“Motherhood is a choice you make everyday to put someone else’s happiness and well being ahead of your own. To teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when your not sure what the right thing is….and to forgive yourself over and over again for doing everything wrong.” –Donna Bell
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
We have on our wall our family picture and surrounding our picture are words that are so dear to Trent and I but as a family we have yet to really dive into its meanings and study it.
For the next 9 weeks for our Family Home Evenings we will be breaking down this document paragraph by paragraph in hopes that our children will understand why this document is so special and so pivotal to our day in time.
Last day of Spring Break was rough
It’s been a fun week for spring break and Friday was a hard one. All 3 of the older ones broke down all at once and ganged up on eachother.
I did “break” literally and I have to admit that I broke my challenge of no yelling. Oh how it hurt inside to do that. The pain hits you hard right after you have done it that you’ve failed and slipped up.
Easton and Reeghan were going at it in the car with punches and scratches and I just held my own and let them fight it out until we reached the stop sign and I burst! Then I threw my phone charger to the back of the car because I was so frustrated. I’ve realized that all the sitting and watching them just fueled my fire and then I just consumed them all with my yell.
The night only got progressively worse as Easton continued to throw things at me all because he didn’t want to apologize to Reeghan. He finally did and then came to me and said sorry.
I took “going out with dad” away from him as a consequence for the incident in the car earlier and it was time for trent to go and that made it worse to the point that he continued to throw more at me again after Trent had left!
I just broke down in front of him and that didn’t seem to do anything and my instinct came to kick him to stop. Yep I said it, I kicked my son down. I ran out of his room and fell onto my bed with more alligator tears this time.
My thoughts of my Savior flooded my mind at this moment and I thought of the words I just taught to the youth just on Sunday. Then I thought about my studythis morning about standing in holy places and it sure wasn’t holy around my house this afternoon. Finally I fell to my knees and pleaded and pleaded for him. It’s a tiny miniscual problem I’m dealing with trying to create more sibling love but man I sure am failing.
However I know that I can jump right back on and pray even harder to overcome this weakness of mine. I need help and I can’t do it alone.
Pae came in a few minutes later and asked if I felt better and I told her being a mom is hard and she said. “I help make it hard, I’m sorry”. It was a tender moment and proceeded to tell her we all are working on being better people and we mess up and it sucks when we do.
Easton once again came into my room about a half hour later and apologized again. Oh the lessons he is learning!
Man it was a hard afternoon!
His room still looks like this and I’m not touching it I may last for days.
1 Nephi 11
As Nephi was asking to see what his father saw through prayer he had incredible faith that it would be provided for him to see.
As an angel of The Lord appeared and showed him those things I noticed that the events in Christ’s life were presented but noticed also that one important one was left out.
He looked in verse 31 which showed Christ going forth among the children of men who were sick and healed them. Then verse 32tells us that he was taken by the people and judged of the world and verse 33 lifted upon the cross.
I wonder why the moment in the Garden of Gethsemane was not shown to Nephi? Was it too sacred of an experience? I’ve learned just how sacred that holy spot was and know that it was a time where he felt utterly alone. Nephi at times went to his holy places alone just as Christ did but I’m just curious why Nephi couldn’t see that part of his life. Too be continued……
Shooting Practice
Trent was over the moon about this idea of taking us on a family adventure to the woods out in the middle of nowhere and go learn how to shoot a gun.
Well today we did it right after we hunted for eggs we headed out to shoot a bunny target.
TV Easter Egg Hunt
Our new neighborhood Easter egg hunt was incredible. They provided full on toys at this hunt. It was great to get out and meet neighbors outside of church with little kids.
Paint spill
Paint was spilled in the cold storage room. But did I yell and get mad, No! Step by step, here a little there a little. I can do this.
Command Central Repair
In front of my computer you will see this due to Easton. I was furious but did I “yell” at him, Nope! I was so proud of myself. So in order to fix this mess and not mess up the whole long table I decided to hide it instead.
Thanks to Ikea they have this clear desk pad for $5. Well worth my time and $ to buy this then to rip up the whole table and start again. I had more paper on my leftover roll so I cut it to size and taped it underneath the mat.
It worked out nicely and it covered up that mess he made just fine.
“No Yelling” challenge
This is a screenshot of the background of my phone. This is a place that I see alot during various times of the day. The reason for this reminder is that I am taking on a challenge for myself. I was introduced to the challenge by a friend of mine I’ve known since HS and once I saw it I knew it was meant to be.
I’ve struggled with this and wondered why I get so short tempered with my children. I know some of you may be shocked by the fact that I struggle with this but who yells at their children in public? This is very important to me as a mother so this is why I am putting this out on the line. I need the constant reminders throughout the day. So I put up Orange Rhino’s throughout various spots in my home.
Office desk
In between the children’s bedrooms
Coming in from the garage into the living area
Kitchen
I sat down and told the children last night what my challenge was and that they will have to help me conquer this weakness of mine. I’ve been know doing it for 3 days and I can see a little difference however this morning the kids were yelling back and forth at each other so maybe they should take the challenge as well.
I wrote this back to my friend who introduced it to me because since she’s been writing about her experience with it too here towards the end of her post.
“I’ve been serious about joining with you in the challenge and its been great so far! Granted only 3 days. My kids look at me funny when they know we are in a situation where I’ve been in the past ready to yell due to their lack of obedience but I don’t! I have remained calm. It’s quite comical actually to see them wonder why I am acting in the way that I am.”
I excited to use some of these techniques or alternatives to not yelling and see then what my children’s reactions will be.
Who’s wants to join in on the fun? I need to be accountable to someone else other than my husband.
Garage Workstation
My unorganized garage thats been sitting like this for about 5 weeks while I waited patiently for Trent to unpack his tool boxes and build a workstation for himself.
He finally gave into my plea to get it done and unpacked and we hit up Home Depot for the supplies
Trent make shifted a temporary work station for his saw and began his own creation.
Aww! That looks much better. Simple but yet organized.
