Happily Ever After

I'm not sure if it is because I grew up in a family of girls, or if it was just because of who my mom is, but I grew up believing in fairy tales. In my young mind I equated "enduring to the end" with "happily ever after." Somehow I thought the hard part was just finding "prince charming" and marrying in the temple and after that, life was good. How naive I was!!! I can't believe how much harder it is to "endure to the end" than I ever expected. Somehow, being a mom, I feel like I am "enduring" almost every day. Because I am at home all day, I don't have the outside, bad influences that perhaps someone working outside the home would run into. But, everyday I am faced with the decision of whether or not to read my scriptures. Whether I should clean the house or sit in front of the computer. Whether I should cook dinner or eat out. There are so many little things, that shouldn't be that hard to resist, but seem to be much more difficult than I realized. I can't believe how easy it is to fall into little "addictions" as a stay-at-home mom. I eat too much sugar, sit at the computer too much, spend WAY too much money, don't teach my children enough, etc, etc, etc. The list is really a very long one. And I can not believe how hard it is for me to overcome these seemingly little things!!!! I feel more like the little engine that could instead of Cinderella. "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . ."