Thoughts on parenting

I am always so worried about raising good strong kids. I constantly worry that choosing to do Oral Surgery (dad not home much, dad that is only at church half the time & doesn't have a calling, mom that is tired and burnt out 99% of the time, attending a school that has failed the state tests for the past 4 years, etc.) will have long lasting, and damaging, effects on them.

Lately I have felt so overwhelmed. There is just too much for me to do. I can't do it all! And the people & things that are most important-my children! sometimes take the brunt end of it. So I am making a conscience effort to give them each at least 15 min of one on one time everyday. I just want them to know that I love them! That I'm proud of them and that I really do like to spend time with them but there isn't anybody else here to help me with all the things that need done. This last month's visiting teaching message had a quote from Sister Beck that said something like "it has never been more important to raise a good strong home/family then it is now" and I really do feel that. Everywhere we look Satan has brought his evil into the "norm" and it doesn't even phase people. Standards are slipping, expectations lowered, and it makes me sad. I just pray that even though I'm only one small person that Heavenly Father can help me make ends meet with teaching & raising the kids right. There really do need to be 2 sets of hand but Ben's just aren't available right now.

I was working on some other church stuff online when I found something someone had written about blessings. It was jsut from the bible dictionary on page 753 and it said something like "there needs to be effort on our part to receive blessings. We need to put some energy & thought into how to make them most of them" It is general conference this weekend so it was being used to talk about the different ways you can increase your effort in gaining blessings from GC but I have been thinking a lot about that with my struggles of feeling like I'm not up to the task I"ve been given for these few years. I am so so so tired and burnt out everynight. I go not stop for about 17 hours every day doing things for other people and in the end it just isn't enough or isn't a good enough job. So as I go into the GC weekend I hope to find some answers to how to make sure I'm doing the best I can with the kiddos. I want them to be smart, strong, independant, faithful men. Not one of the mormons I seems to see alot..."mormons" with liberal views on things. Mormons who hangout in bars, wear immodest clothes, support gay marriage, etc. That is my hope and prayer right now as a mother of 3 wonderful boys who are growing up in a scary world!