Hmmmm....

Somehow I don't recall taking 44 pictures commemorating my messy office.

Just sayin'.

Falling

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Fall

This autumn, what do you wish would fall?


(What the heck kind of question is this, anyway?)


This autumn, what I wish would fall is my level of involvement in the PTA.

Dances from around the World

Tuesday night was the 3rd Grade Program: Dances from around the World.  It was quite the production, and I was very proud of my Zulu Warrior.  His part was very active, as I think the pictures will prove.

If you want to know what it meant to be a Zulu Warrior, you should probably ask Caleb.  He can tell you a bunch of the South African saga.  In any case, this particular dance involved lots of stomping and moving around.  It was my favorite dance.

However, I also really liked the Russian mixer dance at the end.  Many of you will know that a little piece of my heart belongs to Russia since I traveled there as a youth.  But this dance was awesome--it's the kind of dance that goes faster and faster, and you have to switch partners, and you get to jump in the air.  It looked like the kids were having a ball.  Plus, the picture will show you that the program covered a wide variety of cultures.  It was pretty cool.

Here We Go Again

I don't know if Lizziy will appreciate me posting this picture, but it's the most recent one I could find.  And it's not my fault she's onery.  ;)

Took her to the ENT yesterday--that's the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor for the uninitiated.   In case you're wondering, we're very initiated.  Between ear tubes and tonsillectomies, every kid but Lizziy has been operated on.

Until now.  Yep, she's getting her tonsils out.  And mean mom that I am, we're doing it the Friday before Christmas vacation.  The hope is that she'll feel better, be healthier, and most importantly, sleep better, which might bring about that miraculous change in attitude we've been looking for.  Don't get me wrong here--Lizziy is fabulous and amazing, but when you can't get a decent night's sleep no matter how early you go to bed, are you really the happiest camper on the block?

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Motivation

Monday, November 16, 2009

Today' Writing Prompt: Monday

What is the best thing about Mondays?


I don't know if I'm an odd little duck for this or not, but when I wake up on Monday mornings, I usually feel ready to take on the world.  Some days the feeling fades faster than others, but I really like the Mondays when I can take off and conquer my own personal mountains.

A Better Day

I had a rough morning today. My 10 year old daughter who ought to know better threw a 45 minute tantrum that involved screaming, shouting, punching one of her brothers, and trying to headbutt her pregnant mother's belly. I was about ready to pull my hair out, and probably hers, too.

But I finally got her and her friend (the elementary school Monday morning orchestra crew) and the boys off to school. And then I got the middle school orchestra brigade delivered.

When I got home I found this note on my desk written in bright red Sharpie (oh, my son knows the ways to my heart). It made my whole entire day.

For one thing, this a huge amount of progress for my son, who sometimes expresses his stress and frustration (which he probably had a lot of this morning) in ways not that much different than his sister did.

For another thing, I'm pretty sure he wrote this while he was checking his email. We set up his email a week or two ago so that he can work on some of his literacy/reading comprehension skills by emailing friends and family. He really loves to get email. And again, for him to ask for email instead of crying about it, this is real progress.

And for the last thing, this was just what I needed this morning. What a lucky mom I am!

Today I'm Thankful That...

• My husband is still employed.
• My children have good teachers.
• Sariah is feeling much better.
• Jonah's leg is healing.

Sigh of Relief

Football season is over.  Can you hear that huge sigh of relief?  I have loved watching Caleb play, and seeing his team (finally) come together.  But three practices and a game a week is enough to kill anyone.  He says he's not playing next year.  Rex says he is.  We shall see....

Ugh.

Sariah is on antibiotics again.  She has an ear infection (which I suspected) and bronchitis (which I did not anticipate ... even though she sounds awful).  Hopefully, we can get her feeling better, and she'll start sleeping through the night again.  Oh that will be a blessed day ... er, night.  She really hasn't been a happy camper.  And therefore, neither has anyone else.

Busy, Busy

We've had busy times lately.  A youth temple trip one day; a temple night the next day.  A Scentsy party on Saturday--mmmhmmm, I love that stuff.  Dinner with good friends.  A football playoff game (yay! the season's almost over).  Church, including the annual primary program.  A sick baby.  PTA stuff--just when you think it's going to die down, it starts up all over again.

