The toddler loves to babble. From an early age he said random full words. Right now, he mostly has a normal toddler vocabulary with little words like ma-ma, bal, and boo(k). But if I listen closely, he will blurt out with an occasional garbled full sentence.

My preschooler has worried me, because he sometimes refuses to talk. I even took him in to get evaluated. He tested just fine, and gradually he has started to talk more. He doesn’t babble, never has. He has frequently said, “I don’t know how to say it.”

Today he come up to me upset. I’m tired of guessing what’s wrong and not allowing him the opportunity to talk. I asked vague questions to try to get him talking. The problem was inside, but not in any specific room. I was greatly confused at this point. He paused and said, “I think it is in my bedroom.” I still had no idea what was wrong. We went to his bedroom where he promptly found the car he had lost.

I realized today I had to self discipline myself with chores. I could probably spend the majority of every day cleaning and gardening. But I really don’t want to. Today I focused on limiting the amount of chores I did to fit within the time frame I had. The garden still has weeds, the house has crumbs, and I have a ton of chores I could do. But nothing is a disaster because I did work at least a bit. Now I have had more time to spend with my children: listening to them read books, playing Frisbee tag (I still don’t understand the rules), and enjoying their smiles.

I live my life, I talk to my friends, I read what others write,
and I know: God is in this world.

He is there to help all of us
even when our struggles last for years.
Or we reach our promised land
and find that life is still hard.
When work overwhelms us,
when joy is slow to find,
when our mistakes plague us,
and we can’t figure it out,
He is still there.

He is there. Always.
He can turn sorrow into joy,
He can make weak things strong,
He can magnify our efforts.

He loves us. He is our Father.
He can be in control of our lives,
and turn hard things into great things.

I have had the same weakness for years, and I have spent a long time trying to overcome it. Lately, I feel like I’m finally at a place where it doesn’t disrupt my life. It’s taken lots of prayer and study and a bit of counseling. And a lot of effort. I still think I will struggle with the same weakness, but I am no longer afraid of it. I have learned much and worked hard to get myself to this point.

I never thought a trial that at first seemed rather simple and easy to overcome would be around for years. At times I was so frustrated that I wasn’t making the progress I wanted.

But God was always there. His timetable is simply very different than my own. I wanted problems gone now. He answered my prayers much slower: sometimes it has taken years. But at the same time, He answered my prayers in a great degree and more beautifully than I imagined.

All the good that I am is because of Him. And I know He can make much more out of my life than I ever could. Lately, I’ve been looking at people I admire and I’ve realized that they did not get to where they where by their own efforts. God led them. He can lead all of us if we let Him.

One thing I’ve been trying to do lately is pick a small extra everyday. This can be deviating from a bad habit, serving someone else, or adding something good to my life. Today I decided to recognize and thank the people that help me. I took a trip to Walmart and noticed about seven times that people helped me out in just little ways. It was rather surprising.

There was also an old man who said hello to me. Which would normally been quite nice, but I was in the bra department, quickly browsing for a much needed new bra. So it was actually rather creepy.

Our total count was 17 different kinds of birds. I didn’t know the names of all of them. Sometimes I just make up names or guess. I once asked, “What’s the name of that yellow headed blackbird?” Turns out I had correctly identified the bird. So red winged blackbird and yellow headed blackbird are pretty easy to remember.  I’m getting better at knowing other types. I can now identify cormorant, avocet and grebes.  I’m pretty sure I saw more than two types of ducks but I only counted two.

The pelicans are my favorite. They are big and pretty chill. We probably got within 50 feet of some.

Here’s another fun picture. It is fun to realize how much my kids have grown up! I think the best part about parenting is seeing children grow and becoming themselves.

I planted potatoes and onions and I have been cleaning up after my kids all this morning, and generally just being a housewife. It isn’t glamorous, but I have started to value the work I do more.

I finished up the rug in the bedroom, and we went ahead and moved the furniture in. It’s still in need of a few finishing touches like a bit of painting and outlet covers, but it is good enough. We just have one bedroom left.

Whenever I leave the room for a moment, my children start getting into trouble. The older one will start fighting and the toddler will do toddler things. I’m glad the marker he used to color the couch is washable.

When I left for Logan, I had three hours to travel, visit three stores, and hopefully still have time to play with the kids at the park.

We made it, plus a stop to the bread store because I have a weak spot for discount snack cakes. I took these last pictures because I remembered this one.

This is at my gardening class I taught at the library.

I made a sticky wall with contact paper and foam shapes. The foam is restickable from the contact paper, and it translated into lots of fun for this toddler.