A Year Full

While looking though my gmail messages, hovering over my contact, there "our family blog" shows up as a link. Sure enough here it is! Yes, we have a blog. Why not use it? Why not share a few thoughts of this incredible year we have started. The year of 2019!!! Who knows if this blog will be used much in the future. Perhaps posterity will enjoy reminiscing and re-reading stories of our past. Regardless, I have a moment to tell some of the daunting, thrilling and peculiar happenings that are upon us in the coming months.  By the way, this is us now 💑

Lincoln (6), Abigail (33), Naomi (2), Patrick (32), Gloria (8)

For the sake of the limited time I have and throwing any order or reason to the wayside, here it goes. I am becoming a farmer. I have left active duty military service and am now training through the Service Member Agricultural Vocation Education (SAVE) Farm to develop my own small sustainable farm operation. We want to homestead someday and I am committed to reach that dream. For this year, I will take courses hosted at Cloud Community College down the road here in Junction City, Kansas that includes hands on training with our farmer instructors. From metal working, to raising chickens, to driving tractors, it involves a little bit of everything and I've been loving it. We want to live an abundant life! What better way to embrace all that life has to offer than understanding and caring for the joys of the earth and animals God has given us to care for. Hopefully more on this as the years roll on.

First time riding a tractor

Mother's love

Abigail is pregnant with....twins. Tomorrow we hope to find out the genders of two humans that we will introduce into the world this summer. We don't know the reasons God is entrusting us with two at the same time as we were already anticipating a full year. Perhaps our twins will tell us someday. Our house will be fuller. We are humbled, excited, hopeful, but if we're honest, mostly terrified out of our minds. How do we load into the car? There will be many creative adjustments to say the least. Abigail continues to be an incredible and diligent mother and worker. She has been working for Sadowsky Autism for most of the last four plus years we've lived in Kansas and has blessed many families through her work. She has taken on homeschooling at the same time and introduced the methods and philosophy of Charlotte Mason to our home. We are not where we aim to be yet in our homeschooling endeavors but we'll get there! No Abby's not perfect, but she is just right for who we are as a couple and a family. She sure is sharp and we're going to add to our Montandon family! 

So it's off to the Kansas National Guard for me this weekend (couple hours drive West in Hays, KS). I should run tonight, I would like to run a marathon this year. As for the Montandons, we'll do the best we can and that will be enough. We waiver, but we come back to our senses. Come back to our faith. Life is much bigger than us. We get to make the best choices we can and see God's hand touch our journey. We are blessed with incredible friends, strong mentors and teachers, knowledge, resources and health. Above all, Jesus has conquered all the struggles that will hit us this year. If we rely on Him by following his teachings, this full year will be one of plenty and growth! Til' next time, Hopefully it wont be several years!

Ceilings: This we'll defend.

I am in Georgia for my husband's graduation from Basic Combat Training. I Hotwired a screaming deal at a Holiday Inn about 15 minutes from Fort Benning. I have full confidence in my In-laws and parents to take care of the children, or at least that they will survive (adults and children inclusive). I am currently waiting for Patrick to check in to Officer Candidate School. Learning first hand the truth of the Army’s unofficial motto “hurry up and wait” On the bright side, an extra moment to record some floating thoughts.  

I have often thought that you can tell the quality of a place by the way the ceiling looks. A hotel room can make you feel quite comfortable, pictures on the walls, nice desk lamps, faux-leather couches. But what is the ceiling like? Panels? Popcorn? Paint? Water stains and mold? The illusion of luxury literally capped with low cost covering. And why not?

The ceiling is usually the last thing you see when you fall asleep the first thing you forget when you wake up and move about your day. But really, the ceilings are the most valuable part of the room, Indeed it is why we have rooms. What would walls be without a roof?

The absent from our mind is the finishing touch that transforms our experience.

Recently, death has been on my mind. People close, not so close and places in between have left this frail existence. Leaving the awe and confusion of us the living to cope and to continue living. The room doesn’t look so nice when all we are faced with is the end, the top, the roof, the ceiling of a person’s life. All the luxury around us, the memories, even a Frank Lloyd Wright reproduction pales to the fact that they are gone. The room is finished and all we can see is a sparkling popcorn ceiling. Alone we look up and realize that it is over for now and the necessity of that caption is cruel. It makes me angry.

Why are we so shocked when people die? Why do our minds ignore this essential and ironically vital part of life experience? Why don’t we see the essential? What are ceilings for? Protection, comfort, to tell us the difference between inside and outside. And it helps. It helps me at least to know that the ceiling is not the end. There is the limitless sky just a few feet beyond.

Death, the essential and crowning part of the room of life it seems. Things, are looking up.

Now.

I realized last night that is has been 20 years since I chose to take on the name of Christ by being baptized. Twenty years. What a wild ride it has been. When I began this journey I was positively convinced that this path, which is called strait and narrow, would bring me joy, peace and eternal life with my loved ones. So where am I now?

The image of stretched taffy comes to mind.

I am a terrible sleeper, always have been. I heard once that you can never "catch up" on your sleep that your body is either tired or rested at any moment in time and you can not get more sleep to make up for being tired yesterday. I don't know if that is true but I woke up this morning feeling rested. I don't remember the last time my mind was that clear.  Thanks to my loving Mother in law for letting my kids sleep over at her house last night. I was not disturbed once.

I thought again of my 20 years, of my walk sometimes crawl towards Jesus. I think faith is a lot like sleep. It is only ever valuable in the present. Every valley I have crossed, every peak I have reached in the past 20 years has only pushed me forward to now. Stretched thin nearly to nothing in some places and in others tasting heaven, all has been a part of creating the soul I have now.  

This is somehow shocking to me. This path of trial, sorrow, isolation, not the anticipated "joy, peace and eternal life with my loved ones" that I felt like I was signing up for. It's difficult to explain what kind of hell this road to heaven has taken me through. Everybody's hell is difficult to explain.

I am really sick of asking why. I am really sick of "I don't knows" sandwiched with "but I do knows..."  Faith is not a question, it is not an answer but it is a state that is uniquely created by extremity. My faith is what I have become because of my journey of questions: Why? What? Who? Seriously? and all the rest. If I had known then what I know now about choosing the journey as well as the destination, I'm sure it would have been a harder sell. All I had then was then. Now I have now. I am so grateful to that little girl that chose to enter in at that strait gait.

Another shocker is that all we have is Now. Our nows never die, they never change. In now is the constant rebirth and death of ourselves. I'm not one for drinking in moments, I usually think that I will choke. Learning to love these moments, these, now(s), I think there just might be something to that.  

I know this is a really odd way to come back to "look how happy my family is" blog scene after such a long absence. But there you have it. In other news, Patrick is about to graduate from Basic Combat Training in the United States Army. When he finishes next week he will immediately begin Officer Candidate School for another 12 weeks in Georgia. I am living with my loving parents, working full time as a Junior Consultant for Alternative Behavior Strategies.  I am also studying to take a board exam to become a BCBA in May. We have had another child and called him Lincoln Neil.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perish, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7

Back to the West

We are back to Utah and the Montandons are starting a new chapter.  We thought we may be heading to New Mexico for a while with a couple of job leads and then out of nowhere, the therapist position at Synergy popped up.  I was applying like crazy, making calls everywhere, and then I saw the position on KSL out of nowhere and we jumped on it quickly since we loved the idea of being back in Logan, closer to family.  With the help of frequent flying dad's I flew out for interviewing and started working a couple days later just after the fourth of July!  Like most things in life, the grass always looks greener on the other side, and while we had a picture perfect vision of our new set up in Logan, things have been trying and not as picturesque as we imagined!  My work is truly a trial of faith and I am tested everyday as a therapist for these young men.  It is an opportunity i would not get anywhere else, but definitely a harder one in many ways!

