about how much I look like a creepy horror movie child:

I'm working on a curriculum outline for Caeden and each morning I have a devotional outlined from the Sunbeams Primary Manual. One of the lessons is about prayer. I thought to myself, "Self! Why not bring back those little face puppets?" So I made some for Caeden. And he loves them!

And I want to share them with you! Just click here to download this! You'll get a color version as well as black and white versions that your kids can color on. Or you can print them out on color card stock like I did...it just means that you'll have extras!

Instructions are in the download, but basically they go like this: download, print, color, cut out, laminate, and hot glue to a Popsicle stick. Easy peasy!

You can download these for free for a limited time! Pin this to share it with all your friends!

Download this! A Simple Way to Teach Your Child When to Pray #lds #primary #prayalways

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My Goals from #LDSCONF General Conference

10/10/2014

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I love General Conference. Like, LOVE. conference. The top conference topic was Jesus Christ, which is not really a surprise. We are the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints and all... Prayer, service, testimony, agency, and the atonement all tied for second place. Truth, love, family, prophets, and Heavenly Father were the third most talked about.

I love Christ. I don't know if I say it enough, or if my actions prove it. I had a friend post on Facebook after conference asking what everyone's goals were, how they were going to let conference change them. And I thought to myself, "Self, that is an excellent question."

Ponder the path of thy feet. Proverbs 4:26

So here are my goals:

Do better with family history. Like, way better. Like, actually do it at all. Starting with writing down my stories and stories from Leila's life. I think I've got some questions in the works that I will post later :)

Attend the temple once a month. Because I need to go more, and I don't. Am I the only one that gets anxiety before I go, or is that just me? *awkward silence*

Stop being afraid of man. I'm always super worried about offending someone with how much I care about the gospel and Jesus Christ and then after watching conference I realized that is a completely and utterly ridiculous fear. If my friends are really friends then they will respect how I live my life and the love I have for Christ. It doesn't mean I'm preaching to them when I talk about something. I'm just sharing.

Become more Christlike by studying His life more in depth. This is actually my number one, on-going goal. Because really. I just need to. And this month's Come Follow Me is perfect because it is all about becoming more Christlike. It was meant to be!

So I'm going to ask you the same thing my Facebook friend asked all of us; "What are your goals? How will you let conference change you?"

Share! Comment your little hearts out!

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MENTOR • How to make Service Message Youth Videos

10/9/2014

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Back in July we had Youth Conference. In that post I mentioned that we did service videos but couldn't share them because they weren't edited yet. Well, now they are! Our Stake had a premiere night to show them to the youth. We did a red "carpet", awards, paparazzi, and dressed up. Here are photos from that night.

DIY How to Make Service Message Youth Videos & Premiere Night

Here's how we did our backdrop.

RED CARPET • Red plastic table cloth on a roll
ROPE • Red cording by the yard, pvc pipe spray painted gold, mason jars filled with sand to hold them up
BACKDROP • (2) 4' x 8' masonite boards painted in chalkboard paint
ANGEL ICON • Cut a stencil, use yellow chalk to stencil the icon on

Here are the videos.

#LDSMakeYourMark #ShareGoodness

#LDSRealMen #ShareGoodness

#LDSTrueBeauty #ShareGoodness

#LDSMusicMovesMe #ShareGoodness

I was in charge of the overall project so I thought I'd share how we went about doing it incase you want to try. We did four for our stake but I would recommend doing one on a ward level.

