Drops of....

I got to teach the first Sunday lesson in Young Women's two Sunday's ago.

The topic was the Atonement....kind of appropriate for the Easter season.

I found this great object lesson on Sugar Doodle (sidebar:  LOVE love LOVE Sugar Doodle!)

Drops of Awesome.

Ever heard the story?  Quick version is that we often put ourselves down and rather than do that we need to realize that we are great and that for everything we do we should get a "drop of awesome".

So I had a 2 quart bowl, 2 very small droppers and a pitcher of water.  All the girls had to do was fill the bowl with water one drop at a time for anything and everything they have done that is "awesome".

At first they were a little hesitant because apparently it's rude to get up in the middle of a lesson.  I thought this was funny, but commendable.  Towards the end of the lesson there was almost nothing in the bowl and they started to panic.  At the end of the lesson there were 3 girls trying to get as many drops into the bowl as possible.  They had even grabbed the pitcher to dump the water in.  

I stopped them and had them sit down and started talking about how our drops of awesome are great and we're great, but somehow we just can't fill the bowl.

And that's when I pulled out another pitcher of water labeled with the "Atonement".  

My eyes may have started sweating at that point.  The room was really hot...really.  

Without Jesus Christ our drops of Awesome will never fill the bowl.  We just can't be that awesome without him.  AMAZING!

So to get on with why I actually started this post.  

I had the opportunity to go to our Stake Relief Society meeting last Thursday and they had classes we could attend.  I chose to go to "Sticking with the Basics!  Getting the Gospel into our hearts & into the hearts of our children".

I often worry that I don't do enough to help my children feel close to their Heavenly Father and just my luck that's what this class was about.

The one thing that really struck me was this sister saying that she had one child who was "explosive".  I thought to myself..."Me too, Me too!"

She said that it occurred to her once that when her daughter was having a rough time she pulled her aside and when they were alone she knelt down in prayer and asked her child to kneel with her.  Her daughter of course refused for quite a while but she just waited patiently.  After a while her daughter knelt next to her and prayed.   They did this a few times and one day she was feeling overwhelmed and sent her daughter to her room without going with her.  Less than 15 minutes later her daughter came bouncing out of her room in a great mood.  Before bed that night she asked her daughter what had helped change her mood so quickly.  Her response was...I prayed mom.

WOW.

For the record, this class wasn't for anybody but me.  

Now to put the two together....

How often are we given ideas or answers to our prayers by something or someone we would least expect?  I almost didn't go.  I was tired, I still had KatieJo home recovering from surgery and I had Mutual the night before and Stuart had a school function on Friday night.  

But I did, and I'm so glad I did.  

There were a lot of other things in this class that helped, this just happens to be the one part that helped me the most.

Without the Atonement, my drops of awesome with my kids would never be full.  But, because of Christ my bowl will be filled and I CAN be a great mom!

What a blessing!

Spoiled rotten?

This past week a friend of ours found a puppy on her front porch.

She tried her hardest to find it's owners but needed a place for him to stay.

Because I have a week spot for dogs (small ones in particular), I decided that we'd foster this puppy so it didn't have to go to the pound.

Of course our friend got a call that said that the person who owned the dog had abandoned it.  

By this time the dog and KatieJo had become quite attached.  And by attached I mean he woke me up at 2 a.m. to go finder her and then proceeded to cuddle with her and DOES NOT leave her side when she is home.  And sits on the couch staring out the front window whining when she leaves.

Maija named him Sprinkles.

We weren't going to keep this dog.  

Stuart was VERY adamant that this was a temporary solution.  

Our friends' sister offered to take him as did my sister.

And then KatieJo in her quiet way BEGGED to keep him.  

I do mean quiet.  

I was the first to cave.

Then, I went to bat for her with Stuart.

My argument was that he's not technically a dog.  He's more of a rat with a lot of hair.

Stuart said he doesn't even classify as an ankle biter....he's more of a toe biter.

We both got a good laugh out of that.

In the end, she gets to keep the dog.  It's her birthday present, a really early birthday present.

She's thrilled, and chose the name Leopold.  He gets called all kinds of names...Leo, Leopold, Leopowd (Maija and Phillip can't say the second L), Sprinkles, hey boy....etc.

He is a great dog.  The only problem...he's TINY, and can fit through the gates into the backyard.

We're going to have to work on that.

Watch out for fog

Did you know that when one has a hysterectomy and they leave one ovary it can throw you into a fog?

Oh yes. 

 A FOG!

And I didn't even realize I'd been in one until I started not sleeping this last week.

Literally not sleeping...at all.

So annoying!

Therefore I called my doctor and asked to go in. 

I had to sleep!

I think they thought I was suicidal, and they kind of rushed me back in.
For the record, I wasn't. 

I just wanted to sleep...and not be in a fog!!

I also knew I couldn't remember anything and felt like doing nothing except laying in my bed trying to sleep.  

Or crying, or just being left alone.

Everything was just fuzzy and I was lucky I managed to get the kids to any of their activities.

 Then Dr.O gave me a shot of Estradiol.  

Oh LOVELY estrogen!

I woke up yesterday morning and FELT like doing something.

I actually had grand plans for my day!!

