To Live a Life You're Proud of...

I absolutely LOVE this!

Epiphany

Epiphany of the day: These hard things we go through in life are to bring us to a frame of mind where we think more about others & less about ourselves.

Loneliness

I think the feelings of loneliness serve a greater purpose than we realize.  Obviously, no one wants to feel lonely but at different times in our lives, everyone experiences the sadness and emotions that loneliness brings.  I am discovering that even feelings of loneliness are meant to be experienced, to bring us closer to Heavenly Father and to teach us a valuable lesson.  When we feel like there is nobody else around (which may be the case or it may just be our perception of reality at the time), we know that Heavenly Father & Jesus are always there.  If we feel distant to them, it is from our own doing, since we know they never leave us. 

I think those feelings of loneliness make us take a look inward and sometimes make us think about other people.  I think that is one of the main purposes of feeling lonely.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we can pick ourselves up and ask ourselves, "What can I do for someone else?"  Serving others always makes me feel better...instantly!  It's the ultimate "pick me up" to get out of a slump and to start feeling good again. 

I have not been having feelings of loneliness recently, but I was just thinking about this the other day.  The truth is, I feel lonely off and on and I think it stems from not living by family.  We haven't lived by any family for about 7 1/2 years now and that's a really long time!  I do want to live by family again soon because I could use the support.  It would be so nice in those times when I do feel lonely because I know I could just go spend time with my sister or mother in law or any of my family & that would make me feel better.

But I think in those times when we feel lonely, that's when the Lord has put us in a frame of mind where we are able to help someone else.  He has an errand for us that He needs us to do.  Because in those times when we reach out to someone else, it could very well be that they needed someone...that maybe they were worse off than we and we were just what they needed at that time.  The Lord prepared us for that opportunity and had a specific person in mind that we were supposed to help.  And the beauty of it is that not only is the other person blessed but we are also uplifted and strengthened!

So the next time you feel lonely...let yourself feel it for a minute & then ask yourself, "What can I do for someone else?" because there is an opportunity waiting for you!

Mother & Child Are Linked At The Cellular Level

Fetal cells remain to heal a mother throughout her life. shortgreenpigg.deviantart.com

I saw this article & LOVED it and had to share.  It reminds me of the poem "I Carry Your Heart with Me" By E.E. Cummings which is my favorite poem ever.  I'll post the poem below.

Mother & Child Are Linked At The Cellular Level
By Laura Grace Weldon

Today is my youngest child’s birthday. As my mother used to tell me, we always carry our children in our hearts. I know this is true emotionally. Apparently it’s also true on the physical level.
Sometimes science is filled with transcendent meaning more beautiful than any poem. To me, this new research shows the poetry packed in the people all around us.

It’s now known that cells from a developing fetus cross the placenta, allowing the baby’s DNA to become part of the mother’s body. These fetal cells persist in a woman’s body into her old age. (If she has been pregnant with a male child it’s likely she’ll have some Y-chromosomes drifting around for a few decades too). This is true even if the baby she carried didn’t live to be born. The cells of that child stay with her, resonating in ways that mothers have known intuitively throughout time.

Fetal cells you contributed to your own mother may be found in her blood, bone marrow, skin, kidney, and liver. These fetal cells appear to “treat” her when she is ill or injured. Researchers have noticed the presence of these cells in women diagnosed with illnesses such as thyroid disease and hepatitis C. In one case, a woman stopped treatment against medical advice. A liver biopsy showed “thousands of male cells” determined to be from a pregnancy terminated nearly 20 years earlier. These cells helped her body recover just as fetal cells you gave your mother rush to help repair her from within when she’s unwell.

Fetal cells may influence a woman’s autoimmunity, although it’s not yet known if they are always beneficial. According to fascinating accounts in Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?: The Surprising Science of Pregnancy, the more fetal cells there are in a woman’s body, the less likely she is to have conditions such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. That’s not always the case. It’s thought that a mother’s body may battle those cells, thus promoting her own autoimmune disorders. (Apparently family dynamics are complicated even at the cellular level.)

There’s evidence that fetal cells provide some protection against certain cancers. For example, they’re much more prevalent in the breast tissue of healthy women than in those with breast cancer. And fetal cells can contribute stem cells, generate new neurons in the mother’s brain, even help to heal her heart. Her heart!

