Easy To Love

I try to tell people all the time who are in our village thank you for loving us! And all the time people tell me that Keagan and Riley are super easy to love. Obviously for me, loving them is like breathing. But I really appreciate others who show them love and support. We will take all of it that we can get! I know their little hearts just eat it right up. That is why I am always looking for ways to show them my unfailing, unconditional love.

Riley’s love language is physical touch and quality time. I can cuddle with that girl and be silly with her for a little bit and her love bucket is full to the top, and so is mine quite frankly. But Keagan is a little bit more challenging. Her love language is gifts, words of affirmation and quality time. I am normally pretty good about words of affirmation but being a financially just getting by single mom, I often struggle with the gifts. She doesn’t at all need expensive gifts but little tokens and things mean a lot to her. She also loves my complete undivided attention and I can often be distracted by, you know, life. I multi task too much and focus on planning ahead way too often when she is all but begging for my attention. I am so guilty of that and always regret it. 

Last weekend I felt Keagan feeling a little disconnected. She is scared about her upcoming trip to Hawaii, (the unknown and something that has been talked about for so long can be scary,) she is definitely having a growth spurt because she is hungry all the time and she has been a little tired from all our summer fun. So this week I tried really hard to naturally create moments with her where her bucket would be filled. 

On Monday and Wednesday we cooked together. Yes I do cook sometimes, shocking I know. On Tuesday after she got thru another dental appointment and kept her title of never having a cavity, I took her to Dairy Queen for ice cream while Riley was at the French’s being loved by Reagan. I ohhed and awed over her current iPad game of choice and that she has finally figured out how to blow a bubble with her gum (by the way that is SO gross! I HATE gum, but she loves it.) We laughed at her cutting a watermelon for the first time and then marveled that she loves eating the white part of it. We had a late night waffle date together, remember I said she is always hungry lately? And we had a really special experience on Wednesday night when she came to Young Womens with me. We were in the Family History library and I was showing her all her ancestors in her family tree and sharing pictures and stories of them. Then we did some searching as her family tree is sparse on her dads, dad side, and we found information and immigration records on her great, great grandfather Kazuji Kikuchi and his wife Yasu Ito. She was SO excited! Plus we did our usual teasing and cuddling throughout the week so my love bucket is overflowing, and I’m just praying hers is too!  

This week we also had a ton of fun! Some of the darling Young Women in my Ward hosted a craft camp  to raise money for one of them to do a humanitarian EFY trip to Peru. Maddie Ivey, Rachel Carey and Clair Hudson were so sweet and fun! It was each morning for two hours and to make it even better Avery and another cute girl Lily Mayer made up the small class. They made marbled bowls, a face mask and sugar scrub, a wreath, a necklace and bracelet, bath bombs and their flowered initials. Keags and Rys loved it and that ends our summer camps this year. 

Also this week, we finally did something I have wanted to do for years! The Lakes treated us to almost 5 hours of fun at the Rob Flemming Aquatic Park. It is a miniature water park with just two water slides, a play structure, a lazy river and pools. We really had a fantastic time! And we totally wore ourselves out too! We are really thankful for our friendship with the Lakes and how easy and fun it is to spend time together! 

I really wish my sweet girls could just peer into my heart and see how they own every last piece of it! But until that is possible I will try REALLY hard to not be so distracted by life and just keep covering their faces with kisses, having the best conversations about the most random things and creating memories together. I know we did a lot of that this week! Occasionally I do something right, but mostly they are just easy to love! 

Camp Buckaroo #2

Yesterday I got a whole bunch more pictures from Camp Buckaroo. I had thought my last post was sufficient at first but then I saw how great a lot of these pics are! So here is Camp Buckaroo Pics #2.

Grateful and Terrified

I spoke in church today and I was terrified and grateful at the same time. Mormons do a unique thing where members of the congregation are given a topic and asked to speak in front of the rest of the congregation for 10-15 minutes at our main Sunday meeting called Sacrament Meeting. Well it was my turn today, which Coach actually tricked me into saying yes to, but it went off without a hitch and I’m thrilled I am off the hook for awhile now. Before hand I was absolutely terrified but I think I got my point across because it was something I feel strongly about. The topic was gratitude and this blog is for my girls to read in the future so I thought documenting this would be great for that. So if you decide to keep reading just picture me standing at the pulpit actually having a good hair day and saying all of this...

