Awesome Andersen Kids!!!

As most of you probably know, John is in Idaho this week training for his new job. I am used to him being gone for a majority of the day, since previously he was working at his Novell office during the day. The hardest times for me are getting everyone out the door in the morning, and the couple of hours between 5:00 and bedtime in the evening. Mornings are especially tricky, and require some extreme organization to pull everything together in a time-efficient way. For the most part we do okay -- I just hold my breath and pray that there are no surprises!

Well, this morning we woke up to what I thought was a "skiff" of snow. However, as we read scriptures and the sky got lighter, we were able to see that rather than just a skiff, a few inches of snow had accumulated throughout the night. I thought about panicking, then decided action was probably a better route. As they were eating breakfast, I told the kids that as soon as they had their things ready for school, I needed their help. The kids were amazing in their response. They all quickly finished their food and got their backpacks loaded and ready to go, then donned their snow gear. Aylee, Johnny and Alayna spent the rest of the morning shoveling the drive-way and side-walk. While I got Avary and Jace dressed, Aliece prepared their food. I took Jace out and got him buckled in the car, then cleared off the suburban while Aliece got Avary buckled in her car seat and fed her a bottle. By the time I had the car ready to go, Aylee, Johnny & Alayna had everything cleared amazingly well, and Avary was ready to be loaded. We all piled in, then slipped and slid down the road until I got it in 4-wheel drive. (Thank goodness for that suburban!) We pulled into the school at 8:27, and the kids had an ample 3 minutes to make it to their classrooms on time. Phew!

As I made my way back home (and noticed that our walks were the most clear of any in the neighborhood) I thought about what an awesome team I have to work with. This morning during scripture study, we talked about what the family proclamation says concerning successful families -- that they are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work and wholesome recreational activities. I think we were able to apply almost every one of those principles this morning, and can testify that they are true!