We went on a small hike in the hills above our house.
I love this picture. I look good. No one else does.
PB doesn’t hate school anymore. C is almost potty trained. And H actually slept through the night last night. There is nothing to complain about in life really. Hey, I even lost 20 pounds without trying. (I actually didn’t think I needed to lose weight. It just kinda happened, I think mostly because I like to exercise and eat healthy.)
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I cannot say with absolute certainly that I know the church is true. I doubt I ever will. My faith is based on intangible proof. All faith is, that is why it is faith. I do have had experiences, feelings, and life that has led me to believe it is true and the right church for me.
My faith is not infallible. A while ago, I stumbled across some information that really made me question my faith. In just moments a lifetime of belief can be brought into question and even discarded. It was a little scary for me. And it led me to a lot of soul searching.
I remembered watching Life of Pi. At the end, what I took out of it, is that we are free to choose our beliefs. And life is better with God. Do we want stories of animals, tigers, and surprising adventure or stories of death and hardship?
I can choose what I believe. There is always evidence for both sides in matters of faith. I looked at the evidence before me, and realized I didn’t care about it. I wanted to believe in the faith I grew up with. I felt like all my faith had been taken away, and all I had left was a little kernel, just a simple desire that I wanted it to be true.
I wondered if that was enough. Do I need a strong, firm testimony, or is it enough to simply want to believe? The answer came in the following weeks as the faith I had developed in my life was restored, I had questions answered, and other questions that no longer mattered as much. My little seed of faith grew. It did not stay small for long. It was enough to simply want to believe, but God does not let faith stay that small for long.
There is still so much out that that could make me question again. I don’t care about it much anymore. I choose to believe, to have faith regardless of what is out there. Faith is not a matter of finding out what is 100% correct, but choosing that path that has God in it. When my life has God, it can be hard, but it is always beautiful.
Further Reading:
We went up to the American West Heritage Center to the corn maze. They had a map. It was more fun. I would rather follow a map than get lost. It is also a huge bonus when you child has a potty emergency and needs to get out ASAP. We picked this corn maze over others because it had more activities as well. Curtis was in heaven on the train ride.
Pumpkin carving was memorable. Just as we were about five minutes in, Joe sliced his thumb and had to go get stitches. I was trying to help Joe out, Henry decided he needed milk right then and was sobbing. The kids were blissfully undisturbed and continued to paint their pumpkins. Luckily, Joe could drive himself so he went, I stayed and finished up the pumpkins and everything was fine. Except for Joe’s thumb, but it is almost better.
We had so much candy for Halloween. Peter’s opportunities for candy were huge. We had trick or treat at the nursing home, he had a school party and a party at the library, then the school carnival, trunk-or-treat at the church and finally regular trick or treating Halloween night. How about we limit candy to just regular old trick-or-treat and hand out stickers everywhere else? Curtis is apparently sensitive to eating too many sweets and ended up sick a couple of days.
I wish I could have convinced Peter to be a minion as well (he even had a yellow shirt and overalls), but it was not to be. He was Robin, using the same superhero costumes that we have use for Halloween for four years. It was a bit small this year, gladly, so he’ll have to do something else next Halloween. He did take his stuffed batman he got from Grandma for his birthday, which made the costume cuter. Curtis and Henry were minions, which is the easiest costume ever. Yellow shirt, overalls, some type of goggles. Well, Henry skipped the goggles part.
He had fun. The Sunday before we had a party with Joe’s family. It was a just because party, but Peter thought it was for his birthday. On his birthday we went down to Grandma’s (my mom) and visited with cousins, went to a small amusement park there, and ate pizza and cake.
He didn’t get a lot of presents. Minecraft (which was inexpensive, but now takes up much of his and his dad’s time), a couple of toys. He didn’t care he was just excited it was his birthday.
We went out to Denver in October. It was a bit of a risky vacation weather wise, but we ended up with weather in the 80’s.
It took forever to drive out there. Baby H hates the car now. He screamed for a good portion of the trip.
Our first day of sightseeing we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens (for a little over an hour, but I could have spend tons more time there, just not with kids), the Denver Zoo (for four hours), and the Museum of Nature and Science (for two hours, but we needed more time). It was too much in a day! We were very tired walking around the large zoo, and ran out of time at the Museum. But we loved everywhere we went, and with the amount of time we had I wouldn’t have changed it much. (Also, we used this pass which made it rather inexpensive.)
