Still busy - but finally started a book for the summer!

We just came back form a family reunion - my side. We have it every year at Bear Lake, ID. It was very relaxing - those who bring the drama every year were not there. It was very uneventful - but so enjoyable.

What was not enjoyable was filling our car up for the trip. $105! UGH! And we have another family reunion next week - another $105 plus for just a little over 1 way of the trip!

Back to the positive. I was able to have time to start a book I have been wanting to read. "All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience" by Neal A. Maxwell. I have always stayed away from his books - just because when ever I heard him speak, if I even was distracted by a child for a second I was lost and could not get back to what he was trying to say. So I took this book on as a challenge to me. To stretch and challenge. I am only on page 28 - but absolutely love it. I am starring paragraphs and underline sentence after sentence. Every page has a new gem on it - and I am eating it up!

Here is one thought from the book -
"God loves us all - saint and sinner- with a perfect and everlasting love. We have His love, if not His approval. It is our love for Him that remains to be developed. When we come to be genuinely concerned with pleasing God - more than with pleasing any in the world, even ourselves - then our behavior improves and His blessings can engulf us. This sublime feeling can be experienced only if we come to know enough about Him so that our awe melts into adoration, and our respect into utter reverence."

That is on page 3! There is no easing into things - he just jumps into this deep thinking and every sentence he writes has meaning - and truly is not just there to fill space on the page.

I have not had time to read this Summer. I thought about reading more of novel type book - but I have been trying to study the scriptures more - not just read them. And to Draw Closer To God - and figure out what that means on a deeper level to me. So along those lines, I thought this book would help me on that journey. And I have to say it is not disappointing so far.

I am now trying to figure out how to fit in reading, exercise, kids, work, laundry cooking and cleaning into each day. If anybody has suggestions let me know! ;)

Too Busy to Blog!

So it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted anything. Way too busy. Life is still busy - but I am letting some laundry slide for a bit while I jump on and blog.

Amanda survived Girls Camp. She came back with a blistered and burned nose - but it looks A TON better now. She also learned a lesson at camp. The last few years the girls have broken open glow-sticks and splattered them across the room. It always dries and disappears with no problem. But this year too many glow-sticks, new girls that rubbed them into the walls and floor --- and one big mess! The girls ended up having to paint over the walls - and luckily it covered everything up. The girls each have to pay $1 towards the paint they had to use. Amanda felt really bad - because she really didn't think it would hurt anything, since it didn't the years before. I told her it is better to not do things that might destroy other's property.

Parker went on his first overnight Boy Scout Camp. He did great. He passed a ton of things off. I can't believe he is old enough to be a Boy Scout!

Soccer is in full force for Adyson and Parker, softball is ending next week for Amanda, and CJ has about three more weeks of summer Gymnastics.

My business is in full swing. Orders coming every day - what a blessing!

Kirk and I went on our first BIG ride on the new motorcycle. We went from 9:30 am until 5pm. We did a big loop from here up to Jackson Hole and back. It was BEAUTIFUL! LONG - but BEAUTIFUL.

I have been studying the scriptures more lately. Thinking about and trying to figure out what it means to "Put the Lord first" in our lives. It can mean so many different things for different people. It can also mean something different at different times in your life. SO I guess I am trying to figure out what it needs to mean in my life now. (If anyone has a thought on this in their life - please post it!)

Another area of discussion lately around here is money. Kirk should be finished with his MFA in January 2009. Which means we will have to start paying on student loans! Somewhere between $32,000 and $40,000. UGH! So we have been trying to figure out what we can do to bring in some extra money to help pay those off. I am considering be certified as a medical transcriber. This is something I could be certified in - in about 8 months and work from home once trained. I am hoping it all works out and I can do that. It would be great to do less of it in the summer when 'Ohana is full force - and more of that work in the off season. I guess we will see where and what I am doing in a year from now.

OK enough quick rambling from one topic to another - back to laundry....and life.

My Darling Daughter is 14 -- time is flying by!

Warning - I might ramble a bit in this post.

I do not feel old enough to have a 14 yr old daughter. It does not seem possible. It just seems like yesterday she turned 10 - and before I know it she will be 18!

