What God wants for moms

A friend posted this on Facebook and I was grateful. It was a much needed reminder that, as a mom, I do have important work to do! Read the article, it'll brighten your day!

ARTICLE: WHAT GOD WANTS FOR MOM WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

A Goal accomplished...almost

I started on the wood floors this week. It's spring break which means I don't have to play chauffeur all day, so I thought why not. The kids were pretty  helpful through the process, often times I just needed their body weight to hold something down. I'm pretty proud of myself. I did 90% of it by myself (and my back muscles KNOW it!) - Hubbie had the chance for over time this week and that doesn't come around very often, so he couldn't really help much.

 Good bye hideous white tile with nasty black grout!!

 This kid had a bit too much fun smashing tile. 

It's looking beautiful!!! This is my dining room, we still need to finish baseboards and the kitchen. I can't wait till it's done. It's gonna look amazing:)

Food for thought

I read an article on facebook about Celebrity Women and why they don't have children. Read it here. Their responses made me sad. Though a couple said things like "My life is amazing enough" several others said things like "Childhood was horrible, why would I do that to a child" or "I'm sure I'd screw them up" (granted I'm probably totally doing that to my kids) and another said that kids give her a headache (totally true there too).

The thing is, I just can't imagine life with out these little boogers.

I feel like they are why I am here. I was born to be their mother. I was born to teach them and raise them in love. Sure I threaten to strangle at least one of them on a daily basis. They know I do it out of love though!

Sister Julie B Beck said: "Who will prepare this righteous generation of sons and daughters? Latter-day Saint women will do this—women who know and love the Lord and bear testimony of Him, women who are strong and immovable and who do not give up during difficult and discouraging times. We are led by an inspired prophet of God who has called upon the women of the Church to “stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord.”⁶ He has asked us to “begin in [our] own homes”⁷ to teach children the ways of truth. Latter-day Saint women should be the very best in the world at upholding, nurturing, and protecting families. I have every confidence that our women will do this and will come to be known as mothers who “knew” (Alma 56:48)."

FHE #11

With General Conference coming up, we went with a little "General Authority Trivia" for Family Home Evening.  I was pretty impressed with how much the three of them knew. Sienna only knew the First Presidency, but even that was impressive.

They had to match up the names to the pictures and then a fact about each. We all know that President Uchtdorf was a pilot, but did you also know that Elder Packer and Elder Hales were as well? I thought that was pretty neat!  I love getting the kids excited for General Conference!

My bucket list

Early on this semester, I had to come up with 50 things I'd like to do before I die. I seriously could think of like 4. So I put a plea out on facebook and had so much inspiration flowing in that I came up with my 50, and it was pretty fun. My sweet Tanner saw the list, and asked if he should start packing for Italy! I only wish. Here is my list, I should probably invest in some type of air-miles card if I'm ever to accompish any of this!! What is on your bucket list?

1. Visit Italy

2. Learn to play the violin

3. Start a blog people actually read

4. Get out of debt

5. Lose 25 lbs.

6. Visit Hawaii

7. Go skiing

8. Finish the list of renovation projects for my house

9. Visit New York City with my family

10. Build a table for my dining room

11. Grow a garden

12. Run a business I’m proud of

13. Have more children (foster, adopt, natural)

14. Visit the redwood forest

15. See the Eiffel tower in Paris

16. Write a book

17. Learn Italian

18. See the Pyramids of Egypt

19. See the castles in Germany

20. Visit Arches national park in Utah

21. See Mount Rushmore with my kids

22. Go to Harry Potter world in FL

23. Visit Washington D.C. with my kids

24. Visit Denmark

25. Go on an african safari

26. Learn to be a great photographer

27. Visit New Zealand

28. Learn website design

29. Travel somewhere by train

30. Ride in a hot air balloon

31. See the Golden Gate Bridge

32. Ride in a Helicopter

33. Visit Boston

34. Visit Pike’s place market in Seattle

35. Visit every temple in the US

36. Visit Alaska

37. Take my kids to Cedar Pointe

38. Go para-sailing

39. Go on a cruise

40. Hike the Grand Canyon

41. Become a campground host

42. Learn to fly fish

43. Take a cake decorating class

44. Volunteer at a hospital

45. Learn to play the Organ (better)

46. Become a professional organizer

47. Build a bed (frame) for myself

48. Raise an animal (other than dog)

49. Visit London

50. Visit Greece

Thought for the week

This week in my Family Foundations class we are studying how important it is to be a good parent. Of course, Hubbie & I both had amazing examples of how it should be done, so I hope we're on the right track!

I love this quote!  If we devote ourselves to our families, everything else will fall into place as it should. 

FHE #10

Today for family home evening, we planned our Epic Summer Road trip. It is going to be AWE.SOME!

I also found this really cool website called roadtrippers.com, it let's you plot your route and tells you all the fun things to do along the way. This is what my screen shot looks like:

 

Call me absolutely crazy, but we're going to cover 15 states in 18 days, see (almost) all the people we love, spend a fortune and have a blast!

This will help too:

Yup! A new van. I love it, I love it, I love it. It's so roomy, everyone has their own space, 

glory glory hallelujah! 

Goals- an update

This pretty much sums up all my goals... Basically, I suck.
But it's ok, because my goals are allowed to change. I've been so busy with homework that eating right and exercise have not been a real priority. I know that exercise will give me the energy I need, but so will Diet Coke, and it doesn't require a shower after, so I usually choose that option! (**Hanging my head in shame**)

I did make it to the temple last month! And I did take a birthday treat to one of the sisters I visit, other than that I've got nothing else to update.

We're counting down till the end of my semester and the end of seminary for Scott like kids excited to go to Disneyland.

Then we need to slow down. Our goal was less chaos and it's been worse than ever. Can't wait... Can't wait...

FHE #9

This week I've been studying about media use in my Religion class and so I thought we'd talk about it in FHE as well. We read an article from the friend magazine (found here). It's titled TV trouble and it talks about what to do if we find ourselves watching something we shouldn't, it was funny because right before FHE, Tanner wanted to watch a dinosaur movie and the only one he could find was SUPER bloody. After about 2 minutes of it, the kids all decided that they shouldn't be watching it and turned on something else. It was a perfect segway to be able to reward them for their good decision and talk about it more!  We also talked about how its hard to be the first person to stand up for yourself but often times when you do, others will follow.  We had ice cream cones for dessert. Yum:)

Sorry, no pictures, I just plum forgot.