Mom-Prayers

In my entryway, I have a quote from Abraham Lincoln, "I remember my mother's prayers and they have followed me. They have clung to me all my life." I don't think there is any kind prayer the Father hears that is more powerful than a faithful mother's prayers.

That being said, I have really struggled with the whole consistency thing with family prayer.  3 weeks on, 2 months off. One week on, 3 years off. I think a lot of people are like that, but not as bad. We just keep trying, though. We have prayer and scriptures at night before everyone goes to bed. Somedays, we are so tired by that point, it feels like we can't walk or talk anymore, my DH and I just spin in circles on the stained carpet slobbering and yelling. So I had to come up with an alternate prayer-plan. (PS, I am not getting the kids up at 6:30 to read before everyone leaves for the day. At this point,  I am way too lazy and if you think I would ever wake B&B up on purpose, you are crazy...... however, this is subject to change upon desperation.)

So this is the answer for me: Before each lovely leaves for school in the morning, we have a quick little Mom-Prayer at the door with their backpack on.  It is something that has magically been really easy for me to be consistent with. They have to go to school and they have to go out the front door, so my variables are always the same! The thing I love about it is the personal nature of these prayers. They get to hear what I pray for them individually, and they get to see how important they are individually.

This is the time when I pray that they will remember the spelling words we have worked on. I pray that they will have the courage to stand up for what is right. I pray that they will remember to treat someone sitting alone like Jesus would. I ask that they will know what to do if someone is bullying them or someone else. I pray that they will understand what their teacher teaches them in math, and everyday, I pray that the Holy Ghost will let them know if they are in danger, and that He will tell them what to do. I pray that they will remember all day that I love them and believe in them, then I tell Heavenly Father how grateful I am that I was given that child.

There are many mornings, when any combination of those prayers and others, are asked in 20 seconds or less so we don't miss the bus, but they are said. (In full disclosure, there are a few days days when I yell at them to say their prayers ON the bus.) But usually, we pray in the quiet of the morning at the front door with our backpacks and coats on, just before my good-bye kiss.

I wanted to share this with the few of you who will read this, because it has been an answer to my Other-Prayers. I asked the Father to help me find a way to pray with my kids that works with my craziness and willful opposition to routine.  Maybe it will work for you too.

BTW, you don't have to be perfect to get revelation and protection from Heavenly Father for your kids. I think you just have to have a Mom-Heart when you ask. As Abraham Lincoln said, Mom-Prayers prayers DO follow our children. They protect them, give them clarity, and build their faith.

Have the best week and don't give up prayer-trying! Anything is better than nothing!

Things I am Not Going to Miss -Part 2 (and some that I will)

More complaining.......spills, purposeful dumping, hitting each other, take home reading books, science fair projects, people dragging food through the house, all my furniture slimed all the time (wait, when I get my own web cast, that is going to be the title, "Slimed All the Time".  Everything is gross, the walls, the furniture, the fridge, the floor, the table, the door jams, the windows, my clothes, the light switches, the door handles, the glass panes on my hutch, the toilet seat, the side of the tub, the tv, the vcr, the carpet, the toys, the car.....Slimed All the Time.)


I am not going to miss everyone's junk in my room, or Brock dumping out the laundry soap, the chocolate milk mix, or the garlic salt. I'm not going to miss changing diapers or feeding people or kids throwing the pillows and cushions off the couch. And I am ready for the bed wetting to stop.


But I am going to miss the minute I get my 2 year old out of bed when his face is hot and he smells like lotion and baby morning breath. Oh, it's like Christmas every day for one minute. I kiss his squishy cheeks, and when I say kiss, I mean I bury my whole face in one of his cheeks and I kiss and kiss and kiss him and close my eyes while I inhale him. I know, sounds a little creepy. He does this funny thing where he pulls his jaw forward so his teeth are straight up and down and he makes this hilarious strained face, then he closes his eyes and puts one of them on my nose. I don't know why. But we both love it and melt into each other. I feel bad for everyone else in the world. Yah, I'm going to miss that. 


