Valuesparenting in Iraq!

We had a fascinating evening last night in our home with eight wonderful women from Iraq.  They have formed a non-profit organization called F.U.T.U.R.E (Families United toward Universal Respect). They included the former minister of state for women’s affairs in Iraq, University professors, brilliant, well-educated women who are working with gender violence, mothers who have lost children in the war, and are looking for ways to best deal with the 2 million orphans and 3 million widows as a result of the turmoil in Iraq.  Through amazing dedication and personal sacrifice, these women are making enormous strides as they work on reconciliation in their war-torn country.  They have realized that the best way to do this is to teach the next generation about forgiveness, to find ways to bring peace to individual neighborhoods and homes, to stress reconciliation and to model love.

They were organized by Fareed and Joan Betros (far right) who have lived and worked in Iraq for many years.  Fareed was a senior Middle East adviser to U.S. reconstruction efforts and Joan was the director of family television programming for the Iraqi Media Network.

About  two years ago, Joan helped them to create Women for Future—Iraq which has now organized women (patterned after a system to create strong families and neighborhoods in our church) who, two or three at a time, visit families in their neighborhoods with a spiritual message, access needs and teach them how to hold regular family meetings to discuss values and goals for going forward together as a family.  These women report to a supervisor who then organizes help for special needs.

The delegation will be in Utah for two weeks to thank Operation Give which has provided enormous amounts of aid to Iraq  as well as to be trained in how to be successful in advocating family meetings and teaching values.

We were delighted to have them be a part of our vaulesparenting family where they will have access to FamilyNightLessons.com for their family meetings. 

We had the opportunity to train them (through an interperter) in how to

teach their children about a “Secret Code” illustrated by animals (for more info go to the “Nurturing” button on our home page) which will help them to improve communication, awareness, ability to praise, consistency, family security and four other family values. 

It was also fun to meet the Utah-based women who have been helping with this project for several years:

We even loved meeting their security entourage!

What a privilege it is to be associated with these incredible women.  They could very well be the best hope that Iraq has to change its future and produce a new generation of peaceful families. 

A Journey Through American History!

The past couple of weeks we have loved meeting parents who are doing a great job with their kids but are looking for some new ideas! 

Before I tell you about American History, we must say that we went through a little personal history in Idaho Falls, Idaho before we took off for the East Coast.  Going back to Idaho Falls was a trip back in time for me, as I grew up in Southeast Idaho and going to Idaho Falls was a visit to the greatly anticipated “BIG” city.  It was so great to scoot back into time for a couple of days!

What fun to be with James Drake (left) there where with the help of some friends he organized something called University for Parents at the Civic Center in downtown Idaho Falls.

Shortly after, we traveled to Philadelphia where we enjoyed a lovely evening with the Young Presidents’ chapter there, learning as we taught about what great parents there are in the world! Our “day chairs” were outstanding!  

We also loved revisiting American history with the Liberty Bell, which still has the crack:

 

It was pouring with rain but we survived, soggy feet and all and loved reveling in the history of the birth of our country here at the site of the first Continental Congress:

From there we traveled down to Washington D.C. where our youngest son Eli and his wife Julie have just moved.  They have found a cute apartment that is just their cup of tea, just southeast of Capitol Hill.

Because Richard was immersed in the new Dan Brown novel which all takes place in D.C. we visited the Capitol and were amazed at all the new exhibits and Visitor’s Center that has been built in the last four years since Eli was an Intern there.

Of special interest, for those of you who have read the book, is the inside of the Capitol Dome!

The plaster cast of “Freedom” that stands atop the Capitol building in bronze now stands in the Visitor’s Center.  Ironically this personification of Freedom was originally hoisted to the top of that magnificent building by slaves!

The new Ronald Reagan statue has a small layer of the Berlin Wall “underfoot”.  Very nice touch (sorry can’t find the picture).  The also have a new statue of Helen Keller which is lovely!(see below)

Then it was on to the most magnificent architecture in all of Washington D.C., the Library of Congress, with it’s beautiful colors, columns and vaults!

It was a fascinating weekend and a great journey to the past!

Seventh Wedding!

