History........

Spring soccer season is upon us. Dustin was anxious to sign up again and since he’s not involved in anything else we were happy to let him. I must say that while it was “fun” watching him play last year, it is more enjoyable watching him play this year. With the kids a year older, they show more control of their bodies and a better understanding of what they are doing. Dustin by design came into this world with some natural athletic abilities. This for me has always been interesting to watch since I have very little athletic coordination. The last two games have been quite suspenseful and full of constant action. Amazing for 6 year olds. We are enjoying it.

Daria isn’t to impressed to go watch her brother play (most likely because she’s like me and watching sports has never been our number one interest, add to that the whole “playing with friends” factor that she thinks about 24 hours a day. When you are watching your brother play soccer, you are not playing with friends. But it’s our family rule that we support each other by watching various events that family members participate in. I’m sure we’ve all read that family support at events makes a difference, but I often wondered if it’s not until they are older. Until this one specific Saturday. While watching Dustin’s game, Daria wanted to stand near the goal end as we were sitting in the middle of the field. Somewhere during the game I noticed Dustin briefly look over at me and from the look on his face must have wondered where Daria was. His eyes quickly panned around until he saw her at the goal to which he gave himself the thumbs up sign and continued playing. Hhhmmm, I thought, even at 6 kids are looking for their families out there in the crowd, to see if they are watching them.

Amazingly I’m still on the book reading kick and I’m quite enjoying myself. I finished reading a book titled “The Price We Paid”, by Andrew Olsen. The book, taken directly from journals (my favorite types of books, real experiences from real people), recounts the detailed, and riveting experiences of the Willie & Martin Handcart Pioneers, in a way that is so thought provoking and intense I thought to myself that I wished every Latter Day Saint would read it. Many of us have heard snippets of stories in church lessons, magazines or general conference. They pale in comparison to the details in this book as it takes you into the personal lives of the pioneers before they even converted, the leaders, missionaries, the trek itself, and then wraps it up with what happened to each individual after the trek, all in one amazing book. While I did not have any ancestors in the handcart companies, I did have an ancestor, David Evans, who was the captain over 50 wagons in the 10th wagon company crossing the plains in 1850. I assume that some might read this book and feel guilty about “not doing enough”, but for me I found it completely inspiring and echo the words of President Hinckley who said “Their stories need to be told again and again and again.” The book left me amazed at the type of people that lived before the 20th and 21st centuries. Amazed at how quickly the saints organized themselves wherever they were in the world, and they didn’t even have telephone, e-mail, fax machines, or church handbooks to help them! While serving with the youth of the church I sometimes heard worries that the youth would not relate to lessons that included pioneer stories, as they might seem “out of date”, but I totally disagree. If that were the case then we wouldn’t be able to relate to the lessons in the scriptures. I think to myself if we can’t learn something from a people who were walking 1000+ miles, down to 4 oz. of flour a day per person (2 oz for kids) while pulling handcarts in freezing snowy weather, family members dying daily, and later being thankful for the experience, then I don’t know what else would. If anything I came away reading the book taking a look at myself and re-assessing where I’m at in life, how and what decisions I make and really ultimately how strong is my faith? A good read and I recommended to anyone in or out of the church. The reviews at Amazon probably do it more justice than I could articulate.


I had to include the all famous quote from Francis Webster (one of the pioneers):

"I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there. "Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."


Phenominal reminder that we often come closer to the Lord during our trials than we do in times of “plenty”.

Life

My life is uneventful right now, which is just alright with me. Sickness seems to have prevailed in our home. This has been the longest that any of us have been sick, or at least recovering from being sick. Dustin came down with the flu in early January; I came down with it when my sister left. Although the flu is gone, the lack of energy, dry cough, headache because of coughing so much, and now sinus infection has been a delight to experience. Ken was saved by the “flu” shot although all the doctors said that the flu that everyone is getting was not covered by the shot. Lucky Ken.

