Mother's Day, Part I

Addie, January 2005, 5 weeks old

As addressed to mother's of young children:

“These are golden years for you. These are years you will probably do the most important work of your lives. Don’t wish away your years of caring for small children. Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. This is a time of great opportunity for you to build the kingdom. When you teach children to love their Heavenly Father, you have done one of the greatest things you will ever do.”

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful it's Thursday because it means I'm only about 3 days away from my two weeks of stress being over! Thanks again to Tib for the banner.

1. I'm thankful for a good husband. Last night all the stress/overload of the past few weeks came to a head, and I cried it all out. Pat was there the whole time, and when I offered to go to the couch so my sobs wouldn't keep him up, he just held me tighter until I was done. And then he called this morning to see how I was doing. And when I talked to him tonight he suggested we grab a bite to eat and take it to the park to let the kids play. It was just what the doctor ordered. I'm grateful he's in tune with my needs.

2. I'm grateful for support of friends and family. Monday's party was a success, but it wouldn't have been without Pat's dad coming to help us landscape over the past few weeks. Or his mom coming to help me shred pork for the pork tacos. Or my sister-in-law making the lime bundt cakes so I had one less thing on my list. Or my friend Candis for pulling out her event-planning skills and helping to decorate and pull together all the details. I feel like in the current stage of my life I don't have tons of friends as I have in days gone by, but the ones I have are high quality. I am thankful for a support system.

3. I'm thankful for my new calling. As overwhelmed as I've been, I keep recalling parts of the blessings we received while being set apart, and I know we are all where we're supposed to be. I have never been in a presidency without experiencing tremendous amounts of growth and blessings, even though it's hard. I'm grateful to know that I'm in for a lot of hard work, but a lot of growth.

4. I'm grateful for my beautiful kids. Part of last night's breakdown included my annual feeling like I'm not a good mom cry. The responsibilities are so great. It's a hard job. It's a task I rarely feel equal to. As I've been reading to prepare for my talk this Sunday, I've almost felt worse realizing all the ways I'm "failing." But in my heart I know that I don't have to be perfect to be a good mom. And I know that if I'm trying the Lord will magnify my efforts. And I'm blessed to know that my kids still love me even when I think I'm not doing a good job. And Addie tells me she loves me. And Sam hugs me. That's all I need.

5. I'm grateful that our backyard is so close to being done, or at least as done as it may get this year. It looks so nice! I actually want to spend time there. Seeing the slew of kids running around Monday night reminded me that all the hard work was worth it. Kids need a place to just run around. The world is a beautiful place, and we can create our own beautiful places in the world. What a blessing!

6. I'm grateful for the opportunity to attend two sealings this weekend. To see two sweet friends begin on this beautiful journey to an eternal family. To remember my own sealing almost 6 years ago, and to be in the temple with my eternal companion. To feel the peace that will most assuredly be there.

Cinco de Mayo+2 days

Sorry it's taken me a while to get to my Cinco de Mayo post, but I was busy Monday, and I spent most of yesterday recovering! We threw a Cinco de Mayo/going away party for some friends of ours along with a crowd of people from the ward. We had about 30 friends here, and it turned out great! The food was delish, the decor was perfect (thanks Candis), the pinata was a hit, the red carnations on the tables livened things up, and the company couldn't be beat. I'll post a couple of recipes soon from the night- totally delish.

I'm off to start another busy day. I have not been sleeping well thinking about all of the details I've got going on. We had another presidency meeting last night and I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed right now. I can't believe it's already Wednesday!!!

Being a Home MAKER

Today the lesson I taught in Relief Society was on being a home MAKER, not a homemaker, and how we contribute to the atmosphere in our home. We talked about the qualities of the temple and how we can work to make our homes have more of those qualities. We talked about the Lord's blueprints for house building with this as the foundation for our homes, and these qualities to be contained in our homes. Our homes should be beautiful, inviting, inspiring places to be. I found some fantastic quotes, especially a few great resources of old women's conference talks by Truman and Ann Madsen. This was one of my faves.

"All the things we say, the prayers we offer, the blessings that are given, the feelings we experience- both good and bad- accumulate in our homes and are felt by those who come there. We add something to the sum each day. That's a sobering thought."
-Truman Madsen, "House of Glory, House of Light, House of Love"

It is a sobering thought! I think I'm going to be much more mindful of the atmosphere I'm creating in my home. I am making it. Every day. It's an awesome responsibility. And an awesome privilege. This quote will also help me focus on the end goal.

"In the latter days there will be a people so pure in Mount Zion, with a house established in the tops of the mountains, that God will manifest himself, not only in their temple . . . but when they retire to their [homes], behold each [home] will be lighted up by the glory of God, a pillar of flaming fire by night."
-Orson Pratt as quoted by Truman Madsen, "House of Glory, House of Light, House of Love"

It was a good lesson with a lot of discussion. After Relief Society, one of the most unapproachable sisters came up to me and gave one of the sweetest and most sincere compliments I've ever received. She told me "I am just in awe of you. Your well is overflowing." Even now, typing that hours after she said it, I'm full of emotion. My well IS overflowing. Overflowing with the blessings of the gospel. With testimony. With love. And I am so blessed.

