What is your image?

While spending too much time blog surfing this morning (it was a long night with the baby and I'm having a slow start) I came across this post by a lady I have never met, but it really made me think.

My favorite part is a quote she gave by the philosopher Meister Eckhard who said, "When the soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image."

This immediately brought these pictures to my mind.

I did not like them in any shape, form, or fashion when they were taken, but now they are treasures of mine.

These images are what I want to enter into.

This looks like the mother that I want to be.

I want to experience that kind of joy that is on my face.

I love these little babies of mine and they are growing up far too fast.

It also made me think of this post I wrote a while ago.

What is your image?

Go read the article.

Post your picture on your blog.

Leave me a comment with the link!

Would you look at that!

I remember a while back when Gabriela first learned to write her name. She thought she would graffiti my whole house with it. Here is one example that is still lingering in my home as we speak.

I love how they incriminate themselves!

Well look who knows how to write their name now.

 And once again, in case you didn't catch it the first time!

(not sure what that other stuff is. maybe she has a "beautiful mind.")

(that's the rollershade in her bedroom if you couldn't tell)

(and speaking of incrimination...I think I might need to dust my bookshelf and clean my baseboards!)

The Experiment

A little over a week ago, I decided to make a goal. Miguel has committed to some pretty serious goals between now and Christmas and I wanted him to feel like he wasn't the only one sacrificing so much, so I decided to join him and do something hard. I committed to no sugar until Christmas.

I'm 12 days in, and it is so hard! I'm amazed at the amount of junk I could have consumed over the last week and how much sugar is apart of our diet. From birthday parties, book group, work bbq, and game nights, all of which had multiple treats. Doing this is very lonely, but I think it will be so good for me.

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I was having trouble with antibiotics again. The doctors office told me that I had one more left to try before I would have to start doing home IVs. I don't really know what that is all about, but it sure doesn't sound fun. I do have concerns for my health in the future and feel like I need to try to do things to prevent myself from getting sick. I figure diet has a lot to do with it, so this is my first experiment. I also would like to have more energy, ease my seasonal allergies, and up my immune system.

Yesterday I was teaching the Primary at church about the Word of Wisdom. As we were going over the commandments and promises that it entails, I was touched by the spirit, and I felt like I was making the right choices. I had been contemplating trying the 12 Steps to Whole Foods program, written by the Green Smoothie girl. As I was reading in the scriptures, they specifically talk about how our Heavenly Father gave us grain and fruits of the vine for us to eat and that if we live by these principles, we were promised that we will have protection, knowledge, energy, strength, and good health. It was inspiration I believe.

I know I won't be able to make the change overnight, but I'm willing to try my best and am anxious to see what the results will be. If you would like to join me, let me know. I think it would be fun and encouraging to have a support group and people we can shop with and share whole foods recipes with.

Oh and I'm going to a Green Smoothie Girl class on Sept. 6th. Let me know if you want to come with me.

In the future.

As I was driving down State Street today, I started imagining what my girls would drive someday, or better yet, what car would best fit their personality. Don't ask me why, but I really was thinking about this. And here is what I came up with.

Gabriela: she likes fancy things, but she is still conservative. Mercedes would suite her nicely because it seems to stand for sophistication and yet it has pizazz. I think she would like to a convertible so everyone would see her. She likes to be seen. I think she would like the attention of the boys as she strolled around town, but she wouldn't bother to talk to them.

Sophia: this all started with Sophia in fact. I can totally picture her in a white jeep with the top off. She is my adventurer! She likes it fast and is not too prissy to let the wind whip through her hair. It's tough and can go anywhere. It doesn't say I'm too girly, but more like "bring it on," and that's her philosophy in life. I think she will be one who has a lot of guy friends, because she plays hard.