What could be more fun than having a wedding in the Big Apple?  Our son Talmadge found a perfect partner in Anita Joos.  They have been dating for a year and are so thrilled to be married! 

Anita has been working in Manhattan as an international media buyer for first Prada then Donna Karan and DKNY for ten years.  She was born and raised in Switzerland but since she has been working in NYC for such a long time and Talmadge has also been working there for over two years,  that was where they decided to be married.

Anita’s wonderful parents, brother and sister flew from Switzerland and we met for an amazing few days together in NYC!  Tal and Anita were married in a beautiful ceremony in the Manhattan LDS Temple on September 8th which was followed by a ring ceremony and gourmet four course dinner in Brooklyn. 

All of our married children and their splendid spouses as well as our two single kids were there for the celebration and we really tore up the town! 

Although we adore our grandchildren, it was such a delight to enjoy uninterrupted dinners and to have time to really talk! This was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to enjoy all our children as adults in this wondrous city!

Some went to time square.

Some went to the Yankees Game

Some went to the US Open

Some went to a Broadway Play

Some went to the USS Intrepid

Some went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where the roof sported a fantastic new sculpture. Note the hair on the guy in the back!

The girls walked the Skyline Boardwalk

And we all went to church!

But the best part was the wedding!  SO exciting!

It took more than thirty years for them to find each other…but so well worth the wait! 

EVERYONE WAS JUMPING FOR JOY IN CENTRAL PARK!

An inspiring ring ceremony and a spectacular dinner and media presentation followed that night in Brooklyn!

It was an day and evening that we’ll never forget!  Words can’t describe the joy that comes from having your children find their perfect partner!  You parents with Joy School children, just seize every day because trust me,  it won’t be long until those little ones will be getting married too! 

It's JOY SCHOOL TIME!

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to see hundreds of Joy School Moms! Some had done Joy School at the very beginning 30 years ago when we started the first Joy Schools and MANY were second generation Joy Schoolers who were doing Joy School with their own children. How fun it was to talk about those great days with those whose Joy School moms whose children have now grown up and so delightful to talk about those grown-up mothers who were "overjoyed" about their upcoming year of Joy School with their own children! What a remarkable thing it is to see teenagers, young adults and now young mothers still remembering their great times in Joy School and still able to SING, "Oh Boy, I've Got Joy", still remembering the fun times they had with "Gunny Bag" and still remembering their "I AM UNIQUE" books!

The Joy of Imagination and Creativty (above)

Richard and I really can't take credit for the amazing things that have happened since we wrote the first edition of Teaching Children Joy! Richard estimates that over 200,000 parents and children have now had a Joy School experience. Richard's mother Ruth, an early childhood development major, wrote the first lesson plans, Wendy Murdock, a gifted musician, offered to write much of the music. Andrea Burgeon did much of the artwork and Joy School was born!

The Joy School Cheer (above)

This year, because of our economic woes, we feel that Joy School is a perfect alternative to an expensive pre-school. Besides that, both kids AND moms have learned a lot about having a joyful childhood...a once in a lifetime event! If any of you would like to send in an endorsement for Joy Schools we would love to hear from you as we share it with our Valuesparenting family.

I'm including a few pictures from our daughters' Joy Schools. If you also have pictures that you would like to send we would love to share them as well! I always say, "It takes a very special mom to do Joy School! It takes extra time and effort (even though the picture are downloaded...already colored!). It does take extra time and effort...but the rewards are...priceless!

So if you or anyone you know needs a pre-school experience that you'll never forget that is also financially vastly cheaper than anything else, it's time to think about Joy School! Just click on the Joy School icon on the Valuesparenting website. We hope to see you there!

RICHARD AND LINDA SPEAKING AT BYU EDUCATION WEEK ON AUGUST 17

So many of our Valuesparenting family have asked to be informed when the Eyres will be speaking in the Intermountain West.  Next week they will be giving 4 speeches at BYU Education week in Provo, Utah. 

