Month of LUV.....

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!

 I also got to DJ three dances this month!  What other 44 year old "Mormon Mommy" gets to Dee Jay a big youth crowd and get them going?  And later an 80's dance and then an Adult Valentine's dance.  Who gets to do that?  My life is so freakin' awesome!! 

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