Our Family Project

Adam turned 5 today!  I can hardly believe it.  He is such a clown; it's hard to imagine our family without him.  He is constantly giving us something to laugh about.  (His cake, for example.  He wanted strawberry frosting and chocolate frosting on a vanilla cake.  And, of course, he had neopolitan ice cream.) We celebrated his birthday last Sunday (just like Maryanne) because our house situation had taken a turn for a worst.  For most of this week we believed we would be homeless come Saturday (our vacate date).  So, because we had no idea when we would get into our house, we celebrated his birthday early so he could have his toys for a while as well. Here are 10 things about Adam: 1: Thing he misses most about Minnesota: The snow. 2: Thing he likes the most about Arizona: We get to go swimming a lot. 3: Favorite song: "Families are Together Forever" 4: What he hopes to be when he grows up: A builder. 5: Favorite past time: ...

Within the last few months I have come to the conclusion that I am a rule follower.  I'm not talking about someone who tries to follow the rules, but understands that some rules can be circumvented because of circumstances.  I'm talking about a person who tries to follow the rules, and gets anxious when even considering the idea of "bending" the rule even just a little bit. EXAMPLE A This morning I was taking the children to school.  Because we haven't moved into our house yet, and I thought we would be in it by now, they were already enrolled in their new school, so I need to drive them everyday across the valley.  As we were turning to get on the interstate I considered timing it just right so I'd get to the metered light just as it turned green, therefore I wouldn't have to stop before getting onto the freeway.  Guess what I did.  I stopped.  Yes, I stopped.  And I did it because I started to feel sick to my stomach about not stopping w...

Sunday we celebrated Maryanne's birthday. We will be moving this coming weekend, and I wanted her to be able to have her gifts and play with them for more than just two days, so we celebrated her birthday Sunday. We will do something for Adam on his birthday, then the weekend after that we will have family members over to celebrate both Adam's and Maryanne's birthdays. So, she will still get a fancy cake (she only got a store bought cake this time, that wasn't fancy at all ... just one of those 10 slices of cake for $10 things). She is such a special girl ... providing so much joy and laughter to our family. Sunday as she was unwrapping her presents I was filled with so much joy watching her. Each of her siblings (except Adam) made her a card, or a little gift. (That in itself brought me so much happiness and helped me to feel like I'm not a failure as a mother ... they truly love her and wanted to show her.)  And, even though those gifts weren't as big and ...

This last weekend I happened to do a lot of soul searching in regards to my mothering.  Sometimes when I am around really fabulous women who are great mothers I feel a little incompetent in my mothering skills.  I felt this way on Thursday and a little bit on Friday as well. That was when I accompanied my sisters-in-law on a shopping trip.  While we were driving, one of them expressed a concern about her mothering.  My oldest sister-in-law immediately started to give advice to both of us as we commiserated over our mothering woes. It helped me to realize that even though I feel like they are both great mothers to their children in certain areas, they still felt inadequate.  One sister expressed concern, and the other possibly covered up her concern by focusing on another's. I realized as I contemplated this scenario that there is no perfect mother.  We all have our own learning curves and talents and abilities.  And, some women's talents are not ...

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Jon's sister and her family, and his sister flew down from Utah to spend Thanksgiving with us all as well.  It was such a great time, filled with the Turkey Bowl (I actually got to play this year!), lots of cooking, lots of food, lots of eating, and lots of relaxing.  They'd put four folding tables together to make this huge Thanksgiving Dinner table.  I loved it!  We all got to sit together and all of the food was on the table ... it was perfect.  I've never seen so much food for Thanksgiving dinner either!  My sister-in-law's family has a tradition of making everyone's favorite dish ... so there were the traditional foods (mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, rolls, corn, etc.), and there was also potato salad, zucchini, sweet potatoes (not prepared the traditional way with marshmallows), and ham (not traditional for us).  I'm sure there is something I forgot because there was so much food! These two little stinkers...

Last week Eliza was given a pilgrim project for social studies at school.  She was to find an ancestor that was a pilgrim, then decorate an old fashioned clothespin to look like that ancestor and bring it in for a presentation about the ancestor.  The Saturday before the project was due we met Jon's sister and her husband at the temple.  My sister-in-law told us of an ancestor of theirs who came across the Atlantic Ocean from Wales and lost a baby on the ship over.  She told us that we could look online and find a lot of information about her.  So, that's who Eliza did her presentation on.  Jon and I helped Eliza make the clothing and hair for her clothespin doll ... but there were other children in her class that made backdrops and props for their dolls.  Such a great family history project!

