A few thoughts of mine

It's my "birfday" as a Nat would say.  I'm 34 today.

I'll tell you what's strange.  Feeling like I can't be a day out of high school, but looking at my children and realizing that I really must be at least a few days past that age.  

Per my usual birthday habit, I caught a cold a week or so ago.  It peaked this weekend, and as of today, I'm finally feeling my energy returning and my cough seems to be slowly going away.  Typical of how I seem to spend my birthdays most years - starting or getting over a cold.  Because of that we had nothing big planned.  But after being sick and totally unmotivated to do anything (including get dressed), it actually feels nice to want to be alive.  So I'm making myself a lovely birthday dinner - because I like cooking and I like feeding my family.

I've been getting fed up with Facebook.  It has it's advantages.  I like knowing what's going on in the lives of my friends and family.  A good-sized chunk of them use Facebook a lot to communicate.  So I'm hesitant to sign off completely.  But Facebook the company keeps doing things that make me nervous.  Does anyone else feel this way?  If I drop out of Facebook, are you all going to stop talking to me?    I just can't. quite. say. good-bye.   Still pondering that.

I'd been feeling sort of down and out about home-school lately.  Major burnout, is what I claimed.  But really, I think I'm just not prioritizing.  I'm not taking care of ME.  I'm not spending enough time with my Gospel study, and not enough time on my knees with God.  I'm not finding joy in the little time I have with my children.  Instead I'm feeling pressure, and deadlines, and the weight of more to do than I have time.  It's time to get back to basics.  I did a little of that today, and it felt fabulous.  We starting a painting project at 11am - which I would normally  never do because it is too close to lunch time.  It was lovely.  We listened to a couple of Classics for Kids radio shows and everyone loved it.  Because it's my birthday, and technically I'm still recuperating from that blasted cold, I didn't even try to do school with Logan.  Obviously I have to do more than that for school on a daily basis.  But the point is that I really have to refocus my priorities.  Make a simple plan and do it.  And don't forget to plan in the most important things - and that includes the fun stuff!

I re-read Julie Beck's talk Mothers Who Know.  It's one of my faves and I'm linking to it because I hope you'll take time to re-read it too.  Because of the recent General Conference announcement about the change in missionary ages, there has been discussion and thinking about what MY job as a parent is to help my children get ready for their missions.  Maybe they won't leave at those new ages - but I still have a responsibility towards helping them prepare.  Sister Beck's talk seems to line up perfectly with that.  We talk about raising the bar for the young men who are going on missions.  Does anyone else feel like the bar has been raised for families in general?  Parents?  You've got to work a little harder; be a little better.   I'm feeling a little anxious about this pressure that I'm feeling come over when I think about it (anxious when I think about what I'm NOT doing right or enough of).  But dang!  It's exciting, too, because it's a sign of the times.  The Lord is hastening his work and we get to help!!


And finally, I'm not going to put a bunch of pictures of myself on this blog - I reserve that special embarrassment for everyone else in the family.  But here's a recent pix taken by Brynne at the Botanical Gardens.  Happy 34th Birthday to me!