It has been so funny to watch Daria during this whole ordeal. If you are a family member and you are sick, Daria will start drinking gallons of vitamin C, she will not even come near you, will not let you kiss or hug her, and doesn’t want you breathing on her or anything she owns (she must have some exception to that rule because when her friends are sick she will still play with them, apparently only family is contagious). One day when Dustin was getting over the flu Daria was brushing her teeth with the Sonicare toothbrush. I happened to look over and notice that the purple one (hers) was still in the cradle. So I said “Daria, are you using your toothbrush?”, “yes”, “well isn’t yours purple?” “yes”. After which she looked at the one she was using and realized it was DUSTIN’S!!! I’ve never seen someone wash their mouth out so quickly. I could not contain the laughter! She had gone to great lengths to not be “exposed” to Dustin and now she was brushing her teeth with his toothbrush. I must admit, even under normal circumstances the thought of using someone else’s toothbrush is disgusting.

Daria still did not get sick. Then the other day she said, “Why am I the only one who has not been sick” To which I then explained Murphy’s Law to her. She acquired pink eye the next day. Go figure. Most of our neighbor friends have been sick too and I think we are just passing various forms of sickness back and forth between houses.

Today, was a good day though. I felt the best I have in over 2 weeks and got more done today then I have during that whole time.

Because I had most of my energy back (still coughing but rarely and not enough to make a pounding headache) I ran all the errands I should have run the past month. I made 5, yes count them 5 returns all to different places. It felt so good to get the return pile gone!

This morning Daria asked me to put her hair in ponytails. She almost never asks me to do something with her hair. So I did. She looked so super cute with her ponytails and wearing her light blue snowflake shirt. At breakfast She and Dustin ended up in some sort of altercation resulting in Daria’s breakfast being spilled on her shirt. Angrily she stomped upstairs to change. New shirt. Back downstairs to finish breakfast. This time she accidentally spilled more of her breakfast on her second shirt. Tears and anger as she went back up stairs to change again. She came down, with her ponytails a little unkept and a wrinkled green short sleeved shirt. She said “mom, I'm having a horrible day”.

Life happens.

Catching up

So if you're like me you may often have this mental list of things you want to blog about, but never really have the time to do so. I'm not going to let my lack of accomplishing my mental lists get the better of me so here goes the first of my "old" blog posts.

As a parent of a girl and a boy I'm almost always amazed, sometimes on a daily basis at the stark difference. Take for instance a leisurely Saturday with nothing to do but play with the neighbor friends. The boys scatter off with various ball and stick sort of activities, running here and running there.

The girls, 4 of them in this case, stole off into one of the houses behind closed doors with oodles of surprising ideas on their minds. Fast forward about 6 hours later (the girls still stuffed up behind doors).

Pause...We are lucky to have such great neighbors on all sides of us. Some we get to spend a lot of time and others we spend time with them when we get the chance. We are also lucky that all of the adults enjoy each other's company and super lucky that the kids love playing with each other (love is an understatment as it's often like peeling glue off of a shirt to bring the kids back home).

So on this night we all ended up at K.C. and Michelle's house. Finally the girls emerge with the request that we all close our eyes. Once we were allowed to open them we were each presented with a hand made, individually designed pillow, thus the workings of their hard labor all day long. Count them... at least 11 pillows and one shirt (for Trey).

Not only was this super sweet realizing that all day long they cut and sewed and stuffed what they could of scrap fabric, but it brings me back to the difference between these girls and the boys. While the boys were conquering the world, the girls were thinking of others and I'm sure thrilled with the anticipation of our surprised faces as we each received our very own pillow.

I also thought how cool it was that they kept themselves busy. In a world where kids often find it impossible to be creative because they are so used to being entertained, I loved the wholesome, creative project they came up with. Besides, how many girls this age do you know who can just whip up a pillow and shirt out of scraps and a brain full of ideas!! Impressive.

the happy recipients

the talented seamstresses.

LOST

I’ll bet you some of you were probably thinking of that strange TV show! Ha, ha.

