By His Grace I Can.

I am SO very grateful that I hit an all time low in the Fall of 2017 so that I was willing to seek the help I needed. I really don't think I would have been up to being pregnant again or welcoming this sweet little man in to our family had it not been for the medical, mental, emotional and spiritual progress I've been helped to make since then. I'll be eternally grateful ♥️ After my therapy appointment last Friday I headed back to my van and through tears thanked my Heavenly Father for the gift that therapy has been. I've said it before and I will say it forever, it has been life-changing. I now see each day as a gift to live. My anxiety is most often replaced with calm and conscious choices and intentionally taking on my opportunities. I feel so much more love for my children and truly take joy in being with them. I look forward to using my gifts to bring beauty in to the world, to bless the lives of others and help them recognize their gifts. My priorities have be

In the last decade or so I have come to realize that creativity is one of my God-given gifts or as my therapist would say, timeless traits. I often feel inspired with visions for projects and guided along the way as I bring the idea to life. After our son was born, with the Christmas season coming, I envisioned putting together some sort of photo nativity representation of our family.  I collect Nativity scenes and thought this would be a sweet souvenir to display each year. I decided that I'd take individual photos so that so that it wouldn't be a stressful event with trying to get all of us ready and in the picture at the same time.  And in order for each person to have a moment to imagine them self at the manger on that miraculous night.  Our youngest daughter (3 going on 4 yrs old) has a golden color of hair and I knew she'd be perfect as the angel. I excitedly helped her get on her golden dress, curled her hair and put on some sparkly makeup (she LOVES to dress

It has been eight weeks since our little guy was born.   Today while driving up the hill, after dropping off my daughter [late] for preschool, the thought came to me how crazy life is right now.   I started thinking about the last year and realizing that everything about this last child has been harder than I imagined.   Honestly I figured it being our 5 th child, God would make it really easy on us.   But the pregnancy was one of my hardest, his birth was definitely the most challenging, postpartum has been a roller coaster physically and a consistent and “normal” life continues to feel out of reach.   As a small (yet important) caveat I will say that emotionally and mentally I’ve never been better after having a baby.   I told my husband tonight that it feels like there is a veil of patience and calm over me.   Daily situations that would have completely overwhelmed and upset me have barely been ruffling me.   That being said, things do feel challenging and it got me think

I haven't posted in awhile because life has been filled with projects, Amazon prime, food, family and the holidays but especially all things baby-- Our little man came the day before Thanksgiving! He was due on 24 November, but with frequent contractions all month I was sure that he would come early.  Every time I thought the contractions would increase in intensity and frequency and that we'd be heading to the hospital, I started to worry about who would be there to help us out during his birth.  For most of the month the majority of my family was out of the country.  In my head, I kept running through "what ifs" and scenarios, trying to figure out "the best" timing.  Finally one day while reading the Book of Mormon, I felt prompted to let it go and trust in God's timing.  It was pressed upon my mind that He had long decided when our baby's birthday would be.  He had already arranged who would be there to support me and He would take care of ev