for improvement

Mike and I have been terribly inconsistent with our weight training for the past few months, probably because our weight bench is in our unairconditioned Arizona room. But now that the weather is nice again, I have been lifting weights twice a week. I love the way it makes me feel. It is not something I ever thought I would enjoy, and I am grateful that Mike got us started on it a couple of years ago. Now that I think about it, most of our good habits originate with Mike and I am thankful for his constant desire for improvement. He is a problem solver and he is always looking for ways to do things better. I am the total opposite! I would happily practice mediocrity for the rest of my life, and so I am grateful for the way he inspires me to try harder and be better.

(We use the StrongLifts 5x5 app. It is simple and straightforward and only takes about 30 minutes.)

for food I didn't cook

Mike and I are the worst at taking selfies, but I wanted to document our dinner out tonight. I am thankful that Mike and I were able to slip away for an hour and enjoy a meal together, for fish tacos and salty chips, for a few sips of Dr Pepper and a night off of dish duty.

for mike

I've known Mike for more than half my life now (20 years last September!), and I am grateful for him. I am thankful for the friends who inspired him to apply to BYU at the absolute last second, grateful that we kept running into each other at the beginning of our freshman year, and grateful that my sister made me ask him to dance the night we met. I am thankful that he remembered my phone number and called me for a date a few days later, and grateful that he called me again when he got home from his mission, even though I had stopped writing to him. I am grateful for everyday we've spent as husband and wife. Last night, we were talking about how well we know each other now verses when we got married, or even just a few years ago, and the more I know Mike, the more grateful I am for him. He is steady and calm and tender and so funny. He is the best part of my life.

happy weekend

Mike and I have been putting in our winter lawn this week. It is so much work, but it is worth it! Our regular grass (bermuda) goes dormant in the winter and turns brown and scratchy. Winter grass (rye) is lush and dark green and so pretty.

We transplanted some jasmine vines to the side wall of our house last year, but just barely got around to putting up a wire trellis for them. I can't believe the difference it has made! The vines have flourished with the trellis and will soon fill it. There are some gospel parallels here, but I'll let you sort them out on your own.

I hardly ever buy clothes, and especially never shoes, but I bought two new pairs this week! These black sneakers from target are replacing the 15 year old black converse that I've worn into the ground.

Quilting update: I've almost completed 12 blocks. The more I've worked on it, the less wonky my pieces have gotten. I love that it's an ongoing project that I can work on when I have a spare moment. Next I need to decide how to put my blocks together. I like quilts with a lot of white space, so I'm experimenting with different border sizes. It has been so fun.

This weekend is big for us. Tomorrow is the elementary school carnival (I'm the PTO vice president, so I'll be there all day), homecoming for Mabel (She's not old enough to date, so she's going with some friends ... and I couldn't convince her to wear my cute vintage dress. Sigh.), and then Mike is singing in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I love when he sings.

It sort of feels like the world is falling apart, doesn't it? I found this quote from President Uchtdorf to be comforting: "When we embark upon or continue the incredible journey that leads to God, our lives will be better. This does not mean that our lives will be free from sorrow ... No, following the Savior will not remove all of your trials. However, it will remove the barriers between you and the help your Heavenly Father wants to give you. God will be with you. He will direct your steps. He will walk beside you and even carry you when your need is greatest ... The fires and tumults of moral life may threaten and frighten, but those who incline their hearts to God will be encircled by His peace. Their joy will not be diminished. They will not be abandoned or forgotten."

I hope your weekend is a happy one!

charity vs pride

I was studying for my lesson yesterday and came across a talk by President Uchtdorf called "In Praise of Those Who Save." He is referring to those who work to save their marriages and families. I am grateful to have a strong marriage with Mike and a happy family life with our children, but I still found lots of things in his talk that were very helpful.

First, President Uchtdorf says that "strong marriage and family relationships ... require constant, intentional work. The doctrine of eternal families must inspire us to dedicate our best efforts to saving and enriching our marriages and families."

And "no matter how flat your relationship may be at the present, if you keep adding pebbles of kindness, compassion, listening, sacrifice, understanding, and selflessness, eventually a mighty pyramid will begin to grow."

So there is always hope! But adding those pebbles is not easy. It requires us to seek charity. President Uchtdorf says. "Whatever problems your family is facing, whatever you must do to solve them, the beginning and the end of the solution is charity, the pure love of Christ. Without this love, even seemingly perfect families struggle. With it, even families with great challenges succeed."

