@ the Ricks Home

I just barely made it sharing my fall decor photos before Christmas. Looking at the pictures I notice I must really like the word Autumn since I have something that says that on every shelf!

We also had a thankful tree where we added leaves with things we're thankful for written on them.

Aryn and Natalee went to stay at my parents house for a few days. The day Natalee was coming home Aryn said she wanted to stay longer then surprised me by coming home earlier than I expected. I cried. I really missed them! I'm so glad our children are blessed with grandparents they can go stay with when ever they want for as long as they want.

I was reading the required scriptures for an Individual Worth experience in the Personal Progress program. I had to read in Joseph Smith History 1:1-20. As I read, I was wondering why we were asked to read Joseph's experience. When I read the part about the darkness that came upon him, it reminded me that Satan knows our individual worth. That brought to mind what Elder Ellis said about Satan being content with simply distracting us from reaching our full potential. Just as Jesus knows who we are and of our great worth, so does Satan. He tried to stop Joseph and he tries to stop us from doing those things that can help us reach our full potential.

On a particularly rough Monday morning, I did not want to get out of bed and start the day. I felt worn out, not really physically tired, I just didn't want to face the day ahead of me. Ignoring my responsibilities to curl up on the couch and watch movies all day started to seem like a good idea. When I finished my morning prayers I looked over on my nightstand and noticed a blue folder. I didn't know what was inside, but I was prompted to pick it up. Inside I found the talk I shared on Mother's Day this year and started reading. It was exactly what I needed. I was reminded of the importance of the small and simple things I do for my family everyday. I ended my talk with this scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 64:33 "be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." That was it! I was weary in my well-doing, but through the prompting of the Spirit I was able to receive the pep talk I needed by reading over my old talk. Tender mercies of the Lord. He knows who I am and what I needed that day.

Gavin is excited to now be a Webelos Scout. He earned another belt loop.

As part of our school day, we usually work to memorize a different Article of Faith. I started thinking about what I really wanted my kids to get out of the experience. I want it to be more than just checking off a box because they could say the words back to me. I want them to remember it because they know why we believe it and what it means. So now we go over one or two Articles of Faith, discussing what it means. We had a wonderful experience the other morning doing this. Aryn and Natalee were so into the discussion that they started teaching Gavin. What a wonderful moment for John and I! We could feel the spirit and see the testimony of our daughters as they excitedly shared the gospel with their brother. Then Gavin got all excited about it as he started to understand things better.

Speaking of homeschool, I'm sure some of you have seen comments on Facebook, or heard comments from our older girls about how much they want to go back to public school. We understand Aryn and Natalee miss hanging out with friends at school everyday, but we also see the bigger picture. I remember listening to a conference talk by Elder Lawrence just after we started homeschooling. He was speaking to parents of teenagers. (Click here to read the entire talk.)This quote has stayed with me. "Imagine for a moment that your daughter was sitting on the railroad tracks and you heard the train whistle blowing. Would you warn her to get off the tracks? Or would you hesitate, worried that she might think you were being overprotective? If she ignored your warning, would you quickly move her to a safe place? Of course you would! Your love for your daughter would override all other considerations. You would value her life more than her temporary goodwill." 
What's funny is, Aryn and Natalee decided on their own to be homeschooled. Now they aren't happy we won't let them go back! As any parent, we are sad when our children aren't happy, but we have seen all the wonderful changes in our entire family over the past year. The stress level in our home is noticeably less, beginning from day one. Aryn's attitude completely changed. Even my attitude has completely changed! We know these are all blessings from homeschooling. John and I have a good relationship with our teenage daughters. I know our relationship would not be the same if they still attended public school. Our girls talk to us and enjoy spending time with us. Aryn herself said she missed us after spending a few days at her grandparents. We see the changes in them. We know how happy they are, even when they don't see it and only focus on the negatives of homeschooling (not seeing friends everyday). This is something John and I have discussed over and over. Yes, in a lot of ways it would be easier to send them to public school, but we know homeschooling is what is right for our family at this time. We love our children and want to do what is best for them, not just what makes them happy (or what they think will make them happy). Although, Aryn slipped up this morning and said, "I love homeschool!" And believe me, I will not let her live it down! Hahaha.

