Emily Nelson- Mrs. Utah

Our guest speaker for our January meeting was Emily Nelson, Mrs. Utah of 2008.  She shared her experiences and thoughts about accepting and overcoming adversity.  Sone highlights of her talk were:

- Don’t allow adversity to ruin your relationships.

-Negative feelings (such as self-pity) are addicting- not healthy to hang in to it.

-Choose how you react in negative situations.

- Adversity gives us confidence

-Forgive others

- When you take the easy road, you won’t be remembered.

Thanks, Emily, for sharing your thoughts with us.  Our Chapter President, Karmel Larson, is running for Mrs. Utah this year. Good luck, Karmel!

Emily Nelson speaks to us

Emily and Karmel

Glenn Latham- Helping Children Achieve in School

For our Glenn Latham discussion, we talked about Chapter 23, Helping Children Achieve in School.  Here are some highlights:

-The most important variable for school success is parental involvement in the education of their children.

- He gives six things parents can do to help children suceed: 1- Talking with children, and the use of proper language, 2- Encouragement to learn, 3- Reading daily to and with children, 4- Sharing of parental aspirations for their children, 5- Provide direct help with studies, 6- Organizing time and space for study and homework.

We had a discussion about telling children about neighbors, friends, relatives and historical figures who value education. Share stories about their lives and what they did to get an education.

Improving Relationships

Our focus for Mothers Achievement Program this month is Relationships- “I can grow closer to my family and circle of support”.  There are a variety of goals you can choose to imporve your relationship with your husband, children, family and other relationships. 

Shauna shared how she has a special “Birthday date” each month with her children to have one on one time with them. On the day of their birthday each month (for example, one son was born on Dec. 27, so on the 27th of each month), she tries to do something extra special with just that child.  It’s something simple, not a big production. One time she was going to go get gas in the car, so she invited that child along and let him choose an ice cream cone at the gas station.  She also tries to do something extra special with her husband on their anniversary date once a month. Sometimes it’s just saying “Happy Sweetheart Day, I love you!” at the end of the day. 

Another fabulous mother shared how she has a sweetheart  journal that she fills out with her husband each month on her “Sweetheart Day”.  Each month on the date they were married, they each fill out 3 things in their journal.  1- Top 3 memories of the past month 2- What did each person do to show love that month to their spouse 3- What are goals this month to imporve their marriage.

These are great ideas. Click on “Relationships” on the top to get more ideas from the Mothers Achievement Program.

January 2009 Meeting

It was good to be back with everyone after our break in December.  During our meeting, we worked on coloring lacing cards for our local Head Start.  We had a great discussion about relationships and how to set goals in this area for the Mothers Achievement Program.  We even chose mentors to help us follow up on our goals. 

Our Glenn Latham lesson was on Chapter 23- Helping Children Achieve in School.  We then heard from the current Mrs. Utah, Emily Nelson about aceepting and overcoming adversity.  Here’s are some pictures of our meeting.

Our American Mothers at our January meeting holding up our service project that we do during the meeting.

Listening and serving at the same time. We are experts at mulit-tasking.