I think I am feeling old - because the other night we met her Uncle - my brother-in-law --- for dinner. My husband was going to join us late. So I was there with my 5 kids, and the brother-in-law shows up and he has one of our nieces he was babysitting. Anyway, he ran out to the car to grab something, and I asked my daughter (the 14 yr old) to slide down next to the little baby niece to watch her. The waiter came back to the table - turned to my teenage daughter and asked her - "Do you know what your HUSBAND would like to drink?" I got lightheaded as I heard that question...not being dramatic..... I truly felt lightheaded and a little sick. How could ANYONE mistake my 14 yr old for a wife! But then I looked at her all dressed up and taking such good care of her little cousin, and I thought I guess she could be mistaken as older, even for a second.

But a moment like that makes you realize that you will soon become a mother-in-law and then a grandma --- and it will happen in a blink of an eye! Life just goes by soooo fast, except on the days that your kids are driving you crazy. Those are the days you would swear had 48 hrs in that day and not just 24. =)


How does it happen - where does the time go? I bet we can all look back 5 yrs ago and think "that seems like only a year or two - not five!" I have days that I cannot believe that I am 35. It doesn't feel like I thought it would. I really have to stop and think about how old I am - because I see myself younger than that. I have decided that I will always be young at heart. I think that the saying "Your as young as you feel" is true.

Health area I AM 35, my 5th pregnancy did a number on my body. And until I look into the mirror I forget that my outside does not fit my inside image of me. I have had more health problems since I became pregnant with my last child. Ups and downs, scares to big relief and joy. And I know someday I will finally figure out how to get the outside me be as fit as the inside me feels.

So as I am writing this, I am listening to my 11 yr old son and 14 yr old daughter clean up the kitchen. And I have to smile -- because having your children get older faster than you wish some days -- DOES have its benefits. ;) I will just remember that the next time I cannot believe I am old enough for children that old. I need to stop and rejoice in the season I am in.

I think this post is a great example why I write this blog. It seems writing these feelings down sure helps me a lot to change my view on things or figure a way to feel better about something...and usually it happens by the end of my post.

As tomorrow is the 4th of July -- may I end this post with a Happy 4th to you all --- but especially to all those who are or have served our country and allowed us the freedoms we have. I would add a thank you to their families too. May we all have a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend.

Why Satan Knows How to Break Us!

I know, I know...the title is a little intense. But I wanted to get your attention. I had this light bulb moment the other day - again at Church and then my reading. It started off about how to stay strong against Satan. And then about how it is scary how well he knows our weaknesses and exactly how and where in our lives to work on us.

(Before I give you my personal thought on this I think I need to clear something up of those not of the LDS faith-- we believe when we were in Heaven that Heavenly Father heard two plans for this mortality. One from Satan - then Lucifer and one from Jesus. We believe before Satan was evil and the Devil as we know him today, we has one of our brothers in heaven. Satan's plan was that we come here with no free agency - all choosing the right all the time - no need for a Savior - but all the glory from the people would go to him. Jesus presented a plan that said we all come here - have free agency, make mistakes and learn from them but because we would not be perfect - there would be a need for a Savior to take away our sins so we could live in the presence of God again. And the glory would be the Father's not Jesus'. ---- this is a very quick overview of it.)

So, I started thinking about families - trying to keep them strong and then about how to protect it from Satan, and how is it he knows us so well? And this thought came to me --- He was our brother in Heaven before he became evil. Our minds have forgotten what we were all like before we came to this earth---but he has not. Just like a sibling, he knows what buttons to push. I watched my kids in the car the other day, and was amazed how the younger ones knew just what to say and how to say it to get the older two all worked up. Now my kids are not evil of course, but the way they know each other - the weakness of the other, the things that make them mad or sad --- brought to mind the way Satan knows exactly how to get to each of us. As a sibling would.

My areas of weakness are not the same as my husbands. Satan can hit me over the head in one area and not have it effect me at all, but he can just slightly start picking in another area that I am weak in - and sooner or later I have allowed him to make a crack in my defenses if I am not careful and mindful of what he is trying to do.

This may not be a thought any of you agree with --- but for me it was a moment to help me understand WHY Satan is so good at what he does.

It just made me realize that as a mother I need to teach my kids even more how to watch out for that sneaky way Satan has --- and as a Daughter of God I need to realize that Satan is going to work 10 times harder on those trying to live good lives and who are trying to draw closer to God. We all know of at least one person we have watched make choices that have lead them in a direction that ends end sorrow. And a lot of times they are people we never would have guessed that would happen to. It is sad and makes the mother in me want to grab my family and go hide out in a cabin far far away from it all. But then reality hits and I realize that if those of us who felt that way did that - then Satan really does win.