But sometimes charity is really hard to summon, right? Especially when we are in the middle of an argument. Because "the great enemy of charity is pride. Pride is one of the biggest reasons marriages and families struggle. Pride is short-tempered, unkind, and envious. Pride exaggerates its own strength and ignores the virtues of others. Pride is selfish and easily provoked. Pride assumes evil intent where there is none and hides its own weaknesses behind clever excuses. Pride is cynical, pessimistic, angry, and impatient. Indeed, if charity is the pure love of Christ, then pride is the defining characteristic of Satan. Pride my be a common human failing. But it is not part of our spiritual heritage."

When I read that last paragraph, I realized that when Mike and I have a hard day together, it is almost always because of pride. When we are able to overcome a difficulty together, it is because one of us offered the other charity. So here's to charity! And to offering the people who mean the most to us the best of us.


Have a good week! My kids are scrubbing the basement clean of the filth of summer today. :) I'm not particularly looking forward to the start of the school year, but I am looking forward to having a clean house again.

happy weekend

I love summer. I love not having a schedule to keep. I love our slow mornings. I love not making dinner (cereal for dinner forever!). I love telling my kids when I tuck them in at night that they can read as late as they'd like.

On non-school nights, Elliot and Mabel switch beds so that she and Oliver can stay up late together talking. I hope they are always such good friends! It has tightened the bond between Stella and Elliot, too. This means that all summer long, Elliot is in Mabel's bed, and she is in his. Sometimes I wonder if they should just switch permanently, but I don't want to redecorate. :)

We are anxiously awaiting Mike's return for Father's Day this weekend. He has been away working as the cook for our ward's young men campout this week and we miss him (and Oliver, too). I loved this instagram about fathers from the LDS church that I saw this morning. My favorite part was when the dad said, "We fall short. We second-guess. We struggle. We hurt. We mess up. But, here's the real truth: We love. We cherish. We honor. We care. Not because we made ourselves that way, but because we have inherited our best traits and our greatest characteristics from the Father of us all."

Sometimes I think dads get a bad rap, but they are so important! And I know they try harder than we give them credit for.

I am feeling extra grateful for my own dad today--for his constant support and unconditional love. He has always wanted the best for his children and moved heaven and earth to get it for them. And I'm thankful for Mike, too, who takes his role as father so seriously. We'd be lost without his inspiration and direction and support.

Let's give our dads a big squeeze this weekend, if we can. Have a good one!

a habit shift

We spent yesterday cleaning out our garage and shed. Why we chose to do that when it was 107 degrees outside, I don't know. But when the urge to purge hits, you have to follow through. That's what I've learned, anyway.

Our goal was to make room in the garage for our bikes. Because all of a sudden it feels like we have a million bikes!

Another thing I love about Mike is that when he decides to do something, HE DOES IT. An example: We have decided that if possible, we will ride our bikes instead of driving our car. Luckily we live where it is very flat (it's not called Mesa for nothing), and most of our life happens within a very small radius of our home. This is something I happily support. But Mike didn't stop there. No, he went above and beyond, like he always does, and found us electric bikes!

Oh man, they are a major game changer. Once you start pedaling, the little electric motor kicks in to assist. Every bike ride becomes a leisurely bike ride, even though you are zooming down the road. (Since our children don't have electric bikes, we kept our old bikes for family bike rides. Thus, the million bikes now crowding our garage.) The electric bikes make his commute to work and school, date night, and trips to the store so much more fun.

Sometimes it is hard to shift our habits. It takes effort to think about jumping on my bike to run an errand instead of jumping in the car. It takes some planning, too. That quick trip to the store might not happen, but maybe that's ok? Maybe it can wait. And sometimes habit shifts require going against the norm a little bit. My gut tells me that this shift is a good one, odd as it may seem to others. I've noticed that when I get home from a trip on my bike, I am happy. There is something light and peaceful and quiet about it. I am glad that Mike pushed it, and that it fits into our life easily.

(We got Juiced bikes and love them.)

biking to the store

Something I love about Mike is that he always has a new idea. He is constantly trying to improve how we do things around here. He'll research all the things, weigh the options, and then move forward. I am more apt to keep things the same, even if they aren't working terribly well. For instance: I've been riding my bike to the grocery store every week, but I could only fit so much in that teeny basket. I would have kept dangling grocery bags off my handlebars til the end of time, but he ordered a bike trailer. And now I can fit all the groceries! Hooray!

happy weekend

That beautiful new dishwasher right there represents true love. Here's why: Our old dishwasher broke a few months ago, and I have been hand washing our dishes ever since (#firstworldproblems, I know). But because he loves me, Mike took our tax return (the first we've gotten in years!) and bought a new one. Be still my heart! I am trying to retrain myself so that instead of scrubbing all of the dishes in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher like I have always done, I just scrape the food off and put them in unrinsed, as per the dishwasher's instructions. So far so good. We've been living in our house long enough now where we might have to start fixing and replacing things, I guess. I like that settled, long-term feeling.