So we all know the strange phenomenon about lost socks from the dryer. You know, pairs go in, singles come out. I’ve never figured that one out. Well the other day I threw a load of laundry in, which included a pair of Dustin’s soccer shin guard socks. For those mom’s out there who’ve had kids in soccer you know what I’m talking about. Those white socks that go to the knee with the thick plastic guard sewn in them. Yes those are it. Shin guards go in washer. Load of clean clothes come out of washer directly into dryer. Dry clothes come out of dryer onto couch. That’s when I discovered that there was only 1 shin guard!!!! Ok, sock missing I can see, but these shin guards just can’t slip into a small crack or get sucked into the lint vent. I’m sure I looked like a stumped spectacle as I climbed in and all around the washer and dryer looking for this extra shin guard. I checked in and out of the couch, the laundry basket, any place I thought it might have gone (as if it could jump out and go somewhere on it’s own). Nothing, gone, vanished! It’s sort of like the Bermuda triangle only in my own home. So this pair wasn’t that expensive, but I was pleased with the fact that I was going to get two seasons out of those puppies. Now with a game this Saturday I’m faced with the fact that I might have to buy a new pair and what to do with a perfectly good left over single shin sock. Of course there is also the chance that if I purchase a new pair, then the old one will be found of course, making me feel like I wasted money buying a new pair.

Like many of you I was saddened by the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. What a faithful example he was. I remember a feeling of sadness and for a moment thought this must be what the Saints felt like in 1844. I enjoyed each of your blogs that honored him and I agreed with all of your words and thoughts. There’s truly not a prophet that I haven’t liked, those who lived during my lifetime and those who’ve I’ve studied. But President Hinckley is the only prophet who’s served at time in society such as this with its complex problems and issues and he served with such energy and hope. Never have I seen a prophet connect with the youth as he did. I will sorely miss his humorous personality always ready to make a clean joke of something. In fact one of my friends sent me (a year ago) something funny that happened while he was in the temple. Apparently he was acting as a sealer for one of his grandchildren’s weddings. While passing the sealer’s office there was a note on the door reminding the sealers that sealings should only last 30 minutes. President Hinckley said “When did that change? I thought sealings were supposed to last forever!” He was a funny man! I could go on ad on about what I loved about him, but I would have to resort to posting his complete biography that Sheri Dew wrote…..so I won’t. I will however post my absolute favorite picture of him and Marjorie. Whenever I’m bogged down with wishing I looked like the world’s view of beauty I think of this picture and am reminded of the almost 80 years of marriage built on the foundation of Christ. It doesn’t get better than that. By the way, if you’ve not read the book “Letters” which is a compilation of Sister Hinckley’s letters to her children, grandchildren and to President Hinckley, it’s a worthwhile quick little book.

With the passing of President Hinckley, the church moves forward with a new presidency. I love how the workings follow a proper order. Ok, I was so thrilled with the calling of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. There has not been a talk he has given that I have not listened to over and over. Then there is the media with the throng of questions, that they ask over and over just hoping for a different answer. I had to laugh when the news reporter commented on Uchtorf being the first non-American born called to the first presidency. Now I know what she was really asking since the church is worldwide, but I wish she would have done her research. Duh, John Taylor wasn't born in America…. do we need to go down the list? Further I wish society would stop thinking that the leadership of our church is “the top of the ladder” as if it’s like a business with a CEO. Because it’s not.


My Great Aunt died on the 28th. She would have been 99 this year, and she’s the last surviving child on my father’s paternal side. Another great loss.

I was blessed to have a wonderful 3-day visit from my sister. We quickly immersed her our daily routine, eating lunch with the kids at school, helping Daria with her times tables, throwing the football with Dustin, playing volley ball with me up at church (that was fun!) and the highlight was playing a duet with Daria. This was planned. Daria picked the piece out and we sent her a copy before she came. So they were both prepared. I caught it on video and will post it later. I think we should make it a tradition. The visit was too short and I want her to come back soon!

