Blessings raining down

I’m sitting here with tears rolling down my face. Thankful for some pretty wonderful blessings. Things that may seem small, but are huge right now.

It’s amazing and wonderful how Heavenly father blesses us.  When we need it most He is raining down blessings upon our heads.  If we just take the time to see the blessings we will be in awe of His love and goodness.

He blesses us through the kindness of others.

He allows us to repay those acts of kindness with what little we have and then He adds too that.

It’s amazing when you can really see it.

How has He blessed your life?

The gratitude challenge

Today I am taking the gratitude challenge found on Scott Moore's page and posted on facebook by my older sister, Dawn.

I love my absolutely wonderful, sweet, kind, goofy, silly, helpful and amazing husband.  There aren't enough words to describe the love that I have for this awesome man.  I love that our love has grown in a way that I could never have imagined it.  He is my best friend.  He is my confident. He is my sidekick.  He is my handyman...when he knows how to fix things.  Haha.  He is the most amazing dad.  His love for me is surprising, as he sees my faults and shortcomings.  He is forgiving and simply the perfect match for me.

I love my Dad.  I love that he took the time to cultivate a great love of nature in each of us girls.  I love that he is a jack of all trades kind of guy.  He almost always knows how to fix everything.  I love that he would do just about anything for just about anyone.  I love how he taught us to serve others.  I love that he taught us to appreciate our talents.  I love how he loves my kids.  I love that he has a love of learning and reading.

I love my Mom.  I love that she loves us kids with everything she has, and then some.  I love that she taught me how to be a good mom and to put my children first.  I love that she laughs with us.  I love that when she is tired you can get her laughing so hard she's got tears running down her face and can't stop.  I love that she is my friend.  I love that she listens to me.  I love that she has been my shoulder to cry on. I love that she is there to listen to my successes.  I love how she loves my children.

I love that I grew up in a home with only sisters and that we had to do hard work because there were no brothers to do it for us. I love the value of hard work. I love that my sisters and I can have fun together.  And even though our beliefs may be different and our lifestyles may be different we love each other.

I love my kids.  I love that each one of my 6 children is unique.  I love that each of them has their own talents.  I love that the oldest is such an amazing and talented artist like my oldest sister, Yvette.  I love that he is a good, kind, and thoughtful person.  I love that my 2nd son is so full of life and love.  I love that he can make friends with just about anyone.  I love that he smiles so much.  I love that my 3rd son has Autism, because without he wouldn't quite be the same.  I love that he is funny and makes us laugh.  I love that he is a rule follower.  I love that he loves his siblings. I love that my 4th son is so athletic and loves almost any sport that he tries. I love that he is so full of energy and loves to be out doors.  I love that he can be thoughtful, kind and helpful.  I love my oldest daughter who is my first curly girl.  I love that she loves to snuggle and loves to laugh.  I love that she loves to play pretend with her sister.  I love my youngest little girl.  I love that she is my second curly girl.  I love that she is so silly and happy and sweet.  I love that she makes everyone smile.

I love family, near and far away.  I love friends who have become family but who have no blood relation...but we've unofficially adopted them.

I love the Holidays.  I love baking. I love making goodies for people.  I love to see the smile spread across their face when they taste something yummy that I made for them.  I love the joy and magic of Christmas.  I love the spirit of Christmas that many people have.

I love snow.  I love seeing the white flakes falling from the sky for the first time each year.  It makes me smile every time.  I love making snow men, and snow forts, and snowballs, and sledding, and shoveling.  I love watching my cold breath at it turns to ice in the air.  I love laying on the snow and looking up at the stars.  I love how winter is magical.

I love having the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the guiding light in my life.

Too Funny!

I have never been funny.  I am only funny by accident.  I'm actually quite serious.  I think it's the OCD and the introvert in me. If I'm going to put myself out there then I need to know that the response will be positive.  But the response depends completely on your audience.  Maybe I should simply stick to my family and close friends to try my un-clever-ness on.

Over the years I have tried to be funny. Oh boy!  THAT doesn't work well for me. I'm not quick witted.  In fact, when I try to be funny I get strange looks from people.

I have wished that I was funny.  I wanted so badly to be able to come up with something clever to say.  On a rare occasion it happens.  But don't ask me to duplicate it.  Haha!  It's almost impossible.  It's only accidental!

When someone laughs at something I say, I'm surprised.  Was that really from me?  Did they ACTUALLY find what I said to be humorous?  Weird!  haha!

I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate those who have been blessed with a quick wit. I can appreciate that it is a talent that some have been given.  And I can surround myself with people who are amusing, clever, and humorous.  In fact, I am blessed with a husband who attracted me to him using his humor.
We met at a singles conference held in Maine.  It was the first Regional Conference held near me.  My mom pushed me to go.  I resisted, but eventually decided to go.  As most introverts do, I needed a buddy to go along with me.  I dragged my sister and a friend from church and we went.  When we entered the building I spotted a girl near my age whom I had met previously and I liked.  She was standing in a circle of boys.  She was the only girl in the circle and seemed to have all eyes and attention on her.  I walked up and said hello to her and to the onlooking boys.  That evening we were learning to line dance.  One of the guys from the circle, Todd, whom I had noticed, started out the line dancing across the gym from me.  By the end of the lesson he was dancing right next to me.  I don't remember what we talked about.  I don't even remember who else was there.  But I do remember that he tripped over every chair and doorway he came near.  He had me laughing the entire time.

The next day the singles conference group spent the day exploring at the Portland Headlight.  It's a beautiful lighthouse.  On the grounds near the lighthouse are some old buildings that are really fun to explore.  I walked away from the group to see if Todd would follow.  Of course he did.  And when he would walk away from the group, I followed him.  By Sunday morning, and the end of the conference, we were together almost all the time.  About 2 1/2 weeks later we were engaged.  Yeah, I know, it was fast.  But when you know, YOU KNOW.

Not only does he keep me laughing, but our kids have learned to be funny too.  Our third son, who has Autism, is hilarious.  He definitely got that from his dad!! Since we moved back to Maine, he rides to school with my sister.  She has called me or texted me several times to tell me about something funny he has said.

One day she drove by his school and noticed that there were fire trucks outside.  After school she asked him what happened.  He replied, "Humpty Dumpty caught on fire." She said, "No seriously, what happened?" And he said, "No seriously! They were cooking eggs and POOF!  They caught on fire!"

Oh!  We had a great laugh about that one.  HE is clever.

Yesterday I took him for his well-child visit at the doctor's office.  Just before we went in I noticed that his face had black specks all over it.  I asked, "What did you do in school today?  You're covered in dirt!" He chuckled and replied, "We jumped in a pile of leaves." I handed him my phone, in selfie mode, so he could see the dirt and brush it off.  He proceeded to make silly faces at the camera...so much like his dad. He snapped a picture and said, "Hey!  It's my first selfie!" Haha!  What a great kid! Then he asked if he could have his own phone.  ;) Not likely.  But good try, buddy!

His first selfie!

So, on that note...I hope that your life has humor, laughter, and silliness.  

I love it when it works!

Don't you just hate it when a favorite piece of clothing gets stuck under a wet towel and ends up with mildew on it?!?!  It makes me so sad!

My youngest daughter has the cutest black and white zebra print leggings that she wears regularly.  She spilled "warm chocolate" all down the front of them.  I rinsed them and hung them on the towel basket.  Big mistake!! They got knocked down inside the basket with a wet towel or rag against them.  When I found them I thought for sure I would have to throw them away.

I soaked them in OxyClean, which usually does the trick, but the stain didn't budge.  I bought a couple of lemons and followed a trick from Pinterest where you pour salt onto the mildew, squeeze the fresh lemon juice onto it and scrub it in.  Then I let it dry. After washing the stain was only faded a little bit. So, I tried it a second time.  No luck.

So frustrating.

Then I had a Norwex home show and my friend who was doing the amazing demonstration suggested I try making a paste out of the Norwex laundry detergent and rubbing it onto the stain.  Let it dry.  And then wash it.  I tried that and the mildew stain got lighter, but it wasn't gone.  I decided to try it again.  I made a paste and rubbed it into the stains.  It was a bright sunny day so I decided to lay it on the deck railing because I knew that sun could take out stains too.  I thought, maybe the combination of the two would get rid of the mildew enough so that I could salvage these poor leggings.

Those leggings sat outside in the sun all day...and then on the counter for about a week. Just yesterday when my husband washed clothing he threw those in with our white clothes.  I forgot to tell him to make sure and check them before drying them.  This morning I was so thrilled to find that they came out clean!  The mildew and hot chocolate stains are GONE!!!  Yay!!!

The mildew before the Norwex paste.

After Norwex laundry detergent paste was applied two times along with sitting them in the sun the second time.

The leggings look brighter and cleaner than they have in months!  Amazing!

A Mother's Work is Never Done

Yesterday I knew it was going to be a busy day.  I had it all planned out.  It did not go according to plan.  But things rarely do...and you just have to learn to roll with it.

