Early Thanksgiving Gathering: Hunt Grandparents

Last weekend (or was it two weekends ago?) My parents made a spontaneous weekend trip out to visit. Leif had loads of homework. So the kids and I played with grandma and grandpa while Leif hit the books (poor guy!) One of the days we even met up with my aunt JoAnn and played with her in SG for a day. Saturday we stayed close to home and spent the day together and had a mini Thanksgiving Feast. My mother (who is an excellent cook) prepared some AMAZING pork chops, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, salad, and a delicious Cranberry ice cream pie. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. We were happy to be able to spend a couple of days with them before their next big run of Hunt Mystery shows in November and December.

Unfortunately, I didn't get very many pictures throughout each of the days. But here are a few from the day in SG.

Motivation For This Mama!

ADDED LATER: My dear cousin in law wrote this comment on this post and I wanted to share it with everyone. She drew an even better picture for me of what my life's work is then I did. I originally had a photo of an apple orchard on this post. Now, a temple. Thanks Sandra!!
"Your post reminded me of a poem of Grandma Stanger we inherited. It's called Two Temples. It talks about one builder who built with grace and skill. Wonderful pillars and arches. His fame would not be forgotten. Then a mother who built a temple with loving and infinite care. Laying each arch with prayer. None praised her efforts, they were unseen by the eyes of man. The builder who's temple is now crumpled to the earth is forgotten. But the temple the mother built will live on. For that beautiful unseen temple was a child's soul. Your building temples Lena :)"

ORIGINAL POST: My life is very full at the moment. I wish that I was able to take the time that I used to, to return emails, visit everyone's blogs, comment, and write every day about life and it's happenings and my studies. However, there are seasons in life. Right now, it is planting time in my world. I am working sun up to sun set sowing seeds that I pray will one day flourish and grow into beautiful trees who will in turn bare good fruit to share with those around them.

I pray for this constantly through the joys of my day as well as the weary times. Today I was blessed with one of those priceless moments in time when as a mother I felt a tiny glimmer of success. We were at a restaurant for lunch. I had dished Jakob up a plate and set it in front of him and began eating my food and trying to keep Caleb from dumping his own plate of food as well as mine. Suddenly an elderly lady tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear and said, "your son has the most beautiful table manners. I've been watching him..." Now, she may have thought the compliment was meant for my son. I think not.;) This Mama felt a Mission Accomplished!

Jakob said something very cute tonight. We were reading book #15 in the Magic Tree House series titled Viking Ships at Sunrise. There was a paragraph where one of the characters in the book says that the word civilization is "when people have books and art and good manners." After reading this Jakob stopped me and said, "hey! That's us, we should put a sign on our door to let everyone know!" The book then goes on to explain that monks are "religious people who spend their time praying and reading and helping people." Jakob's eyes lit up at this and said we needed to add that to our sign. I thought this comment was one of those priceless moments in time and wanted to share.

I miss my time building my friendships and writing my thoughts and feelings. But I do cherish this time with my family that I have recommitted myself to. Life is not always perfectly peaceful at our home. I have one boy who loves to reenact war battles and watch military documentaries on a daily basis (if we would allow it.) And a toddler who loves to throw a fit when he doesn't get his way. But it is nice to go to sleep at night and know that I am making some sacrifices to raise them the very best that we know how.

This post s in no way meant to be a bragging post. In the end, I think it came out of my head as a motivation booster to help me smile throughout my day tomorrow.

Gnight' All!

A Release: Young Women Presidency

Ahhh, Saturday Mornings.... This morning has been the wonderfully classic Saturday morning. We slept in, able to stay cozy in our warm beds until the kids insisted that our day begin. It's cold and rainy outside. So none of us are anxious to get outside and work in the yard or with the animals. So we sat down for breakfast together. Now we're just doing what we WANT to do. No school, no appointments. I am going to blog! To make this more fun, I need to add photos.




Well. I was released from the Young Women's Presidency in our ward two weeks ago. The women that I served with have become my dear friends. I hope that we will continue our friendships. Being with the girls on a weekly basis gave me the chance to see all of them at their best as well as at their not so best. And they saw me in the same light. They taught me a lot and I pray that I was able to teach them something. All in all, it was a valuable experience that I will treasure.

Well, I guess blogging isn't going to be an option right now. So, I'll leave me update at this and try to give more when I don't have little ones demanding my attention.

Answers: Christmas Scriptures, Did the Chicks Survive?

I wish that I had more energy at the end of the day to write. So much happens in one day here at our little homestead. Maybe this short post will spur me on to write more tonight. We'll see...

Anyway, A couple of friends have asked me questions that I want to answer before it's out of my mind.

The first question is: Did the chicks survive through the smoke incident? YES! And we are So thankful! They huddled in a far corner of the box and were spared.

Second: What are the scriptures that I will use for my Christmas Countdown Candle? I found a great resource online that has a page full of great scriptures HERE. It has scriptures in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I'm really excited to start our countdown. This particular list of scriptures starts on December 14th. It's a 12 day countdown. I will put 12 marks (with red wax, sequins, beads, etc.) on our candle. We will burn the candle to the next mark each night. We'll read and sing by candle light and of course the Christmas Tree lights. I Can't Wait!

Our House Was Protected

Our eyes were opened this afternoon to the blessings that come from a merciful Father in heaven. My parents came to visit this weekend from up north. We have had a wonderful time. But we have stayed up later then usual and were very tired this morning (Sunday.) We had to make a conscious decision to go to church today, rather than going "as usual."

Upon our arrival home from church we were greeted with the front door wide open and the smell of smoke overwhelmingly strong in the air. My first thought was, "good heavens mom, popcorn for breakfast!?" But my parents soon explained the true source of the smoke.