With a 14 year old and a 12 year old, raising teenagers has been our constant focus lately. During Stake Conference, Elder Ellis of the Seventy shared a story about Elder Nelson performing a never-before-attempted heart surgery procedure. Elder Nelson had no idea how to fix the problem in the heart before he started the surgery. He just had faith and the Lord showed him what needed to be done. He even remembers seeing in his mind the dotted lines of where to cut and stitch. The surgery was a success and a new procedure was discovered. After finishing the story Elder Ellis said, "We know from this that Heavenly Father knows heart surgery. Don't you think He knows how to raise teenagers?!" As I have been thinking on this and praying for inspiration in raising my own teenagers, I have said in my prayers, "I know thou knowest heart surgery. Please, guide me in raising my teenagers...diagrams would be nice." Haha!
I love how you can be going about your regularly scheduled scripture reading and still stumble upon exactly what you need to read, exactly when you need it. A couple of mornings ago during our personal scripture reading, I read about Nephi building the ship. I realized it was very similar to what Elder Nelson experienced during the surgery. And similar to the guidance I am striving for as I raise my family. Through prayer and pondering, John and I have been blessed with inspiration and guidance. Mostly the answers are about us and what we need to do differently. (Funny how when we pray about a problem we see in others, the answer is usually something we need to change in ourselves.) We are being taught who we need to be for our girls because they are just your average teenagers. We are learning to let some things go and to choose our fights. How to keep calm and carry on. Wow! That can be difficult sometimes. John and I have realized we need some help remembering this. During one of our temple trips this month, we were discussing this. I said, "We need a code word or something to let the other know when they're being sucked in and losing their calm. Like, Ca-caw. Ca-caw!" We both busted out laughing and decided that would be perfect. We could laugh it off and carry on. Since then we've used our signal. Finally, Natalee asked, "Why do you guys keep doing that?" We had a good laugh.

Aryn decided she wanted to put dreads in her hair. The funny thing about the dreads is I gave her the idea! She was talking about new hair styles and I jokingly said she should get dreads. Of course she said no, because it was my idea. Which is what I was planning on. Then my youngest sister encouraged her (thanks Andrea). Aryn started doing all sorts of research on dreads. John and I talked to her about our feelings on getting dreads, but we let the choice be hers knowing she would probably choose to get dreads. Then, the night before Thanksgiving, she put them in!

Last night she decided to brush them out so her hair can grow longer before getting them again. Check out the puffy hair!

The kittens are growing quickly! The best news...we haven't had many accidents! One of the kittens did recently have an accident on the kitchen floor. Gavin decided to help out and clean it up. Later, when I slipped and busted my booty on the kitchen floor, I found out he had used furniture polish instead of cleaner! I tried so hard to be grateful for the "help" and not angry after falling.

Tigger fell asleep with her head on my laptop. So cute!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even though it started off in an urgent care. (Warning! This may be too much info for everyone.) The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I started seeing blood in my urine. I didn't have any pain, just felt like I needed to go more than usual. I asked a friend, who is a nurse, if I should go to the ER. She said it was probably a UTI. By that night my bladder was really aching. I was so sad because John and I were going to the temple the next morning. We had already postponed going twice in one week and I was so disappointed! John gave me a blessing before going to bed. I wasn't even sure I was going to be able to sleep feeling like I had to go so badly. I had such a difficult time falling asleep, but in the morning I felt fine! I no longer had the urge to run to the bathroom, and there was no blood in my urine. So I woke up John and told him we were still going to the temple. During the 1.5 hour drive, surprisingly, I never asked John pull over. When we got to the temple we were asked to be the witness couple. John asked if I could handle it. I told him I felt great. I didn't have any problems the entire day! What an awesome blessing!! My own personal little miracle. I know my Father in Heaven heard my prayers. He knew how badly I wanted to go to the temple that day and through the power of the Priesthood blessed my body so I could.
Thanksgiving morning I woke up and the blood was back. I didn't have any pain, but I asked John to call the urgent care to see how long the wait may be. I didn't want to chance having really bad pain later that evening while John was at work. The receptionist told him there was no wait time. I prepared the ham and stuck it in the oven before we left. I was glad I stayed up late the night before making the rolls. We had about 2 hours before everyone would be at our house for Thanksgiving lunch! We made it home just a minute before my family pulled into the driveway. I was stressing about my messy kitchen with the dishes I used making the rolls the night before all over the counter and in the sink. My sister Andrea had stayed the night with us and surprised me by cleaning house while we were gone. She even had the kids help. I love her. She is awesome!!

We ate so many yummy things on Thanksgiving! I even made tasty rolls from scratch! Months ago I bought some super cute dishes at Old Time Pottery just for Thanksgiving dinner. They look just like Rachel Ray's bakeware except I paid way, way less for mine!

The Friday after Thanksgiving we always pull out the Christmas decorations and crank up the Christmas music! The kids enjoyed pulling out all the ornaments they've made over the years.