The next day we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. It ranks low on my list of National Parks. Pretty good hiking, but the trails are crowded because we took the short easy ones, and it’s a national park. It is gorgeous, but one of the reasons I like to hike is for solitude. People taking selfies around you isn’t exactly solitude. There was also a pretty cool herd of elk there, that you can get pretty close to. We choose not to drive around the park either (see above), so we missed out a bit on that.
Final day in Denver was a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion. It was a zoo for invertebrates, very fun if you are into that sort of thing. (I did take entomology in college and might have been teaching a tidbit I actually remembered to a tour guide.)
I came across this quote in a book I read, and it really made me stop and think.
I will finish by leaving you with a word that I would like to see totally expunged from the English language. Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest you let fun out of your lives? For it is, brothers and sisters, a mongrel word, an ersatz word, a fast-food bucket of a word! What does it mean? Consider the shameful usage: “I was doing it for a bit of fun,” or “I thought it would be fun,” or “I was only having fun” and, worst of all, the little bit of white on the top of this chicken dropping, “Are we having fun yet?”
Why have fun when you could have enjoyment, amusement, entertainment, diversion, relaxation, sport, a bit of a lark, and satisfaction and probably contentment.
Fun pretends to be about enjoyment, but is merely about the attempt. In search of fun, people pull themselves towards places that advertise fun, but they are probably to be avoided, since, in my recollection, fun means trudging around a soaking wet seaside town wearing plastic raincoats that, no matter what you do, always smell of fish. All right, maybe I’m only having fun with you? –Terry Prattchet, A Slip of the Keyboard
Lately, I’ve been trying to stop asking myself and others if we are having “fun” and instead asking if I am enjoying myself, if I am happy, content, or relaxed. So, randomly doing things in front of a screen might be “fun” but I’m not really enjoying myself. Trying to have a “fun” bike ride isn’t relaxing when oldest son hates riding bikes. Looking for fun gets me nowhere. But looking for happiness and joy can. Sometimes it comes at random times…watching my children wander around the garden and bring me strawberries. Getting the biggest hugs picking up my son from school. Finishing a big project, eating pumpkin chocolate chip bread with my family, making a surprise birthday present. None of these things are really “fun” but they brought me more joy.
(I know one of my categories is fun, and it’s on the tagline of this blog. But I’ve got a nice alliteration going, so it’s staying.)
Switching gears, we had that big deal about the moon a while ago. It was disappointingly cloudy, and these pictures were as good as it got for us. I still enjoyed trying to see it with the boys, and there was a slim time when you could see a tiny bit so I was happy we did.
I was in the parade with the Community Garden float. Which, by the way, won an award. My niece was up to visit and got to to ride the float.
Exhausted afterwards, I stayed home with napping baby while Joe took the kids to the carnival rides and car show. I was okay with that. There is only so much crowded events I can take. But the kids adored it of course.
I’m tired and grumpy today. But I still want to be semi-productive, so here’s a photo dump of Instagram pictures.
We had cousins in town who loved trains, and our weekend with them was spent with trains.
First we went out to Golden Spike National Historic Site. It’s been a couple of years since we went out there. The kids liked it a lot. I was a bit bored, still remembered it all from last time. This time we did also stop by the ATK rocket display. It was a just a smallish display of rocket pieces, but worth stopping by if you are going that far west.
(Here’s a comparison picture.)
On Labor Day we went on the Heber Valley Railroad. There were some violinists on the train, and Peter followed them around the train listening. He loves music.
PB went to his first day of kindergarten today. When I took him in to do his kindergarten assessment, he was determined to be the best in kindergarten and is very excited. He tries so hard, I think he just might be the best. Other and I have just called him “smart”, but he is smart for a reason. Last night he spent a half hour trying to learn how to tie a shoe in one sitting, and wouldn’t quit until he felt he could do it. He didn’t really get it (I don’t think it’s something you can learn in just one sitting when you are only 5), but he tried so hard until he felt like he could do it. I’ve learned teaching that kid that he will get frustrated, be loud and cry, but he doesn’t want to stop. He wants to keep trying until he knows he can do it.
C arranged a bunch of letters in a line and told me it was a coconut tree. (If you don’t understand that you don’t read enough children’s literature.) We keep finding random caches of stuff like a few Legos, game pieces, balls and actions figures in a Halloween pumpkin–it’s little C. He loves to take all the pillows (in the living room there are nine) and pile them all up someone. He likes being comfy.
Baby H has started to talk. And he says crazy things like “outside” and “applesauce.” His only consistent words are yes, mama and dada, but he has a bunch of others he will say if you listen. My favorite is “love you.” He also claps his hands when he is happy and waves goodbye.
Liz Braithwaite 