My Burden is Light

Matthew 11:28-30

 28 ¶^aCome unto me, all ye that ^blabour and are heavy laden, and I will give you ^crest.

 29 Take my ^ayoke upon you, and ^blearn of me; for I am ^cmeek and ^dlowly in ^eheart: and ye shall find ^frest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is ^aeasy, and my burden is light.

 This scripture has been on my mind lately. Mostly the part where He tells me His yoke is easy. And I ponder on why I feel so overwhelmed at times. If I honestly feel like I am working to fulfill righteous callings, (and I do), then why are some moments so heavy? These are the times I need to change my focus and remember what the other verses tell me.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

I tend to see, and take account of the labor part of my life way too much. So of course it begins to be a huge weight over me! Motherhood, family relationships, personal study and righteousness, homeschool, housekeeping, callings in church, all together it can be a frightening load. They are good, they are necessary, but they are not the first thing. The first thing is to go to my Savior. By accepting His invitation, "Come unto me", everything else will fall into it's proper place. The "rest" that He offers will come, through peace of mind if not by physical stillness. 

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek

 and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

   Again, it asks - turn to the Lord. Follow Him, learn humility from Him. His life was filled with ordinary, but lived in such a way to turn it all into miraculous. Faith, love, patience, endurance, joy. I'm tired from laundry and dishes, cooking, cleaning, ending sibling arguments over and over again, years of interrupted sleep, and time that just isn't enough. Yet there are moments when I am in the right spot. When the day feels like service instead of labor, when every small and often repeated effort is an outpouring of love. Love for my family, love for my Savior. All that love is really very energizing and refreshing.

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light"

Why do I feel so overwhelmed at times? ... It's been good for me to consider and ponder these scriptures. My daily activities and responsibilities don't really change. That housework and mothering just have to be done. But when I change focus to my Savior, the beauty and joy in every task can be found. And some things that I thought were important turn out to not be. Turning our hearts to the Savior may not change our physical environment, but it can certainly change us. Make us stronger, give us the wisdom and understanding we need, bring peace and rest to our souls that we never thought possible. A General Conference talk by Elder Cook wraps this up nicely:

"We earnestly hope and pray for universal peace, but it is as individuals and families that we achieve the kind of peace that is the promised reward of righteousness. This peace is a promised gift of the Savior’s mission and atoning sacrifice.

This principle is succinctly captured in the Doctrine and Covenants: “But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.”¹⁴

President John Taylor taught that peace is not only desirable, but “it is the gift of God.”¹⁵

The peace to which I am referring is not just a temporary tranquility. It is an abiding deep happiness and spiritual contentment.¹⁶

President Heber J. Grant described the Savior’s peace this way: “His peace will ease our suffering, bind up our broken hearts, blot out our hates, engender in our breasts a love of fellow men that will suffuse our souls with calm and happiness.”"

  

Books For Babies - or Moms Who Can't Resist

Just look at these!! I can't stand it! These are the cutest little nursery rhyme puppet books! Yes, the kids enjoy them but secretly, I bought them for me! I've only seen them at Wal-Mart, as I randomly and quite innocently walk past the children books. I started out with 2 but a new one would pop up every now and then. I have absolutely no will power when I see them, good thing they're only $5! (okay, maybe a little over $5, I round down :).

Here's my favorite page from "This Little Pig" - 

All the way home little pig - all the way home!!!

The Difference a Year Makes

 Around this time last year we were getting used to little baby Thomas...

I'd say we have adjusted pretty well...

We love LOVE this guy! And can't believe he's one year old already! He is in training to be a great mountain climber, he seems to think everything is meant to be climbed on. If he would spend half as much effort into walking he would have it down in no time. He's all smiles and adventure, loves to be with his brother and sister, and gets tons of kisses from his mom. What else matters?!

General Conference - Always Inspiring

General Conference is over. I imagine all the speakers and choir members must breath a sigh of relief when all is said and done, but oh how grateful I am that they said it and did it! I definitely had things on my mind this weekend, hoping to get some inspiration and answers, and I got it! Lets be honest, with little kids it's hard to hear and pay attention, but every phrase I DID hear seamed to speak to me, ease my mind, or give me the enthusiasm I felt I had been lacking.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Chocolate On My Cranium had already posted images with quotes from some of the talks given. With 10 kids (including toddlers and a new baby) I don't know how she did it. But I'm glad she did! Here are the links if you would like to take a look -

Saturday General Conference Highlights

Sunday General Conference Highlights
  
I went to bed last night feeling so uplifted and down right determined to be a better mom, a better wife, a better sister, ... you get the idea. I was excited for a new week to start with the new me! Then all three of my kids decided it would be good to wake up at 4 a.m. .... That was obviously way too early for the "new me", so the 'old me' handled it - in a very grumpy way. Thankfully the 'newer me' finally woke up and decided that the whole day was NOT ruined, and since then we have all been having some fun and getting things done, and taking some naps.

2013 Summer Wrap Up

We had some fun this summer. I really enjoyed the lazy, unplanned days. Knowing Fall would bring our first year of Home Education made it even more sweet. We had lots of trips to the zoo, nearby parks and libraries, play dates with friends and family. I think our favorites were the visits with grandparents and cousins.

 

Watching these kids run around in such a carefree and joyful way was good for my heart. Land! Space! Kids and chickens roaming free! "Helping" in the garden, learning about nature and hard work and the good that comes from it all. Oh such goods times!

We also challenged ourselves with some summer reading. If John could read 100 books he would earn a Lego box. When given the right motivation this boy works hard! He has always been focused and driven, he was born to get things done! Evelyn enjoyed being read to, either by me or John. It was a great experience to snuggle a read with them at their suggestion.

Of course Thomas has grown and developed so much this past Summer. In the beginning he was rolling, now he 'speed crawls', "travels" with the best of them, climbs over (almost) any obstacle we can think of, gets up on the step stool like the big kids, and will sometimes stand without holding on to anything. And since this picture was taken he has grown 2 teeth on bottom and 2 teeth on top. He's been very busy.

It really was a great Summer!