That's all folks!

It's been a crazy ride but this is the last entry of this blog. We have officially moved to Harvest Point Farms and will be posting on the other blog now. This blog has brought me an incredible amount of joy as I sought sunlight in Alaska during many years that I didn't like living here. It was heaven sent. Now it is time to move on. If you want to keep up with us we'll be at harvestpointfarms.blogspot.com.
I will be setting this blog to private in one month. Thank you for your comments and love. 

Youth Conference Photo Dump

Incredible week in Valdez for Youth Conference. Enjoy the photos. More later on events if I find the time to type it out.

Life Status

Life status:
*Matt has been gone for 2 1/2 weeks. I'm complaining.
* I have been spending my days packing and doing school work.
* Dallin and I moved the piano today. Only big things left are mattresses and the table.
* We are getting so many strawberries I can not keep up with them.
* I took Dallin, Kali and Corban to the Goosebay refuge tonight. We had a blast walking in the grass, rescuing a dog and getting a little bit muddy.
* I ate oreos today.
* Youth conference is next week and I get to go. It's in Valdez! I have never been there.
* We are getting 200 chickens and 25 heritage turkeys next week. Matt needs to get home!
* My washing machine quit working last week. Sigh.
* I teach institute tomorrow night. I LOVE that!
* Family camp out this weekend but our motorhome won't start.
* Jamie is coming to visit me tomorrow.
* The weather has been awesome.
* I love my kids and Matt. He should come home now.

 I'm getting my hair done soon. I look like crap!

I LOVE AMERICA!

The older I get the more important family is to me. I love that my kids love to be around family. I love to be around family. Yesterday I took them to the parade and we sat next to our friends The Smiths. I didn't really get many pictures of Corban because he decided he wanted to be part of thr parade so he walked along the sidewalk where we were sitting handing out his candy that he had already gathered. He was happy as could be, until the parade was over and he realized that he didn't have any more candy. :) We took Jamie with us as well and she had a blast. I love that we still can go get her and spend time with her. She was sad later in the day when we all had to go home and she had to stay at Grandma's. I am sure that whole thing is so confusing.
We spent the evening having a BBQ and hanging out. I love that my kids get to know their Ponka. I didn't really get to know my grandpa that much. I love that they get to have Grandma's cooking and hear their uncles being crazy. I love that they know their cousins. Dallin laid the upstairs flooring for my mom while we were there and they decided they wanted to adopt him because he is so great. He IS so great!
Today in church we sang The Star Spangled Banner and it was so powerful. We stood and sang as a congregation. I loved hearing everyone singing with their hearts. I thought of how our country seems to be falling apart morally but there are those that will stand for America and what it is really about. I love that we live in the country and we have the freedoms that we do. Happy Independence Day!

Moving

You know how things look like a tornado hit when you are moving? Ya. That's happening. We ar ein the process. Yay!

Four Tee One

Matt had to be out of town for work for my birthday today and I didn't want to sit and be sorry for myself because of that so I called for a roadtrip with Rissa D and Erin and our kids. It was so much fun. Here are the things I hope to remember:

• Funky Butt
• Singing at everything- this seems to run in my specific family. We know a song for everything. You want something that is as close to a real life musical as you can get? Hang with us. 
• The seafood chowder and hot cocoa at the Bore Tide Deli on top of Alyeska
• Seeing a bear right on the road in Girdwood. 
• Ruby- "She is eating like a cow!"
• Cheesecake for dinner- thank you Erin!
• Jamie making me a cake and wanting me to take her home- that last one was hard! 
• Eating clouds
• Unprepared Alaskans buying sweatshirts at the gas station(whistling)
• Talking to Tracie on the phone. 
• Our Jewish snowman
• Laughing our heads off at "Ghost in the stalls"
• Presents from Kelly

Such a great day. I am glad I got to spend it with some of my kids and my some of my sisters. Life is amazing. I am grateful everyday for the one I have been given and grateful that I was born to experience it all.

Happy birthday to me!

On Being a Mom

A little while ago, a friend of mine told me that she had an experience that led her to believe that she needed to return home. She is a stay at home mom with a lot of kids, like 10 or something. She has done a lot of things over the years to bring income into the home in an effort to help her husband provide for them. She's been a midwife, a photographer, teaches gun safety and training classes, I think I even remember her opening a second hand baby clothes store once. The prompting was clear that she needed to spend more time at home and be a homemaker. Our conversations have made me ponder on my role as being a mom and I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

Many young girls play with dolls a lot and dream of the day when they become a mother. That was not me. I was the girl that played in the dirt, climbed trees and hated wearing shoes or dresses. By the time I was 10 I had more scars on my legs from being a kid than hours logged nurturing baby dolls. When I started dating I only dreamed of my fairy tale wedding and even when Matt and I talked about kids before marriage it was just a given, but not much thought went into it. All I wanted was to marry my best friend. And then I did.

The moment I realized I was a mom came on a Thursday afternoon in January of 1996. Samantha had been born the day before. They took her out of the room to do the pku test and when they brought her back she was screaming bloody murder. The nurse handed her to me and she immediately stopped crying. We all looked at each other and words were exchanged about her knowing I was her mom. I remember feeling overwhelmed at the responsibility and even asking Matt what we were supposed to do with her when they released us from the hospital.

As the years continued more babies came. It was a sea of little people for many years. There were many times I wanted to escape the madness of changing diapers and wiping noses and waking several times during the night. Year after year passed and I, like my friend, tried to fill my life with other things. I taught voice and piano, took college classes, got certified to teach at the gym, and on and on. I knew the kind of mom I didn't want to be, because I had a mother that left me as a child to pursue her own selfish desires, but I was influenced by the voices of the world that whispered being a mom and a homemaker was not enough. I even remember once thinking- Is this all there is to life?


Then Jamie came to our home. And I gained a testimony of the importance of being a mom. My personal pursuits came to a screeching halt. I was required to pay attention to differences in moods and health. I watched as she struggled with the chaos of her little life. I sang to her at night to calm her so she could sleep. We played together during the day, singing songs and going hiking. I taught her "I am a Child of God" and told her how much I loved her all the time. Over that experience I learned many things about being a mom and a homemaker.

• Being a mom means being present. There are moments that will be missed if we are not present. We can be absent even while we are there. How many times was I too busy to answer a question because I was reading this blog or checking my facebook. BE PRESENT!
• Being a homemaker has little to do with having a sparkly clean home. My house is rarely sparkly. Okay I'll admit, my home is never sparkly. I would rather my kids remember me taking them hiking, sitting on the porch swing with them, or playing in the lake than how clean and organized our home was. Filth is not okay but a bit of clutter is fine. 
• Being a homemaker also means living in a way so that others feel comfortable in our home. The spirit of love needs to be here and when it is it attracts others. That is a place that every one will want to be, regardless of if the couch cushions are on the floor so no one steps in the hot lava. 
• Being a mom is the GREATEST thing I will ever do in this life. This IS all there is to life and it IS amazing. 

I love being a mom. I'm not perfect at it, but I am good enough. I never fold laundry, but I pray with my kids daily. The dishes sometimes sit in the sink for days, but I can hear the Spirit whisper when a specific child needs something. There are days when things are really, really hard, but I find those are the days that I remember and treasure later because of how we came through them. If I could say one thing to the mom's of the world, it would be this:

GO HOME! YOUR KIDS NEED YOU!

In between

Saturday the kids worked and made some money at the farm. In the late afternoon I took them to b uy Father's day gifts. They got BB gun, bow and arrows..for themselves!!! Goobers! We then spent the night shooting. It was good family time with no devices which was nice and rare. It will be less rare as soon as we make the transition to the farm. Their 200 GB of data used monthly is going to drop to about nothing. I couldn't be more excited for them. Them...not so much.

We are between houses. Things are being moved and finished and cleaned. I plan on it taking a few weeks. Matt will need at least a month to clean out the garage. Gross. Our evening adventures on this back porch are coming to a close, but there is much more adventure to be had at the farm.

PS. The porch swing broke. I might be feeling broken myself at that development.