Thornton Mom

My sweet mom sent us a bribe bucket.  She had taken little trinkets and wrapped them up and put them in the bucket to use as bribery.  It arrived just in time.  The kids had a bast picking u each package and guessing what was in it.  We were able to get everything cleaned up with almost no complaining.  It was delightful.  We still have several unopened items and the kids keep fingering them and asking when they can open another one.  Thanks Mom!! Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:29 "night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously had one." March 2015

The other night we implimented a new bed time routine.  I explained, "Everyone, Elizabeth and under is to go to bed at 8:00 on school nights."  Maddie came over to me after I finished the details and said, "Hey Mom, you have to go to bed at 8:00 too because you are shorter than Elizabeth!"  This sent roars of laughter throughout the family.  Derek could hardly stand he was laughing so hard. Notwithstanding My Weakness, Neal A. Maxwell, General Conference, 10/1976 "Some of us who would not chastise a neighbor for his frailties have a field day with our own. Some of us stand before no more harsh a judge than ourselves, a judge who stubbornly refuses to admit much..." I went to therapy for the first time last week.  We mostly just talked about my history.  She did say that she is a cognitive therapist and expla

 The other day I went for my morning walk and was accompanied by Samantha.  It was a delight to walk with her.  She helped push Michael, we talked, we observed nature.  She is a good girl and such a sweetie.  I enjoyed having her around that day.  I wish our walk had been longer. As we finished our walk we saw a crane in the water catching fish.  Samantha took my phone and started taking pictures.  Here are some of my favorite. October 23, 2001 BYU Devotional In the Strength of the Lord  David A. Bednar I am not trying to suggest that the redeeming and enabling powers of the Atonement are separate and discrete. Rather, these two dimensions of the Atonement are connected and complementary; they both need to be operational during all phases of the journey of life. And it is eternally important for all of us to recognize that both of these essential elements of the journey of life—both putting off the natural man and becoming a saint, both overcoming bad and b

These are a few examples of what my kids do with my phone when they get their hands on it.  Got to love them!! Today I feel the need to be grateful . . . I really do have the best husband in the world, others may say theirs is the best but I will rebuttle with:  He is perfect for me!! Elizabeth is beautiful and has a good spirit.  Yesterday she played outside for a long time then came in and started doing Family History without me saying anything. Samantha is supper helpful getting the children to play together and not whine. John Derek loves candy.  It is amazing what he will do for a jolly rancher. Maddie loves to love.  If I am frustrated she will immediatly come over to me and in her sweet girly voice tell me how much she loves me. Michael loves to laugh.  He is always doing something funny and he makes the whole family stop arguing and start to laugh. My mom is amazing and so willing to listen to what is going on.  She feels so helpless being so far away b

Family Home Evening was on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  We started talking about what toppings we like on steaks.  I then pulled out a bowl of ice cream and tried to convince them to put the stake sauce on the ice cream.  Then explained that there are some things we like on a Sundae and some things we don't.  Just like there are some things we do on Sunday and some things we don't.  We then labled each of the Sundae toppings with things we can do on Sunday.  Daddy ended by giving everyone a whip cream nose.  Book of Mormon, Alma 13:4-9 "And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren. 5  Or in fine, in the first place they were on the same standing

This is my sweet sister, her husband, and their two darling girls.  Almost a week ago they found out that their oldest, who is only 2, has diabetes.  Not the news that you ever want to hear.  I am so impressed with the faith of my sister and her husband.  They continually turn to the Lord in this situation.  They are trying their best and will succeed.  God bless you Myer's family.  You are continually in our prayers.  Book of Mormon, Alma 13:3 "And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory rede

Samantha hurt her arm.  It is not broken but it does hurt so the doctor thought we should put it in a cast.  Poor baby.  This is the third injury to this arm.  Derek and I are still fighting for our family.  We daily give things up for the betterment of ourselves and our children.  I know that we are on the Lord's side.  I feel so blessed to be a daughter in His kingdom. Elizabeth and me love makeup but we love Jesus and God because we go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Me and Elizabeth want to God.  We love our family. These are some cute passages Maddie wrote and shared with me at her Student Lead Conference.  I am amazed at her love for others and for Heavenly Father.  She truly has an early testimony of the love of the Father and his Son.  I hope it continues.   Mom helps me do my homework.  Mom looks at me when I do my chores.  Some times mom helps me do my chores.  Mom does rake the leaves and I rake the leaves with mom. Notwithstanding

This past weekend dawned with great hope and great ambition.  Derek and I have noticed in our family a feeling of negativity and rudeness.  It has taken over our children and even a part of us.  We decided to have a "restart" weekend.  I stared by going to the Temple Friday morning and received ideas of how to make this weekend great. We booked a room in a local hotel and picked the kids up early from school for a "surprise."  It was amazing to see how Satan was trying so hard to discourage us.  It started when we got the kids from school and they complained about what they would be missing.  (Doesn't it go without saying that everyone wants to get out of school?)  Derek and I were giddy with excitement but the kids just refused to enjoy the moment and were so frustrated that we would not tell them where we were going.  When we finally pulled up at the hotel a heavy gloom came upon everyone.  But walking into the hotel with a huge bowl of suckers quickly s

