Grace Had A Birthday, Shout, "Hooray!"

Aaaaannnnddd after an extraordinarily long break (for me), I am poking my nose back into the blogging world.

The weekend turned out to be perfect for getting my garden in.  I made Joe reserve time with me to do it.  He's a good man.  I planted my raspberry canes in an experimental sheet mulch and now I'm just waiting to see if they will die or live.  I'm nervous for them.  

The many faces of Grace

We had to take out our sick tree so I could plant my baby apple tree.  When push came to shove (literally), we were quite the sight with me and six children 9 years old and younger (mostly younger) pulling on the rope that held the tree to bring it down and Joe pushing from the other side.  Our neighbor saw the spectacle from his window and after having a good laugh, I'm sure, thought it best to get involved.  The tree was down shortly after he arrived.  Then came the fun task of getting the root ball out of the ground.  That required our neighbor to come back over (this time the spectacle only involved Joe and I) and with the three grown-ups we barely managed to get it out.  Then the guys couldn't even push or pull the stump so they rolled it with the root ball being the wheel.  Dirt is heavy, to say the least.  Our tree was only like 10-12 feet tall!

Finally, after all that, I was able to plant my precious tree.  And of course, Grace has already snapped a piece off one of the three baby branches that are on the tree.  I am putting up a cage around it, not for animals, noooo, for the kids.  Too many Gracie naughty moments and soccer balls and croquet mallets flying.  It would never stand a chance!  

I also have over 20 bug bites on my arms and legs.  I'm mostly sure they are from outside (I did catch several of the little guys in the act of bleeding me dry) but there is a part of me that is suspicious of bed bugs since our "new" mattress was delivered on Monday too.  

It should be brand new but even the first night there seemed to be body shaped indentations on the right and left sides with a middle raised slightly higher.  The next morning I checked the tag and found out it had been manufactured in 2008 with a warranty that expired 2010.  So where has it been for the last four years?  I'm still trying to get a hold of the mattress store we bought it from. 

This one is for you, Grandma!  She loves her elephant!

Yesterday, Joe related an anecdote that went something like this:

Noah hit a croquet ball that landed not too hard on Grace's foot.  

Grace dramatically exclaimed, "Ow!!!  Stop it, Noah!  I'm going to hit you!"  And she chased after Noah, wielding a croquet mallet. 

Joe, amused, watched until there was imminent danger to Noah, then told Grace to stop.

Grace yelled haughtily, "Fine!  I quit!" then stomped off a few feet and sulked with her arms crossed over her chest, chin to chest, and eyebrows to nose (picture Annie in a snit).

That girl unifies our family because we all laugh together over her antics.  

I'm pretty sure she saw this before we wrapped it.  Funny what a little wrapping paper can do to make something special!

I played a piano solo in Sacrament Meeting today.  It wasn't very hard so it was one of the most decently played numbers I've done yet (which really isn't that many - this might even be just the second time).  I love playing the piano and I am grateful to Mom and Dad for allowing/making me to do it and to my piano teacher for teaching me.  I even enjoy the idea of being able to teach it.  I say, "the idea" because sometimes/a lot I am relieved if my students stand me up or cancel.  Is that bad?  It is very satisfying to see them progress though.  

Grace's 3rd birthday was Monday and I made her a purple cake, as requested.  It was just a chocolate cake but I colored the frosting purple.  Apparently, you are only supposed to use a toothpick size amount of coloring in the frosting.  I accidentally poured the whole jar in (only like .5oz) and came out with a glowing nuclear purple that stained my finger for days when I got a pencil tip amount of frosting on it.  Everyone else who ate it had purple stained teeth and mouth and I'm sure digestive tracts.  Gross!  Everything about her birthday was purple and she loved being sung to and getting presents to open, etc. 

I did actually feel the Spirit at church today, shock, gasp!  And the kids were singing enthusiastically during the meeting too.  I love that!  Although they were squirrel-y through the Sacrament so I made them sit still an extra five minutes before they could get pens and paper out.  I couldn't believe it, but they did it!  And they all had scriptures out while they did it too!  It totally made me smile.

I don't know when I will blog next but don't write me off just yet (pun intended)!

Heavenly Day!

I never thought that we could have three gorgeously SUNNY days in a row in April!  Not only that but we were in the upper 60's!  Oh, it was glorious!  I sewed some and put up the trampoline (probably should have done that before Spring Break started, not the day after it ended) and walked to the bus stop to get Noah (when was the last time that happened?) and then had to come inside to snuggle a sick Gracie.  Our friends up the street and around the corner brought us dinner just because she said it makes more than enough.  It was delicious!  How much better can a day get?  Well, we had a lesson on the Resurrection and then I found out that a new Psych episode is up for us patiently frugal folks who are willing to wait a month to watch the most current episode rather than pay more moola to watch it right then.  During the FHE lesson I was bearing my testimony when Elise interrupts to ask, "Who did you make that quilt for?" as she looked at our wallpaper on the computer.  Ahhhh, the Spirit was strong tonight.

Grace has this thing for eyeballs lately.  Last week she was sitting on me and leaned in close, all squinty-eyed and asked, "Did you take your eyeballs out?"  All I could do was laugh.  The next day she did it again: leaned in close with the squinty eyes but this time asked, "Did you put your eyeballs back in?"  I'm still trying to figure out what she means.  Maybe she thinks the eyeballs are out if your eyes are shut; you know, with just the eyelids showing?  Random child.

I am dreaming up lots of ideas for the house.  I had a consultation with a landscape designer that cost me $150.  To get an actual design complete with scale drawings would be $1500-1800.  Ummmm, when she told me that I suddenly felt a little out of my league.  I ain't that rich yet.  But she did give me some ideas that I can work with.  Had I known the consultation would be 150 bucks I would have taken more notes of my own.

Anyway, Easter was great and we survived Spring Break (barely).  That is all.

A Buzzy Bee and A Honey Bunny Smoochy Poo

Joe went to Panama this week with four brothers and a brother-in-law.  So far they are having loads of fun horseback riding, surfing, staying up 'til the wee hours of the morning, etc.  I am so glad he has had this opportunity!

In the meantime, it has rained so much that parts of my backyard have been flooding and become permanent mud pits, thanks to the chickens.  I anticipated some yard damage from chickens but not like this!  I am actually considering giving them away to a friend but the idea also makes me very sad. I love my girls!  Back to the rain thought.  I've been pretty positive about our weather overall but these last couple weeks it is starting to seem really unfair that we are in the 30's and 40's with loads of rain while the rest of the country (at least where our families live) have been experiencing 60's and warmer - even Utah.  Oh, well. It is what it is, right?

You wanna read my schedule from yesterday?  No?  Well, too bad.  I'm gonna tell you because it was K-RAZY!!  To preface, the kids had a late night the previous night.  Saturday morning I got kids ready and frosted two dozen cupcakes before we left at 8:45a to get Elise to ballet then drive the boys to the bishop's house by 9:15a (Bishop W took the boys to Abe's Pinewood Derby then to the Rainier's baseball stadium for a tour and a meet the players thing and free hot dogs then let them play the Wii back at his house), then back home to swallow some breakfast then pick Elise up at 10a then drop her off at a friend's house then pick up my friend at 10:30a to go to the quilt store and the home &garden show then back to pick up Elise at 1:30p then drop off my friend then another friend came over to give me decorating advice then out to pick up the boys at the bishop's house then out to Silverdale for piano books then back to the home and garden show 'cause it was so fun the first time then back home for dinner and bed.  Phew!  The kids were as good as tired children can be and rather exceptional at the h&g show. 

Actually, I got major points toward The Awesome Mom of the Day Award for taking them to the home and garden show.  Most of the booths had something besides business cards and info pamphlets about their businesses.  The kids got two balloons each, water bottles, bottled water, candy, coloring books, and other little trinkets.  I bought them kettle corn and we were all happy - until we got home and Abe wasn't allowed to play with friends because it was time for bed and then they all started fighting, etc.  It was a total eat junk day.  I think scrambled eggs were just about the only reasonably healthy thing any of us ate all day.  There were also doughnuts and chocolate cake heaped in that pile of junk.  Ah, fun times.

Can I just say that I love my husband?  He works hard, serves the Lord diligently, is a great dad, and he is sensitive to my needs.  He is so good to me and one of the biggest reasons why I love him so much is because he loves me and I know it.  He is slow to take offense, even when I'm being offensive.  The other day I was feeling inadequate and insecure and was taking it out on him.  He stayed and listened long enough for me to figure out my real issues and then he held me even though the initial communication wasn't fun for him (well, for me neither - it hails to the old adage, "misery loves company"). I am grateful for his humility.  I do so enjoy being around him and not just because he has a cute bum (I can just feel my mother cringing at the whole indiscretion of this paragraph) and he smells good without ever wearing cologne.  He is content and easy to please and, like I said before, he loves me.  Yes, I have him on a bit of a pedestal and yes, I know he's not perfect but he is so perfect for me.  Sorry, I know this is sap city.  I'm just writing what I'm thinking.

And now I will stop writing what I'm thinking.

Hope

One of my good friends is an AMAZING writer.  She takes my breath away sometimes with the way she exalts the seemingly mundane into glorious treasures.  She is an artist in the way she sees life and portrays it in words.  I highly recommend Tiffany's blog.  She is super talented and down to earth and her children are delightful.  I am grateful to know her as my friend and I always feel uplifted and inspired after reading her blog!  http://thetiffanywindow.wordpress.com/
I have stolen her inspiration for her most recent blog post because I wanted to share it.  

“Hope” is the thing with feathers 

That perches in the soul 

And sings the tune without the words 

And never stops – at all 

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard 

And sore must be the storm 

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm

I’ve heard it in the chillest land 

And on the strangest Sea 

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

 - Emily Dickenson

As I read this poem I envisioned hope in a tangible sense and it felt familiar to me.  I know the feeling of hope and Dickenson's words captured it so perfectly. 

I just want to say that I do have hope that spring and summer will arrive here.  Indeed, I believe that is what is holding me together these past sick, rainy weeks.

Yes, I still go to church

This will be my fourth week of no regular church.  I was gone for two weeks due to sick kids, one week for a trip to Emilie's house, and this week is Stake Conference (although it is not likely I'd go anyway since we have more sick kids).  Here I was feeling so smug that my kids were so healthy all winter long and now, here we are, sick, sick, sick.  Humble pie does not look or smell good and is even harder to swallow.

As I write, Elise is kicking her bedroom door, screaming under the door, and generally throwing a fit because she was told to clean her room.  I think I need to require more work from her in the future so she can get used to the idea that chores are normal.  I don't usually ask her to do chores because she doesn't have a pressing need to do something fun like video games.  The boys will do whatever it takes to earn their game time.  I know I need to ask her to do chores for the sake of the family and not for an impending reward but getting her to do work is like driving a nail through my temples.  Case in point: her current fit.

Noah is a sleepwalker.  Unfortunately, he is a distressed sleepwalker and cries whenever he is out of bed.  I wouldn't mind the sleepwalking if he was happy about it.

I have these big grand plans for my house and yard.  I want to have a clear decision made about whether or not we are moving so I know where to put our money.  If we stay here and make our home work for our growing family then I can save money to remodel and decorate as I want.  If we decide we are getting out of here as fast as possible (which is likely still years away) then we need to pour all our money into those savings.  I want my permaculture food forest and I want it now.  I want to sink my trampoline into the ground and build a sandbox into the deck and a fountain out of sand buckets.  I am afraid my kids will be grown before I have a chance to do the things that I have wanted to, with their childhood in mind.  I also hate the idea of leaving the ward.  But I want to live on some acreage, preferably farther north, closer to Joe's work.  I keep thinking of that quote that has been attributed to President Hinckley: "The cause of most of man's unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most for what he wants now."  I don't know anymore what I want most. We have been wanting to buy land for at least four years now.  I feel like I am trapped in a holding pattern, unable to move forward so long as a long term decision needs to be made.  I thought it had been made in favor of acreage but now I don't know because I like it here so much.  Can you see my conflict?    Joe thinks we should wait longer and see how much we can save in a year.  I'm tired of waiting.

Blah, I'm tired, perhaps PMS-y.  Sorry for such a downer post.  Life is good, I promise!  I just need a kick in the pants and a guarantee that I will not be throwing up in the next week.

Second Week Of No Church For Me

Here I am, still in my pajamas at 2:30pm.  Elise is sick so I am home with her.  It is actually quite nice to have a quiet house for 3+ hours although I do miss taking the Sacrament.  Yesterday was a busy day filled with Zumba, grocery shopping, delivering things to people, buying sewing patterns (and looking through the books to find them), talking to people at the places I went, dealing with a tantrum of the century (which is likely due to the oncoming illness), and so forth.  I was gone from 1:00pm-9:30pm with a short hour at home somewhere in the middle.  I'm a homebody and not used to being gone in the car so much.  When I got home I ate dinner, ironed clothes for another 1.5 hours, then tried cutting out laminated pictures for some quiet church activities I've been making.  I shouldn't have stayed up so late.  I was exhausted!  So, today during church I took a two hour nap.

Actually, this morning was rather exciting.  I was getting ready to juice some oranges (the kids think they are too sour so I was trying to get rid of them faster) when I looked out the window and saw Pippy, my dainty little hen, on the top of the six foot fence.  So I ran out with some grains as an enticement to come down but instead of fluttering down on our side of the fence, she went down on the wrong side of the fence!  There was also a cat watching over there so Abe and I both grabbed shoes and coats and ran outside to scale a fence.  Abe is much more agile than I and was actually able to climb on top of the fence.  He hopped down and grabbed her, handing her back to me.  She is our friendliest hen and, I think, was relieved to have us rescue her, so it was easy to catch her.  Then I had to go grab a ladder so Abe could come back over (his shoes were too slippery and I am too weak to pull him up and over with just my arms as leverage).  Then I had to get an already used and bent-out-of-shape coat hanger out of the chicken coop, which meant climbing on the coop roof and trying to pull it out of a narrow space, with little success.  I finally had the brilliant idea of pushing it INTO the coop first then retrieving it that way.  Yeah, I'm that smart.  Anyway, I made this the long story.  We pulled up the ladder with the hanger and that was the end of it.  I need to go clip that girl's wings.  

