Hot Dogs & S'mores!

We entertained ourselves with a backyard cookout last week. The little ones really, really, really wanted to roast marshmallows and hot dogs after they saw Daddy burning some brush. We had to wait for the weekly grocery store adventure, and then voila! See if you can spot the elusive Sariah creature. She was ... elusive.

Apparently, we have all been eating our hot dogs the wrong way. Per Madeline's fine example, we should approach eating our hot dogs as if they are corn on the cob. I was fascinated.

And then there was the Thor incident. Our boys were quite pleased with themselves for recreating a scene from Endgame. Caleb will probably kill me if he sees this published ... but since I'm not on Facebook right now, no one will see it, right?

And more Madeline cuteness. IBC root beer for the win, and yummy s'mores smeared all about! Success!

Sweet Girl

And when you still have long eyelashes when you are nearly 5. Mom is a bit envious, truth be told.

From Saturday

When you get donuts on Saturday morning for sleeping in your very own bed, all night long, every night.

Bakers

Today Madeline and I entertained ourselves by making cookies. Technically, we made the dough yesterday, but we ran out of time, so shapes today, which she picked out all by herself. She was so thrilled, because all the siblings were banned to elsewhere, so it was her very own project. They tasted good, too!

Corona Chronicles

I'm participating in a little health challenge thingy, and we needed to write an entry in our very own "Corona Chronicles" this week as a part of a journaling challenge. I like mine so much I decided to put it here.

May 5, 2020

Tracy

Coronavirus quarantine 2020 has been and done many things for me and my family. 

I’m gonna be honest. I am a bit of an introvert. I generally prefer one-on-one personal interactions with others over any form of multi-person interaction. So staying at home rarely bothers me, even with the looming anxiety of a potentially deadly pandemic. I enjoy the less frantic pace of life. My heart smiles to see my little ones play with each other outside for hours on end. I love that my teenage sons and I have time to play games or binge watch TV shows and movie marathons together. Somehow bedtime is less of a fight each night, and getting up in the morning isn’t a battle either.  And I am grateful.

It isn’t sunshine and roses all the time. There is more warfare over online assignments than there ever was over school before the shutdowns. Sometimes the part of me that longs for alone-ness wants to throw a tantrum over the complete lack of alone-ness in our home right now. Little ones and big ones get bored. On some days, it feels like 12 hours have gone by since sunrise and it’s only noon—NOON!!! In general, these are temporary problems, and not very big ones at that. And I am grateful.

Once I quit obsessing over the news and social media, and I began to bounce back from that little self-inflicted, depression-inducing state, I am left with time to ponder whatever occurs to me.

What I’m currently attempting to puzzle through is the "sandwich generation.” Or, more accurately, how I’m going to survive being a part of it. My husband and I are both in our 40s. We have 7 children, 5 of whom are still at home. The youngest is 4 years old. My husband’s aging mother moved in with us about 7 years ago and will likely live with us permanently. That puts us squarely in the middle of sandwiching—supporting children who are at varying degrees of independence whilst dealing with the ever-increasing needs of a rising senior citizen.

On most days, usually by mid-morning, I decide sandwiching is not something I am cut out for.  I frequently wonder what the freak we were thinking in having so many kids and inviting one of our mothers, bless both their hearts, to live with us 24/7, even though we were prompted to invite each and every one of these people into our home. Which is all fine and dandy, but the daily reality remains. Before quarantine, I didn’t think about it very often (not enough time while I was running around to put out one fire and then the next?), but now it has become an omnipresent issue, and not just for me.

I am a “natural man” working on becoming a saint. That means that I know I haven’t reached grateful for this particular stage in my life yet, but I’m working on it … on most days anyway.

Under these circumstances, “self-care” is a word that could potentially initiate hysterical laughter on my part. Social media would have me believe that I should now have much more time for self-care and self-improvement. Again: laughable in my present reality.

But. 

King Limhi’s words always come around to me in times likes these: “yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made” (Mosiah 7:18). It’s the story of my life. Oh, make no mistake, before I decide the struggle must still be made, there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of my teeth, because again, this natural man hasn’t achieved sainthood yet.

But.

This is why I continue to participate in health challenges like this one, even knowing that with 8 dependents and 2 chronic diseases of my own and no sainthood on the near horizon, perfection is most definitely a long shot. I’m not going to win the gold medal, but I am going to do what I can, give myself grace for the rest, and rely on the Savior’s grace most of all. My little steps are something my Savior can make into something great. There is still an effectual struggle to be made, and right now coronavirus has given me the gift of time to tackle it. And for that I am grateful.

Fort Fun

Some days you have to make messes, forts, and towers. And frowns, too. This is what I awoke to after my Sunday nap. There are much worse ways to wake up, lol.

A Few More Favorites

Some of my other favorites from messing around in the yard with the camera on Saturday. These are my more elusive subjects, lol.

Poses

This is the other child who likes to pose for me. Until she doesn't, which is what happened in the photo above. In the meantime, she has the best antics.

Rex

Man, I thought Rex was never going to outgrown his awkward photo phase. I was starting to puzzle out in my mind what we would do for senior pictures next year. But. There is hope, even in spite of my many photography errors here.

Because of those errors, I tried out several filters with Rex's pictures, and edited several of them (in so far as I am able, lol). My favorites are of him with his most natural expressions. Those are very hard to come by, and for whatever reason, the lighting was not great in the originals. But thank goodness for simple editing. I'm happy with them even if no one else is, lol.

 

This last picture is entirely for my own gratification. When I was a little girl, my grandmother came to visit, and this is the face she was made while she knitted. I spent an entire rainy Arizona afternoon trying to figure out how she was making herself look like this. In retrospect, knowing my grandma, I halfway wondered if she made this face for that many hours solely for the amusement of watching me try to emulate it. I certainly wouldn't put it past her. Naturally, Rex figured out how to make this face right off the bat when he was like 3, and does it regularly because it makes me laugh. He's the best.

Sam the Man

So, we got a new camera for Christmas. It's not that I actually knew how to use the previous DSLR. It's that it was almost 12 years old, had been repaired multiple times, and was getting kind of crotchety. Also, the lens had been pretty abused (7 kids, anyone?).

However, with all these free classes out and about in the time of the plague, I decided to start learning how to actually use the new DSLR. It came with 2 lenses, you see, and I guess I need some more smarts, lol.

So, don't flip and scoff when you see my pictures. I'm only on the second class. That's the one where they tell you what equipment you could need or want ... and that you should actually try them out before you buy. Hahaha. I got the new Nikon on a Christmas online deal, so there was no trying out anything, but whatever....

Sam is my ... most willing ... subject most of the time. He will generally strike all kinds of poses. They usually aren't the ones I'm anticipating getting, so there's that. But his personality definitely comes out. In any case, I was mostly experimenting with light and just a few basic settings on the camera, and I do mean experimenting.... I don't really have an eye for this stuff.

In any case, I love this kid. He makes my mouth and my heart smile every time.

Masking It

I guess we're legal now.

The first one took me several hours. The rest all together took me another several hours. Interestingly, I had just enough elastic to do what I wanted to do. That's good. Since the ties seemed labor intensive and like they might require straighter lines than I am capable of making, lol.

Journaling

I bought this journal last year to experiment with, partially because I was struggling with journaling and blogging. It seemed pretty ordinary, like a journey in getting to know myself. Until this spring. Then the entries became telling, sometimes entertaining, something that will be interesting to read later on when the full journal is complete, a glimpse into the past maybe. Also, yes, I am a day ahead. It makes me feel accomplished.