April 30, 2012

I've started focusing on praying for each kid on their own day again.  I feel like I can concentrate better and receive more answers for them that way.  So today is Danny's day.  I started praying for him and all that would come out was asking to give him opportunities to rely on the Spirit and recognize what is really important.  I tried a couple of times to back off and rephrase things so I could ask for blessings for him, but not really anything too hard.  But I couldn't. I tried three times and different words came out, but the same meaning.  And I remembered Danny's father's blessing from the start of the school year. It said "You will be able to listen to the Spirit and recognize it. The Spirit will help you when your safety is at risk."  I remember that scaring me last fall.  I need to make sure Danny is ready when he needs the Spirit. I'm going to make sure he's saying meaningful personal prayers and at least reading one verse a day on his own.

April 29, 2012

Bob came home with us today.  And he sat with us in church. It was so nice. And he was just called as the Cub Master.

We went camping this weekend at Valley of Fire--our regular camping trip. We had hot dogs and smores and donuts.  So easy.  The weather was perfect.  I love it because as soon as we get there, the kids are all best friends.  They play and climb and help each other. Dreamy. Ruby didn't love it as much as I thought she would.  Maybe because all the other kids would leave and climb and she was stuck with me and Bob most of the time. We came back Saturday morning in time for tennis and two baseball games.

This week, after finding out last week that we don't need to have more kids, I can barely remember how hard it was when Ruby was a baby.  That was so strong in my mind as I thought about having more kids.  But, now for whatever reason, that's gone.

April 22, 2012

I just took Ruby to the ER this morning during sacrament meeting.  She tripped on the hose in the grass and cut her forehead really bad.  Luckily they could glue it so that should give us the best chance of minimal scarring.  Poor little girl. She also fell down the stairs this week.  She was fine, though.  She's just going through a clumsy stage I guess.

Bob got released from the bishopric today. I missed it because I was at the hospital.  I'm sad I missed his testimony. But it'll be nice to have him with us on Sundays again. 

I sewed a dress for Ruby this week.  It was so much faster than the Easter dresses.  It just took an hour or two.

I started a new class at the gym.  It's a strength training class and I took Ruby and Seth to the gym with me.  They did pretty well there.  Ruby cried a little. Hopefully they'll start liking it more because I'd like to do the class.

I don't think I've been doing my best to serve my family and others. I feel like I've been a little out of control and crazy.  I just can't keep up and instead of stopping and regrouping, I just keep going but not fully succeeding.  So I'm trying to get my feet under myself better.  Our budget has been doing better since our meeting last week.  My perspective on it is better.  I need to do that with my whole life.  So I ready my patriarchal blessing and here are some of the things I came up with.

“The Lord has blessed you with gifts and talents that He expects you to develop and to use in furthering His work. Continue to study and through prayer and through righteous living you will be strengthened where you will be able to fulfill the purpose the Lord has for you. I bless you that you will recognize and know what the Lord expects of you.By following the promptings of the Holy Ghost that will come to you, you will be guided and directed in all things.”

What are my gifts and talents:

• fairly good at accomplishing things
• good at talking and listening one on one
• I have a nice home that is great for entertaining/swim parties

Ideas for things to work on/how to serve:

• Hang out with Erica more. Invite her to church things
• Talk to Sandy and May more. Bring up gospel things
• Help Kata more, have kids over
• Start sewing group. Invite lots of ladies. Joan Faircloth, Jan LaVoie

Things I can do for my family:

• Weekly dates with Bob (Quarterly nights out/trade off with Deans?)
• Start back to praying for family member everyday and looking for direction, keep record
• Put more effort into foods in our house and better nutrition/snacks for all of us
• Pray before talking to kids at night

April 18, 2012

Something I relearned in the temple last week was how much of this life is our choice.  I think I get so caught up in wanting to follow his plan for me that I assume it's all laid out just waiting for me to be obedient.  But I remembered it isn't like that.  He knows me well enough that he knows what I'll choose, probably.  And there are times when my choice isn't what's best for me and He'll let me know that.  But I get to choose and He wants me to choose.  The strongest times I've learned that are when I decided to marry Bob and last week, deciding I want to be done having babies. Those were such big choices I didn't want to be wrong so I started out waiting for the Lord to tell me what to do.  But the answer didn't come because I hadn't chosen what I wanted yet. I'm so thankful for that reminder last week.  This is my life and my test.  Heavenly Father will help me make good choices, but they are all my choices to make.