I was thinking though, that we really had an ox-in-the-mire situation today.  I realized that those situations really are ones that you have no control over and must fix immediately.  Lack of preparation the day before does not constitute an ox in the mire.  I have been feeling a need lately to be more prepared for the Sabbath, which means planning well in advance of the day of.  We are always late to church because I am not prepared.  So, practical things that everyone else may already be doing, like ironing and laying out clothes, bathing, planning dinner, packing church bags, etc can all be done the day before.  The morning of needs to be focused and early enough to make sure everyone is ready on time.  I can definitely improve in those areas.

Since it is the Sabbath and in keeping with the spirit of the Sabbath, I will now turn to the deepest part of my heart.  I know the Church is true.  I love the scriptures; I feel the Holy Ghost every time I sincerely read and study.  Even on the days I'm not so diligent and just putting a check in the "Done" box, I still feel the peace and a relief of being there with the words of God.  I am grateful for the Atonement; for the sacrifice the Savior made for us so that we could return to our Heavenly Father.  I know God loves me because of the Plan of Salvation and because He blesses me with His Spirit and a multitude of other blessings, even though I am not always deserving.  I also know He loves me because of the love I feel for my own family.  I am so grateful and humbled to get a glimpse of what Our Father experiences through my own experiences as a parent.  I'm trying to parent more as He does but it is a struggle sometimes when my own self interests get in the way.  I love my family so much!  Both my little family that I have helped create, and the family I came from, as well as my in-laws.  It really is such a blessing to have so much support and love and good example from my family.  I wish we could all live in a compound together and live a self sustaining life together.  Haha! No, I'm not serious, but I must admit, it is seriously appealing.  Those same sentiments also apply to my friends.  It is amazing to me that I am surrounded by so many good, wonderful people who enrich my life in so many ways.  I can't get enough of each friend! Anyway, I love this gospel. I love my Savior, I love my Heavenly Father, and I love my family and my dear, dear friends!

An Interesting Week

Grace was sick yesterday and recovering today. We went to the temple yesterday and 30 minutes after we left home we got a call from Elise that Grace had thrown up. She had been lethargic before we left but Joe thought it would be fine, warning the babysitter of the possibilities before we left. Max (he's almost 16) did an excellent job with the kids. He gave Grace a bath and put her to bed, cleaned up the throw up, got the kids dinner, played with them, and gave them ice cream. We definitely paid him extra last night. Seriously, I will write a letter of recommendation to any girl he wants to marry.

Elise apparently helped quite a bit with Grace yesterday. Today she was also singing praises about Noah and how awesome he was doing making a game. I love how thoughtful and genuinely kind she is. She looks for the good in others. She is constantly making cards and notes and little presents for others. I need to treat her more the way she treats me.

Noah is a mystery to me. The kid is so stinkin' cute but I have no idea how to relate to him or find what motivates him. We are rarely on the same page.

I had a delightful kidney stone on Wednesday and Thursday. I didn't want to go to the doctor though, hoping I could ride it out since doctors can't really do anything for you except give you pain meds. Anyway,right about the time (9pm) I decided to go to the ER for drugs, the pain started subsiding so I stayed home. The next morning though I had a backache that was starting to get worse so I made an appointment with the doctor. After filling the three prescriptions, one of which was Vicodin, I went home and realized I felt fine. So, now I have a medicine cabinet full of drugs and no reason to use them. Fun times. The nice thing about kidney stones is that when it is gone, it's gone. There is no recovery or trace that you ever had a kidney stone. It's weird but nice at the same time. The last time I had a kidney stone it was a big one and as soon as I passed it I suddenly felt like laughing and skipping and as good as ever.

I finished coloring a bunch of pages of folder file quiet games for church. That was such a pain in the neck! It was so time intensive. For date night Friday night, Joe helped me color. It took us both at least two hours to finish our four pages each for two file folder games. Now I have to cut them out, laminate a bunch of little pieces, mount them in the file folders and then I'm done! So fun. My kids had better like them. Chances are though, they will go the way all of my church activities have gone; fun for one or two Sundays and then a constant mess of little pieces that the kids don't even play with all over the floor in our pew the rest of the Sundays. Le sigh.

It's 9:15pm and Abe just came out asking for a pen. Seriously? He's been so grouch lately because he stays up too late reading in his bed! So I called him on it and he returns that he is reading his scriptures. Arrrggghhhh! What am I supposed to say to that? Yes, good job for reading your scriptures! It is too late to read your scriptures! Fine, go get a pen, mark it, then stop reading your scriptures! What is the point of reading scriptures if you're just grouchy the next day for staying up to do it? Ah, the dilemma. What would you do?