I have been feeling so uninspired with the blog lately. I don't know if it is the monotony of life or if my iphone is numbing my senses. I've hit a rut with taking pictures and I've had writer's block for a while. Exhaustion is what I often feel at the end of the day. My days are filled with joy and frustration. More joy than frustration, which means that we are doing well and living life as most everyone does.
Not much out of the ordinary happens on a daily basis.
As the song goes, "children get older, I'm getting older too"...and that just about sums it up. It is a wonderful time, my kids are healthy, I look at them and time becomes tangible. It's like I can see time. Time is such an abstract concept. But when I look at Brielle, Braden and Brooke I see it and that is the part of life that never gets monotonous. I'm going into my eighth year of being a mother and I continue to try to embrace my motherhood every day. Some days, I wonder how much good I really do and other days I see that as President Harold B. Lee said, 'the most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be the work you do within the walls of your own home."
Scott continues to work hard and is just about to end his second year of residency. It has been so cool to watch him evolve into a doctor and become more confident. The nature of medicine is so demanding and stressful and he is constantly studying whenever he can. He enjoys what he does, which makes me glad and relieved that all of this effort and sacrifice will be worth it.
I continue to enjoy taking my kids on walks whenever the weather is nice.
Brooke is well into the terrible two's and in the picture above she is telling me: "Don't take a picture!!!!" She obviously is able to vocalize her wants.
This particular day she wanted to bring as many purses as she could hang on the stroller. This little girl has been blessed with a strong will. I hope this strong will develop into being willing to choose the right in her life!:)
On another occasion, we went on a walk to the park. She is again telling me, "Don't take a picture!!!!!!!" Sometimes, she is very adamant about me not taking photos of her. She threw a monumental tantrum pretty much the whole walk. In her defense, this was after afternoon church. So she was exhausted. She becomes irrational when she is tired. Sadly, I admit that I'm pretty sure she inherited that from me.
We've had some fun times with the Friels. We all went bowling one evening and had great time together. It's always fun getting with those guys.
Brielle has been growing her hair for months with a trim here and there. One evening, we were talking about donating hair and she decided that she wanted to keep growing her hair and then cut it and donate it. We decided to donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, they make wigs for women with cancer who have lost their hair. At first, we wanted to donate it to children with cancer, but it was hard to find reputable organization. Anyway, she was thrilled and when the day finally came she was able to donate 12 inches. Our dear friend, Lindsay cut it and did such a great job. She looks adorable with her short hair, even though there are days she misses her long hair.
We are so proud of her. She did this of her own initiative, we didn't force her or talk her into it.
I could tell she was pleased with herself for making this choice.
Have I mentioned how much I love this little girl?
We get to spend a lot of one-on-one time when the older kiddos are in school.
She truly brightens my days.
My poor mom, broke her arm at work when a little girl ran into her with her tricycle. My mom fell, caught herself with her hand but broke her wrist. Brookie and I have been going to Provo a lot lately. When I told Brooke that abuelita had broken her arm, she said, "I need to go read her a book and buy her a toy." I guess those are the things that would make Brookie happy if she broke her arm!:) So, we went to Provo and she read to her abuelita.
A few weeks after Brielle chopped her hair, I decided it was time for me to also get a haircut. I think this is the shortest I've had it in a long, long time. It has been a nice change.
In March, we also made a one day trip to Idaho for Scott's cousin Whitney's wedding. Sadly, I didn't get one picture at her wedding!:( But we were able to get some cute ones of Great Grandma Jensen and the kids. Glad we got to see her, even for a few minutes.
We feel so grateful to have Grandma's sweet influence in our lives.
We definitely count her among our many blessings.
The thing about living in Utah is that we get to see family often...and it is nice and a blessing.
CJ and Lenell were here for a few days and we met up with them at "This is the place".
It was a chilly and windy day, but it was fun to be with them and for the kids to play with their cousins.
These 3 little girls are so cute!
Cousins!
We also got to see Nya and Vanessita during one of our visits to Provo to see my mom.
That little Vanessita is the cutest thing ever!
She is the sweetest little girl.
We sure love her.
Clay, Karen and Lanie also visited in March. They stayed at a hotel and we got to go play in the pool.
Brooke was fearless!
We also celebrated Stephanie's birthday at the end of March. We had a nice get-together with these ladies whom I've become quite fond of. I often feel so grateful to find good people wherever we go.
Most of March, I also trained to run a 5K with my dear friend Daija. It was so good for me to do this. It motivated me to go running and I have to say, that I surprised myself. I realized that I can do hard things. Sometimes, we forget the things we are capable of doing. Or we simple don't find out what we're capable of because we don't try. I have never been fond of running or working out in general. The last time, I was consistently working out was in college. I would always go to the gym to run, lift weights, etc. I feel it needs to become a necessity in my life to be active and exercise at this stage of my life...for too many reasons. I have to thank Daija for motivating me. I'm always grateful for the good influence good friends have in my life.
My little cheerleaders!
Lastly, we had the wonderful blessing of attending the Women's Meeting for our Church. Stephanie has some connections close to President Monson and she was able to get tickets for us to go. We were on the sixth row. It was especially exciting because this is the first time that Brielle was able to come with me. I was so emotional. My heart was so full that day. I felt so blessed to be there in the presence of our prophet. The meeting was wonderful and so uplifting. I could tell Brielle was also feeling the Spirit. She really is a special little girl. I'm so grateful I get to experience this life with her. She is full of life and so ready and willing to learn. She was very attentive throughout the whole meeting.
My heart was so full of gratitude, love and
a desire to be better and be more grateful for this life I have been given.
Life after all, is not all that monotonous when I sit down to reflect on my blessings
and monotony is really not all that bad.
As I was washing dishes one night, Scott was helping me. I said to him, "isn't life just so monotonous sometimes?" He sincerely replied, "I like life this way." I said back to him, "I like you, thank you for giving me perspective."
Life is good.
