Link of The Week: Patriarchal Blessing Request

Okay.  This is really truly cool.

The Church has established a website that enables members to not only request copies of their own patriarchal blessings, but also copies of their direct-line ancestors who are deceased.

So, I can now keep in my files the patriarchal blessing of my great-great-grandfather Oluf Christian Larsen who was the first Norwegian national to serve a mission in his homeland and then went on to fight in the Black Hawk wars in southern Utah, and marry four wives.

Or, I can get the record of my great-great-grandfather Joseph Nuttall who left Nut Hall in England to settle in eastern Utah and start his own dynasty.

Or, my sons can request the patriarchal blessing of their ancestor, Isaac Morley, a prosperous farmer who was mentioned in the D&C and did much to build the kingdom in Ohio, Illinois, and finally Utah.  Now, that would be a patriarchal blessing to study.

One more time, here is the link.

—freemom

Link of the Week: Dieter F. Uchtdorf—Create

This spot, created from President Uchtdorf's General Relief Society message last September, is really terrific. It's my most favorite sermon from him. The Church has done a good job of distilling this 30-minute message into a two-minute spot, capturing its essence and yet making it available to those that don't speak 'Mormon.'

Link of the Week: A Tour Of The New Mormon Temple : NPR

A Tour Of The New Mormon Temple : NPR

In this short piece, NPR does a good job covering the opening of the Draper Temple to the public this week, including short sound bits from Elders Ballard and Christofferson.

All Things Considered, January 9, 2009 · A new Mormon Temple in a Salt Lake City suburb is a public relations opportunity for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's a controversial time for Mormons, given criticism over Church involvement in Proposition 8 in California and other recent issues.

The interior pictures to which the commentator refers are actually found here at newsroom.lds.org.

Recipe of the Week: The Six O'Clock Scramble

Healthy Meals, 30 Minute Meals, Quick Easy Dinner Recipes, Family Meal Planning

The Six O’Clock Scramble® is an online dinner planning service.

AS A SUBSCRIBER YOU’LL RECEIVE EACH WEEK:

• Five family-tested, healthy and delicious and quick DINNER RECIPES THAT TAKE 30 MINUTES OR LESS TO PREPARE
• An ORGANIZED GROCERY LIST so you can grocery shop just once per week
• A SEARCHABLE DATABASE where you can customize your weekly dinner plan
• Your own personal RECIPE BOX where you can save your family's favorites 30 minute meals
• A newsletter with USEFUL TIPS for easier mealtimes, snacks and lunches
• NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION for each recipe to help you take charge of your health

For folks like me constantly casting about for something different to fix for dinner, especially if you're stuck in a rut of the same seven meals week after week, this service seems well-worth the price of $5 a month. They advertise themselves as 'family friendly', and a cursory glance shows them conservative in the budget department as well.

Here is their mini meatloaf muffins recipe: (printable version)

MINI MEATLOAF MUFFINS

Servings & Prep Time Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 30 minutes Servings: 6 · serving size: 2 muffins Special Features Dairy-free Kosher-style or Kosher Alternative Nut-free Low-Sodium Make ahead/Freezable

My friend, Kirsten Thistle, shared this fun recipe for mini meatloaves. Both of our families gobbled these little cuties right up. One advantage of making the meatloaf in muffin tins is that they cook in half the time of a big meatloaf. Serve it with baked potatoes and steamed green beans with mustard-lemon sauce. 1 tsp. olive oil 1/2 yellow or white onion, finely chopped (1 cup) 1-2 carrots, finely chopped (1/2 cup) 1 tsp. dried oregano 1 tsp. minced garlic, (1 - 2 cloves) 1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef, ground turkey or ground chicken 3/4 cup ketchup 1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs, or use crushed crackers 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 egg, lightly beaten (If you are making baked potatoes in the oven, start them first.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and sauté the onions, carrots, oregano and garlic for 3 - 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove them from the heat and let them cool for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, then add the onion and carrot mixture, and stir thoroughly. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon the meat mixture into the individual cups, dividing evenly (each mini meatloaf should completely fill a muffin cup). Bake the meatloaf muffins for 30 minutes. (Meanwhile, prepare the green beans, if you are serving them.) Remove them from the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes before serving, or refrigerate them for up to 2 days before reheating and serving. Scramble Flavor Booster: Serve the meatloaf with barbecue sauce. Tip: You can make the meatloaf mixture in advance and bake them just before dinner, or bake them up to 2 days in advance, as meatloaf gets even tastier after a day or two.

