Fabulous Five Friday

Five Fabulous Reasons why my Husband is AMAZING!:

5. A Good Outlook on Life.  No matter what the situation is, Drew changes what needs to be changed and accepts what cannot be changed.  He works long and hard at helping us to be where we need to be as a family to live the gospel as fully as possible.
4. Thoughtful and Kind.  Drew often thinks of what I would want and asks me how I want to do something.  He seeks out my opinion, even though I have trouble giving him one, many times.  He is always respectful in how he discusses things with me, especially if the topic is sensitive.
3.  Patient. Living life with me and nine children, you would have to develop patience if you did not already possess it.  Luckily for all of us, Drew is so very patient with our weaknesses and shortcomings.  Thanks Dear....we all need it!
2. A Testimony of the Gospel and a Firm Faith in Christ. Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for the leadership Drew continuously showers upon our family.  Our children understand the gospel.  They have a testimony of Jesus Christ and are learning how to apply His principles in their lives.  They are becoming wonderful and amazing people who are not afraid of sharing their talents and their testimony.  They are learning how to lead.  Most of that knowledge comes from their father.  Thank you for being their father and so very concerned with who they are and where they are going!!

And the #1 reason my husband is AMAZING:
He is my bestest friend in the whole, wide world!!  I could not do what I do without you.  You are my rock, my friend, my confidant, my sweetheart.  Thank you for always being there!  Love you always!!  ME!  

Five Things for Friday...Women in the Scriptures 

Teenagers with AMAZING music choices!!

Jacob has amazing music choices.  I love, love, love all of the music Jacob brings home....listen to his most recent music choices:

See??? Amazing!  I love having a teenager who loves, really loves and appreciates AWESOME music!  Way to go Jacob!  (He first introduced me to Michael Buble!!)

Brainiacs!!

Check this out:

This has been on our white board for three days.  I THOUGHT Darren was helping Jacob with his math.  Instead he was just doing some of his own homework on the board.  But I am so grateful for boys who can do math!!  But truth be told, both Darren and Johnathan are math brainiacs!  They have been able to help tutor those kids who are beyond the things I can remember.  I can't wait until Jacob takes over as math braniac #1.  (And I am so very glad that I do not have to remember Calculus!!  Because I cannot even remember trig.)  But I can still do Algebra. :-) 

My Missionaries!!

I am grateful to have two full-time worthy sons who are serving faithfully!!

Yes...the one with the funny face is mine.  They are amazing and I love them very much!!  Way to go guys!

6 PM!!

What can I say???  My baby goes to bed every night by about 6 p.m.  Before the time change it was 7.  Now it is 6.  He nurses, falls asleep, and I put him down.  Usually he wakes up about 10-20 minutes later.  Nurses again and is out for the night.....well, until midnight.  But from 6 p.m. on, he sleeps and nurses and sleeps and nurses.  Of course, that does mean that he is usually up by 5:30 a.m. and never later than 6.  But after 12 difficult hours without being able to put him down, for the most part, I get a few hours in the evening and decent sleep all night.  Will that continue when the teeth come in??  That remains to be seen.

And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the Mohawk!  Love it!

I am Grateful Hair Grows

Smiley's teacher gave him a pair of scissors for his very own.  He was so excited!!  This was his first project:

Luckily, a razor can do wonders....but we still have to wait a little for things to grow in:

Gratitude

My girlfriend has been posting something she is grateful for everyday this month!  It is a fabulous idea and I know she has had a particularly difficult week.  So with the tone of the previous post, I decided that I also needed to "Count my many Blessings"!!  So, I don't know if I will post them all at one time or just a few here and there.  But I came up with lots just last night....  Here is my starter:

I thought I put up 22 pints of applesauce....all from free apples.  I was so very, very excited.  Well, only 4 of the jars sealed.  The rest had to be thrown away because by the time I found them, they had fermented.  Why am I grateful for that??  Because I found them before they exploded in the cupboard!!  That would have been so ugly and disgusting.  I just had to dump them down the drain....  Next time, I'll just freeze them.  PS The last four are in the fridge.....just in case!

Struggling. . . . . . .

This is where I am right now in so very many aspects of my life.  Every once in a while I think I finally have a handle on things.  Then I am quickly reminded that I am nowhere near close.  I think that is one of the reasons we have had another baby.  I was finally getting to the place where my house was mostly clean, most of the time; the children were all reading, almost all bike riding, mostly swimming.  I could always shower.  The laundry was caught up.  I even would make the children clean their rooms once in a while and scrub mold out of windows and off of walls.  And on very few occasions, I was even out in the garden and doing yard work.  All of that is out of the window and I am constantly struggling.  Spencer reminds me that he asked me to wash his socks two days ago because he doesn’t have any clean.  The breakfast dishes don’t get done until I am trying to cook dinner.  Part of my brain fog this week is that I am sick….but still plugging on.  I do not take enough time to process my emotions because I am so busy trying to run our household.  At these moments I just think, why??  Why??  Why do I have to be back in this place??  Didn’t I do a good enough job the first time?  Haven’t I done this enough?  Why do I have to do it again?  I thought this was over.

Well, in the very quiet moments, I know why.  It is because only in this place do I really turn my entire self to God.  It is because I really, truly cannot manage this on my own and I plead for help and I plead for strength and I beg for release.  Because it is only when there is too much for me to manage, too much for me to stuff, too much of everyone and everything that I really open my heart and rely on the Atonement.  Having a baby puts me there.  It is the sheer physical exhaustion and the demand it creates when I just don’t have the energy to stuff it all inside, put my head down and keep working.

The REAL question is WHY do I have to be in this place BEFORE I turn it all over.  WHY don’t I do it sooner?  I am so very arrogant sometimes to feel so in control.  I am a CONTROL FREAK!!  And now I need to go and take care of some of those beautiful little people the Lord has sent to remind me that I am not in control…..now or ever!