He Is Risen

Happy Easter

Teaching Light and Truth

Our camera is broken.  I apologize for the lack of cute-faced children on my recent posts.  Hopefully we can get a new one soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd entertain you by posting pictures of the kids sleeping in funny ways that Ethan and I have taken over the last year.

And writing on a topic completely unrelated to children sleeping in funny ways.

1. Sleeping in a shelf in the closet.

I was reading in section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants the other day.  A couple of verses stuck out to me.

2. Sleeping with your lovey on your face.

Verse 40: "But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth."
Verse 53: "And, verily I say unto you, that it is my will that you should hasten to translate my scriptures, and to obtain a knowledge of history, and of countries, and of kingdoms, of laws of God and man, and all this for the salvation of Zion. Amen."

3. Sleeping in a laundry basket on a chair.

 These verses got me thinking about our homeschool and what kind of things I'm teaching.  It's always good to reevaluate and refocus on the priorities and what exactly those priorities are.

4. Sleeping like you're maxin' and relaxin'.

Hear is a list of priorities I came up with in that moment, and I realize some of them run together.  It's a list in progress:

• Teach my children light and truth.
• Teach them the gospel principles.
• Help them obtain a knowledge of history and countries.
• Teach them to understand the laws of God and man.
• Teach them to understand the Constitution of the United States.

5. Sleeping on a computer chair.

I have some idea of how to implement these priorities in our daily homeschool, but I know I have some readers that homeschool and I want to know what they do to teach these things.

6. Sleeping with a book in your hand.

So hear is my question for you, my wonderful readers, whether you homeschool or not:  What topics are priorities to you in teaching your children and how do you teach them?

7. Sleeping with a book on your face.

I particularly want you to think about the scripture that says to teach them "light and truth".  What does that mean and how would you teach it?

I don't care if the answers are long.  In fact, I hope they are.

Time to Get Fit

It's time to get fit.  It just is.  Do you ever get to a point in your life when it's like, you know what?  I'm ready.  Let's do this.  That's kind of how I feel right now.

I've got about 50 pounds to lose and I'm finally ready to do the work required to get it done.

I've read that a person is more likely to reach their goals if they tell people about them.  I really want to achieve this goal so I am telling you right now, I'm working to lose weight and I'll be posting about it from time to time.

I saw this online and it's stuck with me:

It will take me a while to reach my goal, but that's okay, because time will pass anyway.  I might as well dictate HOW.

More on this another day.

Don't Ever Be Afraid

I had a weird insight the other night . . . in the middle of the night.  It was one of those unexpected times to receive inspiration.  One of the kids woke me up, I was groggy, barely standing straight, let alone thinking straight.

But before I tell you about it . . .

Do you ever have those moments when it's hard to pray because you are, well, I guess afraid to?  It could be because you didn't do something you were supposed to.  Or it could be because you made a huge mistake.  Or maybe you have a question, but you're afraid of the answer.  Or maybe it could just be because you feel frustrated and ashamed from making the same dumb mistakes over and over again.  This last one is me.  I feel that way often.  I worry that Heavenly Father gets tired of hearing the same things over and over again, "Sorry I didn't do better today.  Please help me do better tomorrow."  It makes it hard to want to pray.  

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way sometimes.

Back to the story.  One of the kids has a hard time waking up to go to the bathroom so we often times have to deal with that during the night.  This particular night this child seemed like they were trying to take care of it themselves.  Luckily, I'm a pretty light sleeper and realized something was up.  While I was helping them clean up, I sensed the child's reluctance to come to me for help and I hugged them and whispered, 

"You don't ever have to be afraid to come to me."  

And immediately, during the middle of a random night, through clouds of sleepy grogginess, I felt that zap of clarity, that those words came from my Father and that they were true.

Painting "Lost Lamb" by Del Parson

So I try to remember that when I feel ashamed or unworthy of prayer.  I don't know if that's helpful to anyone out there, I hope maybe it can be.  But mostly I write it for me, so I don't forget I don't ever have to be afraid. 

