Well, it is the
month of Valentine's and thus LOVE, right?
Have you shown love
to yourself this month? Have you built
yourself up, forgiven yourself for mistakes you've made, and been kind to
yourself? Have you given out love and
then felt empty inside?
I dunno why I'm
asking that. Maybe sometimes we as women
and mothers, think so much of others and our family and those who rely on us
that I wonder if we forget to be nice to ourselves. Brent is always telling me to be nice to
myself.
For Valentine's
this year, Brent got me my DJ mug, and a little stuffed Spidy to
"protect" me, and some cute toys and nice card. I
wasn't even expecting anything this year, but he still got me
something! That's my man. He's cool like dat!
It's been and ON
and OFF month with our eating. Part of
this is because other things have just taken precedence over preparing our
meals. It's a season of my life that is different than I expected, but it's still good.
My kids are older and they all have such unique needs. My oldest two cannot drive yet one has a job
several miles away. My daughter sliced
her thumb nearly off at school and had to have surgery to reattach everything
inside. My other daughter got asked to
her first Prom. My youngest was sick for
a week and is way behind in school.
There are so many busy-needs with all my kids and I am also very
involved in church work. I am learning
what I make a priority and what I do not.
Like housework is not a huge priority unless we're having someone over
for dinner. And that is when I actually
make dinner!
I cannot allow
myself to get on myself for every failing I think I have or do, because then I
would feel like I'm failing at everything and I'd want to just give up on
everything. The old Margene used to do
that… just sink down into depression and hating myself and marinate in
self-doubt. Sometimes that old
"lure" tugs at me, especially when there is so much adversity. But dang, I've come a LONG way. Not in just losing weight but in the kind of
person I use to be to how I am now!
Brent and I decided
today to make a huge deal over every little thing… a positive deal. So we exaggerate our excitement and just exaggerate
our happiness and complimenting everything.
It's actually been fun! I called
him on the cell phone while I was at the grocery store and was SO excited he answered
the phone and thanked him, and he was thanking me and we were lavishing over
everything and then he says "Hey, it's our one minute anniversary on the
phone, YAY!" It was so over-the-top
that is was fun and we continued later on at home. Hugging and smiling and being so sappy happy! We're weird but we like to be weird! Maybe exaggerating the littlest of
positivness is WAY better than sighing about the stresses of the day. That just gets old, ya know?
Life is GOOD. It's MORE than good, it's AWESOME!!!
This month, I got
to go to my first JAZZ game for a GNO!! And guess
who they were playing? The Portland
Trail Blazers (significant since I lived near Portland for 14 years!) How epic is that? After the game we went and saw "Warm Bodies" which was fun to laugh at... a great "B" movie!
For those who have
read my blog for a while, you may remember the church women's "Beach
Retreat" I went on every year in Oregon.
Now, just next week, I've organized a women's "Mountain Retreat"
for here in Utah!! I am SO excited for
this opportunity to share such an event with my new church family here! We have some very cool things planned and I
hope it all goes well.
One miracle to
share:
A couple weeks ago,
my daughters got sick and were throwing up.
Then a day or two later, both my sons and Brent were all sick and also
throwing up. My oldest daughter felt
well enough to go to school. It was that
morning where I woke up with all the same symptoms as my family - who were all
sick now and vomiting. So I layed in
bed and slept until noon, but I made myself get up because I had to pick up my
daughter from school so she could babysit for our neighbor. As I did, I didn't feel so bad. As I drove to pick her up (her school is like
30 minutes away), I learned about her thumb getting cut. So I ended up taking her to the emergency room
at the hospital and was there for that traumatic experience and to help calm
her. Later that day there were several
other church-related needs I took care of.
That night I realized that I had started out SICK that day! I had every same symptom as the rest of my
family. I KNOW it was Heavenly Father
that took that from me, he made me "whole" so I could be there for my
daughter and be there for those that needed me that day. No one else would have been able to pick her
up or take her to the hospital. I
consider that a miracle. I know HE did
that for me. I never did get
sick!!! How totally blessed am I?
There you have
it:
Be NICE to yourself.
Notice how God is
intervening in your life and helping you.
It's not always how
you may expect, but He is there!
You can move a
mountain, one handful at a time.
Much Love XooXXoo
~Margene
