When it rains it pours....

It has been an incredibly trying week for me, one thing after another, and I am drained to the point of breaking down. I am beginning to loose faith in human kind and it is becoming very clear what a selfish and hard-hearted world we live in. And I really need to get away from it all and relax and slow down and have some family time so I can teach my children that this (these things we have experienced) as not what life is suppose to be about. Then perhaps I can come back with a fresh perspective and renewed energies to accomplish the tasks that are now before me.

Naughty Turkey Lurkey....

....your days are numbered!

Yummy Mummy......

I have been really enjoying summer vacation with my kids home from school. The easy laid back pace lets me do some special things with my kids that I don't get to do when they are rushing to get ready for school in the mornings....like cooking and baking. I love to makes cakes and candies with my kids, and when they are good, they get to eat some and we share with friends and neighbors and when they are naughty, we take ALL the treats to our friends! This morning we made yummy apple cinnamon muffins with cinnamon crumble topping for breakfast.
Of course, they HAD to turn this lovely breakfast into a big drama, fighting over who got to pick first....

since Mark was being nasty, he got to pick last, and as you can see he was not happy.

I can see it is going to be one of those days....perhaps we should just start with time out and they have to earn the right to play be being nice?

Small Blessings for a Big Goal...

After coming home from Holbrook with a quote for a road and being very happy and excited, I had started looking in to ways of bringing the money in faster to complete the job....this is one instance I am happy to live my life in fast forward as my goals that not so long ago seemed unattainable in the foreseeable future are now just moments from my grasp. Well, I found that a doll show was being held just 3 miles from my house and there were still tables available!!!!! The catch....it was only 1 week away! Just 7 days to get ready, an impossible task any other time in my life, but it just so happens that I have dolls as I had not been selling everything I make because the economy is so down.....AND most of them are small, and I can reasonably put them in an affordable price range and maybe bring in a good chunk towards our road....AND the table fees benefit on of our favorite charities, the Child Crisis Center. Even if no one buys anything, what happened next should make up for that! In preparation for the show I set out to find some small doll eyes so I can maybe just sculpt a couple more dolls to take to the show. I went into a doll shop that I had never been in (after all I am not a collector!) and got to talking with the owner and it turns out that she was wanting to employ someone who would teach a class for skills I have! So perhaps this contact will be beneficial for us, in getting a road and the shop in getting additional revenue from offering a class in painting and rooting dolls (re-borning). I am so excited I can hardly contain myself! Looks like the chores I was going to do this week will just have to wait a bit longer....and I better get off this BLOG!

Fathers....

Growing up, I was raised by my step father....we didn't see eye to eye, and probably didn't get along the best, but as I grew up I learned to respect him and as an adult became aware just how proud he is of me. I would like to think that now I have a good relationship with my dad, and am thankful for his role in making me the person that I am today. He is a wonderful and loving husband to my mother, which has set a great example to me for relationships, loyalty and responsibility. He is a builder, and that is probably why I have no fear of taking on a project and doing it myself. He is also there when I need advice, and he is a loving grandfather and has blessed all my children since my husband is not a member of the church.

The other father in my life is my husband, who is a wonderful father to our children. Most marriages don't survive the trials of having a child with significant brain damage. But it brought us closer together and helped my husband to become the incredible, loving father he is....don't get me wrong, he is not a softy, he rules his kids with an iron fist, and they love and respect him for it. Even after disciplining, our children are fiercely aware of daddy's love for them, and even though they are very hardheaded (like dad) they are eager to please him and love to receive his affections. Our daddy is the leader of the house, but he is also our best friend. You're super duper dad! We LOVE you!!!!

YEAH! We are getting a road!!!!!!

I do feel that things happen for a reason and they happen in their own time. We got a notice from the city that our Travel trailer (which is parked on the side of our house) needed to be moved....even though a few neighbors have had theirs in similar locations for years....so we started looking for storage facilities, availability and cost....knowing that our intent and purpose was to put the trailer on our land so that we could have a place to stay so we could start working on our land....but without a road, knowing it would not be possible to get the trailer to the land. Well, I started calling the city of Holbrook to find out how we go about getting a road, and got a major run around and finally hit a dead end. So just on a whim I decided to start looking for someone on craigslist to see if anyone posted that they can do this kind of work....I did find a couple of ads but it was late at night and they only had phone numbers and no email addresses so I just forwarded them to my husband to look into the following day....WELL I got up early yesterday morning and thought I would just take one more quick look, and found one brand new ad, just posted that morning and it had a website and an estemate request form which I filled out, fully anticipating a quote that was miles out of our price range. Not long after, my phone was ringing to get a little more information and location of our property, after another phone call, my husband asked the business owner if it would be better (and more acurate...the quote was very low!) if we paid for him to take a drive up there and have a look at the actual job! As it turns out, his job that was already set for that day would cancel! He called us back and said he had some time that afternoon and he would love to go up and have a look and get a better idea of what the job would take.....we quickly desided it would be best if we also made the three hour dive up there, to make sure they were able to find the location easily and better explain what we had in mind. Just 15 minutes later we were meeting with David who my husband had immediate trust and confidence in (which is a rare thing!) I thought to my self...I bet he is LDS. He relayed that he would be picking up his wide and dropping the kids at a sitter and that he would meet us up there. So we made out way up through the mountains and accross the high desert to get and estemate for putting in our road....While David and Terry walked over the the property from the end of the existing road, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to David's wife who was very interested in what we were planning for our 5 acre property and was quickly excited about what we had planned....I also found out that they were in fact LDS as I had thought when we had met David earlier in the day. I feel that our paths met for a reason....needless to say, the quote we received was fair and within our reach, so we are having our road put in!

Sharing the bounty of our labors....

Some call it being neighbors, being part of a community, some would say it is paying it forward, some call it service....I have found it is a lost practice. In a world that has grown more and more self centered I have found that it has become more and more important to share our blessings with those around us. Sometimes we have no idea how this may touch other lives, if we are blessing lives that are truly in need. Service blesses our lives as much as the lives we touch while we serve....perhaps we are God's hands here on earth, lifting others when in need and lifting our own troubled hearts while doing this work. Before we moved into our current home, we were lucky to even know one of our neighbor's names....people just are not as open and friendly as they once were in a day and time long since past. But here, we have met and befriended many people and families in our neighborhood, and I finally have a small sense of community, everyone of which is welcome to anything I have to give.

Service has always been a huge part of my life, my outlet or release from the stresses of daily life. For years I dedicated many hours to sewing for premature and sick newborns, but since becoming a mother myself, I found less and less time available to dedicate to this, so I am glad I am able to share produce from my garden and fresh eggs from my chickens with several families. It has helped me to feel like I am doing a small part to help others, and it has fostered friendships, friendships that I sincerely need and I hope they are blessing the lives of those that receive them. I have been blessed and I hope to always share my blessings!