More To This Life

Today I went for a run, and this song, by Stephen Curtis Chapman, has stayed on my mind:


Today I watched in silence as people passed me by
And I strained to see if there was something hidden in their eyes
But they all looked at me as if to say
Life just goes on

The old familiar story told in different ways
Make the most of your own journey from the cradle to the grave
Dream your dreams tomorrow because today
Life must go on

But there's more to this life living than dying
More than just trying to make it through the day
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there's more than this life alone can be

Tonight he lies in silence staring into space
And looks for ways to make tomorrow better than today
But in the morning light it looks the same
Life just goes on

He takes care of his family, he takes care of his work
And every Sunday morning he takes his place at the church
Somehow he still feels a need to search
Life just goes on

But there's more to this life living than dying,
More than just trying to make it through the day
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see
And there's more than this life alone can be.

So where do we start to find every part
Of what makes this life complete
If we turn our eyes to Jesus we?ll find
Life's true beginning is there at the cross where He died

He died to bring us more to this life living than dying
More than just trying to make it through the day
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see

And there's more than this life living than dying
More than just trying to make it through the day
More to this life, more than these eyes alone can see


It's kind of a melancholy mood I'm in, thinking about how each day tends to be just a repeat of the same routine, the same issues and the same struggles.  I guess the challenge is to find joy in the struggles, and in each of the small pearls that come along as well.  


But, in addition, the question remains, "what can I do to make my life more meaningful?"  One of the classes that I went to down at Women's Conference was about serving in our communities.  It was inspiring to see all the things that people are doing and can do to make a difference in our communities.  Things that I could be doing, if I would just break out of my daily routine.  I'll let you know if I come up with anything great to get involved in.  


Oh, I've got to tell you this story.  At Christmas time, one of my friends told me that there was a humanitarian center at the local DI.  Not only can you go there to make hygiene kits and so on, but you can get fabric and other items there to make quilts to donate.  I was very excited about that, and decided to get some fabric and have my family tie a quilt at our Christmas party.  So, I told my mom what I was doing, then called the DI.  They said the humanitarian center was only open on certain days, and I couldn't get the fabric before the party.  So I called my mom back, and she said she had some extra fabric she'd bring.  I didn't have any batting, so she said she'd bring that, too.  I called to borrow our ward's quilt frame, only to find that it was a PVC type that I didn't know how to use.  So, I called my mom back, she said she'd bring her quilt frame, the yarn and the needles.  We set up the quilt, and since my brother Spencer is an amazing quilter, we tied that entire quilt in 10 minutes.  Then my mom said she'd take it and bind it and find somewhere to donate it.  Wow, what an amazing service project I did.  LOL.


  

Hair Decisions, Hair Decisions

Okay, so I'm thinking about cutting my hair, and maybe getting lighter highlights. So, give me your votes yes or no, and also if you've ever gone from long to shorter, did you regret it? My hair grows very slowly, so I don't want to mess up. What say you?

Women's Conference

Ouch. Instead of going to bed tonight, McKay came downstairs and raided the fridge. He broke a jar of syrup on the floor, and I wasn't too happy about having more mess to clean up. I was very surprised that he ran right away to get a towel and start cleaning it up. I started sweeping, and before you know it I had a big chunk of glass sticking out of the bottom of my foot. McKay ran and got a wet towel, dry towel and bandaid (complete with salve) and fixed me up. Before he got back, there was about a 3" puddle of blood on the floor, though. Then my friend called, and while I was sitting on the counter talking to her, the blood soaked through the bandaid and dripped all over the floor again. It was like I was bleeding to death or something. It's stopped now, finally. haha

Last week was a lot of fun. I took off Thursday and Friday to go to a Women's Conference down at BYU. Wow, I'd never done that before, and wow, a lot of women go. There were so many great topics that it was hard to choose which classes to go to. My favorite was one on how to prepare your children to go on a mission, and to handle the MTC, too. Wow, very discouraging to hear about all the problems and different reasons kids are going home now days. Anxiety, depression, not being able (willing??) to handle hard work, and so on. Well, I can say at least Keaton can cook and talk to adults, even if he can't handle being away from mom. :) At least we know what we need to work on, right?

