A tip from the trenches of a large and growing family...

Just one tip today.

Don't worry about socks.
There is no time to match and fold socks and track down socks.
If they care they will go through the basket and find them.

Buy the same color and style for pretty much everyone.
Get them at the Fred Meyer holiday sale on Black Friday for cheap, stuff them in stockings at Christmas and then don't sweat it when you find lonely socks under the trampoline, in the car, corners of the bathrooms, in kitchen cupboards, tangled up in bedsheets, thrown in the trash, fallen behind the washer, stuffed in the storage compartment of the big wheel, buried in the sandbox, falling out of the diaper bag when you just needed the wipes, ... oh, I've gotten carried away.

I only fold socks occasionally for my husband. On his birthday. Because it makes him happy.

Invest in summer flip flops for all the children.
This will increase your level of sanity immensely.

And if you are truly lucky your mom will come over about once a year and help you match all the socks in the towering mis-matched sock box and stock your whole family up on matched pairs for at least three months. And you will love her SO much.

Read this.

Not my words. Hers.

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-devotionals/2016/01/becoming-the-person-you-were-born-to-be?lang=eng

Sister Wendy Nelson hit the nail on the head for me in this address.  I understand that the greatest benefit of suffering is the desperation.  Being desperate leads us to do bigger things, whether they be marvelous or nefarious. In the case of someone with righteous desires the test that brought us the desperation leads us to do and learn marvelous things. I'll be enjoying this talk many times!

How to Pray

How To Pray?
I don't know.

But I'm learning about the process.

First I'm learning that it is nice to pray for what we want. That the Lord will ALWAYS listen to our prayers.  We will often feel peace through prayer no matter what we are asking for, and that He is always there. But, I'm learning that His design is not to give us what we want.

I'm learning that if you want your prayers to be granted that you have to find out what the Lord wants.
How?  You have to ask Him what He wants.
So now I don't pray for things. It's more like a question session.  Kind of like Nephi when he spoke to the angel in his vision and the angel asks if he knows the answers to a lot of different questions.  His response is something like- I do not know all things,  but I DO KNOW that the Lord loves his children.
I find myself declaring the utmost desires of my heart (I want to do the right thing, to follow His plan,  to align my will with His ect...) and then plead for understanding and ability to know what He wants me to do and to want whatever that is.

Sometimes I don't want to pray at all. Sometimes I just have no idea what to say- I mean my heart has a continual prayer in it, a pleading cry for help and mercy and strength and everything else that we need on a daily basis... but He already knows that. He knows the thoughts of my heart.  So what is there to say?

 I just make myself get down on my knees and then say something like "I don't know what to say. But I know thou lovest me. Help me please."

It is miraculous how the right things to pray for come to my mind. And I feel good about asking for those things because I feel they were impressions put there by Him in the first place! I am much more confident that the things I am asking for will be granted because I am starting to understand as they come out of my mouth what the Lord's plan is for me.

His design is not to give us what we want.  It is to give us something better.
Having faith in the "better" that I cannot yet see is the great challenge.

Time Flies.

Time. Flies.

I feel like an old person when I say that but I can't believe how true it is.  The older I get the faster it flies (unless I am in the last month of pregnancy when it slows down to approximately the same rate as it did when I waited for Christmas as a child.) My kids are aging faster, the holidays cycle sooner and the seasons I love never last long enough.

Some things that have happened since our sweet Canon came into the world-

We have watched him grow and get deliciously chubby.

We enjoyed another year in Boise with our family nearby. Lots of get-togethers, easy summer evenings over bonfires, family firesides and watermelon.

I started medication, started feeling a LOT better and in general began to feel like a person again.

We experienced a huge change in employment. This was a really long story but didn't necessarily turn out to be a good thing. And we began to feel tested in different ways.

Also I stopped homeschooling any of the kiddos and everyone started public school. After a lot of prayer we felt there were lessons to be learned for all of us from this experience. Looking back it was exactly what was needed- a change of pace, more routine and a chance to experience new forms of life lessons.  The schools were good and wholesome- our dinner discussions were different but still as rich. We were blessed with wonderful teachers.

I felt the nagging of another soul waiting to join our family. I didn't want to be pregnant again. I also knew that this feeling wasn't going to go away. Also, it was thrilling to think of another new person being part of us. Also I new our family wasn't complete. Also Sean knew it. Also- this was going to take a big big big deep breath.
Also we found out we were expecting right around Halloween.

We had an amazing Christmas!

Then we had another change in employment. I turns out we were getting too comfortable in our home town and it was time for an adventure. We took some more deep deep breaths and moved to Nevada for the new job opportunity. (This was a very hard move.  We left a huge bunch of people we loved and an amazing ward. We cried. A lot.)

And we found adventure all along the way.  This is easy to do when a simple thing like pine-cones-as-large-as-your-head elicit this kind of reaction.

We celebrated this guy's first birthday.

Even though we have gone through a lot of hard things this last year, my mind is continually brought back to the tender mercies along the way.  This pregnancy has been MUCH easier.

Every day brings with it challenges. It seems like the Lord compensates for so many of them through the delight of children. Granted the challenges are often the young children themselves but then you get that hug or that sloppy kiss or see them knock out their own challenges and balance is restored.

That about catches us up to the present day. See you in the next post.

Worst post ever. Best post ever.

The worst post ever part:

Here are some quick updates to what has happened in our family since my last post about expecting baby #9.

It was the worst pregnancy ever.  Reading back on the post about the announcement I realize that I called that fate out to the universe.  But seriously, it was long and laborious and from the moment the test said positive I had the fire burning in my pelvis and the weight of the world on my joints. My skin was so sensitive to touch, my shoulders ached from sleeping on my side, my back ached from sleeping on my back...  it was impossible.  I gained more wieght than I ever have in a pregnancy before and ended up using a wheelchair to navigate any outings. The last two months I was non-existent at church.  That wore me down in a lot of ways.

Now the best post ever part:

And then... just when I thought this would never end and I couldn't even remember what I was doing it for,  we made it to the temple.  Sean's recommend was expired so he sat in the waiting room for a few ours feeling sheepish-  the session was not very full and I had a front row seat. I tearfully prayed silently- expressing my desire to be the mom I needed to be in spite of these challenges.  I also asked for direction in choosing a name.

I look back on that experience as such a sweet moment of affirmation and peace.  The Lord truly blessed me that day with a vision of who was coming to our home, what we should name him and how he would be a blessing and a light to us as his parents all of our days. I loved my time there but couldn't wait to meet up with Sean again. As I recounted my experience in detail to Him the spirit washed over both of us anew and confirmed the things we were learning to our hearts.  We were amazed to consider the name we were told, to look up its meaning and be awed.

A few weeks later we met this mighty soul for the first time.

All is well in the world.