FFF#25--Confessions of a Crazy Mother

I am sitting in relative quiet for just a few moments as I scribble this out on the computer screen.  All of my children are home, in one place, at one time.  My head is spinning.  I cannot believe these are all my babies.  Having them all under one roof, all of that testosterone, hormones, relationship issues, Holy Cow!  I love them all, each one independent of the others, but managing their feelings about the other relationships they have with each other and being each one's sounding board, Geesh!  It is almost more than one mother can bear!

copyright: Karen Larsen photography

Three of them rode home from Utah together for the weekend for Richard and Dani's wedding.  (I will post about that next week......too much going on today and this weekend to report about that.)  But the 16 hours in the car of the three of them together, young adults who do not see eye to eye and who are all sensitive about the feelings of the others---our entire trip for the wedding was spent helping that little group to manage their 16 hour drive.

Now, we are having the new young adults struggling with the counsel and advice they are receiving from the older young adults and those frustrations.  I am so grateful we are only all together for two days :-)

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

I know this is part of life and each of us has struggles with our own relationships and families.  And I have been working with people long enough to know that I am not responsible for their relationships with each other.  It is not my job.  But I do have to listen to each one as they express their frustrations about the others and then figure out how to give which counsel that might be helpful and received.  I love them all, dearly, but it is no wonder that I am 60 pounds overweight---I have had to learn to not take their stresses into my own self and allow it to affect how I live and feel.  That my blogging friends, is a lot easier said than done.

We picked up 1000 pounds of wheat at the storehouse yesterday since we were in town.  Just loading the wheat with those oldest four adults, there was a little bit of drama.  Can I just tell you that there is one of us who causes so much more drama than the rest?  He is not terribly wrong, but he is not always right either.  But he is really good at letting others know that he does not agree and is frustrated--which makes all of us so happy!  ugh!

Currently, half of them have run down to the church to play ball for an hour before we have to set up for the reception.  I cannot even imagine how things will go when we are actually doing this for one of the boys as opposed to one of their friends.  I am thinking the emotions will run just a little higher, especially when it is that one son's turn!

OK.  I think that is enough of my emotional ranting.  I just needed to dump it before I ate it :-)

I really do enjoy having them here and I do love them, each and every one of them with their unique personalities, talents, gifts, feelings and emotions.  I cannot even imagine what the future will hold as they get married and begin raising children!  Wow!  So many people, feelings, and emotions!!  I am going to have to come up with a catch word phrase I use for when people come to me and dump their emotional drama.  Maybe it will just be, "And what do you plan on changing about yourself so things are working better in that relationship?"  Although it needs to be a little shorter than that.  I'll try and figure it out.

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

Anyway, thanks for listening.  Enjoy reading this over and over so you can know that my life is just as normal and difficult as yours :-)  Because we each have our own drama and battles to fight, unique to us and to our spiritual development.  As we pray, read our scriptures, and petition our God for help, He will help us.  He knows each of us and our personal circumstances and resources.  He knows what is available to help us---all of us regardless of our religion, nationality, or the color of our skin.  He loves us all.  We are all His and He wants all of us to return.  Just start today.  Pray to Him and ask for His blessings and His help.  He is there and available.  I just don't know how He can do that for all of us.  I am struggling with 10 of us.  But I know He can and He does.

Have a great weekend!!  We have a family dinner, family photos, and a wedding reception on tap for us!

I'll report more later, when I have more time and fewer people :-)

Highlights from Camp

This isn't all of us!!  We are missing our YCL (youth camp leader) and our other cabin leader (adult) from the photo.  We took it as a surprise for our other cabin leader and our YCL just happen to be off taking care of some other certifications.

But you can see how beautiful our camp site is!  Behind the trees is the lake.  It is gorgeous!  Love it there!!  Girls' Camp for me has always been in the Redwood trees.  As a girl, it was in Oregon on the coast.  Here in California, we travel to Oregon :-)

The first major success of camp was throwing our skit together.  We arrived on Tuesday by 1p.m.  Our cabin had a skit that night.  We came to camp with nothing and had to perform that evening.  With a bunch of people who don't really know each other, that was a major feat!  The girls rallied together, threw their ideas out there, and between our cabin value color and our princess (we were Pocahontas) we managed to make something happen.  And the girls chose who played which parts and made adjustments when those things weren't working out.  Whew!