My dad has come up each morning that he's been here to take a shower. Apparently a shower wasn't in his plans this morning. He was going to sleep in late with my mom. Well, he said that he woke up a bit earlier then expected and he just felt like taking a nice shower. My mom tried to get him to stay in the trailer. But he just felt like going up (which is a big deal because it's a long flight of stairs which isn't easy for my dad who uses crutches.) So he made the trek up the stairs only to find that the house was thick with smoke. He immediately went to the baby chick brooding box that holds seven baby chicks warmed by a heat lamp. Sure enough, the heat lamp had fallen face first into the sawdust and was only a few minutes away from bursting into flames.

To think that Father in Heaven, He who holds the universe and it's inhabitants in His hands, is aware of our tiny little cottage in our tiny little town, and was willing to send the prompting to my earthly father to make the trek necessary to spare us, is profoundly humbling.

The rest of our day was filled with prayers of thanks for this precious gift and mercy.

Thank you to both of my Father's for their love and care!

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween we were excited to get out in the community and enjoy the festivities. Unfortunately that wasn't a possibility due to Jakob being sick. But we didn't let that stop us too much when it comes to having fun.

I went to the video store (yes, I went to the store ALL BY MYSELF! Thanks Love!!) and rented a couple of little kids Halloween movies. Then I went to the grocery store and bought the fixins' for Chicken Enchiladas and Magic Cookie Bars. I topped it off with some sparkling Apple Juice and a Pumpkin Pie for Leif. MMM!

Earlier in the month we purchased two of the biggest pumpkins at the store. So we had a lot of fun Halloween afternoon carving them. Let me rephrase that, LEIF had a lot of fun. All I did was draw the basic Jack o' Lantern face on the pumpkin at Leif's insistence. Jakob drew a dinosaur on the other pumpkin and Leif carved it so we could see the light through it. Fun! Fun!

Since we had planned the kids costumes ahead of time we decided to dress them up anyway. They thought that was a great idea of course! Jakob changed his mind three times this year when it came to what he wanted to dress up as. First it was a spooky Halloween Cat. Second it was a Dinosaur. Finally, he chose a sailor. This followed right along with his obsession with the military. The costume is an antique made from my grandfather's official sailor uniform from WWII. My father wore it when he was Jakob's size, my brother Jason wore it, and now Jakob's worn it. So needless to say I am protective of the costume. But I'm grateful that Jakob thinks it's neat. Caleb wore a Tigger costume that Jakob wore when he was Caleb's size. I must say he was adorable!

So all in all, we had a Happy Halloween, as it should be!

Swine Flu Update

Well, Jakob and Caleb seem to be better. No fevers this morning. But all I want to do is lay around or sleep. My head hurts. No fever. Other then that, we're alright. I have A LOT I want to write about. But like I said, I'm tired. So hopefully after nap time... Let me list what I want to blog about so I can remember when I feel up to it:

Caleb's 18 month update
Jakob update
Raising Chicken stories
Halloween Night

Swine Flu's Hit Home

Well, as Leif put it, "the Piggy Cold has hit the Baron family". Jakob woke up on Wednesday with a high fever, terrible headache, deep chest congestion, and a few rounds of throwing up. So I called the doctor. He had three out of the four Swine Flu symptoms that they look for. He just needed a sore throat. Well, that hit today. Luckily he hasn't been seriously sick. It's just lasting a long time and put a serious damper on our festivities.

So far the rest of us haven't been knocked down by it. But Caleb started acting like he has a sore throat today and my throat is itchy and feels like it's on the edge of something. But we're praying that it passes.

We're surviving. We did have a nice Halloween. I'll write about it and post photos tomorrow. It's time for bed!

Three Years Have Passed

From Jakob and Rhea

I was sitting in our little nursery with the kids the other day and we were admiring the curio filled with all of the little mementos from our girls. I then realized that the anniversary of their delivery was coming up. They would have been three years old yesterday.

Time does truly heal. We still talk about the girls in one way or another on a daily basis. But the pain of their loss is not constant. I am now able to be grateful that I can raise them in a perfect world. Throughout my day yesterday I reminisced here and there about some of the memories I have of the time with my girls. I had very little time with LeOra. But I had 8 days with Rhea.

After the emergency C-section I instinctively knew that I needed to spend as much time with Rhea as I possibly could. So either I was blessed with a quick initial recovery, or I fibbed and was able to go to her hours after I delivered. That was a special day. My in-laws had come to be with us and care for Jakob. The veil between this life and the next was very thin. I remember feeling almost as if we were all in the midst of heavenly clouds. Wrapped in a peace and comfort. This was the spirit of the Lord and His comfort. My father in law tells of his experience of actually being allowed to see his mother (who had passed away years before) bringing LeOra (grandma's namesake) to visit Rhea in the NICU and then to me in my hospital bed. I can sense their presence when they are near though I have never seen them.

Yesterday I was looking through books online for the boys. I came across the original version of the book "The Little Engine That Could." That was the book that I read out loud to Rhea as she lay in the NICU. I need to buy that book...

Jakob asked the other day if he was ever able to hold Rhea. He actually held her on the day that we took her off of life support. But the picture we took of them turned out fuzzy. But the memory is clear. Jakob held her and tried to give her his binky. It was a precious time.

Though we would rather have our girls with us at this moment. It is a true blessing to know that the Lord can heal our hearts in time. I am ever grateful for this knowledge and the comfort that it brings me in this life. I look forward to the day when we will be with our girls again.

So, my sweet Rhea and LeOra. Thank you for your precious love and memories. We are doing our best to live worthy to be with you again.

From Jakob and Rhea

From Jakob and Rhea