One of those days

Today was one of those days when being wife, mother, maid, laundress,Cub Scout leader, summer activities director, gardener, landscaper, lawnmower, motivational speaker, disciplinarian, educator, life counselor, computer graphics expert, television screener, social director, nutritionist, chef, shopper, coupon clipper, boo-boo kisser, librarian, piano practice enforcer, referree, nay sayer, tantrum diffuser...etc...etc...etc... is just more than I can tackle.  I'm wishing for a cold drink, a comfy lounge chair, a good book, and some guilt-free quiet.

Summer Countdown

Normally I am full of trepidation this time of year.  I wonder "What am I going to do with them all day, every day?" But, after all the end of the year projects, make-up work, performances, field trips, dramas, olympics, field days, etc, etc, etc.  I am worn out and ready for some flexibility and fun.  We have been working on our Summer activity list like we did last year.  We had so much fun keeping track of all the fun we had and keeping those ideas fresh in our minds last year, we just have to do it again.

We have also started a tracking system.  I have ordered little bracelet charms from here to keep the kids motivated to work on things during the summer.  We are tracking how far they run, how far they bike, how many pages they read, and how many hours they practice piano.  We will also be working on the reading program from the Public Library and earning free books from Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Looks like it will shape up to be a fun productive summer!

Teaching our children to fall

We had an amazing guest speaker in Releif Society today.  She was in a car accident at 15 months old and paralyzed from the waist down.  Her smile was so contaigious and her enjoyment of life was palpable.  Among her many other talents, she is a very accomplished violinist with the Orchestra at Temple Square. She shared so many great lessons and experiences but one really stood out to me.  She spoke about her mother and the choice her parents made, to push her to do hard things, to stretch, to reach and not let the fear of failure stop her from trying. 

She talked about how her mother wanted her to be independent at school and so had another woman in a wheel chair come to teach her how to fall correctly out of her wheel chair so that she would be able to get back in by herself.  By doing this, she gave her freedom from having an aide follow her all day in case she fell.  Then she progressed to learning to use braces and crutches.  Again, she had to learn how to fall in a certain way so that she would be able to reach her crutches and get back up.  She and her mother would go for walks and at any given time, and on any terrain her mother would instruct her to fall and then get back up.  Although the learning process was painful and she came to dread the walks with her mother, she attained a level of independance and confidence that could not have be attained in any other way.

As I reflected on this amazing woman's message, I thought of a loving Heavenly Father who sent us here to a mortal life to learn and gain experience that could not be obtained in any other way.  Although His purpose is for us to have joy, He allows us to feel pain, make choices, good or bad, and choose to follow His plan of happiness...or not.  He has given us instructions and guidance for when we fall, knowing that we would.  He has provided a way back to Him despite our imperfections, but will never force us nor deny us the consequences of our choices.

My thoughts then turned to my children and my parenting.  Am I preparing my children to fall?  I know they will, no matter how I want to spare them pain.  But, do I really want to deny them the chance to learn what they have come to learn?  I know that the pain of consequences can be the most fertile soil for learning.  Am I letting them experience the full impact of consequences while they are still relatively minor stumbles?  If I want them to learn to avoid the most painful, unecessary falls I cannot soften the blows as my soft mother heart desires.  Am I effectively showing them the path of repentance, mercy, and love that will help them to rise from those falls?  Those are lessons they can never learn if I am always there to catch them.  
Balancinglove, acceptance, cheerleading, advocacy, with watching, with pain in my heart, as they fall and then struggle to their knees on their own.  Teaching them to seek the help of one who knows how to teach them to grow better than I.  This is a balancing act I fear I will never master, but I will try because I must bow to the master teacher, and because I love my children.

Springtime at the Tulip Festival

Yesterday, we drove down to Thanksgiving Point for the last weekend of the Tulip Festival.  We met Paul's parents there and enjoyed walking around with them for a couple of hours and then stayed even longer after they left.  I have never been to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and I had no idea how much there is to do!  There are so many different gardens to see including children's areas with hedge mazes and a big Noah's ark complete with bronze animals and Noah and his wife.  The waterfalls were amazing.  There really was something for everyone.  We had a wonderful time!

Waterfalls

Waterfalls from above

Eating dinner together

Emma's Testimony

As a regular part of our Family Home Evening, we have started to encourage each member of the family take a turn bearing their testimony.  It has been an incredible experience the last few months.  Paul and I have really been touched and learned so much from our children. 

