Pioneer Day

Hello everyone!  I hope all are doing great!  Things have been a little crazy here this past week, but mostly with non-picture type stuff, so this post will probably be a little on the short side.

On Monday we celebrated Pioneer day!  We have a tradition of making butter the old fashion way, shaking it in precisely manufactured, spill-proof, snap together tupperware, to celebrate.  Brooke helped with the shaking this year, and the butter turned out grand!  I don't know when the last time you shook cream into butter, but it takes several minutes and it is tiring on your arms!  This naturally led to a conversation about how different life is now compared to back then, and about how much harder it was to basically do everything!  Needless to say, I appreciate machine stirred/whipped/made butter!  #savethearms

Monica started getting sick again over the weekend and into the start of the week.  We thought it was pregnancy kicking back into high gear.  Then one day she asked me to come home from work because she was having really bad lower back pain, and so we thought she might have kidney stones, or kidney-itis.  We called the doctor and subsequently went in and it doesn't appear to be kidney stones and we got medicine, so not as bad as we feared.  In fact, other then the pills making her nauseous she's feeling better.

One night I threw out the idea of going out to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Casa Mariachi, and it stuck.  We all had a good time, though Brooke did have to request a replacement high chair because her first one had broken buckles (not a joke, I put her in and the first thing she said was "buckle!" and when we found out it was broken she wanted out).

Yesterday Monica and Brooke took off to San Diego for her family's vacation, so it's just been me and Blue Jelly.  She's been pretty good company so far and didn't attack me in my sleep last night.  We were also able to clean up almost the whole house yesterday too!  Go Jelly!

Today in church we talked about having strong families and strong marriages.  The quote was shared “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.”   I have heard this before, but it really struck me today as over the past week one of my co-workers was talking to me about wishing she could spend more time with her kids, but "that's the life of a working woman."  By no means am I trying to discourage anyone from working, but it was interesting to see how the gospel could benefit her life, and how she was feeling a longing to spend more time with her kids.  I am so grateful for the Gospel, and the guidance we receive from leaders that help us to manage and prioritize our lives.  I am grateful for my family, and that we are sealed together for eternity.  I know that we can live together for all of time with those we love.  I know that if we strive to have a Christ-centered home filled with love and learning that we will not have failure in our homes, though trials and challenges may arise.  I share this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.