Smarter Everyday!

I'm...I'm....I'm becoming a smarter mom! I'm tongue tied, actually. Ok- I'm so excited I just had to share! It has to do with laundry, Tyler and Caleb.

So the boys room has been a huge mess for days. Today I had enough with the mess and made them stop playing to clean their rooms. I know, duh! Should've done that a LONG time ago but they capitalize on my absentmindedness(could that be one whole word?) and busy-ness (I purposefully didn't want to say business-because there is none!) that I just haven't been the world's greatest mother. That's right, no "Mother of the Year" award--AGAIN.

ok- anyway. So Tyler and Caleb are cleaning their room and I make an effort to get my buns upstairs and just check in with them when to my horror I find Caleb bringing down this MOUNTAIN of laundry. Just looking at it at a glance I see clothes that I KNOW they haven't worn for a while but there they are---IN THE DIRTY LAUNDRY PILE.

So I say, "don't even think about it!". Then I tell them that they will go through every piece of laundry and check to see if it is clean or dirty and that the pile better be AT LEAST half the size when they are done. I leave to use the restroom.

I have revelation while using the restroom! No joke. I clean up and go back to the boys room all smug and smart and everything and I say, "ok- I take that back. You can put as much laundry in the laundry room as you want but you won't be able to play again until the dirty laundry has been washed, dried, folded and put away by yourselves. One load of laundry will take about an hour and a half."

YOU SHOULD SEE THE SIZE OF THEIR PILE NOW!!!

See??, I AM getting smarter!

The Lord has reduced my numbers!

I have so much to catch up on. I feel like this post is a middle chapter of 100 and you may have no idea what the beginning was like. One day I'll go back a year or two. But today I've got to post what's on my mind. I think it was revelatory for me.

Let me first say that lots of my posts seem to have a downer mood. Life is crap right now!!! I won't even try to flower it up because it hasn't been flowery. It's been crap. BUT we have also found peace and yes, even happiness. We are happy.

We continue to be left wondering every month how we'll survive yet another week. With no work and limited funds coming in our bank account has suffered. (Friends and family- this is not a call for help). I remember better days when we had 3 successful businesses going. I would make a deposit twice a month and each time I had to make a deposit it took me 3 hours to put it together. We had tons of checks that all had to be matched against the accounts receivables. Then I had to make copies of each check and then enter them on my deposit slip. We had to special order deposit slips because there was not enough room to list all the checks. You know what?!!! I COMPLAINED about how long it took me to get a deposit together!!! Today I laugh. I have special order deposit slips with line after line to enter checks and I have 1 check to enter maybe once a month. We started a new business selling Italian Ice. LuLu's Italian Ice- www.LuLusIce.com. We travel to different shows and festivals selling our ice and custard. On good shows we come home and I have to wash out several buckets and they are a pain. One night after we came home from a sale I began to complain about washing out those darn buckets and I remembered my deposit experience. I haven't complained about washing out buckets again. Washing out buckets means that we sold out of ice and were blessed. Now I pray to have the chance to wash out as many buckets as possible.

My story is getting long so I better cut to the chase. Our numbers have been reduced. We don't even deposit 1/10th of what we used to. We would be elated if we were just able to maintain a balance of zero. Those overdraft fees really add up!
Our little family has seen such hard times in the last 3 years it really is amazing. In so many ways! The financial part is just a part of it- there has been so much happening- so much that we have faced together- so many struggles, trials and challenges. We are on empty in EVERY way. I have often thought why has it had to be SO hard. Why so much in such a relatively short amount of time? I know the adversary would like to have me and I also realize that some of these thoughts are what he has planted. Nonetheless these questions have often been on my mind. I can understand why the Lord would need to polish somebody. I totally get that. It's necessary and a huge blessing- in the end. We have just experienced SO MUCH.

So yesterday during Sunday school I had personal revelation. The lesson was on Gideon of the Old Testament. Here was the question thrown out at the classroom, "Why did the Lord command Gideon to reduce his army of 32,000 to 300 to fight the Midianites?" Well, we know why. So that the Israelites would trust the Lord and recognize that it was the Lord's power that delivered them and not in any way was it their own wisdom, strategy or power.

It hit me like a ton of bricks! I had been praying and searching for answers and I received it during Sunday School yesterday. The Lord has reduced our numbers, strength, pride, everything, so that when He brings us up and delivers us, we will know that it had nothing to do with our smarts, strength, strategy, power nor any of our abilities but everything to do with His power. Why does it have to be so hard? So that we will know when He rebuilds us that it was by His power.

As it seems right now- I can't see the end. The challenges and struggles still come but I believe with all of my heart that one day the Lord will deliver us and when He does my family will know how we were delivered.

Scripture Power

Our Relief Society lesson this past Sunday, 2 days ago, was on the scriptures. The lesson was great and it surfaced a memory I have from an experience a couple of years ago.

I had the kids in the car and we were headed somewhere. It was a pleasant day so we had the windows down. We stopped at a red light and the car next to us was blasting (as loud as he could) music with foul language. Yikes!!! I was fumbling around trying to get the windows up but realized that wasn't going to be fast enough. My fingers kept fumbling around the music player and I pushed the first button I could push just to get something else playing so my kids didn't hear what was outside. To my pure delight and surprise, the children's primary song, Scripture Power, began playing. I blasted the music and our whole family started singing at the top of our voices.....scripture power....everyday I need the power that I get each time I read. Our windows were not quite all the way up so now our song and voices were even louder than the foul music right next to us and we sang like there was no tomorrow. I paused and listened to my kids belt out the song. It was powerful! Not just the loudness of it all but the words to the song and the conviction I felt about the message in the song.