Building - New Years resolution

I'm always telling my Littles, "if your not building up, you are tearing down, whether you realize it or not, so let's build." 

I'm trying to build a happy family. It takes great effort, but is the only thing, I feel, worthy of all my time and effort. 

I am thankful to be blessed with a big family, lots of children, sisters, nieces and nephews and parents. All together their are like 40 of us, not counting my aunts and uncles and my cousins. I don't even know that number. 24 of us live close by, within a few hours or less. 

Even though my Big Littles are out on their own, I miss them, I think about them everyday. 

We have to remember where we came from, who loved us, taught us and sacrificed for us. The greatest & hardest work is raising a happy family and it takes lots of reinforcement. 

That's why the family unit keeps on growing...we become grandparents, we have grandparents... You get it?? 

We have people to help us when we need support, encouragement and protection. 

We need to feel loved, embraced, and understood because the world is hard and not everyone gets us. 

These tender moments that dont happen often, with extended family,  feed our souls...it makes it seem like there are more people on our side. 

People who have your back, get your humor, and your junk, cause they have some of the same. They love you because they are connected. 

Our family members, extended and close, understand things the way no other people do because there is a history.  I'm a tinker because my dad is. I get startled easily because my mom does. My children recognize both of those things and more. And now they see my "things" in them. 

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I am glad "God gave us families, to help us become what he wants us to be." 

We are trying to raise our children to know God, and the concept that He sent them here,  and it was no mistake that it was to our family. 

I am constantly  learning and growing and trying to be a good mom, sister, daughter, and friend and it's a lot of work, but I do feel God's hand in it.

I pray for my children a LOT! 

Even in the most happiest of times a mother is only as happy as her saddest child, this is so true and when having 5 children, it seems someone is always struggling and the weight at times can be heavy.  

I am trying to teach our children to bear each other's burden's  & as I'm teaching this, I'm  trying to understand how to do it too. When I see their compassion for one another I think I'm on the right track. 

When we bear each other's burdens, it not only helps and heals them, but us too. Sometimes I have to really pray for strength and understanding. I am not the same as my children, we are similar yet very different. I am trying to learn about them, and from them, so we can be stronger and I know that this family unit is what I need the most to teach me. 

We all know the saying " that we love our family no matter what", but a relationship is different. It's learning about one another's differences, and then trying to understand them, embrace them, and then lift them up. It takes a LOT of work and even when you love someone, if you don't have a relationship with them, the love feels cheap and they just don't get it...or you, so that is why it is so important to build!! 

                     Building bonds us. 

It is my wish to build more. To embrace more. To lift more. Not just to my own 5, but the more that come with them and of course my extended family & friends too!! 

It's hard to really build everywhere, all the time, but this is my resolution this year. To build! I'm going to try extra hard to make my love feel rich to all of them, always. 

I'm going to pray harder for guidance and 

keep spending one on one time with them.

I know my Heavenly Father is with me on this one, and will provide a way that I can enrich the lives of those I care about most. This year I'm really going to include Him and ask for His help. I hope to see and feel a difference in our home and in the home of those we visit. 

This is my prayer and resolution. 

From me to you w love, M