I love that my husband will spend his day off doing things like this:
Cougar is one lucky boy and LOVES that his daddy will build trains and Legos for him. These trains were put together last Thursday and stayed up all week ... today it was the entire Pirates of the Caribbean Lego collection {which he proceeded to play all afternoon with his sisters}.
I had the opportunity to teach in Relief Society today {for those who are not members of the LDS church that is our Women's Organization} and it was truly humbling. I was given a talk entitled "That Our Children May See the Face of the Savior" from our last General Conference to base my lesson on. I spent a lot of time reading different messages that have been shared about our own relationships with the Savior, how we can teach our children about him, and how important it is for us as parents to use everyday teaching moments to teach about Christ and live our lives as an example of Him. I often find that I am the one who needs the lessons the most when I am asked to speak. There was so much that I wanted to share with the sisters about the importance of our jobs as mothers. I had WAY too much content for the amount of time I had {I ended up having to skip over at least 3 pages of notes}. I cried WAY too often and felt like a babbling idiot more than once (which is BIG for me because I am typically a very unemotional person who only cries about 3 times a year ... really). In the end I can only hope that the ladies there walked away with a small portion of what I did.
I ended my lesson with this quote that came from a talk that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared in a talk over 10 years ago {you can read his entire talk HERE} - it is an excerpt from a letter that was sent to him from a young mother who struggled at times with feelings that she couldn't measure up to the tasks expected of her (boy, can I relate). To quote from his talk:
But one thing, she said, keeps her going: “Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that in my motherhood I am in an eternal partnership with Him. I am deeply moved that God finds His ultimate purpose and meaning in being a parent, even if some of His children make Him weep.
“It is this realization,” she says, “that I try to recall on those inevitably difficult days when all of this can be a bit overwhelming. Maybe it is precisely our inability and anxiousness that urge us to reach out to Him and enhance His ability to reach back to us. Maybe He secretly hopes we will be anxious,” she said, “and will plead for His help. Then, I believe, He can teach these children directly, through us, but with no resistance offered. I like that idea,” she concludes. “It gives me hope. If I can be right before my Father in Heaven, perhaps His guidance to our children can be unimpeded. Maybe then it can be His work and His glory in a very literal sense.”
WOW. I closed with this video that was created with pieces of this same talk. Go grab a tissue and make sure you watch it. Every time I watched it as I prepared for my lesson (and learned to download YouTube videos and burn them to DVD ... YES!) I was overwhelmed by the sense that I am doing better than I think I am. The Lord is there to carry us through the challenges as long as we will rely on him. Elder Holland also said, "if you try your best to be the best parent you can be, you will have done all that a human being can do and all that God expects you to do." Thank goodness.
I should be working on my Relief Society lesson that I have to teach tomorrow but instead am trying something new ... posting to my blog from my phone! How's that for being distracted? Not that I couldn't try it any time or that I couldn't do it from my last phone - which I never did - but my new Android phone make me want to use it for EVERYTHING!
So the real story here is that Kendyl lost another tooth. Not just any tooth, mind you, but a front tooth ... the one that completely changes the way your child looks forever. It happened so suddenly, too. Tuesday night she mentioned that her tooth was wiggly. Wednesday morning she was showing me just how wiggly it was. Kayla came to pick up the girls to take them to school (we carpool) and I got a call before they even reached the school that her tooth had come out. I sent my baby out the door that morning and picked up this little girl after school (photo taken w/ my phone in the car ... don'tcha love the hot sweaty look?):
I think she's pretty cute ... and looks older *sigh*
First I have to say thanks so much for all of the sweet comments that have been left or e-mailed to me ... you sure know how to make a crazy girl feel the love!! I hope my reentry didn't leave you feeling like I was in the bottom of some dark abyss - it never got that bad ;) Life is fabulous most of the time and the rest of the time it is the pits or somewhere blissfully in between ... like everyone else's.