Samantha is a good little helper.  She is so good at getting people to follow her.  Through out her life, especially at her baptism, I have been told my others and the Lord that she will be a leader some day.  I can see this in her already.  The younger children love to follow her directions, she makes it fun and enjoyable.  Everything becomes a game.  We were at a basketball game for Elizabeth and the little ones got tired of sitting in the stands.  Samantha and I took turn walking with them in the hallway for a while.  Finally the game was over and I asked Samantha to stay with them while I grabbed Daddy and Elizabeth.  When I came back she had organized them into a game of Simon Says.  They were all sitting against the wall in the hall waiting on her every word.  She is truly amazing. Chapter 6: Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Redeemer

Today I sat down to follow my mentor's advice and write down what I want out of therapy.  Then I read the NieNie Dialogues "Hard Work" and that is exactly what I want to become.  That is what I want.  I just feel overwhelmed when trying to get there. Sunday I had to teach and my sister in law was there.  We talked about the Mormon Message, "Two Brother's Apart."   How the older brother treated the younger brother horribly and the younger brother just wanted to be loved.  Later we learn that the older brother was depressed and that through Christ he was able to make his greatest weakness his greatest strength and that now the brother's are best friends.  My sister in law raised her hand and said, "I think that the reason the older brother was so mean to his younger brother was because he was in pain and so treated his brother poorly.  I think that more often than not if someone is treating someone poorly that they themselves are hurting and if

Maddie with a Unicorn Samantha with a sparkly horse Maddie eating her Birthday Fried Ice Cream Maddie turned 6 last week.  For her birthday she wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant that would sing Happy Birthday to her and give her fried ice cream.  She loved it.  She is such a sweet beautiful girl.  She is constantly applying the gospel to her life.  She will often tell me that she loves me just to see me smile and know she is making me feel good.  She is an amazing reader and is soaking everything in that she is learning.  We love having her in our home.

We have had great snow days down here in North Carolina.  Michael loves snowmen and was so delighted when they built a giant snowman across the street.  He has had to go over everyday and touch it and then sing the snowman song.  Taken 2 days ago Yesterday we went over and touched the snowman with John Derek.  It was 70 degrees outside and beautiful.  The snowman is just a stump now but still there.  A little while later after lots of laughter and joyous squeels John Derek and Michael came to the back door looking like this: Taken 1 day ago Only in North Carolina can you play with a snowman and voluntarily get drenched by the water hose on the same day!! My sister Christina has started a blog.  I love the story she shares.  I will call it " The Analogy of the Stairs ."  I would encourage you to read it to know that you too are not alone.  Yesterday I felt such confidence in my depression but by evening the black dog had taken over and I was overcome with his

Samantha has been struggling lately with finding her testimony.  She believes in God like she believed in Santa.  Finding out about Santa set her for a whirl and now she is doubting if God really does exist. On that same note I am amazed at her stamina and her desire to find the truth.  She really is putting a lot of thought and energy into finding out.  I am confident that she will discover Him and her testimony soon.  What a great age to decide if she believes in God.  She will decide when her parents are the most influential and before her friends gain their own opinions to sway her.  I am greatly thankful for this. A few weeks ago Samantha had lost a small stuffed animal.  She looked for it but could not find it.  She prayed and still no animal.  She was having a rough day one day and felt that God must not be real and if He is He does not love her because He had not helped her find this animal.  I prayed for strength and that evening Derek and I lifted the mattress off her

Last night Michael toddled over to me with a book in his hand.  He loves to snuggle and read together.  He brougth me one of his favorite books.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?  As we read we came across a frog and made a ribbit sound, when we got to the dog we "barked" and then we got to the Goldfsh.  I read Goldfish, Goldfish, What do yousee?  Michael pretended to grab the goldfish, put it in his mouth and say, "Yum, yum, yum! Mommy some?"  I was taken back, why would he eat the goldfish.  Then I realized that he does not know what a goldfish is.  He only goldfish he knows are the goldfish crackers.  No wonder he wants to eat it.  Samantha, who was sitting next to me, and I got a good laugh! Yesterday I listened to a book trying to learn more about anxiety.  The book suggested over and over again that I needed to listen to my kids.  By the time they got home I had been blessed with incredible patience and did not worry about how the house loo

John Derek has been struggling with his reading.  I mentioned this to a friend of mine and they suggested I try reading the Book of Mormon with him.  I looked into it and found some books that actually put the Book of Mormon into reading lessons with sight words and everything.  I felt good about it and got the first book.  Before I told John Derek, I happened to pick up an Ensign and read an article about a man who suffered for years from ADHD and had a difficult time reading but was able to overcome by studying the Book of Mormon.  I related the story to John Derek and didn't really thing he was paying attention.  A few nights later he had to give the lesson at Family Home Evening.  He decided to teach about faith and related this very story.  I was so happy to see his faith growing and his trust in the Book of Mormon and Heavenly Father. We make a game out of his sight words.  He is trying to get across the room without touching one. Book of

 The kids have really been enjoying their snow days.  In the last 2 weeks our kids have only had one and a half days of school.  One of their favorite past times is playing Legos.  They keep coming up with new and better creations.  It is fun to see them. Chapter 5: Principles of True Repentance Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson, (2014), 76–88 "“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