I’m not complainin’!

So blessed. So grateful.

I apologize for the negativity that came through my last couple of posts. I think that I will do better to focus on the good things that are happening. Building a house is stressful for anyone that takes it on, but what an incredible blessing to be able to do it!

I have worked through some (most?) of my more complicated feelings about the mistakes I’ve made and I’m ready to continue the process with a better attitude!

Here are some of the things that have helped:

**Realizing that this house will be a place of joy for us. We will have many joyful moments there and create lots of good memories.

**Thinking of the house as an asset we can use to help other people. To invite family and guests and have it be a place of refuge and comfort for them.

**Getting a clearer perspective of what seemed a mountainous trial to me. It is after all, just a house. And if my decisions have caused us financial strain, sometimes that is just part of life. I need to move on and learn from my mistakes, but not grind myself into the ground over them.

**Thinking of Houston. And Florida. My prayers are with the people of those areas destroyed by the hurricanes!

**Talking, talking, talking. With DC, the best man in the world for me. My true and loving friend and companion.

**Church! I wish we had it every other day instead of every 7 days. After our meetings yesterday I came home feeling strengthened and refreshed. Joseph Smith had it so much harder. So many awesome people have had it so much harder. They kept fighting through their challenges and I want to, too.

I’m going to retrofit some posts (builder-talk :) about the building process of this house, including photos, things I learned (so hopefully my mistakes can help someone else!), and good things that have happened along the way. . . .stay tuned. :)

first week of summer and “large, or to exceed all”

Adapted from a letter to Elder Baker, dated 6/6/17. . . .

Last week was a nice one, being the first full week of summer vacation. We have worked out a good routine, I think, with Daddy being in charge of the cute ones in the morning while I work on the house, and then in the afternoon I am in charge of the cute ones while he works on various things. Super Kid makes breakfast every weekday morning, and the other two make dinner. There is lots of frolicking with kittens, chasing lizards, visiting the fish, working for Nana and Grandpa, etc. Rosebud has begun a 4-week tumbling class that meets 3 times a week. She is learning a lot! She can do a tripod, bridge, and tuck roll, and is really improving her cartwheel.

It was another big week for the house! Framing done in the basement and floor joists for the main level in. Excavation for the garage and master bedroom done, footings dug and poured, walls laid. I started bidding electrical and stucco.

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Monday was Memorial Day. We had a nice picnic at Pioneer Park (Nana and Grandpa were gone still to OK, so it was just us 5). The cute ones brought their rollerblades, and Rosebud brought Moana, who did not have a good time. Afterward we went to the Taylor Cemetery and found 8 of our ancestors who are buried there!

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Tuesday evening we enjoyed playing Sorry and Trash together, and we watched the Great British Bakeoff. We watched GBB nearly every night this week. :)

Wednesday evening Fluffy and Ham had a combined activity at Caldwell's pond, and walked all the way home afterward, across the highway and through the desert, with their trunks and flip-flops on! Rosebud went swimming with Daddy, and I sat and read nearby. Well, not much reading because Puffball came, too, and thought he needed to be right in my lap and be petted the whole time. 

Thursday Puffball and Mariah finally started to get along. Before this she would hiss at him and chase him like a whirling dervish into the woodpile. Now they have some sort of truce and Puffball is allowed to be within a foot or two of her. Fluffy took a practice ACT and did very well. We watched the championship round of the National Spelling Bee and of course some more GBB.

Friday I went to the 5:30am session at the temple. It was a beautiful, strengthening experience to be there. I was so grateful to have been able to go and be attentive in spite of the early hour! Nana and Grandpa had gotten home late the night before, but we only got to spend a few hours with them before leaving for the Valley for Fluffy's BD wish.

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It was a fun evening with the Ws. Fluffy and Ham babysat while Uncle Daniel and Aunt Becky went on a double date with us. We ate at a Thai restaurant and then did some scavenger-hunt type challenges for each other at Kohl's.

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The truly alarming thing is that there were also ties and pants to match.

Saturday we all went to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center and got to see the two new movies the Church has produced, Days of Harmony and A Day for the Eternities. They tell the story of the translation of the Book of Mormon from Oliver Cowdery's perspective and then David Whitmer's perspective. They are both excellent! As I watched the portrayal of April 6, 1830 I felt deeply grateful to be a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ! To have been able to make covenants and receive Priesthood ordinances and partake of the Sacrament every week my whole life -- it is wonderful!

Later we went swimming at a city pool with a slide and then watched Blackbeard's Ghost back at the Ws.

Sunday I fasted for you and also for E. It was lovely to attend meetings with the Ws and the Van Baileys. Aunt Becky taught Sunday School -- I loved her lesson about the Kingdoms of Glory. Baby S fell asleep on my lap. <3 :)

The evening was idyllic in the Ws' backyard. Did Ham tell you about the bunnies the Ws got for free for him?A family in their neighborhood had gotten bunnies in two consecutive Snowflake rodeos and those ones had babies and two girl ones were now grown up and needing a home. So the Ws have been keeping them in their yard until we could come get them! One is white and one is a lovely light brown. They are ripliancum* bunnies with double chins.

*Ham’s term for very large bunnies

Uncle Daniel helping Ham pass off some rank advancement requirements. #bombdotcom

When I was reading in D&C 138 this week I was especially struck by the verses toward the end, including verse 56.

Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

I love you, Clyn!

~Mommy

Quotable

At the dinner table, we were remembering when we watched you open your call.

Rosebud: He was still at BYU?

Me: Yeah, remember we webcammed with him.