Also, Sun sang a solo at camp on Tuesday night.  She did an amazing job!  It is so fun to watch her perform!  She is developing a major stage presence and she knows how to communicate with her audience.  I had more than one person (adults and youth) compliment Sun to me on how amazing her voice is and how well she manages the stage.  It is so fun to watch her grow!!  One of the men at camp commented during campfire one night, how he sat and just sobbed listening to her sing because he knows and has worked with her brothers and how neat it is to see her find something that none of them have.  It was super sweet as he admitted that to the entire camp!

On Wednesday night, as it was getting time for personal scripture study, one of our two other denomination girls asked her friend, "What is scripture study and how do I do it?"  I took that as my cue to go over the Introduction to the Book of Mormon with her and our other non-denominational girl who was sitting with them.  We just went through the photos in the blue Book of Mormon and outlined the story.  Here are the photos:

You can totally explain the entire book using these photos.  It is a book about Jesus Christ (photo #1).  In 1823, a young boy, Joseph Smith (photo #2), was lead to find a record of an ancient people.  The book tells the history of a family whose father preached in Jerusalem (photo #3).  Because of the message he gave, his life was in danger and the Lord told him to flee Jerusalem.  He packed up his family and traveled south.  They eventually arrived on the sea shore, where they built a boat and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in South America (photo #4).  The older brothers made bad choices (Lamanites).  The younger brothers made righteous choices (Nephites).  Because of the disagreements in the family, when the father died, the families split apart beginning the rise of two separate nations, who continually warred with one another.  This book, is a record of those people.  As the civilization progressed, sometimes they followed their prophets and softened their hearts and fulfilled their responsibilities to God, like being baptized (photo #5).  Other times, they did not.  Prophets were sent to preach to them and instead of obeying the prophets, they tried to kill them.  Samuel the Lamanite (photo #6) was actually sent to the Nephites to convince them to repent before the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ.  Just after Samuel preached, and after His resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to the Nephite people (photo #7).  You can read about His visit in 3rd Nephi 12.  Four generations after Christ appeared to them, the civilization once again turned to the natural man.  They would not listen to the prophets.  Mormon was commanded of the Lord to go through the records of his people and compile the most important ones into the book which bears his name, the Book of Mormon.  Mormon then handed the record to his son, Moroni (photo #8).  Moroni witnessed the destruction of his entire civilization, but before he died, he buried the record and prayed that those records would be preserved and others would know and learn of his people.  In 1823, it was Moroni who appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about the record and where it was located.

This is the story we shared with our non member friends at camp.  Both of them were deeply moved.  We then talked about their feelings and helped them to recognize that the feelings they were experiencing were from the Spirit witnessing to them the truth of what we had told them.  It was a very beautiful moment!

If you are feeling that same warmth as you have read this explanation, I would invite you to read the Book of Mormon too.  I have read it and can testify to you of its truthfulness.  I love that record!  I love the men who wrote it and kept it and made it available to us today!  It is the word of God and it testifies of His son, even Jesus Christ!

And that my friends, is why we have camp.  That we can bring the souls of these girls to Jesus Christ and remind them of the many and great things He has done for them.  Some of them do not even know.  Camp is their first exposure!

Read it!  Read the Book.  It will change your life, if you let it :-)

Girls' Camp 2015 reflections

I am not sure what I want this post to say or express, so I am just going to ramble a bit and see how it all turns out.

When I arrived at camp, I felt like I did not belong there which is very strange for me because I love camp and feel comfortable most places, especially at my regular stake girls' camp place.  But this year, it felt different.  Like I was allowed to come, but I wasn't really suppose to be there.  Part of it, I am sure, is because there has been a change in leadership, both in the stake young women's presidency and the camp director. 

Oh my goodness!!  This was totally our theme this year...we were all princesses!

