Week #6 - Dep/Mar Project

Okay, so here we are, the official last week of our project! How's everyone doing so far? I hope it's been a wonderful experience for you as it has been for the two of us. Chris just gave me the latest and the airman replacing him should make it to their base sometime this coming week. All he needs to do after that is train him and finish up his own work. I'm super excited, but like the last principle stated, "just endure to the end of today." Each "day" I endure brings me one day closer to the day my family is all together again!

So just for fun - I learned this week that my lack of sincerity in this project, though I am still very involved has been due to my lack of sincere prayer. So that changed this week. Nothing miraculous occurred for those of you wondering. I just felt better, I felt more like enduring each day was no big deal. I kind of do that anyway, but after a while it just feels like surviving if you're doing without the Lord's help. I always feel so dumb for not seeking the Lord when I'm having a hard time. I don't know why I forget that he's there and ready to help me. I mean seriously, how many of us sit there slaving, starving, and surviving, when we could be having our burdens made light, fasting with purifying experiences, and enduring with the grace of Christ? I mean, really, how many of us do that? Well, I'm not exempt from "slothfulness and forgetfulness" every now and then, and I doubt any of you are either. So this week, I remembered that I needed to rely on the Lord even when I'm just doing what I'm doing. Enduring doesn't feel like enduring when you're being blessed with happy moments, accomplishing goals, and learning a great deal, does it?

Well that means the first part of my week I was surviving and the second part of my week I was enduring. Do I really have to go into the difference? I thought not.

Now, welcome to week #6!

Letter:

Hello again my husband!

So, we’re almost there! I know it’s been a long haul and you’re tired and probably very ready to come home. Just remember I’m very ready to have you here. I am so excited and I’m sure working like mad to finish all those projects I set for myself when you left. (I’m also sure that I’m stressing at having to mark off several for another time as my list grew to be quite large by the day you left!)

Anyway, so this is our last letter, our last week, our last study apart for a while. I really hope you’ve enjoyed this and that it’s been not only beneficial to your work and your spirituality (which you always say you want to be better), but that it’s also been fun and enlightening and challenging. Who doesn’t love a good challenge. I can’t wait to sit next to you and talk about this one.

So week 6 – The topic we’re going to study this week is “excellence.” I know it sounds like we should have done this at the beginning and I’m sure it would’ve been great there too, but as I thought about the other weeks and what might be happening for you this week I thought about our missions. You were so blessed to know exactly when you were coming home, while I was unpleasantly surprised. I often have thought how I might have spent the weeks before I came home if I’d known I was never going to see the people or the country as a missionary again. Well, you’re in luck. Just like your mission, you know that your deployment is almost up. I’m sure by now you know what you need to do to be ready to leave and what you still have left to accomplish. Well this week, we’re going to end on a super high note, as they say.

This week we are going to not only be grateful and magnify our faith, we are not only going to love like Christ and actively pray for miracles, we are not only going to be enduring with grace and strength, we are going to strive for all out excellence in all we do.

As I searched for an accompanying talk to go with this topic I ran into something unexpected. I ran into excellence as a principal, but not one on which whole talks are usually given. Honestly, I found talks about being excellent in something, about something, with something, but not just excellence as a topic itself. I wondered for a bit weather or not I should adjust my topic, until I realized that the talks were supportive material not the whole system of study. So I found a talk I believe focuses appropriately on what I felt we should do and I will leave the rest of the study to us. I know the spirit will guide us in this topic as he has with the rest and maybe he will lead us to what we need to know about excellence in our own areas of effort.

Good luck and know that I love you so much. I can’t wait to see you and the kids as always send loves with big slobbery kisses, icky noses, sticky fingers, and little goofy grins super big and happy. See you soon!

Note: with the addition of this week's article, one of our previous articles will have to be removed to make space. If anyone wants to read it, please let me know and I'll send you either the link or the talk itself.

Grateful Turkeys

Well, we hope everyone had a wonderful and very filling Thanksgiving Day!

