Lots of Love

A few weeks back Anna cousin, who is a year older than Anna, decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love. I showed pictures to Anna of her cousin and that was it. What I didn't know is that she was pondering the idea of following in her cousin's footsteps. She had already read an article about donating hair for wigs for terminally ill people and then saw her cousin chop her hair. She decided that she wanted to do it as well. She told me, "It'll grow back Mom. It's for a good cause anyhow." 

I am so proud of her. You have to understand that her long hair has been Anna's crowning glory. She would get after Rachel and I about needing to grow our hair out so we too can look more feminine. (ah, the tact of tweens.) For Anna being willing to get rid of it was a huge deal. But Anna has also had people, including her cousin, grandpa, ward members, in her life who have fought cancer. And Anna has a big heart. She never faltered over her decision, even with a sweet old man at the salon telling her that her hair was too beautiful to cut. (thanks a lot buddy!) I am so proud of her. And I think her new haircut is adorable! She loves having less hair to deal with as well. She's 12 inches shorter on hair and loving it!

Happy Easter/ Birthday weekend!

My sweet friend decorated our front porch the night before my birthday. She wrote on one of the hearts about how I was both "beautiful and young". Talk about a true friend. Turning thirty-five has been odd and in a way sobering because I remember my mom at forty and now I am getting closer to forty. Of course, that thought won't keep me from loving Wonder Woman and being my goofy silly self. As my 72 year-old dear friend says, "Age is all about attitude."

The kids at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt

My cute little bunny after his preschool Easter party

Coloring Easter eggs

The real reason why we celebrate Easter. Words cannot express my gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father and His son that made it possible to return home again. He is Risen!

This week....

Here are two of the fun things I have been doing this week.

#1 Making and improving my soft pretzel skills. I love soft pretzels. Hello, I grew up right near the best soft pretzels in the world, Philadelphia soft pretzels. There is nothing like them. This week Jacob wanted soft pretzels for a snack and since I was too cheap to drive to the mall to buy an over-priced pretzel, I decided to make some. It's been years since I have attempted that. The first batch was yummy, but the second batch I made today rocked. The secret is in the boiling of the pretzels in baking soda solution before baking them. It makes a huge difference! I think I have eaten more flour today than I have in a LONG time. Yum!

#2 Karate promotions. The kids were able to move up from yellow belts to orange belts. Marshall and I moved up from white to yellow belts. It took us longer because, well, we are parents and it's hard to find the time to fit in the required number of classes. It'll just take us a little longer on the road to black belts. But we are having so much fun along the way. We get to beat each other up and get promoted for it. Most fun ever!

My "ninja" family. Jacob says we need to get a bumper sticker that says "Ninjas on board" so that people will know not to mess with our family. So watch out!

Revelation

Okay, the naked man chest has been on my blog way too long. Not to mention that "Just 6 weeks" thankfully changed their app cover to something less creepy....

It is all lies, though, since I have been doing the program for almost 6 weeks and my silhouette looks nothing like that. But I digress....

My real reason for posting, aside from removing those dang-impossible-to-achieve-abs-of-scariness, is to write about my gratitude for personal revelation. I cannot imagine my life without the gift of the Holy Ghost and, therefore, ability to receive personal revelation. I need that EVERY day in my life! Every. Day.

Recently I was going through a really, really bad time of depression. It just sucked me into a black hole and I could not get out. I fought hard, but I was struggling. I finally had my wonderful husband give me a blessing and in it the Lord told me some things I needed to hear, but didn't want to because I have certain hopes that I do not want to give up. I needed the Lord to tell me it was time to move on. Sometimes we need to hear that reminder that trusting in the Lord really will be okay, even if His plans differ from our own.

This morning I was reading my scriptures, 1st Nephi with Laman and Lemuel being their usual charming selves over having to get the plates from Laban, and again I was hit over the head with a revelation. Another painful one to receive that told me I needed to shape up in my attitude concerning certain things. I was able to see how my way of handling the situation was not helping and would be destructive to me in the end.

Two totally unrelated revelations, but both needed dearly. I love being able to receive that instruction. Yeah, it's not fun to told to change and be better, but it is nice to know where you are failing because then you have the opportunity to change. What if you never knew in the first place that you were doing it wrong? What if you thought your way WAS the best way? Think how disappointed you'd be when the end results weren't what you had wanted and didn't give you any happiness. Instead, with revelation, you can know what to improve, learn to love/ want to Lord's "end results", and be truly happy. Priceless. Becoming who the Lord knows you can be = best gift ever.