Sunday, May 10, 2015
Happy Mother’s Day! I feel like I have the best mother, mother-in-law,
and grandmothers in the world. I am so
thankful for them and their righteous examples.
I love my mother’s kind, quiet, easy going manner. I love that she let us have a lot of freedom
growing up and when we asked to do big projects or make things most of the time
she said yes--although, I do remember hearing the phrase, “no, no a thousand
times no!” a few times and I’ve used that phrase on my kids a time or two as
well. Lately I’ve been thinking I need
to follow her example of saying yes to my kids more often and letting them have
more freedom to grow and make things as they get older. I love her love for others and that she doesn’t
speak ill of anyone. I love that she and
my aunts got along so well so that their husbands’ ranch partnership
worked. If they didn’t along and if they
spoke ill about each other I don’t think the ranch would have flourished as it
did. I love my mother-in-law Brenda’s
life of service and willingness to help out.
She is a great mother and fun grandmother. Her Grammy Days are so wonderful for me and
my kids. I love my Grandma Flake’s ability
to make everyone feel like they were her favorite. I remember her coming to stay with us and
take care of us when my parents went on trips.
I loved going to visit her every Sunday night and the bond that created
within my extended family. I really grew
to love my Aunts, Uncles and cousins. I
love my Grandma Skouson and wish I would have known her. From the stories I’ve heard from my mom and
my cousins she seemed fun and spunky.
My Mother’s Day has been nice. I slept in until about 8:00. I didn’t have any extra Sunday meetings. Bryant made French toast for breakfast. Spencer and Bryant bought me some very soft
slipper flip flops. The girls made cards
and Karalee made me a bracelet in activity days. Chad bought me a nice camping chair that won’t
cut off the circulation in my legs for our camping trip this summer. (By the way, we’ve picked a date and location
for our camping trip if anyone would like to join us for all or part of our
stay. We will be going to Bear Canyon
Lake June 24-27th.) I took a
nap this afternoon after church while Chad and the kids made a nice ham
dinner. I sure love my family. I’m so glad I get to be a wife and a mother.
 |
| Chad busy making a yummy dinner. |
 |
| Me relaxing and reading to Tilly |
Monday through Thursday Tilly had swim
lessons. She had lessons last year, but needed
them again this year to remind herself that she could swim. She’s doing great!! She can swim across the whole pool and lift
her head up to take a breath. She jumps
off the diving board and swims to the side.
She loves lessons and is excited she gets to go again this week.
Tuesday morning when I got in my van to take kids
to school and the battery was dead. So
Chad quickly helped me jump the van and after I dropped of the kids at school I
went to AutoZone to have the battery tested.
It was bad so we had to buy a new one.
I also had to renew my Costco membership that day and pay for my Costco shopping
trip so it was an expensive day.
I’ve been deep cleaning my house this week. I cleaned up Chad’s and my bedroom really
well on Monday. Wednesday I shampooed
the family room carpet. Thursday morning
when they carpet was dry we decided to rearrange the furniture. Doing that reminded me of my friend Chani and
our first semester of college. She would
rearrange our furniture quite often. It’s
been fun to have it in a different place.
Thursday afternoon I washed the walls and some of the blinds in the family
room and kitchen. It looks MUCH
better. I have plans to do more deep
cleaning this week. I really need to wash
more walls throughout the rest of house, go through our filing cabinet and get
rid of LOTS of old stuff in there, shampoo the computer room carpet, and dust
our big bookshelf and go through the books and get rid of some of them.
 |
| Bryant chillin out, listening to music and singing along. |
 |
| We got our first two zucchini from our garden this week!! |
 |
| Tilly hiding out so no one will take the ipad away from her. |
 |
| Thursday morning the girls and I played duck, duck goose with their dolls and stuffed animal friends. |
Thursday night Spencer had a fun concert. The men’s chorus he is a part of sang and danced
to songs from Newsies. Spencer even had
a small solo. The other choirs sang and danced to music
from “Into the Woods”, “Les Miserables”, and “Mama Mia”.
Friday morning was Chad’s birthday. We got to attend Bryant’s band concert that
morning together. We went to Firehouse
subs for lunch together and then we went to dinner at Joe’s farmhouse grill
together. I was glad he could work from
home that day and have more of a relaxed day.
That night he and Spencer went on a campout to the Peppersauce caves
near Oracle with Spencer’s deacon’s quorum.
Bryant decided to campout in our backyard that night and Marlee and
Karalee camped out in the family room. I
kept the doors unlocked and my window open so I could hear Bryant if anything
happened. I was kind of nervous to do
that without Chad home, but everything worked out fine and I was able to get to
sleep without being too scared. I’m
learning to be braver.
 |
| Chad working from home on his birthday in his corner office. |
 |
| Getting ready to go to lunch with Chad. |
 |
| Chad sporting his new hat from his mom. |
 |
| Bryant setting up his camp site in the back yard. |
Yesterday Bryant had a basketball game at 8
am. He scored 4 points. His team did really well the first half of
the game, but they got killed the second half and lost by 20 points. Marlee went to her friend Stella’s birthday party
yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon
I finished reading the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand that I
borrowed from my Mom. It was a fascinating
book about Louis Zamperini during World War II.
He was an Olympic runner, survived a plane crash, survived being lost at
sea for 47 days, and survived being a prisoner of war to some VERY cruel
Japanese guards. (I got sick to my stomach and almost threw up reading the
chapters about his POW experiences. It made
me realize that Satan really does use his influence to tempt people reign to with
blood and horror.) Then it told of how
he was able to get past PTSD from his horrible experiences by coming to Christ. It was such a good book, except for the parts
that made me want to throw up. Last
night Spencer had an end of the year school party at Mesquite Groves Aquatic
center. My friend Kristen was in charge
of it and she invited me to come help chaperone with several of the other
mothers. There was a good turn out and
Spencer seemed to enjoy himself. I’m so
thankful he has such good friends at school and in our neighborhood.
 |
| Chad fixed my washer for me yesterday for a Mother's Day gift. He's handsome, hardworking and handy. |
 |
| The awesome book I finished. |
My quote for today is about mothers: "May each of us remember this truth; 'one
cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget
God.' Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in
creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one” (Thomas
S. Monson, Pathways To Perfection: Discourses Of Thomas S. Monson).
Love,
Mindy