We sure enjoyed our day. It wasn't a very different day for us considering I didn't make any food, Chris wasn't home and we didn't do much. We did have a fun Thanksgiving preschool on Tuesday and were invited to the Putnam's for dinner on Thursday. Barry Putnam is my home teacher and his wife, Michelle, is not only a very good friend of mine, but also my VT companion! We had so much fun and stayed way too late, but they were very generous with their food, their home, and their time. The kids loved playing, I loved talking (hence the late part) and we all loved Barry's cooking. Oh, a man that can cook, what would that be like? It was a great time for all of us!

The kids made these turkeys for the table. The feathers showed so much personality. Even Joseph picked what he was grateful for. I would mention things and he would say yes or no.

On Joe's turkey feathers: I'm grateful for - cartoons, blanket, outside, family, pacifiers, turkey

On Evie's turkey feathers: I'm grateful for - Joseph, coloring, dress-up, Momma, my toys, Elizabeth

Isn't that so cute!? I love my kids.

Thanksgiving Preschool

Like the Halloween preschool (catch up #4), the moms were invited to participate. This time it was at my house and I tried to stay pretty simple. We had outdone ourselves for Halloween, I was wanting something a bit more low-key for this holiday.

We discussed what Thanksgiving is and why it's important to be thankful and to say thank-you. Then we read two thanksgiving books that showed how much fun the day can be and how it's all about sharing.

Then the kids flew to the table for crafts and made themselves Pilgrim-Indians. Yes, they wanted to be both all the time. It was great. Maegan had gotten great vest ideas for the pilgrims and Mary had all the Indians prepped and ready.

Even Joe wore a feathered headband for a while. With costumes complete, we read and acted out, of course, the first Thanksgiving. The girls were so funny and the story was cute and short.

Then we had a carpet picnic to finish acting out our first Thanksgiving. We had turkey sandwiches, muffins, and pumpkin pie. It was so much fun. After that it was free for all outside. It ended up being a fantastically beautiful and warm day. They played for a full 1-2hrs before everyone went home. Boy were my kids ready for rest time at that point. It was a fun day. I so love our preschool group!

Something Interesting

Okay so I have two random bits of info I wanted to share.

I have a quick and very proud update on Joseph. We recently found a toddler bed that is perfect for our family (used and cheap and might last) and put it in Joe's room. He laid down for a total of 20min and then asked to get into his crib. So after three days, I just removed the crib all together. The only option for sleeping now is the toddler bed, or the big boy bed (you should hear him say that!). Today, he not only slept for nap time in the bed, but went to sleep tonight in the bed. So my little boy is now sleeping in the big boy bed and I'm both elated and so sad. I love seeing my little ones progress (and this was a smooth one), but it's so hard to see my little boy growing up. I seem to love the growing up with my girls, but it's been really difficult with my boy. I don't even have another boy on the way to mitigate these feelings! Oh well, that's life right? So I am rejoicing and lamenting at the same time. Hey, prerogative of a mom.

I also noticed something horrible tonight. Every night before I go to bed, I put up the baby gate in the hallway. Evie has been big enough to climb over or even take it down by herself for some time. It's up not to keep her from going too far, but to remind her it's not allowed to go past the gate. She does a great job and now that Joe is more free it will help him too.

So anyway, the baby gate goes up when I go back to bed. Well, with Chris deployed I spend all my time in my room on projects, phone calls, emails, blogs, etc. I go out to the kitchen for snacks, but that's it. Well tonight something awful occurred.

The baby gate had somehow gotten really high looking! No, I didn't change it's location or how high I put it when I secured it in the hallway. I usually just straddle it and step over, but tonight I was a bit nervous. So I got right up next to it and realized it wasn't what had changed. I am fatter and now more unbalanced and the idea of stepping over anything that is that high, even slowly, is a bit nerve wracking. So it's official for those of you who are wondering: I'm pregnant and I very much look it and I'm looking it more every day as my recent gate experience will attest.

It just happened so quickly, going from nothing to a huge bump (okay, not huge to you), that my self-concept is a bit off. It takes a while for my idea of me to register that I'm a bit lopsided now and need to take the appropriate measures. By the time I do get it, I'll have a baby in my arms! That's the way it goes. One day I look not pg, the next day I have a large belly, and my poor mind with all it's difficulties can't keep up. That's why I fall over nothing, or get stuck in smaller places, or get super tired so quickly. I forget what I actually look like or that I'm in the third trimester. It's one of those weird side effects of the kind of pg's I have!

Well, there you go. My "something interesting".