I am thankful

Dallan Nov 22, 2009
We are counting down to the end of the year. Erica has already begun asking when Valentines Day will be. Girls always love pink and presents. Anyway this week is much like other. My kids have made some amazing messes and yours truly spent much of her time cleaning up those messes and relocating items back to their original positions. William with his newfound mode of transportation , ie walking, is increasing and magnifying his calling to be a relocation engineer. He can move things further than before and much more quickly, not to mention his productivity is double with the use of both his hands while relocating. He has a great teacher in his brother Hunter.
This week I decided that I was in great need of some more sleep, and had crawled back into bed after sending the big kids off to school. When I awoke I found that the items which are kept in the fridge had been relocated all over the house. The pumpkin pie, of which I had made the day before from a pumpkin we grew in the garden, was now upside down, and a sad ruin on the floor in front of the fridge. IT took some time to relocate all items back into the fridge and clean the pie up off of the floor. But since I had a nap, I was a happy mommy and nobody got hurt. And since I was in a rather cheerful mood I decided to make 6 more pumpkin pies that day- I was planning on doing my Visiting teaching the next day and wanted to take some pie to my sisters. So after much work and rolling out of the dough I produced, with the help of my oven, 6 new lovely pumpkin pies. Well that night Jon was going out to do some visits in the ward, part of being the elder quorum president I guess, and He is always received better into the less actives homes when bringing food, so I told him he could have 2 of my pies. Well as he was going out the door with Mike Barlow he dropped one of my lovely new pies onto the driveway! So he STOLE another pie! The nerve! So long story short… not only do my children destroy my creations but my husband is in league with the little mess makers. At least the chickens enjoyed my pie! I had to make three more pies so I could have a slice…it is good pie!
We decided that on Saturday it would be a good plan to put up the Christmas stuff. Within 24 hours of putting up the tree my kids had removed virtually all of the ornaments, broken several of them, and had me in a fit of tears, rage, regret, and not niceness. I was ready to pack up all of Christmas this morning and tell my kids that Santa was in no way coming to our house! It is a good thing for my kids that I have Jon. When I took my complaint to him he looked up from the lesson he was studying to give today in Priesthood meeting and asked me if I knew what the lesson was. I of course had no clue. It was finding joy in adversity- loving our trials and tribulations-ect. So I relented and Christmas is staying up until after the holiday, and I hope to love my trials, hopefully they will not cause more tribulation over the tree. And Santa will find our house without too much more adversity. But it going to take a large bit of glue to fix the things they broke.
Jon took his first “big” buck whitetail deer this weekend. He is thrilled. The buck is really unique and Jon wants to put the poor dead animal on the wall. He is not a huge trophy, but he is not a small animal either. I told Jon that if Jon really wanted to get the deer mounted, I would have to send back his Christmas present, so that we could afford to pay the taxidermist. Jon was shocked that I already had a gift for him. He asked what it was, and how much I had spent. I refused to tell him what the gift was but let him in on the fact that it was free. So then he said “oh okay so it really doesn’t matter if I get him stuffed or not, I’ll still get my Christmas“. I told him no…if he stuffed that deer I would have to send his gift back. -lucky him I want the gift for myself so he will still get it on Christmas.
This week Marcus and I had a long conversation about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Apparently they teach that kind of thing at school. We talked about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock and how the Indians helped the Pilgrims and the clothes that they wore. And Then I asked him if He knew why they left their homes in England and got on the Mayflower. He didn’t know so I told him about the religious oppression the pilgrims faced in England and how they wanted to Worship our Heavenly Father the way they thought was best, and to do that they had to leave everything behind in order to do that. And I guess for me it was an Ah-ha moment for me and my testimony of Heavenly Fathers divine plan for the restoration of the Church. We put a lot of stock in the saints who came across the plains, but I guess I hadn’t thought about those who came across on the Mayflower. I am sure the Holy Ghost was whispering to their Hearts that the best thing they could do was to “get on that Ship.” And I am thankful for their Courage and determination to find a place where they could worship the way their hearts told them was correct, and to make it known though their example to those that followed, and set up our government, and constitution that this country was a place of religious freedo. I am thankful that we still enjoy that freedom today because those Pilgrims had faith, courage and determination when they got on the Mayflower. I am Thankful. So as we Gather together this Thursday and count our many blessings, I hope that you remember that you are counted on many lists. The church is true and we love you and pray for you always.
Love,
Monica and the 6 people she is most thankful for. Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter, William, and Wyatt.