Another Temptation: Creating Something Bigger and Better than Everyone Else

 Another voice in the world said, "Since you already spent time and money on becoming a realtor, you might as well become the best realtor you can."  Actually if you burn your meal, no matter what you add to try and make it better, it is still going to taste burned.   I should have threw it out and started over on parenting, but instead, I spent hours and hours making the perfect ads and presentations to attract business online. After 2 months of working on it 8-12 hours a day, I wondered why I was doing that.  Then I realized that we are born with a desire to create, that it is our end purpose, to create things as Gods. No wonder I was so addicted to creating, even to the point of neglecting my children. I have done that as a scrap booker as well. Of course I could be a great realtor, or a great any thing I want to be.  I just need to put it off until my children are older and don't need me as much.  People deserve a FULL-TIME realtor that is totally devoted to them and that is imposible for me with my 6 children. Also, children are only young once.

Temptation: More Money

In 2007 I listened to a voice in the world.  It said, "You need more $$$!  You don't want to take 30 years to pay off your house like your parents did.  The end of the world will be before then.  You might loose everything if you take that long!"  So I went and got my real estate license.  I was expecting number 5 and left the others in the care of a 12 year old neighbor girl 6 hours a day for a month that summer.  Both my husband and I got caught up in the idea of owning several properties that would go up in value.  By April 2008, we owned 4 properties and if we had sold all of them except one at that time, we would have already owned that one.  But we wanted MORE.  We were greety and it cost us.  The economic downturn made it so our tenants lost jobs and couldn't pay the rent.  We were too nice and trusting and let some stay up to 6 months without paying, while we tried to pay all the mortgages by ourselves(using credit cards).  My husband was set on paying every bank back every dollar we owed, because we signed a paper that said we would, and he was going to be honest and upright at all costs.  We borrowed more money to fix up and get rid of each house one by one, each time being left with our credit card debts to pay off on our own.  We were able to escape  foreclosures, and even shortsales until our very last property.  The tenants had smoked meth in the home and we didn't have the money to clean it up, so we were forced to shortsale that last property in the spring of 2013.  Our misery from this mistake lasted 6 years.  At the end of the 6 years, we own nothing and are renters ourselves, but we have no debt.  We managed to get ourselves back to ground zero.  Do you think our children suffered at all during that time?  Big time.  Our focus was elsewhere, so the children were neglected, feel unloved, and misbehave terribly.   

The Secret to my Happiness: Being a Great Mom!

I grew up in a big Mormon(L.D.S.) family.  I only remember the good times and all the fun we had together.  My biggest goal in life has always been to have a big family of my own, because it was the most righteous  thing to do, and would therefore bring me the most happiness in life.  Of course this is true because many latter day prophets have told us so.   David O. McKay said, "Home is the only place where true happiness can be found."  Joseph F. Smith said, "There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home...There is no happiness without service, and there is no greater service than that which converts the home into a divine institution."   Being a great mom is my main priority because it's the largest source of joy for me. Of course, sometimes spirits of digression overcome me and lead me down less important paths. After a few days of misery, I realize my wrong turn and get back on the right path. Sometimes the misery goes for weeks, months, even years, before I realize that I need to make corrections to be happy again! I know this is God training us to become as he is, Gods. What helps me stay on the right path is praying, reading scriptures daily, attending church weekly, and going to the temple. I know there is a God, because I feel him helping me with my responsibilities when I do these things!

Six children! Some people think I'm crazy and somedays I feel crazy, but other days I still want more! My husband says we've got to provide (financially and spiritualy) for the ones we have first. I would have to agree. But it seems that I can only focus on one thing at a time. If I am worried about the finances or trying to help with the income, then the children's spirits suffer. But our income seems to never be enough.

We obviously can't raise our family on our own. We need heaven's help. We are promised that if we show faith in God, miracles will happen. Thus my experiment will be to do God's will first, which would be to love the children, and see if he will bless us with better income.