Missionary Moment

We had our missionaries over for dinner on Sunday night.  Once a month we fast. (So, after dinner on Saturday night we did not again until we served dinner at 5:00ish on Sunday.)  I guess we've never had the Elders over for dinner on a Fast Sunday.  Fred asked them what they were in the mood for and they asked for breakfast for dinner.  This goes against everything Jonathan believes in.  He believes you only eat breakfast for breakfast!  We served waffles, bacon, eggs and chocolate milk.  Oh. my. goodness.  I have never seen so much food put away in my life.  Those boys were hungry.  We all were, but they were REALLY hungry.  We drank almost an entire gallon of chocolate milk!  Side note:  Jonathan heated up left overs, because he couldn't bring himself to eat a waffle for dinner!

After dinner, my kids talked Elder Wells and Elder Stufflebeam into playing games with them.  I don't think they had to try too hard.  Elder Wells was really excited to play Yahtzee.  He proclaimed that he was going to take us all down and that is what he proceeded to do.  The kids had a blast!  We are so fortunate to have such great missionaries serving in our Ward!

Fortenberry Four Fish Camp

This last week has been about preparing Jonathan for his Freshman year!  We had our own Fish Camp at our house.  It was mostly about having fun as a family and gearing up for the big day.

We always introduce a new theme and usually forget all about it about a month into the school year.  This year, I printed it off and framed it, so hopefully we can keep it top of mind!  Last night, we said that our 2014-2015 theme is going to be "Pure Christlike love flowing from righteousness can change the world" by Jeffrey R. Holland.  We talked about what this meant to us and how we can apply this theme to our daily lives.

I left prizes on the mantle for Jonathan each morning.  Sometimes there was a bonus prize for Jessie, too.  The prizes were all kinds of things like a new watch, new water bottle, candy and a gift card.  Just little stuff to get Jonathan excited about being a Freshman.  Jonathan's favorite prize?  Jolly Rancher popsicles.  Yuck!

Saturday, we had to run a few last minute errands and stopped for some wings.  I have to admit that I think wings are disgusting.  Jonathan likes the wings without the bone, but here he is tackling some wings with the bone in.   He looks a little possessed and scary!  We had a nice fun and relaxed afternoon before the crazy school year starts.

Then, on Sunday, we all took care of our ALS ice buck challenges.  It was cold to say the least, but we did it!  So glad we can mark that project as done, plus it was super fun to do it as a family!  We also made treats for all of our Independence High School fellow freshmen.  Jonathan and I went around town delivering treats to all of our friends.  So much fun!

When it was all said and done Jonathan was relaxed and ready to begin his High School career.  Too bad Mom wasn't ready.

T-I-M-E!

I love Sundays... I really do.  They are just so peaceful.  Usually, the Sunday before school starts kills me.  Not this time.  Jess had already started school.  Jonathan's school supplies were safely tucked away in his locker.  The only prep work I did was to hang his clothes on his door and to make lunches the night before.

The rest of the night was spent enjoying a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples and a most interesting Family Home Evening.  Jonathan chose the topic - spending more time as a family.  The message came from President Uchtdorf and the For the Strength of the Youth pamphlet.  Then we brainstormed activities that we could do as a family, which is completely reminiscent of a FHE that we had at the beginning of the summer.  I think our problem is compromise!  We don't all enjoy the same activities.  I suggested a family bike ride.  Everyone remembered the off-road trail ride that we took and in unison declared, "NO!"  Jonathan wanted a board game and Jess said, No, but relented and we had a good time playing Apples to Apples for the rest of the evening.

No matter what activity you come up with, the message we came away with is that love is spelled T-I-M-E!  I just love that quote from President Uchtdorf.

Summer Bucket List

Last week during Family Home Evening, we talked about our summer bucket list.  We put items on there like camping, hiking, visiting a lake.  Then there were things like make homemade cookies or taking Mollie to the dog park.  My favorite was reading just one book.  I'm not asking for the world here!  I just want them to read one book.  I hope this will help us to make sure that we are always keeping our  family focused. Whether the activity is simple like a silly string war or requires more planning like a fishing trip.  Either way, all activities cost little or no money.  Or, is something that we already pay for.

I am looking forward to summer and hope that we all have a wonderful time and enjoy each other's company!

Yay, summer!  We've been waiting on you.

Generations

“There are few things more powerful than the faithful prayers of a righteous mother.”

-Boyd K. Packer

I want to wish everyone a Happy Belated Mother’s Day to those that have children, or who have influenced the life of a child.  You are appreciated. 

