Tubing

Last weekend we went tubing and hang out with Aunt Rebecca and JD. Of course, Deborah and Robert and Joshua came too. It's fun to spend time with family. It's great to share and receive love and encouragement. I have a new philosophy in regards to extended family events. Show up, put up, and lift up! Heavenly Father have us wonderful families!

KyVan's Wedding

This weekend is my brother's wedding. It will be such a blessing to get together with family! I'm nervous too, about stupid stuff. Clothes,cars,food, schedules, and such don't matter. They are just means to an important end.

Some Things I Know

I certainly don't know the future. But I do know some certain things I need to do to prepare for it.

We need to keep spiritually strong.  Personal and family prayers and scriptures study must continue no matter what! What a blessing they are! We must visit the temple often, do family history, magnify our callings, and build the kingdom. This must intensify no matter what!

We need to become physically more healthy and strong. Eating like a rabbit, exercising like a champion, and sleeping like a log must continue no matter what!

We need to learn much more and fan the fire of learning within our children. Daily reading, trips to the library,math lessons, and soaking up vocabulary and knowledge must continue no matter what!

We need to stay emotionally strong by counting our blessing, serving others, planning, and working hard. We need to do these things with a song and a smile no matter what!

We need to improve our finances! We seem to be doing the right things,but things are getting worse! Oh, well. We can tighten our belts a nd budget better. We can keep trying to earn extra money. This must continue no matter what!

So although we may not know many things we know and can do the most important ones!

Redwoods Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation to the Redwoods last week. I love being with my sweet family and exploring a bit of the immensity of Heavenly Father's creations and meeting a few more of His children.

I'm a bit stressed now. The contract for selling our house fell through. We just bought a van with a $700 payment. That will have to be sold this week. Our finances are extremely tight! It looks and feels like failure is close. But don't worry it's just part of the excitement of life. With hard work, learning and creating new things, growing a delicious garden, and bring as frugal as possible we will succeed! There's no need to fear! If we do these things and keep the commandments the Lord will bless us to prosper in the land.

Streets of Treats

Our ward has a tradition of socializing in the summer by wandering a certain area of the ward where the people who live there set out treats. We munch and visit. It's fun, especially for the kids. It's good to get to know our ward family better. I'm grateful Heavenly Father has blessed us with a ward family.

The Basics

I'm so grateful when life seems overwhelming or little ones seem to need tons of attention I can go back to the basics. If I can have a personal devotional, exercise, groom myself, clean the house, serve meals, and, read to the kids everyday I'm doing great. Six things, not bad! Everything after that is icing on the cake. With little ones needing nursing,cuddling,following, training, changing, and playing the day can be eaten up fast. I need to stop feeling guilty about my to-do list and just enjoy the moment. That's hard to do when financial pressures loom on the horizon. We will make it! I just need to focus on teaching and training and loving these little guys. Hasn't this been the same story for the last 18 years? You think I would have mastered it by now! But if anything it seems harder now to go slow. Slow is fast with people and children especially. Heavenly Father knows this lesson takes lots of practice and faith! I'm so grateful He has patience with me and keeps reminding me of what is most important. He will take care of less important things I can't get to.

Morning Devotional

Heavenly Father has blessed us with a peaceful,private yard. I love having my morning devotional out here.

Up in the Air

Life is a grand adventure! I have absolutely no idea where we are going to live in two weeks. The bus has been in the shop for 12 weeks and they haven't even started on it. So it doesn't look like our plan of living in the bus over the summer is going to pan out. The house is under contract, but we are in that hesitant stage when they could back out at anytime, so we really can't afford to go get other accommodations. We had been planning on a huge trip to Canada for almost a year, but passports haven't come yet,the bus isn't ready, and we might be moving the week after we get back. Darn it! We were so excited. In fact, being able to afford the trip helped push is to selling our house. However, we would have had to sell it soon regardless. Money is tight! With nine kids on a single income it isn't a shocker. But we are selling the house so we can make headway. Maybe we will be able to save up for some cheap, hunting land or something. Life is up in the air right now and that's okay. The Lord knows everything and He has always taken care of us with a multitude of tender mercies.