A Working Woman

The last two weekends in a row have been spent at my parent's house, doing the annual "How We Pay For Weddings, Cars and Vacations" job of Tax Sales.  Basically, if you don't pay your property taxes for five years, my family is going to do a little research so that the county can auction off your property legally.  But while The Sisters, my dad and I were hard at work, there were a few other things going on.  Like this:

And because it was the day of green, we came home for this:

And we also did some of this:

 And now we can pay for repairs on our cars and a little vacationing, but luckily no weddings. 

Goodbye Chickens, Goodbye Rats

We said a fond farewell to Denver and Enoch last week.  There were more than a few tears shed on the occasion.  Our only consolation and hope is that the rats will go find a food source elsewhere.  In the meantime, the kids have not stopped begging for a dog, now that their beloved pets have flown the coop (he he).  Beg on, dear children-I will not be swayed!  (At least not this year because we don't have a fence)

Family

I have had these thoughts on my mind all week, so I am purging my brain, here, for you.

I have some really amazing women in my life.  I talk to these women regularly about motherhood and some of its stresses.  One day I was having an especially Bad Mommy Day (hereafter to be referred to as BMD.  Not to be confused with BMI.  Or BM).  As I sat reading my latest copy of the Ensign (Speaking of BM, here's a little tip I recently discovered: put anything you want to read in the bathroom!  I use the bathroom a dozen or more times a day.  I lock my kids out and it becomes my little sanctuary.  Now I love going to the bathroom!  Sometimes I just pretend I have to go!) I read a quote from Elder Robert D. Hales from the last General Conference.  It said, "Every one of us is more beloved to the Lord than we can possibly understand or imagine.  Let us therefore be kinder to one another and kinder toward ourselves."  When I read that, I had two thoughts.  One was that it is true.  I should be kinder to myself, even on a BMD, because Heavenly Father loves me more than I can possibly understand.  Sometimes I tend to beat myself up a little for my less than ideal mothering moments.  The second thought was that Heavenly Father put wonderful people in my life to show me an example of His love for me.  Daily, I talk to one of my sisters about a stress or two and every time, they listen non-judgmentally, give good advice and lift me up so that I feel like I can do better.

So then the other day I was sitting in my sister Lynnette's bathroom (seriously people, put this into practice!), reading the Reader's Digest and I read this quote from some guy that I can't remember and I actually can't even remember exactly what the quote said, but the general idea was this: We don't have kids just for the purpose of raising them (it sounds weird, but stick with me).  We have kids to experience joy, love, fun and to help guide them into the people that they are meant to be.

And then, on yet another BMD, and in a conversation with my sister, Monica, she told me about a mom who, in order to save her two children from a tornado, covered them with a blanket and laid over the top of them while the tornado destroyed her house.  She lost one leg below the knee, and one leg at the ankle.  During all this her husband was frantically texting her, thinking she might have died.  And in what she thought were her final moments, she recorded a message to him.  Monica said to me, "Family is the most important thing.  Deep down, everyone feels it."  That lady felt it as she was willing to sacrifice her life for her children and told her husband she loved him in what she thought was her dying breath.

So let me wrap this all up for you.  Motherhood is one of the greatest blessings I can have.  My family is the most important thing.  This is the plan, that we have good and bad days, and that we not only endure, but enjoy it.  The way that my Heavenly Father, and a few precious others, see me, even on my BMD, is how I should be striving to see my children, on their bad days.  I need to try and see their potential, what they are meant to be.  And really, we should be trying to see everyone the way Heavenly Father sees them.

As Elder Marvin J. Ashton said, "None of us need one more person...pointing out where we have failed or fallen short.  What each of us does need is family...who believe in us, and who believe we're trying to do the best we can."  I'm grateful I have that, from family and those of you I consider family!