Here is the video of my sweet daughter singing for the variety show at her session of EFY.  Just so you know, this is not her best work.  But it is the first time she has sung to such a large audience and in front of her peers, a Capella, without much rehearsal.  And this is the song she was singing when she learned that she really could sing—so it is kind of a special song for her.

You should know the story.  A few years ago, in the sixth grade, Sun decided to sing in her school’s talent show.  She was the final number and she did an amazing job!!  Because she was young and did so well, we found a local singing/theater group here in town and signed her up for a class that did not require an audition.  She was one of the oldest in the class and the teacher told her that she thought she would really enjoy the next session in the class with kids who were more her age.

I wasn’t going to sign her up for that class because it was a really short class and it was during basketball season while our family is totally busy.  Just to keep our schedule somewhat manageable, I thought she could skip a session.  The Spirit prevailed on me and told me that this was really important that she participate in this session.  Fine, I would manage the total chaos of our schedule to add her class to the mix.

 Because it was an in between session and there was no really big show at the end, there were only three kids in the class.  The teacher had ample time to focus on each of those students.  She gave each of them a monologue and helped them to find a solo to work on.  As she picked one for Sun and they were working on it, I piped in and suggested that Sun sing ‘Part of Your World’ from the Little Mermaid because I had heard her sing it at home and I knew how she felt about it.  The teacher readily agreed but said she didn’t have that music.  But Sun had brought it with her!!  (She must have pulled it off the internet when I wasn’t looking).  So they gave it to the accompanist and she started singing.

She was pretty tentative at first but somewhere after the first couple of lines, she got comfortable and really started singing.  The teacher stopped her, and helped her to see how her singing had changed and sent her back to the beginning of the song to sing it that way, which she did.  As her heart came through in her singing and it was beautiful, I just sat there and sobbed and sobbed!!  My little girl had found her voice and her gift!!  I was so happy that she had found a gift of hers that I couldn’t stop crying.  Finally her teacher said, I think we had better sing something else before we do much more to your poor mother.

Anyway, Sun usually hits all the notes and doesn’t miss them, but I think it is a pretty amazing job for the situation and circumstances.  And this is the song where she figured it out!!

PS..let me know if you can’t get this to play.  I can’t seem to make it play in the preview mode and I don’t know if that is because of my super old computer, or because I am in preview mode, or because it really isn’t working.  I guess I will try it tomorrow when it posts.  I really hope it works!!

IF it doesn’t play for you, hit this link and watch it on youtube..

Well, at this point, I am not sure why I am still documenting this.  It is crazy to think that two months have passed and there is still no plan in site to be actually moving.  The job we were looking at has been offered to someone else and they are obviously working out.

I am not sure what the process is all about.  I have learned some significant things.  I finally can ask God for things that I need.  For a long time, I couldn’t.  I just didn’t feel like I could ask.  I am sure it is a product of my upbringing where I didn’t feel like I could ask for things from my parents and if I did, they had serious strings attached.  But now, if I need or want something, I feel like I can ask Heavenly Father for those things.

The thing I am learning now, however, is that I do not always believe He will give them to me.  I have asked for this job, because He told me to.  I have asked for a house that goes with this job, because He told me to.  I had no problem asking for them when He instructed me to do so.

But now that two months have come and gone, I question whether or not those things are coming, even though He instructed me to ask for them.  Maybe I need to accept that just because I ask, doesn’t mean it will happen.  Here though, I struggle with that because I was specific to only ask for things I knew He wanted me to ask for.  I know He has all power.  I know He can do His own work and He does not need me to do it for Him.  He can give me this job (or give it to Drew).  He can give us a house and He can do it whenever He desires to do so.

I still believe we are moving, because He told me so.  It is really difficult to continue believing in something when it would seem the time has passed.  Whenever I ask for clarification or a reminder of what I know, I receive the same information.  We are moving.  We are moving where I think we are going.

But I have no clue when, or how.  All I know, from past experience, is when the Lord’s plan is implemented, things happen quickly.  There is no time for doddling.  When it does happen, it will happen fast.  So I guess I had better continue with my list.  I’ll check it over and give a report in this post about where things are and what I still need to accomplish.  Then I’ll get on it 🙂

That’s it for now !!

The last two days, I have been helping out at Cub Scout Day Camp.  This is the first year I have ever done it.  To tell you the truth, because of the number of boys I have at our house, I think the last 20 years has been cub scout day camp every day—maybe that is why I secretly hope never to have that calling.  I feel like it is my life, every day, all day.

