Reflecting

I've been reflecting a lot lately about the many blessing I have in my life.

As a teenager I thought my life would have turned out tons different.  I thought I would be married by 20, I was going to be done with child bearing by the age of 30.  I always thought I would be in a small town.

For the most part however it is the way I expected.  I always wanted to be a stay at home mom.  In fact I think that was the most important to me.

So, I have been thinking.  Thinking about all of the many blessing I have in my life.

I am so blessed with good health.

I hurt my arm two years ago.  I was laying on the couch with Jacob when he was just a wee little babe.  Abby was on me too, then she wanted to get down, so I was helping her down with one arm.  She didn't get down as quickly as I thought she would, instead she swung on my arm like a little monkey and pulled a muscle or something.  One day I even had Emma stay home from school so she could help me, she even helped me get dressed, she learned how a bra goes on.  She brushed my hair, helped change diapers, she was such a good help.  Well I got it all taken care of and all seemed to be well.

This past month it started hurting for a couple days I could barely pick my arm up above my head.  It made me realize how blessed I am that I am able to care for my kids, clean my house, work in the yard (my favorite), chase chickens, and ride my bike.  Isn't it wonderful to have good health.

Since I have realized what a great blessing it is to have good health I have played with my kids more, kept the house cleaner.  I have had so much joy in being a mother.

I have been so blessed to have a wonderful husband who loves me and I love him.

He is so humble.  When I am frustrated with any of his little faults he is quick to say he is sorry and try to be better.  Isn't that all we can ask for?  One who tries their best?  One who is able to change their ways for the better for the one they love?

I am blessed with kids that are just great!  They are kids that is for sure, but they can be taught and they love to help.  And they love being part of this family.

I am so blessed to be raised by good parents who wanted the best for me.  Parents that taught me to be who I am today.

I have been blessed to be taught the teaching of Jesus Christ.

I have especially been blessed with a loving Heavenly Father who loves me and lets me know that he does.

I have been blessed with good friends throughout my life.  I never had a lot of friends at one time but I always had a good friend to get me though every part of my life.

Every time I wanted to make a "bad" choice in life, I had a friend that would stop me.  Even friends that that had lower standards than myself would keep me "good".

I love the quote I heard on my mission:

"You are a piece of a puzzle from someone else's life.

You may not know where you fit.

But others will fill there lives with pieces of you."

I don't know if that is quoted exactly right.  I will have to find it sometime.

A few years after my mission I went to do some work in the temple.

The lady that gave me the name of the woman I was going to do the work for said,

"She has been waiting for you."

I smiled.

The lady said,

"I am not making this up.  She has been waiting."

I smiled again, looked at the name, tears came to my eyes and I said, "I know."

The last name was Booker.  I had recently learned of a member from my mission, Ruth Booker.  She had recently passed away.  I loved Ruth, she is one of those people that has become a few puzzle pieces in my life.  She taught me SO much.  She would always say,

"You can always tell when I am having a hard time in life, because that is when I have the biggest smile on my face."

She also taught me that you should never be afraid to share the gospel with everyone.  She always had referrals for us.  She talked with people in the grocery store, at the doctors office, anywhere she would go she would open her mouth.

I have been very blessed to have a place I can call home.  I love the house I am in, yeah it is too small.  But I can call it home, I can paint the walls any color I want, I can plant any plant I want outside, I can have chickens without asking permission.

My husband has been blessed with a steady job.  We haven't felt the recession that bad.

I am thankful that I feel my Heavenly Fathers hand in my life every day.  I am so grateful for the direction he has given me.

Life really is great.

Chicken Update

It has been a while since I have spoken of our beloved pets.

Our chickens.

I would like you to meet our oldest chicken.

The last of our 4 original.

Her name is Hunter.  If we ever have work to do in the yard and we come across lots of bugs (crickets mostly).  We get her and know that she will stay by our side till every bug is gone!

She is also at the top of the "pecking order".  I think she has earned it.

Hunter is the one on the right.

This is the run we built, oh it must have been a year ago now.

I have written in past posts about the problems we have with the doves.

They love that we have chickens, they LOVE their food.

The doves in our area are very FAT!

I do not like the doves.

We were buying a $15.00 bag of food probably every month to feed, the DOVES.

We came up with a plan to put a top on the run.

Pa put hooks on the tree and on the posts of the run, then rope, then the net.  It is just plastic birds net from Home Depot, fairly inexpensive.

The big FAT doves cannot get in.  The baby doves get in under the gate.

We now go through probably one bag of food in 2 1/2 to 3 months.

Since this has happened I have noticed that doves love to sit on our "problem" neighbors roof top.

They have purchased a fake owl that the doves adore.

We have purchased 10 more baby chicks of all different breeds.

It was a struggle to teach Jacob to love them and not squish them.

It took him about a week to learn what "Too tight" means.

I love this photo because these two chicks are about a week difference in age.  The one on the right was about a week old and the one on the left is about 2 weeks.

With our six chickens that are currently laying eggs we get about 4 to 6 eggs a day.

Minus what ever the kids drop on their way in.

Poya

I have some really cute photo's to go with this, however... I don't think they are internet worthy.

