Learning to share

I often tell my children that we are a family and so we have to share and take turns. If you fight over something then you don't get it anymore because people are more important then things. We work together, play together and try to do as much together as we can because, while I know that we will have them forever, never again will they be ours in this same way that they are now.

I have tried to be an example of service and sharing, but I catch myself sometimes acting in ways that I don't want my children to act. Sometimes, I will save back some of the dessert for me for later, or take the larger piece of a meal. I will not play a game with them that I have time to play, because I really don't feel like it. I keep parts of myself and my things back. In looking at this over the last few weeks I have discovered that more then having the talk with my children about being unselfish I need to talk to myself. My children often surprise me with what they are willing to give or to share. Little things like my five year old giving everyone a piece of his pie that he had been saving, and not small pieces either. I watch them serve each other and I hope that they will always carry some of that with them.

Two weeks ago the Lord called Joseph as Bishop of the Raytown ward and today he was sustained. I am learning to share. Of all the things that I have a hard time sharing, my time with him is the hardest. I tend to be very jealous of his time and energies, but I will learn. Like I told the children today after church, it is a wonderful blessing from Heavenly Father to have him as our husband and father and now the Lord is asking us to share him with the rest of the ward. So, slowly I am learning to share graciously.

St. Louis- therapies and daughters

Thanks to wonderful in-laws Isabelle, Alayna, and I were able to run to St. Louis at the last minute in May for a new type of therapy for Isabelle.  It's easier to do therapy when they come to my house and I don't have to pay anything.  Driving 3 and a half hours and staying away from the rest of my family, and paying a large chunk of money is much more difficult to get yourself worked up to.  It took me about a year of researching.  I ordered a DVD of  a workshop and tried my limited knowledge out on my daughter.  She went from complete noodle legs with no resistance to the standing pro you have seen in other posts.  So, I was convinced that it would be of benefit to her, but finding someone within a reasonable distance was more difficult.  At first I thought we would have to go to CA and pay a Huge chunk of money, but i think the Lord led me to this practitioner in St. Louis.

For those that are interested, the method is the Anat Baniel method and it is different from normal PT and OT in that instead of working on the muscles and trusting that the brain will catch on it works on the Central Nervous System and trusts that the muscles will catch on.  She uses very gentle repetitive but slightly varied movements to teach the brain how to move.  We have learned with Isabelle to celebrate every "inchstone"  We see a new one at about once a month, maybe if we are really lucky once per week.  In the 3 days that we were there we saw 3 "inchstones".  She started catching herself with her hands when falling from sitting, she started coming up into tall standing while holding on to his arm completely on her own, and she uses her arm to help sit herself up.  I have studied the method as much as I can without spending the major $ for training classes.  I have been working with her at home as well and she has started to push off of me with her legs and pull her other leg up to be by the first one in a crawling position.  I really want to take her back.  So I'm working on getting some grants.  (:  In the meantime I will continue to do what I can with her.

One of the best parts of the trip was that Alayna got to come with me.  We shopped, talked, laughed, read and listened.  She is really growing to be a wonderful young woman and I am so grateful to be her mother.