Yesterday was fine.  I enjoyed my time and came home still able to put together dinner for guests.  But today (maybe because I also did the grocery shopping) I was wiped when I got home.  All I wanted to do was to sit and watch a movie or something that took no brain and no body.  I didn’t even feel like I could manage dinner.  In the past (once upon a time when our family still ate cheese and Spike Spike, who is allergic to everything, wasn’t a part of the family) I would just buy pizza and we would call it good.  Of course, that was totally more expensive and even though our budget was tighter, I justified it much more often because the little people just wiped me out.  Now however, Spike is allergic to everything, so eating out isn’t a lot of fun because of the consequences for him, which then translates to me.  Not to mention, we are doing a much better job in the budgeting area and we just don’t have the money to eat out.

OK this was just hilarious, and fitting!!

I was totally happy tonight however, when I spent $10.00, bought cheese, bread (remember that I make almost all of our bread products), and ham lunch meat, made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (homemade….I will include the recipe) and that was dinner.  Not only were the kids satisfied, they were ecstatic!  Why?  Because I bought cheese!!  Seriously!  A year ago April, I decided that if we really were all allergic to milk, then I shouldn’t buy cheese either.  So I quit for six months.  I told the family that is how it was going to be.  Then we learned to eat our food without cheese.  When the six months was up, I really couldn’t justify the expense to put it back into our diet.  Every once in a while, someone will super complain.  But I just stick to my guns and that is how it is. Today however, I caved because I needed a break and was totally exhausted.  Grilled cheese it was.  And the masses were ecstatic!!  Even Drew was alright and happy that we were $10.00 over the budget, when this morning he told me to stay within it, because I bought cheese.  Oh the magic of milk.  When it isn’t a part of our daily diet, we are all happier and less itchy and less grouchy.  But on a special occasion, (like Mom is wiped) it is magic.  Magic, I tell you!

theonlylivingboyfromnewport.com

So here is my amazing tomato soup recipe.  I adapted a recipe I got off of Zis Boom Bah.  (This website is also magic!!  We have used it to help out kids see what they are eating and how it affects them.  There is a lot more to the website than I have time to manage, but I really like it and it is a great resource!!)  OK  I guess I didn’t adapt it that much.  This is their recipe:

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cloves of garlic
1 TBL oil
1 Cup of onion
3 1/2 C Vegetable broth (I use chicken)
56 ounces of tomato (I just buy the #10 can at Costco)
2 TBL fresh basil (I use dried because that is what I have)

(I also add 1/2 chopped red pepper and 1/4 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder)

Preparation:
Saute the onion, garlic and pepper until tender
Puree the tomatoes and sauteed vegetables (because my kids won’t eat it if it has chuncks)
Add all ingredients and cook for 5-7 minutes on high
Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes (I don’t usually do it that long–maybe 10 minutes)
Stir frequently.

Serve with anything……it is truly delicious.

This is the fastest, cheapest and easiest soup I have ever made, which makes it a winner in my book.  My kiddos love it, especially those who are allergic to corn and cannot eat the Campbell’s kind.  It is fabulous with a sandwich and salad, for lunch or dinner, or even a snack and it packs up nicely in a thermos (if people still do that).  So tonight dinner took a grand total of 10 minutes, prep time included.  Throw in a bagged salad and you are good to go!

Good thing it isn’t my night for the dishes, because they would be waiting when I woke up!

So today I fasted about moving.  I have felt so sure that we were moving and were going to get this job.  It has been frustrating because I had in my head how things would go.  We would go to the interview, maybe have a second interview, be offered the job and then make the move.  It would be that straight forward and easy…………….even though moving is never easy.

When it didn’t happen that way, and I was reminded that I was told that it wouldn’t happen that way, I held on for a little while with the hope that it would come through soon.  And then it didn’t come, and it didn’t come, and it didn’t come.  I kept wondering if it was coming.  Could all that has happened just been in my head?  Could I have misunderstood the things I was feeling and thinking that much?  Really?  I have been really, really struggling.  Then yesterday I came to the place where I thought I must just have been completely wrong and misunderstood everything.  I was sad, mostly because I felt like I had been so very wrong and missed the information or the point of the information.

Today I fasted for clarity.  Yep.  That was it.  I just fasted for clarity–clarity in my thinking and my understanding of what I had been told and what the Spirit had been trying to communicate to me.  Sunday morning as I was doing the dishes (a lot of my inspiration comes while I am doing the dishes, or in the shower, or anywhere when my body is busy working, but it doesn’t take much of a brain), and the clarity came.  ‘You are moving.  Yes, you are moving.  Be patient.  Be faithful.’

“Then why am I having such a difficult time remembering that information?  Why do I keep doubting?”

‘Because I cannot give you the blessings if you do not have the faith that it will happen.’

“Oh…….OK.”

I think I am blogging this mostly so that the next time that I doubt, I can reread this and remind myself that not only do I feel like we are moving, not only have I asked to have these specific blessings, not only have I had numerous impressions that validate that we are moving, but now I have fasted and asked directly and received further evidence that the previous information is correct.

This entire process is so very interesting, and frustrating.  My Father in Heaven has a time-table.  He has a plan.  Things are going according to His plan.  I do not have any clue what the plan is, or how it is coming together, and at this point, I have no external validation that the plan will happen.  But I have multiple spiritual witnesses that moving is on the agenda.  So now we wait—–or I wait, and exercise my faith.

Here is the talk I rely on most in situations like this:  Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence, by Elder Holland.  The other talk that has helped me lately has been Trial of Your Faith, by Elder Andersen.
Wish me luck  I don’t want luck—-just pray for me as I continue to wade through this process.  Thanks for your support!

Well, it has officially today been one month since our interview and a full 28 days since they told us that Drew did not make the second round of interviews.  Normally, that would have been enough and I would have completely let go of the entire process and realize that once again, we are not moving but are staying here in Northern California.  Except…..

Ever since the announcement came out, I have had the feeling we are moving.  When we went for the interview, it went great!  Amazing things happened with getting Speedy into the Early College High School in their area.  It was not easy!  We had tons of hoops to jump through and were told that they didn’t usually accept other students and their school was full.  But we were told to jump through the hoops anyway.  The Spirit confirmed that we needed to jump through their hoops….application, letters of recommendation, essays, academic transcripts, attendance records and discipline files.  Seriously!!  Then it seemed to take forever!  Last week we got the phone call that when we actually make the move, there will be more paperwork to do so Speedy can attend there.  He is in!!  It is amazing!  A blessing!  A gift!!  The only issue is right now we don’t have a job and we aren’t moving.  Why do we need to do that?

My question for General Conference has been, are we really moving or not??!!  During conference, several times, I received, ‘This talk will help you when you make the move.’  So we are moving??  I get little hints and stories of just enough hope to keep me thinking that we really are moving.  Before we received news that Speedy would be able to attend their school, I got a phone call from someone here in this area looking for work and calling all of the bishops.  She wanted to talk.  She told me of the story of her husband not being hired by the company he currently works for and how they called him three weeks later and offered him the job.  Then I think, is that what we are doing?  But the three weeks has come and gone and no phone calls, no indication that anything is happening except for this nagging thought in my head…….yes, you are moving.

When I try to make plans for just a few months out or for the summer, I can’t seem to actually do that.  I am putting things on hold, ‘just in case’.  I feel slightly schizophrenic, just slightly.  Our entire family is talking about if we are moving.  But just one problem……………………..we have no job!!!  And no indication that one is coming!  Nothing but the small whisperings of the Spirit, to me, who is often wrong.  Lovely.

Early in the process, before we didn’t have a second interview, I heard, “It is going to be different than you think it is, so don’t get angry or frustrated. You can trust me.”

OK. Well, I am trying, but I don’t feel like I am very successful in the process.  I am not angry or frustrated, but I am certainly confused.  I don’t get it.  I don’t understand.  Are we moving or not?  If not, I need to let it go and move on and work here.  If yes, then I have things to do, a lot of things to do.  But right now, my job is to wait and trust.  (I hate waiting—quote from the Princess Bride, with the proper accent, of course.)

I know there is a point to the process.  This week, I had a major break through.  Since General Conference, I have been really sad.  I have recognized my sadness only because I have noticed that I am medicating it with carbohydrates.  I have not been horrible in my eating, but I have not been good and I have really, really struggled.  As I have been praying and pondering about why I am sad, because I really have not known, I thought about my mother.  Then I made a comment to my husband about the move and about my mother.  That comment sank into a pit in my heart and then I knew why I was sad.  I was sad about leaving my mother.