SERVE WITH BAKED POTATOES & GREEN BEANS WITH MUSTARD LEMON SAUCE To make baked potatoes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pierce 3 - 6 russet potatoes in several places. (If you don't have time to bake them, prepare the potatoes in the microwave: Cook them on high for about 10 minutes, flipping them once, until they are tender when pierced with a knife. If they are not done after 10 minutes, keep checking every 2 minutes.) For baking: For a crispier skin, rub the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt before baking. Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake them for 50-60 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork, turning them once. While the potatoes are cooking, make a sauce with 1 cup low fat or nonfat sour cream or yogurt, 1/4 cup salsa, 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions or chives. Slice the potatoes in half, and serve them topped with a thin layer of butter or margarine and with the sour cream sauce. To make the green beans, trim 1 lb. of green beans and cut them in half crosswise. Bring 1/2 inch of water to a boil. Add the green beans, cover, reduce the heat and steam them for 6 - 8 minutes until they reach desired tenderness. Drain them, return them to the pot, and stir in 2 tsp. butter or margarine, 2 tsp. Dijon mustard, and the juice of 1/4 lemon. Serve immediately.

Link of the Week: 10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy by Jen Angel

10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy by Jen Angel

It has taken a team of scientists 'years' of research to discover that which has always been available to us through study of the scriptures and living the gospel, but this article from Yes! Magazine puts it all in a nutshell with non-secular leanings and so may be more easily accepted by others not of our faith.

In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being. The emerging field of positive psychology is bursting with new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life. Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy:

Savor Everyday Moments

Pause now and then to smell a rose or watch children at play. Study participants who took time to “savor” ordinary events that they normally hurried through, or to think back on pleasant moments from their day, “showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression,” says psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.

Avoid Comparisons

While keeping up with the Joneses is part of American culture, comparing ourselves with others can be damaging to happiness and self-esteem. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, focusing on our own personal achievement leads to greater satisfaction, according to Lyubomirsky.

Put Money Low on the List

People who put money high on their priority list are more at risk for depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, according to researchers Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan. Their findings hold true across nations and cultures. “The more we seek satisfactions in material goods, the less we find them there,” Ryan says. “The satisfaction has a short half-life—it’s very fleeting.” Money-seekers also score lower on tests of vitality and self-actualization.

Have Meaningful Goals

“People who strive for something significant, whether it’s learning a new craft or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations,” say Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener. “As humans, we actually require a sense of meaning to thrive.” Harvard’s resident happiness professor, Tal Ben-Shahar, agrees, “Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable.”

Take Initiative at Work

How happy you are at work depends in part on how much initiative you take. Researcher Amy Wrzesniewski says that when we express creativity, help others, suggest improvements, or do additional tasks on the job, we make our work more rewarding and feel more in control.

Make Friends, Treasure Family

Happier people tend to have good families, friends, and supportive relationships, say Diener and Biswas-Diener. But it’s not enough to be the life of the party if you’re surrounded by shallow acquaintances. “We don’t just need relationships, we need close ones” that involve understanding and caring.

Smile Even When You Don’t Feel Like It

It sounds simple, but it works. “Happy people…see possibilities, opportunities, and success. When they think of the future, they are optimistic, and when they review the past, they tend to savor the high points,” say Diener and Biswas-Diener. Even if you weren’t born looking at the glass as half-full, with practice, a positive outlook can become a habit.

