Our Family History

In our family this week....  This week was FULL to say the least! It was also an up and down roller coaster ride! In a nutshell: Seth turned 14 on Thursday!  He was able to go to his first church dance on Saturday and had a great time!  August and  Seth worked on the farm Monday and Tuesday pulling weeds for Grandpa.  John and Ben joined them on Tuesday. Grandpa was leaving for another trip and so August headed back out to work on the farm on Wednesday.  He'll be there through this next week. On Wednesday, I went over to Stephanie Perry's to help her move some furniture. I ended up hurting my back!  I came home and spent the next 3 days in bed trying to get better for our triathlon on Saturday. I received a blessing and in it was promised that if I rested and had faith, that I would be able to compete with no discomfort! Needless to say, John and I both competed in our first Tri on Saturday morning!! It was a hard but we are so happy that we did it!  We crossed the finish line together at 2:14:58! Not the fastest but our goal was just to finish it! As a bonus, we both received medals for placing in our specified divisions.  John received 3rd and I took 2nd.

In our homeschool this week.... Obviously this week was "off" becuase I was in bed for 3 straight days. I did take that time to read some wonderful books on the subject of homeschooling and that I'd like to incorporate.  The biggest influence coming from The Book Whisperer. I was inspired by the author and her approach to getting kids to read! Basically she assigns 40 books that need to be read during the school year (in different genres -  non fiction, biographies, science fiction, mystery, poetry, etc..) and then the student can select an appropriate book that falls under that category. The logic being that if the child is given the choice of what book to read (vs. an assigned book) that it will facilitate a love for reading and they are more likely to actually read it. I'm hoping this will help in the case of August and Ben. While on "bed-rest" I was also able to read some chapter books to the girls and then to Nathan each day. I had previously thought they were too little for chapter books (with no pictures) but they've been able to follow along just fine!

My favorite thing this week was.... Completing the Triathlon with John!!  And also celebrating Seth's birthday!  He has been such a tremendous joy for ALL of the past 14 years!!

I'm grateful for... Priesthood Blessings! I wanted to document the unfolding of events that took place before our triathlon. Like I mentioned earlier, I was helping Stephanie move some furniture when I hurt my back. I immediately came home and put myself to bed. I kept thinking that if I could just get a blessing, everything would be JUST FINE! That night after the kids were all in bed (or most of them! LOL) John and Jeff Rigby administered to me. I was told that if I took the time to rest my body and had faith, then I would be able to compete in the race and not have any discomfort from my back. I was ecstatic! I figured I'd wake up the next morning and feel just fine!  That was not the case. I stayed in bed all of Thursday as well. One of my YW counselors (Cherilyn Clemente) knew I was "out of commission" and baked Seth's Birthday Cake for us!  It was a delicious German Chocolate cake! Friday morning came and I was feeling better.  We were planning on leaving by around 2:30 to get down to Twin Falls and pick up our race packets before the closing time of 6pm. After being up for about 2 hours, my back started really hurting again - so back to bed I went. When we left to drive to the race, I couldn't even sit in the front seat and had to make a bed for me in the back seat to lay down on the drive. I was getting worried by this point and doubt was starting to creep in. I'm one that tends to struggle with allowing doubt to make it's way in - so I started changing my focus on my prayers to that of not letting the doubt in and to have FAITH!! The morning of the race came, and... you guessed it - still that pain in my back. I just kept laying down. Up to about 20 minutes before our race, I was still laying down in the suburban. However, by this point, I just KNEW that once I entered the water to start the race, that the pain would be gone and I would be able to do what I needed to do! There were no other options or time limits - the race was NOW and John and I got into the water. At that moment - it was gone! The pain left and never returned!  I remember about an hour into the race thinking "wow!  my back feels 100% fine and I'm able to have the strength and stamina to endure this course!"  It was awesome! I sort of anticipated that upon completion, my back would hurt REALLY bad... but here we are the next day and it's still not bothering me! I know I had many people praying for me and I knew that my faith combined with all of theirs would be sufficient!  I'm so glad that we have the power of the Priesthood upon the earth today and that I have immediate access to it whenever I may need it!  I'm grateful to a righteous and worthy husband who is able to act as a mouthpiece and in Gods name! This experience really tried my faith but has certainly reiterated how things happen on the Lords time and not necessarily on ours!

My goals this week... keep reading to the kids.  We are all signed up for the Library's reading program and truthfully, with how things have been going lately - if I can just make sure we are all reading as much as we can - I'll be happy!! :)

Photos from this week I'd like to share...

Poor Seth - his allergies have really been affecting him (hence the somewhat swollen eyes!)