I live six hours away from her.  It isn’t like I live close, or like I see her often, or really ever.  But somehow, living here has meant that I am close enough to hope for some kind of a relationship.  Over the past year, the reality has hit me that I am not going to have that kind of a relationship.  Relationships take at least two people.  When one person doesn’t want it, it doesn’t work.  Heavenly Father has been helping me to take off the rose-colored glasses of my childhood to see things as they really are.  It has been painful and there has been a lot of sorrow for me.  But as I like to live in the realm of truth, I recognize the process as necessary for my growth and benefit.

If we had gotten the job right away and made the move right away, I would be so busy in the process of moving, that I would never have taken the time and effort necessary to recognize the sadness I have about moving and why it is such a sad thing for me.

Yesterday, I took a mental health day.  I just hung out with my family.  I called a girl friend.  I cried a lot.  I ate food I liked and that made me feel happy.  I didn’t try to be happy, I just allowed myself to be sad.  Today I am better.  I feel lighter.  I don’t have to eat carbohydrates today.  I am not trying to hide my feelings.  I have written my feelings about my mother and our relationship into my journal so they are not out here on the internet.  I am not completely better today.  It is not over.  I am still sad.

But I do feel like I can move now.  I have done my spiritual work, so they can really call anytime.  Right?!  But maybe the Heavenly Father knows I have more spiritual work to do.  Maybe my mother and our relationship wasn’t the only thing I need to unearth in my emotional quest.  I hope there isn’t a lot more….. ugh!  This is hard work!

Just a few ramblings for the beginning of summer.

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

Slim and Spanky are in Utah working and preparing for school.  Spanky will start again in the fall.  Slim, who knows when? 

Scuff is home, started working, yesterday was his first day after training, only no one called him to let him know he was on the schedule.  He got a call around 4:15 telling him he was an hour late.  That wasn’t fun for him.  Training was on Friday and they couldn’t get him into the schedule so they were going to call when they got it worked out.  They didn’t call.  But he is in better spirits now.

Sport is home, working out mission papers, etc…

Speedy and Sun are in Utah at EFY.  I cannot wait for them to get home and tell me all about it!!  I never attended EFY as a youth, or even knew it existed until I was a student at BYU.  Now we do what we can to give each of our children the opportunity to attend at least once, and hopefully twice between 14-18.  Totally worth the testimony building experience!!  Totally!

Shorty and Smiley are attending cub scout day camp this week.  Shorty is helping out.

Spike Spike is becoming a boy.  He is not a baby anymore.  He gave the opening prayer in primary on Sunday, with help of course, because otherwise he would have blessed each of the individuals in our family and then asked that we get home safely, and that would have been the end.  But he did a great job!  And didn’t insist on doing it his way–all of which is good.

Me?  I had my first mammogram yesterday.  Ugh!  I am feeling old.  They told me it would only take 10 minutes and the test only took 10 minutes.  But I was there for 45 before they took me back.  Frustrating.  I was so glad that I hadn’t tried to squeeze it in on the the day they called me.

This weekend we have stake conference and they are calling a new stake president.  Our entire stake is kind of excited.  In case you do not know what the process is, here is how it has worked the three times we have done it.  Saturday of the conference, the general authorities assigned will interview each member of the current stake presidency, the Patriarch, all of the High Council, the current Bishops and any other brethren in the stake the members of the stake presidency feel would qualify to lead the stake (i.e. former bishops or former stake presidency members—but not limited to that).  Each of those brethren has been asked to fill out a paper with their names and photos and some general information about themselves and to recommend three brethren whom they feel should lead the stake.  In their interviews, they will be asked why they have recommended those brethren.  The general authorities will use prayer and the Spirit to come to a consensus of whom they feel the Lord is calling as the new stake president.  After their interviews, they will confer, ponder and pray and then extend the calling to that man with his wife.  If after their interviews, they do not feel they have found the man the Lord would call, they continue looking by interviewing more brethren in the stake.  The announcement is then made in the Sunday morning session of the stake conference.

It will be an interesting weekend–that is for sure!  I will keep you posted.  Tomorrow and Thursday I have plans, so I will post a few more ‘Maybe Moving’ blogs to keep you busy.

Have a great summer!!  I will 🙂

Well, what do you think so far?  Kind of a crazy story huh?  Over the next several months, I kept wondering and pondering how the whole moving thing was going to happen and when.  It was so strange to feel prompted to ask for the job, but then not to get it.  I was super confused.