One such experience was when Emma said, "Even though I try really hard to be good, I still make mistakes."  "I am thankful for second chances."

I too am thankful for second chances, especially as a parent.  I try really hard to be good but I still make lots of mistakes.  I am thankful for forgiving children who don't hold grudges and still love me with all their hearts.  I am also thankful for an understanding and forgiving Savior who listens and accepts my heartfelt repentance, even if it is for the same mistakes over and over again.
What wisdom there is to be found in the testimonies of children!  Oh, to be like a little child.

Woman of God

I was reading this blog in which Morgan is writing her own personal manifesto which, by the way, I think is a wonderful idea and I will be pondering my own.  Anyway, I was struck by a phrase she used and have been thinking about for the whole day.  She called herself "a Woman of God".  We hear "Daughter of God" often in the church.  "Daughter of God" or "Child of God" brings to mind words and phrases such as potential, loved, cherished, protected, self-worth, images of a loving Father.

As I thought about what it means to be a "Woman of God", I think of strength of character, courage, power to do good, leadership, compassion, service.  I see a woman who stands strong in her own beliefs, testimony, and commitment.  A woman who leads out, who doesn't lean on, or wait for others, whether it be parents, husband, siblings, church leaders, visiting teaching companion, etc.  She is a woman of action not just intentions.  A woman of vision who sees what can be and works to make it happen.  A mother of confidence who teaches with strength, love and compassion.

As I consider these traits, faces of women come to mind.  These are women I admire, look up to, and aspire to be like them.  Among them are my mother and sisters, nieces, neighbors, friends, ancestors, women from history, those from the past and those making history today.

I am a Daughter of God working to become one of these Women of God.  I have the examples, I have the blue prints, help, support, love, and confidence of my Father in Heaven.  What I lack is focus and daily determination to live deliberately, to take advantage of individual moments...to always remember my goal, my destination.

Spring Break

We spent our Spring Break in Moab.  Despite all the rain and cold weather, we had a fun time.  The first day we hiked around Arches, including Delicate arch which the kids loved and the three oldest were great hikers!  Jenna loved the pack, but spent much of the time hiking too.
On the second day, we drove through Canyonlands checking out overlooks and doing one short hike.  It was really quite rainy and cold that day.

The third day, we drove down to Edge of the Cedars museum to check out hundreds of Native American artifacts and climb down into a Kiva.  I had never been there and really enjoyed the feeling of history.  We had planned to go to Mesa Verde, but unfortunately all of the exibits and hikes didn't open until the following Monday.  We'll have to plan it again for another time.  The kids were disappointed, however we wouldn't have been able to see Edge of the Cedars if we had.



Park Avenue



On Sunday as we prepared to drive home, it was finally a beautiful, perfect day, so we decided to try one more hike.  We drove up into Arches and hiked Park Avenue.  It was amazing.  I wish the weather had been that beautiful the whole time.

The kids were very busy.  They earned Junior Ranger badges at both Arches and Canyonlands, and the Junior Archeologist award at Edge of the Cedars.  Then they went on to earn the highest award, the Red Rock Ranger award.  The Red Rock Ranger award requires at least 2 Junior Ranger badges from National Parks and 1 other program from a State Park in the area.

Delicate Arch

Wildlife spotted by Emma

Kiva at Edge of the Cedars

Newspaper Rock

"Say goodbye to scared Emma and Hello to brave Emma"

Yesterday, this was what Emma told Paul: "Say goodbye to scared Emma and Hello to brave Emma!"

Hooray Emma, we are so proud of you!

The neighbor kids were even all cheering for her from their driveway.  She was just beaming!

Easter Traditions

We are working on making and continuing some family traditions, especially around the holidays.  Check out some of our traditions for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

We have some fun ones for Easter as well.  Each day this week we have talked about one of the events of the last week of Jesus Christ's life and made a picture time line.

  

We have put in a request to the Easter Bunny for a Saturday delivery and so we have our hunt for baskets and eggs on Saturday mornings. 

Then our neighborhood has a wonderful egg hunt and pot luck breakfast down the street.  This year the Easter Bunny himself made an appearance!

We save Easter Sunday for our celebrations of the true meaning of Easter.  This afternoon, we watched two videos "He is Risen" from Living Scriptures, and "The Testaments" which is produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.  We then had our traditional "Resurrection Eggs" hunt.  The children are blindfolded (3 days of darkness in the Americas) and taken to various parts of the house.  They must then find their way to "Bountiful" (the family room) while overcoming obstacles and destruction (overturned chairs etc) that happened at Jesus' death.  As they make their way to Bountiful, they must also find the 12 eggs and bring them with them.  We then take turns opening the eggs in order and discussing the symbolism.

After dinner we then made "Resurrection Rolls" which the kids love and ask about every year. 

As a final Easter gift, inspired by this talk in General Conference, Paul and I presented the kids with large framed prints of a temple to hang in their rooms.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  Though we had some squables and consequences as on any other day, it turned out to be special and memorable.

Christian's testimony

A few weeks ago, at church, Christian decided to bear his testimony during sacrament meeting.  He began by stating his goal to bear his testimony more often, which we can assume probably means every month.  I always have mixed feelings of pride and trepidation as he walks to the front of the chapel.  We never know what he will say.  From the time Christian was 5 or 6 years old he has borne very thought filled testimonies.  Never once have we heard him bear the typical, predictable testimony.  Never once has he wanted help or suggestions for topics.  With the exception of the time when he was about 6 1/2.  He decided to get up while Paul was changing Emma's diaper and I was in the hall with Jenna.  He said a few words and then looked back at the bishop and said, "Well, I'm gonna need a little help."  Now, he doesn't even want to give us a preview of what he might be thinking about!  Needless to say we have had some humbling revelations of his perspective of our family.
His last testimony he began talking about how our family was working together to get out of debt.  At that point I looked over at Paul and saw that he had sunk down in his seat as low as I had and his face was as purple as mine.  I began to wonder how long it would be before the bishop called us in to discuss our finances. :)  Not that we have any outrageous debt.

As we continued to listen, he then compared our earthly debt with a spiritual debt that we all owe.  The difference being that our spiritual debt cannot be repaid no matter how hard we try.  There are always blessings that accompany our efforts.  He then expressed gratitude for our Savior and closed his testimony.
That week there was a visiting area authority on the stand.  He stood at the end of the meeting to share a few thoughts.  He began by complimenting Christian by name on his wonderful testimony and declared that the prophet couldn't have said it better!  Wow, that's a compliment to remember!

Latest projects

I have completed quite a few projects lately and have many in the works!
Here is a project that I have been working on since January.  I found some dressers and night stands on KSL.com that were just right for the boys' room.  They had remodeled the Marriott in Park City and a man bought the furniture to resell.  They were a golden colored pine and had holes drilled into the top where the T.V.s were mounted, but otherwise good sturdy solid wood pieces.
I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded....
Then filled holes and dings, and finally painted them.  Three coats of primer paint some distressing and a little stain on the distressed areas (because I knew our two boys would do some distressing of their own) got them looking pretty good.  Then two coats of polyurethane finished them off. 

 Here are the finished dressers.  (Sorry, I never seem to remember to take before pictures.)

If you look closely, you will notice the red one is missing a knob.  I know I painted and finished it but when I went to get them and put them on, one was missing.  I keep waiting for it to show up but I guess I will have to get a new one.  *Sigh*
The boys really like them and it sure beats trying to cram all of their clothes into one dresser!  I figure I spent about a third of what I would have spent to buy them at a furniture store and I got to choose the style and color I wanted.

Arabic to French to English

A couple of days ago Jenna was playing with the computer and managed to somehow translate my blog into Arabic.  I could not figure out what to do because not only did I not even recognize the alphabet but it seemed to be reading and writing right to left and possibly bottom to top.  I couldn't even find the settings button let alone figure out how to translate everything back.  I finally posted a question on the Blogger help page and a kind person counted and wrote down how many buttons over and how many languages down on the drop down list.  Unfortunately, the drop down list is in alphabetical order and in Arabic, evidently English doesn't start with E!  Through trial and error I was finally able to get it translated into French and with my little knowledge of French and my knowledge of Spanish I was able to finally get everything back to English!
What I can't figure out was how she managed to translate it so thoroughly that I had to change it on the dashboard as well as in the settings!  Who knew my 3 year old was more tech-savvy than I am?