These are a few of my favorite things (lately)
I generally only post on this blog when I feel especially prompted. I try not to get super deep all of the time. I am, by nature, a deep thinking individual though. I like to understand everything. I like to be at peace with stuff that happens around me so that I can sleep at night. I've thought about blogging several times and each time I knew it was going to be another post on how upside down my life continues to be and how I am trying to have faith and maintain an eternal perspective through it all. Suffice it to say, I chose NOT to blog about certain topics because this is a public blog and I have no desire for it to be otherwise so for now those subjects will remain in my personal journal. But I need this blog. It really helps me put my life into perspective sometimes and it's nice to know that a few people out there care enough about me to read through my lengthy blog posts.
So I decided today, after a particularly trying week, that I would dedicate a blog post to a list of things that have happened that are good.
1) Brad and I went to the temple this past weekend. The closest temple to us is in Bismarck so it's about 4 hours away. A friend let us borrow her two older girls to come with us and babysit while Brad and I were in the temple. I loved it. The harder life is, the more you appreciate and recognize the clarity that comes when you are inside. I wished I could stay there all weekend. What wonderful friends we have here that allow us to adopt their girls for a night.
2) After our temple trip, we took all the kids to the indoor pool and waterslide where we stayed and they had a blast. Novan must have gone down that slide 100 times! After a shy start, Iyov was splashing and jumping with the best of them.
3) Novan can read! Well, much more than I would expect anyway. I've been very pleased with his teacher and the attention she gives her kids. She taught Novan how to zip his coat too. If you know Novan and his motor deficiencies, you'll understand this is a big deal. I am so pleased that every morning, when we leave for school, Novan dresses, puts on hat, gloves, boots, and zips his own coat, ready to go to the car without my help! We have really been blessed to somehow miraculously be in a place where the classes are small and teachers care and give individual attention like that. His teacher keeps me up to date on Novan's progress, asks for advice on dealing with his occasional melt-downs and is really single-handedly responsible for getting Novan excited about reading. We read a short book every night and I find myself being so relieved that he is catching on to reading so willingly and easily. I had expected that he would make a big deal and pitch a fit over me having him read every night but he seems pleased to spend the time with me and show off his skills. He has also really enjoyed me reading to him and Beya. I finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and now we are reading Charlotte's Web. He actually reminds me every night to read to them. I love it!
4) Brad still has a job. There is a fear here, and probably the reason the place has failed to develop better infrastructure to handle the people influx, that this boom will be over soon. It is a fear based in the worry that the government will crack down on fracking and legislation will ban it meaning the oil boom will fizzle out over night and hundreds of thousands of people here will be out of work. Homes will be abandoned and foreclosed on and the place will be an effectual ghost town. This is a real possibility until the government allows for infrastructure to be put in place such as a pipeline and perhaps legislation protecting fracking as a legitimate way to get oil. So we kind of live day to day just grateful that the boom is still happening and Brad still has a good job.
5) Beya continues to show how beautiful her soul is. I really do worry sometimes that one day she is going to decide that being good is too hard and that I'm going to have a hard time convincing her that Jesus and Heavenly Father love her and wish her to continue in virtue and goodness. But that day has not come. She only gets more lovely. She loves to draw and her pictures are usually her family, things she loves like fairies and mermaids, and this past Sunday during church, she was drawing pictures of the temple. She asked, a few weeks ago to see pictures of the inside. And while we were at the temple she asked if she could touch it. She was excited and understands the privilege much more than I would have expected. She spends her days drawing the things she loves and making up songs about how Jesus and her family love her and she loves them. She knows well that Jesus would have her act kindly and always wants to do what she knows would make Him happy. I don't recognize her as my daughter sometimes. The light of Christ just shines so brightly. She just seems to be this angel flitting about and spreading goodness wherever she goes.
6) Iyov tells me he loves me, every day. I never get tired of hearing it.