Look around at your family. Any woman who has ever been pregnant, even if she miscarried so early she never knew she was with child, is likely to be a microchimera (a person who carries the cells of another person). Fetal cells have the imprint of her child’s father and his ancestry. Fetal cells can be shared from one pregnancy to another, meaning the cells of older siblings may float within younger siblings. These cells are another reminder of the ways we are connected in a holographic universe.

I’d like to think that my fetal cells helped my mother battle the congestive heart failure that eventually took her life. I like to imagine that I carry within me my older sister’s fierce intelligence and that my talented younger brother benefits in some way from the cells of both his sisters. Knowing that I carry the cells of my four living children as well as babies I lost makes my heart ever more full on this special day.

We heal our mothers and our children heal us. Again poetry takes a back seat to nature’s awesome secrets.

This article can be found here.

One day I will own this.
Click here to see the listing on etsy for this awesome poem on canvas.

Birthday Festivities Round 1: Sea World

Blakeley's actual birthday was Wednesday but as a family we celebrated it on Tuesday and went to Sea World.  Tyson couldn't take her birthday off work because he had a manager meeting he couldn't get out of.  Blakeley loves Sea World and it's so fun that she's at an age where she actually cares and has fun at places like that.  And when we got there, we realized it was the last time she would ever get in for FREE again! 

She loves the little kid water area and she had a lot of fun on the rides.  We also saw the Elmo Rocks show and she got to give the characters high fives. 

We ended the day singing Happy Birthday to her and she blew out candles on a brownie.

It was a good day!

Blakeley Turns 3!

Look at that face!

My sweet, sweet girl.  You are the joy of my life.  The apple of my eye.  The shooting star in my sky.  A heart shaped cloud floating by. 

I loved you before you were even born.  I blinked my eyes and now you're already three.  How lucky I am that Heavenly Father gave you to me.  I will try to teach you all that He wants you to be.  I love you more than you could ever believe.

As you go through your life, "this is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life."

I am so lucky to be your Mommy.  Always and forever, my baby you'll be.

xoxo

Your Children Want YOU!

I love this and wanted to share.

There’s this crazy phenomenon going on right now. Good, devoted mothers get on Pinterest . . . and blogs . . . and Facebook . . . and Twitter . . . and then they flip through parenting magazines and TV channels (full of advertisements and media hype) . . . and they’re convinced they’re not enough.
They’re convinced that everyone else has magnetic, alphabetized spice containers,

Photo source: Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/pin/274086327292186801/)

and unless their garden parties are thematically accessorized with butterfly lanterns,

Photo source: Pinterest, http://tinyurl.com/6lsuurc

and they’re wearing the latest fashions (in a size two, of course), there’s no point in even showing up for the day.

Last Saturday, this happened to me.

I came home from a lovely day out with my extended family and had serious intentions to spend the evening dyeing Easter eggs and making bunny buns.

By the time I got everyone settled and fed, however, I was so tired that I just laid on the couch and dozed while my children played and got themselves to bed.

Around 8:30, when I finally had the energy to sit up, I decided to try out Pinterest for a few minutes until my husband got home. There it was–1,000 reasons why I’m failing at all things domestic.

I don’t make grilled cheese sandwiches look like ice cream.

Photo source: Pinterest, http://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com

I don’t even have seasonal throw pillows on my couches or live plants anywhere in the house.

Is it really so hard? Can’t I pull myself together and wrap some candles in green foliage and bring happiness to our decor with bright fabrics and hand-crafted photo frames?

As I was trying to calm my frenzied state of mind, my husband came home and held me tight. We talked about our day, and he told me how much he loves me and that he wants our boys to marry someone like me. I fell asleep snuggled under his arm.

The following morning, our children enthusiastically bounded into our bedroom and tucked themselves into our covers. My four-year-old gave me an arm massage, and we all sat there together–joking, laughing, planning the day ahead, and enjoying that special feeling of family. Reflecting on the discouragement I’d felt the night before, I realized that my family doesn’t care about what I see on Pinterest. They care about me.

My daughter Grace loves me to sing “Baby Mine” to her each night before bed. When I go to our Power of Moms Retreats, she misses that special ritual. We have recordings of Michael Crawford and Allison Krauss singing their versions, but Grace doesn’t want those. She wants me. So I recorded myself singing “Baby Mine” and emailed the audio file to her and to my husband so Grace can hear “her song” before she sleeps. As far as she’s concerned, my untrained voice belongs at the top of the charts.