Say Thank You Like You Mean It

People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis are healthier, more optimistic, and more likely to make progress toward achieving personal goals, according to author Robert Emmons. Research by Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, revealed that people who write “gratitude letters” to someone who made a difference in their lives score higher on happiness, and lower on depression—and the effect lasts for weeks.

Get Out and Exercise

A Duke University study shows that exercise may be just as effective as drugs in treating depression, without all the side effects and expense. Other research shows that in addition to health benefits, regular exercise offers a sense of accomplishment and opportunity for social interaction, releases feel-good endorphins, and boosts self-esteem.

Give It Away, Give It Away Now!

Make altruism and giving part of your life, and be purposeful about it. Researcher Stephen Post says helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a “helper’s high,” and you get more health benefits than you would from exercise or quitting smoking. Listening to a friend, passing on your skills, celebrating others’ successes, and forgiveness also contribute to happiness, he says. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn found that those who spend money on others reported much greater happiness than those who spend it on themselves.

Link of the Week: LDS Church News - Art missionaries help beautify temple interior

LDS Church News - Art missionaries help beautify temple interior

This article relates to professional artists who donate their time and talents to help beautify the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are currently working on the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, but will continue with other temples which are being built around the world.

It's inspiring to contemplate the many ways members of the Church give of their time and talents to further the work and strengthen the Stakes of Zion.

Link of the Week: The Divine Institution of Marriage

In the face of the continuing animosity towards the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the victory of California's Proposition 8 which defines marriage as between one man and one woman, the issue has been discussed endlessly both between the members of the Church, as well as among those outside it. In the heat of debate, we Mormons, as individual members of the Church, may have floundered in our attempts to completely and/or clearly explain or define our own motivations, or the motivation of the Church to publicly endorse Proposition 8. We find that the volatile issue has increasingly greater impact on ourselves as we watch our most sacred places of worship vandalized and assaulted, as our members are denied their constitutional right to worship by militant members of the opposition, and the protests grow increasingly violent.

Or, perhaps, as a person sincerely wishing to understand a point of view which has unjustly been painted by the opposition as bigoted, hate-mongering and homophobic, the reader may have found their way here in their quest for answers.

In an attempt to provide the clarity that so many of us lack, I am posting here the official Church position on the divinity of marriage and why we as members feel so strongly about protecting it, which was released on August 13, 2008. The article is rather long but well-worth the read. I highly recommend it to both member and non-member alike.

Following is the introduction to the article:

The California Supreme Court recently ruled that same-sex marriage was legal in California. Recognizing the importance of marriage to society, the Church accepted an invitation to participate in ProtectMarriage, a coalition of churches, organizations, and individuals sponsoring a November ballot measure, Proposition 8, that would amend the California state constitution to ensure that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be legally recognized. (Information about the coalition can be found at http://www.protectmarriage.com/).

On June 20, 2008, the First Presidency of the Church distributed a letter about “Preserving Traditional Marriage and Strengthening Families,” announcing the Church’s participation with the coalition. The letter, which was read in Latter-day Saints’ church services in California, asked that Church members “do all [they] can to support the proposed constitutional amendment.”

Members of the Church in Arizona and Florida will also be voting on constitutional amendments regarding marriage in their states, where coalitions similar to California’s are now being formed.

The focus of the Church’s involvement is specifically same-sex marriage and its consequences. The Church does not object to rights (already established in California) regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference.

The Church has a single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a husband and a wife united in the bonds of matrimony.

The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility towards homosexual men and women. Protecting marriage between a man and a woman does not affect Church members’ Christian obligations of love, kindness and humanity toward all people.

As Church members decide their own appropriate level of involvement in protecting marriage between a man and a woman, they should approach this issue with respect for others, understanding, honesty, and civility.

