My super sweet mother-in-law picked up the boys for lunch and a movie. Peace and quiet around here right now. I'm coming out of my summer-blogging hibernation.

Last night our family determined that we would have the phrase "Safety in Counsel" be our family motto (inspired by President Eyring).

Personally and as a family we have received blessings from heeding counsel. We also recognize the times when we have not heeded and things were more difficult than they would have been had we obeyed counsel we were given the first time. President Eyring qualifies this:

"Another fallacy is to believe that the choice to accept or not accept the counsel of prophets is no more than deciding whether to accept good advice and gain its benefits or to stay where we are. But the choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand. That ground becomes more dangerous. The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future. The best time to have decided to help Noah build the ark was the first time he asked. Each time he asked after that, each failure to respond would have lessened sensitivity to the Spirit. And so each time his request would have seemed more foolish, until the rain came. And then it was too late."

Sometimes I get so frustrated with my boys (because Kate doesn't disobey yet) when I ask them to not do something or to do something and they don't listen! Am I any different?

I realize that I need to be better at being quick to obey and not wait for a more convenient time or passing things off rationalizing that they don't apply to me.

I know we have a prophet on the earth today. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet, not just for those people who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but for men, women and children all around the globe. He is God's mouthpiece. As we listen and obey the words of prophets, seers and revelators we will be safe.

Delegating

*Not pictured: Mother locking children outside 6 times in the last two days, 3 year old meltdowns, 29 year old meltdowns, games of keep away, water hoses, puddles, lots of dirty clothes, snacks and more snacks, mother repenting and realizing her spiritual reservoir needs to be a little higher during the months of June, July and August.

TIME

I've been thinking about time lately. Time I waste, time that goes too quickly, time I need more of. This article came just in time. A good reminder for me.

Speaking of time it's 10:22 pm (on a school night) and my children are still awake watching State Fair.
I should probably usher them to bed now.

Cloudy Day Confessions

Confession #1. I don't have 72 hour kits. I need to get ours together soon for peace of mind. What do you put in yours?

Confession #2. I've turned 24 pounds of strawberries into freezer jam and will be doing 16 more pounds tonight even though I see how much sugar goes into it. Wouldn't you if you got them for 62 cents a pound?

Confession #3. I'm more excited for school to be out than my children. You too?

Confession #4. Fathers and Sons weekend is my favorite weekend of the year. Does that make me a bad mom?

Confession #5. I wholeheartedly agree with paragraphs 16 & 17 of this talk. Are we still friends?

Confession #6. I think she's cute. Don't you?

And the winners are

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

16
7

Timestamp: 2008-06-07 06:58:50 UTC

#16 Debsters
#7 Azucar

This was fun! Send me your email addresses and I'll get you started with your relish! subscription. Enjoy!

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I may be generous, but I'm not THAT generous

Oh, What Do You Do In The Summertime?

I think I may be more excited than anyone for school to be out. So, for Family Home Evening we opted to forgo attending the city council meeting [where they discussed throwing up a bridge by our house] and make some plans for summer fun.

First off, we instructed the boys on the inspired wording in The Family: A Proclamation to the World paying special attention to this paragraph:

Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.

I pointed out that it is no coincidence that work is listed before wholesome recreational activities, and we learn that before we can do fun things each day, we need to get our jobs done and then it's fun time.

"BUT," Chandler said "It doesn't make sense to clean clean up our toys if we are just going to mess them up a second later!"

We eventually convinced him of the logic of working before playing, but we shall see if the logic stays with him come June 13th. After all, who wants to work after they've been playing all day? Not me!

After we got all of that cleared up we moved on and made our
"What we will do in the summertime" list of 2008.
Looks like we're going to be busy [after the work is done, of course].
And now by popular demand, a picture of the shave.Since it is summertime, Chandler decided to give his bangs a little trim, Carson followed suit a couple of days later by giving his bangs a BIG trim. I was left with no other option than to shave all 3 with a numero uno just in case Baden decided he needed a trim (we all know it was bound to happen). So here they are with a couple of days growth. At least they are boys.
They said they wanted to look like their dad.

Peonies are my favorite flower.
I thought I'd brag, I mean blog about how pretty mine look this year.
Albeit a little later than they would usually pop out, as beautiful as ever.
However, I'm thinking of changing my favorite flower to something that blooms all summer long.
Zinnias, perhaps?

As I'm typing this I see 2 little boys in the backyard with the hose on. I'd better go check it out. Last week they drilled the hose in the ground 30 feet, so we cut the hose and left it after digging 5 feet to no avail. Boys are the best!