Here is the schedule for Monday August 17:

8:30-9:25

Richard and Linda Eyre

Parenting Pre-Schoolers and Teaching Children Joy

Wilkinson Student Center  3280-3290

9:50-10:45

Richard and Linda Eyre

Empty nest Parenting and Extended Families

Wilkinson Student Center 3280-3290

11:10-12:05

Richard Eyre

True Balance: Balancing Work, Family, Church and Personal Needs

Wilkinson Student Center 3280-3290

12:30- 1:25

Linda Eyre

A Joyful Mother of Children

Wilkinson Student Center  3280-3290

The Eyres would love to see you there!  Come up after any session and say hello! 

The Old Faithfuls

We hope our Valuesparenting family has had a wonderful summer as it is quickly drawing to a close. Please forgive our absence from the blog as we have spent all of July at Bear Lake where our daughters and daughter-in-law join us for much of the month since their places of abode are not pleasant places to be in the summer! We have had from 18-36 people at our Bear Lake House to feed and bed down for almost every day of July!  What fun we’ve had!  The following is a make-up call and maybe more than you want to know about a fun trip we had with our oldest three granchildren.

With eighteen grandchildren 12 and under, we’ve realized that it’s essential to divide them into groups by age so that we can spend quality time with small numbers as well as enjoy “the mob”!  When our oldest grandchild turned twelve we had promised to take our oldest three grandchildren on a motor home trip.

Since our oldest grandchild Max turned twelve on June 3rd, we borrowed my sister’s motor home and were set to take that first ever trip with he and sister Elle 11 and cousin Ashton 9 on July 12th…They have become better known at our reunions as “Group One”.

Taking a look at what we could see out of enormous windshield will give you an idea of the size of this moving house:

What a fun and crazy trio!

We had a wonderful time wending our way through Star Valley, complete with stories of multiple ancestors who settled that valley, then Jackson Hole where we spent so much time with our kids when they were little, especially during the UEA school holidays.

That night we parked in the parking lot of Teton Shadows, the place where we owned a condo for 30 years, which brought back so many fond memories.

The next day we saw fabulous scenery

and the kids entertained themselves on the long drives with taking pictures of themselves in the RV, loving looking like something from transformers? star wars? iron man?

and playing the guitar

and learning a song from Grandfather about the things they were going to learn on that trip. To the tune of "I Love to Go a Wondering" except the words were, “I Love to Go a Motoring with Grandfather and Gram. And as we go we laugh and sing, into my head they cram Religion, Politics, Ancestors, Fama la ha, ha ha ha ha, Family, Religion, Ancestors, Politics" (try singing that in your head). Needless to say many interesting conversations followed!

The kids loved the frequent stops along the way to explore the beauties of nature:

Photos by Elle:

After a ridiculous amount of construction on the roads, we arrived at one of the great wonders of the world: Old Faithful. We ran to buy sweat shirts for souvenirs and also because the kids were freezing and saw Old Faithful blow off once before we had dinner at the Grand Old Faithful Inn. We tasted buffalo and had so much fun in that historic old building, the scene of one of the most poignant moments in The Awakening, Grandfather’s novel from long ago.

After another shooting off of Old Faithful and some mighty good ice cream at the ice cream parlor, we settled into our “house” parked on an outer parking lot where we settled down to read a book we had bought from the author in the lobby of the hotel…a children’s story about Yellowstone Park called, The Eye of the Grizzly, when we looked out the window at the meadow beside us to see two enormous mama buffalos with their babies just outside our window:

We immediately decided that this was the place to stay and had just settled down for a well-deserved night’s sleep when someone banged on the side of the RV AT 11 p.m.. It was a Park Ranger who informed us in no uncertain terms that we could NOT park there for the night. When Grandfather asked politely where we should park, he said that RV’s were not allowed to park anywhere in Yellowstone Park except for a few isolated places that had been already fully reserved months in advance. Oops!

We had planned NOT to go back through all the construction and delays we had experienced during the day but to go home another way. But in looking over the map and our timetable, we decided that back the way we came was the best way…and that it would probably be much faster in the middle of the night without the long lines of cars and constructions workers out with their signs to stop us.

Were we ever wrong! In the middle of the night was the very time that these guys DO their heavy construction. So with that along with a crazy driver full of road rage who stopped right in front of us after passing us in anger because we had been going so slow through the mountain pass, watching for animals to jump out of us in the middle of the night and nearly killing us all, we arrived safely back at our usual parking lot at Teton Shadows at about 2 a.m.

