This week

Life's been good. The weather has been AMAZING! I love this "pre-fall" weather. It's absolutely PERFECT! Life has also been crazy. My days are filled with taking kids to school, working out, running errands before the kids get home, when they do, we have just a short window of time for the kids to eat, do homework, chores, then it's off to soccer practice. On Saturdays it's games all day and photo shoots in the evenings. To top it off, Matt has begun his P.A. program, so he's consumed with studying. I feel like the Lord is truely helping me though. Saturday I did a 5 mile run with Mildred in the morning. It was a good run. I totally look forward to that time when it's just me and Mildred. She's a kindred spirit of mine and that quiet alone time when we run, enjoy the beauty of the morning, and talk about EVERYTHING is so dear to me. Got home, made breakfast for the kids, then left for 2 games in Staunton. I took all the kids by myself so Matt could study and just camped out at the fields while the girls had their games. Afterwards, we rushed home, I made lunch, then packed the kids up again for another game that was in Nelson County. Got back, got dinner (thank you pizza place), had ice cream w/the kids, and sent them off to bed. Then Matt came home around 11PM. Then I did an ab work out and finished the day off by downing a very not tiny bowl of ice cream. Now, I say I feel like the Lord is helping me because I was able to get everything done. He's seriously, not trying to sound cliche, but he's seriously giving me strength I don't have. I think part of it is, He knows my heart. With Matt deciding to go back to school, I didn't want it to interrupt our lives. Meaning I didn't want the kids to take a backseat to Matt's schedule. Just because Matt won't be home much doesn't mean I sit back and tell the kids, "sorry, your dad's not here to help, so no fun for you." The kids love their sports and thank goodness, it's an extracurricular activity that I LOVE. I love watching them swim, I'm now loving just being at soccer fields watching them play. The Lord knows I desire so much to see my kids happy, to experience sports, team comradary (sp?) pushing themselves. I want them to experience winning, loosing, frustration, exhileration. Maybe that's why He's helping me? Plus being outside, watching their games/practices, helps with my mood, too. How can you not be happy when you're outside, enjoying the sky, the grass, trees, even cool butterflies that think your finger is a flower. Yeah, saw that on Saturday. You could see it's little antenna tongue tapping away at the tip of Ben's (friend of ours)finger in search of pollen. Kids played well. Angela is SUCH A GREAT PLAYER! The girl, ever since she was 4, has had a grasp on the sport. She knows how to THINK as she plays. She doesn't react. She's patient, she turns the ball, her anticipation is perfect. Plus she's FAST. Honestly, that's how I played soccer. I seemed to have a sense of where the ball was going to go, or better yet, what the player coming at me was going to do, and could anticipate every move. I was also super fast and never seemed to tire. Angela seems to have taken what I used to be and taking it to higher levels. Because I was doing all this when I was 16. She's only 8. I'm excited to see what she does when she gets older. The won the game 3-2. She scored 1 goal. She's mentioned wanting to play tennis in college however. As much as I want to see her stick with soccer, I'd totally support her in tennis. Really, any sport. She'd do great at anything she wants. Jess had her first game. She has no idea what she's doing, but she's aggressive. That girl goes after the ball w/o fear. Actually,she does everything w/o fear. Once she figures out the idea behind soccer, she'll be just fine. I can't wait to watch her season as it continues. I'm helping coach (not doing much cuz the real coach does fine all by himself) but I do enjoy being with her, literally, at her practices. I love soccer!! Dallin had his first game, too. That kid, though not the most athletic on the team at all, has no sense of defeat. Even though they lost 1-5, Dallin played his hardest to the very end. And when the same kid beats him to the ball 5 times, the 6th time he'll still run his heart out to beat him. And whats even better, is that 6th time, if he gets beat, he doesn't hang his head. Or that 6th time, if he DOES get to the ball first, he doesn't get all puffy and prideful. I don't know what goes through Dallin's head. I think he has the make up of someone who'll frustrate his competitors because he won't stop. And it's not like he's being motivated to be the guy next to him, he's being motivated to beat himself. I love that about Dallin! Colby didn't have a game. His game was scheduled for today and we're a non-sport playing family when it comes to Sunday sports. I'll be sticking by that rule because guess what? It's just one less game to have to worry about and this season, all the Sunday games are FAR AWAY! ;) Thank you Heavenly Father! Had a GREAT lesson today in Relief Society. The teacher, Melissa. A-MAZING. I just liked her questions and how she directed the lesson. It was about, or at least what I came away from the lesson thinking, our lives and the different aspects of it and w/in each aspect, were we on the Lords side, or on the devils side. Meaning, for example, when it comes to ... journaling. Do I journal as the Lord would have me, or as satan would have me? Lately, I'd have to say, as satan would have me. ie I don't journal. What do I have for my kids? Nothing lately. So because of her lesson, I was spurred to action and I'm recommiting myself to journaling every Sunday night. Today the kids were all in the family room, pouring over our family albums. The albums are SO IMPORTANT and incredibly INTERESTING to them. Imagine my journals/blogs? So I need to write more. How do I mentally spend my day? Pondering and meditating as the Lord would have me do, or brooding and sulking as satan would have me to? I have to admit, I do a LOT of brooding. The other thing Melissa said, which I LOVED, was being reminded that we don't have to change EVERYTHING we're doing wrong. It'd be too overwhelming actually. But to just take it one at a time, or even to strengthen something we're already good at. The Lord doesn't want us to fail, He doesn't want us to get discouraged, and if I sat down and tried to revamp EVERYTHING I'm doing wrong, I'd just curl up into the fetal position and suck on donuts all day long. Soo, that said, I'm going to get back to journaling. I really need to. Seeing my kids pouring over our family albums today just touched me. They LOVED looking at them. Imagine how much they'll love reading my thoughts, our days as a young family, the fun chaos that being a member of this family entails. They'd love it. I'm a good writer. I can strengthen this. And I am going to work at my brooding. I need to quit thinking of how people have wronged me and stop wasting precious thoughts and time. Instead I can ponder and meditate. I need to ponder some quilts I need to sew anyways! ;) As a family, we're going to work on how we treat each other. The kids LOVE to toss each other under buses any chance they GET! So the new plan is, instead of assigning each kid a room to clean, I'm assigning 2 kids per room. They have to work together. And when they finish, they come get me to see if the room passes inspection. If I say, "good job, you're done" then they high 5 each other. The other thing we're going to start doing is, after each family prayer, they need to hug each other. They do great at hugging Matt and me, and of course the baby, but not each other. That's all gonna change. We did both today. And it went really well. Super small change, but I'm confident it'll help the family to show outward love and concern for each other. Oh, onto a lighter subject. So I weigh 139.8. Ouch. I've decided to motivate myself a little more. For every 5 pounds I lose, I'm gonna reward myself with a charm for my bracelet. I need to get a charm for every kid. Total 35 pounds. OK, I don't need to lose THAT much weight, but I do need to get down to 120. And the day I hit 118, I'm gonna complete my charm-kid collection. OK, it's 11PM. I need to gets me some shut-eye! Until next week!