Photography - Chalk

Despite having fractured my second radial head in 3 weeks (more on that later) I had to post this picture of Thomas for the I heart faces photography blog chalk challenge.

Tender Mercies

Do you ever wonder why bad things happen when you are doing all the right things? I do. I had two conversations about this yesterday. One with my Mom and one with my Best Friend.

But it got me thinking...

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Yesterday I was driving a girl in my ward to her physical therapy appointment. As we were traveling on the freeway the car in front of me quickly changed lanes. As soon as it changed lanes I saw a huge rock in the road. I tried to swerve so I would miss it, but I didn't have enough time. I missed it with my front tire but my back tire ran right over it. As soon as we hit it there was a very loud THUD. I was hoping that my tire would somehow be unaffected, but sure enough it started to deflate. I moved over to the shoulder and just kept on driving. I wanted to try to get to the next exit that was 1/2 mile away.

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As I was slowly driving, my van started to lag and I knew that I wasn't going to make it. I was hoping to get off the freeway and make it to the Target parking lot. Instead of making it off the freeway, I was able to make it to the top of the off ramp. I got out of the van and saw my sad looking tire.

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The first thought I had was, 'this shouldn't happen, I should be blessed because I am doing service!' How stupid I am. I was blessed. Many times. Just because I was doing a good deed, it doesn't make me exempt from the bumps in the road.

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I've decided to count my blessings instead of being ticked off about my tire.

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1. I called my mom. Fortunately, we were pulled over right by her exit. She was able to make it to us before we were even able to unload all the kids and car seats. I had my two kids, and the girl I was driving had her 4-year-old. I was also lucky because this was a Thursday, my Mom's day to work at the temple. It happened about 2 hours before she had to leave.

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2. I called Steve as soon as I called for my Mom to come pick me up. He was at lunch and able to come fix the flat and get the van to my Mom's house.

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3. I had my stroller in the back of the van. This is not always the case. Usually I have my little umbrella stroller for quick trips, but for some reason I had my big stroller - the same one I have been thinking about taking to the consignment store because we never use it. It was big enough to load all my stuff in from the van, Clara, and a car seat.

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4. Out of all the off ramps I could have been stuck at, I was at a great location. It had a big enough shoulder that there wasn't a concern about traffic.

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5. We got close enough to the main street that we were able to walk to Target within 5 minutes. This is fast considering we had 3 car seats, a stroller, 3 little kids under the age of 5, one woman with a fractured elbow and another one who just had a total shoulder.

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6. My mom has an extra SUV that she let me use. We were able to load all three kids up with their car seats and still get my friend to her therapy appointment - ONLY 10 MINUTES LATE!!! I am that late when things are going my way!!!.

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7. After we dropped her at her appointment, My Mom treated the kids and I to Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon had a new flavor, Graham Cracker. It was delicious. My mom even bought me a quart to take home. She still takes care of me and tries to cheer me up even if I am 35.

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8. My wonderful husband called while we were sitting in the shop eating frozen yogurt. He wanted to make sure we were all okay. When I told him what we were doing he just laughed and made some comment about being traumatized and fixing it with sugar (but hey, it was non-fat). Then he said something about coming to my rescue on his white horse. I laughed. Then I started to think. I thought about how much I love him. I thought about how he is my Superman and does so much for me and our children.

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So, next time someone asks why bad things happen when you are doing good things, tell them to rethink the situation. I did, and I've come to the conclusion that blessings will surely be poured out upon you when you are doing service for others.

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Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Aren't little sisters the best!

Overheard one-way conversation:

Thomas: CLARA! DO NOT POKE ME! TOUCH ME! OR HIT ME!!!

If blogger would have let me make it bolder, I would have. It was THAT LOUD!

I've become one of those moms...

Back in my BC days I was a teacher. (I know that may surprise a lot of you who read this blog because my grammar stinks, but back then I was careful about sentence composition and stuff like that). I was one of those teachers who assigned homework every night and expected it brought back completed the next morning. I was always astonished when the little kid who sat in the back of the class and picked his nose would show up with no homework. He would always have an excuse, but often it was, "we didn't have any pencils at home." I worked in an affluent school zone. The kids were all from families who could afford pencils, so I knew that wasn't the reason why it wasn't done. I figured that was just the first excuse that came to their mind after they were questioned about it.

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I need to repent. I now believe that little kid. I believe him because my boy is now that little kid -I just hope he isn't picking his nose.

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Last night we were getting ready to sit down and complete his assigned page of homework. I told him to go get a pencil and he came back and said he couldn't find one. I told him he wasn't looking hard enough and needed to go try again. After about 5 minutes repeating the same conversation I decided to join him in the hunt. He was right. There were no working pencils. Every pencil in our house was broken, missing lead or new. I grabbed a dull pencil and went for the pencil sharpener. That too was missing. I searched a good 10 minutes for something that would work. I even contemplated using my eyeliner sharpener as a pencil sharpener, but decided that I didn't want to walk up stairs whittling with a kitchen knife would work better. I was actually impressed with my whittling skills. I kind of got obsessed with making a perfect, symmetrical point.

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I am happy to report we finished his assignment, only 15 minutes past his bedtime. We spent about 15 minutes searching for a writing tool, 5 minutes taking pictures of broken pencils, 5 minutes carving pencils and a whopping 5 minutes writing his alphabet.

Remember when...

I used to blog. I do. It was fun.

I have a really good excuse...

I fractured my Radial Head. Before you go and google 'radial head' , it means elbow. Fortunately for me it wasn't a horrible fracture. I should write how I broke my elbow, but I don't want to embarrass Steve by writing down how he told me to "Catch the ball!" after Clara had dropped it onto the extremely oily bowling lane. And I don't want to embarrass myself by writing how I listened to him and actually tried to catch the ball before it got too far down the lane. Luckily, I didn't have to get a cast. I have spend the past week being a baby and holding it close to my body so it wouldn't get bumped. I could have been wearing a sling, but it's a pain in the neck. Literally. I went and saw an orthopedic last Tuesday. He wanted me to take it easy for a few days and then move it around so I don't lose range of motion. I couldn't carry anything heavier than a coffee mug in my left hand - meaning no camera! And I don't blog without pictures.

So without further ado...my first post in 2 weeks.

Much of my afternoon is spent preventing the above situation. I try to keep her busy and playing. It's not that I mind her taking a nap, it's just she sleeps hard. So hard that she will be rested enough to stay up until 10:30 tonight.