Last week met us with another milestone in our house - Middle School. That's right ... summer is over {in the blink of an eye} and the kiddos are back in school (can I get a little WOO HOO? We really did have a great summer but it was time for ALL of us ... the kids miss it just as much as I do)!!! Brinley has stepped up to the big leagues of Middle School. I'll be honest - I've been dreading it for at least 9 months. The mere idea of the new campus, administrators and teachers I didn't know, lockers, "tween" clothing {including training bras}, cruelty, language, "outside influences", etc. were enough to make this mama want to lock her up and homeschool her!! That, however, would never be an option for me because she is too passionate about school (and I couldn't do the homeschool thing ... having been a public school teacher). Toward the end of 5th grade I started to notice her attitude toward "moving up" become more nervous and I was afraid that my own fears were rubbing off on her - yikes. A change of attitude {for both of us}, 2 tours of the school during open houses, some fun school shopping for clothes and the MANY school supplies required by the middle school and we were both feeling much better. She dove right in last Monday and is loving the whole thing. She was accepted into the honors program so she has the same group of kids in her 5 core classes ... some of which she knows from her elementary school. She has a few friends in her homeroom class, too, which was comforting to find out. She's got a group of girls that she eats lunch with every day (I had nightmares of her sitting alone in the cafeteria). She got into band and has decided to play the french horn which, by the way, is one of the most expensive instruments to rent or buy ... just learned that last night. Ugh. Tonight she announced that she wants to run for Student Council which is awesome - she's a great leader. The kicker about that? She can start hanging posters and campaigning on Monday and has to have a speech ready for approval on Monday ... and I have to teach Relief Society on Sunday. How in the world am I supposed to have the time to work on a campaign over the weekend?!? No sleep is the only answer, unfortunately.
Now so you don't think she's the ONLY one who started school last week I should mention the other munchkins. Ashton is in 4th grade this year and Kendyl is in 1st grade. I am the luckiest lady around because they both got the teachers that I wanted them to ... both of which we have had before!! I am thrilled to work with these ladies again and plan to do some extra "spoiling" just cuz I love 'em. Kendyl's teacher is actually the one that I babysat for after she had her first baby so there is an extra special connection there ;) Both of them are doing exceptionally well and are loving being back in the classroom.
And now a photo of the girlies ... with a preview of my new product releasing in my shop on Monday!
How about the littlest of the bunch, you ask? He started preschool two days a week! I was really torn about it, to be honest, because he is still very young and has 2 years before he will start school. What it came down to was that socially he needs to be around other kids more. He is so lonely when his sisters go back to school and while I try to plan playdates for him, it's nice for him to establish his own "routine," too. He's loving it so far and his teacher says that he is doing very well in terms of participating and focusing {when required}. Here are a few shot of him as he headed out the door on his first day:
That kid cracks me up!! Well, I think that covers our first day of school happenings ... I'm sure I could go on but that is MORE than enough for one night!!
So, you’ve probably noticed that I quit blogging a while back. I imagine most (including myself) wondered if I’d ever come back to post again. I’d love to say that it was because I didn’t have a single minute of “free” time. I’d like the excuse that we have done absolutely nothing for the past 9 months. Perhaps a broken arm and inability to use a keyboard would work {not true, in case you were worried which, I’m sure, you were}. But it really wasn’t for any of those reasons ... it wasn’t even because I was just too lazy to do it. I made a conscious decision to quit for a while - not just posting but reading other blogs, too. Perhaps it was drastic but it’s been a good thing for me and something that was needed.
It came about for two reasons ... not that I owe an explanation ... that I want to write down for my own remembrance. Some may think that I'm a bit cuckoo {which we all know is true} so I apologize up front for my possibly irrational thinking ;)
First, as I started looking back over my incredibly irregular blog posts I started to notice a pattern ... they were becoming less about me and my family and more about my crafting/creative team work/design work. The sad reality is that this was becoming a more accurate reflection of my life and it was staring me in the face. Don't get me wrong - I love to create and I LOVED all of the work I was doing in terms of creative team assignments and designing. The problem came when I started letting the super late nights creep in {on a very regular basis} and the computer time take over more than it should. When the "balance" is off it affects everyone and it was definitely affecting our entire household. That needed to change.