7) For some reason I have not been able to enforce sleeping through the night with Keshet. Maybe it's because she is a girl and Beya did it on her own. Or maybe I kind of liked waking up with her once at night. But I'm happy to say I haven't had to put my foot down. She started sleeping through the night on her own a couple weeks ago. I don't like hearing my babies cry and I never liked having to go to extremes to get Novan and Iyov sleeping but I'm grateful I didn't have to make that decision with Keshet. She's such a sweet little thing.
8) My testimony grows. It just grows and grows and grows. There's no end in sight. I've stuck to my decisions to insert more good things and extract more bad things from my day to day activities. I read my scriptures multiple times a day. I listen to conference talks regularly. I give no place for trash TV and I pray always, all day. I told Brad the other day that I don't like to say "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" in my personal prayers because it's like I'm closing the communication lines and I know as soon as I say them that I'm going to have something else to say to my Father and will have to start all over with the formalities. So when I say personal prayers I don't and I consider the "Amen" Brad and and I say on our prayers together at night to be my personal prayer close for the day. I'm so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has transformed me. This year I will be celebrating my 10 year baptism anniversary and so I've been thinking alot about how I can celebrate reverently and with gratitude. I really like when I can look back on the day and see how much I was thinking of spiritual things instead of temporal things. It has made recent events more bearable.
9) My husband loves me. Brad and I will also be celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year. I am so blessed, in a time and place where divorce is so prevalent, that we are still going strong through innumerable hardships that just seem to increase with each passing year. As the bad stuff adds, the good stuff compounds and I really can't see myself going through this journey with anyone more capable of dealing with it and being solidly committed to service and doing good to all men. I love Brad more deeply every year.
10) Since moving here, we've tried to include a number of "wife-less men" in our family activities. By wife-less, I mean men whose families are far away and they live here weeks at a time without the strength of daily family interactions. We have had someone, usually more than one, over for dinner and games every Sunday night. It's been a real blessing to get to know these men and see the dedication that so many have to providing for their families through hardship and separation.
11) I love Williston, ND. I'm going to dedicate a post at some point as to the whys but Williston has found a place in my heart and I'm relieved and grateful that it has been so EASY to be here. Of course, it may be the mild winter has made it that much easier but I really don't think that's the only reason its been easy. I like cold weather after all. But Williston has grown on me quickly and also my kids. I am grateful to be here for much more than just a job.
So I decided today, after a particularly trying week, that I would dedicate a blog post to a list of things that have happened that are good.
1) Brad and I went to the temple this past weekend. The closest temple to us is in Bismarck so it's about 4 hours away. A friend let us borrow her two older girls to come with us and babysit while Brad and I were in the temple. I loved it. The harder life is, the more you appreciate and recognize the clarity that comes when you are inside. I wished I could stay there all weekend. What wonderful friends we have here that allow us to adopt their girls for a night.
2) After our temple trip, we took all the kids to the indoor pool and waterslide where we stayed and they had a blast. Novan must have gone down that slide 100 times! After a shy start, Iyov was splashing and jumping with the best of them.
3) Novan can read! Well, much more than I would expect anyway. I've been very pleased with his teacher and the attention she gives her kids. She taught Novan how to zip his coat too. If you know Novan and his motor deficiencies, you'll understand this is a big deal. I am so pleased that every morning, when we leave for school, Novan dresses, puts on hat, gloves, boots, and zips his own coat, ready to go to the car without my help! We have really been blessed to somehow miraculously be in a place where the classes are small and teachers care and give individual attention like that. His teacher keeps me up to date on Novan's progress, asks for advice on dealing with his occasional melt-downs and is really single-handedly responsible for getting Novan excited about reading. We read a short book every night and I find myself being so relieved that he is catching on to reading so willingly and easily. I had expected that he would make a big deal and pitch a fit over me having him read every night but he seems pleased to spend the time with me and show off his skills. He has also really enjoyed me reading to him and Beya. I finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and now we are reading Charlotte's Web. He actually reminds me every night to read to them. I love it!
4) Brad still has a job. There is a fear here, and probably the reason the place has failed to develop better infrastructure to handle the people influx, that this boom will be over soon. It is a fear based in the worry that the government will crack down on fracking and legislation will ban it meaning the oil boom will fizzle out over night and hundreds of thousands of people here will be out of work. Homes will be abandoned and foreclosed on and the place will be an effectual ghost town. This is a real possibility until the government allows for infrastructure to be put in place such as a pipeline and perhaps legislation protecting fracking as a legitimate way to get oil. So we kind of live day to day just grateful that the boom is still happening and Brad still has a good job.
