New Baby, New Understanding

Maya Jessica Garcia, January 12th, 2011.
It is funny how life continues on after bringing a new baby into the world. It is such a beautiful miracle, and it amazes me that she is one of Heavenly Father's spirit children sent to our family to experience life and receive a physical body. It is something I want to shout from the rooftop and stop time for a moment to absorb how sacred it is. I think everyone should stop what they are doing and marvel at this beautiful spirit that has come to our family! But, after I am home and I see that life continues on (the house still needs to be cleaned, bills still need to be paid, and I still need to go back to work), I realize that Heavenly Father has a lot of trust and confidence in us women to be mothers to these little spirits. Not only to bring them into the world, but to raise them and teach them, day in and day out. The miracle of motherhood is not just giving birth, although that is an amazing thing. The miracle of motherhood is that we can be such a force for good throughout the course of our children's lives in a world that is missing too many "good" mothers. I am so grateful and humbled to be in this position. I am also so grateful to be surrounded by so many amazing women and mothers (Thank you sisters!!!) who show me what really good mommies are like.

Mormon Mommy Blogs - an interesting perspective

Hi Ladies. I just read an interesting article that I wanted to share with you:

Feminist Obsessed With Mormon Blogs

It was thought provoking and made me want to post more on our mommy blog! I appreciated the author's candidness, humor and honest confession about her fascination with Mormon moms and the lives they lead.

Sometimes I forget how unique our lives and attitudes are to the world, and how liberating it can be to embrace those things that truly bring happiness, like marriage and motherhood. That doesn't mean our lives are spot-free or effortless, but compared to the degrading worldly forces that seek to demean women, I can appreciate that on the whole my life is "uplifting" and genuinely happy.

So read it and let me know what you think!

A New Dawn, A New Day, and I'm Feelin' Good

Hello ladies! Today I feel like ruminating on the fresh feelings of a new year. 2011... You know your old when the current year sounds like it's out of a Sci-Fi movie. Hahaha. What a great time to be alive! Jessy's emails are proof that every day the gospel of Jesus Christ grows stronger in the hearts of humanity. I often focus too much on the growing evil and godlessness of our society. The truth is that the good in the world is growing right along with the evil, and luckily, we know the end of the story so why not rejoice?!

I think that general pattern in the world of evil and good growing alongside each other happens in our individual lives. Just when we get comfortable, just when we feel like we're on top of things and can actually succeed in our lives, another hurdle comes along. To me, those hurdles always feel evil. I always think, "I was barely able to scrape over the last hurdle and this new one is so much taller! I'll never make it!"

I heard something this week and now I can't even remember where. (I think it was in my new Brad Wilcox book The Continuous Atonement - let me know if you want to borrow it!) He was talking about the scripture, "Be still and know that I am God." He said that's well and good when you are able to Be Still. But what about those moments when you can't be still. When your human emotions and circumstances (and hormones) make it impossible for your mind to slow down enough to feel that peace? He said that the principle works the same when you flip it around to read, "Know that I am God, and Be Still." That may seem redundant but the spirit spoke peace to me. Almost like it was saying, "Do you know that he is God? Then you can Be Still." No matter what the confusion or the trial I will always know what I know. And because of that I will always have the power to Be Still.

Anyway, back to my original topic. I have been refreshed to remember that the good always grows with the bad and that the good always wins out in the end. That means my feeble attempts at having a stricter budget this year ARE going to make a difference to my family! I already ran out of grocery money for the month (hahaha) so I had to make so bread yesterday for dinner. Looks like we'll be living on whatever's in the freezer and canned goods for the rest of the month. (At least there's still money in the Dates category so we'll have at least one more good meal this month.) Here's to a new year and choices and changes that actually make a difference!