Slightly Less Stressed

Wow!  You guys are good!  I mentioned that maybe you could pray that our house will sell quickly and we were under contract within the next few days.  Hopefully that will go through without a hitch.  I know that it's common for contracts to fall through.  It would be nice to have that off our plates.

So thank you for thinking of us.  I know we've had many prayers sent in our direction.  Besides the house, we've had a few other things fall into place as well.  So, again, thanks for praying for us.

I'm feeling blessed.

Here's a picture of Libby enjoying the heating vent.  We didn't have these at our old house (we had hot water heat) and the kids are just discovering how fun it is to lay on them when the heat is blowing out.  On a cool morning, which we really haven't had too many, you can find the kids spread out in the house, each on a different vent.  It makes me laugh because I did the same thing when I was a kid.

More From the Beach

Maybe you've had enough of the beach pictures, but I haven't.  It really was too nice of a day to leave it to one post.

 I suppose a lot of you are wondering how my actual life is going.  I know a lot of relatives read this blog who may not know what we are up to.  I will tell you.

Ethan has started training at Pacific Capital Resource Group to be a financial advisor.  He's had to do a lot of studying for it and the three tests that are required to become certified.  He's taken two of the tests and passed them with flying colors.  Just one more test to go as well as three months of training, which he started this week.

If you didn't already know, we've moved in with Ethan's parents to ease our finances as Ethan jumps into a new career.  If you think of us, please pray that our house in Utah will sell quickly.  That will help quite a bit.  Ethan's parents have been very good to us, patient and helpful.  They make us feel very welcome here.

The kids are having a blast living with Grandma and Grandpa Nuttall and Elise (Ethan's sister), although they miss their grandparents and ten cousins in Utah greatly.

We miss all the snow that's been getting dumped on our old home (though we don't miss the inversion),  but we do appreciate the warmer temperatures here.  The kids get out everyday to play in the yard.  It was 50 degrees and sunny a lot of the day yesterday.  That feels pretty warm to us!

The kids are adjusting to our new ward fairly well.  There's a lot more primary kids in this ward than in our old ward.  The kids who had an easy time going to their new classes were not the kids I thought would have an easy time.  We've had a bit of a struggle getting one particular child to go to class but I don't think that will last much longer.

As for me, I definitely miss the friends I had in our church in Utah.  It takes me a long time to get to know people and I'd finally got to know some really awesome people there.  I miss them.  But I know well enough to understand that there are many awesome people here too, I just need to find them.

This move has been quite a strange thing for me.  I miss my home a lot.  I miss my family a lot.  You may not know this, but I was within a half hour of my parents and each of my four siblings where I used to live.  I miss the beautiful valley I lived in.  I miss seeing those big, rocky mountains everyday when I look out the window.  I miss my house.  But, I know, without a doubt that this move is the right thing for our family.

Knowing it's right, though, doesn't necessarily make it easy, does it?  Although, I do feel Heavenly Father has been helping me, and all of us really, to make this big, huge, adjustment as easy as possible.

So now we are waiting and praying.  Waiting for Ethan to finish his training so he can start making money.  Praying that we can pay the bills in the meantime.  Waiting for someone to think our house in Utah is awesome and worth the effort to fix it up.  Praying that it won't take too long.  Waiting for the time we can have our own home again.  Praying that I can be patient while I wait.

Cape Lookout

Last week was a fun week.  Libby had a birthday and the next day we went to the beach.  I wish every week could be so fun.

This was our first time exploring Cape Lookout.  We loved it.  The kids had so much fun playing in the sand, in the little streams flowing onto the beach, and even in the waves.  The water was much too cold for me, but the kids played in it for a while.

They were sad when it was time to go home.  Beach trips are so fun, aren't they?  I think I may need to share more beach pictures soon.