Second, there's something you should know about me ... I'm insecure. Don't pretend like you're surprised by that - I know we all have our insecurities (or at least I like to believe others struggle with them, too, so play along). What I began to notice was that the more I read other blogs, the worse I started to feel about myself. I realize that blogging gives us a place to be "our best self" and that most people don't blog about the {not-so-glamorous} parts of life. The trouble came for me when I felt like my life was nowhere near as exciting, my craft projects were not as creative, my photos were not as fantastic, my exercise plan wasn't as extreme, my home was not as well decorated, my children were not well enough behaved or dressed ... you get the picture, right? Yes, I was comparing my worst to everyone's best - never a good thing.
What really hit me was when I would read comments on my blog like "I don't know how you do all that you do," or "I get tired just reading about your life," or things like that. Now, if you ever left one of those comments I DO NOT want you to feel bad about it ... you did NOT cause me to stop blogging ;) It made me think to myself "what if reading MY blog makes someone have the same bad feelings about themselves that I do when I read other blogs?" Not that it ever should because, remember, my life was {in my mind} no where near as great an anyone else's life.
And so came the blogging hiatus. I needed it for my own psyche. My family needed it so we could refocus on things as they SHOULD be. I used the time away to remember that I have a pretty darn good life. My house is still not immaculately decorated, I still run on my treadmill on a less-than-regular basis, my photos are still snapshots rather than portraits, I still eat too much candy, and I still glean lots of creative inspiration from others rather than inventing something new, but it's my life ... plain and boring as it may be to others {or myself at times} ... and I'm blessed immensely.
So what made me decide to start posting again? I missed it. I missed the "connections" that blogging provides. I'm sad that I missed out on sharing so many stories from the past 9 months - it's been a wild ride around here with lots of changes! I'm sure I'll post about some of our past happenings in the mix of the new. I won't make any promises on how often I'll write or that it will be all "sunshine and roses" when I do ... that wouldn't be reality, right? What I am going to do is "get over" my insecurities and focus on the things that are truly important to me - imperfections and all :D And what about my crafting/designing? It still keeps me busy ... and I love it ;) I did what I SWORE I would never do and started another blog just for my business! I'm not great at keeping that one up, either, but if you're ever interested in that part of my everyday life you can check it out at ikaridesigns.blogspot.com (or click on my button in the sidebar).
Next post will be more entertaining ... promise. I even have pictures to share ;)
I'm pretty much a sucker for Disney movies ... we've been through our phases, of course. We own just about every princess movie made and have worn most of them out. Now that we've got Cougar around and the girls are getting older we seem to be moving on to a new phase. We have purchased most of the Disney/Pixar movies as they have come out ... Finding Nemo, Cars, Monsters, Inc., etc., and the girls have enjoyed them. Cougar *LOVES* them!!!! I have gotten to hear/watch Cars, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc., more times than I could count! Oh, and Toy Story ... don't get me started on Toy Story!! Their newest film, Up, came out on DVD today and I went to Target very first thing to pick it up. We actually saw it in the theater and I absolutely loved it!! I am not an emotional movie watcher (or person, for that matter) and almost had to get out my kleenex. We curled up on the couch as a family to watch it today and sweet Kendyl had tears streaming down her cheeks!! I am grateful to the brains behind Disney/Pixar for telling such amazing stories and helping me and my kiddos enjoy more time together.
I find it impossible to believe there is anyone reading this that would say that Target is NOT on the list of things they are grateful for!! Where would I find the perfect shirt (for under $15) when I need a little pick-me-up? Where would I find the latest in treat offerings? Where would I wander the aisles aimlessly without children just basking in the wonders that I behold? There are few places where I could easily drop $20+ ... in the dollar spot ;) I *heart* Target!!!