Jacob really wants to start going poya (potty) on his own, but he doesn't want anyone around while he is experimenting with his potty powers.

So I stood around the corner of the bathroom and held the camera to take some really cute photo's of him.

After a while he realized I was there and he came out to push me away and say, "you go, mommy!"

I had to laugh, but it didn't stop him, thank goodness!  He still likes to try!

Shoes

I have a really nice sister in law who accidentally bought one too many shoe cubbies.

She offered it to me and another one of my really nice sisters in law (is that how you write it or is it sister in laws?)

We both declined.

Then the day came when I was looking at the room were we keep the shoes, it was worse than this photo.

I thought, oh how nice it would be to have a shoe cubby of my very own, maybe we could have some really nice shoe organization.

So, I quickly send out the e-mail, asking if the offer still stood.

"Can I please have the shoe cubby?"

She was excited to get it out of the house, and I was sooo excited to receive it!!

The very next day I sat on our laundry room floor and started to put that shoe cubby together.

It took 2 hours to put that thing together, and my fingers were sore by the end.

However, I love it and so do the kids.  They use it.... mostly.  They are still learning that we can have,

a house of order.

Thank you so much Katie, we are loving it!

It's the Simple Things,

That bring pure joy

Sometimes the best times at home are having a sleeping toddler.

Good night my little pudding face, car loving boy!

I know there will be a day that I will miss this.

Glasses

Last night we went to Target and got a pair of glasses for FREE for Emma. They are doing a special...

A FREE pair of GLASSES for children ages 12 and younger. All you need is a current prescription.

So check out your local Target and see if they are doing it also.

This offer ends Saturday Nov. 21st.

The glasses Emma picked out are worth over $200.00!

Thankful

Emma brought her "Monday Folder" home yesterday and I was looking through the past week's school work.

She had one paper that had two feathers on it, on each feather was something she was thankful for. It also had things written all over the paper like, she is thankful for Her sister Abby, her friend Marin, for big David and for little David (uncle and brother).

Then on one feather she said, "Emma is thankful for our house."

On the other feather she wrote, "Emma is thankful for China for making everything."

She hears us grumble about China and how they make everything and blah blah blah... but she found the good in it. We got a good laugh out of it!

Shopping

I have never really been one that really likes shopping. My Mom might say otherwise, in my younger years I remember trying to force myself to be like other girls and like shopping but I just have never really gotten into it.

Today after dropping the kids off at school, I was turning a corner. The corner across from me is Home Depot. I think my heart jumped a beat. I felt as if Home Depot was calling out to me. It was saying, "come, explore my isles full of projects just waiting to be done!"

I didn't go.

But I really wanted to.

I really like the satisfaction I get when I am able to build or fix something around the house. Or plant something in the yard. I love to look at the beauty of something that has been completed and I did it!! Of course I usually have the help of my husband, and many times I get to just watch him do it while I keep the kids out of trouble.

Last week I was able to help a friend build a chicken coop. That was fun. It took us all day and it was a very simple one, but the satisfaction was wonderful. We didn't need our husband's help. We just worked very hard and got it done!!

What a wonderful feeling.

Halloween 2009

This was a really FUN Halloween for me. Maybe because I was excited about it early on? I don't know. Emma really wanted to be a pumpkin. So I saw on a Martha Stewart thing that you could make a pumpkin costume out of a pillow case. So that is what I did. The hat, well, I made that up. I died the pillow case because it seems that no one wants orange pillows (Martha was very wrong at how easy it would be to find orange). I measured just the way Martha said but it was wrong, I didn't want to die another pillow case so I sewed what I had already cut back together. It was a pain to do but... I didn't have to go out and buy another thing of die.

So, here is beautiful Emma... What is halloween without face paint?

David, oh David. He wanted to be a bat so bad last year and the same passion rolled into this year. So, I made this bat costume. He drew a picture of how he wanted the shape of the eyes and also the shape of the ears. So, this is really his design. Gotta love it!!

Abby wanted to be whatever Emma wanted to be. But, Emma talked her into being a mermaid.

This costume was borrowed from my sister in law Andrea. Thank you!

Abby loved being a mermaid mostly because of the make up. Pa did a video of her when he was taking pictures and Abby was telling him all about the make up that she gets to have on. She kept smacking her lips it was SOOO cute!

I never realized how long her eyelashes were until I tried to put on mascara, they run right into her eye brows.

We went to the store after the trunk or treat party and there was a man that was blind in one eye. One of those things that makes it really hard not to focus on the person, but focusing more on the eye. Well, he asked Abby what she was. Abby just couldn't stop talking and she held his hand and just showed Christ like behaviors, I was very proud of her. He was very impressed with how much she was talking to him.

Jacob, we wanted to dress him up, but he didn't want to. I think we have had this lion costume for about 3 years now. Every year I want someone to wear it, but none of my kids will. So sad.

So, Jacob went as Jacob.

Well, at least this year my niece Amelia was able to wear it to a party the week before halloween. She was excited! Hooray!!

And here we are as a family. Pa is our cowboy!!

So, after posting the picture of Amelia, I guess I better post some pictures of my kids from the other party. David was still a bat. Emma and Abby were hula girls.

It is hard to see Emma but you can see the coconut shells that she was SOOO excited to wear!