Having a family, of any size, takes a considerable amount of work.  There is not a lot of "free time".  Usually what "free time" really means is something else got put on hold so that mom and dad could have some R & R.  There is ALWAYS something to do.

I used to think that it was busy, crazy and hard to have an infant or toddler.  At one point we had an infant, a 2 year old and an almost 4 year old.  At that point we had three in diapers.  Oh yeah.  THAT was fun!  It was constant.  Diapers.  Baths. Nursing. Cleaning. Chasing. Severe sleep deprivation.

I wouldn't change it for ANYTHING!

Somehow I thought that eventually things would slow down as the kids got older.  I thought that I would sleep more.  Haha!  I thought that I would have more "free time".  Well, haha, I am still looking forward to that day.

Right now I have one in pull-ups...she'll turn 4 tomorrow.  All of my kids have potty trained late.  And potty training is my very least favorite part of having children.  They seem to know that and so they just keep delaying the inevitable...I guess.

Instead of gaining the elusive "free time" I have gained new challenges.  This, I have come to understand, is simply a part of life.

So, back to yesterday...
I needed to package the venison that my husband and two oldest boys cut up over the weekend.  I also needed to get to the store.  And now...when I say store...I mean several stores.  It's never a quick trip to the store when providing for 8 people.

We were out of milk. You'd think it was the END OF THE WORLD!  And powdered milk has such a bad rep that they all wine and complain if they have to use it.  So, off to the store I went, with my almost 4 year old in tow.

We first had to return the wrestling shoes that I purchased on Saturday because my 2nd son couldn't squeeze his huge feet into the tiny hole.  Haha!  Then we stopped at BJ's (like a Sam's Club or Costco) for several items.  Next...30 minutes back into town...we stopped at Save A Lot for the items we could purchase there, for a decent price.  Then to the High School to drop of the wrestling shoes to my son...who NEEDED them that day.  Walmart. Hannaford. Tupperware lady. *sigh*

Then home.

Remember that meat that I needed to package...yeah.  After we put away all of the groceries I began packaging the venison.  I am SO thankful for that meat!  And my  kids absolutely love it.  It's a great blessing to us.

I glanced at the clock...5:00pm already!  Oh my goodness!  I enlisted the help of my husband to get the meat finished while I cleaned pans...yeah dishes hadn't gotten cleaned yet...and started dinner.  Dinner was finished. Next paperwork called my name that needed to be filled out and sent back.

Then we gathered the family for Family Home Evening.  It's a short spiritual lesson that we have each week with our family.  This lesson was about self reliance; what that means and how we can apply it.  Good lesson!

By that time it was after 8pm and and passed time to get the little ones to bed.  Jammies, snuggle time, hugs and kisses, and bedtime prayer.

All of the sudden it was 9pm and I knew that if I didn't get to bed I would be exhausted at 4:50 am this morning.

I've heard so many negative things about those who are able to be a Stay-at-home-mom.  What I have come to realize is that it's the most challenging, most busy and crazy, most rewarding job that anyone could have.  I am the cook, baker, cleaning lady, secretary, chauffeur, schedule coordinator, manager, mediator, accountant, and more. I am privileged to be able to comfort my kids when they need me.  I am able to tell them I love them every day as they walk out the door and climb onto the bus. I can make them healthy food. I am able to be there when they are excited about something...or sad.  I am able to teach them and train them.

What greater joy could there be in the world.  Motherhood is the greatest!

We are blessed!

Blessings.  If we take the time to really ponder on our blessed lives, to truly count each one, I think we would be surprised at how blessed we truly are.

I've been thinking about how blessed we are recently.  Not because Thanksgiving is coming.  Not because Christmas is around the corner.  I've been thinking about it because life has been really hard lately.  That's not so say that others don't have it much more difficult than we do.  There are many with harder, more testing trials than I have right now.  But life can be tough. And when it is tough it seems that we are more humble, maybe, and more aware of the little blessings that are constantly pouring down on us from Heaven.

I listened to a wonderful speaker recently who spoke of blessings.  Some of his words have really stayed with me.  (You can find the full talk here.)

"Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true.8 By being grateful, we follow the example of our beloved Savior, who said, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”9

True gratitude is an expression of hope and testimony. It comes from acknowledging that we do not always understand the trials of life but trusting that one day we will."

There have been many times when it would have been easier to simply be angry.  Angry with everyone and everything.  Angry at the world.  But I learned that I would never find happiness unless I found a way to be happy in any circumstance. There are still times when it's difficult. Living in Texas for a year was a very trying time for us. At the same time, we can see many blessings that came from it.

"Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up. But the commandments aren’t like that at all. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.

