Nephi and his brothers

This evening for Family Home Evening, Sophie gave a lesson about Nephi and his brothers. We re-enacted the story of Nephi and his brothers obtaining the Brass Plates from Laban. The re-enactment had 2 basic challenges:

1. There are a minimum of 9 characters in the story, but only 6 people in our family.
2. 8 of the 9 characters are men and 5 of the 6 of us are female.

However, with some double-dipping and creative casting, we found that this is what Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel look like in our family:

And by the end, we learned that we can go and do the things that the Lord hath commanded, just as Nephi did.

Four Completely Random Things

1. When we had our first snowstorm 2 weeks ago, Jeff did a snow dance. He jumped up and down and sang, "It's snowing, it's snowing." The next evening, he took this awesome picture of our roses still blooming in all that snow.

2. For Trick or Treating on Halloween, the older girls invited some friends to come for dinner and trick or treat together. The Ghost Shepherd's Pie we had for dinner energized all 11 girls for the evening of running and begging.

3. Today I rediscovered the joy of a project. I painted our guest bedroom, using paint left over from previous projects. I am thrilled with the result!

4. Maggie was fascinated with painting as well. She watched me for a long time, occasionally commenting on how different the room looked and how it will still look different in the morning, and after church, and after school on Monday, etc., etc. She doesn't remember me ever painting anything before, since the last room I painted was when she was about 3.

Learning from Children

Our Relief Society lesson today was about becoming like little children in order to become more like Christ. In the course of the lesson, the teacher asked what we have learned from children in our lives. I considered this question carefully. Obviously, in the course of being a mother for the last 15 years, I have learned many lessons. It is difficult in some cases to decide how I learned various principles. However, there are a few specific things that I feel quite certain I have observed in each of my children and hope someday to learn.

Sharon has shown a consistent example of how to let things go. She has an amazing ability to let things roll off her back and continue forward, regardless of the hurt or frustration she may feel in a given circumstance. I believe she derives this strength mainly from her consistent focus on the things that matter most. For example, when she was in 6th grade, I questioned her about friends. I was concerned about her adjustment to middle school. Her response is something I will never forget. She said, "I only need a few friends who have good values." The reason that this response is burned into my brain is because I have seen her consistently choose just a few friends for their good values, and remain unconcerned about the popular crowd. Someday I hope to be able to be as focused on the important things as she is.

Michelle has great instincts about emotions. She can immediately sense the mood of those around her, and she is very open concerning her intuition. I feel like Michelle teaches me to trust what my intuition says is happening, and say it like it is.

In Sophie, I see an undying curiosity. Sophie likes to understand every detail of the books she reads, of the things people say, of her own life and her own problems. She asks for the meanings of more words than most people ever use. Most impressively, she is willing to probe her own difficulties and worries. She considers her troubles even when it is scary or painful.

Maggie demonstrates an uncanny ability to respond with love. She is able to identify those who are in need of love in their lives and give it to them, giving hugs and sweet concern to those who I would pass by without a thought. Additionally, Maggie responds with love in almost every type of situation. If those around her are sad, frustrated, smiling, friendly--no matter what the emotion, I see her responding with a hug and concern. Even at times when I have been angry, and even when I am angry with her, Maggie responds with love, with a hug and a smile.

Someday I hope to be able to do the things I see in my wonderful girls.

Eternal Truths of Our Family

In addition to universal truths (think God, gravity, death, etc.), every family has its own eternal truths. These are things that will never change, traits that are passed from father to son and mother to daughter generation after generation. These truths are often forgotten, put out of mind until experience brings them to light once again. This exact thing is playing out in front of me right now.

One of our eternal truths is that household projects always, 100% of the time, without fail, require more time and money and engender more frustration than expected. Right now, Jeff is on the family room floor installing a new screen in our back door. So far, he has made 2 trips to the store, and is attempting to install his 3rd piece of screen. If Lowe's carried a new screen door that was the right size, it would have been well worth the price.

Thankfully, Jeff is a patient and thorough man and will continue to work at this project until he is finished. And if the door knows what's good for it, the screen will never tear again.

Things that cause tummy aches

I have learned all about tummy aches from my children and husband. Stomach aches occur daily in a household of 6. For example, today Jeff demonstrated one of the classic causes for stomach aches--eating m&ms for dinner. I know, I know, our blog title suggests that this is something we do all the time, but in actuality we always eat dinner first and m&ms later. Until today. We had "make it yourself night" (one of my favorites!) and Jeff apparently forgot to eat dinner. Then after dinner we got out some m&ms--one bag of peanut and one bag of dark--and he ate a few, and then a few more. Pretty soon, he said, "Why do I have a stomach ache?"

Next thing I knew, everyone in the family was volunteering tummy ache inducers, including:

• staying up until after 10 when you're only 5 years old (Maggie does this pretty much every night--and then comes downstairs and complains about her tummy).
• staying up til 2 when you're older than 5 (all three of the older girls have checked this one out during sleepover parties).
• running into the car door (or sustaining other minor injuries, if you're a kid. In my case, it took breaking my leg or being in labor to cause a stomach ache).
• forgetting to eat breakfast and/or lunch (Michelle regularly tries this one out).

So, if you're looking to have a healthy stomach, don't eat m&ms for dinner, and don't break your leg.

gardening with a broken leg

Gardening has taken on a new direction since I broke my leg. I love spending time in my garden, looking at the plants, checking their progress, pulling a few weeds at a time. In my pre-broken leg life, I visited my garden for at least a few minutes almost every morning. Post-broken leg, it is hard for me to manage stairs, so I have only gone out in the yard a few times. I'm still obsessing about the garden, though, so I have to think of clever ways to solicit help from my already over worked children.

