Can 37 and 2 be so similar?

On Friday I threw one terrific temper tantrum. I think my two-year-old would have been very proud of my abilities, had she not been shocked. Why at my age am I throwing temper tantrums? I have SO much to work on!
After my explosion I felt horrible, HORRIBLE. But some of the things I am grateful for are 1. a husband who didn't react and just suggested I go somewhere else and 2. for a loving Heavenly Father who knows we will make mistakes and has created the most beautiful plan, so instead of being eternally devastated we can be forgiven as we try our best to make things better. Does that mean no consequences, absolutely not, we still have to make amends and work things out, but it does mean that we have an amazing friend and advocate helping us out and bridging the gap.

I remember listening to the after game show of a BYU football game. The coach kept talking about how proud he was of his team. They had made some foolish, and bad mistakes in the beginning of the game, but he was so pleased with how they just kept going and didn't dwell on their mistakes, but went on to play out the rest of the game and win. This is so applicable to our lives. Often I make dumb mistakes, or do things I know I shouldn't and I just want to give up and hide my head. I'm slowly learning, that this doesn't work and I just need to get back in the game and try even harder.

Heavenly Father is so kind and I am so grateful for HIS Plan of Happiness. It truly is amazing.

This weekend I sure fell in love with my kids again. I LOVE to have our family around. We surely missed those who weren't here though. I can't imagine what my life would be like without all of you. The house is so quiet and now we have to get back to doing all the "stuff" that is normal around here. We love you all so much! {{hugs}}

Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day! What a fun day especially set aside to let those you love, know how much you love them. I love that everyone is decked out in red or pink. I love that I can make homemade valentines with lots of goop and show my kids what a real valentine is!
I love walking down the isles of the grocery store watching men try desperately to choose something for their sweetheart or grandmas with carts full of treats for grandchildren. I love how happy children are to go to school.
I just LOVE that you have one more excuse to give hugs to your squirmy children. I can't wait to put on some bright red lipstick and give them all a BIG smooch on their cheeks tonight :)


I'm also very grateful my husband is home from his week-long-business trip and he can help me deal with the SUGAR crash tonight!

Counting Blessings Instead of Sheep

Last night I was reading a magazine and a very short article caught my eye. Here is the article:

"Enjoy Sounder Sleep by not Counting Sheep."

Instead, count all the reason you have to be thankful--for instance, for a beautiful winter sunset, the love of a pet curled up on your lap, or the health of your family and loved ones. Women who regularly think of the blessings of their ife doe off faster, sleep more deeply and have higher energy levels the next day than those who don't, reveals a recent study in the Journal of Psychosomatic medicine. The reason? Thankful thoughts prompt positive feelings, which short circuit stress, a main culprit behind lousy sleep!

So, last night as I was drifting off I started thinking of all of my blessings. Here are some of them:
Lots of nice hot water for my shower
A warm blanket on my bed
Cute purple toe nail polish
A car that will take me where I need to go
A refrigerator full of groceries
The ability to read
Knees that work
Feet that take me where I need to go.

Those were just a few of the many things I thought of last night as I drifted off. What can you add to this list? And, sweet dreams! :-)

Changing my Perspective

So, I'm a mom, mom-in-law, grandma and wife to some of the most amazing people I know and yet I sometimes still feel picked on. It's been so hard this semester to really dig in and get my homework finished. With mom (grandma e) in the hospital, rehab and now assisted living and all of my brothers and sisters around, I really didn't start doing homework for the first three weeks. I'm an so far behind I'm almost starting to lap myself.

Anyway, today I unexpectedly had to change my plans once again to take my mom to the doctors. I had great plans to go to school from 8-5 and really get caught up. Barb, Becky and Sandy called this morning, as I was making an appointments, asking for updates and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to them but I was lucky to get to school at noon. I tried to figure out how to work a program to remake a website I had done and couldn't concentrate and well the list of reasons why my wheels were spinning with no traction goes on from there. At 3:00pm I left school to pick grandma up for her appointment at 4:15.

Grandma (Mom) huffed and puffed acted really "Camillish" (Camille had a great dying scene that went on and on) and in general tried to get me to do things for her she needs to do herself. It's really hard to not do things for your mom she wants done. But, if she's going to get home, she's got to do these things herself. Sometimes I feel really overwhelmed and picked on.

After finally getting to the Doctors Office and getting settled into the examination room, I showed her how to play Word Up on my telephone. (The game is an electronic version of Boggle) After she tired of that, we played "Angry Birds" until she decided it was unkind to fling birds at silly pigs. She had a great time and even laughed. It felt so good to make her happy with a couple of silly little games. We even talked about needing to get her an ipad. After the doc's office, we stopped at Taco Bell and had a couple of tacos together.

I remembered why I love her so much and why it's so hard to see her struggling. I'm really glad to have this time with her because I know it won't last much longer. So my goal to to treasure this special moments and just plan for the unexpected.

Who knew that we women in so many different stages of our lives would have so many different struggles? I love you all so very much!

Cooking and Cleaning ...

Dishes, laundry, cleaning, meals ... if it's not one task it's another in the motherhood realm. Nothing ever seems to be completely finished. After breakfast, lunch will inevitably follow just a few hours later (not to mention all the dishes)! It seems that just after I finish folding the laundry I put the kids into their pajamas and end up with more clothes to wash. The toilet is usually used within minutes of it being cleaned. Oh the endless jobs of being a Mommy!

