Sunday Photo: 21

Phew.  We got through a very big week at our house.  I was so incredibly nervous to post about the practice.  My heart was racing after I hit publish!  I was blown away by all the kindness and comments.  Thank you all for the support. It really, really means a lot to us.  I am thankful.

Now, I can get back to blogging about our normal life!

This morning we enjoyed a little reading time before church.  Lucy was taking a nap so we actually enjoyed a few minutes of peacefulness!  She usually loves to run around poking, pestering and trying to hit the book out of Wade's hands.  She's got to be the center of attention!  Silly girl.

Wade has been reading Brandon Mull's book The Five Kingdoms to the kids.  They really love Brandon Mull.  Avery set up a "library" to look at and Eli usually finds something quiet to play with too while we read outloud.

What a blessing Sundays can be.  A day of rest.  I am so thankful for this cute little family of mine.  And thankful for good books, and a husband who loves to read to the kids!

I am spending today being thankful.  

Thankful for my good friends.  

Thankful for my family and lazy Sundays.

Thankful the gospel and hope that it gives me.

Thankful for the opportunity to serve and learn from amazing people.

Thankful for chocolate chip cookies after dinner.

Life gets so incredibly busy during the week.  I am not even kidding.  I wake up at 4:30am and hit the pillow exhausted by 11.  It never slows down.  This week, amongst the craziness, I am going to try to be more thankful every day.  It only takes a minute to slow down and look for the moment.

Remember my post about gratitude?  It's my "word" this year.  It's where I want to focus.  It's been a year full of ups and downs, but I have tried to always find the positive.  I have not always succeeded.  But I love this quote.  LOVE.

"No matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish.  There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy, if only we will see it, and appreciate it."  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

What are you thankful for this week? 

 look around, take a moment 

find something

{Middle}

I picked up this book last weekend and read it last night.  It is a book I am going to read and re-read time and time again.  I loved it.  Basically it's about how people always talk about their trials after they are over...focusing on the end.  This book talks about how to get through the middle.

Seriously, love this.  

LOVE it.

The middle.

Our family is in the middle right now.  We've  been experiencing a heartbreaking trial that for the past year-year and a half.  It's been a challenge and we aren't sure we are really near the end of our trial either.  Yeah....We are in the middle and this book is for me.

One of the thing that stuck out to me as I read this book last night was to look for the good.  Look for the good in the middle.  And it also suggests writing down blessings, the good you find and tender mercies.  We have totally been blessed time and time again during our past year and a half.  In ways I could never imagine.  I need to be better at finding the good and writing it down.

So tonight I am doing just that.

The young women ages 12-18 at our church held their annual fundraising dinner and auction tonight.  It helps fund their activities, mostly camp this summer.  My father in law had bought the whole family a ticket so all eight of us headed over to the church for dinner tonight.

It was yummy!  YUM-MY.  And so fun.  Wade and his dad stepped out early to get some other things done, but I was having fun and so were the kids, so we stayed.  Then the kids noticed something:

(and yes, we are getting closer to why I am wearing a bucket on my head)

"everyone" was buying things and bidding on things.

of course, it was not everyone, but to their little brains it felt like every person in that room had been to the little set up store in the Sunday school room and bought a pool noodle light saber...which they really, really wanted and "everyone" was waving them in their faces.  Plus they really wanted me to bid on a chance to throw a pie at the bishop (our LDS term for preacher).  Poor kids.  I really wanted to buy something for them too.  I really wanted to help out the young women in our ward.  But we're in the middle right now.  We're facing this stupid trial that makes me want to say worse bad words than stupid and for some reason I'm sure there will be a lesson we learn, but tonight was just not going to end our way.  

Tonight we learned we can't have it all.  I really just wanted to crawl in a hole, because they were starting to get pouty.  It was close to the littles bedtime so I called it.  I hauled them all to the car.  Before we even got to see who won the pie throwing bid, darn it.  I really wanted to see that!

I could feel it coming.  

5 pouty kids against me.  And I had a headache.  It was not going to be pretty.  But then I opened the door and saw Lucy's Easter bucket on the floor of the van and just decided to go with it.  

middle.  

I am in the middle.  

I am in the middle of the middle and sometimes feel like I am sinking.  

But I can look for the good.

So....

I put the bucket on top of my head, pulled a pose, and hollered over their whines, "Look!  Look at me!"

They could NOT stop laughing at me.  I am one hot mama with an Easter bucket on my head.  I told them I would wear it all the way home.  They did not in any way believe me.  

So, of course, I did and I poured on a little charm too.  Gage decided we needed to take pictures of this.  I waved and grinned at every passing car.  In a few years this could be a total punishment for them, total embarrassment.  But they were eating it up!  Even little Lucy was laughing and laughing!  It's a good thing we live in Utah.  We are pretty close to our church building.  But believe me, I did have to ride down Main Street for a block or two like this.  Most people just looked at me.  One family totally waved back!  The kids were laughing SO hard!  "They waved!  They waved!" they chanted.

so there you have it.  

I made it through tonight.  One thing down, maybe a million more to go. 

But I can do this. 

I can face this middle with a bucket on my head, a smile on my face and a wave of the hand.

~~

If you are stuck in the middle, you should find this book.  I would send you mine, but I am going to be reading it again and again.  

"If it ever feels like you have waited so long that you aren't moving forward anymore, if you feel like you have taken an unexpected detour, if you wonder if your tomorrow will ever come...stop and look back at where you've come from.  Then go after the Lord's revelation.  Remember that sometimes it won't be until tomorrow that the Lord will do wonders among us, but His wonders will come.

He will provide a way through."

-Emily Freeman, "Making it Though the Middle", page 15

Hello Twenty Fourteen!

On New Year's Day we went on a little drive out west by the lake.  I love driving out there.  The roads open up and the sky seems huge.  It was a perfect place to go and I got the feeling 2014 is going to be good to us. Yes!  

The possibilities are endless this year!

I am determined this year I am going to focus on the positive.  I am  going to look at every day and see something to be happy about, something to be grateful for.  That is what my one little word will be this year.

graditude.