Usually, I get out the clippers and shave my boys' hair down to about and inch in length.  But, Andrew hasn't wanted his hair that short, so that means we need to do his hair before he goes to school.  One day, when Jo was here in the morning, Andrew wanted his dad to help him with his hair.  And, this is how Jon did it.  Very cool, eh?  Andrew thought it was so awesome, he asked for his "mohawk" again the next day, and the next.  It actually is quite impressive.  But, it makes me realize his hair is getting rather long ... maybe we'll buzz it this week.

I've never really given a hostess gift when going to another's house for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, etc.  But, last week when I was doing a little blog-hopping, I saw some coasters that a craft-blogger made as a hostess gift.  I remembered some fall fabric my mom gave me, and decided I would do that this year too!  Since we would be going to Jon's sister's house, and staying two nights there, I felt like I wanted to show our gratitude for their hospitality.  They were so easy to make, a really quick project, and turned out so great!  I just may have to make some for us for Christmas!

The last day of my gratitude days. I've had plans to share gratitude for this, specifically, today.  It is the most important thing to me, above all else.  It is my faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. I have a testimony that Jesus Christ lived, and died, for me.  As I've prepared my lessons the last few months for our Relief Society meetings at church, my faith has been strengthened more than I could have imagined. My faith that began as the faith of a little child has grown in leaps and bounds over the years.  Each step has taken me closer to my Savior, and I am so grateful.  Everything I do is based on my faith.  I make choices based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and do my best to live my life according to the principles He taught.  I know that He lived on this earth a perfect life, but He does not expect me to be perfect during my time on this earth.  He only expects me to improve and do the best I can.  Circumstances change a...

Twenty-four days down, and I still have so much to be grateful for.  I am so grateful for my childhood.  There are so many things happened and many thins I experienced when I was younger that have shaped who I am today. I don't remember being a very competitive person before I started to play recreational softball in fourth grade.  My friend, Amanda, wanted to sign up to play but didn't want to do it alone.  So, I said I'd play with her ... remembering that my dad used to play softball.  I had hoped that it would be something that I could share with my dad.  However, as the years went by, I continued to play and Amanda stopped playing, and it became something I shared with my mom not my dad.  Through all those years, I learned that when I really want something and work toward that goal, I really can achieve it.  It's not easy, and it takes a lot of time and determination, but I learned that it is possible. During my childhood, I learned that m...

I am amazed at how my gratitude days have evolved.  And, I feel like my writing has improved to the point that I remember "how" to write again.  I'd forgotten how much I do enjoy writing ... perhaps I should continue to write more? . The last 23 days have been so therapeutic for me.  It's been so rewarding to dig deep and really assess what I am grateful for.  Some things I am grateful for are small, and perhaps sometimes over stated, things compared to others (like the fact that we have money to buy food, clothing, gas for our cars, etc.; or, that we have a place to live).  And, even though some of those things have not been mentioned, I am grateful for them. But, today, I am grateful I started this journey ... my blog.  Originally, I planned on using one of the last days as a day to express thankfulness for my gratitude days.  But, I realize now that it is much, much more than that.  Through my blog I have been able to document my daily...

I am grateful for naptime.  I know, after all the sentimental entries before this one, naptime doesn't quite fit.  However, it becomes a magical time in my apartment.  A time when I can clean (without another mess made behind my back), read, sew, watch a movie, or do the obvious: sleep.  Naptime has been crucial for me recently.  Mainly because I end up falling asleep while I'm waiting for Adam to fall asleep (who has to go to sleep too, otherwise Maryanne won't).  I have been extremely fatigued recently.  I'm sure my schedule of staying up until 11 or 12 doesn't help too.  But regardless of what time I go to sleep, even if I get eight hours of sleep, it is not enough and I am ready to fall over by lunch time.  I probably should go see a doctor, but I'm also lazy ... another reason why I love naptime!

I could have used the last post to talk about my siblings-in-law, but I have too many!  I mean, I'm counting Jon's siblings and their spouses ... all of whom I love and adore ... which means talking about 13 more siblings! Although, I am dedicating this post to my siblings-in-law, I am not going to write a paragraph about each of them.  At least, not today.  Each of my siblings-in-law have taught me something special.  At times, it's been perserverance, strength of character, courage to face unbelievable odds, and determination.  Other times, it's been acceptance, love, and laughter.  (Plenty of laughter.)  I love to be around my siblings-in-law ... for many reasons, but today it's because I get to see another side of my husband when we are with them.  He becomes the person he was when he was growing up with them.  It's amazig how many different sides we each have. So today, I am grateful for my siblings-in-law who have given me support a...

