Answered Prayers

This has been a good week of answered prayers and family fun.
At least 6 months ago we realized we needed to make some changes with our life situation. It's time to stop just surviving and start living. Jake and I came to the conclusion that he needed to go back to school. This is not an easy decision, especially at this point in our lives. This is hard when you think of the two boys we need to take care of. Jake has a steady job but it's never quite enough.
The school we both felt Jake should apply for required an ACT. Jake didn't take this in high school so after 10 years of not studying these basic school skills he decided to undertake the test. It took a lot of faith, studying, and prayers. He went in this past June 12th and completed the test. He didn't think he did very well.
Thank you for praying for us as Jake undertook the ACT. He got much better scores than he had imagined. I know the Lord was helping him and answered your prayers on our behalf.
I just wanted to give a little blurb about how grateful I am for prayers. I have tried to be diligent about teaching the boys about praying. They are so cute and do so well. Kaleb knows how to fold his little hands and says "Amen" at the end. We just have to say, time to pray, or talk to Heavenly Father, and he pauses in what he's doing and folds his hands. We have been very good about nightly family prayers. I know praying has blessed us all in more little ways than I'm sure I notice. Every morning before we eat our breakfast we say a prayer to bless the day and keep us all safe. We are usually pretty good about remembering to pray before each meal in much the same fashion.
The boys, especially Xander, are at an age where they are very accident prone. Throughout the day the boys run and tumble, and swallow things, and generally act like little boys. I am grateful there have never been any serious accidents. Yesterday I had a moment that made me realize how grateful I am for the extra protection we have guiding us each day. I know we have guardian angels.
I was busy making bread while Xander played around in the kitchen. I was grabbing a 13X9 Pyrex dish of rolls out of the oven when it slipped out of my hands. As I tried to catch it I burned my wrist but it still ended up falling on Xander's head.
I of course first tried to call Jake but he was busy driving home. I then called a good friend in the ward to ask for help. She was able to calm me down and helped me take care of the baby. With ice wrapped in a dish towel I tied that on my arm. I tried (in vain) to hold an ice pack on Xander's head. He certainly didn't want anything to do with that. Isn't it funny how things always seem 500 times worse in the moment? After about 20 minutes of screaming Xander was babbling and giggling and chewing on the ice pack with only a swollen, slightly red bruise on his head.
I have about a golf ball sized burn on my wrist. As the night wound down I realized how much worse everything could have been.
Then today Xander tumbled off the end of the bed. Thankfully he only hit his eye on the dresser. Oh my dear clumsy boys.
I am so grateful for prayers that protect us throughout our day.
Through days that oftentimes go like this...
Kaleb decided to dump his spaghetti in his cup of water. And then got the idea to dump that back and forth between bowl and cup. It ended with me grabbing the whole chair, booster seat, kid and all, and throwing it in the bathtub.
Or perhaps a bit of this...
All our drawers have child locks on them. That has never slowed Kaleb down.
Or a day that ended like today...
Today we celebrated Kaleb's 2nd birthday (on Wednesday) at the beach. He loves anything to do with the beach, especially the water. Our good friends the Hamilton's were able to come with us. I am so grateful they came even though they hate the beach, well, mostly the sand, which is hard to avoid at the beach.
We got there at 11am but all the fire pits were already taken. We were able to use one that the people had been staking out since 6am - that's insane! We roasted hotdogs, and of course marshmallows for S'Mores. I remembered I still had my 35 mm film camera so I went out to buy film ($14 for a roll! - wohza) Now I have to wait for it to be developed. Psh, waiting, what is that!? We live in a day when everything and anything is instant. But, I did get a lot of pictures. Can't wait to see them and to post them hopefully sometime next week.
It was a good day playing in the sun. We weren't even two miles down the road before the boys were sound asleep.
When we got home we ordered pizza. Everyone took a bath. Then we sat down for family night. Pizza and a movie, and of course popcorn.
This has been a great weekend.