The other day as we were driving to church Davin, my four year old, asked "Dad, why are we going to church?"  Garron replied, "Because this is the time we go to church." I could not hold my laugh in.  I turned to my husband and said "We go to church because this is the time we go?" He said, "Yes." I then said "Oh, it's not to take the Sacrament and renew our baptismal covenants, or to worship our Savior, or to learn, teach or share our Testimony?  You want our son to know we go to church because this is the time we go?" He replied "Those are good points too."  I started to think about Garron's response and realized his answer was actually a little profound and I should start living my life with that in mind...because this is the time.  

There are other things we could have done besides go to church.  We could have slept in, made a gourmet breakfast, spent time as a family playing games, cleaned the house...there were so many options, but it was the time to go.  There are always options to do something else, and time is a precious gift, that once passed I will never get back.  When I get up in the morning I need to remember this is the time to say my morning prayer not check my emails.  When one of my kiddos need to talk or wants some cuddles I need to remember this is the time.  There are so many distractions that take away from family, service, teaching, living that I need to remember my husband's profound words "because this is the time."  And do the things that should be done and keep the distractions away. 

Thank you Eric Prouzet on Unsplash for sharing your photo!  I found it perfect for this post.  Old clocks symbolizing times that have past.  

Our last major trip was in 2016 and oh how I miss traveling in our RV.  We are planning a trip for next September.  We can't wait.  Our last trip was cut short for family emergency but we made some great memories.  This video is one of my favorites we had so much fun trying to find creative ways to stay clean when traveling in our RV.  With a family of 8 (at the time) and a tiny water reserve, showers are not a luxury.  Anyway enjoy. 

Every once in a while I have grand thought.  More often I have a tiny thought and if I give this little thought some attention sometime  I can learn something grand.  About a year and half ago, we stopped at this not so very nice truck stop, and as I was in this yucky place waiting for my little one, part of the Thirteenth Article of Faith popped into my head...
      "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
At first I laughed because the place I was at was not very lovely at all.  Then I said myself "Dena,  what do you seek?  What does anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy mean?" 
 
* Okay disclaimer before I go on... I wish I was some profound person, I look up to so many women who are just so wise.  I am not one of those. I feel silly writing things like this because anyone who reads it will probably roll their eyes at my thought process. But I shared this with my daughter and she said this is life changing.  So I thought maybe I could share it with someone who might need their life changed :)  My guess is you will read this and say Duh Dena, I knew that already it took you this long to figure it out.  

And action...back to writing. When you ask yourself that question what are your answers?  I wish you could tell me.  Maybe email me or something... I would love to hear.  Here was my first answer to myself.  Well I seek after good music and movies. What??? That is all I could come up with at that moment.  I have no idea, but that is all I could think of.  So began my year+ some of trying to figure out what this meant?  Things would get added to my list, I seek good friends, I seek modest clothes, I seek for good knowledge, I seek to have good relationships with my family, I seek good food and so on.  Then one day I was listening to a talk and there it was part of my answer!  I wish I could remember what talk it was so I could tell you and also so I could just copy and paste it so it sounds eloquent but I can't, so you will have to be patient with my bumbling. 

It says if there is anything...

I think the easiest way to describe this is by examples.  I was in a gross truck stop, I noticed the filth, but was there something lovely in there? Did I seek to find the lovely? Did I miss someone who had a nice smile? Did I miss someone who might have been having a hard day and I could have smiled at them, and think what a lovely situation to brighten someones day?  With my child who might be a little difficult at the moment am I seeking for the praiseworthy? I am to seek out the virtuous, lovely, good report, praiseworthy in people, situations, relationships...If there is anything...I think in everyone, in every situation, in every relationship there has to be at least one thing lovely...I am to seek those things! Seeking takes effort, it doesn't say look it says seek. If I am having a bump in my marriage and there are frustrations, I still need to seek for anything virtuous, lovely, good report praiseworthy...there has to be at least one right.  That doesn't solve the issue, that still can be worked on, but when you do seek for those things, it lightens the load a little because you can find good. Life changing right!  

I am sure as keeping going along I will get more to my answer.  What are your insights? I would love to learn more about seeking. 

I went in to post something and I notice something that said drafts and I clicked on them and there were like five drafts.  This is one that I found from 2017.  So why not post it now :)

Sometimes when RVing you just want to get somewhere.  It seems like a life of relaxation and no stress, but there are the couple of occasions when stress appears.   The Sounders Game was a spur of the moment thing, and so our plans got thrown off a bit.  We had planned to drive to my Aunt's house about two hours away and stay there for the night.  By the time the Sounder's Game got out it was late and everyone was so tired and we just wanted to get there and go to sleep.  As we started driving one of the kiddos said the skylight over the bed was open.  Not wanting to pull over I said it's okay just put some blankets over you (it was rather cold) and everyone will be fine.  That was the wrong decision.  The girls made tutus for a photo shoot they wanted to do, and on the bed were those lovely tutus.  When we got to my Aunt's house the tutus were no longer, they got sucked right out of the skylight.  This has made us an expert in easy tutu making, the fastest and easiest way possible.  Well that we know of.  The girls decided to make a video on how to make them.  The picture above is of their lovely new tutus. 

