Organized Time Makes for a Happy Family

For students and mothers who have to work this may be helpful information to you.
We need to learn how to value our time, organize it, and prioritize it. Every person has 168 hours per week, to figure out how much extra time per week we have we have to subtract from 168 hours the time we need for sleep every day, the time we spend at work, preparing for class, going to class, taking care of children, all of the important every day tasks that cannot be avoided. The total number of hours left is the time we have to work with. This is the time we have to organize it. I would encourage filling out a 3 day chart, documenting how you spend every half hour of those days to see where your time is going. Once you know where you time is going make a priority list of things that have to get done, should get done, and aren't as important, but would be nice to get done you could label these as categories A, B, and C. After you have accomplished this make a daily chart of every hour the things you'd like to do, first fill in the unavoidable things, the fill in the category "A" things, the things that need to be done. Then put in the B and C things. It is important that once we make this chart to stick to it. By doing this we will actually create more free time for ourselves and in the end be happier.

Now for stay at home mothers, I know we have a busy schedule and that we are always on duty, there is not very many hours a day in which we get to leave the house, and this way of organizing your life may not work because for you every minute of the day is full of these little distractions called children and that is our job, but for stay at home mothers instead of figuring out and prioritizing your lives, try figuring out how much time a day you waste on social media, blogs, facebook, and other things and then try to incorperate in your day more productive things. Don't take away complelty from the social media, but have control over how long you spend there. I think you'll be surprised how much time there really is to get things done.

Clearly Define the Boundaries

If we wish to have an increase in marital satisfaction we have to be prepared for it. We have to clearly define boundaries and be prepared and mature enough to move to the next step. We cannot start dating someone and then slide into courting then slide into engagement then one day wake up married to that person, it has to be clearly marked milestones in our progression towards finidng that one special someone to marry. A few tips for learning how to do this is:


1. Take your time


- People rush into relationships all the time we no longer feel comfortable just being friends and getting to know each other we feel like we have to be something more than that.


2. Clealy define the boudaries between Dating, Courting, Engagement, and marriage.


- There are important events and conversations that must take place in each of these catagories, when we finally feel like we are ready then we can move forward to the next step.


3. Know the difference between dating and courting


- Dating= going on lots of dates and getting to know each other, but still dating other people. You are not a couple and should not act as a couple, which means to keep the physical intamacy to a minimum, keeping the phyiscal intimacy out of your relationship longer will help your friendship grow stronger and allow for a strong foundation for an eventual courtship, emgagement, and marriage


- Courtship= Paired off, clearly together as a couple, still going on dates and trying to keep the physical affection to a minimum. You must talk openly about marriage and the things that you expect, you have to work through things together and experience conflict.


4. Remember not to slide through this stages, that is critical to the success of this formula. Clearly define and talk about your relationship and where it is going and then make the decision together to move forward, not becuase you have to but because you are both ready for the greater commitment.

Dating is important all through your life

This week in all of my classes we talked a lot about dating. The big issue we discussed in class is how much dating has changed over the past 50 years. It is apparent that dating has a much different meaning than it did 50 years ago, but something I hadn't thought about was that after marriage you should still go on dates to nurture the relationship and keep it alive. Is this maybe a reason why divorce is so eminent? I believe that by going on creative dates that no matter how old or young, you or the relationship is there is always new things to learn about that person, there is always a deeper love to be found. I don't know if any of my ideas can help you, but for about a year now, I've been working on a list of dating ideas that I have heard around and I thought I'd share them with you.

- Way back when party: Have chicken nuggets and French fries while you watch hey Arnold, Doug, Arthur, Recess and other shows from the past.

- Indexing: Bring your computers and index together as you try to figure out what everything says. It’s fun and it’s serving

- Sleigh Ride: Through the school you can go on a sleigh ride.

- Water Color Painting- Paint a portrait of each other, a landscape, our home, our favorite place

- Ice Skating

- Rock museum in Romney building

- Dinosaur exhibit in Benson

- Watch youtube videos like Stewart, Kid History, or Can I have your number

- Watch mormon messages

- Share stories and pictures from your past.

- Go to a concert

- Go on a walk through the buildings

- Go on a service scavenger hunt.

- Go to a dance

- Read scripture stories and modernize them, act them out, or read them in a modern day tone, then for a more serious time talk about how they are truly applicable to our time.

- Library- Go to the library and read children’s stories or try to find a certain random topic.

- Go on a scavenger hunt for something in random books throughout the library. Like we have to find a story about a dinosaur, whoever finds the best book wins.

- Go to the library and pick out two of the most dramatic, adventurous, or mysterious exciting books you can find turn to a random page in each book and take turns reading random lines out of them and see what kind of story you get.

- Skiing, Snowboarding, Cross-Country Skiing, or other outdoor activities through the school.

- Make up a dance to a song and record it as a music video

- Make a movie and get random people to be in it

- Take random pictures throughout different buildings then make a movie of all the pictures together with subtitles underneath telling a fantasy tale about our adventures.

- Make a silent movie

- Have a picnic inside

- Tell scary stories to each other

- Most embarrassing moments night

- Share something you’ve never told anyone before

- Ask each other 3 questions every time you see each other, just to get to know each other

- Play basketball game

- Play card games (uno, skip-bo, phase 10, dutch blitz)

- Go to the mall in Idaho falls and pick out the ugliest things for each other then go try them on and take pictures

- For dinner one day go to different restaurants for something different each time you go get just one thing. When you have everything go ahead and eat.

- Museum in Idaho Falls

- Teton Flood museum

- A-Z game at Brolum’s

- Dress formal for a random concert, just for fun

- Make a sit down formal dinner for everyone in the apartment and then be their waiters. Afterwards then you two can sit and eat.

- Just make dinner together

- Go to the sand dunes and walk around or look at the stars

- Hike “R” mountain and have a picnic up there

- Study the Scriptures together and apply them to our lives

- Charity opportunities share stories of when you were charitable and then find people to help around campus or just do any act of kindness.

- Participate in a school or church service committee.

- Go shopping together.

- Attend an athletic event as spectators.

- Go for a car or bus ride.

- Visit or play with younger siblings, nieces, nephews, or other young children

- Do homework or read together

- Make pizza from scratch together.

The Differences of Men and Women

There are many differences between men and women, we watched an ABC special on Monday about these differences if was called Men, Women and Sex differences. In this special they talked about many different views on how men and women are different. I found these to be very interesting, but helpful when thinking about why men do certain things.
Before I start I just want to make sure that I state my opinion that I do believe that in marriage men and women have the ability to bond as no other friends really can, because of the differences between men and women. They each bring different aspects of life and can help to create a lasting bond and help each other during hard times.

Some of the differences that were states were:
Generally speaking, Females: Give directions and best understand directions when given based off of landmarks, they are more creative in their thinking and ability to create and be artistic, they pay attention to detail and have good memories, they are more relationship oriented and nurturing they are communication oriented and start off conversations usually by asking questions.
Generally speaking, Men: have spatial orientation meaning they have a good sense of direction, they are more aggressive, and task oriented (meaning they are terrific at focusing on one thing and only that 1 task), they are competitive, and have a hard time communicating.

These differences can really strengthen us as individuals and help us to strengthen our relationship with one another, if we can realize that we are here to help each other and know that these differences are not supposed to be changed but learned to work with, we can experience a relationship unlike any other.