Because of Him

 I'm having a really hard time believing that it's already the last day of November. Time is speeding past me. I feel like it's fitting to end my month of gratitude by sharing my grateful for the person next month focuses on, Jesus Christ.

I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, all the bad and outrageously unfair are made right and, frequently, beneficial. I know He loves me as I am and wants to help me grow into so much more. He will never force me to, but as the scriptures say, "his arm is stretched out still." I am grateful that I can rely on Him and that He perfectly understands my situation. I am never alone. All these things are true for you too.

Temples

 I am so grateful for the temple. I am grateful for peace I feel there. I am grateful for the clarity I receive for my own life. I am grateful to share my love for the temple with my children.

My Children

I am so grateful for each of my children. They each bring so much joy to my life in their own unique way. I am so humbled to be their mother.

It's still surreal to have Aaron and Lucy here that most days I feel like I am just babysitting. I am grateful to be learning and growing right alongside them.

I am grateful for Lucy's sweet and patient personality. Each day she's getting more interactive and playful. She's already grateful to have Aaron around.

I am grateful for Aaron's joyful nature. He gets so excited over many things like rocks and trains. Aaron adores his sister and tries to help take care of her.

I am grateful for wonderful Baby E. I still can't find a particularly good way of describing E's personality beyond sweet, but that comes nowhere near it. I am so grateful to have E in our family.

I am grateful for my stalwart Baby J and for the discovery of this picture. This is the only picture of me while I was pregnant with J and I love it even more that Garrett is sitting right on top of my pregnant belly. (He loves his cousins J and E almost as much as I do.) J is such a wonderful example to me and I want to be like J.

I still miss J and E every day especially now that Aaron and Lucy are here. Seeing the two of them together makes me more grateful that J and E have each other. I am also grateful for the time we had together and the promise that we are sealed together for all eternity. Death is not the end for our family.

My Mr. Nelson

I am so grateful to be married to Jonathan. He is such an incredible man and I am so blessed to have him as my husband. Jonathan picks up the various tasks I've been dropping while adjusting to life with a newborn again. 

Jonathan makes life so much better for all of us! 

Mother Dearest

 Building off of yesterday's post, I am so grateful for my mom. As soon as it was clear that surgery would be necessary, she got the soonest flight she could to be with us. My mom was the last family member I saw as I was rolled away to surgery and took care of Aaron every night for three weeks when I got home.

Fast forward to this past September and she again got the earliest flight to help us when Lucy came earlier than expected. (She was still full term just not 40 weeks.) Again she spent way more time with Aaron, but that was exactly what I needed. My mom takes such good care of us that it makes it difficult to let her go.

Health

I am so grateful to be healthy and for all the doctors, surgeons, and nurses that have helped me regain it. I still can't believe how crazy my postpartum recovery was with Aaron and having my very sick gallbladder removed all before he was even a month old. I am so grateful for a surgeon that could handle my complicated case even though all indications pointed to a simple gallbladder full of gall stones.

These memories have been on the surface while I've been recovering from Lucy's birth. I still can't believe all my body went through and all I have is a few scars on my belly from it.

Really Quick

 Before going to sleep tonight I wanted to remember what I'm grateful for.

I'm grateful for traditions. They bring stability and help bond us with the past. I want to be more intentional with them in our family. Tonight, we watched Jurassic Park with our friends just like we did 5 years ago at our first Thanksgiving in Texas with them.

I am grateful for cuddles with Aaron. He's so big and more independent while I'm also usually busy with Lucy that I relish any snuggles he'll give me.

Yes, we are watching Jurassic Park and no it didn't scare him.

Better Late Than Never

I'm not giving up even if I am only doing this every other day!

