It's October not sure how that happened and yet time marches on ....no matter the time, months & years it just all keeps ticking!
How fast time flies for example how k is turing 18!! in a few months! Or that I have three teenagers now or how life gets all twisted upside down one day, then you deal with it and the next one comes along and we deal with it.
We're making it through each one day at a time.
It's super weird to get older and watch young mothers with little ones and think on one hand glad that's done.... and on the other oh I wish I could go back to my littles. When life was full of easy answers rocking, holding, soothing, wiping tears, feeding, changing diapers all easy solutions. Now they are a little bit more emotional, more life-changing choices and a little harder to solve.
But there is a time and season for everything. This season I'm more focused on being here when they need me and keeping up with them, waiting up for them worrying about them.... have I taught them enough? Are they ready to go out into the world and thrive:) They sometimes act like they don't want me around .....yet they need me more than ever. Some days life just brings situations to the forefront and we muddle our way through each one hoping we all survive and learn from our mistakes and take the lessons to learn from them. We rejoice in the moments that bring us closer together..... and cry at the ones that hurt us, or our children in ways we can't easily fix.
These are the moments I miss my littles where the problems were so much easier to fix, and where the tears and pain easily were forgotten. I feel so very blessed with my children they are amazing in every way and in everything they put their minds to. They are smart, happy and well adjusted and for the most part stand firm in all they do, yes, they do dumb teenager things as we all did, but none of us are perfect and all of us are learning and growing together in this crazy world!
We've had a few fun trips D and I went on a cruise in February it was so nice to get away together. It's so important to do that to remember who you are together, so when the kids leave home you still have each other and know each other and like each other still;)
Our summer was full of a trip to SLC for seminar for D's work we took K2 with us and showed him the sights and he spent some time with cousins it was so fun or both of us, birthdays July 1st fun, swim lessons, work, and camps for the kids and two trips to Montana to the lake with family it was a busy summer but we loved it!
We've also had quite the year D's dad had a major stroke in March and survived in miraculous ways and we are so beyond blessed to still have him here with us. We realize every day the miracles we have been apart of to see how far he has come. D's mom had hip surgery and is on her way to knee surgery soon #idontwanttogetolder. We are so blessed to have both of them in our lives! There journey this year has brought all of us closer together in ways that are hard to describe but just pulling together and doing what needs to be done has strengthened all of us. The way families should be.
We also witnessed on a family hike last month a man falling 30ft off a waterfall to what should have been his death.... and happened to be there at the right time and place and witnessed many miracles that day also. God put others in the path at the right time to be there to help a Dr, a nurse, Members of our faith and others to pray and help the children deal with what they too had witnessed. It is amazing that the Lord can save and give miracles for some if it's his plan. In August my little sister was also diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer Melanoma in her intestines a very rare cancer she is only 40 and has 6 young children, three of whom are a sibling trio of which they were blessed to adopt last year. My heart breaks for her and her family and likewise, I hope and pray for miracles for her too!
You just never know what's ahead.
We've had exciting things too D ran his first 1/2 marathon trained hard and killed it! We got away with friends for the weekend last month to SLC, Utah to the Big Cottonwood marathon where his sister Alley also ran and accomplished another full. D killed the half in 1:42 at 7:45/pace. I am still so stinkin proud of him and his goal and doing it and achieving it. It was actually a very emotional feeling watching the runners of the 1/2 and full come in achieving goals and tears streaming it was an incredible experience. {Not enough for me to run one haha but all the power to those that do them and train so hard to achieve their goals it really is amazing to watch!}
The kids started school strong in grades 12/10/8/5 so so insane that I am this old that they are this old.
I started out the school year temp working in the office at our high school for three weeks and loved it. There's something about keeping busy and feeling useful and having a purpose it's nice to be needed. Sometimes with teenagers, that's hard. But I felt closer to my teenagers seeing them there every day too.
I can't even handle thinking of K graduating & leaving on a mission or school or whatever he chooses... it makes me cry. I literally feel like he was just placed in my arms and heart this handsome baby boy and now he's a 6'7 man how?? He's a joy! He always has been, of course, he's your typical teenage boy full of life, mischief and a good laugh. I Want to smack him half the time and hold him like a little boy the next haha. He's a good kid. Friends are super important and music and his phone right now but working hard and playing hard are too! {and growing his hair out to drive me crazy is pretty important to him right now too;)
L whos becoming a beautiful, strong young woman full of dreams, talents and deep-rooted faith in all the things that matter. She's establishing goals and dreams in all the things she wants for her future. She's a loving, listening & understanding friend who hurts with others and tries her best to help them. She's strong and independent & feisty as ever. But seriously can't imagine life without her she is perfectly her and we love her!
Then the boy who's 13 now... taller than me and sounds like a man too. Who is in the thick of jr high and figuring things out and where he fits in, stands and what he wants and he's doing a pretty good job of it! He loves people and is always serving others, he's one of the most enduring, giving boys I've probably ever met. Exasperating at times and trying at others but a hard worker and willing to serve anytime. He needs GPS to find him, cause he still lives a roaming life still seriously never know where the boy is. He spent his summer swimming canals and going shirtless and is developing his own "M personality" full of likes and dislikes, teasing, pestering but in reality, he's my best helper who gets things done and will do it:) He's a true handsome gem.
Then comes the caboose sweet k2 the one who still loves me unconditionally who still slips his little hand in mine, still cuddles up and reads a book with me, and loves to talk about anything and everything. He's full of insight, wisdom, and perspective beyond his age. He's loving, kind and considerate always of other's feelings and the way they make him feel. He's so sweet and I'd take 10 of him! I really never want him to grow up and I want him innocent forever because he is such a peacemaker and heart healer he knows just what to say right when your feeling it♥
I find somedays wondering where life is taking us as the days go by and we get older and our kids get older friends and parties become less important as do other's opinions and judgments of us. I realize more that I have my place and it's right here building this foundation so my children hopefully grow up strong and happy and ready to face life's fires with strong testimonies of faith through the examples in their lives growing up. I'm happy with our life we made I have good friends and people that know me better than me sometimes. I pray that despite life's trials we all have them that we will all work through them and come out stronger on every aspect because thats what it's all about.
Life is good we have nothing to complain about. I think the boring mundane day to day is great because it's stable. It's a happy & healthy life and we have each other to have our backs to lean on each other and to learn from each other. I really wouldn't trade it for anything or have it any other way.
The home is the first and most effective place for children to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self-control; the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life. Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no other success can compensate for failure in the home."
David O. McKay
David O. McKay
