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! ;)