Today my obsession is focused on the cherry tree. The girls picked 5+ cups of cherries a few days ago, and made a cherry crisp, but they just keep turning red and there are lots more cherries ready now. So I am turning my thought to what ingenious plan I might design to convince them to pick more cherries. Another cherry crisp might work, but I am trying to think of additional enticements. And hoping I can get them out to pick the cherries before the birds do the work for them!

Independence Day

In addition to having David's family in town, we had a special treat on July 4th--we were able to watch Sharon perform in a flash mob at the Lafayette city Independence Day celebration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhpzP-nw_Vc

I was terrified I wouldn't be able to crutch to where we needed to be and almost didn't go, but it was well worth the sore muscles and blister I got in the process. I am so proud of Sharon and her accomplishments. Dance is something she absolutely loves, and I'm glad she has the opportunity to participate.

Democracy

Like most Americans, Jeff and I wanted to raise our children in a Democracy, namely, the United States of America. I'm not sure that we also wanted our home to be a democracy, in fact, I am pretty sure that we wanted our home to be more of a Constitutional Monarchy (though at times a Military Dictatorship seems like a good idea too!). However, here we are, almost 15 years into the child-raising process, and a democracy is what we have. It's my fault, I suppose. I am so interested in knowing what my children think about things that I ask them, and then I simply can't ignore their opinions!

For example, yesterday when I was trying to start this blog, I had a great name picked out. It was funny, it described how I often feel about parenting, and it was memorable. The problem with it is that I asked the kids what they thought. And Michelle said it was mean. Which brought up a second problem--she was right, it was mean. (The name was "Oops, I didn't mean to ruin your life.") So we started making a list of possible names and I asked the kids which ones they liked and why. After about an hour of polling and voting, we narrowed our list down to 6:

Butt bones and other things I haven't broken yet
Feast of girls
m&ms for dinner
Act like you like each other
Who is the mother here?
5 girls and a bald guy

Ultimately, "m&ms for dinner" got the most votes, and it is my favorite out of that list. And since Sharon didn't agree that it was the best choice, I wrote her up in the disclaimer subtitle so everyone would know of her protest. She doesn't want to be associated with any questionable dinners I guess.

Weekend with David's family

David, Cassie, Naomi, and Cassie sister Zilpa came to visit over the long weekend. We had such a blast!

The kids played at the park...

and in the backyard.

Maggie got stuck for a little while, but David eventually let her out.

I think Zilpa liked us too. At least enough to go along with our crazy schemes.

Mostly we did ordinary things, but even things like drinking milk are more fun when there are 10 of us!

Blessed in trial

Last Monday I woke up early, went on a lovely bike ride, and crashed my bike in front of my next door neighbor's house. When I crashed, I landed on the top of my tibia, just below my knee. Breaking my leg was not exactly on my summer agenda this year. Somehow I forgot to put in on my list in between "take the kids to the Butterfly Pavilion" and "convince Michelle to actually compete in one of the swim meets for her swim team." As you might imagine, I've had some rough days as a result. However, as I've had a bit of time to think about what happened, I have realized many ways in which I have been blessed even in trial.

1. This year we randomly decided to mulch our veggie garden. How is this related? Well, the vegetable garden is my baby--I plant, weed, water, and pick it with minimal amounts of help from the family. With mulching, the weeding is almost completely eliminated and the garden is doing quite well with no intervention. (It is watered by a drip system on a timer.) I've never mulched it before, but I'm very glad now to not be worrying about the garden.

2. Jeff didn't have a fireworks show for the 4th. Usually he is gone for 5 days before the 4th and comes home on the 5th or 6th after doing his show. But this year he just didn't have one to do. So he was home to help me on my crutches over the long weekend.

3. My pain level has been very low. The doctor and other people have been surprised, but my pain is completely controlled with just taking a few m&ms here and there. Ok, and a couple of Advil. And some more m&ms.

4. I crashed in front of my neighbors' house. If I had crashed farther from home, who knows what would have happened, especially since the people who found me may or may not have known me. Thankfully, I crashed right next door to my own house, and Charlie (across the street) and Jeff were able to carry me into the house without too much trouble. Of course, Jeff has now laid down a law that I must carry i.d. with me whenever I run/bike. I told him he should just write my name and phone number inside of all of my running shirts.

5. I didn't land on my knee. By landing on the top of my tibia, instead of my knee, my prognosis is much better and healing time should be much quicker. If I had landed on my knee, I would have likely been dealing with either a shattered kneecap or torn ligaments, both of which are long, painful recoveries. In comparison, this broken leg almost feels like cheating.

6. Swim lessons. One of my best friends just happened to sign her kids up for swim lessons at the same time as mine. So after I broke my leg, she was their ride. Inspiration? I think so.

7. David and Cassie. David, Cassie, Naomi and Zilpa came out to visit for the 4th of July weekend. It was wonderful to have them visit and they helped us so much physically and emotionally.

I'm sure there are other ways in which we were prepared and blessed to be able to better handle this situation. The Lord does not give us trials which we cannot overcome. And He always gives us preparatory tools. I can't say I'm grateful to have a broken leg, but I am grateful for the insight I've gained as a result.

Ways we say good morning

This morning Maggie came downstairs, completely dressed with a pair of socks in her hand. "Say hi to SuperSock! It's stretchy! It flies! It flaps it's cape!" About 10 minutes later she said, "SuperSock, I will put you on now."

This is one of the many ways we say good morning.