Things on my mind...

I used to be awesome at blogging; checking in with blogging buddies, posting regularly, feeling the virtual love of a blogging world.


And then we hit crisis mode, where the daily goal was to survive. It became a daily attempt to keep our family from sinking into the sludge that seemed to want to swallow us whole.

“Just keep swimming” as a dear friend once said to me. So we did. I did.

And now, dare I say, the crisis’s are fewer and fewer, due to nothing but Divine Intervention. Children are (barely) beginning, to adjust; calm down. There is a very small, flicker of light at the end of this dark, muddy tunnel we have been trudging through as a family. We still find ourselves knee deep in muck every now and again, but those times grow further and further apart.

I eventually hope to reignite my blogging fire that all this figurative sludge seemed to extinguish. But, until then, I will catch you up on some of the recent events.

Halloween was the best one we have had in a long time. I usually hate don’t care for the “holiday”. I have my reasons. Let’s just say it’s another blog post for another day. Still, this Halloween was awesome! Why??? Several reasons. (None of which include pictures because, hey, still trying to survive here.)

First, all my children were happy for the whole weekend. This is a first since the move. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

Second, We also got to meet some more neighbors in our neighborhood and had a great Halloween party. This is an awesome place for my children on Halloween. We got way to much candy, but it was wonderful to see the whole neighborhood out and about (and I am pretty sure more people are waving to me since then as they drive by in their cars)

Third, and probably the most important, was Stake Conference. The adults met together Friday night, the youth met on Saturday night (yes, kids age 12 to 18 went to a FIRESIDE on HALLOWEEN! How cool is that???) Then we were able to go to another meeting on Sunday. It was wonderful to hear counsel and direction from our local leaders. I was going to blog about one of the stories told at Stake Conference but my good friend, THAT GIRL, already did. And I have to say, she did a much better job than I would have done. So take a second and stop by her blog to read this great message we received. (yes, THAT GIRL is totally in my stake – you can be jealous)

Of course in the midst of scraping symbolic mud from our family’s symbolic coat hem, we had to have at least one broken bone… R of course. Just goofing around, being a 10 year old boy with more energy than anybody knows what to do with. He broke his thumb, right at the growth plate. We only have the cast for 3 weeks – thank goodness. I have come to the conclusion that the cast is worse for the parents than the child with the cast. We have three weeks of not trying to get sand inside, not getting it wet, itching, sweating, hitting themselves in the head and my personal favorite, “ I am going to die if this thing doesn’t get off my arm right now!” All I can say, is I am spoiled. If my kids had to be in casts for huge long periods of time, I would have to get an Rx for Xanex… seriously.

I do have a lot more to blog about, but for now I will leave with one short comment by B the other day. For those of you who are on my Facebook, I apologize for the repeat… but this was too good not to blog.

B and I were just hanging around the house one day, doing typical stuff we do around the house, and she stopped for a minute, got a very inquisitive look on her face and asked why her brothers” have "belly buttons and those squirty deals” Yup. I laughed much harder than I should have. I guess this little girl is very aware of her surroundings.

And that sums everything up… in a nutshell.