HER LIFE

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Have you heard of this? Shannon showed this to me last time she was here. It is the greatest thing. I save pictures to my computer all the time - but this - this is so very cool. If you are on a website or blog and you see a picture you like you simply click a "pin it" application that you install in your bookmark bar. You then decide which board you would like to pin it to (home, kitchen, party, clothes, hair, ect.) simple, easy, neat and tidy. The very best thing about it, besides that you can keep all your pictures really organized is that the picture you have pinned will always be linked back to the original source from which you found it. This is great for credit, or instructions, or reference. I LOVE it.
I found this on Pinterest -

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and I thought that it would be fun to make with the girls out of quilt scraps for their loft. (I have finished cutting all the squares for the girls quilts! I am making quilts, and I am so excited. Me, quilting!?) I only have 2 more birds to go! You can check Pinterest out here.

This is also where we found the idea for this skate board swing,

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which has been a HUGE hit with the kids, and it was such a fun way for the boys and their dad to spend a Saturday afternoon!

the remains of the day

I had big ideals this morning! It was Saturday. My most favorite day of the week. Saturday means that Darren is home for 2 days, and that any number of adventures await. I had it all planned out.
Nothing went the way I had intended it to. Children were grumpy and fighting. I was running behind. The house was a mess. Animals needed cages cleaned, as well as every bathroom. These were not part of my plan, just observations as the day went on of things needing to be done, with no desire there to do them, and no part of my plans becoming reality. And I mourned the lost opportunities. But life goes on. And It really doesn't take into consideration that I had plans!
But sometimes we realize that some things cannot be planned.
I did not plan to have a couple of hours to spend alone with a daughter, which doesn't happen as often as either of us would like. I did not plan to have my mind reassured and my heart set at ease by a wonderful dear friend whom I had not seen in a very long time, that such is life and that I am okay and that these experiences are part of the process. I did not plan upon returning home to find softer hearts and brothers best friends again. A day that started out ugly is not all lost.
Here now at the end of the day, as each 1 of my children have been scrubbed clean in the biggest bubble bath, dressed in fresh, clean pajama's, and snuggled up for a movie, I realize that not only is tomorrow another day, but we each have the next minute and the next minute after that, to reclaim a day that seems lost. However hard it can seem as a mom to have the responsibility of setting the feeling and the tone in the home, it is possible, even in the midst of disaster.
Sometimes I just need to stop planning and let life happen. I don't mean the big things, of course. I mean the things we never really could control anyways.
A daughter having the time to start making Christmas presents for her family. Brothers, big and little, able to have this cool autumn day all to themselves building and exploring, and getting extra dirty together in the backyard. A puzzle gets built. A dinner gets enjoyed. A family is united again at the heart strings. And as President Uchdorf tells me, I am not forgotten. I am loved on ugly days as well as the beautiful days. I am loved with or without a shower. I am loved even when I am wrong and need forgiveness.
I am convinced that some of lifes most precious memories are not part of the plan. We can plan events but the memories are made form the everyday experiences that we share together as we struggle to

Long Beach Continued - Through the Lens of the Fishers

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The other day Jen Fisher sent me some pictures she took of our trip to Long Beach. Not that I could ever forget my first time surfing, but thanks to her, I have a couple of pictures to go with the memories. Thank you Jen!