Our activities are starting to wind down, and it feels great. Slower, less busy days are on the horizon. Mike only has a few days left of his first year of MBA school, and he is definitely due for a break, or in the very least, a nice, long nap. He has worked so hard! But before that happens we have one more baseball game, a few more volleyball matches, two really big choir concerts, and Mike has a few more finals to take.

It's not too hot here yet, so we'll be outside this weekend, trying to get our yard in order before summer hits.

What do you have planned?

happy weekend

It's little league season! Hooray! Elliot and I went out to the park after school yesterday to practice hitting some balls. He was mostly excited about wearing his new baseball socks, but he did manage to hit two balls out of the park and into our neighbor's yard. It's volleyball season, too, and after a little bit of practice with Stella, she asked if she "could go inside and do [her] homework now." Ha! So maybe volleyball isn't her thing, but she sure has fun with all of the girls on her team.

Here's some good news: Mike placed second in a pitch contest at school! He got a humongous check and everything. He did a great job and I am so proud of his hard work. His winning idea was a mosquito killing fan, so maybe we're getting into the mosquito killing business? I'll keep you posted.

I have a mountain of laundry to catch up on today, and some sewing projects to finish. But then I'll be ready to party. And by party, I mean attend little league and volleyball games. :)

Have a happy weekend!

my Mexico report

Last week, Mike and I were in San Jose del Cabo. To be honest, I didn't really know where we were going, but "Cabo" or Los Cabos is actually made up of five towns on the tip of the Baja peninsula. Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo are two of them.

Our second day there was a Sunday, so we found the local congregation and walked 3 miles through some tough parts of town to get there. Mike and I don't speak Spanish, so we didn't understand the meeting, but it was wonderful just the same.

We split our time between two resorts. The first, Cabo Azul, was incredible.

We alternated between a beach cabana and the serenity pool, napping and reading. It was really nice. Food was not included at this resort, so we made a few trips to the grocery store for drinks and snacks and then Mike would search out delicious local restaurants for our meals. We spent a lot of time walking and riding the Urbano (old school buses repurposed), and ate some really good food. It was so much fun.

Our second resort wasn't quite as nice, but it was all inclusive, so we stuck to the resort more and ate at the restaurant there and drank lots of fun non-alcoholic drinks.

My favorite thing to do was to walk into town. San Jose del Cabo has a pretty, little, and very old downtown full of shops and restaurants. It was a lively place and lots of fun to explore.

All together, we were gone for almost 9 days! That's a long time to be away, and I sort of had a major homesickness breakdown on day 6, but we had a really nice trip. Being away for so long leaves lots of time to think and plan and consider changes that need to be made. I came home ready to get to work.

happy weekend/week

Every year Mike and I go away for a week together without our kids. It is stressful but it is also the best thing ever. Next week is that week! So I've been spending this week getting ready - freezing meals, cleaning house, bathing cats, etc. My mom is coming to take care of our kids and I am so grateful.

I love my life, but I am really looking forward to not thinking about five am wake up calls, carpools, and making dinner. I know Mike is really looking forward to not thinking about school and work. Instead, we'll be sitting on the beach, making plans and setting goals for this next year, and probably doing lots of thinking about nothing, too. I can't wait.

The best part is that I know we will come home refreshed and revived and ready to get back into the thick of it. Do you go away with your spouse without your children? It takes a lot of work, but I am really glad that Mike has made it a priority in our marriage.

Have a good weekend and a great next week!

happy weekend

There were lots of tears at our house this week, as Stella's sweet little gray kitten, Pedro, passed away. I think he'd been sick for a long time, and he just got weaker and weaker and was no longer eating. We buried him underneath our pretty lilac vine and now every year when it blooms, we'll remember him. It was hard watching my kids mourn, but I think it brought us all a little bit closer together, which was a happy blessing.

Mike and I didn't have any big plans for our anniversary yesterday. We lifted weights together and grabbed Cafe Rio for lunch before he went to class. But we're not big celebrators, anyway, so it felt just right. I got him a pretty brass tie bar with M + S engraved on it. He made me ring once, long before we were married (and even before his mission) that had our initials engraved on the inside like that. And then he did the same on my wedding ring, too.

Almost everything I made for dinner this week was a big flop. Some weeks are like that, aren't they? Mabel and I liked this Broccoli and Cheddar Gratin, but we were the only ones who did. Next week I'll save myself some grief and make fish sticks and pancakes every night instead. Ha!

