My tiny person

I have been gone most of today, so when I pulled into the garage tonight and spent a few moments in the car gathering my thoughts, I could have very well let my impatience get the better of me when Jared popped his face up next to the car window and enthusiastically pointed to his shared journal.  Each of my children has a small journal that is a space where they can write to Jason or I, and we can do the same to them.

It has been a while since I have seen one.  Jared has always struggled with reading and writing.  So, to see three pages filled with words, charts, and drawings meant he had spent a significant amount of time on it.  I won't share what he wrote publicly, but they were words of love spoken from a boy to his mama.

My sweet Jared turned 10 this month and I had a hard time with it.  It's been a big year of birthdays this year. Jayce turned 14 attending youth conference, EFY and then started high school.  Lainy will turn 12 in two short months, move up to young womens, and started middle school. And Jared, no longer a single digit kid, and having an opinion on his clothing and hair.  All of this also means I am getting older.  And that's ok with me.

The temple walk

Today was full.  I spent the morning with Janna's little person, played basketball, and then took her to dance class.  Due to her refusal to dance alone, I spent a half an hour warming up and practicing a recital dance with a roomful of 3 and 4 year olds.  It was a reminder that I am never too old to dance like a ballerina, and that my flexibility levels are at an all time low.

Spent lunch time with a group of the most amazing women to celebrate a birthday, went grocery shopping, picked up kids from school, took Lainy to and from volleyball, and finally walked 5 miles with our young women, from the church building to the Cedar City LDS Temple, currently under construction.

We walked along the busy main street, the weather was perfect, and the girls were in good spirits.  Each mile marker there was a loving leader, to share with us both physical and spiritual sustenance, preparing us for our journey forward toward the temple.  It took 2 hours, but I didn't hear one word of complaint, instead I heard laughter, encouragement, and even a challenge to see how many times the girls could get passersby to wave back. It was a lot.  I heard one person ask why we chose the route along the busy street.  For safety reasons we chose that path with a sidewalk for the majority of the time.  But it made me think about our journey to the temple on a spiritual level.  These girls will have to travel along side the world.  They will have to steer clear of the noise and traffic of it.  It is loud and fast, but there is a clear pathway to the temple if you stay on track.  We had several girls meet us on the trail due to time constraints, and I realized that we do pick up people and bring them with us along the way.  That it doesn't matter at what point on the journey they join us, we were just happy they came.  At the very end there was a stretch of road just before you get to the temple that goes up a very steep hill.  It reminded me that our journey is long, and our journey is hard. And we have to push forward even until the very end to receive these beautiful blessings of the temple, and of eternity.  But it was worth it.  It is worth it.   I am so grateful I was able to experience tonight with Lainy.  She loved it.  I loved it.  Tonight was one of those stepping stones that prepares each of us to enter the Holy Temple of God.

Listening to an Apostle of the Lord

Jayce and I had the opportunity to listen to Elder Ballard speak this weekend at the Centrum at SUU. Honestly, I was looking for ways to get out of it, I wanted to spend more time with Jason since he only has about 36 hours home each weekend.  I knew it was a pretty important and uncommon occurrence, and yet I was not anxiously awaiting it.  A few of my laurels wanted to ride together, so we went.  What a blessing of an evening.

I have been working on recognizing the spirit in my life, what is emotion and what is the Spirit.  I was captivated.  I have a hard time sitting still for long periods of time in a confined space, but this. This was different.  I knew without the emotion attached, that the spirit was strong in that giant room.

I didn't take notes, I didn't check and recheck my phone, I didn't giggle with the girls by my side.  I listened.  It wasn't until Elder Ballard was recapping that I realized I had never taken my notebook out of my bag.  It didn't matter, that night it was about the moment, and there were answers that I didn't even realize I had been searching for, answered.