Tough love?

My son ran away today.... He didn't want to change his sprinklers, he finally came home after dark. I asked him where he'd gone, "I was just walking around" "well," says I you just go back outside and walk around until those sprinklers are changed and then you can come home." He went and changed his sprinklers!! It's so nice to have him home! 

Sigh.... Is tough love, tough on the kid, or the Mom? 

Things I've learned at the bakery.

You may not believe it, but I do, that even places are affected by the absence of a single person. It seems that every time that Ardell Leaves for more then a day, there are subtle yet obvious mishaps that indicate her absence. What happens isn't so important. But, the knowledge that she is an essential part of the life of the bakery becomes obvious.  I think we all have that much worth, we all have an effect on things and people and events that we are commonly involved in. We all have value beyond compare. So don't misjudge your worth, don't feel as if you are not important don't even let the thought notice you, for we are all more powerful than you can imagine!! 

And that is why I miss you when you're gone. 

Christmas tree's 2015

This year getting our tree we had a blast until Braden got stuck. But, we got him out and then we had a blast!! Until Braden got stuck. But,we got him out and then we had a blast... Until.... But... And so we loaded Braden up with firewood found a beautiful tree that me and the girls, with the help of Chance, cut and dragged 1/4 of a mile....I didn't realize we'd cut such a heavy tree until I dragged it the first 1 foot!!! But we're tough, we got it most of the way before Dad took pity on us and drove to where we were. 

With Braden loaded with wood we figured things would go smoother we piled into the pickup to head home we were having a blast until Braden got stuck.... 

But hey I got a good senior picture of Caib👍🏼and I'm sure we'll make it home...eventually!

He Knows

I've been so aware of the spirit today, Roger and  his councilors gave  excellent talks in sacrament meeting . In fact I have been blessed to have felt the spirit within me all week. I've been praying for direction and guidance from the spirit, the response has been sweet. In this world where there is so much evil and filth. Where the Devil is making his selfish greedy desire to control and rule more evident than ever. the Lord has and can fill our lives with the beauty of his ways. I feel Him near me. I love Him. I don't know how it works but, I know that He knows me and he understands and as I lift the chin of my heart and deny fear in any form to control me, He can make me aware of his ever present love and fill me with power.

Fun cakes

Let Go My Finger

Let Go My Finger

Momma, please be patient, I'm such a little guy,

But I'm letting go your finger, to walk, to run, to try.

I'm not scared I'll slip and fall and scrape my little knee,

I need you, mom, to just let go... Let go and trust in me.

See mom, now I'm walking. We did it. See me go! 

Now I'm free to run and jump, and swim, and play, and grow. 

Those cuts and bruises heal, mom. Don't worry, I'll be fine.

'Cause you'll be there to pick me up. How glad I am your mine.

Now, Mom, continue patience. I'm older now, it's true.

But still, please let go my finger, there's things I need to do. 

Yes, the bumps and bruises will hurt my spirit knee. 

But don't forget I'm not afraid. I need your trust in me. 

I see the worry in your eyes. I see your pain filled heart,

As you let go my finger and I get a shaky start. 

Now momma, don't you worry, you've taught me wrong from right.

And how to rise again when I've fallen in the fight.

Yes, sometimes I'll fall harder and be beaten black and blue,

But know that I will rise again as I feel that trust from you.

One day, Mom, you will look at me. You'll see how much I've grown,

Because of all your trust in me and all the love you've shown.

Let go my growing fingers, mom, trust and let me grow,

This spirit that's inside of me is stronger than you know. 

-Cathy Brian-

More cakes

Cakes I've made!!

Chancee's chattering

Chance had a bad dream it scared him to death. So there I was at 6:00AM talking to him about how to deal with bad dreams..."have you said a prayer?" I asked. "You know that will help the most" I say. I know he responds. I than proceed to talk.... Apparently more than I realized because after I'd talk for a bit he looks at me and says "are you done, mom?" "Why?" I asked "are you tired of listening?"  "No" he says "I'm just done listening!!" 

Sunday memories

Sitting by the fire rocking his little sister and brother. one of my favorite things about Caib!! 

Time to blog.

I've just spent two hours reading blog books and I have to start blogging again!!! They are SO Fun to read!! Oaklee has lost her four bottom teeth but no top ones yet. But the one is so close. 

Fall pictures and fun!!

Getting wood for the winter! What a beautiful season. The leaves are Soooo pretty! 

Have you ever played pooh sticks? We do every time we come to this little bridge in Seven Mile. I love, love, love the silly little traditions that keep the family together. 

Sisterhood

Sisterhood

On life’s path, when we travel, we can’t help but learn,

For angels, from our Father, guide us at every turn.

He directs the angel’s guidance. He knows just what we need.

And in our slow paced travels we must learn to pay them heed.

As we learn, grow and listen to the whisp’ring angel voices

We recognize their guidance and make much better choices.

Then we, if we prove worthy, through obedience to spirit,

And begin responding with velocity every time we hear it.

Can be as guiding angels, for know you not His perfect love?