I think the football game was the most exciting part of our weekend.  We had to drive all the way out to Prague, which is over an hour away, for Caleb's first playoff game.  It was also his first game starting off as quarterback.  He did a pretty good job.  They finished the first quarter with a score of 0-0, which I have to say is unprecedented.   Usually by the end of the first quarter, the score is 24-0, and not in favor of us.  The game wasn't a complete shut-out either--we got a touchdown!!  These boys have come such a long way from the beginning of their season.  They're starting to come together and get it right.  In any case, I think they had much more fun than they've had in the past.  They were still really psyched when the game is over, so I 'm going to count that as a win.

On the agenda this week, fewer football practices, a visit to the doctor for Sariah's hurting ear, less facebooking and more blogging....

My Boys

Sometimes I forget to appreciate each of them and how wonderful they are.  For example, Caleb never forgets to give me a hug and a kiss, even on a really bad day (for either one of us).  And Rex's zest for life never dims (even when Mom's a grump).  They're pretty cool kids.  I am blessed.

Halloween 09

Halloween was an interesting affair around here this year.

First of all, we trick-or-treated on Friday night. Not just our family. The entire city. Because of the OU football game on Saturday night. We were keeping our kids "safe." (Or the taboo version: nobody wants to hand out candy during the game).

Second of all, I was sick with strep throat. Not contagious anymore. But I sure didn't feel good, and Bob was still out of town. So a bunch of our plans got smashed.

I ended up sending the older kids over to our old neighborhood with our former neighbor and still-thank-goodness-friends. I have no pictures of them, but they had a grand time and that's what counts. Hannah was a black bride (complete with black veil and flowers); Lizziy, I think, was a witch of one sort or another; and Caleb was a football player (you could argue that his costume was cheap, unless you take into account the cost of playing a season of football, and then it was most expensive of all).

My two littles--one of whom doesn't appreciate being called that anymore--I took around our new neighborhood.

Rex was Darth Vader.  He was pretty scary, according to his little sister.  He was a bad guy, according to Sariah.  "Oooooh, scawy!"

Sariah, on the other hand, was a "pwitty buttewfwy."  It's a good thing she's little and all she needed to complete that illusion was the set of wings.  I thought I had another costume for her, but I didn't.  So I told her she was a beautiful butterfly with wings and beautiful butterfly barettes.  She was happy.

We went out with Bob's sister Jennifer, her little girl Cindy, and his other sister's (Angie) little boy Andrew. Good times!

Sweet Sariah

All sweetness and light, right?

On Sunday, during family home evening, I was jokingly informing Bob that he needed to repent of being mean to me.  To egg things on, I told Sariah to say, "Repent, Dad, repent!"  (Let's not go into my parenting/spousing techniques at this time.)  She obediently did so, and the next thing we know, she's preaching hellfire and brimstone: "Reeeepeeeeent!  Reeeeepeeeent!" she's yelling in this horrible scary harsh and raspy voice.  Don't mess with the preacher woman.  I'm just sayin'.

Nerves

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Nervous

What nervous habit(s) do you have?


Nail-biting.
Jittery foot-shaking.
Eating.
Nail-biting.
But I don't eat my fingernails.  Just thought I'd clarify.  LOL!

Tender Mercies

I have a friend who frequently documents the Lord's "tender mercies" in her blog.  I've wondered for awhile where she came up with this phrase.  But lo and behold, I figured it out (and felt a little bit like a dunce).

I've been rereading the Book of Mormon for the first time in a long time.  I'm not very far in, but man oh man, Nephi sure talks about the Lord's tender mercies upon his family a lot.  How could I have missed this before?

It's helped me to become a lot more aware of the tender mercies in my life lately.  And I'm glad.  We're going into the Thanksgiving season, which is always a good time to be grateful for our blessings (and you get reminded a lot about it, too).  However, I've found that the best season of the year for gratitude is the Christmas holidays.  As a culture, we swing from the "extreme" gratitude of Thanksgiving to the extreme gimme-gimmes of the biggest gift-receiving season of all time.  It's very hard not to get caught up in all the commercialism and consumerism.  Granted, as a parent, the focus isn't quite as selfish--after all, I spend my entire December trying to figure out what fabulous gifts to give to my children, and I often struggle with composing a wish list for the people who would shop for me.  But still, I think I might even get caught up in vicarious selfishness on my children's behalf (for example, they would be happy with that gift, but they would be absolutely thrilled with this one, so who really cares that it costs $20 more and then I might have to buy more gifts for the other kids to even things out....?  I know you know what I'm talking about!).

