Whew! We got child #3 off to college last week to start spring semester at BYUI. What a whirlwind! He was bound and determined to leave, despite his look alike baby brother’s protest that he stay home. I have loved having him since October when he got home from his mission. I also felt stretched mothering five children with so many different schedules and needs. It has been early mornings and late nights and careful coordination of cars for all their different activities and education, what with seminary, jobs, Scouts, Mutual, homeschool, dates, parties, dances, etc., not to mention my own needs!

The gift from big brother that caused a lot of talk about how to get from Texas to AZ.

I had to leave that morning early for our homeschool group/commonwealth so I didn’t get to see him off. The weekend before, he flew to Texas to pick up a car his generous older brother bought for him, and then he drove it back in a day. Wow, after all those weeks of talking about how and when that would happen, it finally worked out. Squeezing a trip like that into our schedule was trickly. The next day, we did a family outing hiking and exploring a cave for one last hurrah.

Then he was scheduled to leave before we left bright and early for our normal Thursday commonwealth (homeschool group) day but car trouble reared its ugly head. He was able to get a mobile mechanic to come to the home to fix the car and leave around 2:30 to head out. I’m sad I wasn’t there to see him off. He spent the night in Henderson NV, got to see his aunt and uncle in St. George, then drove to Idaho the next day and got settled in. I tell you, every time a child leaves for college I feel the pain of my nest emptying even more. Thank goodness for the hope I have of grandbabies filling it up again! I’ve just go to move back closer to what I hope will be the crossroads.

I’ve spent a lot of days driving lately for my  kids homeschool group, their Shakespeare play practice, a youth temple trip, and my 17 year old son’s final huge activity for his Quest class. Thank goodness for books on CD, Audible, and podcasts, right?!

One of the podcasts I loooove is the one for BYUI devotionals. (And BYU Provo’s too.) I listened to this talk by Elder Kim B. Clark from BYUI’s recent winter semester convocation. It’s called, “Home and Family Convocation Remarks.” He tells the most amazing story of God’s hand manifesting in the life of his daughter who went through a bitter divorce. I won’t spoil it for you, you have to listen! As he says, “There are miracles!” God provided a huge tender mercy for her in the form of rerouting two plane flights so she could have a long awaited for blessing. This was amazing to hear! I love what Elder Clark says, that no matter if you are married or single, you can continue to do things to build an eternal family. “God is in your life. He sent his Son Jesus Christ so that you can have an eternal family, and have joy and happiness here, and eternally.”