a thought on the spirit

Last night we had a huge thunder/lightning storm.  It was LOUD and CLOSE and it woke sweet Eden up.  She loves storms, but in the middle of the night this one was even making me nervous.  She needed some added comfort.  Of course, she had decided to sleep on the floor last night, so that meant that I spent the night laying beside her on the floor with my arm around her while we waited out the storm. 

She drifted in and out of sleep and stayed in a light sleep even when the big noises would come as long as I was there with her.  Every few thunders, she would reach her little hand up to my face to make sure I was there.  Her eyes were still closed and she was still half asleep, but if she felt my face, she would drift off to sleep again easily.

I thought a lot about the Holy Ghost as I lay there all night.  Feelings are so important; they are more powerful in lots of ways than sight. And our omnipotent Father sent the Holy Ghost to us because he knows how powerful our feelings are. I thought of my Loving Heavenly Father figuratively laying next to me as I "sleep" through this life.  And He has given me His Spirit to allow me to feel His love and comfort.  When I am wakened in the storms of life, I can keep my eyes closed and reach for that comfort.  And it will be there.  The Spirit is always there, with His hand on my back-although sometimes I don't recognize it until I'm scared and reach out for it.  But because I have the gift of the  Holy Ghost (given to me in conjunction with my Baptismal covenant) I will never be alone as long as I am living worthily.

What a beautiful gift.  What a precious memory I will have now of the night I got very little sleep, but was taught so fully of my Father's love for me. 

If you would like to learn more about this amazing gift from our Loving God, you can follow this link https://www.lds.org/topics/holy-ghost?lang=eng&query=gift+of+the+holy+ghost.  You can also find speeches on the subject and scriptures in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon that teach us about the Spirit by searching for "Holy Ghost" in the search box on lds.org.

Did you forget? I live in a beautiful place.

This post is for those of you who think I'm crazy moving to Clinton.  I'm a girl who grew up in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, moved to Idaho and fell in love with the open fields and non-existent traffic, but still found myself longing to live close to the shopping I needed.  I moved back to Bountiful after Idaho thinking I'd love it again, and realized that my ideals had changed.  Clinton has  provided me with the happy medium I've been craving.  I can get to about 5 of the best stores in less than 5 minutes (and two different major malls within 15 minutes), but I have a duck pond 1 block away and a whole farm country where I can buy fresh corn/peaches/veggies of all sorts right from the farmers 5 minutes the other direction. (Not to mention letting my kids see the hundreds of cows, pigs, and horses that inhabit the fields).  No cars drive down my street, and when I walk in the stillness, I get to see this...

P.S.  In true Becca form, none of these are edited; this is raw beauty folks.

Feast your eyes.  And please understand that I'm a LITTLE obsessed with the sky.  For me it is a symbol of my Heavenly Father and His love for me.  I just can't keep my eyes (and camera) away.  I may or may not be the crazy lady in the Walmart and/or Target parking lot running frantically to my car with my purchases because I just have to grab my camera and take a shot of the sky, light posts and all before it changes.  I may also have been crazy enough a few times to be climbing on top of my car in a dress in said parking lots to get a better shot.  Eden may or may not always be really worried about me being up there and wondering what I'm doing.

                     ^^ These two photos are credited to the Neighborhood Walmart parking lot^^

  Why yes, this horse pasture is 1 block from my house and takes me 7 minutes to walk here with my stroller.  #souljuice

 I love that I changed the settings on my camera with this one to make the horses and clouds darker-to me it only makes the beauty of the sun-burst better.  To me, it signifies that Christ can reach through any darkness I am feeling to light my path.  I love that the rays burst through the darkest of clouds.  I look at this and know that He is aware of me.

           ^^Gazing at serene farms with a beautiful sunburst?  Don't mind if I do.  Once again, about 5 minutes walk from my house.  Ahh, so picturesque.^^  I also love that mountain in the distance with the plateau.  God's creations astound me.

 ^^The Duck pond.  Complete with a perfect reflection of the sky above and beautiful trees.  To both my right and left (not pictured) were old men sitting on coolers fishing.  Seriously.  I live my life in a story book or something.^^

                        This needs no words from me.  It is simply perfection to my heart.

          Maybe it was growing with Anne of Green Gables that has me loving warm, quiet nights with beautiful fields.  But, I also can't give up my mountains.  Serious beauty I tell you.