At times each of His children need more then whisp’ring from above.

We need help from spirit angels. That forever will be true.

But on occasion we need people who help and guide us, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the promise of your coming my heart was eased from fear

And I wept away my sorrow for I knew you’d soon be near.

No matter what your trials, when you came to comfort me

We felt, together, heaven and we saw eternity.

Cathy Brian, 2014

Thoughts on Thursday

So, for two weeks I have been faithfully walking and eating better...no sugar....sort of. just no candy, junkfood, chips donuts ice cream etc...I feel soo much better!!!
 
 My walks have been FuN.  I live in a most remarkable area...whith in a three mile radius I have access to some very beautiful roads, dirt roads mostly. I love the variety of places to go with no houses and very little traffic. I like to take Angee with me, she is Braden's Yellow Lab, you couldn't ask for a better companion. and should I chance upon a bear, I'm sure she would protect me with her life. ;)
 
 As I was walking today my thoughts turned to my Oldest son, he was in an accident last night, on one of those back roads I was talking about. He was coming home from a baseball game last night. They had won 28 to 1. The bus had dropped them off at the high school and the boys that live in Loa all took this back road. the first boy had some napkins in his pick up and the wind caught them and scattered them all over the road he apparently stopped in the middle of the road to get things under control when  the next boy pulled up into the lane beside him to see what was happening. Braden saw the napkins flying around and was distracted came around the corner and couldn't stop and rear ended the two cars.  Roger was called, he happened to be cutting hay in our field  close by and he went down and they got all the paper work done and got home after 11:00.
 
When Roger called to let me know what had happened I hung up the phone and was pretty upset, I hurried the three youngest to bed with scripture study and prayers and then went into try to calm myself down and get ready for bed myself. I finally knelt by the bed to ask Heavenly Father for help...I'd been up since four in the morning because I'm now a Baker, yes, I make fresh donuts and bread and such in our local bakery...love it!! but I was tired and irritated. thus my prayer for help in being able to handle the situation with patience and love. As I knelt, and began to pray I heard a voice tell me to relax this crash was supposed to happen. The savior needed to teach Braden through this. I immediately relaxed.

And so...back to my walk this morning and my thoughts, My walk was on a beautiful dirt road with a slight incline as it works it's way up into the mountains above us. as I walked I let my iphone tell me my distance and I just walked untill I had gone a mile and a quarter when I finally reached that point I was on a steep hill struggling to walk as fast as I could and quickly getting tired, I was winded and weary but determined to continue on. It was then that my Phone said " Time 18 minutes 24 seconds, distance 1 point 25 miles, average pace 13.34 minutes per mile." I sighed with relief immediately about faced and headed back down the road towards home...

Now my Thursday thoughts: I thought of Alma the Younger, in the book of Mormon, I thought of Enos in the Book of Mormon and I pondered their conversions. I thought about how we come to this earth on our walks and we head out experiencing and learning and playing and loving our lives and our free agency, but in our walk on this earth their comes a time, I believe, when we become weary and tired and winded and we start to think about going home, and really, its our choice do we about face and begin our journey home to comfort rest and a shower, or do we continue with our struggle up the steep hill of personal weakness, say pride or ingratitude or disobedience or maybe insecurity, fear or even laziness...whatever we struggle with.  I really think it's that easy, to simply refuse to be a slave to whatever it is we struggle with just about face and head back to where we can find the comforts we seek. that is our heavenly home..

I know...these are my own thoughts but they gave me hope...I just pray that I can be patient with those who struggle up their hills and that maybe in some small way I can point out our heavenly home and help them. I really think that our loving Heavenly Father constantly is aware of our walk on this earth and will show us the way home if we let Him.

Just curious how many people out there find that family home evening games become extremely repetitive? We have a total of maybe three if you count "Doctor, doctor we need help" it seems every week the person with the game somehow gets finagled into playing "Animals" by one of the two youngest and since for almost 16 years we've always had two youngest we always seem to play Animals....I'm happyto say that we have played many diversions of this game but it always seems to be "Animals" or sometimes "Button, button" but mostly "Animals". So last Monday we were playing "Plants" Yeah, it's "Animals" but instead of acting out an animal that everyone has to guess what is, we were acting out plants....we were desperate for something different...ANYTHING. so my little scientist's turn comes up. he sits down on the floor curls himself into a tiny ball and says, "there is a lot of pressure on me." the two oldest roll their eyes and halfheartedly throw out a couple of lame guesses before they start telling him he can't expect us to know what he is if he doesn't do a better job acting. But, that's when Dad triumphantly says.."are you really old?" The scientist's eyes brighten and he nods with a grin..."Are you shiny or dull" says dad. "Dull" he says with a bigger grin. "Are you a piece of coal?' Dad asks. The scientist stands and "says You got it, Dad"
How did Dad know that? AND...How does an eight year old cleverly remember that coal is made from prehistoric plant material. and...that if he had been shiny he would have been a diamond.