Intending to reduce misunderstanding and ill will, the Church has produced the following document, “The Divine Institution of Marriage,” and provided the accompanying links to other materials, to explain its reasons for defending marriage between a man and a woman as an issue of moral imperative.

Again, I encourage all to read it, and thanks to Karen Parker for directing us to it in Relief Society.

Link of the Week: Flight Aware

Here's an extremely useful link for travelers, and friends and family of travelers, and rather appropriate for me to post as I sit here drumming my fingers waiting for it to be time to go to the airport. Flight Aware, a free service, allows the user to track any flight anywhere in the United States and Canada. It offers up-to-the-second information.

Simply visit http://flightaware.com, and in the fields provided on the far left column (gray areas), enter in the required information. The site offers two different modes of tracking a flight: by the airplane number and the flight number, or by the airline and the flight number. All of this information is found on your ticket, e-ticket and/or itinerary.

For instance. Elder Freeman is traveling SkyWest on flight 1000A, in jet #DL 4006 from SLC to IAH. He is currently at 35,000 feet flying at 477 knots, has traveled 371 miles, with 827 miles to go. And, his flight is riding the wind and will arrive a few minutes early. Better alert the dad so we can be sure to be there when the son disembarks.

It also offers real-time Doppler satellite imagery so the user can see if the traveler will hit rough weather which may cause a delay, or worse still, a redirection. The bottom left gray field allows the user to review airport information such as weather, delays, alerts, security issues, etc.

This site was especially useful to us last Christmas when Dallas and Lynda got into bad weather, got redirected, and had to spend the night in Phoenix, Arizona. Keeping track of their many difficulties on Flight Aware was a lot easier than hoping that they'd eventually get where their cell phones would work and hopefully remember to call us.

So here it is. I hope it is found of use. Especially if you're pacing for someone in your family to come home after a two-year absence, you'll find this page a great stress reliever.

Link of the Week: BYU.tv

Once again, General Conference has been edifying, uplifting, and a pleasure in which to participate. On BYU.tv, you can experience it again and again. Simply go to the site, select "LDS Church Broadcasts" in the row of tabs below the view screen, then choose the program you wish to view.


BYU.tv offers many programming options, including their live broadcast, the same programming available to those subscribed to Dish Network. The added advantage on the Internet is the ability to choose previous programs to watch at your leisure, not only General Conference.

Music and the Spoken Word is always enjoyable, but the program on Sunday, September 28, 2008, is particularly outstanding. The Orchestra on Temple Square performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as two different excellent soloists. Both the message and the music are uplifting, their performance as professional as any could wish.

Take a half hour to treat yourself to this soul-soothing performance. Your family will be glad you did.

Link of the Week: LDSChurchTemples.com

This is a really cool Church site (you'll recognize the LDS.org look) where you can reference information about the various temples around the world, "featuring news, schedules, photographs, and interesting facts of the temples of the LDS Church."

The funnest page is that for the free downloads, which feature:

• Mapping files in PDF (Adobe Reader), KML (Google Earth), and GPS coordinates (really cool if you have Garmand or other GPS devices in your vehicle). My favorite is the Google Earth feature which allows you to virtually tour the world and see the temples dot the face of the earth.
• Temples Around the World slide show and screen saver. This feature includes all the operating temples and offers the options of playing the screen saver, downloading the screen saver software for your computer's offline use, and downloading the screen saver as a video which is suitable for presentations.
• Individual screen savers featuring the Bountiful and Salt Lake Temples, with 'Inspiring Spires' and 'Temples at Twilight' coming soon.
• Temple wallpaper galleries and slide show. Each individual temple is featured with anywhere from one to 129 photographs (Salt Lake, of course). The Houston Texas Temple has 20.

What a great resource and fun way to display images of the House of the Lord in our homes!

