Feeling Blessed, Winter Walks, Preformances

I loved the Christmas devotional I watched today. My favorite talk was about desiring the Holy Ghost with all my heart and the incredible blessings I get when I have that desire. It made me so excited about living with more of that in my heart.

Here is a link to that talk if you missed it.

I am feeling so so blessed today as I look around at my beautiful kids laying in their beds laughing with each other and at my good husband sharing Christmas videos with our baby Joy. She has croup and her hoarse breathing just melts my heart.

We saw my parents today. I just feel such overwhelming love for them. My mom is sick. I love watching my dad take care of her. Then he helps me with my kids and takes care of us too. My parents are the most selfless people.

Our friends' little girl had a birthday today (the friends we are staying with) so we had some donuts and ice cream with them just now. They are SUCH good people! They are so loving and kind. They love to serve and they work hard.  I love living here and learning from their incredible example of a Christ-centered family.

I'm just feeling so grateful for the peace that comes with knowing that God is good, that the world's in His hands, that all things work together for the good of His children. I know He will never leave me comfortless. He loves me. I am grateful I have come to trust Him and His timing so very much.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Winter Walks:

Choir Concert ( Pictures stolen from Karen Phippen on facebook). It was James' first concert ever. I had to bribe him with a treat to get him on stage since he was so nervous. I have 2 kids in each picture. See if you can spot them all...

Helping Backstage at the Anne of Green Gables play:

This is a fun time of year when I get to see the kids preform. I love to see them improve and I love the messages they share. They look so comfortable on stage! I was proud of them and everyone there.

Well, the kids are STILL laughing in their beds so I should probably get off blogger and tell them to go to sleep since they have seminary early in the morning. I do love to hear them laugh. I love that they love each other. The beautiful devotional today was a great reminder of just how blessed I am!

Coming Alive by Learning to Listen

I have a lot of things in my heart lately. We are going through a lot of changes in our family. I tend to evaluate life in the midst of change.

How is our family? How are our relationships? How can we be more in tune?

Maybe because change also makes it so we have to make lots of decisions. I examine what's most important to me, make sure it's most important to the Lord too, and try to move forward with decisions based on those principles...

Does this choice improve my relationship with God? Does it improve my relationship with my husband? Does it bring us closer together as a family? Will it help our family better do our part in building the Kingdom of God with the gifts He has blessed us with?

I feel like my Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to be still more often. To listen. It is so hard to listen when there is so much to do. But life has taught me that there is always much to do - if I waited to have time to be still, I would never be still. Part of living a God-centered life is making it a priority to listen often even when the to-do list feels pressing.

I have also learned that it is not only busyness that keeps me from listening. It is also distraction. I've been pondering on ways I can keep myself from being distracted so much. I'm not saying I mean to be serious all the time - but I want to be in tune in whatever I am doing - feeling love for the people around me, gratitude for the the moment, joy in the experience - regardless of the circumstances - laundry, dishes, judgement, hurt, feeling ignored.

What do you do to help you eliminate distractions that numb - that keep you from coming alive?

Learning to listen, and then doing what I feel I am prompted to do - that is how I want to live life. I am making some goals for myselft to help me eliminate distractions from my life. I think having this clear "why" to my goals will help me remember to ask for the motivation I will need to keep them.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks:

Stewart Falls:

 

Fernwood Hike:

 

KIP Academy (family group):

 

Picnic at a park where I used to play in elementary school:

 

Battle Creek Canyon:

 

Joy trying to "dab"

Sunday Walk in South Weber:

The kids were so awesome during conference this time! I was so impressed with them. They drew, colored and took notes:

Waiting for the kids to get done with choir:

 

Joy loves baths. She asked me for one and I said no (she already had one or two that day), so she took matters into her own hands outside.. 

 

Science Class:

 

Green Pond:

 

Bike Ride:

Canyon View Park:

 

That was a lot of pictures, but I had over 500 from the last couple of weeks - so I narrowed it down as best I could :)  Life is certainly not boring with all these cute kids around (: