Winter Blues

Jake left for a school in Kansas at the beginning of January and was gone until the end of April. And with 5 kids and an old dog who all needed my love and attention; I was in for a challenge. Parenting is hard even with a coparent, but doing it on my own has been tough. I learned how to really rely on the Savior and trust Him. He helped me find strengths that I didn't even know that I had. He comforted me when all I wanted to do was cry and He helped me learn to let go of a lot of expectations/guilt/pressure that I was putting on myself. I'm writing this after Jake is here back with us, so I can look back and say that I am grateful for this challenge. I have grown A LOT. I'm proud of who I am and who I am becoming. I'm proud that I kept my kids healthy and growing.

But I also want to say thank you to so many angels in my life, because I had lots of support from friends, family, my councilor and neighbors and I am so grateful for everyone. These angels did answer prayers and came when I needed them the most. Here's some things that helped me grow (In no particular order): 1. I kept a journal everyday. 2. I prayed A LOT. 3. I used all the help that was offered to me, and sometimes asked for more help. 4. I used my nightly prayers as a time to forgive myself and to let go of the guilt for things that I felt I hadn't handled well. Then I let myself move on, and focus on the new day. 5. I tried to start every morning by greeting my kids happily and thanking them for something they had done the previous day. 6. We started a new tradition each night of saying something positive about the person next to us before family prayer. My kids even remind me know if we forget, "Mom, we didn't do circle!" 7. I took breaks and got babysitters a lot more often. January Events: We hiked to a new waterfal and tried tofu doughnuts.

I celebrated the New Year with my culture club and went to a Daruma Festival.

We went to the Shinigawa Maxwell Aquapark, where we saw a cool dolphin show wich included lights and water works.

Kai started school for his speech therapy. I love his little backpack. He loves going.

We changed rooms, so instead of all sharing a room the older two are together and the younger two are together. I am happy to say that we moved all our furniture on our own while in COVID quarantine (we had very mild symptoms, so we sere feeling pretty good to do some room moving). We made sure to jump on the beds a little while we set them up.

Louis made me a pumpkin/smores birthday cake (with some help):

And we made some memories at home: