Spring...

I love Spring.  I love the flowers, and the feeling of everything coming alive again, renewed, and beautiful.  I love the orange blossoms, and the smell of spring that is in the air right now--(even if it makes me sneeze, and my nose itch, and my eyes water because spring also means allergies in my world...always has...but that is for another post...).  I love that the school year is winding down, and the kids are counting the days until summer.  I love that we there is talk of summer vacations, time as a family, days at the lake, sleeping in,  friends, and FUN!  I love that there are ball games to go to, and the weather is just perfect for sitting outside and playing at the park.  Especially because too soon it will be way too hot, and my house will feel like a prison to my kids!  Thank goodness for a cold pool in the summer--I don't know how I ever lived here without one!  I was thinking a lot about this over Easter, about how amazing Heavenly Father is, and that even the seasons testify of our Savior.  Truly all things testify of Him, of His divinity, of His mission.  I was thinking about how all of the good things in my life, every single one, has come because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am so lucky to have the knowledge that I have! 
During General Conference I felt so uplifted, and spiritually fed.  It was like spring for my soul.  I felt like it stirred something within me, and my spirit was awake again.  I vowed to be a better wife, and a better mother, and a better daughter of our Heavenly Father.  Then, Monday came, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and real life.  Man, is it hard to keep those feelings when real life comes around and hits you smack in the face! I feel lately like I am just in the thick of this parenting thing.  I'm not sure how anyone in their right mind looks back and misses this stage of parenting!  I've got teenagers, who think they know everything, and toddlers, who can't do anything for themselves.  Kids in the middle somewhere too, who need my love, and occasionally some attention!  I am up half the night waiting for the teenagers to get home, and the other half of the night with the toddler, who decides that he needs to sleep in my bed if he's going to sleep at all.  Add to this chaos the stress and worry of investing money in a new business that may or may not make it--while trying to collect money owed from an old business, that may or may not make it as well, and a husband who needs my love and support.    Add to that all of the daily stresses, excercise, eating right, practicing, cleaning, laundry, church callings, etc. etc. etc.   It seems so easy for the adversary to make me feel  tired, and stressed, and worried, and afraid.  It's almost too much sometimes, and I really don't know how I can possibly do it all--then I remember.  I remember that He said that He is always there.  I remember that He said to His Disciples, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."  When I think of Him, I feel comfort, and peace--even amidst the chaos and worry.  Just as we have the surety of spring coming, and the flowers blooming, and everything having a new life--tomorrow will be better.  There is always hope in a new day.  That's the beauty of Spring, and that's the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.