Shalet Godfrey

About a year ago I decided to sew bags for a measly living. I bought me an awesome sewing machine, yards and yards of beautiful fabric, oodles of thread, yards sticks, disappearing ink markers, needles, and the list goes one. Then I began to cut and cut and cut then sew and sew and sew. I really enjoyed it at first but quickly found that I was using every spare minute I had to cut, iron or sew material and less and less time just enjoying life with my family. This along with the founding of my kidney disease was wearing me thin and I was exhausted. Then in April 2008 during the General Conference Sunday afternoon session I received an answer to an unspoken prayer. Elder Russell M Ballard talked about the role of a mother and that "there is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood" He said to "recognize that motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction".

My priorities were in array and I really had to question if all these bags would make a difference in the long run. These lines made sense to me at this point in my life: Elder Ballard said, "Author Ann Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: "The biggest mistake I made as a parent is the one that most of us make . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of my three children sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and getting it done a little less". I did not quit sewing, but at that moment I knew I needed to revamp my priorities as this stage of my children's lives will be so short.
The last couple of weeks were really stressful for me as I had a few personal issues going on and then a few things out of my control that I was trying to take care of and again lost sight of what was most significant and ended up having one really difficult night that ended with a whole lot of tears. But as I prayed for direction, peace and help the words of Elder Ballard rang close to my heart. Again, I knew what was most important.

This week we went to the zoo,

apple picking, bought Halloween Costumes (Dax was so insatiable when it came to this topic, let's see it ranged from a skunk, to spider man, to a table, to a hippo, monkey, boa constrictor, turkey, tiger, peacock, dinosaur, sooooo we finally had to just pick something and he's still a bit unsatisfied), riding bikes, Dax started swim lessons, Lucas won't eat anything but is content most of the time, talked about why we have to get old and why we need to die, discussed what kind of meat we eat and why (weird topic I say), working on the 9th Article of Faith, talked about primary and in the end enjoyed one another a little bit more . . . . Don't get me wrong we still had some, at times a lot of moments but I recognized more the shining moments of joy and satisfaction.