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

During the process, I kept having the feeling that ‘I can trust the Lord’ which, you should know, trust is not an easy thing for me.  And I also kept thinking, ‘Yes, we are moving.  I just need to prepare and plan so that I am ready when the time comes.’  When I would fast or pray about it, I felt like I received confirmation of things I already knew.  I would be moving.  The time was coming.  Just prepare and wait.  But month after month came and we didn’t move and the farther away from the job interview we got, the more and more I wondered how it was all going to come together.

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

To be honest with you, I still don’t know.  Maybe we are still moving.  But as of today, we have the exact job I prayed for, we just have it here in the town where we live.  It did happen fast.  The person who had the job announced they were leaving and the court did not feel like they had enough time to recruit for the job so they promoted Drew.  Maybe this all plays into Drew getting the job in another court at a later date?  I really do not know.  I know enough to know that I can trust the Lord, and He will take care of me.  But I really do not have any idea what His plan is or what it looks like.  I just know what I am suppose to do, here and now.  I guess I am still making assumptions about what those instructions mean the bigger picture is.  And so we wait, still working and following the instructions we have been given.

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

Things can look so different as time passes.

I love summer!!  I love having all my kids home almost all the time.  We have a ton of fun!  We play games, play in the sprinklers, go to the beach, fight, read books, pretend it is hot, when it is overcast and cold.  Lots of fun things and sometimes we even get on each others’ nerves because we are all together too much.

Part of the awesome things are having the college boys home!!  Part of the not so awesome things are having the college boys leave.  Spanky left on Monday.  Monday was super emotional day for the kiddos.  Even though I told them on Sunday night that he would be flying out Monday morning before they woke up, they were not OK when they woke up and he was gone.

It was early!  And the airport was empty.  (Not like it is ever full!!)  I have to say that is one thing I LOVE about living in a little place.  We have one gate and two planes, one airline.  That makes things a little more expensive, but no one is ever there.  No crowds.  No lines (very few like, maybe six people, ever).  No waiting, even for your baggage.  Walk through security.  So nice. 

Anyway, Spanky is back off to college and the bachelor’s life (minus all the partying and women, etc…).  Monday morning, Shorty was in a foul mood.  Spike was super grumpy and sad that he didn’t say good bye to Spanky that morning.  Shorty finally confessed that he did not want Spanky to go back to school.  That took some talking to.

Sun is taking two of her finals as I type.  When she is finished, she will have only one left!  Shorty and Smiley are out on Thursday.  Friday Sun and Speedy are off to EFY (See FFF #20 2015).  It will be a quiet week next week.  (I may take off the entire week of blogging and just clean my house—there’s a novel thought!)

What is your group doing for the summer?

I am contemplating a monthly swimming pass at our local pool, and teaching Spike how to read.  And we have Richard and Dani’s wedding in July and family photos that weekend.  That will be crazy!  But I will probably just prepare for the up and coming seminary year.  Have a great summer!!

The news…..

Drew was told in the interview that they would let him know Friday.  The call came in just after one.  We have all felt like we are really moving.  So we were super anxious for him to call them back.  We were all anticipating them offering him the job.

Except, that’s not what happened.

He called home and let us know there were two other candidates who were more qualified.  I interpreted that to mean that they offered the job to someone else.  I was totally confused.

All of the spiritual information I had received indicated that we would be moving.  It felt like we were moving.  I wrestled the rest of the day with my feelings.

Did I misinterpret something?  It didn’t seem so.

Was this a MY will over Thy will situation?  Nope.  I didn’t really care about moving or about this job.  In fact, I didn’t even want to apply for it but felt impressed that it was what we were suppose to do.

Why was I receiving directions to do things that would indicate moving, like getting the house prepared for moving, getting rid of stuff that I didn’t want to move, checking out the schools, talking to a realtor, knowing that we weren’t suppose to live in the city where Drew would work, but commute from half an hour away, in a completely different county?  Why was any of that necessary?  And why do we both feel it is necessary to put in an application for the school Speedy would attend if we aren’t going?  We still both feel like that is important and necessary.  Weird.

The next day, I started to get a little frustrated.  I am not irritated about not getting the job.  I am more irritated about not understanding the revelation I thought I was receiving.  Then I was reminded, “Remember, it is not going to look like you think it will.  Don’t get angry or frustrated.  You can trust what I am telling you…..Miracles will happen and the sea will part.”  I was pretty sure that ‘sea will part’ thing was in reference to our housing.  The sea is going to have to part.  But now it would appear maybe the ‘sea’ is actually the possibility of getting the job.

