Life Is A Gift

My last post was about my little friend Sadie Huish. The Huish family is amazing! Now there is another family close to my heart who is now facing the unimaginable. Then Nelsons. http://nelsonsforever.blogspot.com

I am so grateful for each day that Heavenly Father gives me to learn and grow from these little ones. I'm grateful for the joy that I get from being a wife, mother, sister, daughter and teacher and friend. At times like these, I remember how important it is to not waste the life that I have been given.

I saw a moment of a tv show the other day where a lady visited a family for a week. She was given a vase that was painted by the children as a "going away present". The visitor gave it back and then told the children she didn't have room for it in her luggage. The pain on those kids faces broke my heart.

Heavenly Father has given us the gift of life. When we make room for Him in our lives (suitecases), he will bless us.

Celebrating Sadie

Sadie

Our amazing class

I have the privilege of being a preschool teacher to the best of God’s children. It amazes me at how blessed I am to be able to spend my days with these little ones. One of these little ones is Sadie. I will never forget meeting Sadie and her dimpled smile. It was contagious. And then I heard her giggle. I would try to say funny things just so I could hear it. If I could bottle up that giggle and sale it, I would be a rich woman and joy would fill the world.

This particular class that Sadie was a part of was crazy fun! I loved this class. Everyday was a new adventure. I never knew how one particular game or activity would evolve. Just a simple game of Duck Duck Goose would turn into something similar to what you would see on World Wrestling Entertainment. No matter how crazy things got, my class made me laugh every day. Sadie brought a perfect balance to our classroom. She was a peace maker and a spiritual giant. She would talk to all of us about how important it was to be nice to friends in our class. She would recite to me the Articles of Faith she was learning during Family Home Evening. I was impressed that someone her young age would even want to memorize something so hard for a four year old to understand. I think she understood. My own children had complained so much about learning the Articles of Faith that I gave up attempting to teach them. I was encouraged by Sadie’s example to try it again. We have learned many and are continuing to learn them because of Sadie.

Our little class seemed to change in March of last year when Sadie was diagnosed with brain stem cancer with a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (dipg). It is very rare and is in a spot where surgery or a biopsy isn't possible. There is no home run to treat this tumor -- the statistics attributed to this diagnosis are just heartbreaking. With all the treatments she was having, we didn’t see much of Sadie at preschool any more. There was a sad undertone in that class that we couldn’t seem to shake. We tried to be positive and happy knowing that Sadie may come back to class. We were thrilled when Sadie came to our field trip to the library. We talked often about Sadie and how much she meant to our class.

She touched so many lives with her desire as part of Make A Wish to meet our prophet Thomas S Monson. Her story was told on television between conference sessions of the LDS church last April. She became sort of a local celebrity as she held the title of Little Miss Eagle Mountain this past year. She and her family have touched so many lives as they battled this horrible disease with such strength and hope.

I wear the “Team Sadie” bracelet and talk about the sweet little girl and the vicious disease behind it. I will probably always wear it.

Yesterday I received a call that Sadie had passed away. How heartbreaking it is to not have her in all of our lives. But she has filled our hearts with love, hope and joy by just knowing her. She is truly an angel. We will miss you Sadie! Our prayers go out to her family as they begin to live there lives without her sweet spirit, her adorable giggle and her contagious smile.

Living A Balance Through Laundry

My mom told me today that I need to make more posts, so I am sitting down at the laptop in the kitchen and thinking ....what do I write about? The laundry room is just off the kitchen. I am looking at the dryer that has just gone off, and I tell myself, "I should probably get those clothes folded before they get wrinkled."

Ta Da...my subject: But let me fold the clothes first. BRB (Be Right Back)

I'm done! You know, I really don't like to do laundry. I don't ever get a break when it comes to laundry. It never seems to end. When we clean the toilets, at least we can say "Yes, I am done." Have you ever told yourself...."yes, all the laundry is done (washed, folded and put away)." Maybe you have (you also may need your head examined), but just as you say that, an item mysteriously shows up in that dreaded laundry basket. As the family gets bigger, so does the laundry. If you have kids that have accidents, even more laundry. Each day you don't do laundry is another day for it to pile up.

Laundry is never done in my house, However, in order to live in my house, you have to go through my Laundry 101 course. Part of that course includes an understanding that no one is to ever to touch any of mom's clothes. There also can not be anything in the dryer at 7:00 a.m. mostly because Trevor and Brooklyn like to heat up their clothes in the dryer before putting them on in the morning. When you live in a refrigerator like we do, you will understand. Because Preston, Megan and Trevor are older than 12, they must do their own laundry. Preston has Monday, Megan has Wednesday and Trevor has Friday....Ask me how many times they have done their laundry on their assigned day. If you can count to 1 then you got it.

My goal is to do two loads of laundry every day. I put a load in the washer at 5:00 a.m. and then another one around 7:00. Most days the clothes are washed dried and put away by 9:00 a.m. Today was an exception, because Nathan put a load in the washer when he got home from work. Nathan doesn't do laundry. So if he is doing it, the laundry situation has reached critical mass. It doesn't matter if there is only 2 loads to do or 12 loads to do, I only do 2. Eventually I will catch up. We have had guests these past two and half weeks, so taking care of them has taken precedence over the laundry.

I know lots of people who do all of their laundry in one day. I could not do 12 loads of laundry in one day. I would be so burned out, that you would have to throw me into a room with padded walls. I am a believer in slow and steady, steady and slow. It is all part of living a balance. Whatever your balance is, keep it up. At least we no longer have to wash our clothes on washboards.