Bishop Family Culture

Just a couple of images from our last homeschool field trip. We went to the Family History Library and learned how to do Genealogy work. The kids actually thought this was pretty cool. Especially Celeste. After that, we went over to the Church History Museum. They found this to be pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to next months field trip being able to do something outdoors with Spring coming.
A couple of months ago we started a new system in the house. I don't post this to try and show off or push my style of things on to people. You probably all do it better anyhow. *Had to add that little disclaimer.* I post this because we've had trouble with this kind of thing in our family historically. We have been doing Family Fun Days for 6 and a half years now. We started doing FFD's because we were noticing that Family Home Evening on Monday nights was great for spiritual instruction, but not great for real fun together. There just wasn't enough time for Gospel learning and fun activities on a Monday night. We needed FHE and FFD. We are pretty good about having fun together as a family. But we haven't been as good at teaching our kids to work. Lots of other families seem to have this down to a science and we were a mess! I was realizing that our kids were just down-right lazy. We needed a better system. Actually we needed a system, period.
I typed up some schedules and such, and pasted them on this poster board. (Don't zoom in on it because it will only show you just how bad our predicament was prior to this. The things on these lists are pretty basic stuff.)

First we've got the "Bishop Family Schedule". Not everything is on it. But a lot of it is. And we don't stick to it 100%. We probably stick to it about 80% of the time. I think schedules are pretty important. It's a way to figure out how to logically fit everything in that you need to accomplish. On the other hand, you need to have a reasonable amount of flexibility and not be a slave to the schedule. This is certainly easier said than done and it's something I'm still trying to get the perfect balance of... I also find that there are things on here that have needed to be adjusted or have already been adjusted but haven't been changed on the posted document yet.
Next is the Homeschool Schedule. Same idea as the above. Just making sure that most of the important stuff gets all scheduled in there. On Fridays we try to make homeschooling a bit of a fun atmosphere and learn in more hands-on unconventional ways. I've planned on taking them on field trips one Friday a month.
Homeschooling is still going quite well and our system of learning seems to be working pretty well. I was thinking that their education at home was as good, if not better than what they were getting at public school--except for math. I was concerned their math was not going anywhere. I finally hired a young mother and former teacher who got her teaching degree from BYU to come in 3 times a week and teach the kids math. I'm so glad I did because she really is better at it than me! I feel confident now that their quality of education is better at home than it was at public school. I'm excited as I watch them progress and learn! However, I still have some mixed feelings about the homeschool/public school issue and am wondering how long we will continue this. We're waiting until the Summer to decide.
Next is the "Chore Chart". Again, don't zoom. It's embarrassing how basic I had to make this for my kids. Like I said- laziness was a big issue in our home. But having it so simplified has made it a lot less overwhelming to them. They know exactly what is expected of them each day and it is consistent and geared to their age and abilities. I am responsible for the cleaning of the upstairs mostly. The kids are in charge of the basement. So the basement is usually not very clean. But they are doing it and it's done in a quality that I think is good for a child their age.
Finally, we've got the "Weekly Progress Chart". This is last week's chart. There was no school on Monday and no homework so that spot has no star for each of the kids, but it was our first week of 100% gold stars! It was quite the thrill! In this photo here, you are seeing last weeks chart posted on the wall next to the poster. All of our former charts are there behind it. We keep them all for record keeping purposes.
Now the stars are a whole other system in and of themselves. We give the kids a star for completing each of their responsibilities. They get a gold star if the quality of their work is good. If it was sloppy or they whined or complained about doing their jobs, they get a red star. If there was an excessive amount of whining or complaining, or the work quality was pretty bad, they get a blue star.
Getting stars is important because we made a rule that in order for a child to go on our Family Fun Day activity, they had to earn a minimum of 10 stars for the week.
But they have motivation to get a lot of stars because the child that earns the most stars gets to actually choose what the Family Fun Day Activity will be.
The colored stars have been important because we've had several weeks where they get the same amount of stars. At that point, we look at the color of the stars to choose a winner.
Last week when all the kids got 100% gold stars, it was a first for us. We were pretty excited so we had a meeting to decide a special FFD that all of them would really enjoy. They all decided they wanted to have a slumber party with some of their Bishop cousins.
So we invited them over and we had treats, movies and popcorn. They came to church with us the next day too.
There you have it. A big time glimpse into our Bishop Family Culture. Weird, I know.

