Raising kids, it's good therapy!

Okay, have you ever noticed that raising kids is like going through therapy?  I've been thinking about this alot lately. It seems that when the kids were young I constantly thought about how I reacted so much like one or the other of my parents in each situation that I handled and it forced me to make conscious choices and to set goals about how I would do things differently with them.  I learned so much about children and about what shapes their character and who they become.  I also learned that each of my children had such different personalities and abilities and gifts and that so much of who they turned out to be would depend on what we did with each of these characteristics.  I learned so much about myself and what kind of child I was and what had shaped me.

Now that my children are so much older and they are growing into adults, it's happening again.  It is so therapeutic for me.  I dont know why.  Probably because I am able to advise them on how to handle their choices better than I did.  My kids are so much more wise and on the ball than I was at their ages.  Yet I can see myself in each one of them.  It is so satisfying as we analyze together each situation and I feel this weight lifted from the "what ifs" of my past life.  And I am blessed with the vision of the "whys" and "why nots".  It is very freeing and awesome to see so clearly now what the Lord really had in store for me all along. 

I love my kids more than anything in this world.  They are everything I dreamed they would be and more.  They inspire me to be a better person.  I am so blessed to have been chosen to be their mother.  What an awesome privilege!  The Lord's plan is so perfect and all encompassing. 


"Still learning about myself"!

Nelson = Hopeless Romantic

So, lately I've been dealing with some matters of the heart with one of my children.  It has taken me back to those days and I've been doing a lot of reminising of past relationships I had when I was his age.  But what is funny is that as I look at each of my children and at My Man and I, I can see so clearly what a bunch of Hopeless Romatics we all are. 

My Man cracks me up because he will preach and preach to the kids about dating and not getting caught up in one person too soon. Which is great advice.  But, when it comes right down to it, he is the first person to fall in love with any of the kids' "love interests" that they might bring home.  He said to me not too long ago after one of our sons ended a relationship that he was in, "Honey, I dont think he should bring anymore girls home to meet us, because this is too hard".  I totally got him!  I really did.  That's the sad truth about it all.  Even Michael said to me the other day, "I swear I cant help it, I take after you and Dad, I'm so impatient I cant wait to fall in love".

Well, it's so true.  Nelson = Hopeless Romantic.  I do love that about my boys though.  They will each make wonderful husbands because they love with all their hearts and so very deeply.  My Man and I fell in love so quickly and we couldn't wait to be together forever.  We preach to the boys to be patient and not to rush things but then when you look at us, after 3 dates we knew we were hooked and there was no turning back!

 I have to admitt it is a bit heart wrenching going thru the process of watching our oldest date and break up and learn and grow as he is seeking to find that special someone whom he will spend the rest of his life with.  Hopefully he will soon find that special someone and my heart can take a break!  Love sure can be a roller coaster ride!

"Still a hopeless romantic"!

Maybe I'm Amazed From Joyful Noise With Lyrics Featuring Jeremy Jordan

Recently saw this movie "Joyful Noise".  One of the best movies I've seen in a long time.  I always love this kind of a musical.  Awesome one of a kind song!  Listen and enjoy!

"Still enjoying good music"!

Organization and Mom

So, Mom is staying with me for a couple of months this summer.  She has recently moved back to Utah and two of my sisters and I are sharing her.  It's been fun having her here.  I feel badly leaving her at home every day while I go to work but when I come home I am usually pleasantly surprised by my clean, tidy, well put together home.  My laundry is done, my house is clean and if I leave instructions on dinner, that is done too.  I think she is trying to spoil me so that I wont want her to leave.  My sister Regina said she did the same for her when she was at her house and now she is suffering  having to do her own dishes again!  Ha Ha!  Anyway, it has been a great blessing having her here.

