Holiday Wall

Alright, alright!  Here we go again.  By way of introduction: I am Ayris Fielding, stay-at-home mom, wife, hot yoga lover, crafter wannabe, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This year on my blog I will be sharing my experiences with the new "Come, Follow Me" manual for individuals and families.  Since this is a new program, I thought this would be a great way to help one another in implementing the content and finding ways to encourage our families in coming closer to Christ; I know how hard it can be with little ones and working husbands!  I hope you feel uplifted, inspired, strengthened, and motivated to help yourself and your families draw closer the the Savior.

Main materials I will be using:

• New Testament (KJV)
• Book of Mormon
• "Come, Follow Me - For Individuals and Families"
• "Come, Follow Me: A Year of Prepared Family Night Lessons and Activities to Strengthen Your Home," Hammari, Kimiko Christensen
• "The New Testament Made Easier, Volume 1," Ridges, David J.

To begin, I want to introduce you to my holiday wall.  In my home, there is this very large, blank canvas of a wall, which is a perfect canvas for my creative itch.  Each month I come up with a theme, and make shapes and quotes to decorate this wall (i.e., for Thanksgiving we make a giant grati-turkey, and for Christmas we do the nativity).  So, I thought that this year I could use the material from "Come, Follow Me" as the inspiration for my holiday walls!  But because I have a little boy (he will be 2 this year!) I thought it would be a fun twist to also include some of the material from the primary "Come, Follow Me," that way the whole family can benefit (to clarify, I am using the previous curriculum with my son as we are still teaching him basic principles and doctrines).

I don't know about your kiddos, but my Michael has done really well being on and having a routine; he gets so excited about it.  So if this is something you struggle with or are interested in, here is a brief overview of our (newly revised) nightly routine.  If something like this works for you, great!  If not, just keep doing what you're doing! You do you.

• Clean up toys
• Read a part of the "Come, Follow Me" curriculum
• Add an object to our holiday wall
• Say family prayer
• Bath time
• Story time
• Sing a primary song or hymn
• Personal prayers
• Bed

Now, here is a brief recap of what we focused on this past week:

Come, Follow Me: We Are Responsible for Our Own Learning

January Primary Topic: Heavenly Father Prepared a Way for Me to Return to His Presence

Weekly Primary Topic: I am a child of God and can be like Him someday

Since January is the middle of winter, I decided that the theme for our wall would be just that: winter.  We started our wall off this week with a snowman; each night we put up a different piece, which included a quote or a scripture from the materials, followed by a brief thought on that topic.  Michael absolutely loves helping decorate this wall, he looks forward to it every night.  I think because he enjoys it so much it encourages him to be a little more reverent.  Although, because we did alter our nightly routine slightly, I think he was still getting adjusted this week, so he was a little more squirmy than usual.

Some of the things we chose to focus on were: being a child of God; beings agents who act, seek, and learn by faith; giving importance to family prayer, FHE, gospel study, and wholesome family activities; and the importance of gaining and nurturing our testimonies.  A challenge that we took on last week was to memorize all of the versus to "I Am a Child of God."  Michael loves music, so it was a lot of fun to sing this each night; he caught on and started dancing a little bit to it - too cute!  We also added the words to our holiday wall and would sing it throughout the day.  Such important doctrine in such a simple song; I challenge you to memorize all of the versus as well and to note what changes you recognize in your life.  I also find it interesting that last week we talked briefly about gaining and nurturing a testimony, and this next week we are taking on the challenge of finding an opportunity to bear our testimony (other than in sacrament meeting).

This week's topics (Jan. 7-13):

Come, Follow Me: Matthew 1; Luke 1

Weekly Primary Topic: Heavenly Father provided a Savior so I can return to His presence

I'd love to hear from you.  Please leave a comment as to how your week went, what you're looking forward to, or even a question you may have.