Life

I feel like I keep learning the same lessons over and over again. You'd think I'd learn. Honestly, I get lonely and bored. And seriously there's no need to be that way because I have lots of friends here and I believe a lot of the sisters in my ward feel that way. I think moms in general feel that way often. (the lonely part) I love reading and I love doing projects but right now it's really hard to do some things while my daughter is awake. She's good to entertain herself for a little bit but for the most part she wants my attention, which I'm happy to give and she is entitled to it. My problem- what to do! I can only read the same books and play with toys for so long day after day. Same with going to the stores and to the library. I'm ready for a change. I realize I'm complaining a bit but I just need to write some things out. It's winter time here. The weather is actually pretty good and this last week we even went to the park one day. Our whole family was on cloud nine that day! But for the most part the days have been gloomy and the skies gray. It really starts to take its toll on a person. Today when we walked out of church there was blue sky and the sun was shining. I almost started crying I was so happy. We are ready for blue skies! It just feels like things are getting so routine, so mundane. I'd love to work on some projects but we'll be moving back to ID in 6 months and can only take what we fit in our car and trust me we've accumulated quite a bit of stuff already. there's a lot we're going to have to leave behind. so that's basically it, I get in these "wo is me" moments and it's hard to get out of them! I don't like it.
So on the flip side, I'll read my friends blog who lost her daughter in a tragic accident, or another blog about a man who lost his wife, or hear about families who are really struggling with something and then everything gets put back into perspective and I realize how blessed I am and how good I have it and how happy I should be EVERYDAY. Honestly I get frustrated with myself sometimes. Why is it so easy to forget our blessings? President Hinckley said something to the effect of "when we are unhappy it's usually because we are only thinking of ourselves." How true! Life is good- I know it is! But I feel like this is an ongoing cycle for me. Of course there's things I can do better and I can be more creative- I just need to kick it in gear and do it! I need to call the awesome sisters in my ward and get together with them. They all have amazing talents and gifts that I can learn from. I need to serve. I know there's others who fall into these pits like I do. So, basically that's it. It felt good to get it out and some things came to me as I was writing this down so I feel much better now.
tomorrow is supposed to be almost 60 degrees so I think we're going to go to the park with some friends :)

Valentines

A clean kitchen + fixing lunch + a sweet handwritten letter + dancing in the living room = true love. It was a GREAT day! :)

Today

Today was a great day! I don't know why, but I feel like writing it down. I don't want to forget it. Perhaps I'll need to look back on it in the future. I got up at 5:00, exercised, came home and made my family baked oatmeal for breakfast (sooo good)! Then after we all got ready we took my husband to school and then my daughter and I went to a couple of stores. I was able to find her 3 skirts for the summer for $1.50 each. If you know me, I am extremely frugal and will rarely buy anything full price so this put a smile to my face (thanks Walmart). Then we came home, played catch, read some books, vacuumed, and mopped the floors. Then it was nap time so I took to scrubbing the bathroom and cleaning up the rest of the house, read a couple conference talks, fb, pinterest, blogs,...etc. Then the mail came- two packages!! one, a cell phone for me (I have been without a cell phone for a week after leaving it on the subway) :( We had an extra spare one in the family so we didn't even have to pay for a new phone. thanks mom!! Then two, my sister sent us a package with some clothes for my daughter and some cute valentines! She is so thoughtful and always calling to see what we need. She has such a big heart. She's always thinking of others. Love you sis! I talked to my hubby letting him know I had a phone again and he informed me he and some other guys in the ward needed to help move chairs with the elders quorum right after school and that the elders quorum would provide pizza for all them. I'm happy to have my husband serve but it's a big bummer when he says he'll be home later than originally planned. I've felt quite lonely this week, it's been hard, so I thought no way am I just going to hang out alone all evening til he's done! so I called up all the wives and had them come over for dinner since our husbands were together having pizza. It ended up being so fun! It was way chill- they all came over and I just fixed quesadillas and cut up some veggies and made a cookie dough graham cracker dip. We had a great time and I was ready for some socializing. After everyone left, we had family prayer, song and scripture study and now the sound of the dishwasher is going and my little girl is tucked into bed and I'm going to go make my husband stop studying for the night so we can be together. It's been a great day, a hard week for me in some other ways, but writing out my day like this has helped me to see the good in it and how blessed I am. Perhaps that's why I felt I needed to write it down.

Scotty McCreery - Dirty Dishes (Yahoo Music Session)

I love this song. I love his voice. I love that he is a good boy. I love that he is country. I love the message of this song. So enjoy!

Today has been a great day, nothing amazing out of the ordinary, but then again every day is a blessing isn't it? Today was different then yesterday though. Yesterday I just felt blah all day long. I had no motivation to get things done. It was just one of those days. However, today I turned it around and my daughter and I had a good time! We went to a couple stores, read books together, played catch, and colored. My husband also came home to a fantastic new meal! (Thanks Heath for the idea!) Raspberry chipotle chicken salad with black beans, corn, rice, cheese, and homemade salsa on top (sooo yummy and fresh!) and then homemade lemon cream cheese bars for dessert. There were smiling faces all around the dinner table tonight :) Our awesome neighbor even came and shared the joy with us. I love her. Then later this evening as my husband was giving our daughter a bath I read my aunts blog, who is serving a mission with her husband in the Cape Verde islands. What an inspiration she is! She has a true gift of writing and I felt the Spirit so strong as I was reading her blog. This is the second mission she and her husband are serving and I'm so grateful for their wonderful examples. So many things she said has touched my heart tonight but something in particular really made me think. Quoting my aunt, she said, "It is too easy to forget our blessings as we roam on earth trying to keep up with them." I had to think about that for a minute but I love her point of view. I'm sure it can be taken a few different ways but what it means to me is we are swimming in blessings! The Lord has been so merciful to us and we truly have blessings beyond measure. So much that we almost "forget" them or take them for granted and maybe don't recognize them as blessings. I love that quote from her. Time to look at all our blessings instead of maybe what we don't have. Because when we look at what we do have, we'll realize we already have it all.
Just this past Sunday was fast and testimony meeting for our ward. The Spirit in sacrament meeting was incredible. My husband and I both commented on it. We absolutely love our ward. I hope everyone can say that. We've both been in awe so many times at the willingness to serve and help out. I was humbled in so many ways with all the testimonies that were given this past Sunday. One in particular about a brother who has been looking for a job for a year and a half now and getting teary as he told how it hasn't been easy to watch his wife work two jobs for the family. He spoke of their trials and their faith and how after a long week of dealing with lice in their home his wife turns to him and says she's happy. She's content. The faith coming from this man and his family was almost tangible. Others bore solid testimony of the basic truths of the gospel in such a humble and powerful way. There are so many amazing people to look up to and learn from. I would stay here forever just to be in this ward. But then again that's the beautiful thing about the gospel- It's full of wonderful people everywhere you go! I'm just so grateful to be where I am right now. I know it's where we need to be and the Lord is giving me so many opportunities to grow and learn and become better.

Now, my husband is studying and I am about to go to bed so I can get up and exercise. The forecast for tomorrow is rain so perhaps tomorrow will be a movie day with my daughter :) Life is good!