Important "STUFF"...

A couple weeks ago Porter, Cooper, & Tate wanted to stamp.  I told them not today.  I had to clean up the back room.  The last time I had been in the back room was when we beefed up our food storage.  I had to make room for buckets & hadn't gotten back downstairs to clean up the moved stuff.  Well, I got it cleaned out & in tip top shape.  The first thing the boys said as they walked in the house the following week was, "can we stamp!!!??"  Off they went.  They had a ball.  Everyone went home will all their creative projects & I put kids to bed.  "I'll clean up tomorrow." I thought as I headed off to put myself to bed.  As I walked into the "craft room" the next day I noticed my "good" stamp pads still open from the night before, stamps coated with ink, light ink pads with dark ink spots on them, and many other messes.  I realized at that moment the "STUFF" didn't matter.  I was genuinely happy that the kids enjoyed their time in our unfinished back room, aka the craft room.  There's no room in my life for things kids can't touch or use right now.  If I find the time to use my stuff, I'll make due with what I can.  I hope they grow up learning what's important... THEM, not "stuff".  It felt good to let go of a bit more "stuff" that really doesn't matter and grasp hold of the "real" stuff.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “Already the new men are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are hardly recognizable: but others can be recognized. Every now and then one meets them. Their voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off.   They are, I say, recognizable; but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of ‘religious people’ which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less. (We must get over wanting to be needed, in some goodish people, specially women, that is the hardest of all temptations to resist.) They will usually seem to have a lot of time; you will wonder where it comes from."  At times like these I get a tiny glimpse of what it must be like to overcome the natural man.  How I long for that day... Then life starts up again.  The past couple weeks have left me in a tailspin.  I can't seem to get out of it.  One event leads to another, there's no time to come up for air & catch my breath.  I find myself questioning why it's so difficult right now?  I can't see through the fog.  I can't get my bearings.  So many times when I am trying my hardest to do the right things for the right reasons all hell breaks loose.  If I can stop for a moment and just breathe I sometimes come up with what I already know, I must be doing something good for ol' scratch to be working so hard.  I must have it in me to get through this and come out better.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks stated, "In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something... The gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to become.  ...Charity is something one becomes."  I know that if I put my trust in the Lord, He will mold me into what I am supposed to become...  However, maybe this week He'll work on another project & put me on a shelf for a short reprieve!

A few supplies from todays projects...

next week I'll get pictures of the kids working on their projects...