When you Forget, I'll remind you

"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them. . ."

-2 Peter 1: 12

Reminder #1:

I'm not proud to admit that I've been subtly, but constantly, complaining that only having one washer and dryer wasn't enough for our large family.  I was frustrated that every time (every single time) I would go to put in a load of laundry, someone else's clothes were already in.

As always, whenever I  get proud and forget to count my blessings, the Lord is always there to help me remember.

A couple weeks ago, after finally beating everyone to the washing machine, I put my wet clothes into the dryer. I hit the button to start the cycle, but nothing happened. 

NOoooo!

It was broken! I immediately called my repair man (aka, my husband, Clint).  He diagnosed it with a blown motherboard (dang technology!), everything else is fine, but the computer just can't tell it to go.

UGH!

The kicker is that a new motherboard is almost as much as a new dryer, which we don't have the money for right at the moment - so. . . .

the air-hockey table and every chair we can spare has become our new "dryer".

(With the exception of that one time I almost got mugged at the Laundromat.)

And just in case you don't know -Air drying just doesn't dry the same way a dryer does.  No matter how much fabric softener you add, your clothes are still rough.

(The kids are loving wearing scratchy, crusty underwear. - I'm being sarcastic here peeps.)

and it takes about a day and a half for a pair of jeans to dry. You really have to plan ahead.

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The Lord is quick to chastise us and to remind us. 

I can just imagine the Lord saying:

"Oh she thinks she's got it bad with just one washer and dryer, let's see how she does with only a washer and NO dryer.  Maybe then she'll humble herself and be grateful for all that she has."

Reminder #2

Apparently I didn't learn my lesson with Reminder #1.

Last night I was complaining to myself about a part of my body that I hate-

my teeth.

We had just taken a family picture and sure enough, my eye was drawn to my teeth. I was moping around all night, silently criticizing myself for having such ugly teeth.

(Don't Judge. I know it's petty)

Guess how the Lord reminded me this time?

Last night in the middle of my moping, #6 slipped and fell in her feety pajamas while holding a marker. 

The marker hit her front teeth and chipped them like a professional hockey player.

As I was holding and comforting my poor little girl, the Spirit whispered to me:

"Be grateful for the teeth you've been blessed with, it could be worse."

Reminder #3 & 4

Then to make sure He really drove the point home, first this quote showed up in my insta-feed this morning.

"Be Grateful in time of Distress"

And if that wasn't enough of a reminder, in my scripture study this morning, I was reading in 1 Nephi 18 where Nephi's brothers tied him up on the ship for 4 days.  In verse 16 Nephi says, "Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions."

The Lord is so good to us. When we're quick to forget, and we start to murmur and complain, He will remind us of just how blessed we really are.

It is up to us to trust Him, heed his reminders, and make the necessary changes in our attitude and behavior.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him."

-Psalms 34:8

Lesson Learned

Last night we had to run a quick errand to the store.  I stepped out of the car and waited for the two littles to get out and join me.  Parked next to us was an old rusted run down car, windows cracked. On the passenger side of this car was a man, probably in his mid 20's.  He was not well groomed, and looked - well, scary- for lack of a better word.  He spotted my girls and said, "Hey do you want a dollar?"  My guard immediately went up. What was he wanting?  What was he trying to do?  It turns out that he had locked his keys in the car and was willing to pay one of my girls to stick their small arm through one of the slightly cracked windows of his car to unlock it.  

I'm ashamed to admit my first thought was to ignore him and keep walking.  Luckily, I'm married to a kind, caring, and very compassionate man who desires to serve others, all others, even the scary ones.  Clint took the girls over by the man, lifted them up, and urged them to stick their arm through the tiny crack to see if they could reach the unlock button.  Each girl tried and tried.  They could fit their arm through up to their elbow, but no matter how much they stretched their fingers they still could not reach the unlock button.  After several minutes and with the help of a pencil I just happened to have in my purse, #5 was able to hit the button and unlock this man's car.  

Once the car was unlocked, he offered the girls $10 dollars for their help (which we did not accept).  He explained that he had asked several others to help him and everyone said they were too busy.  BAM!  Slap to the face!  I was so ashamed that I had almost done the same thing.  I almost let my prejudice and judgement prevent us from an awesome experience.  Lesson Learned.

READ THIS!

Family Reunion- Day 2

Day 1 HERE

 Our second and last day of our family get-together at HVC, we spent several hours straining our brains, and our bodies on what the camp calls the "low course".  The low course has 5 challenges.  Each challenge has a life/gospel lesson that it teaches.

 The first challenge we did was called the Giant Spider Web.  Each person from our group had to make it through the web without touching it.  Once someone went through or attempted to go through a hole of the web, that hole was then off-limits.

Here #2 is about to get thrown over the top hole, cheerleader-style.

Don't worry she made it just fine.

 There was also some belly-crawling, army-style. 

 Even Grandma participated.

For some reason this made Grandma get the uncontrollable giggles (she does this a lot) which made everyone laugh too.

 Since Clint was the last one and had no one to help him through, he thought he would be Superman and fly through that tiny hole right there in the center.

 FAIL!!!  Thanks for Playing.

He might have missed, but it sure was entertaining to watch.

 He ended up crawling through.

The lesson behind this challenge is that Satan tries to trap us in the web of lies he has spun, and just like we had helpers to help us through the Giant Web, we too have helpers to help us navigate around Satan's web- parents, leaders, good friends, family, etc

 The next challenge was called Shark Island.

Where Clint was standing was the ship and that little black patch over on the right of the photo was the island.  In the middle was shark infested ocean.  Out in the middle of the shark infested ocean was a rope that would carry us to safety.  First we had to find a way to get the rope without leaving the boat, and then we had to get each member of our group safely over to Shark Island.

Luckily 3 of us were wearing belts so we combined them all together to make an Indiana Jones rope. 

I can just here the theme song right now -Dah-dah-duhhhh, dah-dah duhhh!!

 With Clint's mad Skills, he was able to get the rope.  One by one we sent the kids over.

 HVC is all about safety, so we had several "Spotters" ready to catch those that might need some help.

The lesson this challenge taught was that there are a lot of hungry sharks out there in the world (temptations, addictions, bad friends, etc) waiting to destroy us.  We need to reach out and hold on tight to the rope of the gospel and stay far away from the hungry sharks of the world as we navigate through life.

 This teeter-totter challenge was all about finding balance in our life, literally and figuratively.

 We had to balance our whole group on the teeter-totter, both ends up off the ground, while singing a song.

The last challenge we did, was called The Wall.

 It was a 12 foot wall that everyone in our group had to make it over.  Two people from the group could lean over the top to give everyone a hand up, and  those on the ground could help give everyone a boost (except for the last person who had to rely on making it up far enough to get a hand up from those above).

The lesson:

The Savior is always there with His hands stretched out ready to help pull us up over Life's Walls (difficulties, heartache, etc).  No matter how bad things seem or what we've done, the Savior's Loving arms will always be there ready, waiting, and reaching out for us.  All we have to do is reach for Him.  

Another lesson is that we can also surround ourselves with people who will help boost us up.