Just another day

So today was like so many other days.
Got up early.
Reloaded the fire with wood.
Got dressed.
Woke up kids.
Jacob got David started on Breakfast.
Shared the bathroom while i did my make up with all the kids, hair, teeth, etc.(we only have one functioning bathroom right now...the other one works, there is just a huge industrial sized snake sitting in the bathroom, effectively giving no where to step. Is it nagging if it's been there for 2 weeks!)
Hustled Jacob to get dressed. (he takes foreverand gets distracted so easy!)
Encouraged the kids to hurry and do their lunches. (is it encouraging if it's frantic and hollered thru the house?)
Went outside in the freezing cold (5 degrees) to start the car so our fingers wouldn't fall off on the way to work.
Go back inside...encourage everyone to GO FASTER!!!
Get all four kids in hats, coats, gloves, and to the car. (2 hour school delay due to snow and icy roads.)
Get to work.
Get everyone from the car to the center and ALL their STUFF
Remind Jacob I don't listen to WHINING!
Set up the babyroom and take care of the babies who are all ready there.
Try desperately to get all babies on a decent schedule and make sure everyone is diapered and happy.
One baby puked
One baby pooped everywhere
One baby was soooo tired and his bottle got sent home on accident the previous night, so we had to track down mom for an extra.
Eat lunch
Lay with David in his classroom to get him to go to sleep.
Peek in on Rachel.
Back to Babies
Do projects
Rock babies
Diaper
Feed
Repeat
Get a biting report (David bit two different babies today! His classroom is in a little bit of turmoil this week. Both his teachers are out and he has subs...so I am hoping that is the reason for the behavior!)
Clean up
Try to get 4 kids, all their backpacks, lunches, coats, hats, gloves, and crafts into the car.
Stress on the way home about all that is comming up this week.
Wonder why I didn't come home for lunch and get A, B, and C done.
Get home
Start Cleaning
Remind Kids of chores
Listen to the girls fight over cleaning their bedroom.
Get David a snack...it;s pretty much the only thought on his mind.
Get me some CHOCOLATE!!!
Hold my baby.
Try to relax...Just in time to MAKE DINNER
Still to come
Dinner
Basketball game
Homework
Clean the house
Scriptures and prayers
try to get everyone in bed

Just another day!

Carpet disasters

okay so I really don't like my carpet.

It's very basic carpet and it's light tan.

So it shows everything and only looks good right as it's being cleaned.

We hardly have any carpet so it seems silly to rent a Rug Dr.

So I borrowed a friend's steam cleaner.

And it started smoking!

And of course now it won't run right.

So I'm renting a Rug Dr anyway so I can finish the job.

And I need to think of something awesome to do for my friend, since her machine died in my possesion.

BUMMER!

Spring Fever

Tulips comming up beneath my tree

My lilac bushes trying to bud.

You might think I'm crazy but I get very excited about these things.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE flowers and spring.

So even the HINT of Spring makes me happy.

I planted a ton of spring bulbs including

Tulips, Hyacinths, & Iris'.

They are all starting to break thru the ground.

I came home from work today and happened to notice something green among all the brown.

And then I went crazy looking to see how many of my bulbs were coming up.

So many of them are~ Hurray!

I know that we will have a few more snows and some cold cold days, but the promise of spring gets me thru!

Are you struggling with the winter blues?

Buy a potted plant of flowers and put it in the house.

It will put sunshine in your life!

Must be doing something right!

Do you ever wonder if all the scripture reading, Family Home Evenings, and lessons ever get to your kids. When they are fighting and poking and just plain don't look like they even care what you are trying to say! I know there are many days when I wonder that. Well tonight Jacob was very stressed about not knowing where his basketball Jersey has gone to. He has a game on Tuesday and he realized he didn't know where it had gone to. He was looking and looking and couldn't find it. Meanwhile, I was making dinner and trying to clean up the kitchen and feeling frustrated over a clogged kitchen sink. So I kept encouraging him in his search, but wasn't able to give it my full attention. So, I walked by his room on my way to put something away and found him kneeling by his bedside praying. Oh! My heart just melted. He kept looking and kept looking and then asked me,
 "Mom, do you think Heavenly Father heard my prayer?"
 "Yes, Jacob, Heavenly Father hears all our prayers. Keep having faith. He will help you find it. Keep listening for promptings from the Holy Ghost."
I know he will find it. I reminded him of a time when Winslow and I were looking for a very important piece of paper. We prayed about it, and didn't find it right away. But we did find it in a timely manner.
"You will find your shirt too."