Referencing this talk!

I haven't been to camp in four years.  The exact term of service of the previous stake young women's president.  The currently called stake yw president, served in various capacities with me at previous camps, she loves me, and considers me a sister.  I know I got the call this year, because she changed things up a bit and then was short several leaders and she needed to call in people she could trust on a short notice.  Which is why I was called on Saturday for camp on Tuesday.

The emphasis for the theme and what they were trying to help the girls understand this year was very different doctrinally from where it has been in the past. (Which is fine, it just may have contributed to my feelings that I didn't belong there.  That feeling didn't persist, though.  By the end of the week, I felt like I did belong there and my calling wasn't necessarily one of desperation.)

I kind of felt like my four years of not attending camp was Heavenly Father's way of helping me not to get too attached to the idea of serving at camp and to help me distance my heart from that calling.  Once I was there, I got to return one time to enjoy it, say thank you, be at camp with my daughter, and say good-bye.  I really do not think I will be able to go back.  My husband thinks that is absolutely nuts because of who the stake yw president is and how she feels about me.  I know those feelings are true, and I know of her great love for me, but I did feel I was there to say good-bye.  Which I did.  And if I am called to camp again, then I will simply shout for joy, pack my stuff and serve with all my heart.  But I really don't think that is what will happen.

Unfortunately, I do not have very many photos.  It was a no cell phone week.  Since my only camera is on my cell phone, no photos.  I got special permission to pull it out and snap a few of our cabin because we were putting together a special project for my co-cabin leader.  I will post those later this week.

Remember this week will be super busy for me, so I will try to keep things posting, but it may not happen.  I am giving myself permission to sporadically post.  But I will try to post the highlights of girls' camp over this week, and then blog about the wedding/family stuff next week.

And even though we exercised like crazy because of all the walking and activities we did, I think I still gained weight at camp.  They feed us like crazy!!  So I have to put those things back into order also.  I haven't dared to step on the scale yet.  But I can just tell from my shape that I gained weight.  Lovely.

I've already expressed how I feel about camp in another post.....here.   But I have to tell you the sweetest story.  One of my girl friends who has been serving at camp for the past 13 years, was super excited that I was called this year.  Last Sunday, she caught my husband in between wards, because she is in the other one, and told him, "Hey thanks for letting your wife attend camp this year!"  To which my husband apparently replied, "Jackie, there wasn't another choice.  If I said no, I would have to sleep with one eye open all the time!"  Wasn't that cute?  It made me feel loved to know he knew how important camp is to me and how much I love it!

Heading home from camp

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Saturday morning, my kiddos and I went off to clean the church building because it was our turn.  We returned home from straightening, vacuuming and dusting the chapel to find our High Councilor sitting in the living room with Drew.

I, of course, looked absolutely lovely, unshowered, hair in a pony-tail, yesterday's clothing on.  Of course, he was there to see me.

He extended the assignment for me to serve at our stake's girls' camp this year!   That was totally exciting!!  The only issue was that camp started on Tuesday, as in that's where I have been this week.  So I threw things together, cancelled the dentists appointments we had scheduled this week, went grocery shopping for the kids while I was gone and rushed together planning for a vacation/camping trip.  Which is great and was a tons of fun, but there was a lot of planning to squeeze into no days so that things were comfortable for the boys here at home.  I guess they figured it out.

So I should be on my way home pretty soon, and then I can catch you up on our exciting week!!  Hopefully I won't have to be doing too much 4 year old triage!!

This next week is super busy, so blogging may be a little sketchy too.  Richard and Dani are getting married on Thursday, meaning Slim, Tams, and Spanky are coming home and Spike Spike has a birthday this week, plus family photos in between the wedding and the reception.  Yep. It's going to be nuts.  Ah good times!  But we are all here and accounted for.  We will see if I am still alive when it is all over.  (Then it is time to jump into seminary---sheesh!)

Taking the week off.

copyright: Karen Larsen photography

 
Just FYI, I am taking the week off of blogging.  I will explain next week!!  Have a wonderful week!  Read over the General Conference Messages if you need some inspiration!!