In the past, though, I have observed that the best, most memorable, and most meaningful Christmases I've celebrated, have been those in which I've taken time to write personal notes on my Christmas cards, expressing gratitude for the many people who have blessed our lives.  Or those when we have focused on the needs of others instead of our very own wants.  Or when we've taken the time to truly enjoy our friends and family.  I'm talking about the Christmas seasons when we've managed to remember that Christmas is really about the greatest gift the world has ever received, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

That's a tender mercy.

To encourage me in this line of thinking, Heavenly Father has recently ... er, blessed ... our family with a month of various illnesses to bring us to our knees help us remember to be humble, grateful, and loving.  I will commemorate our October by enumerating the things I counted most as our tender mercies, and lest you mistake me, I am completely serious about the beginnings of this list--I have never been more grateful for some of these things:

• Penicillin.  Thank you, Alexander Fleming and all the others who surely worked under God's inspiration to discover this in our world.  Strep throat is absolutely the pits.  I'd forgotten how much so.
• Tylenol.  Okay, really I'm thankful for ibuprofen, but I'm not allowed to take that while I'm pregnant, so I'll just be grateful for Tylenol, which did the best it could.
• Gatorade/G2.  Swine flu, anyone?  I credit gallons and gallons of Gatorade for keeping the 6 of us completely hydrated and hopefully better than we otherwise would have been (dehydration is supposed to be one of the most common side effects of any type of flu).  Now my 2-year-old is completely addicted to the stuff, but I suppose there are plenty of worse things she could be hankering after.
• The football carpool, and anybody else who drove my kids anywhere during the month of October.
• My husband and his willingness to come home early to take care of his flu-ridden family (if it were me, I'd seriously have thought about finding a weekend assignment...but he was blessed for his goodness, I think, in that he didn't actually get the flu).
• My husband and the mountains of laundry he did while he was home.  And the staggering quantities of Lysol and disinfectant he used in our house.  LOL!
• My sweet daughter Hannah, who mothers as well as I do, even though I never intended for her to take that job as a 12-year-old.  She seriously took care of the candy-infested children and cleaned up the kitchen and made sure a bunch of other things got done while I was in bed, teeth chattering with a fever that Tylenol could only do so much for (see above).
• My wonderful son Caleb, who took over getting Sariah back to sleep in the middle of the night when I was too sick to get out of bed.
• My Lizzy-girl who got up on time and got ready for school every day last week without being asked to, and who managed to catch up a great majority of her sick-work without her mother's assistance (translate: nagging).
• And my littles, Rex and Sariah, who forced me to get out of bed every day and participate in their lives.  If that sounds ungrateful, it's not intended to be.  I was really grateful that I had to just keep swimming, just keep swimming (as Dory would say), because they're little and they need their mom to be a functioning human being for them.  Without that, I would have crawled in bed for days on end.  I might have healed faster then, but I would have missed smiling and laughing at their antics.  And after all, laughter is the best medicine.
• Sunshine.  Sunshine.  Sunshine.  We usually have so much of that here that we don't have to stop and think about it.  But it's been a shockingly wet and drizzly September and October, much like the Pacific Northwest or England, as various friends of mine have pointed out.  It's been dark and gloomy.  Now I notice when the sun stretches in through my bathroom's eastern window.  I want to reach out to it and give thanks.

Over the last month, all of these things have given me quiet moments of reflection when I have felt the Lord's hand blessing our lives in little ways.  They are indeed His tender mercies.  (And thanks, Karen!)

Sports

Monday, November 2, 2009

Today's Writing Prompt: Sports

Write about a memory you have of playing sports as a child.


My memories of sports are a little pathetic.  I wasn't very good at anything athletically related.  So I was always picked last.  So I didn't like playing.  So I wasn't very good at anything.  You get the idea.

The sorry thing is that when I went to college and started exercising for health, I discovered things that I was really good at it.  They just aren't on your typical 8-year-old's radar.  I like to jog, on a treadmill, with a TV going--but not for speed, and certainly not for scenery.  I like to swim--but not to compete.  I like to do yoga (didn't even know what that was when I was little).  I like to Wii Fit (don't even go there; no, it was not around when I was a kid).

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to my little brother!