Super Saturday 2009

I love to craft and create things.  This year we had the second Super Saturday under my direction.  I asked for some feedback concerning the projects we did.  Only one person suggested a project which was a Nativity Advent calendar.  It’s the kind of calendar where you add a character to the Nativity every night until Christmas Eve.  I found some at Oriental Trading Company.  This project was inexpensive, so I offered it as our free project, one per family.  I did give the option to let people pay for extras at $1.50 each.  Our projects included the Nativity calendar, a 20 page Christmas scrapbook, pillowcase dresses, hair bows, and a scarecrow in a pumpkin (a wood craft).

This year Super Saturday was 9 am – 3pm.  This gave people a chance to sign up for several projects.  Last year it was from 9am – 12 pm and people were scrambling to finish.  Many went home with unfinished projects that I’m willing to bet are still unfinished a year later.

I served food from Costco:  muffins, pineapple, orange juice, and a veggie tray.  Around lunch time I put out salmon pasta salad, chips and 7 layer dip.

Attendance was lower this year and I’m not sure if it was the projects, lack of interest, timing or the economy.  If we do this next year I’m going to try some different projects like no bake candy such as peppermint bark.

The projects

Pumpkin making with Wendy

Teresa and Lauren Whitehead work on their pumpkin

Pumpkin Lineup

Sariah, Becca, Aleese, and Carolyn making advent calendars

Diana and Amber make a pillowcase dress

Shellie and Toni model their hair bows

As a thank you to Diana and Wendy, I made more cards and raspberry bars.  I couldn’t have done it without them.  I am also hoping this little “bribe” will encourage them to help me again next year.

Journaling in the Digital Age

I thought last night’s quarterly Enrichment meeting was fabulous.  The presenters  were well prepared and enthusiastic about the subject.  I have thought a lot about a talk given by President Eyring called O Remember, Remember.  He talks about the journals he keeps and how he writes down a few lines every day.  I thought surely I could do that, right?  I have made a conscious effort to think over the day and record the funny things my children have done or any special thoughts I have had.  I have not been consistent, but I have done more over the past couple of years than I have in the last decade.

Alvin and Tammy Van Orden talk about newsletters

Our friends, the Van Ordens, moved out of ward in May.  Shortly after, we received an email newsletter from them and I was blown away.  They had 4-5 pages of pictures and text.  I couldn’t believe they had taken the time to take pictures of all the annoyances of moving along with birthday celebrations, and end of year school parties to create a newsletter.  They had pictures of them painting the new house, their son packing toys, birthday cakes, and the moving truck.  What a treasure these newsletters must be to their family!  I decided I wanted to start my own family newsletter.

I started emailing them about their camera, what software to use, file sizes, and other technical information.  We needed a new camera anyway, so I decided to get something small enough to fit inside the diaper bag.  I was getting excited about my new project.

Page 1 of our newsletter

Paul and I headed to the temple for our monthly visit.  My brain is always going a mile a minute and I was struck with the inspiration to have the Van Ordens share their newsletter with the sisters for our quarterly Enrichment meeting.  They agreed as long as my first newsletter would be available to show.  Yikes!  I had to compete with theirs?  I couldn’t even think of a title!  Alvin put me to shame by coming up with several on the fly:  Everything Ellison, The Ellison in the Room, What the Ellison?, Show and Ellison, and Mr. Paul Ellison goes to Washington (Paul’s favorite).  I eventually sat Paul down and told him we had to choose a title.  We settled on Ellison Wonderland.

Our first newsletter had five pages total.  Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, and Page 5 are also available for viewing.  I used photoshop to create it, but Word can be used to create one, too.

Katie talks about blogging

Blogging is another form of journaling, so I asked Katie Hutchinson to talk about her blogs.  She has 6 total, 2 of which is contributes to, but does not own.  She pointed out that we mostly blog to share our experiences in the hope we can help others.  She has a son who has been diagnosed with autism and she is recording her experiences.  It’s a great way to track his developmental progress.  It’s also easy to print out the blog posts into a book or other hard copy.

Katie discussed blogs that have helped strengthen her own testimony of the Gospel.  Emily Wilberg shared her blog called stepping stones which is a support blog for those who have lost children.  Blogging is a great way to bring people together through sharing common likes, interests, and life experiences.

