The Simple Woman's Daybook~ Family Time!

Outside my window.......it is a beautiful sunny and very warm day in St. George, Utah.

I am thinking...that I am so happy I came down to St. George to see my Sister in law and her family. This is the family of my brother who recently passed away. 

I came down with my sweet daughter Christina and her children. They are off having fun with her mother in law and sister in law's family. It's been a quiet day but there is a family dinner planned for this evening. It will be a lively bunch here tonight.

I am thankful...that we were able to be safe on our trip down here. My husband and I had a prayer together and also my daughter's family had a prayer for safety before we left from home. 
We left on Tuesday for St. George and when we arrived at my sister in law's home as I went to remove my suitcase from a rack that was on the back of our car; I found that my suitcase was burnt on the one side facing into the car. It had melted clear inside the suitcase and I lost several items such as a blow dryer, curling iron and etc. If the suitcase had started on fire it could have been really bad, The exhaust pipes in the back of the car were blowing out hot exhaust onto my suitcase. We certainly had Guardian Angels on this trip.

In the kitchen...I am not in charge. Tonight we are having a family get together for a dinner of Pizza and salad. It should be a fun evening of relaxation and good conversation between the aunts, cousins and their children. I am hoping my older grandchildren will share a few songs. One of my granddaughters can play the Ukulele. 

I am wearing...a blue and black blouse, black Capri pants and black slippers.

I am creating...my temple schedule for Saturday and this blog post.

I am going.... home tomorrow. If we can get a way soon enough I plan to go through my hometown in Richfield, Utah and visit my Aunt and then visit my parents grave site and leave some flowers for the past Memorial Day. 

I am wondering...why life is so complicated. It seems like there is always some kind of struggle going on in all of our lives. I wish sometimes we had a little break from the stresses of life. There are moments of joy of course, and I feel I am very blessed; but life seems so hard sometimes. I have wonderful children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that I love deeply. We have a very large posterity and I feel in general all of them are going in the right direction and living good lives. However, I also see that Satan is very busy trying to destroy our families and he is working overtime to do so. Each of my children and their families have some kind of a struggle going on. Some of the issues are health related, some are financial, and some are emotional and spiritual concerns. I spend a lot of time on my knees pleading with my Heavenly Father to be ever aware of the individual trials that they are facing in the world of today. I know that we are sent here to learn and to progress and it will only happen through life experiences. Our families are the training environment for learning about love, faith, forgiveness and etc. Here we learn the attributes of Christ when we try to pattern our lives after Him. Our homes are the place to learn these characteristics. Satan, of course knows the plan and will do everything within his power to make our family life chaotic. His great plan is to destroy families and I think he is doing just that. I just pray that my children and grandchildren will not allow him any time to influence them for evil purposes.  

I am reading...the Book of Mormon as always. I am also trying to read the Sunday School lessons from the Bible. I am a bit behind on these lessons. 

I am enjoying the book entitled: "Refined By Christ" by Toni Sorenson. 

I read her book Defined by Christ and have loved her writings and especially her life experiences. This is a wonderful book and very uplifting. 

I am also reading a novel entitled: The Winds And The Waves, by Dean Hughes.

 I am really getting into this one. It is a series book. It is basically a pioneer story, which I love those. It's a little different because he is telling the story of young man who desires to come to Zion in America after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1840's. He then shares a parallel story of this young man's future great great grandson in our day facing modern day problems. It is interesting and I find it is giving me a unique perspective of pioneer life vs. life today.

I am hoping...that my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be prepared for the onslaught of the events of the last days. I pray that they will learn to know and feel the spirit in their lives. They will need the Holy Ghost to be there as their guide as they travel the pathways of life. This life isn't easy at times but I am glad I am not a pioneer. I don't know if I could do what they did. 

I am looking forward to...our upcoming family reunion. I am excited to be with all of our family. There will be 48 total plus 4 others. We are having it this year at Bear Lake. It isn't a long reunion but hopefully a meaningful one. It is so awesome to have the family all together. I hope we can get a good family picture. We will have just one person missing; it is our dear grandson, Jackson who is serving a mission for our church in Omaha, Nebraska. 

I am learning.....how to be more patient with myself and others. I have a fiery personality at times and I am learning how to temper that. It's kind of sad in a way that being a grandmother is easier than being a mom because I have learned to be a better listener and more patient. I guess motherhood was the training ground to learn how to be a better grandmother. 

Around the house...my sister in law works so I have just been enjoying a very peaceful environment. In fact, I have not listened to the radio or watched TV since I have been here. I haven't had a house this quiet in a very long time. I kind of like these moments but I wouldn't want it this way for a long time. I just can't imagine the loneliness that my sweet sister feels since losing my brother.  She is such a delightful sister and I have plans for us to become even closer. 

I am pondering...on what kind of message I should give in the Preparation meeting at the temple on Saturday. I have been thinking about it all and I think I will have my two granddaughters write down their feelings about the Kansas City Temple celebration that they were in and then share a few other thoughts.

A favorite quote for today...

One of my favorite things...is doing and finding family histories. My grandson that is serving a mission in Omaha, Nebraska asked me to send him 4 ancestor conversion stories for a Zone Conference he is going to. I was worried about where to find the stories. I went in on Family Search and looked in a new area of this site and found  6 wonderful stories about our pioneer ancestors. Take a moment and look for your ancestors; it is amazing what you can find on this site.I was so excited to send these off to him. I plan to do more work in this area. 

A few plans for the rest of the week: Drive home to South Jordan tomorrow - Work in the temple on Saturday - Spend some quality time with my daughter and her children over the weekend - Enjoy a sweet Sabbath day with them. 

A peek into my day... I had a sweet day of peaceful reflection and a chance to meditate and pray about my family. Then there was a great family celebration tonight. These cousins have not been together for a very long time. It was a precious moment of time.

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Enjoy reading and perhaps join the fun!