blog
ouch
Doing too much.
Hurting.
Need a rice pack.
And a bed.
And some gator bites.
Unfortunately I am getting none of the above.
Want to scream.
On the good side of things, my sweetie is on his way home with The Time Pirate so we can listen to it tomorrow.
book bonanza: lots of audios
We are spending a lot of time cleaning these days. Having a mama be out of commission for months on end has done a number on this already cluttered house. My children have tried hard to fill in the gaps for me, but quite frankly, what this house needs is ME! So, the last several days we have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. We have rearranged the school room in our seemingly never-ending quest to find the most functional arrangement, we have started on the sewing room, are getting ready to tackle the storage room (do I have the courage?), and then the garage. Oh my, SO MUCH WORK! Yes, you should read those all-caps as screaming because that is just what I am feeling.
Anyway, during all this cleaning we have been listening to some great books and thought you might enjoy them if you are doing any big projects or taking some summer drives.
This morning we listened to Only Passing Through which is the story of Sojourner Truth. What a woman! I hope my children learned (once again) that God calls us to a mission and it is our privilege to step up to the plate with faith and do what He asks us to do. This story also comes in a picture book version if you would rather read it aloud.
Saturday we listened to Amos Fortune, Free Man. We must be in bit of a freedom mood, eh? Must be the time of the year to think about liberty and working for it for all of God’s children as was stated so strongly in The Declaration of Independence that was being drafted right about now 236 years ago. We loved the strength spirit Amos demonstrates again and again and his determination to make the best of his situation.
Now we are listening to The Land of Oz. I read the whole series to Blythe years ago, but haven’t revisited it since. Fisher decided he was interested in it and Blythe wanted to hear it again, so now we are immersed in Mr. Baum’s classic series of conquering our fears, serving others, and believing in goodness.
I can’t wait to listen to The Time Pirate which is the sequel to Nick of Time which was a huge hit with all of us a few years ago.
You can probably find these at your local library, but if not, they are all available on Amazon. What are your favorite audio books?
a walk!
We went on a walk last night!
A walk. A real-life family walk around the lake with Fisher and Annes racing the whole way, Keziah chasing everyone around with Sadie on the leash, Blythe walking while reading her latest book, and Richard and I holding hands and talking and laughing and enjoying watching our children and their crazy antics.
Oh my.
Is this heaven?
My hip hurt the whole time and since it was my first walk since that fateful day in February I was evaluating every twinge to self-diagnose what the heck is going on in there, but I made it around the whole 1.1 mile loop!
Then we came home and read our scriptures and our summer read-aloud, The Summer of The Monkeys, and then I collapsed into bed. I am pretty sore this morning, but it was worth it to see my children having so much fun…and to hold my sweetie’s hand. Someday I will be able to walk without pain. Someday these days of lying in bed will be a memory. Someday my body will work well again.
p.s. Summer of The Monkeys is a fabulous read-aloud. Not only are each of the children enthralled with it, but so is Richard. He chuckles at all the crazy adjectives and funny Ozark phrases and I think he has decided he wants to be just like the grandpa in the book when he has entered that phase of his life. I think he is enjoying it even more than the kids! If you are looking for a new read-aloud for your family, pick it up – I think you will love it!
fix the connection
Yippee! Richard’s new website is up and running! Go check it out at Fix The Connection. We are so excited to launch our new website – and new company – and are praying for it to succeed.
Sidenote: Designing a website for a man who is so incredibly different than I am was a tad bit challenging, but I tried my darndest to have it reflect him, his energy, and the image he wants to project to the world.
So, what is it all about? Well, let me tell you! Richard is an excellent behavioral therapist and he loves working with children and adults of all different stripes. He especially enjoys working with children with autism. He would like to offer his skills to a few families that are committed to helping their children progress and are willing to learn the techniques and implement them in their home to faciliate an optimal learning environment. See, for years he has worked with all sorts of different families. Some have been involved, motivated families and some have not been interested in working with their own child one little bit. Richard has seen over and over again that the children who make the most progress are those whose families partner with him in creating a consistent approach to teaching their child. He wants to spend his time working with those families and share his expertise where it will be the most beneficial.
He is also launching an entirely new area of practice called SimplyHealed Energy Healing. He has been studying and going through the training program for the past several months and has been seeing clients for about six weeks. I may be a bit biased, but I think this is what he was born to do…he has such a gift in this area! His clients are enjoying their sessions and are thrilled with their results. I encourage you to read about it and give it a try. We are seeing profound results in our own home and want to share these blessings with everyone we know.
So, if you or your friends have a child with behavioral or emotional challenges OR if you are ready to clear out the negative energy, pain, and false beliefs from your own life, check out Fix The Connection and spread the word!
sacred sabbaths: more on grace
Grace has been on my mind a lot lately. For about a year I have been pondering, studying, discussing, and writing about grace. It all started last July when I watched a BYU devotional address by Brad Wilcox entitled His Grace Is Sufficient.
It changed my life. It put into concrete terms the ideas I had swirling around in my soul. It helped me see the flaws of so many of our (LDS) teaching methods and stories. It helped me understand why I and so many others have felt, at times, hopeless and the inability to ever be enough.
It helped me fully own that I will never be enough…and taught me why it is okay (even wonderful!) that I am not.
If you haven’t watched it, go do it. Then come back for the rest of my grace thoughts.