I am really kicking myself for not taking pictures yesterday.  We had a wonderful day.  I love that Mother’s Day is celebrated on Sunday.  I love being treated extra-special at church.  At our church being treated special means they ply you with chocolate all day long.  Treat after treat was passed out and there were so many talks and lessons about mothers and families that touched my heart.

After church, we had my parents over for an early dinner.  Let me tell you, this family knows how to prepare for an early dinner.  We had barbecue chicken in the Crockpot and potato salad already prepared in the refrigerator.  After church, you don’t stand between the Fortenberry’s and dinner. 

Afterwards, we had a fun and informative Family Home Evening.  We learned about our family ancestors.  MaMaw, Grady, Fred and I all shared a picture and a story about a family ancestor.  We all learned something new and saw pictures that we hadn’t seen before.  Fred thought the kids already knew about his dad, but they really didn’t know anything about him.  Jonathan had plenty of questions about his grandfather.  The best part was that Jonathan also had plenty of HARD questions for Grady and then commented that Grady took way too long on his turn. 

We learned that Grady had a pet pig when he was growing up and we learned that half of my grandfather’s family was born in Tennessee and the other half was born in Arkansas.  Jonathan wanted to know which siblings were born in Tennessee and which were born in Arkansas and what years they were born.  I just love Jonathan’s questions.  He keeps you on your toes.

MaMaw taught us about her grandmother, Dovie.  We learned that she had three sons and two grandsons deployed in WWII at the same time.  And, the biggest thing that we learned was that Aunt Judy was everyone’s favorite, but MaMaw isn’t bitter!

Fred taught us about his Dad that left this earthly world way too soon.  He told us about how he was stung by a jellyfish and how he later had to have his leg amputated.  He also told us about fishing trips and father/son campouts.  He and his dad and enjoy doing much of the same things that Fred and Jonathan enjoy doing.  Hopefully, these hobbies will pass on to Jonathan and his son, too.

I told about my Granny.  We talked about how she played basketball and softball in school, and how she only went to school until the 8^th grade.  This was confusing to my kids, but we explained that was very common back then.  The best story that we told was that she married my Papa on December 24, 1929.  The marriage was witnessed by my Papa’s brother and his date.  After the wedding, they each went back to their own homes.  They hadn’t told their parents and my granny was afraid that her daddy was going to kill her.  I think her sister eventually ratted on her.  I passed around pictures and her billfold. 

At first the kids weren’t sure what to make of this activity, but they quickly warmed up and had a great time.   As we started spouting out little known and interesting facts, they really started enjoying the activity.  It is so very important for us to remember and to learn about our ancestors.

“There really can be a bond and a sense of belonging that ties together generations. ... This bond gives us a sense of identity and purpose. Our ties with the eternal world suddenly become very real, sharpening our life’s focus and lifting our expectations. ... We can discover within ourselves a reservoir of patience and endurance that we never will find without the deep commitment that grows from a sense of real belonging. Exerting such immovable loyalty to another person teaches us how to love – indeed, how to be more like the Savior. Our sense of belonging to one another...foreshadows our belonging in the eternal family of God. Our willingness to discipline our individual desires enough to honor [our] loved ones prepares us to belong to Him who is our Father.” Bruce C. Hafen, Liahona, June 1998, 16

Family Home Evening Struggles

Since I confessed in my last post that the Fortenberry Four is far from perfect, I will keep going with my confession.  I have struggled with Family Home Evening since my kids were very small.  We've been regular, semi-regular and non-existent with our FHE over the years.  In the last year, I have struggled.  If family dinners are going to kill my son, then FHE is going to kill my daughter.  

I have tried to be diligent in making sure that we gather together, and I am learning the flexibility is the key for our family.  For instance, I let Jessica plan this week's FHE.  I told her that we could have a movie night, if she wanted.   I gave her two guidelines.  The movie had to be PG (no PG-13 for FHE) and it had to have a message.  She picked an old favorite - Raise Your Voice with Hilary Duff.  I was worried that it would be too much of a chick flick for Jonathan, but he enjoyed it and it had a great message.  The message from the movie was that you can never give up despite the trials that come into your life.  I tied in a favorite quote from President Uchtdorf that fit Jessica's message.  Family Home Evening got a lot easier when I relaxed and made it more flexible. 

Next week, I am planning on talking about Family History.  Hopefully, it will be fun and no one will feel like I am torturing them or trying to kill them. 

What I've learned from teaching Sunday School to the 14 and 15 year olds at church is that I am not the only parent that isn't perfect.  I love those crazy teenagers and they are so honest and it makes me wonder what nuggets of truth my own kids are sharing with their teachers.   Many of them have shared with me that their parents struggle with FHE, too.  That makes me feel so much better!