And that was after less than 24 hours.  

Apparently it can take up to a week to completely take affect.  

YAY!

I did however over do it yesterday.  

Go figure.  

 But, my head feels great!

Ah, I'm back in the land of the living.

And, I'm allowed to do some light cleaning.  

Who knew that would be exciting!?!

Mom

My mom came to take care of us this last week.

I am so GRATEFUL!  

(And not just because she's going to read this blog.)

She did all the laundry AND matched all the socks (not to mention found all the socks).  

I hate matching socks.  I'm really in favor of the mismatched socks that kids think are cool these days.  Well for the kids anyway.  I personally won't wear mismatched socks.  Come to think of it neither will Phillip.

Mom also cleaned and helped me (okay she did it, I laid on Phillip's bed) go through Maija and Phillip's clothes to get rid of the clothes and shoes that are too small.  We took about 5 trash bags full of clothes and shoes and other stuff to Goodwill.

I'm not good at loading stuff up to take to Goodwill.  

 She made dinner and drove us around.  She made the kids breakfast and took them to school.  She had a pizza lunch with all of them and talked to them about Aunt Ila (really it was a talk on table manners and that Aunt Ila would have been proud!) on Thursday and then took them all to their appointments.

I'm so very grateful for a mom who is willing and able to come take care of us when I am down, especially when Stuart had to work late 3 of the 4 days he was at work this week!

The kids were so excited to have her come.  We don't get to see her very often and it was thrilling to them that she was coming and it wasn't a holiday!  They even got the traditional "Grandma breakfast" of pop tarts and hot chocolate every day.

Stuart was excited to have her come because it meant he could go back to work.  He doesn't think he'd make a very good stay at home mom.  

And I was excited because really, when you don't feel the greatest having your mom around is all a person could ask for!

THANK YOU mom!  We Love you!!

Choose to be Happy

I can't do it.  I thought I could.
I thought I'd be able to blog about what has happened in the last 2 weeks and I can't.

Suffice it to say that I had surgery on the 27th and spent the night in the hospital.  I'm healing slowly but it's supposed to be a slow recovery.

I'm Choosing to be Happy.
I wasn't sure if I could be.  But after visiting with our Bishop and receiving some great advice:
"Don't forget to put your faith in the Lord."
I'm going to be happy.

Funny how being reminded of something so basic when you are facing something you don't know if you can handle helps to reign in the fears.

So, I'm choosing to be Happy and grateful that I have the family I have.
I have 4 beautiful children.
And one very wonderful husband.
And a heap of friends.

Summer lovin' had me a blast!

The last time I posted was in July.  

Apparently I'm a slacker.  Or, I've been really busy.  

While I have been busy, I'm still a slacker.

We had a great summer!  

Samuel played soccer coached by Stuart.  KatieJo went to Grandma and Grandpa Mobley's, Maija hung out at home and Phillip had surgery to take out his tonsils and adenoids.  

The doctor told us it would be great for the first day or so and then he'd get worse.  They weren't joking with us.  He only needed pain meds once the first day and then he needed them right on schedule or he'd be in a lot of pain!  He's healed now and his throat looks fabulous.  Although he now has a very nasally voice that is a little high pitched.  We're pretty sure it's because he had such big adenoids and tonsils that he just hasn't managed to figure out how to talk right without them yet.  

We got to visit both the Baxley family and the Mobley's in August.  We met Chaney's family in Yellowstone for a week.  We all loved Yellowstone!  It was amazing and the kids are already asking to go back.  

After Yellowstone we stayed with Stuart's parents and got to celebrate Stuart's dad's 60th birthday and for got to be in the Temple with 10 of Stuart's siblings while the youngest 3 were sealed to the family.  

Then school started.  

Such a sad day in our home.  It means we don't really see Stuart until the first week in November.  

All 4 kids are in school for at least part of the day 4 days a week.  Maija and Phillip are in school for 2.5 hours a day and I get those hours all to myself.  I really thought I'd be bored and I was for exactly one day and then I figured out I'm a whole lot more busy when they are in school than I ever planned on being!

We don't have a lot of downtime right now.  Both boys are playing flag football and so when we could be home on Saturday they both have games at different times.  

Whew!  I really thought we'd get back into a good rhythm once school started but I'm starting to think we had it really good this summer!

Lonely

I love my kids.  And I have a hard time being away from them.

Needless to say when Stuart and KatieJo talked about her spending a few weeks with Stuart's parents this summer I was apprehensive.  Truthfully apprehensive doesn't quite do how I was feeling justice.  

It has nothing to do with where she is but more the fact that she's not at home with us.  

I gave in and let her go.

But OH HOW I MISS THAT GIRL!

I miss just chatting with her, going grocery shopping or just plain shopping and listening to her giggle.

We go get her next weekend and I can't wait!

We've talked to her just about every evening, but it's just not the same.  

I'm glad she's having a good time getting to know her new Aunt's and playing with her cousins.  

However, I am SO very excited to have our family complete again!

This next week Samuel will be gone camping with his best friends family.  I'm glad he too is having and adventure this summer.  It's just so quiet around the house!
  I get tired of their fighting, but I sure do miss them when they are gone!!