6 months of growth

The infamous syrup bottle and mysterious hand. Charity at 1 week old.
At 1 Month old I started to take photos of her on the same blanket each month so it's easier to see the growth in photos. (Thanks for the idea Alysa.) Here she is at 1 month old. Photo quality is pretty bad here.
2 Months old, same outfit & blanket. But by the time she was 3 months, it fit no longer.
3 months old.
4 months old.
5 months old. She was smiling around 2 months but we never seemed to be able to catch it on camera well until she hit 5 months.
6 months old.
The following photos are of her on her 6 month bday and just about to be served her first solid food. (Our pediatrician with our first child recommended waiting for babies to reach 6 months to do this. So that's what we've done with them all.) Notice the naive smile? No idea she's about to be served nasty rice cereal.
Here's what she thought of it.
"What is this crap?"
Trying to send it back.
She is the sweetest baby. We enjoy her so very much!

Jonah & Celeste

Tuesday Jonah turned 10. When he woke up, he got his birthday gifts right off. After I was done homeschooling Celeste, just Jonah and I went on a special date together. On that date, he got to spend money he was given from other people for his birthday. He got lots of Pokemon stuff. He chose to go to lunch at Olive Garden. That's the 2nd year running for him celebrating at that restaurant. As a family we had a fancy candlelit dinner using the goblets and nice dishes for the meal he chose. Corndogs :) He's been really enjoying his gifts and said it was the best birthday he's ever had. He was still kind enough to hold his mom's hand several times while we were on our date.

Today Celeste turned 11. She woke up to open gifts right off too. She only asked for one thing. A thesaurus but of course we gave her more than just that. She also got to go on a special date with mom after I homeschooled Jonah. She chose lunch at Olive Garden as well. We went shopping at the mall together. She was given the option to get her ears pierced but declined. She spent most of her money at Barnes and Noble where she bought some books and is already tucked in her room reading to her hearts delight. We also repeated the fancy dinner as a family but with her pick of Chicken pot pie. We had her ballet class today--the one I teach for her and 4 of her friends. We made it kind of a ballet class party. We stayed here rather than go to the studio and we watched ballet movies, talked about ballet history, and just went over our recital dance a few times. The rest of the time they just played and ate cake and ice cream.
The best part of our day was two really special experiences for our two oldest girls.
The boy that Celeste "admires" came to our door (along with his Dad, the Bishop,) with a really sweet card and box of heart candies and treats for her! That made her birthday very memorable for sure!
Minutes after that happened, Eden came in and shared the most adorable thing with us that also concerned a boy she "admires". But we wont share the details of that story because it would embarrass her. It made for a couple of sweet conversations with our little girls that seem too young to be having experiences like that!

This is the Bishop Family Blog

3 Posts - 2 Days. Yikes. What's gotten into me?
I got a phone call yesterday from a sweet sweet sweet person concerned I was upset with her.
I got a text from another total sweetheart who was worried my message was about her too.
I got a message from a Facebook Friend who I made feel stupid because she assumed my post was about her. She specifically asked me to knock it off. (Please don't be mad I'm posting again!) But this is my blog and I didn't even think she read it! Hopefully she'll appreciate what I'm about to say.
This post is not about any of the above lovely ladies, I only mention it so you see my reasoning for a decision I've made.
I've decided I gotta not be personal on my blog. Sure it's my blog, but apparently my personalness does harm, which was totally the opposite goal.
I've decided this blog has got to just be about the Bishop Family. General family stuff. I do have another blog that is totally private in which I use as a journal. That's the place for my personal crap that people don't want to hear about anyhow.
It's a new start for this blog. Hope you enjoy!
Sending love to ALL of you.

Two Great Lessons Steve Has Just Taught Me

1- People aren't always gonna like you, so all you can do is the best you can to be your best.
2- In his job, Steve deals with a lot of customers. Sometimes angry ones. His boss says: "Kill em with kindness".
I woke up this morning and decided I want to make this statement my motto. I can be such a jerk sometimes! When you're dealing with people that are sarcastic a lot or just kind of blunt, (maybe even rude,) you tend to think you can be like that to them in return and they'll take it just fine. I've realized that is a stupid assumption. So, this will be a challenge for me, not because I'm not nice all the time, but because I slip up often.

*Kill em with kindess*

Should I order some vinyl lettering of this for my walls? :)

Amanda has a big counseling session via her blog...

