Relief Society Paint Night Activity

I've had a lot of callings in my life and I would say that the 2-1/2 years I've spent as Relief Society Activity Coordinator have not been my easiest. My early days in the calling were filled with misunderstandings, made worse by high stress in my life and some poor communication on someone else's part.  Dynamics with the new RS presidency (called about 1/2 way through me getting this calling and now)  have been MUCH more smooth and I'm happy to report, completely drama free.    Having said that though....I'm tired!   Planning activities for adults has stretched me waaaaaaaaaay  outside my comfort zone and, after doing it for a couple years,  the activities have been getting much harder for me to come up with and implement lately.  I just barely got released this past Sunday, so this post is all about the last activity I planned.   

This latest activity was one I'd had on my list to do almost since when I first got called back in the summer of 2022.   Every time we discussed it as a committee though, it seemed too complicated to implement.  We worried about the cost of materials, finding an expert willing to teach it, etc.   It just kept getting pushed back again and again.     Finally...I realized that, due to my own poor planning (thanks to laziness and  a whole lot of exciting things happening in my family in August/September), that I was essentially going to be on my own for planning and making the October activity happen.   So, why not do the activity that had been on my brain since the beginning?   That's how we (I) decided to have a Watercolor Paint Night!  

Invitation was designed with a template on Canva. 

All the  hurdles we kept worrying about turned out to be a nonissue.  We borrowed paints and brushes and the only cost was buying a few packs of watercolor paper (fairly cheap at Walmart), getting some styrofoam plates and cups for the paint/water, and getting some black and white copies made (also very inexpensive when providing my own paper).  Apparently you can print them at home too, but my printer is pretty wimpy with thick paper and I didn't want to fight it.  The inkjet ink can also bleed, which was another issue prevented with getting them professionally printed.  For 5 cents a copy, it was well worth it!   Also,  I decided to forego finding a painting expert and just give a quick non-expert's tutorial on using watercolor paints and let people channel their inner Bob Ross and just have at it.

  To decrease the intimidation level that some people might have felt with a blank canvas, I decided to copy simple outlines directly onto the watercolor paper, so they'd have a good place to start with their art.   I got the outlines from here (Christ)  and here (flowers & berries) and here (Mt. Timp temple).  I also cut up some 4x6 blank sheets of watercolor paper for people to test their colors on and to give them the opportunity to create their own design from scratch if desired. 

The biggest issue, by a mile, was the fact that I decided so late in the game what we were doing (and the fact that it was just after General Conference weekend)  that we ended up not having a Sunday to get it announced and advertised.     I emailed, texted, and delivered fliers to people's doors, but we still ended up with only about a dozen people in attendance or so, which is 1/3 to 1/4 of what we usually have.    Despite the disappointing turnout, however,  I think it was a fun activity for the dozen people that did come.  

It was the perfect kind of activity to be productive and social  at the same time, and I loved watching the conversations happening around the room throughout the night!

  Despite the poor attendance (which I view as my fault for planning it late), I consider the night a great success and I'd highly recommend it for anyone planning an evening for adult or teen girls!  

Summer Happenings: Part 1

Well, what can I say?   All routine is out the window and I am having an incredibly difficult time keeping up here on the blog.  I known that there are approximately 2 people that may have even noticed that it's been while, but I feel like I need a little brain break, so here I am.

So here's a glimpse of the last few weeks...

Kristina and boys came to town for a couple weeks.  

It was loud and the house was a mess, but I very much enjoyed spending time with them...

I introduced them to Perler beads, which they'd never tried before, but Jesus dove in first, then when the other boys saw what  it was all about, got obsessed too. 

It was very cute how hard they worked (for hours a day) and how proud they were of their work...

Denali also very much enjoyed the extra attention!  

I taught them a couple of old-fashioned card games--Old Maid, Go Fish, and Slap Jack--and enjoyed watching them have fun playing those!

One day, we dropped by to wish Nana a happy birthday!   She's 95 now!  

I won't lie...it's a bit chaotic when they come to town, but it's mostly a good chaos that I enjoy.  

I always love my postcards, but this summer I've been a little extra obsessed with them. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't love sending and receiving mail as much as me, but it's literally a stress relief for me and I love that it's not a super time consuming thing I can do for myself.  I may have to do a whole post on this topic soon, because I've been having fun with it!

Speaking of postcards, here's a little postcard challenge I'm doing with my sisters (and Cam).  The challenge this week (chosen randomly by Heather) was blue-footed booby.  I had run out of my authentic Ecuadorean cards, so I adapted this one to fit the bill.  haha...

Also...Ellie submitted her mission papers a few weeks ago.  We knew her call would likely take longer because of her seizures, but we are hopeful it will come soon!  

She finished her second trimester at BYU-Idaho and she is happy.  She had good roommates and really enjoys the environment up in Idaho...

I picked her up from Idaho and we are enjoying the extra noise and action that comes along with having her at home.  

I have a bunch more to add, but blogger is not letting me upload photos today, so I'll do a Part 2 soon.  Stay tuned... 

Weekend in NUMB3RS

I had 13 kids at our house most of the weekend, including 9 that slept over here on Friday night.

Cami was getting paid to take care of 5 of the kids overnight and for most of two days.

4 of the kids were my nieces and a nephew that Ellie had been begged to have over for a night.

3 of the guests had fevers.

I  fed bowls of egg noodles in broth to 2 kids who are allergic to eggs.    Thankfully neither reacted to it.    The mom suspects that it's because the noodles only contained egg yolks and not the more allergenic whites.  I feel majorly horrible, especially since I pride myself in being uber  careful about people's food allergies.   I think I was thrown off because the kids were sick and not eating anything else I served.    

Cami had 1 cupcake order and 1 tutoring job during her babysitting stint, which is why I was feeding kids without her around.

Glen and Spence both completed legs of a 70-mile relay.

Glen ran about 10 miles, Spence about 14.     Two friends did all 70-miles themselves.

I worked on the yard for 2-hours in the heat of the day, mostly to escape the noise on the inside of our house.  The kids found a beautiful white-marked tussock moth caterpillar, while I found that I have the capacity to sweat A LOT.

It was 1/2 hour before the evening session of stake conference was supposed to start and I realized that I hadn't showered, I was wearing my grubbies, still had 13 kids at our house, hadn't made dinner yet, and was covered in grass stains from working on the yard.   I opted not to go.

I spent 20-minutes cleaning up after a little blender "incident" that one of my children had (see picture below).   

 I was fine most of the weekend and it wasn't really until the next day that I got a little overwhelmed....mostly after  viewing the aftermath of this weekend on our house (see a glimpse in the pictures above and below). 

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Here are a few pictures of our crazy weekend...you know, so I can look back at all this with nostalgia someday!

Did I forget to mention that my brother is back from his nearly 3-month European tour and is hoping to find a job here?