patience

cue axl rose whistling

"said woman take it slow and things will be just fine"

over the past 10+ years, whenever i pray for help on a few particular recurring issues that i struggle with in my life, the answer is ALWAYS, have patience. which is not my favorite answer. frankly, it's almost as frustrating as when you're about to lose your cool on something and someone tells you to calm down. i despise being told to calm down. it's the answer we know we should do but it's almost physically impossible to do because flipping out gives at least some sort of relief or instant gratification. but, flipping out is like emotional eating, you feel better momentarily but damage has been done. you're now in the hole in the situation that you need to be navigating and you have even further to dig yourself out. 

but today, as i was struggling with something and the kids were asking question after question about nonsense or why things weren't progressing how we planned and blah blah blah and i'm hungry and i spilled crystal light all over the floor, i chose to practice patience. and it worked. things still didn't progress how we had originally planned but we kept working together to do the things that we could do and then we rode bikes to the park  and made up games on the play equipment instead of moping and rolling around on the floor and foaming at the mouth like normal. things aren't perfect but i chose patience and things were fine anyway. 

so maybe prayers do work?

athena blythe at the park, completely unaware that her mother could have spontaneously combusted just moments earlier:

those are the only shoes she wears. ever.

we had a most glorious conference weekend. i made cookies and a fantastic lasagna. but more importantly, the Spirit dwelt within our home for the whole weekend. on saturday morning, we went to see a few more houses and we ended up finding an absolutely perfect house for our family. it met our needs and it nailed my kitchen wants, enough counter space for each of us to have a spot to nap. i was a little shaky on the inside because it seemed almost too good to be true. we were going big time! we made a healthy offer and we got giddy because we were almost done! 

then the next morning, after we ate our conference breakfast consisting of eggs, fruit, and chocolate chip pancakes, i got the news. our offer was too late. it had just gone under contract right before they got our offer. they didn't even know about us and how wonderful we are! then we wallowed, and gnashed teeth, and beat our chests and sang, "nothing compares 2 U" at the top of our lungs. we were the pits. conference started and i felt lame as i possibly could when all of the messages were about service and love and i'm losing my mind because i can't get a house i want and i already live in america and have plenty of food in my pantry(and in my couch cushions). pretty humbling. i clearly have not been forsaken. 

i'm grateful for all of the messages from our inspired leaders. like han solo said, "it's true. all of it."

 monday morning was more house hunting and my costco/thrifted outfit pleased me muchly. those jbrand jeans knock off distressed pants i'm wearing? costco! i distressed them myself. they fit perfectly over my motherhood stomach. what we all want, but don't want to admit. "no kids, i'm not smuggling a bag of frozen peas in my pants."

i also went house hunting again today, with ALL the kids, because that's what kids want to do on spring break! this was our house hunting highlight. an office chock full of georgia bulldog merchandise, including this herschel walker signed jersey. and a cute girl.

 anatomically correct heart shaped pancakes. i should homeschool. 

the end. but obviously not the end of house hunting.