I have the best siblings in the world.  Literally.  Although, this post will probably get me in trouble with my older sister. ... She said she can't read my blog at work anymore because it's become too sentimental.  Sorry, Anna, today is no exception (and since I took the weekend off, you probably won't read this until Wednesday or something). My older brother consistently amazes me.  He is always so down to earth and logical.  I don't think I've ever seen him over react to anything.  For many years I've felt that we had a special bond.  I remember when we were younger, I felt badly that he didn't have a brother.  Even though my mother has told the story that he would pray nightly for a sister when she was pregnant with me, I still felt like I was supposed to be a brother.  So, I tried to be the brother he never had.  I would go outside and "play" football with him and his friends, or I pretended I wanted to be a electrical ...

Our Heavenly Father is so merciful and wonderful.  He has given me challenges to help me grow and in return he has given everything I could ever hope for: everything I need.  When we first considered moving to Arizona, we had an "ideal" expectation for what it would be like here.  The last nine months have not been in the shape of that conjecture, and have been much more work than we thought.  But, we have learned quite a bit.  We learned that although we would not be able to get the house, or yard we thought, or live right next to the office, that we would be okay.  And, so our expectations changed. I am grateful for a house.  We finally have a house!  And, the circumstances regarding this house are so much more involved than I expected.  For months we have been looking for a house.  This is the fifth house we've made on offer on (and the fifth accepted).  We truly believe we were not supposed to buy the previous four hous...

Jon has a new job.  Just in case some of you haven't heard.  He got a new job a few weeks ago.  It is an awesome job!  He gets to work from home presenting for clients over the Internet.  It's still with the same company, and right now his old manager is letting him use his office space from his old job until we move into a house with a home office. It is amazing how different Jon's attitude has been the last two weeks.  Last week he had training, and this has been his first week really "on the job."  And, he has been home later in the morning, and come home earlier in the evening than ever!  Seriously!  Yesterday he called around 3:30 or 4 and said that he was done for the day.  He feels guilty not working eight hours a day, but sometimes the work is done before the eight hours! Jon's stress level has decreased by, oh, about 95%.  His previous job was a sales job, so his stress was pretty high.  I am so grateful he has a n...

Today is a good day to be grateful for my marriage.  Over the last several years we have witnessed more than a handful of marriages (both our friends' and some in our family) fall apart, or disintegrate.  Jon and I have been third party, or a listening ear, for some of the people in those marriages; and each time, I am more and more grateful for the marriage we have.  It is not perfect.  It is not from a storybook.  It is NOT easy.  But, it's something we have worked on from day one.  We have had our trials and uphill battles ... and they will never go away ... but, the one thing that we agreed on when we got married was that divorce would never be an option. When I met my in-laws for the first time, I could almost feel their hesitancy about me because my parents are divorced.  It was almost like they were afraid for Jon ... thinking that because my parents divorced, that it would be more likely that I would want a divorce (as compared to someo...

Today I am grateful for the many women in my life who sew.  I know so many women who sew, and do it beautifully: my moms, aunts, cousins, friends.  But, more specifically, I am grateful for my grandmothers, who sew. I think my earliest memory of someone sewing, or making, their own clothing comes from my grandmother Tanner, my mom's mom.  I remember going into her sewing room and admiring her sewing machine and spools of thread on her wall.  I remember looking through her boxes of fabric and notions.  Whenever my cousins and I would come for a family dinner at Grandma's house, we would get out some material that Grandma had set aside just for us, and we'd proceed to drape the fabric on our bodies to make costumes.  I don't remember a year when we acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve without the girl playing Mary wearing some of that fabric on her head.  My mother sews extremely well, but I remember learning that it was possible to make our own cl...

I am grateful for opportunities to serve. A couple weeks ago, we were able to provide a small measure of service during "Make a Difference Day."  We went with our church group to a local elementary school and helped clean the school.  It wasn't much, especially considering we had our children in tow and the youngest ones got distracted easily, but it was so worth it.  I really feel it's important for our family to experience things like this together so our children will know what it's like to serve others. For a few years we helped out a lady from church.  It was a church assignment to help her, but we did it together.  She was house-ridden, for lack of a better term.  She had some mental and physical incapabilities which made it hard for her to get out of her house to do grocery shopping, or to drive consistently.  Her van had broken down on her property years ago and she hadn't been able to drive herself to the store, to the doctor's office, or...

