Women's Broadcast

I recently returned from the General Relief Society Meeting and our stake humanitarian activity. What an uplifting afternoon! I feel so motivated to be better and try harder when I hear the council of our sweet church leaders. I feel very blessed for the opportunity to attend, to serve with our humanitarian projects, and to be so inspired and uplifted by the messages given. I am excited for the transcripts of the meetings to be published so I can study the points that seemed so applicable to me better.

Remembering Financial Blessings

One of the purposes of this blog is to help me remember personal spiritual experiences so that I won't forget them or the related feelings. I've been talking to my Sunday School class recently about this- how it's so important to REMEMBER; we're asked to remember who we are, remember what we learn, remember to always take Christ's name upon us, remember to keep our covenants, etc.. This seems like such an easy concept, and yet it can be so hard with everything else that fills our lives. It is hard to remember everything, so I want to post this so that I will not forget it and how much the Lord blesses me.

Money has been a little tight recently, so this last fast Sunday both Drew and I fasted for the purpose to receive some financial blessings or to do better financially. We paid our full tithe and a generous fast offering and put our faith in the Lord that His challenge to 'prove me now herewith...if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pur you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Here are some of the blessings- be they big or small- that we have received since then:

Drew's work hired me to do some consulting architecture work

Our dentist office that overcharged us finally reembursed our credit card

I called in and asked, and our credit card bill percentage rate was lowered

We received our escrow overage check from when we changed our homeowners policy

I was able to do all my grocery shopping close to our budget and using a gift card that we had purchased previously (aka no new credit charges for groceries)

Drew asked and his boss agreed to let us assemble and package some parts that Drew designed as a little ongoing side job

My aunt's dad hired me to do a little cleaning at my great-grandpa's house a couple times a week

I really believe that these are answers to our prayers and I want to remember that our prayers were answered. There are a couple other interesting things that I noticed from this experience that I also want to remember:

These were not the ways that I was expecting to be blessed or for our answers to come; but the Lord's ways are higher than our ways, and the blessings did come, just not as I might have suspected.

Each of these blessings required initiative and work on our part. Sometimes I think I just need to ask for something and then sit around and wait to be blessed, but I need to remember that it takes effort from me. If I didn't call my dentist over and over then we wouldn't have been reembursed; if Drew didn't take the initiative to ask his boss about assembling some parts at home then we wouldn't be doing it, and on and on. We asked and then were willing to work to help find our answers.

I am grateful for these blessings, and I know they come from the Lord.

Fun Visitors

Today we were able to have two sweet little visitors over to play and all four of the girls just had a wonderful time. I really feel blessed for this opportunity; Abigail has especially been missing some of her best friends who recently moved that used to always come over and play and so it was so nice to have some more little rascals running around this morning.

VT!

I have to say that I am so blessed with the women I visit teach- I just love them! I honestly love our visits and look forward to this special time every month to visit them in their homes. It's funny because I often see these women in our weekly outings and activities, but it's so great to get some quality, set-aside time to really see how they're doing and just slow down and talk about their needs and goals. I feel so blessed from these visits!

Today I also planned ahead and made quick little lunches for all the girls to munch on during the drive home, so my girls were able to go right to sleep and take good naps when we got back- see, more blessings!

A Good Girl Morning

Mondays are our busiest days, so they have the potential to be the best or the worst. And today was definitely one of the best! Right when I went in to tell the girls good morning I was excited for the day. They just seemed to be so happy and in a good mood. Abigail, especially just seemed to be so good all morning and I was really looking forward to the adventures of our busy day when it came time to head out the door. This was really a blessing, and even that little change changed me and my behavior and I found myself being more patient the few times when Abbie made mistakes and anxious to help her keep her good roll for the day going.

It made me wonder what affected the other more; it almost seemed like her being good made me more patient so it she was still 'good' when otherwise I might have thought she was being bad. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but I guess I realized that my mood towards her behavior affected how I perceived the behavior, and I hope that I can just be more positive and patient in the future to keep my view of her 'good days' coming.

I also noticed how this was so evident right from the first "good mornings" I gave the girls. This morning I got up with Drew and was showered, dressed, had makeup done, and had read my scriptures before the girls woke up. Correlation?

I'll have to try this again tomorrow and see if it holds true : ).

A Nursery Girl

Today was Lauren's first day at nursery! I was practically skipping down the hall to Relief Society; I am so excited for her to be in a fun place that suits her needs better- and especially with her big sister. Abigail was so sweet holding hands with Lauren and showing her the way to nursery and where all the toys were, and just really looking out for her. Nursery is such a blessing! Every week I feel that and now it is just doubly so. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be this excited about nursery, but I am! It has been a long nine months from when Lauren started walking to when she turned 1.5, and Drew and I are both excited to enjoy our adult meetings without having to chase after her. We love you Lauren! We hope you love nursery as much as we do! : ).