I have no pictures. I'm sitting here downloading church music onto the computer and figured I needed to write a little something on the blog. We don't have much to report either. Still, life has moved on and I would like to note a few things.
As I listen to my church music I can't help but feel gratitude and love for my Savior. Sometimes I struggle comprehending the hardships that happen in this life and how it balances out. Is there really enough good to make it worth all the bad? When you see people struggle over and over with consequences that can be their fault but most times are the faults of others. Is it really worth it? Was this life on Earth really worth going through all the heartaches? No one escapes it. You do your best to follow the commandments and that gives you your best chance to avoid a lot of heartache but still, some trial will weigh on you; some tragedy will befall you or those you love; some illness will strike. So I question again, is it all really worth it? Even the best of us have struggles that feel so heavy to bear that we have no other recourse than to drop to our knees and plead with the Lord for relief. When the scales seems to be tipped so extremely in the wrong direction my faith kicks in. It HAS to be worth it. The love of the Lord HAS to be worth it. It has to be so great, so radiant and consuming that it swallows up the pain and it is worth it. I'm grateful for my Savior tonight. I'm grateful that when I begin to wonder and ask, "Is this even making a difference? Are we even making progress?" that I feel that gentle warmth spread through my body and I know that Heavenly Father is answering my silent prayer. Yes, it's worth it. Yes, progress is being made. Keep it up. I should listen to church music more often.
On a completely different note:
The last few months have been busy. They always are now.
Thanksgiving came and my sister, Kaylee, was able to join us. Her daughter had to visit her dad but we got to enjoy the rest of the Smith family....all of them boys. But we also got to hold baby Luke. Kaylee and I did quite a bit of shopping. Heidi ended up watching all the kids so that the adults could get some Christmas shopping done. I'm pretty sure there are times she regrets being born first. Luckily we have a wii. Blake wasn't able to play the wii. He had been grounded off it for not singing. He never sings. Not in primary, sacrament meeting or family home evening. It was a pretty funny exchange that led to his being grounded off the wii but, in the end, he now sings. When it comes to the kids feeling the spirit, at their age, the best way to do so is through the songs. He's never going to feel it if he doesn't sing. Hopefully what is now parentally forced singing will one day turn into an appreciation for singing. You never know though. I guess we will find out in 30 years if we did the right thing or not in grounded him off the wii when all his boy cousins were in town for the holidays.
Christmas was wonderful. My brother, Joe, and his wife, Kristen, spent Christmas with us. It was perfect. What I love about Joe is that he is there to enjoy the day. And even though they got to our house at midnight Christmas Eve, were woken up at 3:00am Christmas morning when the kids tried to start Christmas, and then finally had to get out of bed at 5:00 when we did start Christmas, he stayed up the whole day and played, and played and played with my kids. It was awesome. Poor Kristen was sick. Ben and I were on toy assembly duty and it left Joe there to be the one adult that was able to interact with the kids. He did countless sword fights with Reddick. It was so appreciated and so fun to watch.
The new year brought the beginning of new goals. I love writing out new goals. I love seeing what the kids want to try and what crazy ideas of mine they are willing to do. For our family goals we always have vacation related ones, financial ones, spiritual ones and something that has to do with behavior. Why is it so easy to see what they do wrong? Is it because we focus on the negative or is it because there is an overwhelming amount of bad behavior versus good? I don't know. There are times when I think my kids are awesome and times when I can't believe how rotten they are. Most days are mixed with both emotions.
Ben and I are currently trying to find a car for Ben. We've never bought a car with cash before. This is going to be a first for us. As far as our Dave Ramsey goes we are out of our consumer debt. All we have left is our house and our student loans. Yay!! We took a self-reliance class offered by the church this last fall and it was wonderful. I recommend it to everyone. Regardless of your financial situation, be it good or bad, the class is fun to take and there is lots to learn. We enjoyed it. We even made some changes to how we manage our money that were different from what Dave Ramsey suggested. However, we felt it was a good change to make. We also saw so many blessing come out of that class, too. We took some steps in faith and they paid off (literally!). This year of 2018 our financially goals are to save, save, save. We need to get a car for Ben and we are planning a family vacation to Disneyland before school starts but that's about it. Knock on wood, we shouldn't have to save for any home repairs this go around. By the way, big news, I was able to talk to Dave Ramsey and ask if we should sell the house to help with student loan debt....it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. However, he gave us the answer we needed. It was totally different from what I expected but it was exactly what we needed to change. Thanks to Dave Ramsey we even have a new debt-free theme song that we play to get pumped up for paying off debt. We will get there. One day.
As for our house, we are making a few changes this year. Mostly things to make it look nicer or things we have to fix because we broke something. Ben got me a new light for my closet for Christmas. It was a good gift but the best part was that as Ben was fixing it he has felt that bug for wanting to improve other things as well. I love it. Finally we are on the same page! So far this year we have changed out the closet light, plan to change out the laundry room and storage room light, have bought a new stairwell chandelier since we broke that wile changing out light switches, have painted the kitchen counters (they look SOOOO much better) and have bought the handles to make the kitchen look more updated. I'm pretty excited. We also replaced the baseboard in the entry way and plan to paint it. Nice. It's quite a bit to get done and we have a deadline-April 7th, Blake's baptism. I would like to have it all done by then. Each weekend we have some little house project we work on. It's been fun.
Alright, that's it for me tonight! I'm glad I got this recorded.