Not sure how my mama heart is supposed to feel.  I have some friends that tell me they are excited for the kids to grow up and leave the home.  Me I want them to stay little and with me forever!!!!  With all the chaos of having the new baby (not so new anymore) and moving three times and Garron being out of town all the time we really haven't had the chance to travel.  But my four older kiddos went to CA all by themselves all together.  Now Sterling is of course plenty old enough to go, but it is a little weird for me to have them all just go and I can't be with him to have fun. But how grateful I am that they are all friends and want to go and travel and do stuff.   I think what I am having is what my kiddos call FOMO...fear of missing out.  Yes that is it.  I don't want to miss anything with them.  It probably drives them nuts. 

Now for Two Things we are Jones'n. 
The reason that they are going is to go see a a really awesome thing called Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.  If  you love art and even if you don't I would say this is something everyone should see once in their life.  I  could try to explain it, but it really doesn't sound very interesting....but it is :).  They reenact art work on a huge stage with live people and then they have a narrative that goes along with it.  And it is sooooooo amazing how the art work looks just like the pictures.  Each year they have a different theme.  This year "The Time Machine"  They thoroughly enjoyed it.  Pageant of the Masters is every year in July and August.  Something else they discovered, and they can't stop talking about it.  Hapajs in San Clemente, CA.  They said they have the best tacos in the world, and you get them on Taco Tuesdays.  I would post a picture but they were having too much fun to stop and take them.  I asked one of my kiddos if they had any and they laughed at me.  At least they took the one above. 

On a side note...now that the craziness over the last two and half years is settling down we have some pretty cool projects that we are working on.  I hope the craziness won't start up again, because they are going to be fun and we can't wait to share them with you. 
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Pottery...can it motivate?  It can when two of my kiddos started helping with a pottery class this summer which is held at the Rec Center. It just so happened that the child care was open during this time, so instead of driving back and forth to drop off and get them I would take the littles to child care and workout.  If you read my previous post I have had no desire to workout.  I have dreaded it.  I have been playing though which has been great!  But I thought, here is the motivation to do some weight training.  So I dropped them off for 45 minutes and I went and worked out.  Wow! I do not know why I didn't do this before.  My older daughters would go with me, and what a great thing it turned out to be.  I will admit at first I didn't do as much.  I was just enjoying being with my girls and helping my eldest girl with different workouts.   I really just did basic machines and some free weights.  And just doing that has been amazing.  I lost so much muscle from being so sick during pregnancy it has taken a long time for me to recover.  It has been so fun seeing my strength start to come back.  I know how important weight training is, especially as we age...which I am definitely doing.  And really all I need is about 15-20 minutes to do a leg or arm workout. It is interesting how I could look at the news for 20 minutes but say I didn't have time to do any weight training.  I can actually do them both at the same time if the right channel is on at the gym :).  This was my workout...so easy and fast, yet my strength has increased and I am not sore like I used to be. Nothing fancy.  
Click on read more to see it.
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Look at how little these kids are!  This was about five years ago.  I thought we had transferred a couple of videos from our previous site but I am not sure if it did or not.  Because they aren't here.  So I am posting some today.  We loved meeting this writer of the Little Bus Song and meeting his son who inspired them.  Such a wonderful family. 

We are sooooo Jones'n this vacuum cleaner and we want the world to know! After moving for a third time in less than 7 months, and with Garron out of town, my friend who is a professional organizer came over and help me get things done.   We have had this vacuum cleaner for 6 years. And we have always thought it is the greatest.  My kids absolutely love it. In fact we gave it to Sterling for his birthday 6 years ago kind of as a joke and he was so thrilled. My kiddos clean houses for a job and they hate it when they don't have it and have to use the one at the house they are at.  For some reason when I have something I think everyone knows about it too.  But I am finding that isn't the case.  Our friend started  using the vacuum and he was amazed at the things it did and how easy it makes things.  He said he was going to get one. So now we are letting the world wide web know how much we like it.   I think down the line I am going to do a video on how wonderful this vacuum cleaner is so you can see it.  But for now just know it is awesome.  I have used many vacuum cleaners and this is the bestest.  And it is more on the less expensive side. And bonus..when you buy it from their site, they have the best customer service in the world. WE LOVE THIS VACUUM.