I am grateful for good books and sharing them with Aaron and Lucy. Yesterday, we finished reading Peter Pan. Sure they aren't really getting that much out of it, but it's still a habit I want to instill in them. I'm good at starting books, but not finishing them. My friend Alyssa shared her reading stats at the end of last year and it inspired me to make a New Year's resolution to start finishing books. I didn't want to overwhelm myself especially with a toddler and anticipating a pregnancy so I went with 24 books for the year. It's felt so good actually finishing books and I met my goal before Lucy was born. I still have about 10 books that I am currently working through, but I know eventually I will finish them. 

I am grateful for cute hair bows. I was certain that Lucy was a boy so much that I didn't start prepping her clothes until my 35 week ultrasound that verified that she was in fact a girl. I still was only 95% convinced while I labored and finally 100% when I saw her for myself. I think my favorite part of having a little girl is all the cute bows to coordinate with her outfits or even just her pajamas! Seeing them all hung up brings me so much happiness!

Yes, I have added even more since I took this picture.

 

Double Or Nothing

 It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away. Time is already getting away from me. 

I am grateful to see my dad in Aaron's smile. I don't know that I'll ever live close to my parents, but I love seeing them in my kids as well as myself. (I occasionally wear outfits that my mom would.)

I am grateful to worship with my ward family. Lucy and I finally made it to church today and it was wonderful. Yes, we were late but we were all there as a family. We sat in our usual spot and it all felt so right even when Lucy cried.

 

Oh, and Aaron is grateful that he found his toy car in Nursery today. 

54%

 I am grateful for our family scripture study. Just about every night since Aaron was a little baby, we read a few verses from the Book of Mormon. It's extremely slow going, but we are now 54% done with it.  I really appreciated our reading tonight in the Book of Alma.

I know God hears us especially when we are afflicted - even when we are the cause of it. He loves us and His mercy will come.

Yet Another Two for One

 The reason why I ran out of time to post is the same thing I was very grateful for. I am grateful to be serving with the girls ages 7 to 11 in my ward. I was just called a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying our time together.

I'm also grateful for days at the beach. My mom instilled a love of the beach and I hope to do the same for my kids.

Another Two for One

 I am grateful for prayer. Last night, Aaron was having an unusually difficult time going to sleep. Jonathan checked on him, but he mostly wanted to play. Unfortunately, the crying continued. After feeding Lucy, I checked on him. I held him in my arms and again he mostly wanted to play. I got him some trains and still he wasn't ready for me to go. The thought came to me to pray with Aaron one more time. While I said the prayer I felt impressed to ask for his angels to come and comfort him. I don't typically pray like that, but they felt right. Aaron still wasn't ready for me to leave, but he quickly calmed down and had a restful night.

I am grateful to slow down. Lucy has helped me to reprioritize my life right now. I'm not running around trying to get things done. Instead I'm typically cuddling Lucy or playing on the floor with Aaron. It is so nice to go so slowly even though it still shocks me that we are already halfway through November!

A Small Sunday Tradition

I am grateful for our Sunday tradition of watching Music and the Spoken Word. I love the music and seeing the orchestra. It's perfect to watch just before Aaron's nap.

I loved today's episode for Veteran's Day.

 

Sunset

 I am grateful for beautiful sunsets. The colors are just amazing and inspiring to me.

America

I am so grateful for the country I live in. My ancestors left everything they knew behind to do the physical work of literally building homes and clearing land to grow their own food. They weren't only doing it for themselves, but for their children and posterity. They saw that there were opportunities in America that could provide a brighter future for generations to come.

Jonathan and I have it so much easier with our comparatively small move to Texas for our family to grow and have a bright future here.

Two for One

 Yesterday was a bit crazy, so here's two things I'm grateful for.

I'm grateful to have newborn snuggles again. Though technically Lucy isn't one, she's still cuddly like one.

I'm grateful for good music. We frequently listen to music so the babies learn to sleep with background noise. I don't remember how I found Elenyi, but it was when Aaron was the baby and their music is beautiful. Here's one of my favorites.