Well, I warned you.  And just to make you feel better, please know that I only forced you to look at a few of the pictures of sky from my collection.  I hope you all like pictures of sky and kids, because that is really all I love to capture:)

Thanks for taking a stroll with me through my town's skies.  And come and visit, will ya?

on being divergent

I sat rubbing Brighams back while he lay on my chest and suddenly my mind was thinking about how it's funny that people need comfort in different ways.  For my little Brigham, it seemed that out of the womb he was a touch-er.   Even in the hospital, if he was crying, I would simply lay him next to me and rub my finger on his cheek.  He would stop crying immediately.  The nurses were amazed that after getting his shots, I could just reach into the cot and touch his face or his little arm and he would calm right down.  When he was getting all his tests done for his heart those first few months, he was fine and calm as long as Nate or I was touching him while they were occurring.

(These pictures are from last September, but I think they illustrate perfectly the point that I'm making.)

These memories flooding back reminded me of the 5 love languages that Gary Chapman teaches in his books, and it made me really want to read and study about this for my kids.  I've been pretty good at re-evaluating with Nate and trying to make sure I'm showing love in the way that he needs it, but I think my kids need some focus. 

I know that he has a book that is specifically about 5 love languages for kids-but I'm assuming they're pretty close to the normal love languages.

• Physical Touch
• Words of Affirmation
• Quality Time
• Gifts
• Acts of Service

I'm thinking they need some re-working because I'm pretty sure that no child receives love from acts of service since they think the world resolves around them.  Me getting breakfast for the kids is just another thing that "happens" during the day.  Making Eden's bed and surprising her so she doesn't have to do it?  She says thank you (when prompted), but she really doesn't understand that I've done something special for her.

On the other hand, maybe it is their love language, because ALL mothers all over the world spend every moment of the day doing acts of service for their children, and don't all of those children feel loved and cared for?  Hmmm.  Food for thought.

I also feel that for most people they really do need all of these love languages in varying degrees.  For instance, my very least important love language is gifts.  But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate getting some beautiful flowers from Nate.  It just means that to really feel love from him, I need him to spend quality time with me in order for me to see the loving gesture in him giving me flowers.  Let's face it, we are all Divergent

So, I'm not saying that Brigham doesn't need quality time just because I know that physical touch is so important to him.  That helps me, because I'm not sure what Eden's love language is.  I think that words of affirmation are really huge right now (she's also 2, so me saying positive things to her is VITAL!) and quality time is a must for that girl.  Come to think of it-I think quality time is her key.  Even as a tiny baby it wasn't enough for me to be holding her, I needed to be looking at her and talking.  She never did well with playing by herself-she needs my attention (which is sometimes overwhelming and exhausting.) 

This pic is from the exact same day as the ones above as Brigham.  Notice that Eden is clinging to my leg.

Just like Brigham, it's not at all that she doesn't need the other things!  Of course that girl of mine needs hugs and kisses and she loves those-but those don't solve problems for her like they do for Brigham.  Those are the cherries on top. 

Mostly I guess I'm just spilling whatever is flowing into my mind, and I realize that this post is a little all over the place-I just needed to write this down before I forget it all.  Looks like I'm taking a trip to the library soon to pick up that book. 

Vacuum Moments

         Sometimes when I'm vacuuming I realize how precious my kids look while just doing their thing.  Sometimes that makes me stop vacuuming to grab my camera.  I just love the eyelashes on this girl.  I also love that she has orange marker smeared on her cheek.  And that she is SO concentrated trying to pour her popcorn kernels from measuring cup to measuring cup.  I also happen to think her hair is the most beautiful thing in the world.

If only she'd let me comb it without crying...

  Please forgive the blank wall.  I still have absolutely NO pictures up in our bedroom; mostly because I'm going to repaint but I haven't decided on a color yet.  There's a little too much brown going on for my liking:)

But I digress, this post is about my kids being adorable and distracting me from my household chores.  Brigham LOVES the vacuum and is very curious about it, so he follows me around and jumps in front of it to try to look really closely at it.  The makes for a very long chore, so I normally get him distracted with something else while I do it.  Brigs LOVES puzzles and I love when his little chubby legs are crossed.  Makes my heart hurt I love him so much.

 Have I mentioned that he is a total ham?  The second he noticed me with my camera, he had to put on some antics.  Oh, how I love my beautiful babes!