This past weekend I had an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. A couple of years ago, my family and I moved to MN to live in the area where I served my mission 19 years ago. It has been a good experience but has been a challenge in many ways. One good thing has been connecting with members of the church that I knew and worked with while on my mission. On Friday I was able to attend the temple with a member of the church I knew while I was a missionary. This was her first time attending the temple. She has gone through quite a bit since I was here last and her membership in the church was affected. She in now remarried and starting over in the church and now she was able to go through the temple this past weekend and I felt truly humbled to have that opportunity to take part in that occasion. During this visit I really had the impression that I had been taking my blessings for granted. I realize that every day I need to remember that I am fortunate to have all that I do. Our Stake president challenged us at our last stake conference to journal daily about what we have been blessed with that day. I have not followed that challenge. I am as I have mentioned a terrible journal keeper and need to repent of this weakness. So in that spirit of recognizing my blessings I would like to mention the greatest blessing I have - that is the stewardship of my children:
This past Wednesday I attended parent-teacher conferences. I was impressed at how different each of my children are but what great kids they all are. Our oldest daughter is in the 8th grade and has struggled socially with this move to MN. This year is going much better for her than last year. She is so much smarter than I ever was at her age and she is doing very well in school. Her language arts teacher is giving her extra work to do because she finishes early with everything and then gets bored in class. She loves to read – we go to the library at least once a week and she checks out as many books as she can carry and then reads them all before the next trip. She borrows books from my collection as well. She loves history and in general enjoys most subjects in school.



















My middle daughter is in the 6th grade and struggles academically in many ways, she has some auditory processing problems and her performance suffers because of it. She is very kind and sensitive. She loves animals and while behind in school, all of her teachers report that she is a pleasant child and a joy to work with.



















My youngest is in the 1st grade and is small for her age. She is very social and loves school. She still has some pretty severe temper tantrums at times and struggles to get along with her sisters sometimes, mostly I think she gets frustrated that she cannot keep up and participate in everything that they do. She gets her way much of the time due mostly to her “cuteness.” As she matures and develops, I find myself surprised by something new she says or does almost daily.



















So I am truly blessed and though I tend to focus my mind on my weaknesses and deficits, I need to focus more on what I have to be grateful for.