Parenting Plee

I think us as parents want our kids to have everything in the world, or give our kids more than what we had to make them happy.  But what happens when we do that? I feel like we get entitled children, and ungrateful children!  Maybe I have gone about it all wrong.  I have tried teaching my kids responsibility, given them jobs and payed them for taking part in the family, and then when they have asked for stuff, I told them they needed to use their own money. So why do they continue to not value things or privileges we have given them?  Maybe they need more responsibility?  Maybe then need more love?  Maybe they need more consequences?  I really don't have the answer, but I do know is that I want my kids to be grateful children, less fighting, more responsibility, because I feel like if we can accomplish that, then there is greater reward.
After a morning of tantrums and issues with Christmas countdowns, I decided I was not going to be their mom for the morning. I made them get themselves ready, ie, breakfast, lunches, hair, teeth! The whole shebang, I thought, I need to make them do this for themselves more often, but then a part of me feels guilty that I  am not being a good mom, but then I realized, I am because I am teaching them to be self sufficient.  Now, I still think I will make their breakfast, because I want to be with them in the morning and make sure they start their day of right.  But I do think I will let them make their own lunches.  When my 7 year old left this morning he couldn't find his lunch box, he used his little thinking cap and ended up using a plastic bag instead to  contain his food because he couldn't find his lunch box.  I was proud of Callie and Curran though because even though they had free rair for their lunch, they still packed a regular lunch, with a sandwich, chips, fruit, etc.  I was proud of that.  It's another moment I realized I have taught them something and it actually stuck.  I also was proud that they were panicking to make sure they got out the door in time for school so they weren't late. 
Anyway, my point to all of this is I don't think we will ever have all of the answers, but we need to be grateful for what we do have, and that it's ok to let go sometimes as moms and not worry that our kids went to school in mis matched clothes or a little bit unruly hair.  It is teaching our kids responsibility and to be self sufficient and think for themselves.  And we don't need to feel guilty for not doing everything for our kids, in the end I feel like we are doing them more favors by letting them choose and learn from their choices, we just need to coach them along.

Our Trips To Sea World

We ended up getting passes to Sea World this year and we have LOVED it.  We have averaged going about once a month.  Curran's and Conrad's favorite part, every time we go are 'The Ray's"  they LOVE seeing and petting the sting rays.  Callie's favorite part is actually the roller coaster, Manta!  She is just a little bit of a Roller Coaster Junkie, (that's what I call her).  She LOVES roller coasters.  Its so funny to take her on the ride because she just giggles the whole time.  It's so cute!  Clint's favorite part is Shamu, all the way!  He is so amazed by these ginormous, beautiful animals.  I love it all.  I just love spending the time with my family and watching their reactions to things.

Pioneer Trek 2015

This amazing Trek Family of mine was amazing!  They changed my life forever!  Clint and I were asked just 3 weeks before Trek started.  So we had to pull a lot together in a short amount of time. 

Day 1:  

We met at the church that morning and gathered and met our families.  We played some get to know you games, made our family flag, ate lunch, then loaded the buses and took off up to the Ranch.

A little later that afternoon we made it to the Ranch, had a pow wow on how to use the wagon carts, and how to load our carts.  We discovered really fast that our kids brought a lot of stuff and we had a hard time loading it all in.  And the next morning when they brought it all back to us, they didn't load it the same, so it was even harder to load and we had to keep re fixing it.  Lol!!!

We only walked about 3 1/2 miles that day, but it was actually harder than I was expecting.  Pushing and pulling a hand cart is harder than it looks.  I had done trek when I was 17.  But I was the "Wagon Master"  It wasn't in a family and I didn't have to pull a handcart.  (I was also in better shape).  I could feel our family start bonding day 1 and that was fun.  Our kids names were, Tait, Viloet, Linoui, Spencer, Gigi, Bailey, Kassidy, Triannon, Michael, Clint and Myself.  

We pulled into camp that night and ate pasta and rolls.  It was the best food I've ever eaten.  ( actually every meal we ate on trek was my favorite meal.)

They had us sleep boys on one side of this clearing that we layed straw over to sleep on and girls on the other side.  That night after lights went out, they pretended to have a mobing to show us what the pioneers went through all the time while on the trail to the Promise Land.

It rained that night, well actually it was more of a sprinkle. Nobody slept, but we all sure as heck tried.  I was warm as long as I was in my sleeping bag, but once I got out I was frozen.  We were up in a cloud and it was misting and sooooooo cold.  And of course nobody had jackets, so everyone was using sleeping bags to stay warm.

Day 2:

Like I said, we woke up in a cloud and it was SOOOOOO cold.  We did get french toast and tang for breakfast and it was so yummy.  They had a mock tarring and feathering.  It was pretty interesting.  They also had an actor playing Portor Rockwell come and talk to us.  He was Joseph Smith's body guard.  It was really cool to hear his stories.  Today was a long day.  We walked about 7 miles that day and by the end of the day it was exhausting.   I loved the activities they have a long the way and the talks because they talked about different aspects of what the pioneers went through and things they did.  We got to sleep on grass that night, although a little wet, it was nice. 

Day 3:

We didn't walk too far this day either but we did play a lot of pioneer games and everyone had the chance to go swim in water if they wanted too.  We did had a trial run where they had us cross through water.  It was pretty cool and nice and refreshing.  I sure loved my family at this point.  We sang a lot of songs, played games.  and we I loved walking individually with each of them to get to know them better.

Day 4:  This day stared out with the Women's Pull which was the one thing I was looking forward to more than anything else on this trip.  I knew it was going to be hard, and I knew these kids were going to need to understand the importance of the Priesthood.  Except I think I got more out of it than they did.  When they pulled the men away, I lost it.  It was so hard to watch my husband walk away and the boys in my family.  We sang "till we meet again" and It all felt so surreal.  I got the girls all set up on our card and we did so awesome.  It wasn't as hard as I was hoping it would be, but there was one point where we had to have 2 families of girls pulling one cart at a time.  Once we got  it up that fill, we had NO idea what was up ahead.  The last mile was a mile, STRAIGHT. UP. HILL! and oh my gosh.  It was so hard.  I had no idea what to expect and we didn't have water.  At this point we weren't in families and just had to get as many people as possible just to get up that hill.  There were so many of the guys that went down that hill time and time again grabbing carts and pulling them up that hill.  Clint and I sat about a 1/4 mile from the finish with a spray bottle spraying  people coming up that hill.  It was so hot.  They called that hill Testimony hill. and let me tell you, it was for sure.  It was so hard but putting Faith in every footstep.

We got to our ending destination and it had lunch and then had Testimony meeting with our families.  The Spirit was soooo strong.  We had kids that were so touched by this whole experience it was incredible.  We had a non member in our group from ethiopia and it was amazing to listen to him say he understands what it means to have "Faith in Every Footstep"

On the first day we gave the kids in our family a monkey ball fist necklace and gave them the analogy of needing to let go of things in order to grow.  Then each day we gave them 2 washers that represented an attribute we felt was important to getting the whole meaning of trek. We had:

Love

Strength

Endure

Attitude

Honor

Faith

Courage

Family

This experience was incredible.  We came home so dirty but I am so glad I got to do this with Clint.  I feel like it bonded us and I would do it again.  I loved it so much.  We had the kids focus on the tender mercies that they noticed along the trail because we were surrounded by them and it was  incredible to notice what the kids would come up for tender mercies.  

So grateful for this incredible experience.