The other night Rachel went to bed and was looking at the new Gospel Art book. She wanted to know what the picture of the men in the fire was. (I had to quickly remember the true version and not just the Veggie Tale version!) And so we talked of the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednigo (did I get any of those right?) I am always so impressed with my kids.

Today in Sacrament Meeting Abby was reading thru Winslow's copy of Gospel Principles. She had turned to a picture of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsamane. She began reading the lesson on the Atonement to Rachel. I was so impressed that she wanted to read it, and that she kept going even when Rachel lost interest.

David is learning to pray. It's so precious to hear him say his prayers. He loves to kneel down at night with me next to his bed. Of course he's ready to say Amen after about 30 seconds. But, it is so sweet to me.

Today in Primary our Senior Primary sang Love is Spoken Here. It is their favorite song. A couple of weeks ago, I taught the boys to sing the lower part at the end of the song. We've been working really hard on it. And when they sang today of Mothers kneeling and Fathers leading homes with priesthood power, I lost it. I was so overcome with the Glory of the Gospel and the JOY that it brings to our homes. The Spirit that they brought to that primary room was amazing. I wish you could have been there and felt of the POWER of the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday my Sweetheart to me to the Temple. It was my first time to the Snowflake Temple. It was so gorgeous. It's been forever since I have been to an endowment session. Because Time is usually a big factor for us we usually do sealings or initiatory work. So participating in an endowmnet session this time took on a whole new quality for me. Being in This temple for the first time I took in so many details of the session and the beauty of the Temple with such great clarity. I felt such overwhelming Love and such a feeling of Peace. I am so grateful to have gone. We made a goal to go Once a Month. I am excited to go back!

Isn't the Gospel AMAZING!

Transformation

Warning Pictures in this post may be disturbing to some viewers.

So I decided to take the plunge and go brunette instead of blonde. My real hair is actually an ashy brown now, but I have been doing the blonde thing for quite some time. I love my hair short and I love my hair dresser. So, I got Winslow to agree to the brown thing. (He LOVES my hair blonde so this was a huge thing.) And I prepared myself mentally to be a brunette. So Tia (my hair dresser) and I talked about going brown. She was excited about a chocolate brown color. I was thinking Milk Chocolate, while obviously she was thinking DARK Chocolate. Ha ha ha. It has been quite the transformation. People really don't recognize me. i scare myself when I look in the rearview mirror. Some people absolutely love it. Others are working on trying to come to grips with how DIFFERENT I look. I really like it. I will probably lighten it up, but that has to be done in stages. So for now it looks almost BLACK! But it does bring out my eyebrows. I've had people ask me if I dyed those too. "No those have always been the color of my eyebrows...thankyou grandpa Rudy for those classic eyebrows! hahaha"

What do you think! Be Honest~

Bragging Rights or New Found Talents

So when I interviewed for my job almost a year and a half ago, my boss asked "do you draw?" The question was kind of laughable. Well, I could draw stick figures and I had drawn a couple of things by looking at a picture and trying to make my drawing something like it. But I took it as kind of a challenge. I wanted to be a better drawer. I have always wanted to be able to draw, I just didn't really know how. So I started simply and crudly. And I got better. And now if I can look at it and its mostly simple, I can draw it. And I don't believe I am half bad. Definitely not an artist yet, but I am pretty impressed with how far I have come from my sickly stick figures. Recently I came across a website with some Super Cute prints. But they were pricey. One of my friends was brave enough to make a wall hanging (she super talented!) and it looked fabulous. So, when it was time for our Infant Room to change Decor I wanted to try my hand at some decorating and some painting. I was pretty darned impressed with myself. So this is a kuddos to me post. Because we should all celebrate our sucesses with righteous pride :)