The unfortunate ending to a good visit was that my sister came down with the flu while she was here. Huge disappointment! But I’m glad she wasn’t in some other country when she got sick. I took her to the Dr. who claimed she had a sinus infection. WHATEVER!! When does a sinus infection give you chills, fever, aching sore body, horrible caught, headache, sick stomach. To no avail we left with a prescription for antibiotics for her “fake” sinus infection. The next day I caught her sinus infection (you didn’t know they were contagious did you!). Fortunately the Dr. I went to said I had the flu, so I got the proper medicine. Go figure.


Last night for family home evening we had a lesson on being “shepherds” and feeding the Lord’s sheep (showing them love and kindness) and the Good Samaritan on Loving Your Neighbor, but I put the focus on “loving our family members and acting as shepherds to them”. Lately our home is full of sibling fighting EVERY day. It gets old, and I get grumpy. So I figured a nice fun family lesson would help. So far it’s lasted one day. The kids were very loving, helpful and playful with each other today. Only once did Daria get a bit snippy towards Dustin who then said “Daria, feed your sheep! Baaahhh Baaahhhhh” I thought I was going to cry laughing.

Recital

It's been over a month and I just now took the time to sit down and upload the video from our recital back in December.

Daria and I began taking piano lessons together two or two and half years ago (not counting the summertime as we don't take lessons then). I wish I had this much dedication and motivation as a young girl. I think we've both really enjoyed taking lessons, although I could really do without the whole recital requirement.


Daria and I are required to play two pieces each, but I chose my favorites to post. Amazingly enough I'm posting one of mine, which I've never done before. Why you ask? For the main reason that recitals and I do not mix well and quite frankly seem to put me into some state of pre traumatic stress. One would think being an adult I would be past all those "what if I make a mistake fears." So instead of looking like a blubbering fool on the world wide web I opted not to publish my previous recitals. I can still hear my friend's husband say "I thought you told me she could play?" he was somewhat joking but to be honest I thought the same thing about myself in that moment since I had played both pieces perfectly before I left the house, right before I entered the twilight zone that is. When I sat down I seriously forgot the piece and it seemed as though I had never seen nor played it before in my life. Horrifying I know. I almost quit piano because I was so horrified at how scared I get to perform. But I finally determined that I wanted to continue taking lessons and beat my fear or not, but not to let it stop me. This time Janalen had me go first and she didn't require me to memorize my pieces. This seemed to do the trick and amazingly I was able to push through both pieces! A personal victory. Although I must say it still makes me literally sick to my stomach to think of playing in front of anyone.

Blah, blah, blah

Can you believe that the word “blah” is actually in the dictionary? Better than that can you believe I actually looked it up?

Is it just me or am I the only one who is in some sort of humdrum non-motivated slump trying to get on track with the New Year? I feel so “Blah”. Because I can’t seem to get motivated for more worthy causes I did however begin tackling a goal I would like to achieve.

TO READ

Yes, I am one of those non-readers who collect books they one day plan to read. Not only do I collect books I one day will read I keep lists of books I would like to read. Ridiculous I know. It’s not that I’m a poor reader. The fact of the matter is I prefer non-fiction and in my opinion most non-fiction requires a bit more thinking skills which of course slows down the reading….at least in my case. Consider the book “War and Peace”; according to Amazon it weighs 3.8 lbs! That’s a lot of food for thought. Not that I’m planning on reading that book…at least for now. I’ll file it on my "to read" list under the “w’s”.

Amazingly I’ve been able to read two quick read books that I really enjoyed. Both recommended by friends. (to all you busy readers, this is an accomplishment for me)

The first is “A Three Dog Life” by Abigail Thomas. It’s a memoir recounting the tangled web of feelings, emotions, and experiences Abigail had while having to take care of her husband who suffered a severe brain injury. Very riveting and I recommend it. My stepfather sustained a brain injury and trauma back in 1996. He died in 2003 from heart disease. I think that most of the world around us thought my mom’s life changed in 2003 when he died, but it actually changed in 1996 when he lost part of his mind and who he was. While he could live what seemed a “normal” existence (because he could drive, cook, put on his clothes) his mind was truly altered. Quit frankly I think this book could apply to anyone who has encountered any physical or mental limitation in a loved one.