Today I am grateful for the inspired leaders of my church.  We met for Regional Stake Conference today.  All of the stakes in Arizona met at the same time and we heard from the prophet, a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles, the presiding bishop, and a member of the general primary presidency (whom I absolutely love hearing speak).  I only got to hear the gist of their messages because our children were really, really restless throughout the entire meeting.  (But, who's kidding, when are they not restless at church?)  However, I heard the most from Sister Barbara Thompson (the second counselor in the General Primary Presidency), and I'm so glad I did.  The entire message of her talk was about increasing our spirituality through daily scripture study and prayer. When I first started attending seminary, in ninth grade, my teacher challenged our class to read the scriptures every-single-day.  I took up the challenge and read every-single-day up ...

Today I am grateful my name is safe.  It is a little thing, but it means so much to me.  I feel comfort knowing that my husband will not say anything critical of me to another person.  Recently, I had a talk with my children about this very topic.  I suggested that they give each other the same respect: that they will not bad-mouth their siblings to their friends.  At first they were a little confused, but as I explained how much more they will love each other through this one act of kindness, they felt more assured of their relationships with each other and agreed to at least experiment upon this idea.  Today Andrew went to a birthday party.  The childs' mom volunteers in his classroom every Friday.  She acted in a certain way toward Andrew and said something to me when I dropped him off that made me believe that his name is not safe with his teacher.  And, it hurts thinking that his teacher may have said something to one of the ...

I realize that yesterday I probably should have said something like: "I'm grateful for all those men and women who have bravely fought in war after war to secure our freedom.  They are such great examples to me of selflessness and strength when it comes to preserving our rights to govern ourselves in the way we see fit.  War is not something easy to go through, and there are casualties that surmount year after year even during times of peace.  Casualties of the mind, spirit, and body.  I am so grateful for the sacrifices that families make to 'lend' their father, brothers, sons, wives, sisters, daughters, etc. to the cause of independence." However, when writing my post for yesterday, I forgot that it would be Veteran's Day.  So, even though it is a day late ... I am still extremely grateful for all the veterans who have given their time to keep our country safe ... for, because of their service, I still have the ability to write what I want on my blog, an...

My children are quite creative.  At least, I think so.  One day they found some pom-poms that I bought years ago for a visual aid for Primary singing time.  Next thing I knew, they made a family of pom-poms.  I can't decide which one I like better: the one they called "The Mad Hatter," or the little one at the bottom on the left that makes me think of Kermit the Frog.  At any rate, I am grateful my children have so much creativity!

I am so grateful for my ability to make choices.  Within the last couple of days, I've read the testimony of Elizabeth Smart, and she emphasized several times that Brian David Mitchell took away her ability to choose through threatening her death and that of her family.  Reading about everything that she went through at the hands of another person has really made me so grateful that I can choose what to do with my life each day.  I can choose to wake up and clean, or I can choose to stay in bed and sleep all day.  I can choose to treat my children and those around me with respect and love, or I can choose to treat everyone with disdain and rudeness.  Each day I make choices, and I do not have a "Lucifer-figure" in my life demanding I do what he/she wants me to do.  I am so grateful that I have always had the ability to choose.  Yes, Elizabeth Smart still had a choice ... to do what Mitchell wanted her to do, or to die (according to his threats).  ...

Today I am grateful for respect.  For the respect that other people give to me, and for the respect that is given to other people.  I'm grateful my children show their teachers respect, and that they are learning what it means to be respectful.  It seems that this is also a lost art (like honesty), especially is places where the population is large.  Phoenix is the fifth largest populated city in the United States.  And, unfortunately, it shows by way of the lack of respect people have for each other here.  It is not like the small town we came from, in which people were kind and friendly to strangers all the time.  My children are consistently complaining about their classmates and fellow bus riders because they do not show respect to their teachers, or to each other.  It makes me really pleased with my children when I read the comments on their report cards, stating that they are respectful students.  I am so grateful that my children ...

Today I am grateful for people who have great ideas.  Specifically great ideas for ways to help my children learn.  As I've mentioned before, Andrew has been struggling in school.  We have discussed what to do when we move into a house ... whether to enroll him in kindergarten or first grade in the new school, or homeschool him for the rest of the year.  Today Andrew stayed home from school because he has a cold (or possibly strep throat as it has been going around his classroom ... he has a sore throat and a cough), so I told him that we would do a "practice" homeschool day.  He was totally up for that.  (Back story: He's been saying for a while that he wants to stay home with me, that he misses me, and he wants more breaks.  I've been trying to help him understand that if he stays home, it won't be just playing games and having fun ... there will be work and learning to do as well.)  So, today, we did his reading lesson, then we worked on ...