My daughter Grace is my “snuggliest” child. Back tickles and “Baby Mine” each night are how I show that I love her.

A few months ago, I was practicing sideways dutch braids on my two daughters. They had found these great “how-to” videos online, and we set up our comb, brush, and hair bands in front of the computer so I could become an expert.

Photo source: www.cutegirlshairstyles.com

Half-way through the braid, my fingers got all tangled up, the hair was too loose, and one of my daughters had been sitting with her head to the side for several minutes.

Feeling extremely frustrated, I said, “That little girl in the video is so lucky to have a mom who knows how to do hair.”

My daughter stopped me in my tracks when she responded, “But I have a mom who is trying.”

These are my two girls with the braids that took me FOREVER to do. (But I’m getting faster now, and they appreciate the fact that I’m trying.)

My mom is in her 70s, and her memory is starting to go. Her sweetness and love are as strong as ever, but when we talk on the phone, she can’t remember the last time we spoke or the last time we saw each other.

At the end of one phone call a few weeks ago, I whispered, “I miss you, Mom.”

She said, “Oh, I miss you, too! But we’ll get together soon. You can come down to the park, and we’ll get an ice cream cone at McDonald’s.”

I replied, “Yes, that will be fun.” But then the tears started, and I had to use every ounce of control to keep my voice even so she wouldn’t know I was crying.

What I really meant was, “I miss being able to talk to you, Mom. I miss laying on the grass while my children make a hopscotch and savoring our long phone conversations. I miss you remembering all those secrets I used to tell you. I miss you asking me if I’m okay. I miss seeing you read books and hearing you sing while you do the dishes and having you drive out to my house without getting lost. I miss you remembering how much I need you.”

My mother didn’t specialize in home decor or gourmet cooking, and she didn’t lift weights or run marathons. But she makes me feel like I am the most important, wonderful person ever born. If I could pick any mother in the whole world, it would be my mom.

There’s something deeper going on in family life than can ever be expressed on a social network. Whatever it is we feel we are lacking, can we collectively decide–as deliberate mothers–that we are not going to sit around feeling discouraged about all the things we’re not?

Can we remind each other that it is our uniqueness and love that our children long for? It is our voices. Our smiles. Our jiggly tummies. Of course we want to learn, improve, exercise, cook better, make our homes lovelier, and provide beautiful experiences for our children, but at the end of the day, our children don’t want a discouraged, stressed-out mom who is wishing she were someone else.

If you ever find yourself looking in the mirror at a woman who feels badly that she hasn’t yet made flower-shaped soap,

Photo source: Pinterest, http://tinyurl.com/82k5vow

please offer her this helpful reminder: “Your children want you!”

QUESTION: How do you keep the right perspective on your importance to your family–in the midst of so many ideas and temptations to compare yourself with others?

CHALLENGE: Recognize any tendencies you might have to get wrapped up in discouragement, and set up a regular way to remind yourself that your children want you.

from Powerofmoms.com

Character Counts!

 

 

 

 

 

I happened upon charactercounts.org and I am so impressed.  I want to use the following "pillars" as they call them for my code of conduct and I want to teach them to my kids as they grow.  I think it would be awesome to make this into subway art.  Can you imagine what life would be like if everyone used this as a guide for their life?  The world would definitely be a better place.

Obviously, I try to be a good person and do all of these things but I love how these are all spelled out and tied together.  At some point in the future, I will have all of these pillars displayed in my house- either in six different frames near each other or as subway art. 

Trustworthiness

Be honest • Don’t deceive, cheat, or steal • Be reliable — do what you say you’ll do • Have the courage to do the right thing • Build a good reputation • Be loyal — stand by your family, friends, and country

Respect

Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule • Be tolerant and accepting of differences • Use good manners, not bad language • Be considerate of the feelings of others • Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone • Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements

Responsibility

Do what you are supposed to do • Plan ahead • Persevere: keep on trying! • Always do your best • Use self-control • Be self-disciplined • Think before you act — consider the consequences • Be accountable for your words, actions, and attitudes • Set a good example for others

Fairness

Play by the rules • Take turns and share • Be open-minded; listen to others • Don’t take advantage of others • Don’t blame others carelessly • Treat all people fairly

Caring

Be kind • Be compassionate and show you care • Express gratitude • Forgive others • Help people in need

Citizenship

Do your share to make your school and community better • Cooperate • Get involved in community affairs • Stay informed; vote • Be a good neighbor • Obey laws and rules • Respect authority • Protect the environment • Volunteer

The Many Faces of Skylar

Oh how I love her little face!

