This is Valor and all the kids before he left for college. We got to see him this week when he came back for an ortho appointment. I am so jealous that he gets to take these awesome classes at George Wythe. He is studying Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations right now and is going to be reading Laddie! I am determined to figure out a way to go observe a few classes.

These Fascinating Womanhood principles are working! I’ve been applying them and I do feel happier in my marriage. Today my husband told me not to do something I planned to do and gave the reasons why, namely, because he feels I need to spend more time homemaking and childrearing. I decided he was right and agreed instead of fighting back, even though the “natural woman” part of me wanted to. Later today he fixed our gate, which is something I have been wanting him to do for a loooong time. My baby keeps running away when he is outside, no surprise there. He also agreed to something in the provider department that I asked him to do. I don’t know if it has anything to do with me being more fascinating but I like to think it does.

I had an absolutely lovely time yesterday with my online finishing school. Anyone who isn’t a part of it is missing out!. My dear friend Michelle who moved to Guam has joined and she had so many wise points to share. We discussed Deborah, Hannah, and Huldah from the Bible. I really love discussing with these women because as I discuss I come up with ideas that I wouldn’t come up with in any other way. I can see why Oliver DeMille says that discussion is one of the great environments of learning. So come join my Zion Finishing School, you will love it! Click on the tab about it above to learn more. You know you want to. Here’s what is coming up for us to learn and discuss: Nourishing Traditions, Dr. Mom tips, how to teach emotional purity to our youth as they court, and the book Good Wives, the sequel to Little Women. I can already see principles of Fascinating Womanhood in Good Wives and it’s lots of fun. I can’t wait to discuss them! Jo is such a hoot!

We talked about Deborah showed FW principles in working with the men in her community. She did the feminine thing of inspiring, and then the men did the hard physical work of fighting the battle. We also discussed Hannah. I thought it was interesting that Hannah combined fasting with prayer when she prayed to have a child. So that opened up a huge discussion of why fasting makes prayer more powerful. I shared that it has to do with the Law of the Vacuum. When we create space in our lives by literally creating space in our bodies by going without food, that helps us attract the blessings we want. I also like to create space in my home before each Fast Sunday, like I did for this Fast Sunday, by dejunking. We sent a ton of stuff today to the trash pile and the thrift store. As i talked about this idea it also occurred to me that I can create space in time as well by giving up something timewise. One of the class members mentioned giving up time on Facebook. I have been better about that lately and I’m pleased with that.

I didn’t even know who Huldah was until I read about her for my class and I think she’s cool too. It’s amazing how I graduated from seminary and BYU and still didn’t know who Huldah was! I want to be like her too, and have the courage to tell the truth to those in authority even if it might mean bad news for me.

We are getting ready for our new homeschool year to start the day after Labor Day. I am so excited to start this year, thanks to the terrific mentoring I’ve had from Mary Ann Johnson and her grand idea of the Closet, and how to actually use it. See http://home-school-coach.com

In preparation, and to create a house of order out of chaos, I have been dejunking the school room and the storage room that is next to it. Here, no kidding, is a sampling of what I found:

• a bag of potatoes with 10 feet of sprouts growing from them (one of my littles must have been pretending to be going shopping and left it the storage room)
• a darling brand new sun hat and a now -too-small sun suit that were given to my baby as a new baby gift. He’s 2 now and doesn’t fit the suit. Sigh. I put it on him for a day anyway just to be able to say that he wore it.
• Two checks that I had misplaced and blamed one of my kids for losing them. Yikes!
• Papers about homeschooling that I filed over ten years ago, including a list of goals that i had for my firstborn for his kindergarten and first grade homeschooling years. Now he’s in college. I think he’s achieved those goals, although not all by the deadline of the end of those years. I’m so much more of a relaxed homeschooling mom than I used to be, thanks to TJED and Headgates (although I still don’t agree with everything in Headgates)
• Lots of things that I finally feel free to throw away, like newsletters and magazines. Hooray!
• A map with the words to the Geography Songs tape that I played for the kids last year. I kept wanting to have they lyrics in front of me and couldn’t find the book. Now I have taped the map with the lyrics on the wall in the school room.
• my collection of LDSHEA newsletters with an old interview with Rachel DeMille that I can’t wait to read
• an email that Kelli Poll sent to me long before I met her in person, with answers she gave to questions I had
• so much more stuff that I won’t go into! Suffice it to say that I am really glad I’ve dejunked. I’m actually not done, it’s a continual process around here. I’ve learned to not let that overwhelm me.
  

Nicholeen Peck shared this cool video about planning for a new school year. I am going to do this on Sunday to plan our year. I am not going to worry about overlapping with my Master Inspire Plan.