His commandments are the loving instructions and the divine help for us to close the umbrella so we can receive the shower of heavenly blessings." Dieter F Uctdorf's talk.

Yesterday I was pondering the many blessings in our lives right now.  Our 15 year old son shot his first deer.  It was an exciting afternoon in our house.

But first I need to tell the back story.  The boys and my husband got up at 6 am and got ready to hunt.  It was raining out so they had to postpone until the rain stopped.  The boys finished chores and asked permission to get out their laptops to play a game.  I gave permission before realizing that the rain had stopped and they could finally go out. When I realized the rain had stopped and their Papa was ready to take them and their dad out hunting I told them they needed to put the laptops away.  They were angry.  They fought with me and were grumpy because they had to quit their game.  I promised them that if they changed their attitude and went out hunting they could play their game when they got home.  But if they chose to stay home they could sit on their beds and be grumpy.  They chose to go. And they are so thankful they did!

Not only was it a thrill, a rush, an awesome experience...it is a blessing.  Our son just provided more meat for our family for the winter. He learned that he CAN in fact sit quietly and wait and watch and hit his target.  He is so happy.

Even though life is tough at times we need to remember that Heavenly Father is watching over us.  He WANTS us to be happy.  He is blessing us.  As we strive to be good people and follow Him, He will continue to bless us.

Terrible, horrible, no good, awful chemicals in our food

It's an interesting thing, dealing with food allergies.  Our youngest daughter, almost 4, has intolerance to some foods, dyes and preservatives.  Once we got our daughter's allergies figured out she became outgoing and happy all the time.  Before figuring them out she would scream all the time. This isn't an over-exaggeration.    I stopped going places at night because, as an infant, she screamed horrible screams the entire ride. She cried almost constantly. She fussed all the time. She was a very unhappy baby.

As a younger toddler, 18 months-3 years, she was extremely clingy and refused to go to Nursery class at church almost every week. Most kids love being able to go play with toys and have snacks, but she didn't care.  After many months, she finally got more relaxed and comfortable just before she turned 3. Once she was 3 she was able to go the Sunbeams class.  That required that she sit through a 10 minute spiritual lesson called Sharing Time and about 30 minutes of singing time.  She was the ONLY child that did not adjust after a few weeks.  She constantly ran around the room. She refused to participate.  She climbed on my lap and snuggled.  She would dance and twirl, which sometimes sparked the other little girls to get up in front with her to twirl their skirts around.  It was cute and yet embarrassing too.

We had already figured out that she couldn't have gluten, food dyes, and dark colored clothing.  We also knew that she couldn't use soaps and lotions with dyes or gluten.  I switched to a calendula based diaper cream because the petroleum based creams caused her severe pain.

One day a friend sent me a link to a blog post about petroleum based food dyes and the preservatives that are also petroleum based and cause similar symptoms.  I read that and gasped!  The "treats" that we thought were okay might actually be causing problems.  I had to test it out; remove the preservatives and see how she responded.

When we eliminated gluten she became more happy.  People said she was like a new child.  When we removed food coloring she became even more happy. Again, people were shocked at how different she was. Then we removed the preservatives TBHQ and BHT.  The results were awesome! Just awesome!

I didn't think she could be any more happy, but I was wrong.  All of the sudden she was talking to people at church instead of screaming at them.  She climbed in peoples' laps instead of hiding behind me.  She smiled at people instead of growling at them.  It was fantastic!  Again, she was a NEW child! Or, in reality, she was allowed to escape her painful prison.  A prison no one knew was there.

Recently we had a few weeks where she became very sad and grouchy again.  There had been about 3 Sundays where she refused to go to class and she cried most of the time.  She became clingy and cranky.  I kept trying to link it to the weather because it had been rainy. The problem with that became clear when she was grouchy even on sunny bright beautiful days.  I was at a loss.

I began praying to know what was causing the problem because I have learned, over the years, that our moods can be directly linked to the foods we eat.  Food has a HUGE effect on us.  The answer to my prayer came as I pondered what we had been doing differently for food in the more recent past.  The Gluten free macaroni and cheese that I had been giving her from Walmart popped into my head,  She was begging for it almost daily. We purposely ran out of the macaroni and cheese and I told my husband that I was going to do an experiment to see if it was the cause. I thought maybe it was the annatto coloring.  I noticed that the annatto coloring was also in the Earth Balance butter that we use.  She had never had a bad experience with that before so before going crazy we just decided to see if it was something in the mac and cheese.