The next day we journeyed on to Jenny Lake, where we had a fun boat ride across the lake

and a hike up to Hidden Falls

Complete with a few teaching moments by Grandfather

Especially with Ashton who somehow got lost during our ascent.

It was a gorgeous hike and a most memorable day:

That night the kids were lamenting the fact that we had to go back to Star Valley for the night so that we would be closer to home the next day. The water pump had gone out at the Bear Lake house, and the “fixers” were coming at noon the next day. The reason they wanted to stay in Jackson was that as luck would have it, the new Harry Potter movie was coming out that very next day with the first showing at midnight! People were already lining up at the Jackson Theatre at 2 p.m. We slummed around Jackson for a while and of course, went to our beloved Billy Burgers for giant burgers before heading for Star Valley.

As much as the kids wanted to see that movie they were good about seeing the necessity of being back to the lake.  I was quite sure that there wasn’t a movie theater in Afton, where we planned to spend the night.

 

When we got to Afton, we parked the RV on Main street and when Grandfather went into a store to ask if there were any theaters in town we looked across the street and what should we see but this….

The kids threw their arms in the air as if it was D Day and were over the moon as Grandfather went across the street and bought the tickets. We tried to get them to take a little nap before wewent, but they were just too excited!

We started lining up at 11 p.m. and it was SUCH fun to be there with a packed house of men, women and children, all hysterical about Harry Potter. Sadly, Ashton just couldn’t stay awake! Max and Elle did all they could to keep him awake but after about the first 45 minutes, he just couldn’t be aroused.

We sleep-walked him back across the street to the RV afterward:

Was he ever mad when he woke up and realized that he’d missed it!!! It was pretty funny…and fun because we know he’ll get to see the rest at a later date! What a lot of fun that kids is…as are magnificent Max and elegant Elle!

We arrived home the next day just in time to meet the plumbers having had an adventure that none of us will ever forget! We decided that the official name of Group 1 is now THE OLD FAITHFULS because these three are not only the oldest of all the grandchildren but are going to be an example of faith and strength to all the other kids of Eyrealm. We are so blessed to have these three stalwart examples of goodness and creativity to show the way to so many other cousins of Eyrealm who will be looking up to them and following in their footsteps!

“THE OLD FAITHFULS”

European Adventure

 

What a grand anniversary trip we’ve had in Europe! After Switzerland, we flew back to England where we lived for three years from 1976-79. We served as volunteers for our church

there and had so much fun finding old friends and greeting former missionaries after 30 years!

Our favorite little castle is at Hever. It was the home of Thomas Boelyn, father of Ann Boelyn and was often visited by Henry VIII. The grounds are simply fabulous with an enormous man-made lake and moats to die for!

So much history!

How great it was to see our friends from so many years ago with kids all grown up and even sometimes grandparents!

From there we popped to Paddington Station and chatted with a couple of jolley English Bobbys as we headed for Scotland.

t

 

It was such fun to speak at this fabulous old Hotel, a house first mentioned in history in 1213!  Here we did a three hour seminar with such lovely parents..

With very nice cars!

From there we rented a car and drove down through the gorgeous countryside of Scotland and England to the Lake District.

Here we visited the birthplace and other homes of one of our favorite people….William Wordsworth.  Here is Dove Cottage where he did most of his best writing!

By Lake Grasmere

Next it was on to York, where we had never been before. We were delighted to find the oldest Cathedral in England…The Minster:

And The Shambles, the street that inspired J.K. Rowling to create Diagon Alley in Harry Potter.

Next on to Richard’s ancesteral ground in a little village in Lincolnshire called Dowsby..

That night we stayed at one of the most exciting spots in all of England….Cambrige University.  How amazing it was to see the spires of the colleges and the devotion to God as well as learning that was expressed in the architecture of that amazing place!

St. Johns College where the famous opening race scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed.  Richard tried to “beat the clock” but failed!

Here is the gorgeous River of Sighs:

The Landscaping was also breathtaking!  What a parade of fascinating thoughts and minds have passed through this incredible place!