Link of the Week: Home Storage Online

LDS Home Storage Helps Online

• LDScatalog.com: If you need a simple and easy way to get started or augment your home storage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes it quite convenient. The prices are extremely competitive but higher than they are at the individual Home Storage Centers where customers assist in the packaging process. Via online catalog the following products are offered:
• #10 cans of:
• hard red winter wheat
• pinto beans
• white rice
• quick oats
• Home Storage Starter Kit, in addition to provident living pamphlets and teaching aids, containing:
• 2 #10 cans of hard red winter wheat
• 2 #10 cans of white rice
• 1 #10 can of pinto beans
• 1 #10 can of quick oat

• ProvidentLiving.org: A much wider range of products are available at the Home Storage Centers. To expedite your visit and assist in planning ahead, the Church has made available online an order form to be completed in advance, valid at HSC's in the United States and Canada. Its use is simple.
• Access the form. You will require the software, Adobe Reader, available for download free of charge.
• Fill in your pertinent personal information at the top of the form.
  
• Select each product (rows), the quantity desired of each size available (columns of #10 cans, pouches and bulk). Of note, the HSC's often have difficulty keeping up with the sharply increase in demand in recent weeks. It's a good idea to call ahead or contact your ward preparedness specialist to determine the products immediately available.
  
• The total cost of your purchase is recalculated as you move from field to field. However, the cost of any individual product is not calculated until you exit that field.
• Save, Print, or Reset the form when you have completed your selections. Save individual configurations of purchases on multiple forms for future use.
• Complete your purchase when you go to the HSC with the printed form in hand
  

Things to Know: Online purchase URL: http://www.ldscatalog.com Home Storage Center Order Form links:

• USA English
• USA español
• Canada
  

Sponsor: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Emphasis: Home Storage, Preparedness
Rating: 5/5

Link of the Week: Waterford Press

Free Games, Activities and More

• Waterford Press is a small company which specializes in pocket-size books for travelers and naturalists. Their traveling line includes Speakeasy, City, Eco-Traveler for various destinations. Their naturalist line includes national, regional, and state guides.
• On the Waterfordpress.com website, they provide games, activities, and quizzes which are free to download in PDF format. Files can then be printed and saved for repeated use. All foster interest and stimulate learning about the earth sciences.
  
• Their Games Category is quite comprehensive, and, as demonstrated in the Maze links below, the range of material includes all Primary-age skill levels. Subcategories include:
  
• Mazes beginning moderate advanced
• Be an Artist (drawing grids) example
• Color Me example
  
• Dot-to-Dots example
• Crossword Puzzles example
• Fold-ins example
• Word Search example
• Picture Scramble example
• Make Words example
• Name Scramble example
• Name Match example
• Oddball Out example
• Oragami example
• Spot the Differences example
  
• Who Am I? example
  
• Shadow Know-How example
  
• The Activities Category offers step-by-step instructions for hands-on learning and experimentation. Subcategories include:
• Animals example
• Plants example
• Weather example
• Geology example
• The files in the Quiz category are informative and cater to varied learning levels. Subcategories include:
• Animals example
  
• Night Sky example
  
• Weather example
  
• Geology example
• Room for improvement:
• Downloading is only available one page at a time which feels lumbrous. It would be much more convenient were one able to download a subcategory at a time, or at the very least, all the pages of one particular game, activity, or quiz.
• Some pages could use better formating, with compression and multiple activities per page.
  
• The website formatting feels clunky, and the webmaster should demonstrate enough familiarity with HTML to prevent column overlap which is dependent upon individual browser settings. This is a simple thing to correct and one wonders why they do not, especially since they know about the problem.
  
• Summary: The uneven production values for both the site and the material itself hampers an overall positive impression, and reflects poorly upon the company's retail material. However, this free site offers fun and interesting games and activities for children ages pre-K to 5th- or 6th-grade skill levels, which foster parental involvement. It is a good resource for Cub Scouts, Activity Days, FHE, quiet time, and road trips; could also be used as lesson enhancers for home study.
  