After about a week without this particular brand of mac and cheese her mood began to improve. It took approximately 2 weeks for the offending substance to leave her body and she began to be happy again.  We continue to use the Earth Balance butter with no issues.  What a relief!

I still don't know which ingredient caused the issue.  The list of ingredients on the Walmart Gluten free mac and cheese is rather long.  I didn't recognize MANY of the ingredients.  I should not have purchased it at all, but was trying to save money.  Ha!  This is why I don't like "crappy" ingredients or "junk" in my food.  Many of these ingredients aren't even food.  That's why I tend to purchase items with natural and minimally processed ingredients.  Ingredients that I can actually read and understand.  

And the joys of food allergies continue....

What I've Missed the Most

The things I have missed the most  about Maine...

1. chipmunks - they're so cute and tiny. I love how they scurry about.
2. the sweet smell of the woods - after being in cities for several years I have forgotten how wonderful the country smells.  It's a beautiful thing!  There is actually a sweetness to the air.
3. green - it's green everywhere and I love it!
4. rocks - I love the huge rocks all over the place. And the kids love them too.  They're great for climbing on and playing on and laying on and posing on.  Now I feel like Dr. Seuss...
5. lakes - they're so pretty and clean.  That might sound lame, but if you've lived in Missouri or Texas you know that their lakes are just NOT. Add to that...the drinking water is just delicious here too.  
6. hard work - there's a lot of hard work to be done.  I believe that learning to work hard is a very important part of life.  In the city my children did not learn to do work that is as hard as work here is.  I love seeing them try and succeed.
7. NO poisonous critters, bugs, or snakes - In Texas we had brown recluse spiders, black widow spiders, scorpions, fire ants, water moccasins, and who knows what else...maybe an alligator in the lake. Haha!  There was talk of one in the town we lived in. EEEK!  I never felt safe to let my kids explore.  Especially in Texas.  But here in Maine, they have found frogs, a red spotted newt (which is so stinking cool!), and harmless spiders.  I even found a really weird leaf bug on the road one day. That was a little creepy but cool at the same time.
They can dig in the dirt and not get stung by fire ants. They can lay on the lawn and roll around if that floats their boat.  Although, Colin needs to be cautious of bees now.  He got stung over the weekend and swelled up quite nicely.  Ooops!
8. Wildlife - It's everywhere.  And it's gorgeous! One day Colin and I saw a white tailed deer in the woods just watching us.  It was beautiful.
9. The ocean - It's simply amazing to take the family to the ocean to swim in frigid water, find crabs and other sea creatures, walk on the rocks along the shore, collect shells and rocks, feel the salty breeze and breath the salty air.  It's soothing for the soul.
10. Friends - There's nothing like going to the store and running into a friend you haven't seen in years. Or just being able to visit with old friends and catch up.  It makes my heart happy.
11. Family - It's an added bonus to be able to live close by to family.  They are all a blessing in our lives!

Count your blessings today.  See how blessed you truly are.

Our life direction

It's amazing how things work for our good.  They strengthen us more than we realize at the time.  I remember struggling when we were in KC.  I had a prompting. We followed the prompting.  Things didn't work out.  We were so discouraged and couldn't understand...we were confused. We finally decided to do something else and make do.  We called our Bishop over and talked with him.  He counseled with us.  He gave us suggestions.  And he smiled a knowing smile. I didn't understand that until I looked back.  Our Good Bishop understood how Father in Heaven works.  He knew that we would be blessed in time....in Heavenly Father's time.  After 2 years of trying to figure out what that prompting meant we were blessed with a job in St. Joseph. It finally all made sense.  The prompting to go "Active Duty" came about in a way that we had never even imagined.  His position in St. Joseph was AGR...or Active Guard Reserve.  He was on active duty status. The prompting was fulfilled.

Recently we had something similar happen...life hanging in the balance...waiting to find out if Todd would get a job we felt prompted to apply for.  The kids were a mess.  They were angry.  They didn't want to move...again.  We had a lot of talks about doing what Heavenly Father wants us to do.  Their hearts softened slowly.  Then they got excited. We started looking at homes and schools online.  After weeks of waiting we found out they weren't hiring....military cut backs or something.  The kids were shocked and a little upset.  I wasn't shocked this time....I was relieved.  I didn't want to pack up and move again.  I wanted to stay here, but I was willing to do what Father in Heaven wanted us to do. Then the job we had originally felt bad about taking was the one we finally felt good about applying for and he got it. What a strange twist!  We learned a lot.  We are stronger.  The kids are stronger for it too and I am thankful for it!

Heavenly Father blesses us in many ways.  Take a look at a new perspective and try to see the blessings He is constantly giving you.