where life takes you

I have found myself wondering where life will take me next a lot today. I mean since I moved to Az I have become totally involved in the Celiac world both through the Celiac Disease Foundation and work. We have had the children in two different schools, moved and moved again in with my Parents ( probably the craziest of everything) found out we were having a baby, lost the baby. We have become soccer obsessed to the next level- olivias practicing eating three days out of each week and now joey starting up too.

Anyway, I sit here in my moms garage that now happens to be my bedroom and think, where is life taking us? Mike and I are so fiercely independent and strong willed when we first got married I figured we would have life all figured out each with our own car, fancy house and model looking kids ( LOL, laugh with me, just laugh with me) ... and here I sit. This isn't a negative rant or anything like that, but I find my self a little lost at how to move forward. A household of 10 is no joke, think about the socks involved here....

10 people
7 days a week
2 socks for 10 people each day, so 20 socks each day times 7 days.....

yeah....

Dishes for 3 meals, for a gluten free household and a non gluten free household, 10-15 people, 3 times a day, working to avoid cross contamination....

mopping, sweeping, laundry ( which my boys seem to have accidents at night EVERY time I get finally caught up)  dusting, cause' we all love Arizona dust, cooking and the list goes on....

So moving forward I am wondering, where are the priorities? If the world fell apart tomorrow what do I need to teach my children...is the world falling apart? What the heck is happening to our government...any one read the news now that the elections are over?? What do all these changes mean for my family that is working to restart our life? Will we get that chance before things change to quickly? If so, great...if not...what should I be doing now?? all those dreams I had as a young girl, let them go? embrace them? the world tells me to, but I am not supposed to be " of the world", so is it bad if I do? ( IS this a mid life crisis?????!?)

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS.....

I know, tell me to take it one day at a time, do the things I know I need to do and it will ALL work out...and I believe that. But the questions still come and I find myself wondering just where will life take me? We all know that looking back you can see how life twisted and turned in unexpected good and bad ways, so I know I can't predict tomorrow...but still can't seem to stop trying.

Only in our house...

So the other day I walked out our front door with my husband and he said " you are going to post about this right!?" So here it is the thing that ONLY in our house you would find....

Because who else would put up a pop up with no roof, use rope to hang a car bumper from so that it could get painted??? IN THEIR FRONT YARD on a very busy city street in a subdivision where you can't even leave your garbage outside of your fence?? Only.... some one in Our house.....

Following The Crowd

The other day I was driving to school with my children and we were talking about "having a sense of urgency" when getting ready for school. I'ts something they lack and need to find quickly, before their mom and dad go insane pushing them through the morning routine. My oldest stated that she just didn't think it was right that she had to figure this out when those around her ( in her mind) didn't have this same worry. I had a light bulb moment in my teaching, no doubt it wasn't mine because for me when the Lord is stepping in and helping that's how it goes, a stroke of genius in the middle of now where. A thought or memory that I normally couldn't pull up in my normal course of thinking.

I have a sweet friend who I love and met while we lived in Utah. I was called as the ward organist at the time and struggling with my timing in the songs. She shared with me her own struggle and some advice. Its been a long time, but I will tell you the important parts. She was going to BYU and involved in the music program and she was asked to play the organ for the BYU devotional. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with this, BYU is a religious school and so they have devotionals once a month. They hold them in the Marriott Center where the collage team plays basketball, so the place is HUGE and these devotionals have several thousands in attendance. She was nervous, but confident in her abilities.  She practiced a lot and was ready to go. She said its started well and she felt good, but she realized that the congregation was singing slower then her. So the next verse she slowed down a bit, and still they were slower, so the NEXT verse she slowed down again but still the congregation was slower. I don't know how long the song was but by the end the song was draggggiiiinnnnngggg. She was embarrassed to realize that SHE was the one who needed to set the tempo for the crowd, not the other way around. She said and I will never forget, " don't follow the congregation, they will always slow you down."

And so it is with life, if we follow what we perceive others to be doing around us, we will always be slowed down. We have to be the tempo keeper of our own lives.

So this is the talk my sweet children got. Be you, be in control of you, don't look to the crowd for direction because the crowd will always be slower then you need them to be- if you want to be successful in life.

how you know...

Yesterday I was cleaning, ( suprise!) my cleaning time is probably the most dangerous time of day for me. Its my thinking time. I let my mind go where it wants, explore what it needs to, work through issues I may have pushed aside. I often leave my cleaning hours by saying  to Mike " so...I was thinking..." to which he inevitably replies... " UH OH".

But I was thinking about my friends, the ones that are real, fake and in between. I was thinking of how grateful I am to have some amazing souls- real people, in my life who have watched and protected me through tough trials especially this last year. I realized something I think I should share.

How do you know if a friend is a real friend??  A good friend who loves you for just you. It's that simple. They are the ones, that as you go through struggles, whether they met you in the middle of the mess or have known you long before....as you go through these struggles, they don't judge you BY  the struggles.  They see beyond your bad temper tantrums or frequent out burst, your saying something you shouldn't have said because you are feeling low.They have the ability to see beyond the person struggling, they see you for who you are, not just the you right now, but the person you are destined to be. They choose to love that person you are meant to be and help you remember who she is, so you can reach a little higher and become her once more.