I'm trying to muster up the energy to go for a run this morning. Wish me luck and have a happy weekend!

sweet 16

Today is our 16th anniversary! I've been thinking about how crazy it is to make such a life-determining decision at a young age. Mike and I were only 21 when we married, and somehow we managed to make the very best decision. Well, I know how we did that actually. It was through prayer. I prayed to know if I should marry Mike and the Spirit confirmed to me that it would be a good choice. And boy was it ever! Mike still makes me laugh everyday. I am so proud of how hard he is working at school right now, and so thankful for the happy life he has created for our family for the past 16 years.

a story about a dress

Mabel had a school dance last weekend. It was a "Blast from the Past" theme or something like that, so we pulled this vintage stunner out of the closet. I found this amazing, handmade and very old dress at a thrift store in Salt Lake City, Utah when I was 18 years old. I almost didn't buy it because I don't usually buy things, but my friend convinced me to get it and I am so glad. It fit me like a glove and I wore it to a dance with Mike my first winter at BYU. Funny thing, Mike had moved home after the fall semester, and I thought I was going to the dance with a blind date. But it turned out to be Mike! He had driven all night to surprise me. 

And now, 19 years later, our daughter is wearing the same dress. Life is good like that. She finished her makeup at a friend's house before the dance and had such a good time! And now the dress is back safe and sound in the closet til next time.

shopping days

Mike finished up our Christmas shopping late last night. Even with his busy school schedule, he wanted to do the shopping this year, and I am so grateful. He is much more thoughtful about it than I would be, and I know that because of his efforts, our kids are going to have a really wonderful Christmas. I am thankful that we are able to provide a happy Christmas for our children. I am thankful that Mike is smart with our money and creative with our gifts. And I am really thankful that we don't have to step foot inside another store until next year. That really is the greatest gift of all!

stitches

Tonight I am grateful for the nice men and women who missed their own Thanksgiving dinners to show up for work at the Emergency Room, so that when Elliot gashed his leg open at Nana's house, they were able to clean him up and stitch him up. I am ashamed to admit that when I saw Elliot's wound, I freaked out a little bit. It was so big and gape-y and my brain didn't know how to handle what I was seeing. If you need help in an emergency, find Mike. He's your guy. He was calm and patient and helped Elliot (and me) process what was happening. I am so grateful that he was there with us.

After a few hours at the hospital, a couple of popsicles, and 18 stitches, we were back at Nana's for a second round of pie.

Elliot was a trooper through it all, from the moment he quietly walked in the house with his leg hanging open all the way through to the end of the stitches. What a day! I am feeling extra grateful for my little family and our safety tonight.

I hope your Thanksgiving was less eventful but equally pie-filled. :)

mike

Mike and I spent the whole day together today, which hasn't happened in a long time. We went Christmas shopping and kitten shopping and finished the day with Taco Bell at our kitchen table. (Mike is really good at ordering Taco Bell.) I am grateful for Mike's influence in our home. He is strong where I am weak, and together we make a really great team.

all by myself

When Mike decided to go back to school, I was excited for him. I knew he would learn all sorts of important things and have many new experiences. I knew he would stretch and grow. What I didn't realize is that I would, too. I've always been an independent, do-it-yourself kind of person, but I feel like I have to take it to the next level now that Mike is rarely home. Everything that has to do with running our home and family sits squarely on my shoulders. (Minus the finances. Thankfully, Mike still handles those.) The other day, I changed the tube on Stella's bike all by myself. Yesterday, I even braved Costco alone. Ha! I know this is crazy, but I had never been there without Mike before. Costco trips were always a family affair. But our Costco list was getting longer by the day and Mike's load this quarter isn't letting up, so I bit the bullet and wandered the aisles alone.

Sometimes this feels really hard, but I find that if I decide to be thankful for the opportunity to stretch and grow, it doesn't feel so quite so burdensome. I know life isn't meant to be easy all of the time, and I am grateful for this season in my life where I get to learn how to do some hard things all by myself.


I realize there are many women who are truly mothering alone, whether because of divorce or death or military service, or other reasons. These women are my heroes and they have my deepest respect. I am grateful that Mike comes home from school each day (even if it's after the kids are in bed).

Mike's first day

Today is a big day. Mike went back to school! After thirteen years of being a small business owner, he is getting his MBA. He has always wanted to do this, and the timing finally felt right (even though we feel really old!). Here's a serendipitous coincidence: He decided to apply and was accepted the year ASU's WP Carey School of Business decided to offer full tuition scholarships to every full time student. The competition for admittance was understandably a little more intense because of the scholarship and I am so proud of him for making it (and not one bit surprised). Mike is one of the smartest people I know, and one of the most driven, too. His ability to work hard to achieve his goals is one of his most admirable qualities. I can't wait to hear all about his first day when he gets home tonight!