Hummer, correcting my verb: Webcome.

general conference and family portraits

We did our traditional countdown-to-conference pictures for FHE this week. Each of us gets assigned a day and then we choose a quote from the last conference and put on the poster with an illustration. It helps rev up the excitement. :)

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Autumn has really arrived now, with temperatures dropping into the 60s and 40s, and some lovely rain and overcast days this week.

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One of the highlights of conference weekend was having my brother and his wife and daughter come for a few hours. For the past 8 months he has been my closest sibling, living only about 45 minutes away. Now they’re moving to Wisconsin, and taking my adorable niece with them. :(

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Another favorite conference tradition of ours is to put a bunch of blank cards in a bowl with pens, and then have a treat nearby. During each session we write questions for each other about the talks (or songs :). For each question we can take a treat from the treat bowl. Then after the session we read the questions to each other and try to answer. Super fun and it helps us pay attention. :)

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Saying goodbye. :(

Man, are we going to miss those guys!

This week we also had some family portraits taken, as well as Exacto’s senior portraits. I am so relieved they are done and we have them! Maybe only you mothers out there know what I mean, but I was seriously euphoric after we got these back, even if they’re not perfect.

I am really happy with them and highly recommend our photographer Brooke Clayton to anyone in this area!

Some of my fav’s. . . .

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I think this next one’s my favorite.

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I really love the background in this one. See the Horsetooth?

 

My favorite of Exacto. . . .

 

I’m really glad to have gotten some good Colorado portraits of us before we leave (probably) next year! Maybe now I can update the big 2010 portrait I’ve had on our wall since Rosebud was a baby.  . . .:)

Dear Mom, It’s going to be okay.

Week of March 31 – April 6

And it’s all because of President Uchtdorf.

Well, actually it’s all because of our Savior Jesus Christ, but President Uchtdorf is one of those wonderful servants of His who helped me remember that. I feel like general conference helped me regain my spiritual footing even more. I have lots more to say about this. . . .

It was a fun “N Week” for Rosebud and me. She loved getting to webcam with you (since N is for Nana) and her sweet cousin N in Texas.

Google Hangout is such a hoot with all the props and backgrounds and Noises!

Not sure how much of a conversation we actually had, but it sure was fun. :)

Also we made Nests and ate Noodles.

I am really enjoying this fabulous organizing blog and that combined with another blog’s traditional annual 40 bags challenge has kicked me in the fanny and got me decluttering again.

I am trying to make it my new addiction instead of sugar. (Let’s hope it takes soon.) Here is proof that I am not making all this up.

Before:                                                              After:

Yes, that is a sword protruding from the bag on the left. Whoever pulls it out is king of all Bakerland.

Fun stuff. But the real highlight of the week by far was general conference.

See those animals waiting with rapt attention? Rosebud got them all ready and reverent before conference began.

My thirsty, exhausted spirit drank up all that wonderful, refreshing light and has felt nearly full ever since.

It will take me a long time to implement completely the paradigm shift I had because of Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk. But I couldn’t believe how it was obvious he had been reading my thoughts for months and then told me exactly what the Lord wanted me to hear, which is that our living in gratitude should be independent of our circumstances.

Blue Dada enjoyed conference from his mommy’s lap

It also seemed like a common theme was material goods vs. treasure in heaven. So many talks mentioned how quickly the first can be lost and how much better our time is spent on gathering the latter.

The colored rectangles on the wall are our individual questions for conference. (Thank you, Jocelyn, for the lovely idea!) It was remarkable to see how the answers came and were sometimes not what we expected, but all of us felt that we had received an answer.

Exacto’s question was soundly explained by Elder Bednar and the whole family was gasping over how direct it was. It was pretty awesome.

And yes, Robin Eggs were involved. Put a question about conference for someone in the basket below – get a Robin Egg. Later, over dinner, we asked all the questions and gave our answers. This is a great tradition we have done for years now, although we all got a bit sugared out this year and I think we’ll do blackberries or something next time. :)

I wasn’t as sad when it was over as I usually am. I think it was because there was so much truth I suddenly saw which showed me some pretty deep weaknesses in myself that I hadn’t seen before. I really have my work cut out for me (learning how to access the grace of the Atonement to overcome these) and yet I feel a new, stronger peace than before because I can see that all will be well.

Even if I always fight depression. Even if our children stop making good choices. Even if DC never does get a good job and we are in debt for the rest of our lives. All will be well. It’s a miracle.

And that’s one of the things I need to change, by the way. Stop talking about money, already! I will always remember the story of that sweet Filipino lady—who was what, 78?—and had lost the home she and her late husband had built as well as her daughter and a grandchild in the terrible typhoon that hit there last year. Now she is living in a tent and working to try to support herself. I was cut to the soul when I heard her response to this challenge so much greater than mine:

“. . . .I accept everything that the Lord has asked me to pass through. I have no hard feelings.”

Wow. That speaker also quoted my scripture of the year! I tried to make it pretty like so:

and hung it up in my bathroom. It makes me think every single time I read it. Am I spending my labor for that which cannot satisfy? Oh, yes, I need to remember to pray continually. Awesome, come buy and eat without money. etc. And I feel like this past weekend my soul definitely “delighted in fatness.”

Finally, no Sunday around here is complete without a trip to the temple site! Go go go! (It’s a good thing we visit on the Sabbath or we might be tempted to yell and cheer on the workers to hurry it up! :).

I am so grateful for the Lord’s living prophets. Now I just need to do what they have taught me.

Love,

Michelle