I guess I should have Jordan start building her "school" ornament collection. Don't want her to feel left out. :)

I thought I wanted to hang our stockings across the bottom shelf of our wanna be mantel shelving unit but I just wasn't liking it. John suggested I buy the stocking holders. Then I remembered a DIY project I had seen online... a decorative ladder. (Click here to see the tutorial. I used 1x2s and 5/8 dowels.) I decided it would be perfect on the little angled wall beside the shelving. I headed to Lowes right then. Once I had all the supplies, I knew I wouldn't be happy with my old dollar tree stockings displayed on my new ladder. I stopped by Hobby Lobby to buy cute sweater stockings, but they didn't have what I was looking for. My next stop was the thrift store. It was even better that they were having a half off sale since it was Black Friday! I searched the store for big sweaters in the colors I wanted and found the perfect ones.
I went to work on my ladder as soon as I got home. I was surprised how quickly it went together. I made it all by myself! The total cost for the ladder was less than $20. Cheaper than buying 6 nice stocking holders and I can keep the ladder up all year long.

Jordan came up to me as I was working on building the ladder in the garage. As soon as she started talking tears started to pour down her face as she choked out, "I didn't mean to!" She was brushing her hair with one of those round brushes. Then it got all twisted and tangled in her hair. I started laughing and explained to her it was going to be ok. I told her every little girl gets this kind of brush stuck in their hair at some point. I know I did, Aryn did, and so did Natalee. She didn't appreciate the pictures. Hahah!

I knew I wanted to make an advent calendar using the little pictures from an advent my mom got out of the December 1985 Friend Magazine. I searched and searched the Friend magazine archives and it is not there! I Googled it and found a photo on this blog.

I was so excited thinking I had actually found it, but no. I ended up using a black and white copy of the little photos and writing down each scripture that goes along with it. When I have more time I plan to find nicer pictures to create my own version using the same scripture verses. So this is what I ended up with.

Since I was short on time I decided on a super simple version. Tags with numbers on the front and the picture on the back. Everyday we will flip the tag and read the scripture. I just realized I forgot to write the scripture on each tag! Oh well, I'll get that done.
I found the numbers here > makoodle. I printed them and punched them out. Super easy and fast! I put it all together while listening to FHE. :) I attached the punched numbers onto 1.5x3 inch card stock. Then I hung them with mini clothespins I painted blue across red and white baker's twine in an old empty frame.
Here's the black and white version if you'd like a copy. I colored mine in a little bit with markers. I would have preferred using colored pencils but they were no where to be found. If you would like the list of the scriptures please email me and I'll type them up for you.

As I was searching for the advent I wanted I came across a few ideas I liked. We will be doing this one as part of our morning devotionals > Come, Let Us Adore Him. I also enjoyed the Christmas stories shared in this one > Advent Storybook. I'll probably fit those into our bedtime reading.

Now that the Christmas tree is up the kittens live under there. They used to snuggle up and sleep in their basket.

Now they sleep under the tree.

We have a family tradition of eating Gumbo made with the leftover turkey and ham on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. As a child I dreaded gumbo day! It was the day we had to eat the slimy soup. I thought okra was the grossest thing ever! Now I love it and my kids hate it. John looks forward to that meal more than the Thanksgiving meal. He had to work Thanksgiving Day but asked off for Saturday so he wouldn't miss out. During the ride to my parents Aryn started singing Christmas songs and before long we all joined in. It was great caroling together as a family.
While we were all together, Natalee took this picture of Andrea, Amy, and me. She really has an eye for photography!

Uncle David helped the little kids build a real fire. They were SO excited!

Of course we played the Oh, Heck card game. So funny that it is now a Broadhurst family tradition since it was John's family that taught it to me. The first time we played I did not like the game one bit! Haha!

Since Aryn and Natalee stayed at the grandparents a few nights, Gavin and Jordan wanted their turn. As soon as Jordan woke up that morning she came to my bedside and asked me to get down her Hello Kitty bag so she could pack.

With Gavin and Jordan at my parents, Sunday was a super quiet day. Natalee was sick so it was just John, Aryn, and me at church. Then John had to work that night so it was just me and my big girls. Instead of making spaghetti for just the 3 of us, we had bean and bacon soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. Aryn was cracking us up being all silly while making the dinner.

After dinner we ended up in the craft room. I finished up the stockings I had been working on. Aryn made 3 or 4 hats using old clothes as fabric. Natalee made a no-sew ruffle scarf out of a t-shirt I bought a while back at the dollar tree.

I felt like the Grinch cutting out his Santa suit as I cut stocking shapes from the sweaters.

 In the end, it only cost me $12 for 6 sweater stockings. Not bad!

Monday morning bright and early Gavin and Jordan arrived home. I was surprised how quickly I had forgotten how loud those two can be! Crazy, crazy day! I was happy to have all my babies home though.

Thanks for taking the time to check in on the Ricks family. We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are now enjoying the Christmas season!