5) Beya continues to show how beautiful her soul is. I really do worry sometimes that one day she is going to decide that being good is too hard and that I'm going to have a hard time convincing her that Jesus and Heavenly Father love her and wish her to continue in virtue and goodness. But that day has not come. She only gets more lovely. She loves to draw and her pictures are usually her family, things she loves like fairies and mermaids, and this past Sunday during church, she was drawing pictures of the temple. She asked, a few weeks ago to see pictures of the inside. And while we were at the temple she asked if she could touch it. She was excited and understands the privilege much more than I would have expected. She spends her days drawing the things she loves and making up songs about how Jesus and her family love her and she loves them. She knows well that Jesus would have her act kindly and always wants to do what she knows would make Him happy. I don't recognize her as my daughter sometimes. The light of Christ just shines so brightly. She just seems to be this angel flitting about and spreading goodness wherever she goes.
6) Iyov tells me he loves me, every day. I never get tired of hearing it.
7) For some reason I have not been able to enforce sleeping through the night with Keshet. Maybe it's because she is a girl and Beya did it on her own. Or maybe I kind of liked waking up with her once at night. But I'm happy to say I haven't had to put my foot down. She started sleeping through the night on her own a couple weeks ago. I don't like hearing my babies cry and I never liked having to go to extremes to get Novan and Iyov sleeping but I'm grateful I didn't have to make that decision with Keshet. She's such a sweet little thing.
8) My testimony grows. It just grows and grows and grows. There's no end in sight. I've stuck to my decisions to insert more good things and extract more bad things from my day to day activities. I read my scriptures multiple times a day. I listen to conference talks regularly. I give no place for trash TV and I pray always, all day. I told Brad the other day that I don't like to say "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" in my personal prayers because it's like I'm closing the communication lines and I know as soon as I say them that I'm going to have something else to say to my Father and will have to start all over with the formalities. So when I say personal prayers I don't and I consider the "Amen" Brad and and I say on our prayers together at night to be my personal prayer close for the day. I'm so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has transformed me. This year I will be celebrating my 10 year baptism anniversary and so I've been thinking alot about how I can celebrate reverently and with gratitude. I really like when I can look back on the day and see how much I was thinking of spiritual things instead of temporal things. It has made recent events more bearable.
9) My husband loves me. Brad and I will also be celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year. I am so blessed, in a time and place where divorce is so prevalent, that we are still going strong through innumerable hardships that just seem to increase with each passing year. As the bad stuff adds, the good stuff compounds and I really can't see myself going through this journey with anyone more capable of dealing with it and being solidly committed to service and doing good to all men. I love Brad more deeply every year.
10) Since moving here, we've tried to include a number of "wife-less men" in our family activities. By wife-less, I mean men whose families are far away and they live here weeks at a time without the strength of daily family interactions. We have had someone, usually more than one, over for dinner and games every Sunday night. It's been a real blessing to get to know these men and see the dedication that so many have to providing for their families through hardship and separation.
11) I love Williston, ND. I'm going to dedicate a post at some point as to the whys but Williston has found a place in my heart and I'm relieved and grateful that it has been so EASY to be here. Of course, it may be the mild winter has made it that much easier but I really don't think that's the only reason its been easy. I like cold weather after all. But Williston has grown on me quickly and also my kids. I am grateful to be here for much more than just a job.
Great post. I loved it. And WHATEVER you're going through or go through, it sounds like you have the right perspective to handle it.
ReplyDeleteLuvs!
Your testimony and dedication to growing it are a great example to me. I can do better!
ReplyDeleteI've started reading to Sydney from a short chapter book at night (one my mom read when she was little) . I'd love to read her The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,but I think it's still beyond what she could grasp. I'd love to find out how your kids like Charlotte's Web as that's the next one I plan to read to her.
ReplyDelete