The Magic of Christmas

Children can see the magic in the world around them.  Things that we, adults, have seen a million times and now take for granted are new and wonderful for children.  They appreciate the little things.
The stars are amazing and sparkly. They cause "oooh's and aaaah's". The moon is beautiful and bright.  The trees are so big and tall.  The rocks are fun to climb on.  Falling leaves become a pile to jump into.  Animals are amazing creatures. Toys come to life in their imagination.

An empty box becomes so many different things; a time machine, a car, a space ship, a boat, a box to hide in.

Jumping on the trampoline is like flying, soaring through the air like a bird.

The tooth fairy is mysterious as it sneaks in while they sleep to leave money for lost teeth.

The Christmas tree is awesome. The smell of fir needles. The sparkling lights on the Christmas tree. The intricate ornaments adorning it's branches. Tinsel.

White fluffy snow falling from the sky is joyous.  Sledding. Snowmen. Snow forts. Ice skating.

There are so many treats to eat.  It's like living in a candy shop. Candy canes.  Christmas cookies. Popcorn balls. Party mix.  Gingerbread men. Gingerbread houses. Chocolates shaped like Santa. Hot chocolate. Ribbon Candy. Egg nog. Muddy Buddies. Pizzelle Italian cookies.

Santa slides down the chimney with a red pack stuffed full of toys. Christmas morning. Bright wrapping paper.  Excited squeals.

Laughter.

Christmas: a time to enjoy the abundance of magic in life.  Enjoy every moment.

#magicofchristmas
#christmasthroughachildseyes

It's Christmas Time!

Thanksgiving turkey sits cold in the fridge.
Gravy is congealed in the bowl.
Mashed potatoes are in a lump and the squash is all squished.
Half eaten pies clutter the counter.

Bellies are full.
Naps are in order.

Visiting and conversation abound.
An uncle is sitting on the couch with nieces and nephews surrounding.
He entertains with his voice and guitar.

The men are all happy.
Feel the buzz in the air.
Their hunting adventures a success.
Blessings are pouring down.

Christmas music is playing.
Happy and sweet.

A Christmas wreath adorns the front door.
Soon the tree will be in it's place
Covered in ornaments, tinsel and lights

Black Friday madness is avoided.
A sigh of relief!
Shopping for special gifts.
Finding the perfect one.
Merry Christmas greets young and old.

Cookie dough is rolled.
The oven is baking.
Treats for one and all.

We think of each other with love.
Family and friends gather around us.
Christmas carolers spread cheer.
Christmas spirit surrounds.

The joy of Christmas swirls, spins and envelopes
Like the swirling and swarming of snow on the wind.
Spinning and encircling each one.
Filling us all with Christlike love and kindness.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Little Blessings

One of the "foods" that we have found that our youngest little girl cannot have or eat is anything containing petroleum.  Yeah.  That's right.  It's in foods. Scary right!

Food dyes are petroleum based. Preservatives TBHQ and BHT are both petroleum based as well.  I am so thankful for a friend who forwarded a blog, a story about a mom who's child had a problem with food coloring and also preservatives.  It was fascinating to me.  And gave me an answer I had been praying for.  They were the last ingredients we had to remove from our daughter's diet.

Here is an interesting site. I can't believe the FDA still allows artificial colors in our foods.  Don't get me started!

We love Chex Mix at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  This year I tried making it with the Crispix cereal and not only did it burn, which has never happened to me before, it tasted odd.  My sister bought some Chex cereal today and, Low and Behold, they changed their ingredients!  There is no longer BHT in the Corn Chex cereal!  I am so excited!!  They are using Vitamin E as a preservative instead.  Which is what they use to preserve the Honey Nut Cheerios too.

Someone is listening.  And for that I am Thankful!  So, just a little blessing in our lives today.  We can have Corn Chex again!!  Yay!

Happy Day!

#cornchex #glutenfreedyefreebhtfree

The joy of childhood

We celebrated our youngest child's birthday last night with family.  Our sweet four year old requested balloons, chocolate chip cake, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream. Wish granted!  She is at a stage where she loves EVERYTHING!  She would be happy with matchbox cars.  She is so easy to please. She loves the Mylar balloons filled with helium that she can carry around the house.  She loves the cute little candles on the cake.  She loves blowing out the candles to make a wish.

When she is happy...she is so very happy!

The BEST part of the evening was that she was so excited to open each gift.  Everyone enjoyed watching her open her gifts.  It was very entertaining.  Papa, Gramma, Great Gramma, siblings and Aunt were all taken with her.  She was precious! We were all chuckling at her cuteness.

She exclaimed in her cute little girl voice, "Thank you sooooo much!" She gasped in surprise at the Care Bear in the box.  She hugged each toy.  She squealed in delight, "It's just what I always wanted!"  She was so happy that she even hugged each card. She wanted each toy opened right away, but we reminded her to wait until she opened all of her gifts.

Yeah.  It was adorable!

