I snapped this pic while taking my walk in the park last Saturday. Yes, it is a group of ants using teamwork to get their dinner, a dropped French fry, across the sidewalk over to their home. Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Here’s the destination, below.

I love that God shows us through nature what team work looks like! We can either push or pull together to get a load moved so we can all benefit! Just like these ants all worked together to get their food storage down their ant hole. They were all pushing and pulling in the same direction. Nobody was fighting or working the opposite way. Now they can have some food for the upcoming days/fall/ winter, I have no idea which. I wonder just how long these three French fries will last them?

I have seen team work in my family lately. My lovely daughter came to be with us for three whole days after her college graduation. Now she is in Mexico doing humanitarian work. She graduated from college debt free (cue Dave Ramsey music!) and she paid to go on this trip with her own money. I am one pleased mama! She is super nice too. I have been meaning to blog about this, for a long time, how she gave me a birthday gift of a lovely Pioneer Woman butter dish, many months ago. She didn’t even know that it would match my tablecloth, but it did!

Then we had a campfire dinner of roasting hot dogs last week. I love to do this whenever the big kids come home as a way to celebrate. I asked the kids to build the fire. The surly 12 year old was not helping.

With my other son gone to football practice we were missing some crucial Boy Scout fire building skills! The fire kept dying out. So I told the 12 year old how much we needed his help and he finally pitched in to get us a blazing fire.

Last Friday night my peace was threatened to be destroyed but then family team work swooped in to save my day. I had been planning for weeks on having a good old-fashioned date to a liberal arts based parent mentor meeting, just like in the old days when we lived in Utah. We had these wonderful friends who had regular Moms and Dads as Mentor Meetings. Our commonwealth group had near monthly meetings for parents as well where we discussed classics. So I had two groups to fan my fires!

Well the first one for my new liberal arts based homeschool group that is forming here in southern AZ was last Friday. I was so jazzed about going! We would be discussing Anatomy of Peace, one of my favorite books. I would get to be with my husband and have fun talking with him in the car on the way and back. I would get to start to make new friends with other homeschooling moms and dads and socialize with them to start our new school year. But then around 3 PM my husband texted me and said that second son living at home had a football practice at 5:30 that afternoon.

What?!? Why were we just getting this piece of information? There was no way we could get him to that and pick him and still go on the date, which is over an hour away one way. I had already arranged for first son living at home’s ride home from football practice. I was so mad! I don’t like having last minute surprises change my plans! I reluctantly decided my husband would have to stay home to do the driving. But then my dear daughter overheard the conversation and offered to give up her nigh with her boyfriend and his family so she could do the driving. Oh, bless you my daughter!

So I was able to go on the date and it did feel like old times with the camaraderie of people who are wanting to learn from the classics and be social at the same time. We learned a bit about parliamentary procedure, with a simulation using Roberts Rules of Order. That made it feel like old times as well. That’s because when my older kids were young teens they both had a statesmanship class where they studied that book. My son even took the test Roberts Rules, passed with flying colors, and became an official parliamentarian. In the simulation we as a group of parents had to use Roberts Rules to make a Chex Mix pleasing to our tastes. We all agreed not to put in any mushrooms or garlic! I was super pleased with myself that I resisted eating any as I knew I wasn’t hungry and would just be eating to deal with emotions of wanting something sweet to calm my slight anxiety of being in a new social situation. The Chex mix did look good, even though I do avoid processed cereal. One of the moms brought cookies too that looked super yum but I self-denied.

I feel that God reached out to me through my daughter to remind me of how much he loves me. Sometimes you just have those magical moments when you are reminded of that and it’s wonderful!

I love to read the Ensign in the Gospel Library app on my phone before I go to sleep. It’s the perfect calming way to end the day. I find stories of God reaching out to people to remind them of how much He loves them. My favorite story of all time is this one. It is an amazing story of a woman who lived in my current state of Arizona who grew up as an orphan. She didn’t even know her original name, only the name that the nuns at the orphanage gave her. God directed her path and led her to the true gospel, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to her long lost family. It’s such a miraculous story that shows the hand of God! So go read it! I testify that God is watching over you and has great blessings in store for you too that are just as amazing as finding out you have more than a dozen siblings you never knew you had!

How have you seen the hand of God in your life recently?