Block Party. Or Blocks and Partys.

I seem to have a case of writers block. If you can have writers block and not even be a proper writer. Every time I sit down to write a post I get overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, or discouraged, and have a small slew of unpublished posts building up. So I'm going to hit publish today, that is my goal.

This Saturday we're hosting a 4th of July breakfast party. This is the first real party I've hosted in my life, and I'm pretty nervous. I keep thinking through all the steps of each thing I need to make, obsessing over if I've forgotten anything important. I'm sure I will have forgotten something when all is said and done, but I really hope I've remembered enough that things will go smoothly. But I'm determined not to stress about it, and just have fun with it. I will return and report with my notes from what I learned for next year after the party.

The 4th of July has been my favorite holiday for most my life. My memories of the 4th while growing up are filled with hiking, swimming, water fights, bbq's and homemade ice cream. I think the thing that I enjoyed the most about the holiday is it never felt stressful. While I liked Christmas, there was an element of stress surrounding it that I didn't like. The 4th was also full of family time and good food, but without the stress, and it wasn't cold outside, win-win.


Anyway, I don't really have a point to this post, so I'll just say - Here's to a happy stress-free 4th of July :)

Amazing Grace

Last week I was reading the April 2012 Ensign, and there was an article titled "Amazing Grace". In it, the author says "Consider writing in your journal and sharing with your family about times when you have felt the Lord's grace healing, helping, or strengthening you".

When I read that I realized I haven't written down how much I have felt helped this year. I really forgot how hard it is to function on not much sleep, and how time consuming newborns really are. And there have been a few times since Karl has been born that I felt really depressed that I just couldn't do it. But consistently every time I have started the day while reading my scriptures while I'm nursing instead of reading my emails or blogs or whatever, I have been amazed at how well I have been able to cope with how little sleep I've had, and I truly feel it has been because He is helping me do things I could not do alone.

One instance in particular where I powerfully felt that help is while we were in Utah. On the day Erin was getting married,  when Karl woke up at 4:00 to eat, I was reading my scriptures while he nursed. I read some verses about the Lord strengthening the people of Nephi. I thought that there were probably ways I could serve that day, and the Lord could strengthen me too. So instead of going back to sleep I got ready and then when I heard people up and about downstairs I went down and was able to help with a few things down there. It really was more for me then anyone else, but I was so happy to be able to be there as Erin got ready to go to the temple, it was a really awesome sister time. The whole day was long and busy, but I had energy all day long, and although it was hard at time with the boys, we made it, and had a really great day.

So that's my little journal entry of when I've felt His grace strengthening me :)