1) Have a message that you want to share
2) Have some guidelines as adult leaders. These were some of ours
• to use the youth as much as possible, especially in the video
• have a point/message to it
• have the youth part of something bigger than they are
• done so it won't be lame :)
(don't have youth speak or act much, keep it simple)
3) Have some conceptual idea how you want it to video tape it. Copy other's ideas with variation. For example
• Make Your Mark was based on the video Flourish by
Dana Tanamachi-Williams
• True Beauty & Real Men were based on this video An
Experiment in Words (or 36 Smiles) from the Pleasant
Grove Utah Mount Mahogany Stake 4th Ward
• Get approval of the concept summaries
4) Make a committee
• Ours included Stake Youth (SYC youth), Stake YWYM Presidency
members, and Specialists
• Have youth go over video concepts and make changes, suggestions,
and/or other ideas
• Re-write concept summaries and get approval
5) Get Specialists. These had to be skill specific. Meaning they had to be
artistic, conceptual thinkers, or have video/editing skills. It would
have been nice to have all professionals but that's usually not the
case in the church for projects like this. This is a large project that
requires Approve and call specialists.
• Make Your Mark - construction crew (chalkboard), design,
videographer, video editor
• True Beauty - Materials, videographer, video editor
• Real Men - Props, videographer, video editor
• Music Moves Me - transportation, music, talent, videographer,
video editor
6) Meet together as a whole. There's a lot of moving parts/people here so the sooner you can meet all together the better. The truth is, this didn't happen for some groups until the morning of.
7) Video tape. We used a 3 hour block of Youth Conference to video tape. Every group (approx 220 total youth) worked at the same time. Before taping, we had a speaker for each group (except Music) talk about the topic for 15 minutes to set the tone and share the idea. Video tapping was a one shot deal so we had 2-3 videographers for each video.
8) Edit video. This is basically a one person job. This is where your conceptual idea has to have been communicated clearly since it's this person who will ultimately pick and choose what goes into the video. Some or parts of our videos didn't turn out the way the committee had intended. Communication is key but even then sometimes things just work out differently than planned. Stake YWYM leaders did an initial viewing with recommended changes.
9) Final Approval. Our Stake Presidency had final approval and recommendations before the youth viewed them.
10) Be realist, gracious, and thankful. Remember we all do this for free. Usually we don't actually know what we're doing. Being realist (for the planned and unplanned), gracious (accepting what people can/can't do), and thankful (that it came together at all) to all who help.

This video project was out of a lot of youth and leader's comfort zones. It's hard to say how things you've never done will turn out. The uncertainty adds anxiety. Hopefully these steps will help keep the stress level low. This is a project that I would do again.

I think this is a new face for service. It's not the traditional shovels and rags but a lot of work nonetheless. Which translated into 15,000 Facebook views for about the first week. Not bad for a bunch of mostly amateurs.

One last thing - CELEBRATE at a Premiere Night.

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MORALIST • Recapping General Conference

10/6/2014

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We posted a General Conference FHE last conference here. Here it is as a reminder. Included is a memory game that can use this conference's talks. It can be used anytime, maybe even become a family tradition. Maybe even include root beer floats. Yay! Click on the images for the download.

FHE General Conference RECAP lesson • LDSNEST.com

FHE General Conference Bottle Cap Memory Game • LDSNEST.com

Even if you don't have bottle caps we've got you covered. Included are paper caps. Just
Print • Cut • Write • Play

Go to the link here.

How do you recap conference with your family?

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Cute Coloring pages for General Conference

10/3/2014

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CUTE COLORING PAGES FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE from LDSNEST #ldsconf #lds

General Conference Coloring Pages

If you're looking for a last minute something for your kids to do doing General Conference here are some FREE cute coloring pages! There is also room for them to draw their own pictures of what they learn or to take notes if they are a little older.

The images are 8x10 and you can download them for FREE here. A .pdf is included!

*stick figure images are from Pink Pueblo

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MENTORS • 2015 YW Planner for Individuals or Presidencies

9/15/2014

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When serving in the Stake YW we focus our efforts to help Ward YW leaders. They have so much to do and that's not an exaggeration. Last year for our Ward leaders we presented them with a planner. It was given to help them ease their burden in planning then in turn they could focus more on their young women. Many of them liked what we had. Here's a version for this year in our Etsy Shop.

One download has both a COLOR version and a BLACK & WHITE version.

