Who am I?

Eleven years ago, while in class at the Utah College of Massage Therapy in Salt Lake City, our instructor had each class member take a turn standing in front of the room and share one word they would hope people would use to describe them. The word that came to my mind that has stayed with me and has become a standard by which I hope to live by is: Real.

My name is Marvia.  I'm married to a great man that works hard.  We love each other, we are committed to each other but that doesn't mean our relationship comes easily.  We are very different people with a common goal.  We chose each other because we knew that together we could do amazing things.  We are better together than apart.  This I believe to be true.  I'm so grateful he is my husband.

I'm a mother to four small children.  My oldest is 5 and my baby is almost 6 months old.  Currently I put the majority of my energy towards raising my family and spend a couple nights a week doing massage.  I love being a mother.  Being a mother to 4 little people has its challenges.  Taking care of a home is a boring task that needs to be done.  (I have been praying that cleaning will become a joyful practice) 

I love to learn.  You will find the majority of what I read about is whole foods nutrition, alternative medicine, various arts of healing and studying from the Holy Scriptures.  Since I got married and became a mother, I had some surprises about myself and personal challenges.  My frustration is that I struggle to do what I should in order to truly thrive in life.  I still believe that I'm authentically "real" because I put on no airs of being more or less than who I am.  With that said, I think in the last few years, my "real" self is just surviving.  Thankfully I know that through Christ, I can become a person who thrives. 

Story Time: This is me with my children on Christmas morning this year.  We had a wonderful Christmas!  Full of life.  No matching pajamas.  Just us. :)  Some are happy and others not so much.  You see, they are hungry.  Why?  You may be also wondering why I'm holding frozen concentrated orange juice.  Here is the story;  I was making a big breakfast for the family.  I just finished frying up the bacon and when I put the sausage in the pan already filled with hot bacon grease, the grease let out a huge splatter on my hand!!!!  OUCH! I dropped to the floor and jumped back up to the sink and ran cold water on my hand to get the grease off.  Then I dashed upstairs to dump Young Living Lavender Essential oil on my hand.  Then I spent the next couple hours holding frozen juice.  The burn could've been terrible.  Today, there is almost no sign of a burn.  Thank you Lavender!!!!!!  Oh, so back to my hungry children.  My sister took this photo of us while we were waiting for my husband to finish up breakfast.  We all ate well. So grateful that we tackled Christmas morning like a team. And we won! :)