Armor

"God gave us the armor, it is up to us to put it on."

That was on a church sign this week and when I read it, it got me thinking.  Our faith teaches us about putting on the whole armor of God, but what does that really mean to me?  What is the armor God gave to us?  The world these days is a scary place and much of the time I feel like our children are going into a world that is at war against values.  My husband is in the military and the amount of body armor they have to wear when in the field is amazing.  So what am I doing to make sure my family and I are protected with the armor of God?  

Of course it is the general Sunday School answers, but I wonder how good of a job I am doing at helping my children do those things EVERY day.  I find that it is hard for me to do more than just the family scripture study and prayers, but my kids need their own time especially as they get older.  Each of them need to learn to say their morning and night prayers by themselves (which translated right now means that Mom has to help them morning and night).  That hasn't even really crossed my mind.  Princess is reading now - shouldn't I be encouraging her to read the scriptures on her own each day?  I think to myself that it is really difficult to accomplish all that I need to, but I think I'm skimping on the more important things.  Having a clean house is important, but it's more important that my children feel loved and are taught the important things that will allow them to put on the armor that God gave us.

On another note, I'm struggling with keeping my emotions in check the last couple of days and it is making me be a not-so-good mom.  It's a difficult balance and I'm afraid I'm losing.  I feel sad and stressed about Zane leaving us and it is seriously depressing.  I just don't want to do anything and that translates into me not wanting to be involved with the kids.  I'm here, but not really.  It's pointless to be sad and depressed right now - it just wastes all our time and energy.  SO I'm trying really hard to get on top of it.  But it's hard.  Really hard.  I feel like I can no longer avoid thinking about it, but I need to in order to get through the next couple of weeks.  I just need to get myself in check so I can be sad, but not debilitatingly sad.  It will all be fine I know, but it's been a rough couple of days.  Good thing kids are pretty resilient and so far haven't minded me letting them watch movies.  They don't have school tomorrow, so I figure we'll do something super fun to knock me out of this funk.

All gone Mom!

Cute story about Brother Bear today.  He got a bag of M&M's at the store with me this morning and when I was driving home, I reached back to get a couple.  He said, "Mom!  Mine!"  I laughed and commented that it was a share bag and he should share with Mommy.  So what did he do?  Grabbed as many M&M's as he could fit in his little hands and when I reached back again he said, "see? Gone!"  I said, "no, they are in your hands silly!"  So he puts his hands behind his back and says, "No!  See?  Gone!"  HAHAHA.  Stinker.

Oh, and an addendum to my previous post.  I got the car all shampooed and clean.  Brother Bear found a pen this morning and colored all over the back of the seats.  :)  And I wonder why we don't buy a new van. haha.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Where do I start?  That is the question running through my head as I observe the damages.  I'm just going to list the amazing amount of things on my to do list and detail as I go in no particular order while I am sitting here nursing Baby Boy.

- Laundry.  Why is it that you can never really be done with laundry?  There is always a load waiting to be washed or folded and put away.  A diaper got into the washer last night.  Pills everywhere.  So the washer and floor had to be cleaned out as well as the entire load dried and washed again to get all the remaining pills.
- Dishes.  Like laundry, you either have a load to be washed or put away and if you even take one day off - it's over and catching up is so hard.  (I'm in catch up mode).
- Car.  I started to clean the car yesterday because I need to make it nice so I stop coveting the new Honda Odyssey as much.  That, and it was sooo smelly that it just HAD to be shampooed.  Here is just a few of the things that needed to be shampooed out of the carpet floor that happened recently: chocolate milk, soda, pineapple juice, gum, chocolate.  Not to mention the years of abuse from dirt, mud, and yes, I'm sure there is even some pee in those wonderful cloth seats.  GROSS.  So I got some of it shampooed and scrubbed off walls, but I still need to finish.  I have a little timer called a baby that interrupts projects every couple of hours.  Not to mention the feeding, picking up from school, and diaper changing of the others.
- Carpet and couches.  There are many places that need to be shampooed in the house, but none more urgently than the living room.  In the last 3 days, my sweet children have gotten candy and chocolate, marker, juice, mud, pee, poop (baby explosions are unmatchable), blood, and vaseline into my carpet and couches.  Did I mention that Brother Bear made off with an ice cream blizzard when I wasn't looking and dumped it all over the floor in the play room and on top of one of the library books while I was making lunch?  The $200 investment we made into a carpet cleaner is once again paying for itself.  :)
- Add the toy room disaster from the boys (literally dumping every toy onto the floor and getting out the playdoh and mashing it into the floor), mopping the floor, and the bathroom that has to be washed at least every other day due to a inattentive little boy's aim and you will know why I am singing to myself, "mama said there'd be days like this, there'll be days like this my mama said."

SERIOUSLY.  This has all happened within the last couple of days.  Good thing the weather is beautiful and Zane will be gone to Utah from Thursday thru Sunday.  I'm not sure why it's easier to clean without him around because he really isn't that messy, but I think it removes the pressure I put on myself to have it all done by the time he gets home every day.  Kay, baby's done eating, guess we'll load him up in the bouncer and head out to finish the car.

Hello, it's been awhile

Long overdue post this morning.  Baby boy had his 2 month appointment (at 11 wks) and measured 23+ inches (I don't remember the exact number, I just know it was more than 23 and just less than 24) and weighed 14 lbs 10 oz.  Yes, I have another big boy.  :)  He's super sweet and cute.  He's a very quiet baby for the most part.  Every once in a while I can get a little laugh or coo out of him after the other kids go to bed.  I think it's just so loud and busy around here that he doesn't get time to have a coo in edgewise.

Seven years ago today I ignored many family and friends and married my husband.  :)  So glad I did.  We've had our ups and definitely low downs, but I truly love him and I'm glad he's the father of my sweet children and my forever sweetheart.  Happy anniversary Zane!

Halloween (or the day before as it was) was a fun experience.  We had a party at the church followed by a 4 ward trunk or treat.  Not a lot of people understood our costume (we were the black eyed p's), Princess was a cheerleader again, Cowboy was Batman, Brother Bear a Cowboy, and Baby Boy was a little monkey.  I did win the chili cook-off with my mother-in-law's recipe (just tweaked my way) so Zane was pretty happy.  We got a couple of pictures on Halloween of the kids after trunk or treating.  They aren't very great because I was using Zane's work camera and couldn't figure out the settings, but here are some.  Oh, and the marker on Cowboy's face is permanent.  :)  Nice, huh?