Gift bag for our presenters

The presenters spent a lot of effort preparing for our meeting, so as a thank you I put together a gift bag with hand made  cards and some chocolate chip cookies.  We had a nursery staffed by the Elder’s Quorum, so I gave each of them a gift certificate for a free ice cream at Bruster’s.  I feel it is important to recognize those that help in the hope they will be willing to share their talents again.

The Food!

Since I had presenters, I really wanted to have everybody there before getting started.  When women gather together we expect to eat.  This time we had refreshments first.  I bought everything at Costco (we are going for EASY, there is no point in making extra work for ourselves).  We had spinach dip with pita chips, watermelon, dinner rolls stuffed with chicken salad, and strawberry cheesecake.  Enrichment was slated to start at 7 pm, but the presenters didn’t start until 7:30.  We had 30 minutes to eat, chat, pray, sing, and have a few opening remarks.  I was pleased because everyone seemed attentive and ready to begin by 7:30.  I will try this again next time and hope for the same results.

Marriage & Family Quarterly Meeting

Last night I held my first quarterly meeting as Enrichment counselor.  When I was first called I had lots of ideas of what would be a fun activity.  I like to have fun, so of course the activity should be fun.  We could have a BBQ, a service auction, get-to-know you games, etc.  Then I started to wonder what the true purpose of the quarterly meeting is.  On lds.org I found the page on Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment Meetings.  The phrase “leaders should carefully assess the needs of the sisters and counsel with priesthood leaders” stuck with me and I decided a BBQ will probably not meet the needs of the sisters (unless they’re hungry, of course).

I started my hunt for a more “serious” activity.  The idea of a Marriage & Family related activity stuck with me.  I talked with the RS Prez and she said the Bishop was concerned about marriage ties in the ward, so that took care of the “counsel with priesthood leaders” part.  I took a religion class at BYU called LDS Marriage & Family which was taught by Douglas Brinley.  I loved that class.  Professor Brinley was so funny.  He would talk about couples he had counseled, always calling the men Birds and making the women sound a little nagging.  Stereo-typical stuff.  He would then instruct us from getting into these sticky marriage situations and how to get out.  I still have my syllabus and thought about pulling excerpts from it and teaching the class myself.  Then I remembered LDS Family Services.  They are an excellent resource and and our ward has its own counselor assigned to it (I’m sure your ward does, too).

Lu Duke, a volunteer counselor from LDS Family Services

I called our counselor (who was busy), but she referred Lu Duke.  Sister Duke was more than happy to come.  She spoke to us about negative relationship cycles and how to make them positive.  She drew a diagram using the words Criticism, Defensiveness, Contempt, and  Stonewalling.  In the end she had a circle with arrows pointing to and away from each term.  She pointed out how they feed off each other and how negative the diagram felt.  She taught us how Satan will never have a body, get married or have children; this is why he is so intent on breaking down marriage and family relationships.

Sister Duke then replaced each term with new ones:  Encouragement, Listen, Esteem, and Embrace.  She kept the arrows in place, so each term pointed to all the other terms.  The diagram now felt supportive, positive and loving.  She told us that we must say 5 positive things for each negative.  To emphasize her point, she told us that Princess Leia must now find 20 positive things to say to Han Solo after her “stuck up, half witted, scruffy looking, nerf-herder” remark.

This meeting ended up being a great intro for 2 series of classes our ward is starting on marriage and family.  Sister Duke was able to give more information on each class and many of the sisters were eager to sign up.  We ended with a Munch ‘n Mingle.  I had the sisters sign up to bring desserts and sides to share.  I think most everyone had a good time.  It was nice to socialize at the end because I don’t feel we get to do that very often.

My bribe to get the Sisters to come to Enrichment night.

I started promoting the event about 2 months in advance.  I had announcements put in the ward bulletin and the Relief Society newsletter.  The Sunday before Enrichment I passed out reminders (bribes) so they would remember to come.  I love paper crafting, so I printed the text onto cardstock, rounded the corners, stamped the roses, and attached the candy using a glue gun.  I bought a bulk package of candy from Costco and served some that night (more bribes) and will save the rest for our next meeting.  The text says:

See how sweet marriage can be.  Tuesday, June 23, 2009 @ 7:00 pm.  Lu Duke from LDS Family Services will be speaking to us followed by a Munch ‘n Mingle.  Nursery will be provided.

I thought the evening went well except for one thing:  Trying to get everyone there on time.  We were supposed to start at 7:00 pm.  We actually started at 7:15 but there were only a handful of sisters there.  It was almost embarrassing.  By the end the room was almost full.  How have you handled this problem?  Please comment to let me know!