darkness- Laura lesson

I usually meet my friends in the early (dark) hours of the morning to enjoy a run. The good thing about hat time of day is it is quiet. I usually have sometime to reflect on the person I am, the day And my life. I love these quiet moments of the day. Love to realize what I am blessed with.
Today my back pain was super high, which effects my whole body including my legs. Even if I have done nothing my legs feel super weak. I decided to cut off from the group. I found myself running on the dark bumpy rocky canal road alone.
It made me start thinking a lot about life.  How easy it is to be caught in darkness.  To be caught in those dark, rocky paths where we can't see much around us.  Where we get frightened and hope we can find our way back. I often find myself praying why did I put myself on this dark path on my own. Heavenly Father help me be safe and not bump into a itching undesirable.  So it is with the dark paths we get ourselves in. Hopefully we are seeking heaven,y Father, saying where did I get myself, help me get out.
When I am running I see some of the most beautiful things Heavenly Father has blessed us with, stars, moon, sunsets etc...

My cousin Rhonda

My cousins wife was currently in the Murray hospital for 24 weeks. She has diabetes and it has attacked her body. She has faced years of challenges from this disease. This current challenge has caused problems with her vision, her internal organs and her legs and feet. With this last hospital stay she had to have her leg amputated. What pain and sorrow she has suffered. Yet she has had such faith to stay faithful. 

I finally went to visit her on her 24th week stay in the hospital. I pondered a lot of questions. Why? Why doesn't it take me so long to reach out to someone in need. Why have I not been serving her earlier. As I heard in conference today I need to be in tune and find more wAys to serve.

Trampoline moving

This spring we ended up getting our kids a new trampoline.  We have been use to a smaller round trampoline that can be moved rather easily by yourself. We decided to get a rectangle tramp to allow our kids for more jumping space. Not on,y did we get a bigger tramp, we now have two tramps. The kids have spent countless hours jumping on those trampolines. We have even been asked if our kids were grounded to the tramp. The downfall to our backyard set up is mowing

Each week the duty of mowing falls upon me.  I mow as far as I can until I come to those trampolines. I stop my mower and grab a leg of the tramp. I tug and tug and it hardly even moves. I find myself discouraged and frustrated as I tug and pull all the tramps and it barely moves. I have gotten into a routine I count 1,2,3 pull one leg and move to the other and repeat the same thing. Rotating from side to side until the tramp is finally moved where I want it.

Weekly as I go through this silly routine I always think of the same thing. I think of our challenges in life and how we want to just move over them and be done. We want the, to be moved quickly instead of doing step by step and learning and growing in each phase. It's a gentle reminder to me that I need to be patient on Heavenly Father own time and not mine. Be willing to learn and grow along the way.

Laura's personal lessons from sept 30,2012

No gas no gas left in my car- 
Last week I let our week get away from us. There was a lot we didn't get done but needed to. Before I knew it we were canning on Sunday just to fit it all in. I realized I needed to manage better to make it so I did no have to do that.
Well that was not all- I let my gas tank get too low and before I knew it I was way to low on gas and it was Sunday.my instant thought without hesitation, guess I will be going to the gas station. I was that willing to break the sabbath because of my lack of preparation. I then figured out I should try doing my own part and dumped our lawn mower gas. My luck it wasn't working. So I had to borrow from my neighbor . How often do we find ourselves red face and begging others for our lack of preparation and lack of good choices? I need to do more to not be found in these situations .

Do more venture out- 
Lately I have had conflicts and been judging what others have been doing with their time. After asking for the spirit I had to realize it was not my job nor right to judge them. It was their choice. I found peace by realizing that my goal is for my kids to know I am here for than and will support all aspects of their life.

