It's about TIME

These last few months time seems to be on fast forward. Kids are growing up and getting more busy with their activities as well as keeping up with my own have made me value more and more the time we get to spend together. I am so lucky that we lucky enough to go on a 10 day family road trip together these last few weeks. We spent almost every minute of everyday together for 10 days!!  I few years ago I would have said no way if you'd told me I would have purposefully planned this trip but it was wonderful. We drove no more than 8 hours each day. Stopped in Cedar City, Zions National Park, St. George, Las Vegas, Fresno, Sequoia National Park, Merced, Old Sacramento, Placerville, South Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake City and then back home. We hiked, we ate good food, we played in lakes, we toured a gold mine, we learned about Temples, we listened to 3 books on tape, we saw some amazing trees, we had a great TIME together.  I loved spending time together. I feel like there will not be too many of these before kids start moving out and I am so grateful that we were blessed with the Time to spend together.

Answers to unspoken prayers

Life has been a little more difficult for me lately. Small things have been making a bigger impact and I feel myself slipping closer and closer to unhappiness everyday. I decided a few days ago to DO something about it. Super Boy and I did a little exercise and then I went up to the mountains with my sister and with Butterfly Fairy. It was nice to have a little break from all the crazy stuff of life. But Sunday morning when a child woke up sick and Super Man really wanted us all to still go to church I lost it. I usually don't yell at my husband, but he got yelled at, and then a door slammed in his face. Not my finest hour.  I felt horrible right after and did it, but still a little bit justified. The last place I wanted to go was to church, but because I stayed home the week before sick, off I went, with my three other littles to church. It is only about a 5 minute drive to our church building, I almost turned around twice.  We walked in the building and we found our usually place to sit. I was getting the kids situated and felt a light tap on my shoulder. There stood a wonderful friend who used to live right up the street from me. I hadn't seen her in a few months and I was  SOOOO glad to see her. She was child free! So I invited her to sit by me and it was wonderful to sit and chat before church. It soothed my heart!  Her husband was speaking and it seemed like his talk was written just for me that day. Most of all I felt the hand of God in my life that day, that He knew me enough to know what I needed without me even having to ask.  I was very filled that day.

Grateful for a "reason" to study

I love to read the scriptures and to learn more about the gospel. I am sad to say as busy as I am, I often find myself skipping the scriptures and doing things I need to do for my family or want to do for myself instead of personal scripture study time I am grateful that I get to teach the young women in my ward about once a month.. It forces me into my scriptures and I really have to study hard because the girls I teach are like sponges and I hate to give them mis-information.  I love to learn from the General Conference talks as well and these new lessons are full of GC talks to read through. I also love the personal progress program and am very happy that I am asked to go through it as a leader and as a Mother with Princess.

No less grateful, just more busy

This blog did not last long did it? Bad on me. I still love to idea. I hope to start it up again, if only I update once a week, I hope I can get better at updating. This week I am thankful for busy kids. Not that I like taking them from activity to activity and spending tons of time and money on classes and teams, but I LOVE to see them change, grow and learn something new. I love that moment when something they have been working hard on finally clicks.  This happened for two of my kids this week. Missy Mouse has been learning Irish Step Dance and had her second recital yesterday.She had improved a ton since the last one. She looked so confidant up there! It was wonderful. Also Princess swims and has for years and has really improved these last few weeks. Beautiful, fast strokes, I love to see them do well in sports they love.

Nap

Super Boy is in that place where naps are only once every few days and not everyday anymore.  I miss those everyday naps. So on days like today, when he falls asleep and I am able to keep him asleep I am so excited! Even when it conflicts with plans I have made. If Super Boy will nap...plans can change. And they did!  I am very grateful for a happy boy who napped!

Extended Family

We are lucky to close to husband's family. His parents and both siblings live with in a half an hour drive of us.  We have been blessed to spend at least an evening or two each month with these wonderful people since we moved here over 9 years ago. I think it is not only wonderful for my husband and myself to have the support of his family when we need it, but it also wonderful for my children to really get to know their cousins in a way that I never knew mine due to how far apart from each other we lived. I hope as they grow they will continue to be close. I know that we are blessed to all be here together. And as I look back on how we all ended up living here very close to each other I see the hand of God guiding our lives. I know that my Heavenly Father wants us to live here. I think that part of the reason may be so that we can support and be supported by our extended family. I am also grateful that about 5 years ago my sister moved here to be close to us. I have loved to get to know her better and am glad that she choose to live where we could be together.  It is also wonderful that my parents live 8 hours away. Just close enough to drive in a day. I am so glad that they travel here once or twice a year and that we are able to travel there once a year. I feel so blessed in our family relationships.

Disney songs

We have listened to a lot of Disney songs around our house. Most recently we have heard a lot of songs from the movie Frozen. Our girls love the music and the movie and listen to the music any chance they can get. Lately I have noticed that Super boy has started singing the words of the songs with his sisters. Today,  he was tired and not feeling well, and he kept asking to watch "Let it go". So I turned on youtube and we watched the frozen songs. He was a very happy boy. Yeah for good songs that we could listen to and enjoy together.