Scripture power

We are trying to be better at scripture reading every night.  Tonight we decided to snuggle in Hallies's room for reading.  We are trying for 10 minutes of reading.  I know it is hard to squeeze it in but I do see and feel a difference in the attitude around the house when it gets done.  The kids laying there on the floor just was so heart warming seeing them all hanging out.  The peacefulness only lasted a moment until I was whooshing them and telling them to hold still and to follow along.. 

Sunday down time

 A typical Sunday at our house- I have early morning meetings for Young Women 3 out of 4 Sundays.  Hallie takes me to my meetings.  The kids get themselves ready for church.  I honestly am not sure how many other teenagers would do this without a giant fight.  They sometimes get there with wrinkly shirts and scraggly hair but some Sundays they come with hair all fancy and look quite.  When I started having meetings I had to let go of the idea of what everyone may think of my kids coming with their scraggly hair but I am over that and am just super proud that they show up at all. Church starts at 9 am.  We get done at 12.  We come home and have a "whatever you can find" meal.  Because there is something about 3 hours of church that makes you feel like you are famished.  Maybe all that spiritual calories we have burned.  Then we all just chill.  I usually climb into my bed or snuggle on the couch, and the kids find a couch or even get back into their bed and watch their gadgets.  Aunt Kell and kids come a lot of the times on Sundays to hang out.  Today we all took a family nap in my room.  Well Hallie didn't join us.  Brad is out of town so they felt I needed some extra bodies to fill his void.  We watched lots of episodes of the Treehouse Guy.  He is awesome.  I want a treehouse.  We then fix dinner and do any homework.  They don't have a ton over the weekends.  After dinner, I had the kids help me with a 20 minute tidy.  Then we read our 10 minutes of scriptures together.  We go over our calendar for the week, and Have family prayer.  Then chill some more.  We had some extra time before bed so Livee, Aleena and I played a game of Yahtzee.  I truly love my Sundays.  My kids say they are boring but we need a day of boring to recoup for the next week.  There are no stores open here on Sundays, and so it truely is just a day off.  

I remember as a kid, my mom would have a dinner of meat and potatoes, home made rolls every Sunday.  We would walk in from church and it always smelled like a roast was ready.  It was ready within an hour of getting home from church.  I am pretty sure she missed out on half of church to have it all ready for us.  My Grama and Grampa Severe would come to dinner every Sunday.  My Grama would bring a cake with fluffy egg white frosting on it, and she would always make the thickener for the gravy.  I wish I could tell my mom how grateful I was for those meals. I didn't really appreciate them until I knew how much work they really were when I tried to carry on that tradition.  That tradition has died.  I do fix dinner but later in the day.  We only have church at 9 am for the rest of the year then we jump to 11.  I may actually be able to help the littles with hair before my meetings since they won't be so early.  

Brighter Day

The kids did pretty good today.  Jase really didn't want to go to school this morning again, but I forced him to.  I get it.  It is hard to go out and see people because they will talk about it, but I felt he needed to get out, have some fresh air and have school to preoccupy his thoughts.  It was a school day for me.  It was a productive day with the kids.  Drama went well after school.  Aleena had a birthday party, Livee went to a friends, Jase and Hal went to the football game.  I chose to stay home and just chill and watch a movie.  It was so quiet at my house my ears weren't sure how to handle it.  Aleena called and was ready to come home.  She crawled in my bed.  She says "what does depression feel like".  I think she was feeling a bit different today.  

It was a rainy, cool evening and we just are snuggling in bed now.  Brad is settled in Wisconsin and will be back next week.  I am looking forward to sleeping tomorrow.  Good night.

