Honor Bee clarification

Thanks Alice for your comment to my last post. I see that I need to clarify some things about the honor bee service hours. As I mentioned before, obviously I would not count every thing that I do for my children towards the completion of this program. That would be silly. Sister Dalton explained that these hours are to mostly be used for the young women, but they do not all have to be. The goal for the honor bee hours are to mentor young women. I feel that this most definitely applies to our daughters as well. The young womens program began with Brigham Young organizing his daughters in his home. I chose to count some hours for my daughters this week for the following reason: I have spent many hours working with our young women in my home since I was called to be the Young Women's President. We have girls camp next week and I have spent time teaching them how to sew various projects, paint, make posters, and come up with spiritual thoughts in preparation. I have family in town with the birth of my new niece as well. With everything going on, I wanted to make a special point to show my girls that I wouldn't push them aside. I've been taking time to do special things, things that I understand many of you do all the time, including myself. This was different, though. It required much more sacrifice, energy that I don't have, and time that I seem to never have enough of. Don't misunderstand. I love everything that I do related to my calling and here at home. My personal goal with my service hours are to use them to push myself to be better. To try harder in those moments when it seems hardest. My hours are not frivolously chosen. That is what is great about the personal progress and honor bee programs. They are personal. They are to be adapted to the individual. I will even be sending them to the bishop and Bonnie for his approval so that I am in check as well as the youth. Today I spent an hour playing with my niece, nephew, and daughters on the slip and slide and baby sat so that my sister could go and help Clark and Heather. My current total is 4.5 hours. I can't wait to hear what some of you are doing for yours!

Honor Bee: 3.5 hours

I took Ally and Emma to the movies when I was so tired all I wanted to do was rest. Then I let them pick out their own awful-looking but cute because it was their idea- outfits. For any of you who know me well, that was hard.

Honor Bee Update

1.5 hours taking lunch to Heather (Not that I wouldn't have done that anyway, but it was fun planning!:)

Our ward leaders have encouraged we adults to do our personal progress again. I did mine as a youth, and would like to do it again with my daughters, however, there is now a new program that the church has come out with called the Honor Bee program.

The Honor Bee charm was historically given to young women who were willing to do more than was required. To continue your progress, you may earn an Honor Bee to accompany your Young Womanhood Recognition medallion. You may earn an Honor Bee charm after completing both of the following requirements*:

1. Read the Book of Mormon again

2. Serve others for a total of 40 hours.

Since I use my blog as my journal, I am going to keep track of my service hours in my blog. As parents and church leaders we could easily earn 40 hours of service in just a few days. I thought that this would be a neat opportunity, though, to push myself to do things here at home or with my calling that may be lacking. If any of you want to do it with me, let me know! It would be fun to plan together!

Charley Rose

What a sweet baby! On Thursday, Heather gave birth to our fifth grandchild, Charlotte Rose Ensminger. I have to say that Heather was a trooper. If she was hurting, she didn't complain much. Charley weighed 8 pounds and 1 ounce. She was rather long. Maybe she'll be tall like her daddy! What a great Father's Day present for Clark! Our family sees a lot of Heather in her features, but Heather's family sees a lot of Clark. Maybe she's a perfect combo. She has very dark hair and very dark eyes. They're so dark that I would be surprised if they turned blue. So far, she seems to be a little bit darker complected. We'll see if that changes. At first, she appeared to have curly hair. Here are some pictures. She is absolutely perfect!

Nauvoo

We just had the most wonderful trip with our friends to Nauvoo. It was wonderful! Nauvoo is the city that the early members of our church built as a refuge from persecution. In it's time it rivaled Chicago in size. Eventually the members had to leave from mob threats, however, it has been restored in it's original state for people to visit. Even the temple has been rebuilt. It was gorgeous!
This is the girls eating gingerbread cookies at the bakery. The recipe is original.


This is the rocking horse that John Taylor made for his son. When the family was leaving Nauvoo, his son was crying. They asked him what was wrong. He told his parents that he missed his rocking horse. John Taylor returned home, even though his life was being sought, to retrieve the rocking horse.

This is a picture of the trail that the saints took to leave their beautiful city. Far in the distance you can see the temple. This was one of the most special parts of the town.


Here the girls are practicing writing on slates like the pioneers did in the old school house.
Little Emma hugging her namesake.
Check out Emma's expression in this picture!

This is the room where the prophet and his brother were murdered. You can still see the tiny hole in the door where a bullet went through and killed Hyrum.
At the carthage jail visitor's center, all of the girls were looking at pass a long cards. I told them that they could take one, but that they should give them to someone who doesn't go to our church. Ally was so consumed with who she should give her card to. She ran up to this lady wearing the black shirt, gave her the card, and then ran off because she was so embarrassed. It was adorable.
More stories are to come. I wanted to go ahead and post the pictures.

Memorial Day Weekend in Winchester

Check out these adorable pics from our visit to Winchester. My grandmother went all out in planning everything. It was adorable!

Ally's Field Day

Check out our little athlete! Her kindergarten class won first place at field day!