Earth Day Fun

I always have the best of intentions, but my execution sometimes stinks.  For this week's Family Home Evening, we celebrated Earth Day.  Of course, our weekend was so busy that we didn't properly plan for it.  That meant Jessica and I stopped by Lowes on the way home on Monday.  Jessie picked out three plants and some potting soil.  She had a big project that she was working on for school, so she didn't participate in the planting.

We got home and Jonathan set about planting.  He rummaged through our shed and found three rag-tag pots for the plants and we got them planted before it got dark.  See what I mean about execution?  It always seems that I plan these activities and then we are rushed to get them done.

It also happened to be the night before the STAAR exam for Jonathan, so a special dinner was on the menu.  We grilled hamburgers for the red meat eaters and tried our hand at black bean burgers for Jessie.  Apparently, if you leave the raw egg out of the mixture, it makes a scrumptious bean dip.  I wouldn't know, because beans are disgusting.  I got as far as making the patties and had to enlist Fred's help, because I couldn't bring myself to touch the stuff.   Beans are gross!

Jonathan was in charge of our Earth Day dessert... cup of dirt.  The worms were supposed to hang over the side of the cup, but Jonathan thought it was more realistic if they pointed straight up like they were coming out of the dirt. He was quite proud of his creation and saved the best one for himself.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

-Native American Proverb

O Holy Night

As I've said before, due to my work schedule, we find it easier to have family home evening on Sundays.  I was in so much luck tonight.  Our church's annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional was tonight.  So, we just tuned into the BYU channel and listened and watched for an hour.  We laid out blankets and had dinner while we watched. 

Jessie enjoyed the musical numbers.  She loves all kinds of music, so she really liked listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Jonathan enjoyed President Uchtdorf's talk.  Unfortunately, I think he was really focusing on his accent instead of the talk itself.

As for me, I REALLY liked the choir's rendition of O Holy Night.  That is my most favorite Christmas song ever!  Earlier in the day, I was trying to decide whose version I like the best - Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond or David Archuleta's (I don't have a big Christmas CD collection).  I was thinking that Marie's is my favorite with David Archuleta's being a close second.  Now, I have to re-rank them, because I have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's version to think about.  I just love THAT song!

I loved all of the messages from the First Presidency.  They were all inspired and so appropriate for this time of year.  I bawled like a big baby when President Monson told the story about the soldier trying to get home for Christmas.  I think Jess might have cried too, because she didn't make fun of me. 

Everyone was so reverent during the messages... even Mollie.  She could have barked and chased the cat, but she didn't.  Jonathan was extremely reverent... until he started snoring during President Monson's talk.  Do you think that makes him a heathen?  I hope not!

Special Moments

Jonathan
Last weekend was a really big weekend. We had lots and lots of family time. I felt that we all needed a break on Sunday. I decided to forgo our Family Home Evening that we normally do on Sundays. I also decided to skip our Sunday Letter project that we had started the week before. I thought that two late nights in a row should warrant a day of rest. The kids went about their business and made no mention of the abandoned activities. It should be noted that we still had an extra-special dessert that Jonathan got to choose.

Now, fast forward to last night. Jonathan looked up at me and so sweetly asked if we could have Family Home Evening. It was late and I was in no way prepared. He said, “I like it when we get to eat candy and I really like to learn new stuff.” My heart did flip-flops. I sure do love this boy. Instead of Family Home Evening, we picked out two pieces of Halloween candy and sat down to work on our Sunday Letter project. Each of the kids wrote out the little notes that they would have written on Sunday. Then we read several articles from our church magazine. I am so glad that Jonathan reminded me how important our Family Home Evenings are.

Jessica
I love to walk past Jessie’s room. She always has her CD player going with lots of uplifting music. She loves to listen to music from her favorite LDS artists. She is bombarded on a daily basis with texts, media and internet material that sometimes is not uplifting. I can’t always see what she is doing on the internet or on her phone. I am glad to know that she is  listening to good music. I am thankful for her example in our home.

Yesterday, Jess came in and sat next to me. She wanted to share something important with me. (That doesn’t happen often with this teenager, so I seized the opportunity). Jess has a friend that was in a car accident. She was very worried about this girl and had been praying for days. She had mentioned fasting and we had asked her not to. Jess was in the middle of switching medicines and I really didn’t think it was a good time to get her blood sugar out of balance. However, I know she was fasting anyway, because she was eating absolutely nothing.

Jess recounted how hard she had been praying. She told me that she had received word that her friend was okay and would be out of the hospital soon. Jessica was so sweet as we talked about how this experience had strengthened her testimony of prayer.

Parenting is such hard work, but I want to always remember these special moments.