Since we moved into our new house,  I have not been able to get a whole lot done since it seems I am usually playing catch up on the cleaning each weekend and that's about all I have time for.  However, since Mom has been here, I have been able to get some of the organizing done in my home that I have desperately been wanting to do.  Some people like to spend their time decorating their home.  My passion is organization!  I love it!  I can get pretty carried away if you give me too much time and a little bit of money.  But i sure have been enjoying it!  With Mom taking care of the basics during the week, I get to come home and just organize til my little hear it content!  Unfortunately we have a lot of areas that need help in this department so I'll be busy for a while.  Luckily, I have 2 months before my house falls apart again without Mom here.  Mom will leave for Theresa's in August and then she will be back in December so I will have a 4 month lapse of time where I will not be able to be so attentive to my organizing obsession!  So, for now I will just enjoy.

But today we took a break and went out to Thanksgiving Pointe and attended the Rose Festival.  It was a beautiful summer day and Mom and I just enjoyed the out doors and the beautiful scenery.  We had our girl time together walking around the garden and having lunch together.  When I heard they were having a "Rose Festival", I just knew I had to take my "Rose"!

49 ....... and almost 50!

Happy Birthday to me!  Today I am 49 years old or young!  I mean really if you think about it 49 is a very special age.  I'd like to live til I'm 100 so I guess it's almost half my life!  So, I guess I can finally transition into adulthood once and for all because I KNOW there's no turning back now!

I like being this age.  I like it because it turned out to be better than I thought it would be when I was younger and thinking what it would be like to be this old.  I dont feel a whole lot different than I did 20 years ago.  I've learned a lot about myself and about life.  I've been through a few experiences now and I've had my share of ups and downs.  But I still feel like I have so much further to go!  It's almost as if I am starting my second phase of life.  The part where you are now actually the person that you really want to be.  The part where you get to really show your true colors.  The part where you better take a hold of your life and do all the things that you always said you would do someday.  So, here's to being 49!
Ready or not here I come!

Guess What?

Guess what?  I'm not 16, or 17, or 18 anymore!  Yah, I know it was a shock to me too!  I sometimes feel like I am still that young girl I was so many years ago.  I know it is somewhat pathetic...okay, okay, very pathetic!  But, seriously, I think it has finally sunk in!  The fact that I need to do things differnetly in my life at THIS age, is finally becoming a reality! And guess what?  It feels pretty good.  I am motivated and determined to do some things differently than I have been in order to live a more full and enjoyable life at the ripe old age of 48...soon to be 49!  Whew!  That was close huh?  50 is right around the corner now.....literally...just one more year.  So, my plan is that when I am 50 I will wake up the morning of and say to myself...."yes!  I did it!  I finally started acting my age"!

Making sense of my happily ever after.....

Do you ever sit and wonder if you had made this choice different or that choice different what your life would have been like today?  I think I have done this quite a lot since my 40's came around.  Probabaly because of different trials I have had in the last several years.  Wondering if I had done this or that differently would I be having these trials? 

Then this past weekend I attended a women's conference and performance where I heard the gospel taught by word and song.  It was a performance by a group called Mercy River. It was during this performance that was so uplifting that I heard something said that hit me so hard.  I guess when you are ready to hear something that you really need to hear is when you really get it as if it was the first time you heard it.  One of the girls said she had heard a speaker once say that it was important to teach young women that when we get married to the right person in the right place by the right authority, it is not gonna be all "Happily Ever After.  We will continue to have trials in our lives". He then said, "The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain, it is resource in the event of pain".  Wow!  So, this quote really got me thinking a lot!
In fact I started thinking to myself..."Duh.  What did you think?  That because you started off your married life on the right foot, that you were not gonna have any more trials in your life"?  I then realized how silly I sounded.  In fact I then realized that trials are trials because they are difficult for us.  My particular trials may not seem difficult or hard to another person, that's what makes them "my trials"....because they are difficult for me.  And we all know that none of us will escape this life without them.  That is the reason we are here. 

Now, we may have traded a certain set of trials for another depending on the particular choices we made and continue to make in this life but, they will still seem hard and difficult, because they are meant to be, how else will we learn to depend and lean on our Savior?  Our need for his atonement and our dependance on him is what we are here to learn.  So, now my "Happily Ever After" makes perfect sense!