The Blessings of Eternal Marraige

John and I and our family have been asked to speak on the subject mentioned in the title. I helped my 3 younger children write their talks and then had no more material for myself, just kidding. It made me feel like I had reached that next platue of parenthood because my kids have never been old enough to speak with us in sacrament meeting before. It's a little bit shocking sometimes to realize how old my kids are getting also it makes me feel nostalgic about the past. I also hope that Mary will say what's written on her paper and not get stage fright, I'm sure she'll be fine... I started writing my talk and was taken down a path towards reasons why people don't see marraige as a blessing these days, let alone eternal marraige. It's so looked down upon by society, satan tries to and is succeeding in convincing society that marraige and family is for people who don't want to accomplish anything. The question is why do people think raising a family isn't worth accomplishing? Society's opinion also affects the divorce rate. The devil tries to teach us it's all about us and not serving others, what do I get, what do I need, why don't I get back what I put in? This is where patience comes in handy, 20-30 years from now you will get back what you put in but our society needs commercials every 8 minutes or they loose their concentration or desire to stay put. I wonder sometimes if I've been affected too much as well or if I can stem the tide of culture virtue (which is none at all). I choose to so I guess I can. It's too bad we're taught to care what other people think so much. If we truly didn't care how would we choose to live our lives as a whole? If you have any thoughts I'd like to hear them before I give my talk on sunday.

Thomas Jefferson Ed.

My dear sweet mother in law tried to introduce me to the TJeducation around four years ago but I was so scared that I wasn't going to give my kids the education others thought they deserved. I was worried about what other people would think about my kids being home schooled that I picked a cirriculum that had a "plan"; do this monday, tuesday... I now know that no matter what you try to pound into a kids head they will only learn what they want to, what they choose to, no matter how good your books are. I love love love the TJed which encourages the kids choose what to study and then lets them learn to love learning. Our FHE on monday was all about why and what and how God wants you to study and learn. There are some great scriptures that tell us out of what kind of books and why we should study. The TJed is all about studying the classics, it made me think of Moby Dick to, I was cringing, that's not exactly what it means although it can. It means any piece of work that is worth studying over and over again, including art, music, literature... you name it. My own kids are in the "love of learning phase" which comes right before "scholar phase", they have chosen to focus on cooking, scouts, personal progress, math, art, reading, astronomy, chess, and checkers just to name a few. I'm excited and nervous about what they're going to learn over the next few years and can't wait to see what they'll choose to focus on. I am also glad that I have an excuse to study what I want now instead of practicing my nagging skills, which I have become quite an expert at.

Wheat Grinder & Grandma

I can remember going with my mom over to my grandma Allderdges house and grinding wheat in her big machine. My mom inherited that machine and I stole it last sunday, with permission, lol. Grandma Hobson came over and showed all of us girls how to grind up our wheat and today Emma is making some home made bread, yummy. She opened up our newly acquired yeast and proceeded to tell all the kids that it was alive. Kali looked into the bowl and said,"I can see one of it's eyes open." Ha hahah. So funny what kids say, I love it!

Our new year 2012

When I first typed the title I put a 2011, ha. My life is speedily flashing before my eyes before I know it I'll be meeting my maker after suffering through old age. On a happier note, we had fun bringing in the New Year with our kids. Usually we try to hang out or party with some other adults and just end up feeling uncomfortable because we can't think of anything fun to do. When it's just us and our kids we can do whatever we want and not feel silly because our ideas are silly. A few days before our new year's eve we made some focus boards with our kids so we could get a good idea of what their goals were for the next year and so we could figure out our own. Then we dedicated the six hours before midnight to 6 common goals we all had, one for each hour. We picked a food and an activity that went with each of the six goals and guess what it was fun! We chose a family scripture "feast upon the words of Christ..." and our first family goal was to read the scriptures everyday so we read them and then we feasted on our seven layer bean dip. Delicious, both the scriptures and the bean dip. Next our goal as a family was to pray together everyday so we said our nightly family prayers (yes it was a few hours before bedtime) and then we ate big pretzels dipped in cheese, because pretzels look like folded arms. Next we all had exercise oriented goals so we ate a veggie tray we had made and had a hoola hooping contest, we had so much fun laughing at eachother and watching a few of the younger kids learn how it was done. Then we played bowling on our wii because you know bowling is totally exercise and wears you out. Our fourth goal was to eat healthy so we got out our fruit and ate away, we would try to eat at the same time every hour but we were getting a little full at this point. We then enjoyed a rousing game of chicken foot, everyone can play it and for some reason our kids just love any game (it's definately a Beckstrand thing). We started getting tired just about the time Daniel showed up with David and so we sat down with our snickers bars and watched pokemon until the countdown I can't remember what the Snickers were for I just know they satisfy. We watched the ball drop our time midnight and then we all gave eachother a kiss and went off to bed.