Things to know:
URL: http://www.waterfordpress.com/entergame.html
Sponsor: Waterford Press
Emphasis: Primary Earth-studies Education
Rating: 3/5 Not as professional as one would wish but with good educational intentions

Link of the Week: Pandora: Radio from the Music Genome Project

Pandora.com

• Pandora.com is truly one of my favorite internet sites. When I listen to music, I listen to Pandora. No matter what mood I'm in, Pandora has the music I want without commercial interruption. Their advertising is visual and nonintrusive. Best of all, their library is comprehensive so my CD or MP3 collection doesn't have to be, and the play list never has to be reset.
  
• Pandora.com is a cost-free internet radio service which allows you, the listener, to listen to only the type of music you like. You create your own stations, approve or disapprove of artists they suggest, mark favorite artists, skip songs you don't want to hear, and even put songs on hold if they grow wearisome.
  
• The premise of the Music Genome Project is to categorize music not by genre labels, but by elements of music: instrumentation, vocalization, even lyrics. Thus, the net effects produce play-lists that can truly surprise you. The beauty of this is, listening to Pandora introduces you to music and artists that you never knew you liked or even heard of previously.
  
• Pandora offers a comprehensive library of music, where obscure music receives the same treatment as that of well-known artists. My personal 'stations' (playlists based on roots of certain artists or songs) include The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jack Johnson, Soft Jazz, The Beatles, Gospel, Rock Ballads, Christmas, and the Best of Broadway. Pandora also offers genre stations of their own creation, including chamber baroque, classical orchestration, and just about anything else you can conceive.
  
• Because you create a user for yourself (everything kept confidential, of course), you can share your stations with other listeners. For instance, if while listening to my computer, Ariane hears a station which she likes, she can go home, look up my user, and listen to the station in question (if I choose to share). If she wants to add or subtract from it, Pandora creates her own station based on the input I have already provided.
  

Things to Know

• URL: http://pandora.com
• Requirements: streaming audio capability, i.e., high-speed internet, computer speakers
  
• Dues or fees: none
• My Rating: 5/5
  

Today's Additions

• I found a few more files on my computer from our Southern Comfort Cooking Club Class, the recipes for cornbread casserole, broccoli cornbread, and lemon squares which have been added to the site.
• Link of the Week: Geni: Everyone's Related http://geni.com
• The sub-index pages of the OORS Google Group now appear more uniform.
  

Link of the Week

Geni: Everyone's Related

Whether you're a serious genealogist or simply looking for ways to strengthen the connections with your family, Geni is a great place to start. A social networking site with a twist, Geni's construct is family connections, and only your family can see your family tree. More than just a family history site, its purpose is to put people in contact with one another.

The screen-capture above shows a bit of my family tree page, zoomed out to conceal the names, with a navigation bar at the bottom giving a wide-angle view. You can see the chart even goes off both ends of that. (The white square left of center represents me, while the top blue square represents my 3rd great-grandfather, William Nuttall.

Geni has lots of features, like places to compile contact lists, photo albums to share and in which to tag family members, email birthday reminders, etc. My favorite is the tie-in. When I started this, I added my parents' family, including the in-laws, but then my sisters-in-law added their own connections. If I click on their name, their family tree is altogether different, showing connections to their in-laws, and so on. It creates a fabulous web of connection and an awareness history of not only yourself, but those who touch you.

Back to William Nuttall: if you could explore his connections (which you can't unless you're related to him), you would see that one of his sons was my 2nd great-grandfather, while another was the 1st great-grandfather of our very own Ginger. I'm not certain if my mother or hers filled in the branches, but I know Ginger filled in her own family and her husband's, etc., and so forth, and so it goes and goes and goes.

Best of all, if some other descendant of his multitudinous children started on Geni entirely unaware of my existence, when they entered William Nuttall, Geni would notify them of more of William's descendants claiming him as the guy who crossed The Pond and then the plains to worship as he pleased and dedicate his life to service of the Lord. We could then tie in our family with theirs if it suited us.