And then she, her sister and her Daddy played with the new toys together.  It was comical and awesome. But their Daddy is hilarious sometimes! They have the best Daddy in the entire world.  I may be just a little biased.  ;) #bestdaddyintheworld

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.

Some days are just rough

Before I ever was married or had a family I had this idea in my head of what it was going to be like to have a family.  It was magical.  It was wonderful.  And there was a lot of joy and laughter all the time.  It was a fairy tale.  And it was not very realistic.

I met my knight in shining armor and what could be better.  Nothing.  Right?  Then we had our first child.  And we were so happy.  Until that little tiny bundle started screaming all the time.  And some days I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

There have been many days over the past 17 1/2 years when I have questioned my decision to have a family.  Of course those doubts usually float away almost as quickly as they come.  I know in my heart that this is exactly what I was meant to do and where I was meant to be.  There is so much joy. Happiness. Laughter. Smiles. And love.  There are days that it really is a fairy tale.

Recently I have been really struggling with my seven year old daughter.  She is a sweet and wonderful angel at school, on the bus, and at church.  Almost as soon as she walks through the door she begins growling at everyone. Stomping her feet.  Screaming bloody murder at them when things don't go her way.  And throwing huge temper tantrums that I would expect from my 4 year old.

The mornings are unbelievably rough.  I've tried so many different things to try to get her to be more pleasant and happy.  I've played soft music.  I've rubbed her back. I've snuggled with her.  I talked calmly while she whines and gets angry at me.  This morning after 25 minutes of trying desperately to get her to get dressed, I finally yelled.

I absolutely hate when this happens.  As soon as I allow myself to give away my control, to the unseen evil one, I know I've made a mistake.  I feel awful.  And I dislike it.

This morning I ended up in tears.  I want so badly for her to make good choices. I want her to be happy.  And yet so many mornings have ended with me blowing my top and getting angry.

I've been pondering and praying daily about this.  But this morning's prayers were different.  I was desperate as I plead with my Heavenly Father for ideas. For solutions. For guidance and answers.

And when I was weighed down in my sorrow at allowing myself to make poor choices,  I picked up my sleepy four year old and she sweetly said, "I missed you mommy," as she snuggled into my shoulder and sucked her thumb, while rubbing the edge of my t-shirt.  And then I was reminded of the sweet blessings that come from having a family.

There are many blessed moments when it is like a fairy tale...for a short while.  And it's those moments I cling to when I'm struggling to remember why I chose to be a mom.  It's the good times that help us make it through the hard times.

A thought came to me after praying today.  It was this: I should try to involve my 7 year old in helping me bake or cook. So, with Thanksgiving coming this week I think it's a perfect time to allow her to spend some time helping in the kitchen.  I'm thankful for prayer and for a loving Father in Heaven who sends us guidance.

And so to start my day off with a bit of a boost I listened to Rachel Platten's Fight Song up loud while I did my planks.  It helps me remember that I CAN DO THIS!!

Have a beautiful day!

Perspective is everything

Last night I attended a wonderful Stake leadership training meeting for our church.  (A Stake=several congregations)

Many times I have been to these meetings where they split us up.  Presidents meet.  1st counselors meet.  2nd counselors meet.  And secretaries meet.  They then each gain new ideas that they can take home and use in their service in the church.  This time, though, we all stayed together and had a fantastic discussion.  The discussion was based on an article called "The Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge.

This article talks about missionary work and what kind of missionary we want to be.  The Stake Relief Society presidency applied it to each of us and how we fulfill our church callings. (A "calling" is a job in the church that the Bishop or Stake President asks us to do.)

They were speaking and asking questions and I was madly scribbling down notes.  It was all about self improvement.  We all can be better people.  None of us is perfect.  We each have room to grow, learn, stretch and improve.  And I LOVED how these awesome sisters presented it. (Sisters:this is how we refer to women in the church...we are all sisters in the gospel.)

One sister  in the audience commented (I'm paraphrasing here.  I can't remember her exact words.) that when we are simply checking off our to-do list or our check list our hearts are really not in it.  We are just going through the motions.  Our check lists are huge.  We never can seem to get them done.  She said, "my checklist runneth over". Haha! I LOVED that!  It's so true! When we throw out the check list and begin to really give away our "will" to the Father and allow His will to take over we will be so very blessed.  And we get more accomplished.  And our perspective changes.

A counselor in the Stake RS Presidency asked, "Who are you going to be"? When we are standing in front of the Savior and all of the day-to-day things are no longer "defining" us....who will we be? We are not what we do: laundry, dishes, diaper changer, mom, wife,chauffeur, cook, baker, etc, etc, etc.  Who are we really?  What are our qualities?  How are we becoming more like the Savior?

I love that this really made me think about the person I am becoming.

I loved this quote that was shared:
"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." By Ezra Taft Benson

There was a time a couple of years ago that I used this phrase a lot: "It's all about perspective!" I love that this lesson changed my perspective and helped me to see some of the things that I need to change in my life so that I can become more like the Savior.  Perspective is everything!

Image by Greg Olsen