Motivation vs. Time

It's a battle I've not gotten a handle on as of yet. I have so many asperations for myself and for my family. I have tried to put focus on what I do as to where I am in my life. Right now I feel like I am in the middle of raising my family so my husband and kids come first. Therefore I do triathalon training to hang out with hubby and I try try try to do homeschool with my children so that their little brains will be fried be me instead of their peers and random teachers in school. I also want to learn to play the guitar better, write a fictional book about teen dating, and become independently wealthy somehow (a.k.a. write a book). Suffice it to say that not all these things are going to happen. Even all the things I'm trying to do right at this moment aren't all happening. Running a daycare is taking a lot of my time away from all my STUFF, but it has been such a blessing. Especially as of right now when John is out of work, we still have income and the kids have a sense of normalcy as do the rest of us. We have all been able to help others because of the kids we watch we all get an opportunity to help and do service. My children don't get a chance to feel bored or spoiled, etc. I'm glad I have a daycare! John is going to be teaching as of February 1st at RedRock at least that's what we're planning on for now. Finally he will finish his teaching degree (angels singing). If I've learned anything in life it's plans CHANGE, things change, my plan from now on is to just trust in the Lord and that in the end I will be where I'm supposed to be. Life's a crazy journey but the finish line is the tree of life at the end of the iron rod. Not very poetic I know but still...

31 days to a better budget

I thought this looked like a good idea and I didn't want to lose the link! Plus you guys can all look through it as well now.

More pic's from our trip

SeaWorld pictures and Saturday I made everyone come with me to go pick fresh strawberries, they thanked me afterward.

Adventures in California Land

We did sooo much stuff while we were visiting California. We stayed in Carlsbad at a great Inn, it had enough beds for all of us and was more like an apartment rather than a hotel, I liked it. I don't think I took any pictures of it though :(. We left on mothers day and headed down. We met Deb and Lance's family at Disneyland on Monday morning bright and early and Lance had Mary in love with him within the first 15 minutes, if any of you really know Mary you know this is quite the feat. We rode as many of the rides as we could and kept going back to Tower of Terror over and over of course it was everyones favorite ride, Mary even went on it a few times, lol. We ate dinner together and then split up and drove back to the hotel slept quick and then met the Johnsons again on tuesday for more Disney fun, we were so pooped by the end of the day we bugged out about an hour early and went home. Wednesday John and I woke up early and ran about 3 miles along the paved beachpath and decided not to do it again because of the crazy man on the bicycle saying unsavory things in our vicinity :P. We spent the rest of the day at the beach boogie boarding and building sandcastles, oh and how can I forget playing in the waves. So Fun! Thursday we ran again but in the gym and sweat so badly because of the humidity, blah. We were only 1 mile away from Legoland and we all decided it was worth the one visit but probably won't go back again unless it's with a new group, like future grandkids for example. Friday was SeaWorld and all day all we did was go to shows and we got to feed the Dolphins, pretty cool. We all enjoyed it thoroughly, the last thing we did was go on the thrill ride Atlantis they had there and freaked ourselves out, but it was a fun, scary ride. Saturday we went to the beach again and did more of the boogie boarding, we were more use to the temperature by this point and didn't whimp out as easily, it was probably around 65* not bad and the sand was warm. We did go to the Hotel pool afterward for an hour or two, we weren't keeping track. After we cleaned up we walked down to the Coldstone they had on the boardwalk/village and got ourselves icecream, yum. Sunday we got packed up cleaned our room and found ourselves a church to attend and met someone who knew where St. George was and told us it was no wonder our kids were so well behaved if we were from there, lol. I loved going and it was the best mothers day/fathers day gift ever, maybe I'll do it again next year only somewhere different :P.

Ironman

John competed in his first IronMan May 7, 2011. He trained for a year and finished in 14hrs15min20sec. We are all really proud of him and had fun watching him compete and are all kind of glad his training days are over. Towards the end he was doing about 500 miles a month on the bike, 9 miles a month swimming, 80 miles a month running. It took a lot of time to say the least. The kids all competed in the kids run to it was fun to watch as well, they felt an IM kinship with John because of it I think.

StUpiD HouSe

We are no longer going to be living on morningside dr., our loan modification was approved for an amount we cannot pay which with the escrow was equal to our original payment. The people at citi-mortgage were not willing to work with us and so we found a nice house over on 600 s. to rent while we save for a piece of land to build on. We're hoping we can save enough money in five years to buy land and build. Plans are plans though, you never know what life will throw at ya. If we can just raise a bunch of healthy happy kids my life will be complete. I don't really care if we rent the rest of our lives but it would be a bonus if John could retire, ya know. We have until the 18th which is the weekend of girlscamp, before our house goes up for auction but we will be out before then hopefully. I have to get my new place safety, fire, and kitchen inspected before I can be approved to be state certified for my daycare, now that will be a hassle. I can get through this without too much stress, I know I can. I won't be dealing with citimortgage afterall. Just wanted to give you all an update. Kristal