This child o' mine

In one day Hannah:

cut her hair at school, because the scissors were there and they tempted her

asked what it would be like to be at a Justin Beiber show in person and wants a JB poster (NOT happening)

told me at dinner with a guest present and with all sincerity and seriousness, that "I am getting "those things" on my chest (pointing to her breasts), you know, like you have". Then squeezed her chest together with her arms.  

What in the world are we in for?

this blog design so needs help, any takers???

here are the rest of cole's poems....

http://cpsstories.blogspot.com/

Didn't want to leave you hanging for those pics :).  And for the record we have had our Be grateful (sp)  up all year and it is mixed in with our Christmas decor.

So fun (for me) to look at...and I've realized I need to kick it up a notch in my Christmas morning attire, gracious...

My week

updated, to make sense..
While completely unintentional, I overbooked this week and then other things have trickled in as well.  I'm here to brag more than complain.  Due to this bragging I expect tomorrow to run as smooth as bricks in molasses...

It was mostly cooking..

I made dinner for a sweet friend with the cutest new baby!!
Made a breakfast casserole and got it to the middle school by 8:15
Made yummy potatoes for Brandon's office potluck
and brownies for the school's fall festival, all in a 24 hr period, of which I was home and awake 12 of those hours.
 and made dinner with a table set..tablecloth and all.
I do better when there's too much to do.

Included in all of this power cooking (which wasn't really, everything was pretty easy)
I also,
Made some hard decisions, not my forte.

Went to bed early almost every night..with the possible exception of this one.

Decked our halls for Christmas..don't judge, we won't be here for two weeks during the actual event (which we are excited about) (feel free to break in and clean!) but didn't want to miss out on our house all Christmasy.  The girls loved it, Brandon and Cole endured. 

Rocked some jeans that are two sizes smaller than the past ?? years. Rocked may be a strong word for this.

Bought throw pillows, this was crazy difficult because those things are just too expensive for their size and purpose.  I couldn't even look at the register as they were scanned.  But I do like looking at them on my couch :).

Showed Hannah tough love, this one probably takes the cake.

Paused Facebook activity.. ok, that one takes the cake. :)

Oh and probably ate my way back into those roomier jeans.

I was going to post old Christmas pics to help you with the early holiday mood we have going here, but can't access photos..maybe tomorrow!

Examples

It's been a rough week. And despite the "silencing" post, it has had nothing to do with the election, oh how I wish.  So I had a couple of incidents wherein I felt completely justified to lash out and oh so wanted to and was soooo close to doing so.  Then I started working on my sharing time lesson for Primary (children's church class).  It was about being a missionary by setting a good example.  In listing all the ways we can be an example to others of what being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as Meshach referenced today, being a christian christian (non-denominational I say), being kind to those that aren't as kind to us came up....darn it!

And not darn it too.  I knew it was a blessing then and even more so today as I taught it to sweet (talky) faces,  I knew that I'd been saved from making big mistakes. No matter how justified I felt I could not let Satan gain the upper hand.  It would've felt good and been so wrong.  It is never the answer to respond with kind.

My good Cole brought up this story...
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/01/people-noticed?lang=eng
He told the last part about a man watching when the lady fell and then mentioning their natural reaction..

Is our natural reaction who we are?  Scary, cause my natural reaction was not pretty.  But I can say I am trying harder.  I did wait, I received inspiration through my calling and I am steering the situation in a different course.

Oh bonus, almost forgot...today our family had a wonderful day together.  A lot of times we have friends over and play games and that is really fun and nice, but not a lot of family time.   Today was family time and we soaked each other up. I even ended up taking the opportunity to wash my children's feet (I'm really hoping all that dirt came from playing in the backyard and not my floors). They laughed and piddled and adored it..priceless.  As were were settling in, I said hey lets read a nice story to calm everyone down and Laura picked a story at random.  Cole was listening and told me wait for the end.  It was the story he cited for my lesson.  Call it what you will, I saw God's hand today over and over, it was beautiful.

silencing

Conservative post...feel free to pass on..but don't miss the examples post that is before or after this..and yes they may seem contradictory, but like the post heading says I'm silencing.....

the voices in my head.  I've tried to leave it alone... really, but I need to put my thoughts down if for nothing else, my sanity.  But I hope my kids will look back and say she voted for who and why? I want my kids to know why I voted for Romney, not because he was mormon, not because I didn't want to help others. And interestingly enough, this blog will most likely go the way of cyber dust and all they will have to live on is the example I've provided in my everyday life (scary).  Here we go...I only have two points that I'm touching on and hopefully it will be enough to let me sleep.




I've seen wretched comedians ( I honestly think of Bill Mayher talking about his and get nauseous) and others saying if Jesus was to show up today he'd be a liberal.  This disturbs me greatly.  Jesus showed us the example of how to live our lives individually.  He went out and helped people, of his own accord. He did not elect an official to force him and others to be charitable.  Actually, his plan was the exact opposite of this.  He beckons, he does not take.  Continuing to read the mantra "of  this is what Jesus would do", disheartens me that the Savior was and is being used in a political debacle (I know plenty on both sides do this and shame and I hope I haven't).  This is not what his sacrifice was for.  Yes we are to help people and love one another.  This is simply not the same as the government taxing our paychecks to disperse as it sees fit..  It simply is not.  The majority of voters for this idea are rich to someone and it seems to me that if they all went and acted on their ideas w/o waiting for someone to take it from them, we'd be on our way to where we need to be.  There's a lot more detail to that, but I think the gist of it is made and if not, hey I 'm no politician :).

And the lovely, uncontroversial...





right to choose for women.  Apparently if the nation's majority feels that this is deemed ok then I, who whole heartedly believe that life does begin before a baby's first breath, should just let them go right on ahead.  The fact is if you leave the fetus alone it will most likely become a living breathing person who already had a soul.  If, by law, it is not okay to kill the baby the second it leaves the womb, how is it possible to say that it's ok to do it before (sleepless nights)?  And if we're concerned about a women's rights to do what she wants to with her body, does this mean we need to find a way to find out the sex early enough so as to ask the woman inside the womb to see if she'd like to enter this world or not?  Women have a choice, plain and simple, and it's typically before conception.  Could we not use the the funds for this project to educate and support the mother through the pregnancy as much as needed and make it easier for the hundreds of thousands of parents who are ready to have a child, but aren't able to, to adopt these "mistakes".  People go on and on about the rape and incest cases and those instances are different, but what are the statistics on this? If you walk into a clinic how many women waiting will be a victim of these crimes?  As I look into my children's eyes I know that who they are started long before they breathed their first breath here and to say well if the country wants it who am I to stop it is interesting to say the least.


And exhaling. Peace.

New stuff on Cole's writing blog....
http://cpsstories.blogspot.com/