The Long Road Home Week 3

 

It truly has been a long road home, but oh what a lovely road it has been! This whole week all four of our children and all five of our grandchildren stayed together at a mighty cabin at Bear Lake, Idaho!

Highlights include stick ball, wading, and kayaking at the lake

 Dance parties every day. Each one hosted by a different family!

Games, Pinewood Derby, Crafts, art delicious food, silly talent shows,

and good conversations go carts and family prayers.

Half way through the beautiful week my lower back blew out. 

It was excruciating. But I pushed through and tried to participate as best I could.

I was pleading with the Lord to take it away so I could enjoy my family.

 Instead he allowed me to enjoy my family despite my pain.

This week in my devotionals I read a conference talk by Emily Belle Freeman called "

Best days Worst Days. 

A particular quote really resonated with me. 

It's true. I hope you're finding ways to bring Jesus into your life every hour!

Finally, “Jesus Christ brings joy. … You might have a bad day, a bad week, or a bad year. [Just remember,] joy is not the absence of sorrow in your life; [it is] the presence of [Jesus] Christ in your life.”

Emily Belle Freeman.

Until next week!

We love you.

The long road home week 2

 

We left the Grand Canyon Monday morning and drove to Eagle Mountain, UT. We stopped briefly to visit my sister,Jo, in Springville, UT and our friends the Wises from our mission. They left before us. It was so great to see them

So this week we have enjoyed doing homework with the girls, moving and making grow boxes, laying pavers, assembling a green house, and planting baby plants

In the book of Joshua in the Old testament Joshua was in his 80s saying he was as strong still as he was in his forties! It was because of his great trust in the Lord and his faithfulness. As we worked in the heat and altitude we felt strong, and knew the Lord was blessing us. Keeping covenants restores our strength!

We also took naps😁. Highlight of the week was playing games with Calen and Spring when the girls went to bed and making mud pies and goo stew with Caluna.

Today Autumn's family flys in and Ben's family and Ephraim drive in late tonight. The Eagles are gathering for a week of frolick at the Cullen family reunion at Bear Lake.

We love you all. Have a great week.

The long road home week 1

 We arrived at Ben's and Courtnie's house on Saturday night. Sunday morning was mother's day and Ben had a wonderful breakfast for me and Courtnie. I felt loved.

At 3pm we zoomed with our stake president and we're officially released and took off our badges. We felt normal. Probably because we were "all in" missionaries before our mission. Lol. So business as usual without the badges.

Ephraim came over that night and helped make a lamb feast for us! Our boys are so nurturing. It was a delight

We really loved spending time with Wells. He's so daring on his bike!!! And he's a little farm boy.

We're currently in Tuba City. The last few days we've been to the Cliff dweller ruins

And the Grand Canyon!! It's astounding. Truly.

It was very satisfying to play my native flute in the beauty of both canyons.

Today we went to church in the Navajo ward. I loved their family history board.

If you want the blessings of family history in your life, let me know. We'll get you on your way.

Love you all. See you here next week.

There and Back again:week 79: Going, going, Gone

 

Wow, it really happened. We finished well and packed well. Our friends came and helped us clean. We drove away Saturday morning. Elder Cullen did not know I was taking this picture of him staring at the jail. Staring and staring....We are going to miss being on a mission.  We wrote this song for our friends.It all seems like a Dream

We had our last dinner with friends, after two weeks of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with people who wanted one last time together. 

So many cards, small gifts, and expressions of love. We had our surry ride with Sawatskis because they are leaving too. It's so bitter sweet. So fun to go home so sad to leave people you have labored beside

You love the people you serve! We all served each other. 

The song we wrote really said what we felt. This has been a lovely experience.

The NEW temple visitors center will be dedicated June 27 in Nauvoo, we're sorry to miss that and all the fun of Pageant Season. You MUST go visit Nauvoo and Carthage. We highly recommend it.

So we're spending Mother's Day with our sons, Ben (Courtnie) and Ephraim  in Kansas City and will hang out here for a week.

Then two family reunions in Utah and time with Autumn (Aaron) and Spring (Calen). We'll be in California around June 10ish.

On to the next great Adventure!!

There and Back Again: Week 78 Stress Management

 

I have researched and taught stress management for decades. I know I can do hard things. I'm good at planning ahead. I can tell that, notwithstanding my knowledge of stress management, that I am under immense stress. 

Everything that is happening right now scores very high on the stress scale. Did you know  stress is just a response to change?

Any change causes stress. Marriage, Divorce, winning the lottery, going bankrupt, getting a great job, starting school, ending school,  loosing a friend, etc., all cause stress. 

Good stress is called Eustress. Bad stress is called distress.  Their effect on the body is THE SAME, it's our reaction to the stress that makes the difference.

So what is the change in our lives? Hmmmm. Let me mention a few but not all...leaving our mission, starting a new life as truly retired people, moving, packing, deep cleaning, leaving our covenant community friends,

 wondering what if anything has changed with our friends back home, going on another mission ( yes, we want to die in the saddle), renting our house and coming back to it, how will we find it?, should we buy a second home nearer our children? On and on....the thoughts swirl in our heads.

So what do we do to support ourselves in the chaos of change? We hold to the schedules and patterns we can control, Morning prayer and Scripture study, taking naps, evening prayers and Scripture study, listening to or playing great music, 

spending quality time in individual or small groups with our friends to say goodbye, stick to the schedule of providing activities.. like the soap making class I taught this week.

work work work to exercise and keep our blood flowing to sweat out and purge via the liver all of our stress toxins (those are real), eating healthy, working with my housing friends

 taking herbal tea, letting myself cry and cry, because that also releases toxins and feels so good when you are done. Attending the temple is a huge stress relief.

Humor is also a great tool for dealing with stress. For example I may have laughed a bit too loud 

when I was mowing and this webby worm dropped down from a tree and swung in front of my face. LOL the joy of knowing, I will be gone when these guys attack in force! Stay on the sunny side!