Richardson Report

I'm sorry if my pregnancy announcement via blog was a little too impersonal.  It's just been one of those weeks.  I didn't want to keep it a secret, I didn't want to make a bunch of phone calls.  I just wanted to get the news out there quickly.  I actually haven't told anyone here in Fort Bragg.  That has to be done face to face and I just haven't had the energy for that.  Plus, I feel like I am less lazy if I don't have this excuse to fall back on.  If people don't know I'm pregnant, then I'm less likely to slack off.  ;-)   I've been struggling the past 6 months with fatigue, so it's gotten even harder to stay motivated. Yesterday I made it to church - it was the longest I'd been out of bed all week.  But my cold seems to be finally clearing up and my energy level is improving somewhat.  I'm not super sick, either (in terms of morning sickness).  My "morning sickness" this past week seems to be mostly due to the fact...

It has been one of the CRAZIEST weeks of my life.  Between Mom's surgery and all that has gone on with that, a beastly sinus cold that kept me in bed for four days, topped off with finding out about the surprise package the stork is bringing us in 8 months.... Well, let's just say that it's been a physical and emotional whirlwind of a week. I have survived it purely because of the tender, loving care of my amazing husband and my awesome daughter Brynne.  Breakfast has been cooked, kitchen cleaned, children dressed, animals fed, schoolwork done.  With Hannah at school all day, the bulk of the daily work has fallen to Brynne, who has risen to the challenge without complaint.  LOVE that GIRL!  Logan has been the main entertainer for the little girls while Brynne does her schoolwork.  He has led them in art projects (and they've actually done a fair job of cleaning up after themselves), chores, and playtime.  Everyone has been so amazing.  ...

A little reminder from Elder Hugh B. Brown that the Lord really does know what is best. Today I got another reminder, too, that I need to exercise not only patience - but find joy in my life. Keeper of the Home - When you'd rather have a different one   (I guess you could substitute just about anything for home here).  I love one of the final lines: "your living space is just empty space without love". Sigh. I guess I can be grateful to live here.  Fog and all. :-)

I bought plastic easter eggs to use for a young women activity.  I had a few leftovers, which I brought home to keep with the family ones that we'll be using in a couple weeks.  This morning I asked Natalie to put them away in my room for me.  She said, "it's not fair, mom.  You get EVERYTHING!" "What is everything?" I asked. "You get the eggs and GUM!" Yep.  I get everything.  Can't deny it!

One of my all-time favorite Conference Talks is the talk that Elder Holland gave at General Conference in April 2009 entitled " None Were With Him ". It's a great read as you prepare your heart for Easter this month. For a little fun, I made a wordle out of his talk and printed it off on some colored cardstock to frame for our living room.  If you're not familiar with wordle, it's a way cute program. If you click, you can go to the full-size version  You can also watch an abbreviated version of the talk from this Mormon Message  

After our somewhat heartbreaking experience with chickens a little over a year ago, we had to re-think the whole idea. We missed the cute antics of the chickens.  We really missed the egg supply.  We didn't miss the twice daily  opening and closing of the coop.  But we have since found out that there are ways to get around that such as " chicken tractors ", fully enclosed chicken yards, etc. Yesterday after Josh and the kids and I finished our morning yard work, we moseyed on over to the feed store to see if they even had baby chicks in stock yet.  Oh did they.  And I think we were all smitten.  After chatting with the store clerk to relieve our minds about a few chicken questions we had, we snagged four Plymouth Barred Rock chicks (which are supposed to all turn into layers in about 8 months - though there's always a chance we'll get a rooster). You can see they've already started to lose their cute fluffy baby feathers.  Those teen mon...

Logan's very cool castle!

I liked this blog post by Anthony Sweat about "Grace" and the confusion that some church members have with that principle. The Redheaded Hostess posts a lot of great content, by the way - especially pertinent if you teach the youth. https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/articles/what-is-grace-by-anthony-sweat/

Stand for Truth and Righteousness is the Young Women motto. I appreciated this story about a New Zealand couple who took the opportunity to do just that in front of their Parliament!  By Word of Our Testimonies

Waaaaaayyyyy back in the day when Josh and I got married, he used to tell me that bread pudding was one of his favorite desserts, which I thought sounded totally bizarre and weird. I mean Bread?  PUDDING? Then for awhile when we first moved to Medford, we had weekly lunch dates with the 'Honeys' at Home Town Buffett and Josh was able to have bread pudding every week for dessert.  I was confused as to what could be better than all the ice cream you could eat. But now that we live in California things have changed.  It started with General Conference weekend spent with Josh's parents.  I think it's pretty much a standing tradition for Grandma Richardson to make bread pudding during conference.  So that's where I had my first taste of bread pudding. And while I wouldn't go so far as to proclaim it my favorite dessert (for one thing, it's not sweet enough to be termed dessert in my mind), we do like to eat it for breakfast every couple weeks.  It makes a...

My baby is not really a baby any longer. Sniff. But she's still most definitely the "baby" in our family.   And she knows it. New baby! 1 year 2nd Birthday Age 3 Last night we celebrated her birthday.  Per her request, I made cupcakes with pink and blue icing on them (and sprinkles!).  We had chocolate ice cream (and strawberry, and vanilla).  And we invited three other families to come help us eat it.  Yum!  Natalie was SO excited to open her presents she was actually shaking.  Her hands were quivering so much that it was difficult for her.  She loved having 20 people sing Happy Birthday to her (the only one of my kids who would truly enjoy that much attention).  She had such a great day!   When I have time to get photos uploaded, I will be sure to post them.