on a late summer evening like this.

After a quick unpack from our very last summer jaunt, we began our very own back to school night. We gathered armfuls of flowers for the tables and lit a few candles, ate lots of yummy food and introduced our family theme for the year. . . (in my typical over wordy way, I must give a little background first.)

When I was asked to be a relief society teacher a couple years ago, I read a few articles on how to be an effective teacher. After reading them all, the thing that stood out to me most was this: an unrushed atmosphere is essential to a good learning environment. . .

Every time I teach relief society, I try to remember to allow moments of silence for pondering, to not rush through good discussions--just so I can make my next point, and so on. So over the summer I've been pondering how we could apply this little morsel of good info to our little family--it is so obvious we are constantly rushing from one thing to another, almost always a few minutes behind schedule, leaving piles of clutter in our wake. . .
So be gone rush, be gone frantic-ness, be gone disorganization. The new school year is upon us and so are our new ways! Our theme for the year is: be still. This is the main slogan, but the fine print is: an unrushed atmosphere is essential to spiritual growth and physical well- being.

Following dinner and discussion, the children showed off their new clothes and rad moves (with West Coast spinning in the background.) I have no idea where they get all their sweet poses from . . . or any idea why they continue to strike poses when it's not their turn. It's nice to see my vanity, I mean, my confidence, has rubbed off on them. And remember how I said I wasn't ready for fall? Well never mind that. Now I am. It's official.