New Year, New Resolutions, New Memories

Braden is seventeen, Caib is 15 soon to be 16, Aubree is 11, Chance is 8 and Oaklee is 5.  "Where does the time go?"

I've been lazy with blogging lately But seeing the ages of my children and realizing that Summer is the last we will be together I decided I would try to be more diligent in Blogging.  Christmas was Good this year I felt better about it then any other year. We got what the kids needed a few fun things and that was it.. Truly. less is better. We went down below to take care of the cows Last Saturday and had a great time until we loaded the four wheeler to come home.  I pulled the four wheeler up on and then just kept going... I feel extremely lucky to only have a whole lot of bruises and scrapes... I still gave my talk in Church the next day....It wasn't a pretty sight but I guess appearances shouldn't control our actions.  Roger was put in as the bishop in April last year....I'm truly amazed at his growth...What  a humbling experience...

School started, kids are busy and life got hectic for a couple of months.  I find it humorous that I keep thinking I'm too busy to blog, or write, or read, or do anything that might be beneficial...I think Satan squeezes those thoughts in and so we find time to do those things that are time wasters but we just don't have time to do anything else....Because "I'm just TOO busy"
 Last night a girl on the volleyball team brought me a little gift.  It meant more to me then I can express .I wasn't in the house when she came by...I wish I had been. It gave me a sense of relief to know that despite our history she is a Great person and will be...some day... a great mother. I truly do love those girls!

This morning my husband and I were trying to pull ourselves out of bed to begin the day. it was about 6:30AM ..and out of the blue He says to me, "I'm so grateful for you" Now...I don't care who you are or what the reason When your husband says that to you with as much feeling and sincerity that mine did, it makes your month. He did explain though. "Satan is attacking women," he said "If he can corrupt the women he's got it made"   You know that is exactly what I needed to hear this morning. because despite everything, there are definitely times when I start to second guess the choices I've made.  I pray good women everywhere can hang on!!

Braden, Caib and Roger all headed to the Temple this morning.  Glad they all went. Aubree, Chance and Oaklee cleaned everything out of the pantry for me and washed it all down. we then reorganised it.  Which lead to sweeping and vacuuming the floors which ended right here by the computer which ended with me sitting down and checking facebook and then Blogging. Glad we cleaned the pantry. =).

This summer has been hectic and unique. We were mostly gone through the month of June and then Roger had his Back fused which ended up with us being home through the month of July but with Dad here things weren't normal. Now August is here and Volleyball will start and then school.  Time marches on. Braden is a Junior, Caib is a Sophmore, Aubree is starting middle school Chance will be in second Grade and Oaklee is in Kindergarten....I suppose some pictures of summer would be fun!

Swimming lessons

She learned to dive.

My little marine Biologist....Loves water and anything sea

Oaklee and her new Kitten

A Pretty scene

Such a wet July. playing in the puddles

Chance discovered Ironman and built himself and Oaklee a costume

just enjoying summer break

July 10th a whole herd of little girls and a birthday party.

Superhero cousins 1,2,3...

JUMP!!

Ramblings on my birthday.

The end of April and first 2.5 weeks in may are pretty busy months for us.  

 April 29th Caibs Birthday.  just as I snapped the picture, Chance, Who's little hand you see in the background, flipped off the light.  It happened twice and I gave up.  So we get a nice dark blurry picture.

 May 7th Dad's Birthday The three little ones planned a nice party for him while the rest of us spent part of the evening at the FFA banquet for Braden and Caib.  We had to be their because both boys had earned  lot's of little awards. Braden was made the sentinel for next year.

May 12th Mothers day.  THAT was a great day.  Braden followed me around making sure I didn't work to much, He even set the table for dinner.  Caib wrote and gave a talk in sacrament meeting about his Mother.  Aubree spent extra time helping me with dinner that Dad was cooking. hmmmm.  Chance did what Chance does best..  "Mom, I LOVVVVE YOU!!! all day. and little Oaklee brought home a nice little M & M game for us to play and then insisted that we had to play it. We all had to pick an M&M from the bag and then ask or answer questions depending on the color. Yellow was "Name three reasons why you love me."  Her first answer......." because it's almost summer!"  Caib loved that one and used it every time he picked yellow.  Luv his sense of humor!!!

May 14th My birthday. And....I am never disappointed This year I got a new rototiller for my garden.  I actually got it a little early and had already used it but First thing this morning (sort of) I went out and tilled my garden again....because I could!!! Don't worry...We aren't late planting. In Loa you don't plant until after Memorial day or you'll have to replant.  It always freezes until then, and then some. =)

And on the 16th of May..Is Aubree's birthday....Poor thing we are usually all caked out by then and the excitement of birthday is rapidly wearing off but, we do endure to the end and throw a fun party for her.  

little bit accident prone!!!

She slipped  and skinned her back on some ruff cement so I took a picture so she could see how bad it was.

Getting better

Hardly noticeable.

Just hanging out

With her new friend.
For some reason this turkey would walk over to where the kids were playing and plop down on the ground by them and watch ....Oaklee figured it must be lonely and befriended it.....Only Oaklee!   love her!