INDIVIDUAL PLANNER
Click Above Link

PRESIDENCY PLANNER
Click Above Link

We tried to think of how each month would look for a ward leader and then incorporated it into a calendar. It helps that we've been ward leaders so we know what it's like to plan and carry out. Here's an example of one month.

Some choices are already matched and made. For example -

• Come Follow Me principles are listed on each month (CFM = Come Follow Me)
• Sunday Lessons section to list who and what will be taught
• Personal Progress Values are assigned to a month (coordinates with Come Follow Me)
• Strength of Youth standards are assigned monthly (use for mutual opening exercises, talks, etc)
• Leadership Lesson Topics from Church Handbook are assigned monthly (optional topics too)
• Bishopric Interviews space is listed each month to track YW interviews
• PP Project Evaluation times are scheduled into certain months
• Presidency Meetings purpose summaries are listed and space for notes
• Conducting for Sunday and Mutual (space for names is included)
• Mutual Activities space is provided for organizing
• List Lines for extra dates, notes, needs, info, or other reminders
• Infographic summaries for Class Presidencies, Agendas, and Personal Progress
• Reminders of things to do are put throughout the year (Camp, Conferences, etc)
• Notes pages that are blank are included
• Newsletter template to send out to parents is included too

Compact and concise. So much information in so simple a format. But there's more too.

• Front Notebook Binder Cover
• YW Leaders Contact Info
•  YW Contact Info
   • Stake Activities Calendar
   • Ward Activites Calendar
   • Yearly Budget
   • Leadership Lessons Outline
   • Personal Progress by Month Outline
   • Jan - Dec Calendaring Pages
   • Infographic • Class Presidency
   • Infographic • Agendas
   • Infographic • Personal Progress
   • 2015 Calender At A Glance
   • YW Newsletter Template (2)
   • Notes Pages
   • Back Notebook Binder Cover

Everything's here to get you started and make your life easier in 2015. (It may even help you with the rest of 2014) Go to our Etsy Shop if you're interested.

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Be Prepared! National Preparedness Month

9/12/2014

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Guys! September is National Preparedness month. Are you checking up on your 72-hour kits? Do you have an emergency car kit? If not, get that stuff out! I've started a personal blog that you can find here, and you can read my posts about emergency preparedness here and here and here. Because meteorologists are predicting a hard winter, solar flares, and because I'd rather be over-prepared than under-prepared.

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MORALIST • Giving Praise Notes & Compliments

8/26/2014

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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.

Compliment Kits

BYU Magazine Noting the Praiseworthy • Praise Notes & Compliments

BYU Magazine Article • Noting the Praiseworthy

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MANUFACTURER • Create Your Own Flyers

8/26/2014

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Just a quick post. I have to do flyers periodically for activities. A flyer is just a little more eye catching if an image added. You can download these blank flyers by clicking the images below. It'll take you to our download page. Then add your own content. Another way we make your life a little easier.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR LINK TO DOWNLOAD BLANK FLYER

Here's a link to the previous post about our DIY blank flyers.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR DOWNLOAD PAGE

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It's Leila's Birthday!

8/1/2014

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It's Leila's 29th birthday today. If you're new and don't know who Leila is you can read about her here and here. Even though she's gone we are still celebrating her life and her motto, "I choose to be happy".

I've launched a limited edition tee in celebration of her birthday. 50% of the proceeds from this shirt will go to the Preeclampsia Foundation. The other 50% will be used to keep What the HELLP? up and running so women who survived HELLP Syndrome can keep sharing their stories.

You can pre-order a shirt here: http://teespring.com/beautifulhappy. The campaign ends in 11 days so make sure you order before then! We are halfway to our goal of 30 shirts already just this morning.

Thank you for all of the support you've given us throughout the year. I'm glad we are nesties!