Walking around Alpine neighborhood over Thanksgiving

Abby and Gloria have kept me sane.  Abby ever ceases to amaze me with how active and ambitious she and constantly patient and loving.  Since moving back, she has been watching over Gloria who continues to show her terrible twos coming through each day!  Abby is pregnant with our little boy, due January 10th.  She has been working at ASSERT (preschool for children with autism on USU campus) for the last 4 months 3 times a week.  She has been doing all this just using the buses since I have to drive way up to Cornish 30 minutes north of Logan.  We have so much to be thankful for and are trying harder to recognize this daily and become more positive!  Some of the things that we are doing daily for 21 days are the following, (which we saw from a cool presentation on TED about positive psychology)

• List three new things you are grateful for
• Exercise 
• Journal one positive thing that happened each day
• Do one act of kindness
• Meditate/Ponder

12 Minutes on Positive Psychology!

Fall Has Come

Pool Party at the Goddards!

Catching Grandpa Cannon before he flies off for work!

A New Ride

We really enjoyed seeing everyone in Utah last month. So did Gloria. We are back into the groove of things here in St. Louis. Abby survived crazy research methods and assessment courses. Now its on to the fun stuff, Applied Behavior Analysis (her main focus or specialization!). I am working now part time at Touchpoint Autism Services providing respite care for a few individuals with autism. They really vary in their degree of social functioning. One is very high functioning and knows how to interact in public just like anyone else really. Another is barely verbal and needs a lot of prompting to do everyday things like eating. It will be a great experience. Three more courses and I'll be finished with the Masters. It's gone by fairly quick. Gloria is healthy even though were still trying to figure out the allergy mystery with these spots still. She is trying out new laughs. Here is a link to one of her latest!

Learning from cousin Josephine!

Dirt from the house plant still tastes good

Loving the OutdoorsAllergy? To what!?

They'll never find me here

8 months

9 MONTHS!LOVE YOU GUYS! TIL NEXT TIME

Tough Cute Girl

This is going to reveal my terrible parenting but for the past month Glory has had a pretty bad rash travel all over her body. It hasn't seem to bother her and she didn't have a temperature so we didn't really do anything about it until this week. Well, I shouldn't say we've done nothing, I did put lavender essential oil on which seemed to help temporarily. We decided to finally take her to see the doctor. He ordered some allergy testing and prescribed benadryl. I made Patrick take her to get her blood drawn, just thinking about that makes me hurt for her but he said she did okay, even though they had to poke her twice poor thing. We are still awaiting the results.

More Pictures of Summer Doings

This is at the Tower Grove house at the Botanical Gardens, I love these two so much

We had a great visit with Katie Smith up in Nauvoo for a wedding. This is in front of Carthage jail.

More pictures of the City Museum.

Summer in the city! Backamyneckgettin'burntandpretty.

Two words: it's hot. Too hot to move. Too hot even for the cockroaches that live at the bottom of our stairs to come out. I've been spending most of my days inside doing homework and watching Glory grow up far too quickly for my liking. Every day it seems she learns a new skill, a sound to make or a movement with her hand.

We have ventured out for a few activities.

I went with my recently car-free friends on a little literary tour of St. Louis. There are surprisingly a lot of famous authors from here, including T.S. Eliot and Tennessee Williams the others I wish I could have written down, oh well. It was a lot of taking Gloria in and out of the trailer but it was fun, mostly because it was prior to the extreme heat wave.

Gloria was also able to attend her first Cardinals game. She didn't seem that into baseball yet but it was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen.

My friend Jen from DC was visiting and treated us. What a sweetheart!

Celebrating Patrick's birthday at the City Museum. This place is indescribably cool. The pictures do it little justice but here are some of them anyway.

All in all, Glory's seventh month of life has been pretty awesome. I feel so blessed to be able to take advantage of the cool things to do here.

The Fun and Fabulous day of Freedom

We took full advantage of living in Saint Louis in celebrating this years Day of Independence. First we made the traditional matching themed puffy paint tees as a family while listening to patriotic music. We also read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Then we took a beautiful bike ride around Forest park, stopping to take some pictures.






We finished the day by going to Fair St. Louis. Gloria got her first tiny taste of fair food. She is showing much more interest in food and was ravenous to try some of my funnel cake.



We all enjoyed the fireworks. Gloria was indifferent to them except for the really big ones. I love the fourth of July and I love the United States of America.