[temple picture found here- I think I may need this one for my house!]

Do you hear it?

That huge sigh of relief? I've survived the busiest patch, I think. This week will still be busy, but I think I've made it through over half of the agenda items I'd posted about which is a great feeling! As the bishop said to me today when he realized I was holding down the Relief Society fort, "we knew you could do it- strap it on and plow through." That's pretty much how it's been, but I've felt uplifted and strengthened by those around me, and it's been nice to feel so much support. Some things just don't happen (like the Enrichment activity yesterday- I just didn't make it), and I've had to let it go- something I'm working on. Our backyard is starting to shape up some after a busy day of planting yesterday- hooray! My lesson today went well- hopefully a post on that to come.

Today was a total comedy of errors, I must say. In my best efforts to make today go more smoothly, we made sure to get the kids bathed last night, lay out clothes, etc. to make things easier today for Pat to get them ready. When I was getting ready this morning, Sam found Addie's shampoo and started squirting it all over my bathroom floor and himself. Pat scooped him up to get him cleaned up, and Addie came in and promptly slipped on the shampoo mess. I consoled her, got ready, and headed to PEC. Upon return, Addie was having a meltdown because I forgot to do her hair before I left. I quickly threw it in a bun and then headed back to the church to pass out visiting teaching assignments. Pat and the kids showed up, and even more fun began. Sam broke my beaded bracelet during the sacrament, so I was busy retrieving beads and hoping the deacons wouldn't fall on them because we sit on the back pew. Addie was laying on the floor reading a book when she suddenly stood up and announced she'd had an accident all over the carpet in the chapel. I whisked her out of the meeting into the mother's room so we could change into emergency panties we stash in the diaper bag, remove wet clothes, and take her home without getting her car seat covered in pee. I got her cleaned up and we returned to church to find Pat and Sam in the lobby. Sam's pants were wet, but his diaper was dry, which meant he'd probably sat in Addie's mess which I'd gotten the best I could with a spare burp cloth from the diaper bag. I'd brought back a wet rag with me so I could clean the carpet discreetly as people filed out of the chapel. We arrived at gospel principles, and Pat had to excuse himself just as class was starting, so I was left to start class- pretty much reading verbatim the intro to the lesson as Sam spilled his tub of teddy grahams all over the floor. After much chair climbing and one poopy diaper, we made it through and I was off to Relief Society to conduct and teach. It's been a marathon day. Church felt more like 12 hours today instead of 3. But in spite of all the crazy parenting moments today, I still came home feeling uplifted. Amazing how that happens.

I'm hoping to post again tonight- I've got to make up for lost time!

Plowing Through

I haven't been commenting much, if at all, on blogs. I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep up with reading, and that's barely happening. I'll breathe one huge sigh of relief after Monday, and another one after next Sunday. I need to get back to working on my lesson, but wanted to wish you all a happy weekend, hopefully filled with family time, good weather, and relaxation. Soak up my share since I probably won't get much of any of those things. ;)

Overwhelmed

Within the next two weeks I will have completed the following (hopefully)
-been set apart for my new calling-check
-had presidency meetings(one down, one to go)
-attended book group-check
-finished backyard landscaping (which entails going to the nursery, buying more trees/shrubs/flowers, getting more loads of bark, laying weed barrier cloth, planting and then barking everything, and maybe hopefully building some boxes for square foot gardening that I'm itching to get started on)
-attended the temple
-watched niece and nephew for date night
-had Addie's hair cut
-had my hair cut and colored
-attended an Enrichment activity to the Church History Museum to see the Relief Society Exhibit (fun, but will take half the day of my major party planning push before Monday)
-thrown a Cinco de Mayo blow-out bash as a going away party for our friends (hopefully to be held in the backyard, hence the rush on landscaping- and if you saw the current state you'd know just how lofty a goal this is)
-purchased two Mother's Day gifts, two wedding gifts, one going away present, and three birthday gifts
-farmed my kids out two days in a row in order to attend two sealings and wedding dinners (one of which is about two hours away)
-held down the fort our first Sunday as a presidency with the president and 1st counselor out of town, which means I'll be either teaching the presidency message (which means preparing a lesson), or conducting, or both-Both won out on this one
-made new visiting teaching assignments for May and distributed them all along with new reports for all the supervisors (I'm not yet released from this calling)
-prayerfully decided on who to call as my Enrichment Leader and made suggestions about a new visiting teaching coordinator
-prepared Mother's Day breakfast for my mom before church
-prepared and delivered a Mother's Day talk (which I'll post about later soliciting ideas/advice)
-had Mother's Day dinner with Pat's family
-started to organize and launch new Enrichment groups
-attended ward council

When the next two weeks are over, I can crash. If you see me blogging, tell me to get back to work. Seriously.