One of the things that helps me the most in cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, and so on is to phone a friend. My closest friends are those with whom I have either blood or marital ties - my mom, sisters, sisters-in-law and my cousin Natalie. Today I knew the only way I was going to get through my heaping pile of dishes in the sink was to call Natalie and chat while I did them. I quickly became lost in conversation and the chore vanished.

In reality, it always takes more time to do something when I'm chatting, but the task seems to be accomplished so much faster and I'm so much happier to do it. I'm so grateful for family and friends that lighten my load.

Other things that help me take on the endless household duties:
* Help the kids clean up their toys at the end of the day. (They can't make messes in the playroom in their sleep. At least I don't know of any sleepwalkers in my house. And I feel better about teaching them to clean instead of doing it myself afterwards.)
* Do the evening dishes before retiring to bed. (Again, waking up to a dish-free sink makes making breakfast easier and I'm always in a better mood when I don't have dirty dishes staring at me first thing in the morning.)
* If no friend or family member is able to talk, watching a movie or listening to an audio book also helps with doing household chores. (I can usually work faster with media than on the phone, but it's not nearly as fun!)

The Parable of the Princesses

My life revolves around Princesses. With 3 of my own and many more I sew for I am constantly surrounded by princesses.

Yesterday I attended a ward in So. UT and The girl teaching the RS lesson read the Parable of the Princesses. I've heard it before but yesterday as I sat and listened it became rather obvious which Princess I am.

I am the busy one, Sara. I know, shocker, right? But that Princess didn't make time for what was most important, building her castle. I am busy from the moment I get up until I fall back into bed early the next morning. The things I do all during the day aren't bad, and they do benefit my family but what is the MOST beneficial to my family? What does my castle look like? How I am teaching my Princesses to build their castles?

I haven't made any new master plans, yet, but I am more aware of how I am spending my time and looking for ways to add bricks daily to my castle.

So Grateful for Family

The other night my two-year-old woke up coughing A LOT. She was miserable and so was I. At that moment I was so grateful for my amazing sister-in-law who has so much experience in the area of children and coughing and not breathing well. I have talked with her enough to know just what to do and my little daughter and I were able to quickly remedy the situation and enjoy some good sleep:) What a blessing to have family to go to when you need help. Heavenly Father knew we would need such an amazing support system! I'm so grateful for his kindnesses!

a change of heart

In my new adventure of being pregnant I have felt feelings and eaten things that I never have before. My first few weeks of morning sickness seemed years long. The first time I threw up I remember thinking, "that wasn't that bad." But by the 5th day of throwing up it was that bad! When I felt the worst it was really easy to hate and despise (sorry about the strong words, but remember emotions are stronger when your pregnant) women that don't get sick or throw up when they are pregnant. I was sad and jealous.
While studying a conference talk from April 2007 by Elder Holland called "the tongue of angels," I learned how powerful a persons words can be. At one point he quotes Elder Orson F. Whitney saying, "The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience." Holland then quotes Ephesians 4:29-32, "And grieve not the holy spirit of God... Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you...And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving of another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." From reading this I realized that being angry at women who don't feel sick during pregnancy didn't make me feel any better. In fact, it made me feel worse (even physically).
I needed to have a change of heart. It took a while, I mean it definitely didn't happen over night. But now the way that I truly feel is that I am happy for women who don't feel sick during pregnancy! For all I know, they probably have other problems to deal with that I don't have to. I think this concept can by applied to all areas of life, when we feel someone has something, and we don't think it's fair that they have that, just remember to be happy with what you have.

What a Wonderful Gift

With the new year come New Years' Resolutions - many focused on losing weight and being healthier. I've thought a lot about this through the years and again this year with many "bad" thoughts about my body and feeling guilty for eating this or that - often feeling like a "bad" person. Easy to do when our society is bombarded with stick thin models, diets everywhere you turn, and people who say they're being "good" or "bad" depending on what they're eating.

I was talking with someone who said that she heard an older woman say something about her tummy. My friend said, "I thought when you got older, all that body consciousness went away....that you would just wear a muumuu and not worry about it." When she said that, something clicked in my mind. Here is an amazing woman and daughter of God who was feeling poorly about her body. Is that what Heavenly Father would want her to feel? I'm sure not. Her body is a precious gift from Him. We came to Earth to receive our bodies. None of them are the same - we're tall, short, fat, thin, dark haired, blonde haired, healthy, sick, etc - and each of us is beautiful.

I think when we die and are awaiting the resurrection we are going to miss our bodies - no matter what shape they're in. I'm grateful for mine :)

Just be Quiet

One of my boys about the age of two, would often exclaim "Stop Talking" whenever he thought we weren't listening to him or he thought it was to loud. Back then I thought it was cute and didn't pay much attention, during the past few months I've come to realize the wisdom in his phrase.
Yesterday at church someone shared a quote that said, "We need to give people the benefit of the doubt and just be quiet." So my new goal is to do just that.
But boy is it hard, especially with those you love the most.

Making Lemonade

Change has been difficult for me for a long time. I was scared to move, scared to go to college, scared to serve a mission for my church, scared to get married. When we moved from Utah, where I had lived for many years to Arizona it was very difficult. I kept asking myself why we were here, and what was I supposed to do. One morning I woke up and I knew, I needed to make Lemonade with the LEMONS I felt I had been handed. Today I have a bowl of lemons on my table to remind me that I need to make Lemonade with what I have today. So this blog is about making Lemonade with the "blessings" we have been given.