Ugh!  And so we wait.  Saturday and Sunday are spent doing the normal things that we do here, mixed with a little sadness and thinking that things will be better and easier if we don’t move and coming up with all the reasons why it is better that we don’t move.

Friday, after the news, I picked up Smiley from school and told him what our trip was about, to which he said, “You mean we might move?”  And then I told him and Shorty that they had offered the job to someone else.  Both of the boys are glad it appears we are staying here.  So we shall see.  On Monday, I told our missionaries in our weekly emails, and a few days after that I told Spanky.  I still haven’t told Sport.  I think he has had just a little too much on his plate for him to worry about that too. The funny thing is that both of our missionaries were like, “Totally cool!!!  That would be fun!” which was a response I was not anticipating.

(So this is Day 28)
Anyway, today has been one week since we got ‘the news’.  Only a couple of interesting things have happened.  On Tuesday, as Drew was explaining to me how he told his boss, he clarified that they had not offered the job to someone else.  They were having a second interview and were only interviewing the two candidates above him.  They also asked him if they could keep his information on file and call him if they needed him.  Of course, he told them they could. But that is a totally different scenario than that they had chosen another person and offered them the job.

Then yesterday, I get a phone call from one of the sisters in the ‘possibly moving into’ ward.  She tells me that her bishop asked her to call us and give us the specs on a house for sale on her street.  Which makes me start thinking.  And doing a little more research into schools in the area.  And we get most of Speedy’s application done, though we still have a little bit to finish.  We should have it completed and mailed by Tuesday of next week.

That’s where we are.  And so we wait.

The drive home, which we did after our meeting.

So today we met with the realtor we have been speaking with about the possibility of moving into the area.  He is a great and amazing man, who has been so kind to be willing to help us.  This part of our research is simply overwhelming.

The houses are waaaayyy beyond our ability to pay for them.  Rent is three times what we are currently paying and even if we were to get the job we are looking at, I don’t know how we can afford housing of any kind.  I am glad we are not looking in San Francisco, but for our budget, we might as well be.  It is so ridiculous, the amount of money it takes to live here.  I have secretly always looked at the salaries here and farther south in our state and just been floored by the amounts, but when I look at housing, I recognize where all that money goes.  We look at the salary and think, ya, we can totally do that!  In fact, we should be able to do that easily!  And then we look at housing and think, heck, no!  You want me to pay how much for what exactly?!!  If we get this job, obtaining affordable housing will be a complete and total miracle!

After meeting with the realtor, my husband just said, even if we get this job, we probably can’t take it because we can’t afford to live there.  Housing in the more affordable areas, we are told, is gang infested and dangerous.  That is why we eliminated the city where Drew would work in the first place, and decided on the commute.

Look for this one too.

I’m sure I am not alone in wanting a safe and comfortable neighborhood for my children to grow in.  If we were thinking just about Drew and I, we could deal with things a little differently.  But where children are involved, young children, the stakes are higher and the surrounding neighbors more significant.  I would really like to just pack us all up and live somewhere out in the middle of the farm lands of the United States.  I hate the heat and the snow, the tornadoes and the hail, and the flat, flat land would eventually drive me bananas.  But the people are nice.  Life is slower for the most part.  Farm animals don’t carry guns, though ranchers do.  But their lives aren’t usually about crime and corruption.  They are off fighting big government.

I know, I am just wishing and fantasizing.  They have their own issues, I know.  And it is probably nothing like I am envisioning.

Oh well.  People are just people.  Some have very misguided concepts of life and how it should function and how we should treat one another.  But we all have some very basic needs:  sleep, food, shelter, warmth, safety, and love.  My heart just bleeds for those children who are being forced away from their families and the love of their parents and indoctrinated in the language and behavior of hate and violence—or those who are being used and abused.  In my heart, I want to scoop them up and love them and feed them and give them a safe and happy place to grow and just be a child, and not be subjected to evil and hate and abuse.

I do not have the power to do what my heart desires.  But I do have the power to make life like that for the children who God gives me direct stewardship over.  Those children in my home, they will have those things.  And though we may not always have the food we want to eat, or the clothes we want to wear, we do always have food to eat and clothes to wear.  We are warm.  We are safe.  We are loved.  We are learning and growing.  We are happy, whether we live in the Redwoods or somewhere farther south.  We’ll make sure that the things we do have control over protect the children who live here and bless the lives of the children who are near us.  After all, children are an heritage of the Lord——that is how I feel about them and that is how I will treat them!!