My Sister's House

I just wanted to share some adorable pictures from my sister's playroom. Her four daughter's rooms are all very girlish and adorable too. She is about to have a good reason to redo her decor, as she will soon be blessed with a little boy. He'll never want for female attention.

Women's Conference

My oldest sister spoke at Women's Conference last month and all of my sisters and sil's on my side of the family, my aunt and my cousin all got to go. It was a lot of fun. A bunch of us from Ca drove out together and had a really good time talking the entire 12 hours, both ways. That was the first vacation without my husband or kids that I have ever taken.
Starr did a really good job. She spoke on embracing our roles as young mothers. She spoke of her struggles with her kids and how the scriptures have helped her to know what to do. She always amazes me at the depth of insight into the scriptures that she has. She then shared a memory of our Mom doing her hair and how we were able to do a last service for her when she died and we dressed her and did her hair. I cried and told her she should have warned me. But it is true, the service we give as mothers is a service they will give back to us as daughters.
She talked about how there is a time for some things and their is a time to let things go. She shared how she had developed her talents and had made money on them, but was now feeling prompted to concentrate on her children not making money. We will have time to do all of the things we desire or else the desires will leave us as we do the work that God has specifically appointed us.
We got to hear Sheri Dew, Sister Beck, the Prophet and almost John Bytheway. We didn't get into his, because it was packed and so instead we did service in the service hall which we found to be hilarious. Anything can be hilarious when you get that many women together.

We all went out to dinner together and had the tables next to us rolling when my cousin pulled out a neon blue doughnut and my sister proceeded to blow it up right there at dinner. Hey, sitting on bleachers all day ain't the best for a sore and pregnant tushy=).

A Reply to a Letter

Dear ,

I just wanted to encourage you and let you know you are not alone. I was married in the temple, but my husband left the church after about two years. It was hard, and I'm sure you know more about what that little word means than I need to express, but we finally came up with an agreement that since he knew he was marrying an active Mormon he must allow me to raise the children in the gospel. Then I prayed a lot and loved him a lot. I still shared a lot with him, just not very much about the gospel, yet it seeped in. I then sought preisthood blessings and had many special experiences and was told that this was my husbands trial, but that he would come back into the church while I was still raising my children. This then directed my path and my decisions-I simply lived life as if he would come back soon. About eight months ago, eight years from when he left, my husband struggled and we struggled and he reached a place where he was willing to pray and follow the answer. We were blessed with experiences so strong over the course of two and a half weeks that he prayed and asked God to slow them down, because his physical body was so exhausted. My husband is now actively striving to follow God, which at one point looked impossible, but God is faithful, I promise you He is, and God will keep what ever promises He makes to you through preisthood blessings if you are faithful. His promises to you will be different than the promises made to me, but get them and then rely on them.

We are in a fight, a war, in fact, but the blessings of God will far outway all of the trials, the turmoil and the heartche that we experience now. He'll bless you as you teach your precious sons and then, who knows, those sons may be an instrument in softening the heart of their father and grandparents.

As far as studying the gospel with your children I, too, have used the plan from this link http://www.schoolofabraham.com/storiedscriptures.htm. I find it best to just read and talk and let the discussions and the spirit take over. The children often ask questions and we talk. It really is that simple. We sing primary songs and sometimes read the Friend. We also have at least one religious book that we are reading aloud going all the time. Our Favorite was "My First Mission," by George Q. Cannon. The Gospel Doctrine lesson manual is good too. We have also gotten the "Faith Preceeds the Miracle" by Ezra Taft Benson on Audio and listen to it when we run errands. I personally love the surety and examples in this book.

I pray to God that you feel the Savior take the other side of the yoke as you do what you are feeling called to do.

Melissa, Mom to 9yos, 8yod, 4yos, 3yos and 1yos

Short Update and Reply to Question

A quick update as it is late. Life is busy, we are selling our house and moving to Yuba City. My husband just got a really good job in Colusa and we have been abundantly blessed.

I wanted to answer a question I received about which charter school offers the most money=). It is South Sutter, they currently offer $1800 a year per child in the lower grades. I am not sure how much they offer for high schoolers. Incidentally, we are switching to them this year, not actually for the money, but it is all part of that long story with many changes that I haven't told you about. South Sutter does not have a resource room or on campus classes. They do, however, pay for parks and rec classes in Yuba City and since Horizon does not have a campus in Yuba City It makes the most sense for us. Plus there is a possibility that we may move to Colusa and Horizon does cover that county, while South Sutter does.