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Free Hand-washing and Diaper Changing Charts

7/30/2014

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Free hand-washing and diaper changing charts. Fun for bathrooms or changing table areas. Also great for day care and early childhood education centers! #daycare #earlychildhoodeducation #homeshool #learn

Hello, Lovely people! So I've been busy with school stuff--I had to write down instructions for proper hand-washing and diaper-changing. Seems a little boring and tedious because, like, as moms we do this all the time. Anyway, I decided to make my instructions cute and you can download them for free here. I'm trying out a new download place since our previous downloader has been super sketch. Just enter $0 in the payment option.

These can spruce up your bathroom or changing table area. They would also be great for early childhood educators or in day-care centers. Enjoy!

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MESSENGERS • Service Message Videos for Youth Conference

7/20/2014

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Here are a couple of photos from our Stake's Youth Conference the last couple of days. This first one is of Wade (son and brother) and his t-shirt design. He did it himself and you can read more about it here. Love this kid.

Wade Christensen Youth Conference T-shirt Design

Wade and his Youth Conference T-shirt Design

Second is a photo from one of our service projects. I don't know about your stake but our youth are super fast at service projects and we often have a hard time finding something that will fit our 3 hour time frame that involves our 200 youth. (If you have any good ideas, share them with us below.) This year our stake decided to broaden our service project vision. We did the filming for 4 Service Message Videos at youth conference. One of the videos involves this 24' x 8' chalkboard near our stake center and Kansas City Temple.

Liberty Missouri Stake Youth Conference Service Message Video Preview Shot #ldsmakeyourmark

I think this video (#ldsmakeyourmark) had about 75 youth with scriptures that inspired them and their testimonies. The other videos involve music (#ldsmakeyourmark), beauty (#ldstruebeauty) and manhood (#ldsrealmen). I'm not going to say much more about it. Except I'm very excited about them (though there was a lot of uncertainty in the project until we did it) and to share them with you. You'll have to watch for the videos in September.

What do you think of our Service Message Videos idea?

PS You might even see one of Alisha's boys - my grandson - in one of them.

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MORALIST • fhe PRIESTHOOD POWER LESSON

7/11/2014

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There's a lot of talk about women, priesthood, and excommunication lately. Plenty of commentary on it as well. Some of it good, some not so much. Since the recent issues deal with Latter-day Saints directly we at LDS NEST had to think about what to say. Or not say in the discussion.

Personally, I always have plenty to say. Very opinionated in fact. But, I have a little motto -

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

Having lots of opinions I've realized that it's likely not all of them are good. So, I like to think about things a little before I venture opening my mouth. What should LDS NEST share? What's the message out of recent events? What discussions really help people? How does one help people stay on spiritual track? My thinking lead me to the scriptures and Alma sums it up for me.

Alma 31:5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

I feel for the families who are struggling with these issues and I think of my own. Any one of us can, and often does, error. But what keeps bringing us back around is the word of God. Plain and simple.

So... Do we read it? Do we know it? Do we teach it?

Click Image Above for Free Download of FHE Ring Thing

In answer to how we should approach current events I came to the conclusion that the best use of my time and effort for my family and LDS NEST would be to make sure we share pure doctrine (Something that is "more powerful on minds than anything else".) With that idea we had a FHE lesson about the Priesthood - Priesthood Power. I thought I'd share what I came up with, with you.

Ring Thing Lesson Click Above for Download Page (the Lesson Outline is on Etsy)

I read through Elder Oaks recent talk, Keys and Authority of the Priesthood, other talks and scripture. The information can be tricky to understand and I wanted it to be clear to my kids so I summarized it all out in a way that made sense to me. It made sense to them. Maybe it will make sense to you too. There is a free download Ring Thing here.

Click Image Above to Purchase the Files for Wrappers & FHE Outline from our Etsy Shop

Besides the Ring Thing Lesson there is a Lesson Outline to go with it and Power Bar wrappers. It's just a little added bonus for fun that you can purchase here (it includes all the Priesthood Power handouts.) Next on my mind to teach my kids about is Apostasy. What do you think about the subject?