The second is “Confessions of a Slacker Mom”. I loved this one. Again, short, simple and easy to read. The term “slacker” refers to the fact that society wants us mother’s to believe that we are “slackers” if we do not have our kids in 20 activities, or provide them with every tiny inch of what might help them become some over achieving successful person in life. I call it the Oprah syndrome. I’m not an Oprah watcher, mainly for the fact that I’m really not a TV watcher. But the few times I’ve watched Oprah I feel like I’m just not doing enough. I’m not doing enough for my kids, for my husband for the world and then for myself (I have to remind myself that Oprah neither is married or has children and probably a LOT of time on her hands to think of things that we “slacker” moms should be doing so she can earn billions of dollars each year). No offense to Oprah. Anyway, this book is a funny book and the author sometimes gets on her tangents but the point was always well taken. While I didn’t agree with every insight, it did speak to my mothering soul that comes from centuries of natural instinct, like “less is more”, “natural consequences are the best teaches” and “we can’t protect our kids from disappointment or pain”..(like the middle school here who won’t allow the kids to play tag during recess because “Oh my, they might get hurt”). I would totally recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or with small children, and yes even older grown children.

While I’ve been in my slump, thanks to all of you who have been more diligent about keeping your blog updated….I’ve enjoyed “reading” them.

The Holiday Vacation is definitely over

The kids returned to school today with long faces. They said they would rather stay home and play all day. I agree but life is life and we must do the things we need to do.

It’s been a good holiday break, and it comes to a close with happy thoughts.

I admit, I was overcome with a small case of the “Grinch” attitude, or maybe it was an attitude of the true meaning of Christmas or maybe I’m just plum growing up. Do any of you know why Dr. Seuss wrote the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas?” It was written in 1957 to protest the commercialization of Christmas. Interesting note I thought. Now don’t get me wrong, I like giving gifts and I admit I like getting gifts, but it boggles my mind why throngs of people spend hours and hours shopping, and buying an abundance of things for people they might do otherwise under different circumstances. (Sorry, that was the thought that ran through my head when I had to run an errand and got stuck in an hour of traffic near the mall which NEVER happens any other time of the year). To each their own of course, and don’t get me wrong I am not against gifts, we just wanted to scale ours down. This year Ken and I really wanted a simple holiday. When we asked the kids what they wanted they stared at us with blank looks (although I’m sure if I brought them to a store and asked what they wanted they would point to everything they could see). Finally after deep thought they both came up with only two things (which surprised me). Dustin wanted a Webkin and a Nerf Gun and Daria wanted 2 Webkins. Simple I might say. It worked out just fine because we discussed as a family that we wanted to minimize the gifts and focus more on the meaning of Christmas, more time with family and friends. It wasn’t as hard as I thought. The kids were delighted to open their two gifts and we then opened one gift for our whole family. I worried that there would be “wanting more gifts” but none came and I breathed a sigh of relief and could hear in my head “It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags! Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more!” Daria and Dustin were happy. We also took on our Home Teachers challenge to write a note to each member of the family and place it in a gift bag under the tree. We opened those first. A fine tradition to repeat.

For the second year in a row we spent Christmas Eve with friends and with the kids re-enacting the Nativity while singing various Christmas songs.

Dustin as a shepherd

Daria as Mary

We also enjoyed Dustin's Kindergarten program, Daria’s choir concert, mine and Daria’s piano recital, celebrated Dustin’s birthday, enjoyed a nice ward party where Ken, Kat and Dustin had a part the entertainment, a visit to Ken’s family, picked pecans,

learned how to make Nancy's famous kolache's, a visit from close friends, and lastly a lot of eating and games with neighbor friends. Such a long run on sentence doesn’t make it sound like such a simple holiday does it!

having fun with cousins

Here is to 2008!!!