Contrasts

In addition to being a wife and mother, I work for the school district as a classroom aide in a Youth in Custody facility for teen boys.  I have worked with at-risk teens going on 6 years now.  The first two years were at the alternative high school; the other four year in youth-in-custody.  It has been crazy, fulfilling, stressful and fun all at the same time.  It has also been a learning experience.
Teenagers today have so many more temptations and other things in their lives that make it difficult to just be a kid.  They are faced with an onslaught of media, drugs, alcohol, pornography, anti-religion advocates, and the list goes on and on.  How do we, as parents and youth leaders, combat this?
This month's visiting teaching message for the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints provides the answer.  It's very simple, really.  It's this amazing thing called The Gospel!  I'm inserting a picture of a handout I found on a wonderful website www.theideadoor.com  You will notice that one of the tools listed is Family Meals!  When I was at the alternative high school, a female student asked me if I made dinner for my family and if we sat down to dinner as a family.  Naturally, I said "Yes".  She than said, "Maybe if my mom made dinner once in a while and we ate together, I wouldn't have gotten into trouble.....".  Lightbulb! Nuf said!

First Post!

Good Evening my friends! Well, here I go diving into this new adventure of blogging.  This has been a long time coming but 2011 has been a very unusual year and that is what has prompted me to finally do this.
Life is interesting.  We go about our daily activities, pretty much sticking to the same schedule and routine and then...WHAM!  Heavenly Father throws us a curve ball...or two or three or more! It's how we take aim at those curve balls that will determine if we strike out or knock them out of the park.
Health issues, decreased hours at my husband's job, the challenging economic situation of the United States, the loss of my father....all of these things have prompted me to rethink what is important to myself and my family.  
Life needs to be more simple and in turn, we need to return to the basics of homemaking and family life.  Self-sufficiency centered on a strong faith in Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, is essential to simplifying our lives.
This blog will feature the efforts of my family on the road of provident living.  I plan on sharing our experiences along with frugal living tips, recipes, favorite web sites, patterns for handcrafted items, and just plain fun stuff.
I hope you will join me on this journey!