So it's Summer!

Summer seems to have arrived before I knew it. The kids have been out of school since the third week in May. It seems like summers are always a mixture of fun & craziness, especially for moms who now have the kids home all day. It's great to spend some extra time with them, but along with that comes the "Mom, I'm bored," "Mom, I'm hungry," (for the 10th time in 4 hours, and the fighting over everything and nothing at all. Motherhood is such a complicated thing. We put our hearts and souls into raising our kids and sometimes it leaves us feeling happy and fulfilled at the end of the day and other times we feel drained and like we could have done things so much better. I am sure that this is true with most jobs in life, but with motherhood, with parenthood, the stakes are much greater. We are responsible for our children; they rely completely on us. Nothing that we could ever do is more important in our lives. We need to teach them so many things- how to tie their shoes, how to ride a bike, how to treat a girl on a first date (luckily I haven't reached this one yet), and most importantly we need to love them and help them learn to love themselves, others, and their Father in Heaven. If we don't do a good job as a parent, then nothing else matters. As they say, when we look back on our lives from our death beds, more than likely all of the cares and worries of the world will fall away and we will be thinking of our families. I am so grateful to know that. It helps keep me focused when I am cleaning up the next new thing that Clark has decided to rub into his carpet. That really seems to be an obsession for him right now. Here are a few things that he has tried- ketchup, raw eggs, toothpaste, chocolate milk, cola, dish washing soap with bleach, antibacterial hand soap... Who knows what's next? It really doesn't matter, the carpet is ruined anyway. See, if you look hard enough you'll find the silver lining.

Anyway, I have heard the saying a few times in my life that motherhood is enjoyed in moments, and I really think that in many ways that is true. Our children spend a lot of their time during the day asking us for things or wanting us to do things for them, but at some point in the day they will do something sweet, like smile at you and say, "Mom, I love you more than pancakes with sprinkles on top" (This is a game that Carissa and I play). Those are the moments that we need to hold on to. Forget about the dirty dishes that you didn't get to that day, or the pen marks that your little one scrubbed onto the wall... those things really don't matter in the end. They may seem important, especially when you know that Aunt Sally is coming over and is sure to say something about this thing or that thing that isn't perfect. Well, those things may bother you for a while, but remembering the way it felt to hold your little one's hand as they fell asleep or how their eyes lit up when they put the last piece of the puzzle that they made into place is what will help recharge us as parents. That is what will give us the energy and the endless supply of love that we need to help us get up each day and do it all over again. Being a stay-at-home mom, I think it can be kind of hard to measure the progress that we make. Working at a job, you might be able to say that you filed this many papers today or you sold this many cars. When you are working at home, the laundry that you got done today is sure to be waiting there again for you tomorrow, but you can measure your progress in the moments- in the special moments that you share with your child. I am challenging myself to hold onto those, "mommy I love you's" and now that Cody & Jacqui are getting older those, "here mom, I can do that for you's". When you see your child looking out for you and for others you know that you have done something right.

So summer has been good so far. We've gotten a wedding in. Congrats to Joe & Steph! We're getting ready for another one in a few months, along with a graduation party for Grandma Berger who is getting her masters degree in nursing. Cody & Clark's birthdays will be here before you know it too! This is a big birthday for Cody too. He turns 12 and will get the Priesthood. Yeah Cody! This is definitely the summer of weddings, graduations, and parties to plan. All of the events are such wonderful ones, though! There is business surrounding all of these things, but also such a feeling of excitement and hope.

We are also proceeding with our adoption. We have been in a holding pattern for a few months now. We were waiting for the final parts of our background checks to come back, and now that they know we aren't criminals (LOL) then we can move forward. We meet with our adoption specialist tomorrow night at 5:30. She will get to know us a little bit, I will show her the Life book that I made showing what our family is like, and then we'll find out what the next steps are. It's very exciting, and we are continuing to pray that we will find the right child. We really want to be the right family for them, and we know that God will lead us to each other

My internship is coming along well- finally! It looks like I will be doing my internship with the a local school district. I am not doing school counseling. I am still doing professional counseling. One of the districts in the area is starting to offer more counseling services to their students and families. How exciting! I got to skip the interview part of the internship. I was selected right away, which was nice. It just took a long time for me to find out that I had been selected. :) Gotta love that, right? I find out more about what I will be doing either Friday or next week. I'm really excited. I've been praying that I would find an internship that I would be able to do without totally upsetting the family schedule, and this one sounds perfect. More details soon to follow

Well, that's about all for now. Work is going very well for Rob. He has been getting a lot of work and even some mandatory over-time. That can be frustrating at times, but we are so grateful for the work. So many people are struggling right now, and the Lord has blessed us beyond measure. We could also use the extra income with all of the events coming up that I mentioned above. Seriously!

The kids have started a day camp for the summer, and they really like it a lot. It's at a local community center, and they allow the kids to be inside a bit more than the other camp they have done before. That's really great because we have been having a really big heat wave with temperatures close to 100 degrees, and the heat index well above that

Let's see, anything else? Oh, our family now has a new kitten and a puppy as well. Grandma Berger's cat, Snickers, had babies, and we took one. Carissa named her Milana, which is such a beautiful name. Great job, Carissa! Then Rob surprised me with an English Mastiff puppy for Mother's Day. His name is Jericho, and he is amazing. I wasn't sure that my heart could handle another Mastiff after losing Opie. The thought of even seeing another Mastiff just hurt my heart. I still have a hard time talking too much about Opie without getting emotional. We all loved him SO much. Jericho has been a wonderful addition to our family, though. He is a puppy, which makes things interesting to say the least, but he is so beautiful and perfect. We love you Jericho

Well, that is all for now. It's late, and I need to get to bed and rest up for another day with my amazing, fun, crazy crew.

Congrats to Joe, Stephanie, Clint, and Ashton!



My baby, Jericho :)

Jacqui with Milana