I have shared Brad’s thoughts with many of my friends and had lengthy discussions on the nature of grace, grace vs. works, how we progress in this life and in the next, what is the essence of being, how cleansing really happens, what is the process of giving our heart to our Savior, how does Christ make a new being out of our current selves, and much more.
Good discussions, all of them. So much food for thought.
Like most Latter-day Saints that have been over the age of twelve in the past twenty years, I have read Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson multiple times. I have loaned it out to others and raved enthusiastically about its contents. In the past year of pondering the concept of grace I have rejected Robinson’s most famous parable, The Parable of the Bicycle, because I believe it is not only an inaccurate allegory of how the atonement works, but is also hugely damaging to people’s beliefs about themselves and their relationship with their Savior. I do not mean to disparage the book or Brother Robinson’s concepts, for I have had wonderful, soul-sustaining experiences with his words. I DO mean to say that I believe the Parable of the Bicycle is built on a false premise and has taught a message of conditional redemption that is lacking in both truth and life-changing substance.
I believe that grace is the only power by which we are saved, that Christ’s atoning sacrifice does not kick in “after all we can do,” but is the power that allows us to progress in any miniscule manner whatsoever. I don’t believe we need to contribute .61 to the cause like the little girl in the parable and then, because that .61 represents all we can do, all our hard work, ALL of our efforts, then, and only then, does the grace of God come into play. I believe God’s grace is there all along and yet, so often, we do not accept it into our lives when we believe it will have power for us after all we can do…because nothing will ever be ALL we can do. I can convince myself that I can do better, do different, do more, and that if I just figure out how to do so, then God could/would help me.
Lately, I have been reading this article series that revisits the concepts in Believing Christ. I have thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual and spiritual journey the series has taken me on and I invite you to read and then come back here to discuss your ideas and understandings of grace. I know I don’t have it all wrapped up in a perfectly deciferable package and I would like to solidify my thoughts on grace by discussing them with you. Are you up for it? If so, go read or watch or study or pray or whatever suits your fancy for learning God’s truths and then share your thoughts with me.
best story ever
Really.
Go read it right now and feel your heart fill up with joy and a renewal of faith in humanity. These ladies inspire me to love deeply, give plentifully, and serve broadly.
AMAZING!
The Shaaras
Michael and Jeff Shaara write excellent historical fiction. The Killer Angels takes you into the heart of the Civil War. Gone For Soldiers shows the prelude to it in the Mexican-American War, and Rise To Rebellion is the first half of the American Revolution. These books get into the hearts of the characters and take their readers right into the mess of war, politics, and the struggles of leadership.
day at the lake
What is summer without water and sunshine? A big, fat, boring heatwave! My children have been missing going on hikes, hanging out at the park, and most of all, the lake. So, Saturday, while my mom was here, we spent the afternoon soaking up the sun. I laid on a blanket, mom hung out in a chair and the kids ran around from water to towel over and over again.
Hold your breath…Tracy has found her camera, remembered to take it with her, snapped some cute pictures, and uploaded them for y’all to enjoy. I know, this hip injury has about done my blog in, but at least for today you can enjoy some actual photographic proof our existence!
Noodle-sword fights
Annesley making new friends
And some more new friends…this time surf-board owners
Love his big smile
The goggles crack me up
Now they want to go everyday…and I am pretty tempted to let this be the summer of the lake.
payoff
I love my oldest daughter. She is an amazing reservoir of truth and commitment to God. She is passionate about freedom. She feels deeply. She teaches me about goodness.
She also drives me crazy. We see the world in very different ways and we function in very different ways. This has caused us problems for about 10 years. Sometimes we both think we may lose our minds in the middle of a conversation…and sometimes we do. In spite of all this, we also can giggle ourselves silly, especially if it is after 11:00 p.m.
Many times our conversations are strained and full of expectations that neither of us can meet for the other. Many times we end up hurting the other person’s heart. Many times we cry. It is hard parenting someone who is so different than I am and I mess up on a daily basis…which also breaks my heart.
See, she and I were inseparable until she was about six years old. At that point, something changed and we have never known why. Something deep down inside her shifted and our former connectedness vanished. She no longer trusted me. She no longer believed me. At first we thought she must have been sexually abused because she was behaving in a classic abused-child manner. Then we decided she must be suffering because reading was so difficult for her and the pain she was displaying was in relation to that struggle. Three years later we found out she was being bossed and bullied and in many ways abused by a young girl in our church congregation…and had been since we moved there. Through many, many conversations we have figured out the underlying reason our relationship has been so strained. Although we moved away from that area as soon as we discovered the situation, we did not protect her from it…and she has placed the blame for that lack of protection on me. Since that time she has not allowed me to touch her, to show compassion for her, to let me inside her heart. She has had a big wall and I think it has hurt me so deeply that I have allowed my own wall to build.
My husband has been studying the Simply Healed model of energy healing and has been seeing clients for a few weeks now. He has also been able to work with us – yeah for being guinea pigs! The results have been amazing! She has changed so dramatically since her first session. She is far more cheerful, far more likely to take responsibility for her actions, far more excited about life, far more loving, far more patient…and she let me touch her! I am thrilled to pieces.
The best part? This morning when she left for Girls’ Camp I told her “I love you to the moon and back” and she responded with a huge smile “I love you as big as the universe!”
This is huge. We are healing. What a gift.
I'm Tracy, a mama with big dreams, crazy ideas, loads of laughter, an insatiable desire to learn, and enormous piles of laundry.
