Our Ultimate Life: Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Today while in Relief Society, I had a thought that helped me. Being a mother for me is more than teaching my kids their abc's. It is a sacred duty. When you view this job as sacred, you don't treat it lightly - let's be honest, I'm sure very few women who have kids treat it lightly. But that's why I view motherhood as so much more - it's much more than the day-to-day grind anyway, which most people can appreciate, but I have an added measure of testimony that what I'm doing with these two boys is the most important work I could be doing at this season of my life. Anything else that would take precedence over that can simply wait, as far as I'm concerned. I know that looks different for everybody, and it's certainly not a knock on working women because - you do you boo - I just had an added measure of an "ah-ha" moment for me today that I want to hold onto. It's not only the most important work - it is a sacred work.

Our house goes LIVE on the market this Wednesday. I am SO ready for a change. I have been ready for a loooong time. But it is all coming together and I am excited for the future. I am grateful for the last 4 1/2 years here. I just know Washington is not for me, and I'm happy to be moving on.

Mom shared a story with me that resonanted with our decision to move. **In telling this story, I understand that I can't run away from the evils of the world just by geographically changing my situation, and in moving I'm not trying to shelter my kids** Mom shared that while her parents were living up here (in Bothell, WA 50 miles north of Puyallup) my Grandma Hart went to a fireside in Preston, ID. She was so impressed with the youth who had just graduated seminary and were bearing their testimonies. When she came home she told Grandpa Hart that raising their children in righteousness was THE MOST important thing, so Grandpa Hart quit a music teaching job that he loved and they moved to Preston. Wow wow wow if that's not how I feel about living here....At the time, my grandparents had just one baby and their ward was a small branch. She wanted her kids to be surrounded by others who were strong in the gospel. Here there are plenty of members, but it is just different. Add that to the traffic, taxes, living expenses, and politics and Idaho is looking better and better. So we will see what the next couple of weeks bring as we go LIVE on MLS.

Justin has been at his job now for two months. He's doing amazing work for them - brag brag brag on my husband. He is a GENIUS and it's not just me who thinks so - his brother Jon is quite the whizz himself and he told me that the company could easily hire 4-5 people to do the work Justin is doing all on his own. He's been traveling pretty much every-other-week since he started, and he's there for the entire week. Most of the time he goes to North Carolina but he's been down to Las Vegas once. He doesn't think he'll need to go down for two more weeks, which will be nice since we will have our open house and other visitors when our house goes on the market. He's enjoying his time in Young Men while it lasts - they have a campout to Fort Worden this weekend.

In March I joined a CrossFit gym and have been going pretty much every day ever since. This week I hit a couple of exciting milestones - I learned the rope climb rather out-of-the-blue. I got up as high as I dared because I still didn't know how to come down safely without totally blowing out my grip. But I learned and I have the nasty rope burn on my leg to prove it. Next time I'll wear long socks! My second milestone has to do with an upcoming workout that honors a Navy Seal that was killed in action back in 2005 called "Murph." We'll do it on Memorial Weekend (1 mile run followed by 100 pull ups, 200 pushups, and 300 air squats, followed by another 1 mile run). In preparing for that we've been doing a lot of running and this week at one of the workouts I was the first female to finish! You know I'm not a perfectionist or competitive at all....right.... so I was excited. I also did my first pull ups this week without a band. It is super satisfying to see the results of all the hard work.

Enjoy pictures from the last few months below.