FACES of MAY 2015

It has been so nice having Beauty home with our family! She's so stubborn and independent but I know those are the things that are going to make her soar! She's a girl who has her life planned and if things go differently she has a plan for that, too.  She adjusts and bends yet is immovable and strong! I truly admire the woman she is becoming!

I love when my boys get together! It's crazy that they are 10 years apart! I worried that they are my bookends and would never be close but Warrior has always had his little brother right up under his wing! Dash adores him. They fight and talk trash to each other to the point that I have to say enough! But, even though Warrior is married he still makes time to be a big part of Dash's life! I'm not really sure if this is common in other families where siblings are 10 years apart but my heart literally swells when I think how close my children are with each other! It makes me smile from here to eternity!! Like seriously, if this is just a portion of what heaven feels like then I am so lucky to experience 1/100th of it!!! I know that these blessings didn't come without consistency and work and leading by example.  I know that somehow when Mr. Incredible were rearing these hellions we did something right!, (it probably was when we felt like we were failing and doing everything right, that God blessed our wrongs and made them work).

Sweetheart

She has started yet another high school. My heart aches a bit when I think that she has started a new year of high school every year, that is so sad to me! 9th grade Eureka High School in Mo, 10th grade Johnstown High School in NY, and now 11th grade at Hickory Ridge High School in NC. 

It brings to mind the scripture D&C 122:7 

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

I love that she hasn't wallowed in pity and sorrow but she has stayed firmly rooted in her foundation of the gospel. I know she has turned to the Lord in tears at time praying and seeking for comfort and help to carry on.  I love that we have never had to compel her to go to seminary or church. Seminary was challenging this year not just for her but for everyone involved in the program and I stand in awe of her faith to still attend. She has learned a lesson that many adults still struggle with.  WE do not go or attend for anyone or any reason other than for ourselves. She has a testimony that doing all these things asked of her, will allow the blessings from heaven to flow unto her. 

There were also some very difficult and trying times that she had to face and I'm so grateful that she didn't have to face them on her own. That these experiences happened while she was home and she had Mr. Incredible and I to turn to and help guide and encourage. I'm glad she didn't have to experience these things alone. Some children never have such drastic changes and some have so much more to experience. Some may have to experience heartache away from their strongest support systems. I look forward to seeing her grow into such a beautiful woman, wife and mother.

Thanksgiving 2014- Y Friends

So, we were doubly blessed this year with so many amazing friends and family and an abundance of blessings! We are so blessed to be here in Harrisburg and blessed by the circumstances which led us here and blessed that we get to live so close to our son and daughter-in-law! Life is so good and I have such a wonderful life! Even when things were harder I still had such a beautiful life! As, I look back on the past I reminisce and smile and sigh because I see how far we have come and that we have done it twice. I look and see the times of struggle and worry from the day we made a beginning as husband and life and I am so amazed and see How Great Thou Art!! 

I am so grateful, so blessed and so lucky! Without those times of struggle it wouldn't have defined who I am, individually, who Mr. Incredible is or each one of our children. My canvas of life is one of the most amazing pieces of artwork to be seen! I can't wait til that day when I will the Lord will show me it! I will see glorious hues of bright vibrant colors and the sweetest most tender whispers of pastels and intermingled and what defines and brings depth and definition will be those times of struggle and strife, and trials and what path may have seemed hard or unbearable with the guidance of the Master's Hand it has become in those moments who I knew who I really am and who my family is and the stock they are made of! I am so grateful for these beautiful women in my life! They have blessed, helped and supported our sweet family and are so grateful they are part of my beautiful canvas of life!

It sure is nice to look back and see this boy back in the seat again! It feels like everything is right in the world again! This is where he belongs right with the Solomon Family!!! 

TRICKERY

I continue to trick myself and tell myself for the past few years that two of my four children are grown and I no longer need to worry. But, the insane thing is when I married almost 26 years ago this July, amidst all the unwanted, unwarranted incessant words of advice when we first married or had our first child NO ONE truly gave me words of advice that would resonate or impact me as important as these words of advice I would soon realize almost two years after we married. So here it is! Two of the most important things I think a couple should know (kid wise)

1. The concept of marriage and children and having a happily ever after takes constant WORK, and I mean all capitalized! Having a beautiful garden and having it smile back at you takes constant tending and nurturing and fertilizing. You must pull the weeds out as they sprout and not wait until your garden is over taken and it makes for well set roots of deeper weeds and are sometimes so hard to pull out. Very much like a marriage and a relationship with your child! BUT, I feel duped or somewhat lied to or perhaps at 22 when we had our first born brought to us 10 weeks premature. I may have been viewing life through rose colored glasses!

2. You don't always stay in that happily ever after mode. Real life sets in and real bills come in and real expectations take over.

3. NO ONE told me the true importance of having a baby. I was always approached with WHEN do you two plan on having a baby, and Oh children are so fun, they are such a blessing and TRULY they are! But, how about getting down to the nitty gritty! When you choose to have a baby you are choosing to put aside your life and completely nurture and grow another life NOT for 10 years not for 20 years but for the rest of your life! You will continue to worry and love as soon as that heart begins beating inside your body!

4. I was under the fallacy of when my children turned 18, I could have my life back! Well, my oldest and my youngest are 10 years apart! But, then somewhere in the middle priorities change for the best as I learned to let go of the good and the better to reach for the best and my life's ambitions are more family geared than they were when I first set out on the journey of being a wife and a mother.

5. I remember when our oldest took out his own endowments when he was 19 and we went through the temple together! I had inhaled a glorious eternal breath and exhaled and thought to myself as I hugged him in the Celestial Room of the St. Louis, MO Temple. My work is done. I have accomplished all I can do as a parent. FOOLED AGAIN!

6. Almost 3 years later our oldest married in the Washington D.C. Temple in Kennsington, MD and this is where I raised my arms in celebration! YES, I am done! One child given back to the Lord! All saving ordinances have taken place.

But, does a true gardener ever leave their garden? Aren't they always pruning and fertilizing and weeding? And so it is true with parenthood. and that is the MOST IMPORTANT words of advice! When you make the choice to be a parent you are choosing to care and worry about all areas that your DNA footprint will have until your last breath. So, there is never a I'm done. But, more of a let me sit back and watch! Let's see how well I tended this plant. Will it grow and bloom and MOST importantly will it whether the storms, or the weeds when hard times comes or when someone else forgets to tend to the soil? Is there enough fortitude in this once little plant to withstand the elements?

I have a wonderful glimpse of what our loving Heavenly Father must feel. Did He nurture us enough while we were in his presence to withstand the elements of our earth life and as we progress and treat one another and curb our desires, wants and needs to be more Christlike and tend to the needs of others, does he smile as we continue to progress and think I'm almost done. I'm one step closer to not worrying? No, He will never stop worrying and never stop watching and smiling with our triumphs and hurting with our failures. He will never stop until we are safely home with him again!