It's A Wonderful Life

I felt like today was a good day to post this. It is Memorial Day. A day that, admittedly I have mostly used to get more done around the yard of play with the family. The original intention of the holiday was to give our country a time to remember all those that have paid a price for our lives in one way or another. I have a great admiration and appreciation for those that gave their lives for me to be free to worship God, have a family of my choosing, education, financial stability and so many other blessings. So today I want to take a few minutes out of my life to say thank you to all those in times past, present and future that serve me and my family. I was given the link to this commercial produced by the Catholic Church.   It is a powerful message that deserves to be passed on. The line in this video “Your vote will affect the future and be recorded for eternity.”   m ade me stop and think. It was a good reminder that my responsibility is more than I think ...

I am on a group that advocates for orphans in China. There is a real concern for the children that are turning 14. On their birthday they are no longer eligible for adoption in China. There are many cultural issues that come with being an orphan that affect these children for the rest of their life. Because of these things many advocates try very hard to find families for the older children. Last week there was a specific boy that had just a few days until his chance of being adopted was gone. He seemed like a very great kid. Other families that had been to his orphanage spoke highly of him and he had a strong desire to be adopted. I was thinking about this boy and began to ask Heavenly Father many questions that I have had about the children. There are some children that really stand out and shine. You can see something different in them and yet they sit on the list and wait for a family. I just couldn’t understand how these children wouldn’t have families. How could...

In the last couple of weeks I have tried numerous times to post on the blog.  It always came up with error on page.  We made a breakthrough today.  It's our computer.  Now I have to clean it up and hope that does the trick. I would love to post from another computer but all my pctures are on the one computer.  Hopefully today we will get this fixed.

I was given a very fulfilling gift this year.  One that makes you want to be better and help you see that what you are doing is at some point going to be appreciated. I received a note of thanks and a copy of this song. Thank you Sereen for the reminder that my best efforts that so often fall short are of some good. So many days I just want to tell my kids "I'm just like you but bigger!"  I just hope that what I do is enough. It will never be perfect but it is my best.

We finally felt like Hyrum and Bria were able to sleep in another room without us.They were so excited to have their own room and beds. We bought them a full size bed and some sheets the other day. They sleep together because they didn't want to sleep alone. Their room was meant to be a den with an adjoining door to the master. We put the bed on the wall opposite the door so we can have it open and they can still see us if they wake up. All is going well! The first night without them I was giddy with excitement. No more sharing my pillow. No more sharing my side of the bed because I didn't want to squish Doug. No more windmill constantly hitting me. No more cast in the face while you are in a dead sleep. No more sleeping lightly because the child next to you has sleep apnea and you freak every time they quite breathing.  He still does this but hasn't died yet so we must be OK, right? No more boogers on my pillow. No more children falling out of bed. No more cl...

I was going through all the happenings at our home this week. Wow, there is a lot going on.  We have 3 birthdays that I haven't even started to prepare for, piano, school, scouts, Achievement days for the girls, a funeral 4 hours away, a carseat cover to make, not the everyday cover mind you, lesson to prepare for church, feeding the next door neighbor's orphan horse, babysitting my niece and nephew, which we love to do, and all the normal life things, including piles of laundry.  I know there is something that I am missing but I just can't remember it right now.  Sadly that means it most likely will be missed.  Sorry if it happens to be something one of you reading this need me to do. Hopefully I can fit in watering the garden and flower seeds and checking on the chickens. I know I won't forget to take the dog out otherwise I will pay and that's not fun. So here I sit at 1:00 in the morning trying to get some important things done before the week starts. No, I di...

Well it's been 5 days since the cast came off and Bria is not up and running. The doctor had said that she needed to be back to normal with her walking within 2-3 weeks or she needed to come back in.  That isn't such good news because it means an operation fairly quickly. Up until this morning Bria would sit on the couch and if she wanted to go somewhere she would insist that someone carry her. This is not good for a child that needs to walk to gain muscle and flexibility. Yesterday I took some time to reteach her how to walk.  I held her hands from behind and would direct her feet to step under her instead of spread wide.  I had to push on her knees to get her bend them. Even with all that it was quite a chore. After that she tried a little harder to walk more straight.  This morning we were right back to where we started. I had to finally ban all the children from getting her drinks, food or carrying her anywhere. She had been walking a lot more today but st...