Prayer in your Heart

My Sunday morning started with my visiting teachers Kekai, Aushra and their daughters Nanea and Kiley. It was just me home since James had already left for work and Mahie was whisked off to her Grandparent's house. 

I couldn't have asked for a better way to start my Sunday and the beginning of a new week, with the heartfelt message shared by my relief society sisters. I look forward to Kekai and Aushra because they come to visit ME and not to just fulfill their visiting teaching report for the month. Do you know what I mean? Plus I like that they are both young mothers (with DAUGHTERS) and struggling students like James and I. We always share our chaotic stories of the week, but this visit seemed different. Through their words and lesson, I knew that Heavenly Father was recognizing the struggles I had overcome. It was nice to hear that they had similar "take-baby-to-class-days"...."no-chance-to-nap-days"....."leave-the-house-messy-days"...."fall-asleep-during-prayer-days"....and "too-tired-to-read-an-entire-BOM-chapter-days"......we are what we are, FULL time Mothers as FULL time Students, with OVERLY FULL Schedules revolving around beautiFUL daughters who want our FULLEST attention :)

We talked about how different it is to feel the spirit now as opposed to our single days. During our Single-Lady Days, we were able to lay on our beds and thoroughly search the scriptures, ponder and consistently pray morning & night. The spirit was obviously present during firesides, conference, before we left to classes, and late at night as we prepared for bed. And then fast forward to now where a planner/calendar is a must, time is valuable, money needs budgeting, most of conference is spent tending to baby and "going out" would rather be "staying in". 

I told them that sometimes I lay in bed at night and think, how did I make it through the day?? But then I realize the strength, comfort, guidance and encouragement Heavenly Father has blessed me with as I'm constantly AND UNKNOWINGLY saying a million prayers in my heart throughout the day. And we each realized how blessed we are with opportunities to use faith. That we should always have a prayer in our hearts, for ourselves, our little ones and for others. 

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Since Mahie was already at her Grandparent's, I decided to attend church with them. It's always nice visiting my old family ward here and there. A lot of faces have changed, but the ward is still Laie 4th. There was this funny & cute little boy who was coloring in front of us. When I held Mahie up behind his chair, he became so fascinated with her, seriously. At first he didn't like that she was touching his chair, so he picked up his coloring book and moved to the next chair. Mahie would laugh when he'd look at her. 

Slowly he made his way back, taking breaks from his coloring to peek through the chair at her. I think he didn't know what to make of Mahie and her giggles at first, but then he warmed up to her. LOL, he then climbed onto his chair & kept turning around to look at her. Aaron took this sneaky picture.

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We celebrated my oldest brother, Isaac's birthday with a little BBQ cook out. Mahie cracks me up because now she KNOWS what a bottle is and gets so excited when she sees someone prepare it. She'll also start to get mad if she doesn't get it quick enough. And...now she'll reach out for the bottle, grab onto it and pull it in all by herself. She's still a little shaky so I'll put a pillow underneath now and then.

They say not to prop bottles, but it wasn't like I left her alone. She can get silly too, where if she's eaten enough, she'll pull her bottle in & out and get formula everywhere. Ugh. 

Fasten those Super Mom capes....time to face another week!