RIP Boomer

I was laying in bed being a bit lazy, and was calling for the kids to wake up, time to get ready for school. I thought I heard the doorbell.  It is very hard to hear it downstairs.  I just ignored it, thinking Grampa would get it.  But then it rang again.  Our doorbell does not ring very often, especially early in the morning.  I decided I better go and see who was here.  As I opened the door, I saw the neighbor lady, Heidi, walking back to her car.  And as soon as she opened her mouth, is when our day turned upside down.  I dont't know why her words were a shock to me.  It was bound to happen.  She said "your dog got ran over".  I was even more surprised to find that it was Boomer.  He hardly chases cars.  Heidi was headed to work and found him dead in the road and didn't want anyone else to re-run him over.  He clearly was dead but it hadn't been very long.  He luckily didn't have a ton of visible wounds.  She kindly helped me move his heavy body off the road.  As we were moving him, Aleena came out to see what was happening and I told her to go inside.  She asked if he was dead and when I told her yes, she just started crying in histerics and ran into the house.  Then Livee came out.  I told her to go in.  Boomer was heavy and it took us a good couple minutes to move him.   By then I was crying, the neighbor lady was crying, and all the kids inside were crying.  She left and I went inside.  Jase went out and wrapped his arms around him for a bit to say goodbye. Emotions were running high.  Aleena called Brad.  He is in Wisconsin.  Brad thought maybe something happened to one of us because he couldn't understand her, but finally got the message.  Hallie woke up to Aleena's histeria thinking something happened to Brad.  It took everyone a little bit to settle down.  We went out and moved him to the wheel barrow, where he rested for the day until we could get him buried.  Our other neighbor Dave Burch brought his digger over and dug a hole for us.  Hallie headed to school, the others stayed home.  We spent the morning looking at pictures, making a video and remembering all sorts of good things about him.   Aleena and Livee headed back at lunch but Jase stayed the day home.  He has taken it the hardest.  I took him to town.  He had a check to cash and I took him to lunch.  We have had a lot of conversations about how we grieve and everyone grieves differently and how people sometimes deal with hard things by turning to drugs and other unhealthy ways and how that isn't the best choice. Conversations about what heaven is like, where is heaven at, that there is life after death where we will see him again, how we need to live our life the best we can because we don't know when our time is.  How Heavenly Father prepares us for these things- Jase felt like he really had some special time with him yesterday, how our actions always affect those around us.  

They seem a bit better tonight.  The three youngest have all stayed in the same room as me most of the day, all within an arms length.  It just breaks my heart that they are broken but am glad they felt like they could talk to me about how they were feeling. Jase fell asleep next to me in my bed.  Not sure that has happened in a long while.

Here is to hoping for a brighter tomorrow.

   

Mini Bolleyball

Aleena played volleyball for the first time.  It was through Oregon Trail, in Burley.  They would practice in Oakley and have games Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  She has a lot of fun and did quite well.  Tomorrow is her last game.   
 

Changing

The feel of my house is changing.  When we were sending Savanna to college, I didn't expect the feel to be so different.  She was hardly home anyways, but yet, her being gone has changed the feel.  I have spent 18 years with the mentality of where is she? what is she doing? who are you with? and now just overnight I have to let her be on her own.  She has earned my trust and is a very responsible, mature young lady but it still leaves me with a bit of a hole right now.  

The other part that is changing is that now that she is gone, I am suddenly struck with the fact that in less than 2 years, Hallie will leave.  My time is seeming so much shorter with the other kids.  

I also am having many evenings where all my kids are at events and I am home alone.  Which I am not complaining about the alone part, it just is a shift in our house.  It means they are getting older and before I know it, they will all be off making their own families.  I really am enjoying my kids.  They are good kids.  We are not perfect at getting all our stuff done, but I have good kids.  I feel like I hardly have to raise my voice, or ground or threaten.  They are aware of people's needs around them, we have great conversations, they make me laugh, they have good friends and are good friends back.  I hope I am not jinxing myself by admitting this.  

It is time for me to spend some thoughts and energy on myself but I am not exactly sure how to do that... 

Hard work

 Jase had an opportunity to go and work for Uncle Matt this last weekend re-roofing a house.  Brad went too.  And I couldn't be prouder of this boy.  He worked his tail off for two solid days of hard labor.  He would come home, shower and crash.  It has already opened up his chances for future job opportunities.  

Homecoming

  Hallie attended her first School Dance.  Jake Asked her and she answered with gummy snakes saying "yesssss".  He is terrified of snakes.  They spent the day at Jump time and laser tag and had a late lunch at Sizzler.  The actual dance was up at the Justesen Barn and then they watched movies after.  They both looked adorable, and had a funny 3rd wheel, Joel, tag along.  My kids are just getting too big.

Tester

Testing if my phone can post pictures to blogger yet.