Today is cleaning day. We are missing one of my daughters college textbooks, so as a result we are cleaning and de-cluttering. I just love it when I can walk into a room or space and it is cleaned, organized, and de-cluttered.

Later that day:
Didn't find the book yet, but we found 5 other items that were missing.

I am so happy that the last cooking goal I had was a success. In the process I learned a few things. Most important, it is too hot to cook the beans during the day, so this next time I am going to soak the beans during the day and cook them at night. Today I set a new goal with beans. This time I am going to try to cook baked beans from scratch. I am going to use the recipe found here.
Additionally, I decided it was time to learn how to add a link to my posts on my blog, and as you can see I learned how to do it and implemented it.
Also, I am gaining weight, and that is never a good thing, especially since I was hoping to lose weight. So my third goal for right now is to put in place a gym membership for me and my husband and possibly my daughter so that we can work out together.

Successfully cooked black beans from dry beans. That was my goal this week and I am so excited I was able to do it and that they tasted great. You can find the recipe here.
(beans in photo are not the beans I cooked)

Today my 7 year old son said, "Mom, can you cheer me." He was working on his math, and when I asked for more clarification he told me that he was going "too slow" and asked again if I could cheer for him. I love homeschool.

My goal for this week is to learn to cook some beans. I want to successfully cook a pot of beans from soaking them to a meal.

I don't "love" all of my trials and I really don't want to go through more (even though I am pretty sure that is part of the earthly package), but I want to acknowledge how very grateful I am for the many things I have learned through my trials and the blessings we have received through out trials. I can testify with Alma that the Lord had made our burndens light that we were able to bear them and at times we didn't even feel them upon our backs.

I do, however, LOVE the temple and I am incredibly thankful that we have one so close to us (about 25 min. away). Having one so close has made it possible for us to make the temple part of our lives. When I gave birth to Bridger I wasn't sure when I would be able to go again, but we are finding a way to keep this wonderful blessing part of our life. I believe that even if I can't make it there as often as I would like to go that others in my family can go and we can continue to be blessed by our temple attendance and continue to receive the blessings and promptings that come with lifes trials as we attend that sacred institution. I also want to mention one more thing here. I love the General Patron Assistance Fund. I am amazed at the faith of members of the church who sacrifice so much (sometimes for years) so that they can receive the sacred ordinances in the temple. And yet I am grateful that there is a way members of the church can attend for the first time quicker. Because of this program even if you give just a little, it can make a huge difference.

I love to see the temple. I'm going there someday. To feel the holy spirit. To listen and to pray.

My heart is full of gratitude tonight as I think of all the many blessing that I have been given from a loving Father in Heaven who loves me despite all my struggles and mistakes. I am so very grateful for the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. I am so very thankful for my family and I hope and pray that as I go forward I can have the strength I need to put the tempations of this world behind me and stay on the path the leads to the fruit on the tree of life.

I have tried so hard to teach my oldest daughter everything she needs to know to be able to start a family of her own, go to college, and live on a budget. I walked her through her first two semesters of College and have started her into her third. She has 31 college credits and will have 46 at the end of the semester. I don't however know what she is going to do. Will she transfer to another school to finish. Will she stay at this school and finish. Is is time to get a job, start a family, or do something else all together. After a lot of prayer I finally received the answer that it is her turn to pray and learn what her next step is. I love her so much and I want her to be happy and make the best choice, but right now I don't know what that choice is. It is finally her turn to receive the inspiration.

I just love to homeschool. Today we have finished math, learned about reptiles, read Dr. Seuss, studied how grems are spread and reproduce, and it isn't even lunch yet.

I would love to make this my next project. I wonder if we could make it happen, what it would take, how much it would cost.

After a couple months of struggling with some "issues" with our budget, we are finally back on track. Now we are going to finally start a new program in our home this month.
How it works:
We have a set amount each day that we work with for our meals. If we get under that amount we get to put the extra cash (cash only for this project) aside for either bulk items or for family fun activities. This is because we don't actually have family fun activities in the current budget. Everyone in the family gets to help plan our spending for our meals. We will try it for a couple of weeks and then make changes as needed.

I am so grateful that no matter what happens tomorrow, I had today with my family.

I miss my husband so much. He does everything he can to provide for the family and very often that means picking up extra jobs. I find that I have to ride with him to and from some meetings just to have some time to talk to him. Ho Hum.

I am enjoying a few minutes of quiet as my four oldest are at scouts and Young Women's activities, my next four are watching Pete's dragon for the first time and loving it, and my baby is sleeping. I am so thankful for some cute clean movies that my family can enjoy.

I also love that the kids earned the movie by working hard to get their school work done.

What movies do you like?

I was paid a huge compliment from a teenage daughter today. She said that she realized that I am going to be very influential in the raising of her children as she will use so much of what she learns from me with her children. What a "huge" compliment she gave me. I love her so much and I am thankful to have her say such a wonderful thing about how she sees me as a mother.

Also, I want to say that I appreciate my husband sooooo much. There are so many times when I get to remind myself that he saves our family so much money. He will take old computers that people are getting rid of and take the good parts out and rebuild our old computers over and over and over again. Sometimes having so many "extra" parts drives me nuts, but over the years we have managed to work out where and how to store the extra parts. Plus, I try to remember that he saves us a lot of money, and we usually have more computers than our friends, and we don't pay a dime for them. Thank you hubby. You are awesome!!!

Finally, I want to thank my friend for teaching me how important it is to shop at thrift stores to save my family money. Just this month alone we were able to buy a lot of needed things for our family for pennies on the dollar by buying used at the thrift store. In addition she saved our family a lot more money by offering us used clothes from her own family. How very grateful I am for so much love and support from a friend who does all she can to help our family.

I do want to mention that I actually have been blessed with many great friends who support and love our family and a wonderful sister who is extremely supportive of me.