Man! I am feeling really insecure lately! Maybe it's the long Winter. Maybe I'm major hormonal. Maybe I am too sleep deprived. Most likely it's a combination of all of the above.
** I don't want to make this post to get "words of affirmation." I just feel like getting some emotions and thoughts off my chest. I'm removing the comment option for this post because I don't want people to feel like they need to try and make me feel better, or say something that will make me feel worse. Not that I feel that terrible. I have every intention of writing this post, then walking away and thinking of other more important things.

I know a lot of people. Partly because of all the moving we've done and the many neighborhoods, schools, and wards (as in our assigned church boundaries--not mental institutions, just to clarify) we've been in. We have a lot of family too. Bottom line from this paragraph: We associate with a whole lot of people!

I am finding as I get a little older, that:

1- I'm learning and getting to be a little bit better as a person as I "grow up." At least I'm trying my darndest to.
2- I'm also learning and seeing more that I got a lot of room for improvement. I see my mistakes, faults, annoyances, shortcomings and issues and they bother me more and more. SO, I'm trying to fix them.
3- Ya'll aren't stupid. I can see that other people are aware of #2 as well.

As my group of associations grows, I am noticing more how there are people out there that like me and there are people out there that don't. And there are people that like me sometimes and hate me at other times. Then there's all the people in-between of course.

I think about how people make me feel. There are people out there that make me feel good. And there are people out there that make me feel bad. I tend to want to be close with those people that make me feel good. Not that I'm great at making time for those people! The desire is definitely there though. Sometimes I see someone I admire for whatever reason and want to be their friend or I think we are friends, and then they treat me in a way that would suggest that they feel otherwise. It hurts, and when this happens I try to take a deep breath and move on. None of these people are bad people. I think most people I associate with are down right great people, whether they like me or not!!!

What is bothering me about this though is that I am afraid that the people who don't like me have good reason for it. Was there something in my behavior in the past that just really bothered them and they haven't been able to let it go? Or did I do something recently? Is my personality just too annoying to them? Do they think I am too full of myself? I find myself thinking about those people who I believe are on the "Me no-likey Amanda" side of the fence a lot. Probably too much. On the other hand I adore and appreciate greatly the people who support me and lift me up. I don't always think I deserve to be liked. To be honest I find myself on the "Me no-likey Amanda" side of the fence at times too! If it weren't for my knowledge that 3 really great people love me a lot, despite me, (Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and my husband,) then there would be times I would just not feel worthwhile at all.

I don't want to make people feel bad when they associate with me!

So I guess the point of this post is to kind of let all those people know a little of what's going on in my head. I want to tell them I'm sorry that I do a lot of things wrong. I really and truly am. I am well aware that I am faaaaar from perfect. I want to tell them that I am doing the best I can to be a better person. Perfection is my ultimate goal, but I know I wont make it in this life. I hope I have the chance to get there in the next. I will however do my best to get near it. I don't want to make anyone feel bad and if I've ever made you feel bad, I AM SORRY. Sincerely sorry. If you will just take my word on those statements is all I could ask from you. You don't even have to like me!

****
Note to lady I ran into at Wallmart the other night, then again at the UPS Store the next day:

I'm sorry I got so impatient with you as I stood behind you in the checkout lane and watched you name your own price with a list of advertised prices from other stores for every single item you purchased. I shouldn't have offered to pay you $5 to drop the list and just pay for your items.
I'm sorry for getting annoyed by you when you double parked next to me at the UPS store the next day and I had to move my car twice so you could get in and out of your car.
I should have been more patient. I'm guilty of letting my hurry to get things done be more important than strangers. Who knows what you may be going through.

I did away with the whole "Birthday" posts a while back. But this man deserves it. Today my husband of 11+ years is 39 years old. Our first real date happened this day 12 years ago. It was a flop. Despite that we were engaged a week later. And our love for each other has been growing ever since.
Our relationship had a pretty interesting start; and we've had a lot of excitement since. I am just amazed at how we came together and how good it worked out. He puts up with so much and is so patient and forgiving of my mistakes and issues. I couldn't be more grateful to him for that. He's such a good example to me in many ways.
As a girl growing up I dreamed of marriage and how wonderful it could be. Believe me, Steve has far exceeded any of those hopes and dreams. I had no idea it could be this good. I really didn't.
Happy Birthday Steve!