It's a bit of a list...............

I know I've been very M.I.A. as of late. There are a multitude of reason's why I have been. Just so you know I'm not curled up in a ball (Gretchen ;)) I'll share a few of them!

These are not in any particular order...just what comes to mind first.

The teenage years are getting thicker. I've been spending NUMEROUS hours keeping "track" of and having one talk of some sort after another. It's not bad, but exhausting. Keeping a balance is key for these mini adults and letting them make some mistakes and teaching instead of scolding is a tricky business. Time consuming to say the least....it's the first year I've wished for 3 babies in diapers vs. this. (I know...who would have thought!)

Dogs. Bindi is great as always. Chuck is PSYCHOTIC! And the pure definition of A BIG DUMB ANIMAL! I'm a little at wits end with this dog. And you know it's bad when I'LL say that! We are not lazy about our discipline. We are teaching everyone. And yet, he's just a big dumb animal. He'll do something, we discipline him and he looks at us like "what? What did I do?" Time consuming.

Normal life. This just takes up time in general. Getting dinner, scripture study, FHE, cleaning, laundry, cleaning, laundry, exercising, cleaning and some more laundry. Time Consuming.

My callings are a little time consuming as well. I am the assistant cub master (Jason is cub master)...so I basically plan and execute and Jason runs the meeting. Which I'm happy for the trade! It's only once a month, but there's a lot of planning, searching and reading up on for me. I've actually learned to love it....I hope you were sitting down when you read that!

I'm also on the RS activities committee. We just had our biggest even which was a service auction. It was a lot of fun! They've had this annually for many years, so it's a well oiled machine, still takes time though. We did a "progressive dinner" of sorts a month ago and I did it again....volunteered and did my "no worries, I got it" and ended up doing most of it?! I'll learn someday, it's okay. ;)

Then there's all the medical things we deal with. It's gotten better....we aren't doing chemo or making hospital trips....but we are having deal with insurance companies, being forced to set up prescription home delivery and paying for it all at once ($500), it hurts a lot more at once than it does a hundred or so a week. Then there's the Dr. visits to get everyone up to date on shots, getting tested (Ben) and getting Diabetes under control (which isn't yet). Time consuming.

Pathetic huh?! I want everyone reading to know....we aren't that pathetic! We are working at being pro-active. Being Christ centered, which makes everything above not so over whelming. (I re-read it and wow...I could really loose my mind!). I'm also grateful grateful for the things that take up my time but are so blessed.....like......

Jason! He is the best partner I could have to handle all we do. He's great at keeping his cool and keeping mine. He's great at being so supportive of anything I decide to do.

My Kids.....as exhausting as they can be, they give back just as much. They help around the house without whining. They can follow direction. They are sooo willing to do scripture study and FHE, which isn't always the case I'm finding out. They don't talk back and yell at us. They give hugs and lots of compliments, which I get isn't the norm as well. I must have bribed them some how to come to our family. ;)

My Savior. I'm grateful to have the scriptures. I'm grateful for the peace they bring. I'm grateful for the Ensign and the great things that "enlighten" my day to day. I'm grateful for prayer and knowing this life would be VERY lonely with out it.

So that's where I've been. ;) I've loved catching up with you guys when I can on blogs or FB. I'll get this "schedule" under control as well and be back blogging away! Mwhaa to all of you!