Back to School

We are in our second week of school. We have done well with time every day so far. It's getting pretty busy already. Wesley started early morning seminary yesterday. It starts at 5:50 am. After that he has time to come home for 40 minutes. Then we are off to school. This year we have three schools to take kids to. I feel so grateful to have worked out a carpool for Maddie. One of the moms we carpooled with last year has volunteered to take Maddie and bring her home every day. How lucky is that? Now I only have the high school and elementary school to go to every morning. It helps tons!

Wes is gone until 6:30pm because of Waterpolo practice. He made the J.V. team and is pretty excited. He is loving high school and has great teachers. He says they are so different than middle school teachers. They are so cool with the kids. He comes home so wiped out from practice. He says all he thinks about is food and sleep.
I'll post some first day of school pics later today.

Maddie is enjoying 7th grade and most of her teachers. Her Algebra teacher is comparable to Mrs Savage(Downey High) Know what I mean? Luckily, there is Mrs. Snell, her band teacher whom she adores. Maddie is playing the french horn again this year and is praying her teacher comes back from maternity leave.

Zachary is in 5th grade and has the awesomest, most sought after teacher in the school. I am so grateful. I have been praying for this. Hopefully she will inspire him and help him to like Math and English and prepare him for middle school. Zach is happy to have some friends in his class.

Carina is in 2nd grade and has a male teacher who is the nicest and most soft spoken man. I've heard tons of great things about him and kids say "he never yells" Love it! She has many friends from last year and is enjoying playing with her friends in the playground.

Blessings of the Gospel

I am so thankful to have the priesthood in our home. Last night Willie gave the kids their annual "beginning of the school year " blessings. I love to listen to all the wonderful and inspired words. This year seemed especially focused on spititual things more than temporal. I know that they have so many challenges that they face each day. But it is so reassuring to know that we can always turn to Heavenly Father for help. When we feel alone, when we are the only one standing up for our beliefs, for our standards, He will always comfort us. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so simple and so beautiful. We just have to do our part by giving it our best and the Lord will make up what we lack.

100 Things

 We have way too much STUFF!
 A few days ago Willie told me about an article he read about what makes people happy. The article spoke of a couple who sold their home and most of their belongings, including their cars, and now live in a 430 square foot apartment. Wow!! So cool!
I also read a blog called guynameddave.blogspot.com. He decided to start a "100 Things Challenge". He owns 100 things. These are his owns personal belongings. No shared items. His furniture, dishes, or other things he shares with his wife and kids don't count. Anyway, you should check it out. Very cool!

We have such an overabundance of "things" in this country. We are extremely blessed. We neglect to sit back and look around and realize how much we have. I am guilty myself. As most of you know we have really downsized since moving to California. We don't even own a home yet. Sometimes I wish a had more space or I miss my brand new fancy houses from Arizona, but the truth is, we don't need huge homes and more and more stuff to be happy. I still struggle with the fact that it is so expensive to live here, but overall our life is so good. We live close to grandparents and cousins, Willie has a stable job with a 12-minute commute(extremely rare in L.A.), our kids go to great schools and have made wonderful friends, and our ward building is one mile away. Pretty awesome!

I am now working on my "100 Things." It's not easy because I have many hobbies and like everyone else, I have lots of "stuff." The last few days I have filled up two laundry containers full of my clothes and I am getting rid of most of my scrapbookking supplies. I never thought that day would come, but the digital age has taken over. I blog way more than I scrapbook.

 Like Dave says, this is about "stopping the habit of unnecessarily buying things that inevitably caused me to be stuck in stuff." I will break free of this American-style consumerism!

I challenge you to declutter your homes. It's such a good feeling! I still have everything that I need and can see the floor in my closet.