A Letter Received

While some of this is sad, the letter touches my heart and I want to keep it forever. (I did not edit spelling, punctuation or grammar. . . this is as written.)

Dear Mom,

Today at grandma's house we were trying to pick a movie, and all the ones Wyatt or Walker wanted to watch Lyndsee said No. She took the movie case because they weren't picking the movie fast enuph. She said she was going to pick. Lyndsee put in Spider-Man 3. I told he over and over agien that we are not alowed to watch PG-13 movies but all she did was say your mom's rules are so stupid. I told Wyatt and Walker to come play with there bouncie balls with me but they wanted to watch Spider-Man. I went in Lyndsee's room and was watching disney channel with Jessica, then Jessica left to tell Lyndsee she wanted to watch Bratz. Lyndsee told Jessica to ask me if I wanted to watch it too, I told Jessica it was not a good movie. But she watched it anyway. Lyndsee came in to her room and told me not to be rude to people. I said "what do you meen?" She said Jessica said I was yelling at her. I said no I didn't. She said get out of my room. I said fine, I'll go sit in the living room and clean out my purse. Instead I'm writing this to you.

Mom, I'm trying to CTR (choose the right). It is so hard and all I've been doing is crying. I want to be like Jesus and I'm trying so hard. I love you so much. Thank you for that FHE lesson.

Love Mikensee

Just recently we had a Family Home Evening Lesson on what to do if certain circumstances were to arise. In a sense we practiced what to do instead of just telling the kids to choose the right. We role played what to do if they were at a friend's house and the friend wanted to watch a bad movie or look at bad books and such. We even talked about what to do at Grandma's (which unfortunately has been an issue before with 2 grown adults and 3 almost grown teens living there watching and doing whatever they want with no regard to how their behavior looks to little kids). We talked about how to say no to drugs and alcohol and even what to do if a friend was stealing or doing other bad behaviors. Clearly Mikensee got the lesson. It may not have solved the problem and it was hard for her clearly by the letter, but she didn't back down and she remained in the living room without a TV the entire time. I'm really proud of her and I'm thankful to be raising my kids with standards and morals in a world without any. I'm still sad that they have to endure it from our own family, but this is real life, which is why I had the lesson in the first place. I'm also sad that my children's innocence really isn't innocent, but they will know what to do and how to do it so hopefully they won't become victims to a moral-less society that thinks so little of itself that it can't think to shelter the innocent kids. I'm thankful today for Family Home Evening. I'm thankful today for a little slogan called CTR. I'm thankful today that I've tried to teach my kids right. I'm thankful today that I'm choosing to teach my kids right from wrong, even when it's hard. I'm thankful for a letter that tells me my daughter "gets" it.

Being the Mom

Mother's Day is tomorrow and I guess it's only natural to have feelings of gratitude for the privilege of being a mom on Mother's Day, but truly, every day, even those that are hard, my gratitude for being the mom is so strong it almost overwhelms me. I have been truly blessed with 4 beautiful children who are all amazing, beautiful children. I feel incompetent and inferior at the responsibility of raising them and hopefully aiding them at becoming all their potential affords them.

I am a mother inspite of me and I am only me because I am a mother.

Life and Health

If you read my Ink Boutique Blog you know that I've been struggling to keep my head above water. Most days I find myself surviving instead of living . . . I want to start living this life I've been blessed with instead of cleaning or just surviving it.

Today I'm thankful that I'm not satisfied with the way things have been going. I'm thankful the my Heavenly Father keeps calling to me to make changes even thought their hard and uncomfortable and I have a really hard head!

I'm also thankful for life and health. Both of these are precious gifts. Ones I sincerely need to spend a lot more time appreciating and using than just coasting on.

I think I'll go take a nice hot bubble bath (alone because it's almost 2AM and everyone but me is asleep!) Seeing as until the past 2 weeks I've not had the twins sleep through the night in almost 5 years there is a lot to be said for this!

By the way, I'm really grateful for nights cooler than 70', beautiful spring flowers and living in a climate where the sun shines almost every day. The sun is a beautiful thing.