So I looked at the date from yesterdays post but realized I must have clicked "publish post" right as the clock struck midnight. It was a late night. I was hanging out with friends, just talking. Doing nothing but talking. It was nice. What was even nicer was the conversations that took place. They were more than shallow stuff. Stuff about the spirit, experiences shared at the Temple, inspiration shared, good stuff like that.

This has been a very lllllllllooooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg week. I will be very happy for this YW fundraiser to be over. The prep work really didn't take a lot of time, it's the emotional part that has been wearing. Sadly it's rolled over to all areas of my life. I hope families like their pictures, I pray the weather will work in our behalf, I pray children will be cooperative and happy, I pray the YW will show up on time with their many cookies for the families, I pray we'll earn enough money for girls camp and to have meaningful activities throughout the year. Most of all I pray families will walk away happy. Our fundraiser is this:
We have two photographers from the ward who are being more than gracious donating their time and talents to us by taking family pictures for each family in the ward that wanted to participate. A sweet member in the neighboring ward offered her beautiful 2 acre property for the pictures. A perfect set up, the good 'ol country in the background. It's like this kind of set up:


Each family will walk away with a CD full of many pictures of them and can take the CD home and edit the pictures or print as many as they would like. They will get all the shots from the photographer, all we're asking for is a $25 donation to help out with girls camp and other upcoming activities. I'm excited for it and I'll be excited when it's over. I'm hoping we can get a few good pics ourselves.

This week I was again reminded to be patient. If I allow it, this will be a trial I will deal with my entire life. If I learn now I can let go of it, embrace it and allow this "weak thing to become strong." I really hope I can learn soon. It's an emotional roller coaster that creeps up every so often and I don't enjoy it. I must learn to love as Christ loves and allow Him to humble and heal my heart. I must learn to embrace the ________ and love _________. I'm only hurting myself and making myself miserable. I was on my knees last night about this exact situation and the spirit testified boldly the answer I needed to hear. Oddly enough the answer came from something I repeat each week with the YW. It now has taken on a whole new meaning. I'm not a mushy type of person and he's not perfect, but I can't be more thankful for Pops in times like these. He truly understands and respects my feelings and offers encouragement. He knows what to say and how to help and more importantly kindly reminds me what I need to be doing to help this trial become a strength.

Wow...that was hard...putting my feelings out there for everyone to see. But we're all human right? We all have things we deal with in life or need to work on regularly.

Today I took Crate for a walk. I listened to General Conference again. The same talks I listened to last week. Pops told me his feelings about Elder Bednar's talk. So I listened to that one again today. Then tonight we briefly talked about it. I'm glad we're on the same page...most of the time. Raising children is a major responsibility and we must do our part. NOTHING else can get in the way. I hope I remember this talk when I'm really tired and just want to get the boys in bed. Or when I just want a quick 3 min FHE on a Monday night. I must not leave the raising of my children up to anybody but me. Especially on spiritual matters. Most importantly I must be in tune myself to receive direction and inspiration for them.