Done With Grading

Well, I'm done with grading for this semester. It actually went really well--I had them turn in their final papers a week earlier than usual, so I had time to grade them and hand them back. There are a lot of changes I want to make to the syllabus for next semester, but for now--time to relax (clean the house, get Christmas presents ready, help the kids with school Christmas stuff, go to a birthday party (mila), plan a birthday party (Tallis), attend a CPR workshop, visit teach, do all the Christmas cards, sigh sigh).

Stay Out of the Doghouse

A timely reminder to all of us at this holiday season. (If this link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your browser. You'll be glad you did.)

http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/video.aspx

Family Culture

Kevin Galbraith gave a talk about strengthening the family in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, and he quoted a talk that was given in general conference a while ago. I will try to find the particulars of the talk (so I can verify this properly) but I wanted to ask your opinions on one of the comments he made. He said that research had indicated that one of the most important things that parents could do for their children, in order to raise their children to be faithful Latter-day Saints (in addition to prayer and scripture study) is to develop a "Family Culture" that is strong enough that it provides stability even in the turbulent teenage years. Specifically, the more people involved (cousins, grandparents, etc) the better. My question is this: In addition to what we are already doing, what more can we do to encourage participation in a family culture? Should we be doing more as a "Brown" family to facilitate cousins getting together or interacting? I think Cousins' Chronicles is excellent, but perhaps we could expand somehow on it. Maybe some of you have ideas that your in-law families do, or perhaps ideas that we could implement in our own homes. But I am concerned enough by the horrible state of the world that I would welcome any ideas or suggestions you have.