Those are true friends, the ones who see through the mess...the now. They see your heart and love you in spite of your imperfections. So whether they meet you in the middle of the mess or as your flaws come to light later, it doesn't matter, because they see beyond them. When you find those friends, make sure you tell them you love them...I hope you all know who you are, because I don't have many, but you few are as dear as family to me, you are the few that I plan on seeing in this life and the next....so your stuck with me is what I am saying. ;)

Only In our House...

This has been fun. My family has decided to join in on the fun and so now they like pointing out things that might fit in my " only in our house" theme.

This one is from my mom.

Only in our house does it seem perfectly acceptable to set up your entire office in the middle of the house on the kitchen table so that there is no room for any one to eat anything...and keep your foot fungal medicine right next to you....just in case ;)

Only In our house..

This one is a bit yummy and fun. I was eating a typical breakfast for the Somerville house hold only to realize it had transferred to the Heller house hold as well.

 Not that I mind, cause only in OUR house....

Are Strawberries and Chocolate a perfectly normal and acceptable form of breakfast food.....every day.... seriously....Ask any one who has lived with us ( and that a lot of witnesses!).  ;)

only in our house

So I JUST posted yesterday about my new idea to take pictures of the crazy and random things we find or that happen in our house of 10. Much to my delight and surprise I found new material last night. LOL, so here's to living with 10!

Only in our house.....

would you find the top of a can in the bottom of your washing machine- after you empty the laundry....

Thankfully I didn't cut my hands on it! ;)

Holy Lemons and Lemmalaide

Last night for family night, We went to the Mesa, AZ temple and picked lemons. You might feel weird about picking lemons off trees on what us Mormon consider holy ground. But several years ago my dad talked with the gardener about it and they even showed us where the tools are to help get them easier =) so My parents have had lemon juice and lemonade all year round ever since!

The kids LOVED it and the quiet peaceful feeling that resides there was so nice to feel! Here are a few pictures of our adventure:

Once we got home, Grandma and Grandpa pulled out the juicer and let the kids juice a bunch of the lemons for "Lemmalaide" as joey calls it. ;)

It was a nice night.

only in our house...

We have 10 people living under one roof here. TEN. With 10 people and all the visitors that brings, there are bound to be interesting things found. I can't tell you how often the last three weeks I have shook my head, laughed, and said " only in our house". So from now one, when I come across those things, I am going to take a picture and share them here because ONLY IN OUR HOUSE....

Do you find a screw driver in the dishwasher AFTER the dishes are clean and unloaded...I wonder how many washes it got?

just need the instructions

Last night my son said a very alarming thing to me. He said " mom, I decided I don't like instructions. I don't need them. Instructions are just some one trying to tell me what to do and control my life, so now I never follow instructions.not even for computer games, I just ignore them and figure it out"

Um, hello. Rebellious before the age of 8??? My mommy panic button went off. you see,  In MY mind you say instructions and I say scriptures...ready?

(you) Instructions
(me) SCRIPTURES! =)
(you) Instructions
(me) SCRIPTURES! =)

.....and I could keep going on like that all day, but you get the point. For years I held similar thought as Jack, I didn't want nobody or nothing to direct me. I was a strong gal who could figure it out by my own intelligent self, dang it. Then One day it dawned on me that it was a silly belief. I mean how many jokes are there about guys who refuse to pull over and get directions and their families have to deal with the consequences?  Not to mention the fact that I KNEW the scriptures were like my life instruction manual, so why would I think I should follow those but not the ones that help me set up my children s toys or teach me how to use a new kitchen appliance?? I realized my thinking was twisted and needed a course correction, thankfully I have found a lot of joy in learning to follow the instructions AND I think it has helped me spiritually as well. Of course I understood the scriptures were my instructions, I had been taught it at least. BUT, I have found that by practicing following instructions, it gets easier and easier to follow the little guidelines and the big on regardless of the source, I am better at following Christ instructions because I am practicing the art of following instructions every where in my life.

So yes, when I heard Jack-attacks little rant about some one trying to control his life, my mommy panic button went off, I know I was lucky that despite my rebellious nature I understood to my core that I should stay close to the Lord. Looking back it was one of the few things that kept me out of serious trouble. But what if Jack is not so lucky? What if I can't help him see it or feel it deep in his soul?

We talked, I asked if he could think of a time when instructions helped him out....he came up with a Halo analogy and how he could better use a vehicle AFTER reading the instructions. Then I told him that the scriptures are instructions, and asked why it might be important to follow them.

He decided that we could go through life with out instructions, we might even accomplish some awesome things. He was confident that even with just a picture we could get the job done. In the end though, I told him we might not do things properly or as good as we would want to, like with his legos that do super cool things. We wouldn't get to know about those things if we hadn't followed the instructions, page by page. A simple picture could not show us how to do those things or that they were even possible.

 I don't think I altered his entire way of thinking. I will say, it made me think again about my life and what kinds of instructions am I reading or not reading. How well am I following those instructions and have I looked close enough to see the fun things that occur when I follow them to a tee..