Sunday at Our House

Our church's Primary Program was this morning.   Each child had a little speaking part.  Jonathan had to say:

Temple blessings unite families. Matthew 16:19 says, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”

The whole primary did so well.  Both the message and the songs were beautiful.  This is the first time, in a very long time, that I haven't been up front helping the kids.  I was sad at first, but it is a wonderful experience to be able to sit back and listen.

We had our weekly Family Home Evening tonight. I had planned what I thought would be a fun evening. We watched the short video clip of Thomas S. Monson's What Matters Most. In the video, he talks about not assuming that our loved ones know how we feel about them. I thought it would be a good idea for us to write a note each Sunday to different people in our lives that we love.

I failed to get the mail yesterday, so it just so happened that both kids had received Halloween cards from Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe today. What perfect timing. Since they had just received their own cards, it was easy to get them on board with our note writing campaign.

I haven't decided how we will handle picking our future recipients.  For today, we each chose a person to write to.  Jessie made a card for her Great Grandpa Goyer in Arkansas.  Jonathan and I didn't go the homemade route.  We used a store bought card, but the sentiment is the same, right?  My card is going out to my Cool Cat Grandma (she really likes it when I refer to her as my Cool Cat Grandma).  Jonathan, on the other hand, chose to write a note to his cousin, Chris.  He is fourteen years old and Jonathan idolizes him.  Jonathan sealed up the card before I had a chance to read it. 

In the pictures above, the kids are enjoying their cards from Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe.  I hate that letter writing seems to be a lost art.  Emails are fun.  Blogging is impersonal.  But, there is nothing better than getting a note in the mail. 

Precious Pumpkins

Boy, did we need this weekend.  I had been hoping for a nice, quiet weekend for some time.  My request was granted.  Jonathan woke up Friday with a fever and a headache.  Out of necessity, we hibernated inside our house for most of the weekend.  Jonathan managed to get out of the house long enough to attend the first hour of church.  He was complaining of a sore throat, so we left Jessie there and headed home.

By this evening, it was very apparent that Jonathan was back to normal.  It works better for us to have Family Home Evening on Sunday nights.  Since he was feeling better, we went forward with our plans.  The first part of FHE was quite normal.  We popped popcorn and watched a church video about Joseph Smith.  Then we moved on to the activity.  I had a crazy moment where I got the bright idea to carve pumpkins for our activity.  Here is the thing... I had NEVER carved a pumpkin.  My mom didn't believe in carving pumpkins and I had just never found it necessary for my own kids.  We have a cute little witch's head (and her arms) that we stab into the pumpkin.  No carving... just decorating, sort off. 

So, we bought two pumpkins and two carving kits.  Thank goodness there were no injuries!  But, I am done.  There will be no more pumpkin carving for me!  It just isn't my forte.  At least, I can say that I tried.

A Teaching Moment: Lessons from Columbine

This was the mood in our family Monday night. Unfortunately, I was dealing with a 13 year old and a 9 year old. Somehow, it wasn’t as cute.

Jessica had been grounded earlier in the evening and she was making sure that we all knew how unhappy she was. The two kids were fighting at the dinner table. I think Jonathan decided to dish out some advice on obedience. As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with Jess. The next thing I knew, I had two disgruntled children making everyone’s life miserable.

I came to the realization that I had planned a Family Home Evening and it was looking like a disaster. They were a somewhat captive audience at the dinner table, so I decided to work FHE around dinner. I knew I couldn’t pull off what I had planned. Instead, I grabbed a New Era (a church magazine for youth) from the kitchen counter. I try to keep the latest magazine on our counter, so that I can take advantage of the time that we have at the dinner table. Of course, it was September’s issue and I wasn’t having any luck finding an article that we hadn’t already read. I finally found one, but didn’t even look to see what it was about. I just announced that we were going to have a prayer and read from the New Era. As they moved to get their arms in folding position, I heard lots of grumbling.

When I looked down to start reading, I realized that the article was about the Columbine shootings. I knew that Jess was very knowledgeable on this subject. Her school has taken part in an initiative called Rachel’s Challenge. (Rachel Scott was the first person to be killed in the shootings.) This initiative is very near and dear to her heart. Jonathan surprised me when he let me know that he had seen a video at school about Rachel Scott. Both kids were visibly touched by the Columbine story, which was told by a survivor. Afterwards, I asked Jess to share her feelings about Columbine and Rachel Scott. She cried as she told me of Rachel’s kindness. Jonathan shared his feelings about Rachel, as well. I asked Jonathan how he felt. He answered that he felt good and warm inside. It was nice to have that moment where I could remind him that he was feeling the Spirit. I think sometimes he doesn’t slow down long enough to feel it.

I am so thankful that I was able to figure out a way to pull a Family Home Evening off (even though it wasn’t what we had planned). It completely changed the attitude and demeanor of each family member.