Best Book Ever

I don't normally read all that much although I used to all the time when I was a kid & loved it.  These days, watching TV is how I relax although I'm trying to make a point to watch less TV.  I borrowed this book from my friend, Maria recently & read it and it honestly is an amazing book.  As she said, "This book changed my life."  Besides the scriptures, I would have to say this is probably the best book I've ever read.  It is about Elder Busche, who was in the Quorum of the Seventy and it's about his conversion to the gospel and his life growing up in Germany under Hitler's regime.  It also describes a lot of his incredible spiritual experiences and amazing experiences that others shared with him when he was a Temple President and Mission President.  I felt the Spirit consistently as I read this book.  He is an amazing person who is such a great example to everyone. 

You will see what I mean if you read this book.  I was so impressed by the standard that he holds himself to and the way he lives his life.  It's truly on a higher level than the average folk.  He talks about how he never did anything without praying first when it came to his business or his family and it's just amazing to see how the Lord directed him and helped him overcome obstacles in his life.  It depicts many miracles that happened to him or people he knew and it is so apparent that Heavenly Father and Jesus are real...that they live...that they love us...and through the miracles that occur in this book (and in our own lives), it is so amazing to recognize that He has all power to move obstacles out of our way to fulfill our righteous desires.  This book is a true testament of God's love for His children.  If you want to read an amazing book where you feel the spirit, this is the one for you!

Thank you Elder Busche!  You are amazing!

Heart Attack!

Before

 Miss Skylar here all of a sudden is a daredevil and she's about to give me a heart attack.  The significance of this picture is that she cannot walk yet & she has only attempted to stand up on her own a few times, although there have been a couple times where she has stood up for like 5 seconds.  Now all of a sudden she wants to stand up ON THE GLASS TABLE multiple times like, "Hey Mama, look at me!"  The child is going to give me a heart attack!  Although she did stand up pretty well on it & obviously, long enough for me to take a picture and then I immediately grabbed her!

After

I had no choice!  I had to turn the table over.  I'm too young to have a heart attack!

She also learned how to do this the other day which I'm not excited about.

Growing up too fast!  She should walk any day now...

Happy 4th of July!

Today we went to our friend Gabi's pool party and BBQ which was great!  Too bad I don't have any pictures of that.  After the party, we went to a fireworks show.  I wish I got a picture of Blakeley hiding in the stroller with the canopy way over her head because at first, she was scared of how loud they were.  I had warned her that they would be loud but I also told her they would be fun and pretty.  After a few minutes she wasn't really scared anymore & then later she kept wanting to see "more fireworks." It was a good day although Tyson ended up having to work most of the day.

I'm so grateful for this wonderful country we live in and for the freedoms we are blessed with everyday.  What an honor and privilege to be an American and how lucky we are.  I'm so grateful for all the soldiers who have served or who are still serving our country and protecting us.  What a huge sacrifice.  Bless you all!  I asked Tyson to play the song "I'm Proud to be an American" on the way home tonight because we had not heard any music all day and it doesn't quite feel like the 4th of July without hearing that song.  All I know is that we are truly blessed.

Blakeley with her boyfriends...errrr, I mean buddies, Christian and Jackson

Skylar seeing fireworks for the first time since they
were banned last year. Wish the picture was more clear

Tour de France

Blakeley's First Tour de France


 The Tour de France started the other day which means Tyson is going to hijack the TV every night. It's going to be a long 21 days!

Blakeley reminiscing about the Tour de France

Sweet Daddy Daughter Moments

I absolutely ADORE this picture.  Sigh...I love it.  

And this one.

Recent Blakeley Shenanigans

Here is some of the recent comedy that has been customary in my household because my daughter is AWESOME!

Apparently Elmo was hungry

B wanted some bread so she grabbed it off the counter

I told her to enjoy her childhood.  It will come soon enough.  Ick!

Oh, the crazy places I find things

Just loungin

All tucked in

Saving up for a rainy day

Leaning tower of carrots

Don't worry...the car was stopped and parked in our driveway

This girl really does make me laugh everyday.  She is an absolute riot.