I told Dave that my least favorite subject right now is Relief Society. Do you think every VT message for the whole year will be on Relief Society? They all seem the same to me. So, several of the classes at BYU were on Relief Society, which I carefully avoided. Then Julie Beck gave her address, and what do you think it was on? Yes, Relief Society! She talked for well over and hour, and it was actually a great talk. She implied that during Christ's famous visit to Mary and Martha, he could well have been setting up an ancient Relief Society! There you have the two roles of Relief Society: Service and Spiritual learning. Fun idea anyway.

I'm happy to say that I seem to have adapted to my new running style and shoes, and my sore calves are feeling great. I ran 6 miles on Saturday, and part of it was pretty fast (and part not). I'm very excited--and this is why I was bleeding to death on the phone with my friend tonight. I recently read this book called "Born to Run" which, among other things, promotes a new way of running with minimal "zero drop" shoes or barefoot. Anyway, the author is coming to a running store in Orem tomorrow to do a running clinic, shoe discussion, and talk about the book. I signed myself and my friend up to go, and we were just discussing the details, such as whether we were too much of running rookies to go run with the author. Anyway, it is going to be so much fun!!! Even if we do miss Family Home Evening!!!

Okay, Heidi, I got a clean eating book, and I was wondering if eating this way might help my kids to settle down. They have been so rowdy lately they are going to drive me to drink. Or something. But, eating clean is so difficult while living in the world. I was discussing this with my friend tonight. She is interested in looking into a very simple, vegan diet, because it was discussed in the book as something many long distance runners eventually assimilate. I just want to cut out the junk and eat nutritiously. But, then someone asks you to come over for lunch, or you go out to dinner with friends, or your kids are ALWAYS getting junk at school, from teachers and friends. It is very difficult to eat a healthy diet in today's America. As far as keeping the kids diet sugar free--well. We have some friends who are kind of pioneerish. There kids have never been to a movie, have no spending money, and they never have sugar at home. So, when they go to their friends homes, they literally empty the candy bowl into their pockets. My friend told me that she has seen the son actually loading donuts from Young Men's activities into his backpack. haha. No wonder my ice cream is always gone. haha. Yes, it is hard to control a diet enough to see if it makes a difference in behavior.

Like I said, I've been running a lot more, even though the weather hasn't been cooperating. I hate the treadmill, but I have even run on it a few times while watching a movie. Then I sit down and finish the movie. :) Remember Serendipity and You've Got Mail? Great movies. So, now I have to look at my race schedule and see what I really want to do. Goldie, guess what? My friend and I have decided to come up and do the TOU 1/2 with you. Yeah, that will be so fun. I decided to not do the Hobblecreek, because I won't have much time to run this summer, and I'd be mad if I got a slower time on it. So, we're going to do the Logan 1/2 and then full later on! :)

I have a bunch of pictures from Spring Break I want to post, but I can't find the cord so I'm still waiting....

Good, Better, Best??

We still had 6 ski tickets left, and no takers, so I decided to take the kids skiing one last time to Park City. It sounded like a good plan. I was concerned because the weather didn't look promising, but we went anyway. When we got to Park City, it was snowing pretty hard, but we went anyway. The good thing was, there was close to an inch of new snow. The bad thing was it was ice underneath. The other bad thing was the new snow was extremely sticky, so it was hard to keep up your momentum. Makenzie took off her skis and walk a few feet, and had about 3" of snow stuck to the bottom of her boot. The other bad thing was that the visibility was poor. The other bad thing was that it was really windy up on the top, and surprisingly cold for April 7th. After 3 runs, the 3 younger ones, not to mention mom, had had enough skiing for the day and year. Makenzie couldn't seem to stay on her feet, and fell down again and again. So we left.

McKay got into a big snit because he didn't get the candy he wanted, and poked a hole in the seat of the car with a stick. So, I told them we couldn't go out for lunch and we just ate leftover pizza when we got home. I think some of the kids (!!!!) might be a little spoiled.

My alternate plan for the day was to go to the temple and then to institute. Sounds like it might have been a better plan. Less stressful and certainly less expensive. The institute lesson was the first 1/2 of the Easter lesson, and I hated to miss it. And, I won't have time to go to the temple later this week, or next week either.

But, Keaton said it was fun just to spend the day together as a family, and it was memorable. (I wanted to take some pictures of us being blown around in the blizzard, but my hands were too frozen.) Besides, although we skied downhill 6 times and cross-country twice as a family (I cross-country skied 10 or 11 times total myself), we probably won't do much skiing anymore, because Dave simply can't do it. It really damaged his knees this year and he regrets going. So, maybe it was the best choice after all.

Welcome to Kansas

We are experiencing the worst wind I've seen in a long time tonight. Our greenhouse is totally destroyed. We'd have to start over from scratch with it. So sad. Also, our little wood playhouse (that we use for garden tools) blew right off the terrace and down by the pool. It is in pieces now. So, so sad.

Dave's back is out. With all the work our children require (and yes, I do think many of them are extra challenging, we are in parenting 505) it is so hard for me to have Dave sick or injured so much of the time. But, we still have to get it all done. I think we'll have to cut back to smaller yard/smaller house for me to deal with it all. We'll see. HOPEFULLY, all this will pay off eventually, but I'm sure not seeing it now. Of course it is not all drudgery, but I tell the kids we would have more time for fun if they would be more diligent and organized about getting their responsibilities done. :)

Bountiful Baskets

On Saturday, we tried out a new option for produce. It's a co-op called Bountiful Baskets. You pay $15 (I guess that can vary up to $25, but we paid $15 Saturday) and get a basket of produce. You get 6 fruits and 6 vegetables. With the way food prices are going, I thought I'd give it a try. I know we eat a lot of fresh produce, so I got 2 baskets, plus an add on of heirloom tomatoes. Umm, it is a ton of food. We got apples, oranges, bananas, watermelon, strawberries and mangos; lettuce, zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, bell peppers and green beans. I'm very pleased with what we got, especially at the price. You can also add on tortillas, breads, stuff to make salsa, and so on. We got extra food in ours because Dave helped sort everything out. It is all volunteer, and they try to use smaller and more local farms, so that is what helps keep the costs down. Of course, it's not really local stuff this time of year! If it sounds interesting to you, look at Bountiful Baskets and see if they have a site near you!

It's a Miracle

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been so long since my last post! Well, here's the thing--I've got to figure out how to add pictures to make my blog more interesting. And then take the pictures, I suppose. What a great weekend. Of course, Friday we went up to the wedding. It was such a nice day. It was fun taking the kids too Aggie Ice Cream. My kids are so indoctrinated to USU, especially Keaton. Getting married in the Logan Temple is even more of a tradition, I wonder who will break it??? I was definitely very tired by the time we got home, though. Saturday was wonderful, and gorgeous weather again. I went jogging (7 miles) and met some friends while out, so that was fun. It was lucky, too. They told me about their pact to not eat any sugar, snacks, white flour, etc. in April, except on Easter, and convinced me to join them with one caveat: we would go out to lunch and maybe have a little treat for my birthday on the 17th. When I got home, Dave had gone out for doughnuts and a bunch of treats for conference. So, I couldn't share in the treat fest. Yeah!! Conference was great, it was one of my favorites recently, and not only for the talks. The kids are getting so they listen better, although they are still so talkative its sometimes hard to hear. But, we watched all the sessions together, and I not only didn't fall asleep, I didn't even feel tired! Usually I crash during a few talks on Sunday, but I heard them all. We decided that service was a big theme. What other themes do you think there were?

We are usually pretty good about not doing work on Sunday, and keeping the Sabbath day holy, but we did quite a bit of work yesterday. First, we had terrible winds on Saturday night, and much of Sunday, along with snow and cold temperatures. Our greenhouse got ripped up pretty bad, so Dave had to fix it yesterday afternoon or we would have lost all our little garden thats been growing out there for more than a month. Hopefully it will recover.

The other thing is that I've been working really hard on, I guess you'd call it spring cleaning, and I want to finish before we leave for spring break Friday, so I scheduled to have the carpets cleaned Monday morning. So, we had to get all the of the furniture moved and the carpets vacuumed yesterday. Along with all the cleaning and scrubbing, we've also been patching the walls and touching up the paint, so things should look a little better around here after we are done.

Shall we guess whose bedroom was the worst? Keaton's, of course. But the kitchen is the biggest job, and that is still ahead of me. Whew.