Hermano y Hermana Cheney

Mom and Joe have received their mission call! This has been a long time coming as they first said they were going to turn in their papers to the Church Mission Office back in August!  Finally, after a few more grandchildren were born, they decided to take the plunge.  They will be serving in Lima, Peru as area auditors for the Northwest South America area.  This includes Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru and Bolivia. They will be working with 35 assistant auditors, training and working in the Church office in Lima. Joe knows Spanish from his Guatemala mission but mom will be learning the language in addition to the Church auditing software Lufas. They will be serving for the next 23 months, so much longer than I anticipated. They will train in Salt Lake Feb 5-6 and then check into the Provo Missionary Training Center Feb 9 for only one week before heading to South America!

I am so excited for their adventures ahead.  This couldn't be a more perfect assignment for my mother who loves to travel and see the world!  Although she will be busy working, I am confident she will find time for the 2 of them to have small adventures in the new world where they will be serving.  I find myself wondering what their life will be like.  Not their mission life, but their everyday life.  What will their apartment look like, and their beds, and what kinds of foods will mom learn to prepare.  Will Mark and I get the chance to go and visit?  And then, almost all at once, it hits me that my mom will not be right here.  I haven't lived close to her in a few years now, but it is still really weird to think that I can't just hop on a plane and be in her comfy home in a few hours.  

So very exciting to see my mother go to serve her first mission in her lifetime.  And perhaps not her last!  Love the examples they have shown in putting their lives in order to be able to dedicate 2 years of their lives in a foreign country to the building up of the Kingdom of God.

Lauren / Kaylinn Weekend 2015

 It is always a fantastic feeling to have a dear friend make time in their life to step into yours for a few days.  I've been lucky enough to keep this very special friend despite the changing seas of life and the physical distance between us. Lauren Lewis Kammeyer is truly, as Anne of Green Gables would say, my kindred spirit.

We had two really fun play days in her weekend trip here, and the state graced us with warm and delightful weather!  On Friday we headed up the mountains (and out of the horrendous pollution) to Park City.  Sunny and basically empty, we strolled these streets and meandered the delightful shops.  And you know me, I'm always excited about a little history - and Park City has it's share of it.

We enjoyed lunch a The Eating Establishment, where our table was next to a burning fire and a beautiful photograph of what we guessed was Zion's National Park. Cameron was a fantastic travel buddy, as usual, full of smiles and super obedient.  (Seriously, I couldn't have prayed for a more perfect buddy than he)

Saturday took us down to Provo; our old stomping grounds. (Photos compliments of Lauren being that I was lame-o and didn't take pictures) We went to Tucanos, which is a special event in and of itself.  Then headed over to Campus to walk memory lane there.  The bookstore never disappoints, and Lauren was surprised to see all the construction changes going on around campus.  AND it must be mentioned, part of the fun Saturday excursion was that a dear friend here let us borrow her van for the day.  SO - we got a lux ride in my all time favorite vehicle with some of my all time favorite people.  Thanks Jacie.

I've said it before, Lauren and I are two peas in a pod.  Not a memory of BYU goes by without having her in it.  So cheers to starting 2015 off on a fantastic foot. I'm already looking forward to our next get together.

My Little School

I'm obsessed with teaching.  I really just love the activities that go around teaching.  And so it is no surprise that my young one is now my student.  We try to have "school time" a few times a week.  It isn't scheduled or even consistent even; but we do have a ton of fun.  

When we do it right, which is about once a week, our schedule looks like this:

Calendar time {20 minutes}: sing songs about the days of the week, months of the year, & weather.  Recite scripture of the month.  Identify numbers, shapes, and colors. Article of Faith puzzles and tell one flannel story from the scriptures and bear testimony of the principle being taught.

Learning Center {20 minutes}: We go over to the table and do whatever I've got ready.  Games, puzzles, glueing, cutting, writing, matching...there is SO MUCH on the internet that it really is just a matter of what I feel like.

Reading Time {20 minutes}: Just that.  One library book after another.

PE / Music {20 minutes}:  We "exercise" to keep our bodies healthy.  Usually running around the yard or walking the dog or going to the park.  When we keep it indoors we sing songs, play the piano, and do fun things like build forts or color or dance.

The end!

It goes by really fast and has been super fun.  AND NOW, just recently, I've started tutoring a kindergartner on writing so we actually do that for an hour with the other activities before and after.  Today I spent hours making my own alphabet handwriting practice pages.  Mostly because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. (Holy wow, I'm ridiculous).  There are plenty of options on the internet for purchase, but just didn't want to spend the money, and I wanted a mix of different skills.  (Although in retrospect it would have probably been worth it.)  But admire me...they did turn out cute didn't they? You want them don't you?

It's been a great outlet for my teaching love, and my need to teach Cameron how I want.  He is growing so quickly, I can't loose sight of this time we have together.  And, I'm putting it out into the world - judge me if you must - but I am seriously considering homeschooling.  EEEK!

Real Snow

We were all wondering if in fact this state was going to get a White Christmas.  Yet, just like a movie, on Christmas morning, we has a delightful flurry of white snow blanketing our lawns and streets.  For the next few days, we got a little more that made for a really great powdery play place in our backyard.  Something that Cameron had never really experienced before.  Sure, we were here last year, but he was a year younger then too.  So it was fun getting to watch him re-discover it all over again.

We tried to build a snowman, but my one memory of building one with my father is very vague and I couldn't seem to manage to put one together.  Didn't matter much; Cameron enjoyed just running around and playing.  He got more and more comfortable with it as the hour passed and was soon sitting in it and throwing it into his face.  My favorite part of the softly fallen snow? The way it lays on the trees.  It only happens when there is no wind and it's just a light snow. So pretty.

Focused in '15

Happy New Year all! I L-O-V-E New year's.  All things about them; I just love.  I am in love with getting started on a new planner. I went again with the Mormon Mom Planner brand because I really fell in love with all the additional pages for notes and organization and the scrappy feel it give me.  Plus, it's LDS based which adds quotes and encouragement for focusing on what really matters.  As for goals - I have many.  I am a goal oriented person.  Like - major.  During the entire month of December I make a huge "brainstorm" list of anything I can think of that I'd like to improve.  I then make 6 categories and select my top choices for the new year.  And I will be Focused in '15!

For example, this year I am going to:
Focus Spiritually by:
- Reading the Book of Mormon (learn more here)
- Indexing 2,000 names (learn more here)
- Do an ordinance in a temple I haven't been in before (learn more here)
- Keep a prayer journal

Focus Physically by:
- Do a 30 day challenge (thank you Pinterest)
- STOP any and all phone use while driving (Texting, calling, mapping - you name it)
- No Soda all year!

Focus Financially by:
- Recording purchases into YNAB at point of sale (budgeting software found here)
- Get our finances in order and buy a house

Focus on Home and Family by:
- One family date Monthly
- Try 2 new recipes each month
- Blog 6 times per month (I had an all time LOW in my number of posts last year. Shameful.)
- Visit Tessa's new house. (AND if we happen to swing by the Duggar's residence...)

Focus on my Hobbies by:
- Plant a garden with at least 3 plants
- Finish a few scrapbooks I started and never finished (Cameron's baby book is WELL overdue!)
- Visit / Travel someplace new
- Make my bed everyday


Looking forward to all the fun things that will come this year; whatever they may be.

Sally Forth, Tally Ho!