Today I was able to lead the primary children in their singing time. Made me realize how grateful I am for music. It really helps me get out of slumps and feel better when I'm feeling poorly. I am so grateful for music in my life.

I have six reasons to feel grateful today.  Originally, I was going to give each person their own day.  But, then I thought about it and realized that if I give each person in my immediate family their own day of gratitude (not that it's not deserved), there would be five days for which I could have expressed gratitude for something else.  Thereby, feeling even more gratitude and seeing even more of my blessings.  So, my six reasons to feel gratitude today: Jon I've told him many times before that he is the best-suited person for me.  He understands me in ways that I don't understand myself.  He always picks up the pieces for me when I fall short (which has been happening a lot recently).  I am so grateful that he is able to recognize a need and fill it.  Especially those needs that I do not realize are unfulfilled.  Sometimes I feel like he is my Emma ... and I am Mr. Knightly: I'm frequently trying to "help" him become a better person, a...

Talents. That's what I'm grateful for today. Not necessarily mine. I love seeing my children's talents, and I enjoy my friends' talents, and I have great respect for the talents of those I do not know. I think what I love most about talents is the ability we all have to be good at something, and increase our ability in that one area. In my opinion, our confidence in ourselves grows as we strengthen our talents, and we feel more worthy to do more and become more. And right now I am grateful for the talents my friends possess, through which I am blessed and inspired.

There are so many things to be grateful for, it's hard to determine which things I want to share. For today I am grateful for my friends. All of my friends: those from my youth, those from my college years, those in MN, and those here in AZ. Each person has made a profound impact on my life and I feel so blessed to have known so many wonderful people. And I feel so honored to call them my friends. It's amazing to me how much having friends can impact the way a person feels about him/herself, thereby influencing their actions and reactions. Having recently gone through a small period of time without any "real-life" friends around, I truly appreciate those friends who rallied my spirits from afar. (Yes, that is every one of you, my friendly blog buddies.) Just knowing that another person who I share so much with stands beside me and buoys me up during hard times helps me to get through them. I am so very grateful for all my friends.

Today I am grateful for the patience and forgiveness of my children.  Being a mom is new to me every single day.  Knowing what to do is the hardest thing ever.  And, my children are patient with me and they forgive me when I make mistakes.  Something that I willingly admit to them all the time.  I know I don't have a clue what to do, or what is best, but I'm doing the best I can with what I have.  Someday, I hope my children will understand that, and remember to forgive me again for all the bad days and bad behavior choices.  But, for right now, I am so very thankful they give me so much allowance and forgive me when I don't do the best thing first.

I am grateful for my challenges. Sometimes I think I don't know what to do to overcome them, or even just make it through, but I am grateful for them nonetheless. I am not only grateful that they are my challenges, as opposed to some of the challenges of other people, but I am also grateful for the learning process. There are so many things that I've learned because of past challenges, and even though they are not easy, I almost look forward to a challenging time when everything seems to be good. Some things can only be taught/learned through difficult times. So today I am grateful that I can learn from my challenges.

I am grateful for people who are honest.  It seems to be a lost characteristic nowadays.  And, I'm talking brutally honest.  I would rather have someone tell me that the dinner I made is gross than pick at it and then throw it away.  I would rather have someone be completely honest about how they feel toward something I said, rather than drag out a sugar-coated message.  Complete honesty is necessary for me, everything is worse when I don't get the whole truth the first time.  So, today I am grateful for honesty.

For Halloween this year, we went to two different trunk-or-treats.  Instead of trick-or-treating on Sunday, our church combined with another congregation to put on a trunk-or-treat on Friday, the 29th.  Basically, everyone who wanted to give out candy backed their car into a parking space and opened their decorated-for-Halloween trunks, then handed out candy to the children who were dressed up.  Oh, and it was also a kind of pseudo-carnival, and an announced but nothing was ever really judged chili cook-off. Then, on Saturday, we went up to Prescott Valley to visit our good friends.  Their church also organized a trunk-or-treat with some other congregations, so we got to go to another one!  Halloween is always better when you get to dress up twice!  Our children had a blast playing with their friends (and they still play/hang out well together after months of being apart), and LOVED decorating their truck and our van.  They did way b...