Our Busy Lives

The past two weeks have been quite full, and it looks like the craziness will keep going through the end of the year. While I love the business of the holiday season, it can be quite wearing. Just for example, this upcoming Saturday, we have three activities going on. Dad has a service project at 9am for Elder’s Quorum, I have a Relief Society Super Saturday from 9am – 1 pm, and Rebekah & Rose have a Stake Activity Days Fall Fest from 9 – 11am. Thankfully there will be a nursery at the RS activity for Rachel, Robin & Ruth, though Dad may have to leave his project early if they are not done by 11am to pick up the older kids.

Dad has been on a training schedule at work the last few weeks, which has been nice because it means he works normal hours and is home evenings and nights. But he goes back to night shift tomorrow for two weeks, then back to more day shift training. Unfortunately, he’ll be back to nights by Halloween and unable to enjoy the festivities with the girls and me. He had a bit of fun in church today, though. He discovered that his best friend from high school has moved into our ward. So they had a bit of fun chatting and catching up. As their family is now living just a block or so from us, we’ll probably be seeing quite a bit of them. We’ll definitely have to invite them over for dinner soon.

I (Mom) had a sleep study last week and discovered that I most definitely have sleep apnea. Now it’s waiting time while the doctor reviews the results and orders my CPAP. The technician that was monitoring me said that I was averaging only about 10-15 minutes of rest for every hour that I was in bed. No wonder I’ve been so tired lately! I greatly looks forward to the CPAP’s arrival and some real sleep. Maybe then I’ll have the energy to start back up at the gym and keep up with all my mom duties!

In the meantime, I have received a calling in the ward as a primary teacher. Not my most favorite thing to do, but something that does need to be done. Meanwhile, it reinforces my knowledge of the scriptures and keeps me going to church, even on days that I don’t really want to go. I had a special month, in regards to the gospel, though. Earlier in September, my mother and I attended the Salt Lake City Temple together to do some work for family names. While there, I got a strong prompting that I needed to follow the counsel of my husband more faithfully. Later that day, he suggested that I make sure to study the Ensign, that it had some great articles for our family. Normally, I would have blown him off. I have so much to do (and as shown above, have not been getting enough rest) that I rarely have time to read the Ensign from cover to cover. But I did it! I fell asleep many times and had to start articles over, but I read it all before the month was over. And I’m so glad I did. It was the September issue, and most of the articles were about eternal marriages and families. Great articles with wonderful messages that I plan on using for FHE, husband/wife study and personal reflection. It also served to get me ready for General Conference. I am still reading the General Conference messages (I often can’t hear the messages during the broadcast due to rambunctious toddlers), but enjoyed what I have already heard and learned.

Not much has changed for the kids. Rebekah is working hard on being a good daughter and oldest sister. She works very hard to memorize her Articles of Faith and work towards her Faith In God award (less than a year left to finish). Rose is also working on her Articles of Faith and Faith In God, though she has several more years to finish. Rachel, Robin & Ruth are typical toddlers/babies – growing so much and learning so fast every day. We went through all the kids’ clothes today and yesterday to figure out what they need for the winter. Man, they have a ton of clothes. But everyone is situated and organized for now.

Back to school and unpacking tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll be done unpacking in the next week. We’re also going to finish prepping the house for winter by getting the swamp cooler down and the roof sealed up and spraying for bugs. Lots of work to do, never a dull moment!