April 15, 2012

Bob and I went to the temple on Thursday.  We fasted that day and going into the temple we both felt like it was ok for us to be done having babies and we should focus on raising and teaching the kids we have.  That was confirmed for us in the temple.  It's a little sad to think about not having babies in the house, but even if we had one more, it would still come to an end at some point.  But I just need to focus on this amazing ride with my kids. It continues to change, but every stage is new and better in some way. And it's kind of exciting to think about not having to take care of a time-intensive baby or to be able to go places and walk in next to my kids instead of carrying my kids.

In preparing to go to the temple I read through my journals from when Bob and I dated.  That helped me a lot.  It helped me remember I need to be better at researching my choice and then making a decision.  I want to do what the Lord wants me to so badly that lots of time I try to just wait for Him to tell me what to do.

We had a good Spring Break.  It wasn't warm enough to swim, but it was nice.  We went to the Springs Preserve, Flip n Out, Ward Easter Party, we made crafts and rented several movies. My parents went to Casey's for Easter, but they stopped quickly at our house on either side of their visit.  It was nice to see them.

I got the girls' easter dresses and my skirt made in time.  I was going to make the boys some ties, but I ran out of time so I just bought them matching ties.  It was so fun to see my girls in the dresses I made.  I was really happy with the way they turned out.

I've still been having a hard time staying on budget.  So Bob and I had a financial meeting for one of our dates this weekend.  It was good to talk over everything with him.  I think one thing that is making it harder for me to save money is that I'm so busy, so rather than spend the time to think about whether or not to buy something, I just buy it.  So Bob and I set the budget and Bob also came up with a great incentive for me to do better.  Every month when I stay at least within 20% of our budget, Bob will stay home on a Friday instead of going to his second job and I get that whole day to do whatever I want.  I think that sounds awesome. I think that will help motivate me a ton!

My mom is going to watch the kids for us for a week in July so we can go on our late 10 year anniversary trip.  We were going to go to New York.  But it's going to be so hot and humid in July and it was going to take so much time to research everything and plan what we wanted to do, that I think we're just going to go on a caribbean cruise instead. I'm really excited about that.

April 1, 2012

Last weekend we went to Ryan and Venessa's for Phebe's blessing.  We left Thursday night.  Friday we went to the beach. It was cold, but the kids still had so much fun. We played basketball at their HOA.  I went to see the Hunger Games movie and went shopping with my mom and Kristal. I got the girls easter dresses done barely in time, so my mom got to see them.

I'm kind of freaking out. I decided this conference I'd be looking for guidance about whether we should have another baby or not.  Both of us would really like to be done, but my concern is mostly the experience I had back in July.  So I was hoping for a talk that said something about children.  But then the entire first session on Saturday was about children and sacrifice and trials.  I talked to Bob about it and he pretty much said no way. but then he agreed that we need to find out what the Lord wants us to do.  I think I'm going to ask him to fast and pray with me this week and go to the temple.  I really hope if we're supposed to have another one that he'll get a strong confirmation of that.  Because I've really been the one making the decision every time we have a baby. And Bob is great to just go along.  But it would be nice if I don't have to do that this time.

 Seth doesn't need to get tubes in his ears.  I got him retested and they said there isn't any fluid.  And his speech has gotten so much better over the last couple of months.  There are a few things he says wrong just because he used to say it that way, but if I reteach him he can say it correctly.  He's mostly just missing the th sound now.  I'm happy he's doing so well.

This week is Spring Break.  I have lots of activities and crafts planned to keep the kids happy and entertained, especially because the Deans are out of town this week.  Hopefully there will be minimal fighting this week.