Julianne: she is sort of the first two rolled into one. Her personality is yellow through and through. She's very dramatic and loves attention. She's your typical youngest child. And in contrast to Gabriela, she would talk to the boys! She's a lot of fun and this car says f.u.n.! But at the same time she does care a lot about what she looks like.

Here's your chance!

I know I've talked a lot about the Power of Moms on my blog, and you know that I'm a big fan of the retreats that they host (I've been to two). Well they are doing something extra special by hosting a COUPLES RETREAT in September! I know all you mothers out there have read a dozen or so parenting books and have secretely wished your husband would read it and get on board so you wouldn't have to regurgitate the entire thing to them. Well this is your chance to go to something great and uplifting, hear from some amazing parents, Linda and Richard Eyre, and have your husband sitting right next to you. Then the two of you can discuss all the wonderful things you've learned TOGETHER! Isn't that great!?

Miguel and I will be there.

Will you?

(Click on the links above to find out more. Let me know if you have questions.)

Back in Session!

Man, today is a glorious day! Why? Because we started back to school today. Way back when, when I was thinking about having my fourth baby, I thought it would be so fun to have a baby in the summer. I didn't happen to think about what it was going to be like to have 3 kids in the house with me every day with the new baby. The lack of a schedule has been crazy, so with that said, that is why I'm so excited for today! We will finally be forced into a schedule and there will be times when I will only have two children at home so I can actually go to the grocery store and run errands. Woohoo!

But besides my own excitement, I'm really excited for my kids as well. Gabriela is ready. She's super social and has not had many chances to be social over the summer outside of her family. I know she's glad to see her friends. She was a little nervous to start first grade, because she was afraid of being with all the big kids. She will start eating lunch at school now. (I'm biting my nails over this one. I think I've taught her how to choose healthy things to eat and why, now let's just hope she does it when I'm not at the table with her.) She was really excited to have her own desk and not sit at a group table like in kindergarten. So without further adou...here she is!

Miss. Gabriela.....The First Grader.

 This is her teacher Mrs. Frey.

 Her friend Sophia, from Kindergarten, is in her class.

 A lot of the other kids looked pretty nervous, but Gabriela was beaming! I love that about her. She has a lot of confidence and I'm so proud of her.

 And where were the other little rugrats, you might ask? Yeah they were there too. I pretty much snatched them out of bed, threw their shoes on, and off we went to walk Gabriela to school.

 And there she goes! My baby girl will be gone all day now to school.

I sure love that kid!



The Truth Is...

I'm TIRED!

Really, really tired.

It's 10:00 and I've just put four children down to bed who I've been caring for since, oh, I can't even remember. I'm waking up at night still, to feed a baby. I think I had mastitis, called the ob for a perscription, and of course I'm allergic to it. I feel like I've rolled in a bed of poison ivy and if you touch my skin it feels like it will catch on fire and burst into flames. I'm sort of a hypocondriac and keep imagining what will happen to me if I ever get seriously ill or get cancer. They will have no way of treating me, because I'm allergic to everything under the sun. It kind of sucks to be honest. My husband works all the time, and I feel like I'm wearing down. Between elders quorum meetings, primary meetings, him working late and going on appointments, I rarely see the man. I'm tired of having breakfast, lunch, and dinner, by myself with the kids. I feel like I give and give and I'm not recieving very much. I told Miguel about it the other night and he said the three most important areas to worry and focus on are my spiritual and physical well being as well as my relationships with others. My response:

Well I'm pretty high and dry in all those areas.

I'm not writing this to gather sympathy. No it's more of a way to capture what it's like at this moment in my life raising four kids. As hard and refining as it is, I wouldn't trade it or give up my opportunity to be with them, but it is just hard. That's the reality of it. I wish I could sugar coat it and post some glorious pictures on here, but then that wouldn't be portraying the truth. Life is hard right now. Others have it harder. I'll have faith that it will get better. I'm looking forward to school starting next week so we can have some sort of schedule and maybe things will settle down a bit.

Now I'm off to bed.