I'm also going to miss watching them play 
soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, dancing, singing and playing the cello. I'm going to miss how they all climb on my lap still. I am going to miss sitting around the table talking at dinner (I won't miss cooking the dinner or the dinner fights over chairs, though). I am going to miss being the most important person in the world to 5 people. Nobody in the world is loved more than I am. I am going to miss being the first one they want to tell about all the great things in their lives and the first one they want when something bad happens. I will miss Bob making no-bake cookies and them jumping up every 2 minutes to see if they are set up yet. I'm going to miss the screams coming from my room during Sunday Night Wrestling with Dad. I'm going to miss their little voices and that innocent way they look at things they have never seen before with wonder and awe. I'm going to miss Lenny the Leprechaun, Easter baskets, Christmas Eve and having my 
very own monsters on Halloween. I am going to miss Brock climbing into my bed while it is still dark and falling back asleep while he is laying on me. I am going to miss Whitley's confident little laugh and wit and how her feet turn in and she runs so cute. I am going to miss Trevor's innocence and naive goodness and how purely beautiful he is. I am going to miss Rilee calling me every day from school to chat it up and how she puts flowers next to my bed everyday after school. I am going to miss watching them all play at the river, and Rilee figuring out how to skimboard. I'll miss their little kid giggles and how they are positive I make the best Snicker Doodles in the world. I am going to miss watching them barrel down the giant water slide and when they laugh with each other. I am going to miss round squishy faces, button noses and long eyelashes. I'm going to cry when Brock stops the "I love you more" battles, he really thinks he does! I am going to miss playing "Down By the Bank" after we have family scriptures and prayers. 

 I am going to miss them.

But I am NOT going to miss making them clean the house.

You Can't Be a Beauty Queen Forever

Once upon a time, I was a princess. A real princess, as in the Washington City Princess. It's ok if you didn't know, I don't wear my crown anymore. And I guess I thought for that reason I was going to be something really special, and different and maybe famous. Which by most standards, I am not. I am a stay at home Mormon Mom in Utah, like every other girl (Yes, GIRL) in my neighborhood.  But alas, here I am in the sweats I went running in this morning, dishes on the counter, toast and gum wrappers on the floor, being Not Famous. Instead, I chose BABIES!

I love babies and I am really GOOD at babies. Even my first one was easy like cake for me. Three year olds, not so much.  But those first years of motherhood and wife-ness were really hard for me for other reasons. A cute young friend of ours was over the other day with her two little boys and I spun back to that time in my life.

I remember being at a softball tournament watching Bob when my oldest daughter was just a baby. I had spent the entire day watching him play softball, and probably the night before, and probably the thursday before for league night and also that tuesday before for co-ed. We were walking behind one of the fields in between games that night and I was crying and said, "What am I doing here? My life has completely changed. I dropped out of college, left my performing group, quit as Miss SUU, gave up my scholarship, moved into YOUR condo, left my friends at college and gave up everything I had to get married!" Poor Bob. I'm sure he had no idea what to do for me.  But he didn't understand because he had the same job, the same friends, the same house, the same hobbies and the only thing that had changed in his life was I was conveniently located in his condo  and spent his money (and all his trophies had been taken out of his bedroom.) Suddenly, I wasn't special anymore, and I had no idea what I was doing!