So a little about me. I grew up here in the Klein Ward even went to Doerre and Klein High School, go Bearkats! I graduated from BYU Provo, I was married in the Salt Lake Temple and my ex-husband and I moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, which is where my twin girls Keagan and Riley were born. But even though they were born there they are definitely Texas girls because the 3 of us moved back here when they were about 3 months old. They are 9 almost 10 now and are going into the 4th grade. I cannot believe they are about to hit double digits! Lots of kids in primary ask them if they are homeschooled because they don’t go to Theiss. I actually work at another elementary school in Klein and they come to school with me. 

Riley is Special Needs and Medically fragile. She has 23 medical diagnoses. Her primary diagnosis is a rare brain malformation that you have probably never heard of. But she has lots of other things that you have heard of like cerebral palsy, asthma, epilepsy, a congenital heart disease, etc. And she is a total rock star. They both are! Both girls were born as micro preemies, Riley weighed 1 pound 14 ounces and Keagan was 3 pounds 7 ounces. They were both sick and Keagan had heart surgery when she was 4 days old, so they are both such miracles. In fact I was told Riley would never walk or accomplish anything in her life. I was told she would need a heart transplant. We were told that she was probably going to go deaf. There has literally been miracle after miracle with that sweet girl and to say we are grateful is a huge understatement! They are both my beautiful miracles!

 

So we count our blessings in our family! Like literally. It's kind of my thing. And when I say count my blessings I seriously count things like toilet paper, air conditioning, and cinnamon bears. I mean really, how much better is my life with those things? I have always been a bloom where you’re planted kind of girl- its actually the title of my blog. I was sent from the Lord with the glass is a little more then half full kind of attitude and as always the Lord sure knew what he was doing because He knew I was going to need that! You see, I don’t know about yours, but my life did not turn out as planned at all! I’m 39 and I live with my mother for heavens sakes! I’m divorced and a single mom, my dad lost a battle with cancer over 10 years ago that he was supposed to win, I have a child who faces extreme challenges that I can’t fix, I work hard and barely scrape by, and my hair has a mind of its own! I mean these are all things that weren’t in my plans. But  instead of counting the downfalls I count the blessings, and that makes all the difference! This is probably my main lesson I try to teach our Young Women. This is not the life I thought I would have and every day can be hard. But it is a big beautiful life and I have SO much joy! As long as I stay close to the Lord and as long as I remain grateful, I will be happy!

It was the very wise Albus Dumbledore that said “Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” And to me that is exactly what gratitude does. It is the light that illuminates the darkness. But if you don’t like Harry Potter quotes, maybe you will appreciate a quote from one of my other favorites. President Uchtdorf said “You can chose to be grateful no matter what.” If you reslisten to that great General Conference talk he emphasizes choose. I definitely believe it is a choice. 

 

Lots of choices are hard, really hard. Even ones we know we should make. Life is messy and complicated. Its full of trials and hardship and in the middle of our darkest days it is incredibly hard to hear an admonition to be grateful. So I believe if we are used to being grateful, if we typically cultivate an attitude of gratitude even on our very best of days and times, then it will be second hand to do so on our worst days and times. And again that gratitude will make all the difference! 

 

One day, two kids were walking down the street together. They passed a garden full of plants and bushes. One child pointed to a bush and said, "It's too bad that rosebushes have thorns."  The other child looked at the same bush and said, "It's so wonderful that thorn-bushes have roses!"

If the two kids were looking at the same bush why do you think they said two different things? One child was looking at the beauty of the plant and feeling happy. The other looked at the one thing wrong with the plant and felt sad.  The difference is gratitude. 

 

In the October 2010 general conference, President Monson gave a talk titled "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." He said a joyful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for his blessings.

"Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God's love,” That’s some good stuff! I would like those kind of blessings in my life! Wouldn’t you? 

Ok if you don’t want to believe me, then I mean our leaders have all told us over and over again that gratitude will bring about great things in our lives! I mean seriously yall listen to this list of blessings that choosing gratitude can bring into each of our lives!

President Joseph F Smith said gratitude “begets love and friendship, and brings divine influence.”

 

President Faust said “It helps us develop such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love and well-being.”

 

Elder Hales said it “has a wonderful cleansing or healing nature and brings warmth to the giver and the receiver alike.”

 

President Gordon B Hinckley said it “is of the very essence of worship.”

 

Don’t these all just sound amazing? Aren’t these all blessings that you would be so grateful to have?

 

Sister Bonnie D Parkin said gratitude “inspires happiness and carries divine influence.” 

 

Sister Virginia H Pearce said “it fights disappointment, discouragement and despair.”

 

Rosemary M Wixom said “it heightens our sensitivity to divine direction and fills us with the Spirit of the Lord.”

 

Elder Richard G Scott said “It dispels loneliness and heartache.”

 

Elder Joseph B Wirthlin said gratitude “is a healing balm. It helps us get outside ourselves. It changes our focus from our pains and our trials to the abundance of this beautiful world we live in."

 

I mean really I could go on and on with these. Having gratitude and choosing to be grateful AND expressing it to our Heavenly Father does SO many wonderful things for us! 

 

How many times have you heard the advice to take lemons and make lemonade? It is rather clique but it really is great advice! To make lemonade you need three things right? Well we all have lemons in our life! That’s for sure! Unfortunately none of us are going to get thru life without trail and hardships. The next ingredient is water and there is nothing better then the living water otherwise known as Jesus Christ. He is the base of our sweet lemonade and without him nothing is possible. And finally you need sugar. Well I believe gratitude is the sweetener of life. Its actually one of my favorite sayings, when life gets sour, sweeten it with gratitude. 

 

So we need to ask ourselves, do we want lemons or do we want lemonade? I know my answer! I also know that every single one of us here could make a long list of trials, struggles, worries and things ailing us right at this very moment. But man I sure hope that we could make a much, much, much longer list of our blessings and the things we are grateful for! In doing so I can echo the voice of all our leaders and proclaim:  PLEASE chose gratitude because in doing so you will chose happiness and Joy. 

 

Before church...

During church with a Maddox! 

After church! They sure crack me up!

Camp Buckaroo

Camp Buckaroo is a very special place. When you have an amazing organization like Easter Seals and they invite all kinds of special needs kids and their siblings to come have fun, be themselves, celebrate their differences, learn new things, and did I mention have fun, then you have a receipe for something magic! 

Even after missing two days because of the dumb weather, Keagan and Riley had a phenomenal time at camp again this year! They each loved their buddies/counselors! Riley had the very sweet Mrs Lisa and Keagan had a special treat with Ms Megan who has cerebral palsy like Riley and has the most amazing technology to use her eye gaze to communicate with an iPad! They were both so sweet and helpful just like all the other volunteers, interns, director and special guests! And of course the girls were thrilled to see old friends from years past and make new ones! 

I wouldn’t even try to pretend I can list all the fun things they did, but I’ll give it a shot with...super hero training/self defense, pet therapy, karate, Zumba, karaoke, dance parties, Muffy the Clown, Toms Fun Band, Journey of Hope, Safari Stop, exploring outside, games, songs, puzzles, snacks and crafts! It doesn’t get much better then that! And today ended with an awards ceremony where Mrs Lisa gave Riley the “Future Race Car Driver” award since she loved playing with the steering wheel so much and and Megan gave Keagan the “Super Puzzler” award for being so great at puzzles! Each girl also got their new shirt and the scrapbooks they had made, hence pictures of a picture which is annoying but necessary. 

So now we will probably not be able to get Riley’s new camp shirt off her for the next month and I know neither girl will let go of the fun memories forever! They are even already looking forward to next year! If that doesn’t say how great Camp Buckaroo was I’m not sure what would!