A Blur

That's been our lives for the past few months.

Regular craziness of life with five kids and two dogs plus pregnancy plus end of the school year activities plus home renovations plus three sets of house guests equals serious exhaustion.

Better than last year when we had a series of unfortunate events, this year has been filled with positive things, albeit too many all at once. But we can't really complain about...

three dancing daughters

sweet preschoolers (including a preschool graduate!)

clapping out our fifth grader so she could move on to Junior High (okay, I may be complaining a little about this one...how did I get old enough to have a child in Junior High?!?)

a Girl Scout bridging ceremony

darling baseball players (who are also doing swim team this year)

a beautiful newly renovated basement (this only shows a portion of the goodness)

new paint and carpet in the family room

a shoe and coat closet in a spot formerly occupied by dead space

meals and fun with cousins visiting from St. Louis and Evanston

a surprise sixteenth birthday party for a visiting niece

grandparents who came all the way from California

superfun cousins from Phoenix

an amazing summer beginning band concert with our very own flautist

and the opportunity to live by my brother these past two years while he's been getting his MBA (though we can complain that he just moved away).

And now I stand at the threshold of six weeks of mostly unscheduled summer and I can hardly decide how to best enjoy it. It's been so long since I had control over my time that I'm not really sure how to handle it, but hey, blogging some semblance of an update on our family so I can remember some of these blessed events seems like a good start.

New in 2012

Version 6.0

Life Moves Forward

Whether or not I'm blogging, our lives seem to move forward at full speed. May has been an especially busy month so far and doesn't show any signs of slowing down. We are renovating and repairing parts of our home which means more chaos even than usual. All of the basement toys are strewn throughout the living room and dining room. Drywall dust blankets the foyer, downstairs powder room, and basement. We've demolished the basement bar, and begun work on four new closets/storage areas. We've purchased about 25 gallons of paint and ordered new ceiling tiles. Still haven't chosen a carpet, but we'll get there.

The children are busy with baseball, upcoming dance recitals, guitar lessons, and end of the year field trips and activities (I'm headed out to field trips both Monday and Tuesday next week). Dave and I were asked this week to sit on the board of the Chicago BYU Alumni Association. We have some other big plans we are preparing for this year as well. Life is feeling very full.

Last weekend in a whirlwind two days, the Actress and I flew to Long Beach for Time Out for Women. I was pretty exhausted having not been to bed the night before our 4:45 AM cab departure, but it was a good two days. We sat on the beach Friday afternoon, and attended events Friday night and all day Saturday before flying home. There are two thoughts that really stood out to me:

 1. One of the speakers said they believed in saving guilt for sin. As women, and mothers especially, we tend to feel guilty too often for situations where we really may be doing our best under the circumstances and not acknowledging our own efforts. She told us to put off that kind of mommy guilt, and reserve guilt for when we have truly sinned. Good plan.

 2. Another speaker was referencing the power of prayer and in living our lives as if we have already received or will receive those blessings we long for. She asked us to think about what it was we really really wanted in our lives. And I was struck with gratitude, because I have everything I really want most. My family is healthy. We have the means to provide for ourselves. We have the gospel. I love my house, even in this disaster, and my neighborhood and our schools. We have good friends. And I feel an underlying peace in my life that we are living how we ought to. This doesn't mean things are perfect, and clearly we're not perfect, but I feel blessed with everything I need, and enough of what I want that I couldn't come up with anything. It was a great feeling. 

Hope all is well with you and yours!