Honk

So I taught my kids a thing. We are about a miles walk away from a park and sometimes to get out of our house, I take the kids and walk there. Well along this route, there are tons of semi trucks, so I taught my kids how to "ask" them to honk at us. Kent has been trying to o get them to do it for weeks, but hasn't been fast enough to get them to actually see him. Well, on Saturday, they finally saw him. All the kids laughed and giggled and they were able to get two more to honk after that. It really is the simple things that make life great!

Turtle

Rachel and I went on a walk today to get out of the trailer. We decided to check out a part of Farmington we hadn't been to yet and found our way to the San Juan River.

While we were walking along, Rachel, with her eyes that are so good at noticing things, spotted a turtle in the water, so of course we had to go check it out! 

It was red eared slider, which I only knew because I had one as a kid. 

This world is so full of fun and beautiful things, if only we are willing to open our eyes to them. 

 

Running Track

At the running track I see all types of people. 

Old

Young

Skinny

Not as skinny

Boys

Girls

Walkers

Runners

Limpers

All on their own journey.

I have a hard time not cheering each one on that I come across.  I want to cheer for them all and tell them how proud of them I am for getting out and doing something good for their bodies. I want to encourage the slow ones to keep going and to help them know that many of the fast ones were slow once too. I want to tell the fast ones that I'm proud of their hard work because I know how hard it is to get to the point where you can move your body like that. I want to tell them all they are doing so well and to not compare themselves with the others on the track. I want to tell the young ones how good it is that they are developing good habits, and ask the old ones about their journey and how they got where they are. 

Not long ago, I was one of the limpers. It hurt my body to just walk. If you had told me back then that I would look forward to running every morning, I would have thought you were crazy. And even though I am at the point where I can move my body in a way I never thought possible before, I still feel like there are many areas of my life where I am limping along.

You can never see from the outside what a person is going through or where they have been or where they might be headed, but our Father in Heaven knows and he is cheering for us, no matter which part of our journey we might be on.   

Foundations

"Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work."

-Doctrine and Covenants 64:33

I've thought about this verse a lot this week. The foundation of something is so important. 

I remember when we were house hunting in Cedar City. They had a lot of things available to buy. Some things that looked really nice, but a problem that we kept running into was that they had major foundation issues because of the soil they were built on, which would lead to problems in the future. 

The early saints of the church were told that they were laying the foundation of a great work. The foundation of Zion aka the Church of Jesus Christ, but that was all they were going to be able to build. That was their part. They weren't going to see the finished results, just the beginning, but it was so important that they did their part, for without a beginning, what do you have?

I was thinking of this in relation to my life right now. There is something I am trying to build a foundation for. My children. In my attempts at parenting and teaching them, I am giving them a foundation for them to build on for the rest of their lives. I am not the master builder though. I've just been asked to build the foundation. With each family scripture study, family prayer, church attendance, I am building a foundation for them to base their testimonies on.

Joy D. Jones said, "Accidental conversion is not a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Becoming like our Savior will not happen randomly. Being intentional in loving, teaching, and testifying can help children begin at a young age to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is essential to our children’s testimony of and conversion to Jesus Christ."

"Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation...which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." 

-Helaman 5:12

I feel like this is the way it is with other things too. Every time I have my children apologize, (even when they don't want to) they are learning the importance of it. Everytime I ask them to say excuse me when they burp or pick up their clothes after they get dressed, I need to remember that all I am asked to build right now is the foundation. It is up to them and the master builder to do the rest. 

Sometimes it gets frustrating asking them to do the same things over and over again, but they will learn eventually. Through repetition and consistency. And hopefully they will learn to have Christ as their foundation, and pick up their clothes. 

Here we go round the mulberry bush

It has been a HOT week here. Unfortunately, our trailer can't keep up with the heat. Our air conditioner will run for a couple of hours and then it trips the breaker and we are left melting. Poor Jacob had been working from the van and honestly I'm not sure where it gets hotter. The last few days I've had to get creative with the kids because it's been too hot to be home. We've gone to the river, the park (in the shade), the library, and the park again. It's too expensive to go to the swimming pool or you can bet we would be living there. 

Today while we were at the park, to our delight, we found a Mulberry tree with ripe berries just waiting for us to pick and eat them! I brought mine home and added them to our dinner (yogurt, fruit, granola parfaits). 

To the person in charge of planting the trees at this park, my kids and I thank you! So yummy and it made for a fun diversion for my little family!