Save someone's life

I have a journal that I write some random thoughts in... I'm going to add those things into this so they are not lost.
While Nelson is bishop he holds bishop youth discussion at our house. The kids come over and he teaches them, the youth love it. Last night Nelson told them about when he was 16-17 years old and had to take over his dads carpet business to provide for his family. 
One August day he was on the third floor of an apartment working. He was looking out the window daydreaming when he noticed a little girl face down in the pool. He and his cousin ran down the stairs to get her out of the big aprattment pool. They were able to get the water out of her air way and get her breathing.
He told the youth we all have situations where we need to be "saved" so many times we can help others.
He challenged the youth to find someone to "save" and send him a text of what they did. I took the challenge and this is what happened to me...I was driving home from picking lily up from preschool when a car pulled in front of me. I honked my horn because I was a little irritated. I kept going but noticed they looked lost. The spirit whispered to go back. I followed them wondering if they were lost they came to the four way stop and headed down 1200 towards by house. I said a little prayer if they are lost have them pull over. They pulled over right in front of the veterans home. I pulled my car down our street and jumped out. I asked them if they needed help. They were from Idaho and were very lost. I got the number of where they were heading and called and got directions for them. They were the sweetest people I have ever met. 
What a tender mercy I was blessed with in order to help someone out. I am sure it wouldn't of happened if I hadn't prayed for guidance that day or watched for opportunities. I learned a lot from thT challenge from Nelson. 

Fourth of July

For a few years now it has been a tradition for our little family to go meet my 2 sisters and parents in Riverdale for the 5k run. It is cheap, fun run and a good middle meeting point for all of us. The whole family has enjoyed participating in this run. Everyone did great and we had a fun time. Max is pretty beat after that run- he completed it in 24 minutes

Asher finishing his run

Boy we sure have some crazy people in our family

Takara, Bruce,Nelson & Asher after the race

OUr cute little family

Everyone after the race

On the way home Nelson rolled down the car windows and was waving to everyone on the parade route. I was a tiny embarrased but the kids thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Nelson got a lot of people to waive at us.

June Happenings

It is so hard to believe that we have already completed one month of our Summer break. I have a feeling it is going to go way to fast, yet with 4 kids in the house there are days that it seems to drag. Yes in the summer we play non-stop. If you ask Nelson he would say we play too much. Here are a few highlights from our first month: - Me- I have loved that half the time I don't even know the date and that the kids never match. The fun playing days of summer allow you to do that. Believe it or not I actually read a book. For my birthday this month I asked my sister to get me the book Heaven is Here. I know everyone about passed out that I actually asked for a book. The bigger shocker is that I actually read it, and mostly enjoyed it. (Yes I admit I did catch myself skipping a bit, for some reason I still can't sit still that long to read, but I did it.) - The Family- I have to admit at the beginning of the summer we make a "Summer to do List" and go a little overboard. I think this year we ended up with 45 things to accomplish. Each year we have yet to accomplish all of them. But we have been able to enjoy a few trips to get air (kids favorite), hiking to waterfall, biking to the overpasses and jumping up and down until the semis honk, swimming, running and the fun archery competitions. They were hosting the Olympic Archery Qualifiers at the fairgrounds this month. Max asked to go watch them. We were able to go over a few times, even though we did not know much of the rules, we enjoyed watching it. -Willard- The kids have been asking to go swim and play at Willard. Not necessarily the cleanest place to go play, but oh well. So we loaded them up and headed out.
Asher- not much more needs said about that-

- Quilt- For the past few years I have been saving up the boys old sport jerseys and some of their favorite shirts in hopes to make a quilt. We have worked on it here and there for the past few months and now I am glad to say this month it was finally completed. I need to admit that there is no way this quilt would have been completed with out the help of my awesome mom. The kids have loved taking turns wrapping up and sleeping with their blanket.

- Asher- Glad to report that we were finally able to get Asher a new suit. I am glad we can replace the one he has been wearing for the last year. There is a bit of a storey behind the suit coat he has on in the picture below. Last year I went to the DI in pursuit of the best suit coat for his homemade Mad Hatter Halloween costume. I found this green tweed one and snatched it up in hopes I could dye it and make it look how I needed it to. Nelson later told me it was not going to work. If I would have known that Asher was going to beg to wear it I would have looked a littler harder. This jacket has been one of his favorites (not mine, but that is ok)

I needed to add one more thing about Asher. Just the other day he came to me and said "Mom I seriously need to be put into counseling" With the girls in our home, counseling is a thing they really need right now. I smiled at him and asked why. he said "can't you see i am a mess, look at me last night, I was crying like crazy." Yes he was but it doesnt help that bed time has been after 10 most the summer. Oh the fun that the fun lazy days of summer brings.