The Government CANNOT Shut Down Patriotism. I love our Veterans!!

I'm grateful for the congressmen and women who stood up and made possible for this event to happen. It was a prescheduled event and these veterans won't be able to wait for another opportunity. 

Don't cave, congress. 

Stand up and CLOSELY follow the constitution. 

You represent the will of the majority and you know what that will is. Listen to us and do the right thing. We don't like to be forced to buy or do anything that is against the constitution. 

Every day REALLY is a bonus. I'm going to use my time, my day today feeding my relationship with my husband by completing projects that he has wanted done. I sure love that guy. Thanks, Veterans, for making my TODAY possible. 

Kale!

This year has been a little disappointing with my garden. We've had some goats get into the garden and nibble away at peppers, squash, and tomatoes like there's no tomorrow but apparently they don't like Kale! Ha, ha.

My husband and I took our kids out to eat and we were pulling into the restaurant's parking lot when my husband informed me that the chickens were loose. I started to cry. I had been gracious with the neighbor goats in my garden but I had heard that chickens would destroy young tender plants...so I guess the chickens were the last straw for me. I was willing to drive all the way home to lock those little peckers up but my husband called our "downstairs" neighbor, his dad, and he rounded them up into the coop.

You work so hard all summer long tending to your garden, weeding, planting, watering that you want it to produce, to yield a great harvest. This year I've been very successful at growing volunteer onions from last year and all of this kale. (I've already harvested it twice, it keeps growing back!) I just printed some recipes because all I know to do with it is to throw in green smoothies and make kale chips.

Dinosaur Kale on the left and White Russian Kale on the right.
The White Russian Kale is actually a plant start that I ordered last year but didn't want to plant because of the lateness in the season so I kept it alive all fall and winter. How's that for Kale success?! (: 

Change Happens When...

People change when they

hurt enough that they have to,

learn enough that they want to,

or receive enough that they are able to.

-John Maxwell

I saw this quote on this blog by Barry Pearman and it resonated with the changes that I am trying to make in my life right now. 

When I was talking to my mentor and coach I told her that I didn't want to be in the same place a year from now. That I didn't want my depression cycles lasting two and a half months and for there to be one good week and then for another depression cycle to start.

I am at a point in my life where I am learning enough that I want to change and I am making room enough to be able to receive the help I need to be able to. It is definitely a lot of work but I am happiest when I follow and do the things my mentor has challenged me to do.

Rolling up my Sleeves and Getting to Work

"The Lord’s way is not to sit at the side of the stream and wait for the water to pass before we cross. It is to come together, roll up our sleeves, go to work, and build a bridge or a boat to cross the waters of our challenges."

—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Providing in the Lord's Way", Liahona and Ensign, November 2011

For the past 8 years

or so I felt like I was

just waiting for this trial to pass.

I was wandering in the wilderness

as it reads in  1 Nephi 17:4,

"And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness."

Lehi's family was "sojourning" but
I definitely just wandered.
I didn't feel like I was making progress or

moving forward in my life.

I sort of just let my depression take over,

wandered about in the "wilderness"

and waited "for the water to pass."

The last year and half

I've been fighting back

and trying to take control

over my own destiny.

I usually can't control whether or not

depressing thoughts come into my mind

but I can control how long I let them stay.