My life had become this new blank canvas with only a baby and a husband painted on it, and I had to figure out what else to add. But most of the things that were on my old canvas couldn't be put on my new one. So I got creative in my search for paint. I tried selling Mary Kay to see if that was my calling. For 6 months I was going to be a millionaire.  I started a band. I tried sewing. I taught kids modeling classes.  I built a house. I decorated it. I had more kids. I learned how to play the piano. I built some more stuff. I jumped into a hundred church projects. I took night classes.  I had more kids. I started writing music. I taught my kids to read. I sold baby stuff at the Dicken's Festival. I taught tiny kids dance. I took guitar lessons. I volunteered with the Foster Care Citizen Review Board and Heart Gallery.  I tried working out (and hate it). I taught some girls how to walk on stage. I did the PTA. I became the "Director of Fun" at Staheli Farm. I played co-ed softball. I started getting asked to do firesides. And before long, I realized I was becoming.......Me.  Not the Me I was before I got married where everything I did was for myself, but the Me I was trying to become all along. And I would never have been able to find this Me if I had stayed where I was.

I sympathized with this cute girl who had quit her career to become the best mom ever.  She has more stress and less money than she ever has before. I'm sure she is seriously missing her old life. But what I know that she doesn't, is that motherhood and these years are the refiner's fire. And though she feels lost in a new world right now, she is becoming the person Heavenly Father meant her to be. She is being strengthened and trained and all those things she loved before gave her vital experience and will find a way to help her in her new life.

When I had my first two kids and I was figuring things out, I was asked to sing for a Young Women activity. They gave me the song they wanted. The final hook says, "Will I Want to Be the Person I've Become, When All is Said and Done." I wrote that on a paper and put in by the door so I saw it when I was doing laundry and walking out to my car. It became a part of my prayers everyday, "Make me who you want me to be."

Now there are a million more things I want to try adding to my canvas. Heavenly Father and I are not finished with the Me paining yet, but I am getting a better idea of who I am going to be. I am not sparkly or very pretty anymore, but I'm strong and solid, and that was always more important to me.

Man am I glad I decided not to try and be a Beauty Queen forever. I'd be like, the oldest, most wrinkled city princess EVER.

Staying Home

I was up all night for the second night in a row. Brock at my feet, Blake next to me, so I could make sure their fevers didn't get too high. I kept thinking Brock was going to roll off the bed, so I would jump every time he moved. Blake was 104.5 when we went into the doctor last night. The doctor says it's flu or RSV, we should know today. They both slept like 22 hours yesterday! It was kind of nice I must say. Brock walked into the office between naps and said, "Mom, I need you." I asked him what he needed and he said he just needed me to hold him. He didn't care where, he just needed me. He has been saying it all day again. Everytime he says it I think, "Yes, you do", and I scoop him up and we snuggle and kiss and I don't care if I get sick because it makes both of us feel safe. So yesterday I thought, "What does a mom that works do when this happens?" How could you leave a 3 year old that is 104 with someone else? I am so grateful I don't have to. I imagine there is a bit of fear when a mom has to call her boss and say her kids are sick again and she can't come in. I'm sure people get fired! Do they? What if it is a single mom supporting the family? I feel so bad! My car is about to die, it has over 130,000 miles. We replaced the transmission for the second time this summer. The check engine light is on. There is a hole in the driver's seat, I put the heater on this morning and about got burned, I can barely see over the steering wheel now because the hole is getting so deep. I look like a grandma in a Cadillac. We hardly eat out, we haven't been on a family vacation for years, we have no boats or trailers or cabins.....and that is what I have given up to hold my kids when they are sick. It is what I have given up to be able to sit with Rilee when she comes home so I can find out about the mean kids on the bus that scare her, or so we can have a quick date of movie and treats in my bed while the other kids are at school and the babies are sleeping. It is what I give up so I can help in Whitley and Trevor's classes so they see me making them my first priority. Some moms' first priority has to be to feed and shelter their kids. That's what mom's do, take care of their kids however they have to. I am so grateful I have a husband that goes to work every day and is willing to go without stuff too so I can do this. So hats off to all my friends and sistas who put their kids, that they chose to have, first. However that is. Whether it means going without, or providing for their physical needs by working. Momness rocks. One day, I'll get to be just me again. And I'll be super selfish and eat lunch with my friends everyday and get pedicures and stuff. But today, I'll let Whitley paint my toes, literally my toes, instead.