It's also a great resource for doing your family history. My father stumbled upon one of his second or third cousins, they connected their own information with ours, and together we clarified some of the confusion inherent in trying to keep track of the progeny of a man living more than a hundred years ago, with four wives, half named Olga and the other half Katrina

Today's Additions

Google Group Updates:

• The Gardening Club news on the home page has been updated to clarify the date and time of the feed store field trip. This will be on Friday, July 11th at 10:30 am. This conflicts with the Sewing Club's scheduled service project, but we'll try to make sure people who want to do both will be able to.
  
• New Feature: Recipe of the Day: This post may not be every day, but there are plenty of good, basic recipes floating around that itch to be disseminated. Remember, we're compiling a cookbook as we go, so send me yours! You can even submit tips or variations to what we've posted in the comment section. An index of these blog recipes is included on the Cooking Club Recipe page.
• I've also added the corn casserole recipe we had in March with the gumbo, but lots of you have brought dishes to the demonstrations for which we don't have the recipes (Verlayn's cheese dip recipe, for example). If you would email them to me so we can include them on the Google site, that would be terrific.
• I posted the new "Preach My Gospel" page which can be found following Home>Just Cool Stuff>Great Links>Preach My Gospel.
  

Okay. I can see how the "of the Day" clause of my little projects can become very dangerous for me. It's too easy to get sucked into the machine looking for good stuff and allowing the day to slip past without you. So, I'm going to discipline myself and make it 'of the Week' instead. It will work like this:

Sunday: Preach My Gospel
Monday: Weekly Update
Tuesday: Recipe of the Week
Wednesday: BYE (actually, Steadfast Faith in Christ: a Missionary Journal day)
Thursday: Link of the Week
Friday: Blog of the Week

Of course, I wouldn't mind at all of anyone got the urge to help contribute and thus increase the frequency/volume of the columns, but I have to pretend to discipline myself just a bit.

New Feature: Link of the Day

Printable Paper

• A site devoted to providing FREE printable files to turn your regular paper into story, graph, and music staff paper, to name a few examples. From pre-K to accounting, this site has what you need. You’ll never be caught off-guard again, no matter how late your kids tell you, “Mom, I need . . . ” www.printablepaper.net

Today's Additions

• Houston Metro Area LDS Single Adults Group. Find this link on our home page. This group includes far too much material for me to keep up with, including email lists and discussions, activity calendars and announcements from stake SA committees, Beaumont to College Station, and Conroe and Cleveland to Richmond and Friendswood. I'll try to keep the Northside activities updated on our calendar, but the best thing to do is subscribe to this group.
• New Blog Feature: Link of the Day. Hopefully, we'll help you utilize the resources of the Internet to help make your life easier, keep you informed, and perhaps even learn something. However, this will definitely have to be a group project, to submit as many as you like! The Great Links page on OORS will also be updated with these links.
  
• New Blog Feature: Steadfast Faith in Christ: a Missionary Journal. I hope y'all don't think I'm just a bit too self-indulgent in putting the link to my family's missionary page on this blog. However, it is one small effort to follow Elder Ballard's counsel in using the Internet to share the Gospel, so, I need to raise the visibility of it, to speak out, if you will. We also have a reverse sort of page, that being uplifting letters written to missionaries which help to share our testimonies, but I'm still debating as to whether or not to put a permanent link on this blog. In case you're interested, it's URL is http://amormonfamilyjournal.blogspot.com. I would very much like to fill the side bar with similar links, voices you raise to help spread the Good News. Let me know what they are, send me any graphics you'd like to use, and I'll make certain they get on this blog page!
• New Blog Feature: Preach My Gospel: There are a myriad of resources available from the Church to help you answer your friends' questions about the Gospel. I'll try to share these links as they come to me, and again, welcome any submissions. When I've exhausted the specifically 'missionary' resources, I'll start to highlight the great features of LDS.org. OORS will also be updated with these links.