Tomas Turns Three

Tomas' birthday was on Friday and what a wonderful day it was!

The day found us camping near Panguitch Lake where Tomy got to spend the morning adventuring with cousins, riding 4-wheelers, and fixing the "brokden" Jeep.


Naptime magically transported us from the mountain to our home so we could be with Daddy. Daddy took us to BK where Tomy got a kids meal with TWO orders of CHICKEN NUGGETS! After dinner we went to Grandma & Grandpa Stratton's house to ride the tractor and visit.



At the last minute, Mommy and Daddy got called to help clean the temple, so Tomy got to stay up late watching his recent favorite - Brer Rabbit. All the excitement made for a difficult Independence Day morning - but he managed to have a good holiday too, but that's a different post.

proud to be an american!

At church on Sunday, someone brought up the idea that even though we're not supposed to be proud, she was proud to be an American. Someone else then suggested that instead of being proud we should be grateful. What a great insight! Surely the word pride denotes and connotes a number of things other than a sinful type of pride, but I feel that I personally have little right to be proud to be an American. I have done little, besides being birthed in the USA, to merit such a feeling of superiority or achievement, especially compared to the many other people who have worked and fought to create and preserve this nation.

So today I wholeheartedly say I am THANKFUL! I am thankful to be born a citizen of the United States of America with all the freedoms, opportunities, rights, privileges, and comforts said citizenship affords. I am thankful for the people who served and now serve this country - whether it be in the armed forces, the government, or public works. I am thankful to my ancestors for coming to this land and building a precious heritage of faith and freedom. I am thankful for God's sustaining and sanctifying hand (even if some citizens try to brush that hand aside.) And lastly, I am thankful to be able to raise my children in this beautiful and bounteous home of the free and the brave.

How much better our lovely country would be if its people could all be a little less proud and a little more grateful!

PS Another personal insight I gathered on Sunday is that many of our country's patriotic hymns are fundamentally prayers asking for God's grace, protection, etc. Just check out the lyrics to America the Beautiful.

needless and much needed

Levi took me to Transformers 2 on Saturday. I was a little hesitant due to Transformer 1's unpleasant and unnecessary use of sexual not-even-innuendo, but for a date with Levi (who LOVES Transformers) I'd put up with a lot. And put up with a lot, I surely did! The first half of the show was just a vulgar waste of time! Take the first movie's level of inappropriateness and times it by twenty and you get the picture. It disappoints me that this movie, that has males of all ages as its main audience, is so pointlessly crude and that the majority of the crudeness comes from the mother. You would have never seen such vulgarity on the original Transformers - it has nothing to do with the plot. Argh! It's just another of Hollywood's efforts to attract a bigger audience at the cost of further demoralizing the public. If it wasn't for the very pleasant opportunity to hold Levi's hand for 2.5 hours, I'd say it was a major waste of time and resources.

On the flipside, I am so grateful for a sweet friend who volunteered to watch the little ones while I scrubbed my walls and cupboards today! What a delight! The children were well-cared for and enjoyed their time playing. I, with Levi's help, accomplished a large chunk of a much needed project that I've wanted to tackle for a long (I'll not mention just how long!) time. We all returned happily uplifted and rejuvinated to enjoy time together in a cleaner home. *contented sigh*

success!

You know you've had a successful day parenting when the children fall asleep as soon as their heads land on the pillow from the sheer exhaustion of a day spent at play. No fighting, no stress - just a story, scriptures, prayer, and GOODNIGHT. :o)

I feel so content, I'm not even going to dissect my initial run-on sentence. Here's hoping you have a goodnight too. Oh those su-ummer nights!