Rattlesnake Scare!

Today was a busy day!

We did school and then cleaned the house a bit before going shopping.  Jon was working and I took the all of the kids.  It's always difficult when I do that and it always wears me out, but I like taking them all.  I like having them all with me.  Pretty soon they will grow up and I'll have fewer and fewer kids to take with me.  That will be a very sad day for me.  I'm still mourning the fact that I'm done adding to our family.  It will take time for the idea to completely solidify in my mind and for it to be fully accepted as fact.  I just need to completely let go of the hope that we will have another baby one day.

I really need General Conference this weekend.  I just can't wait.  I don't know what answers I will receive.  I don't really know what questions I am going into the conference with.  I was hoping to receive answers about me moving on from the baby-bearing stage of my life.  I was hoping to feel good (or bad) about pursuing my goal to go to nursing school.  Overall, I just need to feel hopeful about something.  I need to feel peace.  I need to be inspired.  I need to feel loved. And, perhaps, be inspired in how I can best love myself.  I really struggle with that some days.  This pandemic hasn't been good for my anxiety and my self-esteem.  I hope and pray that my children will not ever deal with the issues that I have with low self-esteem.  I hope that they will always stay strong and confident.  I hope that they will believe deep down in their souls how much they are worth, how good they are, and how beautiful/handsome they are.

I didn't take many pictures today.

Here are the kids in the bathtub this evening.

We went on a walk after dinner to the "forbidden path", as we refer to it as.  It's just a path through the desert where there aren't any houses.  I know that there could be rattlesnakes on the path, so I am constantly telling the kids to watch for snakes during our walks.  Well, we were walking along when we suddenly heard a rattle!  It was so loud!  That was the first time that I heard the rattle of a rattle snake.  I was surprised at how loud it was.  Previously, when we had encountered rattle snakes, they weren't rattling...they were pretty calm.  But this one was angry!  It was rattling and it was perched up, ready to pounce!  The kids started screaming and I told them to run away.  I quickly ran away as well, incredibly grateful that we were protected and that we had escaped a horrible situation.

I don't know why this picture is upside down, ha ha.  It's the first day of October!  We officially started counting down the days.  Because we went shopping (a huge ordeal due to the long commute), we didn't do our first craft.  But we will catch up tomorrow!