Finally Settling Down...Maybe

It feels like things are finally settling down and getting into a routine. With Samuel and Charity in school and Hyrum at work, it is just me, Celeste and Lucy at home which has taken some adjusting. I must admit, the first week I was a lazy bum and vegged out at home all day. I gave myself that week and refused to feel guilty about it. :) After all, it was the first time I've really been able to do that since we started the moving process. So it has been months with hardly any down time! (And I really need my down time.)

With the light right there, thoughts of down time and schedules and having Hyrum's work hours only being generally about 7:15 until 5:00, things were looking good. And then of course, as life does, it threw us a curve ball. Hyrum was called to be the second counselor in the branch presidency. You know, I honestly thought, "Second counselor. No big deal! It won't really complicate anything or make life much different." And then that first Sunday came. He was called up to sit on the stand much to the chagrin of my beautiful children who were in tears. Keeping 4 children happy, quite and reverent for an hour and 15 minutes each week was hard enough with two adults doing the herding. But I had done it with three by myself a lot when Hyrum had to go on different educational assignments in residency, or when he was on call. And that wasn't too bad. But having daddy up there on the stand where they can see him and not be with him? Another story all together. And now there are 4 instead of three. It definitely wore me out. Luckily we are blessed to live by the new branch president and his family, and they have a teenage daughter who was kind enough to come sit with me and try to help. But I must admit, by the end of that meeting I felt spent. I was a little emotional, tired, and not very happy. This bad mood unfortunately continued with me, which is why I think Heavenly Father led me to read Mosiah 24:15 which says,

"And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

I was not being cheerful, so that has been my goal this week. No matter how crabby I am feeling, I must try my best to fight it off with cheerfulness. Easier said then done, but I am certainly trying and I feel Heavenly Father is already helping me. Hyrum will be gone at meetings a lot more now, and he will have confidences he can't share with me, rightly so, but I will be cheerful and supportive.

Hyrum in front of his new digs. (AKA work)

As far as the kids go, Charity and Samuel continue to love school and Celeste hates to see them go every morning. Charity and Samuel are both also loving doing soccer and Celeste can't wait until she'd big enough to play too. Lucy sat up by herself from a crawling position for the first time Tuesday which was very fun. And sad. I can't believe she is getting so big so fast! Ahhh! Make it stop! I love the baby stage and hate to see it go.

Sweet baby doll getting into the sitting position all by herself.

I have no idea what happened here, but found the picture on the camera and thought it was pretty funny. This is apparently what happens when it's just Hyrum and the kids.

Random Okinawa fact: Every car I have been in has a beeping sound on the inside when you are backing up. It seems a little funny to me, I mean, I know I am backing up. But every car I have been in here does that.

Japanese word of the week: Arigato. I don't know if that's how you spell it, but that's how it sounds, and it means thank you. A good word to know! (You kind of roll the r)

To end, I wanted to share an article I read from a friends facebook the other day. I thought it was really inspirational, and even though I had to edit some of the language, it was really profound to me. Enjoy!

Waking Up Full of Awesome

August 3rd, 2011 | Author: melissa

There was a time when you were five years old,

and you woke up full of awesome.

You knew you were awesome.

You loved yourself.

You thought you were beautiful,

even with missing teeth and messy hair and mismatched socks inside your grubby sneakers.

You loved your body, and the things it could do.

You thought you were strong.

You knew you were smart.

Do you still have it?

The awesome.

Did someone take it from you?

Did you let them?

Did you hand it over, because someone told you weren’t beautiful enough, thin enough, smart enough, good enough?

Why the heck would you listen to them?

Did you consider they might be full of poo?

Wouldn’t that be nuts, to tell my little girl below that in another five or ten years she might hate herself because she doesn’t look like a starving and Photoshopped fashion model?

Or even more bizarre, that she should be sexy over smart, beautiful over bold?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Look at her. She is full of awesome.

You were, once. Maybe you still are. Maybe you are in the process of getting it back.

All I know is that if you aren’t waking up feeling like this about yourself, you are really missing out.

Amelia says Good Morning.