Sunday January 24, 2010

I've been putting off starting this daily journal for far too long.  I've decided to finally get serious about doing my Personal Progress and one of the requirements of that program is to keep a personal journal.  And since I like to live my life with exact obedience (to the best of my abilities) I decided to get with it with my journal.  So here we go.  Today was a pretty great Sabbath day.  I started off pretty slow but got moving pretty fast as soon as I woke up and we actually made it to church on time.  Wahoo!  Miracles really can happen.  Robert had to give a talk today so that was good motivation for us to get there on time.  It was so nice to be able to be there as a whole family for the Sacrament.  I'm so grateful to be able to take the Sacrament and repent and renew my covenants.  I sat in front of the Orzel girls and they were quick to take my kids.  I love it.  I love those girls!  Joaquin however was not in the mood for anyone but me.  And he was pretty antsy so I ended up standing most of the time with him by the door and Baily sat with the girls most of the time.  Robert gave a wonderful talk about repentance.  My love for him grew even more.  Oh how I love that man!  I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father for my children.  So very blessed.  After Sacrament Sis. Kilby from the ward told me to tell Robert, in case she didn't get the chance, that he gave a wonderful talk and then she expressed to me what a beautiful family we are.  It made me feel so good and I appreciated that comment so much!  I continued to get comments on his talk throughout the rest of church.  After church we just came home and relaxed a bit and had a frozen pizza for lunch.  I was so tempted to stop by the store or to get some soda at the gas station but I was strengthened and able to overcome that temptation.  So far we have been able to keep our goals this year of keeping the Sabbath Day holy, paying a full tithing and fast offering and it feels so great to be keeping those commandments.  Later on our Home Teacher, Brother Johnson, came by for a visit.  It was a nice chat and he gave a nice lesson.  He's a good man and I so appreciate his efforts and taking the time to watch over our family.  I love the gospel!  After he left we rushed to get dinner ready and while it was being finished Dad and Patty came over for Sunday Dinner.  I love that we are having Sunday family dinners together now.  It's awesome.  Jensen and Eyan stayed home but that's ok.  It was nice to have them be able to give a lot of attention to the kids.  We had one of my very favorite meals- baked potato soup and homemade garlic parmesan breadsticks.  It was so good.  After dinner we had some nice conversation and then they went home.  I realized I had a TON of extra food and decided it would be nice to give to someone.  I immediately thought of my friend Britney and even though she had already eaten she said she would gladly accept some food.  Then I thought of my neighbor Jessica who I used to work with.  She's going through a divorce right now and I've been trying to find a way to reach out to her in some way and giving her a meal turned out being the way I could reach out to her for today.  When I took it to her she seemed pretty out of it but she was grateful for the food and I was glad I could do something small to help.  She's a sweet girl and my heart hurts for her and her family- especially her kids.  It makes me even more grateful for my wonderful husband and for the gospel.  I will definitely be looking for more ways and listening for promptings in any way I can help her.  After I delivered her meal and chatted for a quick minute I took Britney her meal and was able to chat for a quick minute with her.  I'm so grateful to have crossed paths with Britney.  She is becoming one of my dearest friend and I just feel such a strong connection to her.  She's awesome.  She's going through some hard stuff right now and I just pray that she'll get through it and find the comfort she needs.  She deserves all the happiness she can get.  She also gave me some cute, cute earrings (she's a Lia Sophia consultant) that I love!  After I got home I did some major scripture study.  I got to read 2 Nephi 9 which I call a power chapter and it was awesome.  Then I got to read Exodus 7-9 and it's just getting into the story of Moses and the plagues of Egypt. It's so interesting and I'm really loving reading the Old Testament so far this year.  I was a little intimidated by it and thought it would be too hard to read and boring and tedious but I was wrong.  I'm loving it.  Then I read 4 great talks from the past General Conference which I always love.  Then I did a lot of organizing and planned out my Personal Progress goals all the way through the year and until I plan to finish which will be March 6 of next year.  I'm so excited to be doing this.  I also got my day and week planned and re-organized my daily routine now that Robert's switched to day schedule and hopefully it's also a little more realistic.  My mantra and theme for this year for myself is progress, not perfection.  So I'm trying to focus on planning things realistically instead of perfectly in a way I might not be able to do.  And I can already sense a lot of progress and growth on my part from having this mindset.  I'm excited for this next week and hope it will be productive.  I'm looking forward to my run tomorrow and getting back on to my healthy diet.  I plan to kick up my strictness on my nutrition and really start working on seeing big results physically.  And I'm also focusing a lot on finding a job.  This is so hard for me.  I really hope I can find some kids to care for to provide enough income so we won't have to move to a small apartment or for me to work outside of the home and have to get childcare.  That's my hope and what I will be praying very hard for.  I'm glad I just realized that right now- that having childcare in my home is what I want to do.  I feel good about it.  And so I will pray about it and have faith.  I am so blessed!