Work From Home

I am grateful that Jonathan works from home. This has been his goal since before he met me. Jonathan started working from home in 2020 before it was mandated... I mean cool. It has been such a blessing to have him so close and having a commute of only a few feet instead of many more miles.

 

Rain

I am grateful for rainy days.

Aaron is grateful for rain too.

 

Friends

I am so grateful for friends that feel like family. When we first moved to Texas, our nearest immediate family was 1,200 miles away. Even with that, we felt good about the move. We've made some of the most wonderful friends in the past 5 years and I am so grateful for them. Just tonight, some of them brought over lemon bars which was perfect because I was wanting something sweet to eat.

Aaron loves lemon bars and pretending his food is a train.

 

Found

 This one feels silly, but I am still feeling very grateful. For friends and family that haven't been to the South, fans are nearly a year round necessity both indoors and outdoors. We have a fan on our back porch and it has a remote control.

Naturally, Aaron decided he needed the remote and he would turn the light on and off as well as change the speed of the fan. He would frequently take it while he wandered around the yard. For months, Jonathan and I were consistent about where we put the remote. Then a few months ago, we couldn't find it anywhere. We looked in the usual places as well as the unusual. I figured Aaron just hid it very well. Unfortunately, it was missing for all of summer. Fortunately, the fan at least was on medium speed so we could get some relief.

Last Saturday at our outdoor ward party, I put on a jacket thinking I would need it. (I was wrong. I still can't figure out when I need an extra layer.) I put my hand in the pocket and I finally found the missing remote!

It may be small, but I am truly grateful that after all this time the remote is found. Now we can start really enjoying our porch. (Yes, the weather can be so mild that we can even have dinner on the porch in December in shorts. It's Texas. We don't let the calendar tell us what weather we're supposed to have.)

Chromecast

 I am grateful for finding ways to adapt my scripture and General Conference study. The vast majority of my day is breastfeeding Lucy and finding ways to connect with Aaron, so my personal study has taken a backseat. Thankfully, there are so many resources on YouTube! I've listened to President Nelson's talks from this last General Conference many times as well as my favorite podcast for Come Follow Me.

I choose what I want to study and cast it to the TV since Aaron likes to think my phone is actually for him. While I don't get as much out of studying this way as when I'm sitting down and reading, I'm still getting more each time I rewatch the same material. Something is so much better than nothing!

Día de los Muertos

 I am grateful for my ancestors and for a holiday that is dedicated to remembering them and their stories. While we don't go all in with Día de los Muertos, I do put up a few decorations and some of the pictures we have of our ancestors.

As the kids get older, I hope to do more both with the holiday and sharing more of the stories about the men and women they come from.

Beautiful Texas

 I am grateful for each season and the beauty we enjoy throughout each one here in Texas. (In all honesty, I didn't do much enjoying this summer since it was extra hot and I overheated easily since I was pregnant.)

I'm grateful for the somewhat cooler weather and beautiful pumpkins of fall.

I love the mild winter days that enables us to get out and see our cow friends.

I am so grateful for how beautiful all the wildflowers are each spring. It's like the earth is giving me a favorite birthday present every year!

This summer, I was extra grateful for the few summer storms that came. Aaron was grateful too!

Before we moved to Texas, I imagined it all looked like a dry desert like what you see in an old western movie. I'm grateful that I was wrong!

A Month of Gratitude

 It feels right to dust off the old blog for daily gratitude posts again. I don't remember what inspired me to start doing it about 10 years ago (Yeah I can't believe it either!) but I want to do it again after a hiatus of at least a couple of years. The basic premise is to find at least one thing to be grateful for each day rather than just waiting until Thanksgiving day to share what I'm grateful for. I invite you to join me in sharing the things you are grateful for.

This morning I am feeling grateful for prayer. I'm grateful to have it as a connection to heaven and a power that is greater than my own. Through prayer I receive inspiration for what I should be doing as well as taking time to give thanks to God for the various ways I see His hand in my life.

I figured you can't go wrong with a picture of my cute kids!