Our Family Project

Today I have spent the ENTIRE day doing laundry and packing.  We are going over to my sister-in-law's house tonight to spend the night before our big Thanksgiving extravaganza tomorrow.  However, all of my children are out of clean clothing, and we will be driving up to Utah on Friday for the weekend.  So ..... I've spent the day folding laundry and packing. We were supposed to take a crock-pot of soup over to my sister-in-law's for dinner for everyone.  She also made soup.  So, the fact that we didn't show up there until 8:30 tonight was really okay, and no one starved because we and our soup (that I didn't even end up making because I didn't have time) didn't show up on time. And, I am so grateful today that my sister-in-law and her family, and my brother-in-law and his family were so understanding.  They didn't seem perturbed by our tardiness, and they understood that our life is not perfect; our children sometimes get messy (okay, they get messy ...

The last couple of months, on Tuesdays, we have gathered with some families from our homeschool group to learn and practice some Christmas songs in different languages.  It all started when I decided to sign "Prayer of the Children" for our homeschool group talent show.  I don't know why I wanted to be in the talent show.  Most of the moms weren't in the talent show, and I wasn't planning on it until a couple hours before the show.  But, I really felt like it was something I wanted to share with the group. The mom who was in charge, Tiffany, was so thrilled that I signed a song.  She approached me after the show and asked me to teach the group a song in sign language at her upcoming "languages class."  Originally, I'd had every intention of not attending the class because I was already feeling too stretched thin, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share my love of sign language with others. Originally I was only going to teach "Wi...

My children have been on a slight piano lessons hiatus.  Their piano teacher had a baby in September and needed some time off.  (And, before you ask ... this is NOT an announcement: I am NOT their piano teacher.)  They haven't been playing the piano as much recently, and we have had more free time in the afternoon because we don't need to rush to piano lessons.  And, while it's been nice to take a break, I am so eager for my children to get into piano lessons again. Eliza has grown a lot during this hiatus.  She has challenged herself more, and she's gone ahead in some of her books; playing just because she wants to.  I love it.  She is finally to the stage in which she can read music fairly well, and she can sight read, and she can pretty play what she wants to.  (Mind you, some of the time it doesn't come out right, or she takes it really slow.  But, she is trying because she wants  to try!) It's been fun to see my children progres...

I know I've been really superficial with my grateful days entries.  But, for some reason, I felt like most of the entries from last year were really deep and serious.  And, this year, I wanted to include a few that were just little things that I am grateful for.  Turns out, I am grateful for A LOT of little things. Tonight it is Sardines. Jon and I had a really good discussion this evening.  Today was the second time in the last month that he has taken me with him to visit people in the ward.  Actually, to be more accurate, we went to visit two widows that are his home teaching families.  On the way home we were talking about his new schedule regarding church meetings and such.  He said that he had someone tell him to do as much as possible on Sundays and one other day during the week, and then leave the rest of the nights during the week for family. I told him that I would prefer that he let Sunday be the Sabbath Day and spend most of the time...

Today was a lazy Saturday.  Have you ever had those Saturdays when you are running all over the place?  Have you had more than one ... okay, maybe four or five in a row?  It seems like that's all we've had the last few months.  Until today.  We didn't have to get our house super clean by a certain time because friends would be coming over.  We didn't have to run from one event to another.  (Granted, Jon did go on a hike with the youth as part of youth conference from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., and I was at a baby shower from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)  I didn't spend all day doing laundry (like last week), or dishes.  We didn't even really do our weekly house cleaning.  Oh, and the best part was that the TV wasn't really on too much (aside from the time when Eliza was babysitting for me). Andrew and Adam spent a good part of the day working on their projects for Biz Day.  Eliza and Kate spent a good amount of time on theirs as well.  I was ab...

I know it's so cliche, but I am so grateful for Pinterest.  I found this picture on there, and I cannot wait to duplicate the four canvases and put them above my piano.  My friend, who is an artist and teaches art to our children for our art co-op said she would help me do it.  I cannot paint worth anything (at least, not since high school), but with help .... this is totally doable!  I LOVE it so much. Anyway, we have our annual Biz Day (previously Free Enterprise Day) coming up and my children have been looking for crafts to make so they can sell them.   Last year , there was too much food sold, so the moms in charge have asked that we do more crafts and items to sell in addition to any food items we bring. Personally, I want my children to do only items, no food.  So, we've been coming up with ideas.  This is where Pinterest has been so helpful!  I've found boy crafts, and girl crafts.  It's been great.  I'd tell you what we wi...

Tuesday night is my sports and fitness night.  It really is.  At about 8:30 p.m., I take off and head to the stake center for volleyball and basketball.  We have a half court for basketball, and one court set up for volleyball.  Recently, we haven't had enough women come who want to play basketball, but I'm hoping it will change soon. This last Tuesday night, there were only five of us on the court.  We ended up eventually playing volleyball two-on-two.  And, despite the lack of team members, it was a great workout!  I mean, we had to run to get to the ball because there wasn't anyone else there. Anyway, I LOVE volleyball night!  I live for it.  In fact, this last Tuesday, we finished our games and I was still ready for more!  The only thing is that we can't start playing any earlier.  The last weekend of September, Jon and I invited a bunch of couples to come and play volleyball together for a group date.  It was absolutel...

Last week at our art co-op, the younger group made mini monkey bread for the snack.  Well, they made enough for everyone, so my friend who was teaching didn't want the older the group to make it again.  She wasn't sure what to do, so I said, "Let's have them make dinner!"  Ha ha ha!  I was kind of kidding, but at the same time I was thinking, "It's almost 4 o'clock, and I still have to make dinner.  If they make my family dinner, I won't have to!" So, they made Bubble Up Pizza Casserole (to use the biscuits already bought).  One for my family and one for my friend's family.  After it was all made, we sat back and my friends said, "I love this idea.  We should do it every week; have the older group make a freezer meal for us all to take home." This week, they made lasagna .  I actually had enough ingredients to make two lasagnas (actually, my friend let me have some of her cottage cheese because I was little bit short) ... s...

Tonight I am grateful for Microsoft Excel.  There are so many things that I use Excel for, but tonight I am especially grateful for the new tracking sheets that I created in Excel for our cub scout den leaders to use. Months ago, they were given similar tracking sheets, but they were so hard to use.  I went home with the file for those sheets waiting for me in my email inbox, and I took them and reformatted them.  When I was finally finished and took the new and improved tracking sheets to cub scouts tonight, both of the wolf den leaders and the assistant den leader expressed their gratitude for such an easier form for tracking not only their achievements, but also their attendance, award, and Faith in God progress. I use Excel for all of my homeschooling sheet, all of my file folder sheets, and many, many other things.  So, I am so grateful for Excel and my rudimentary knowledge of how to use the program to make forms for me to use everyday.

Tonight, Jon and I went with some friends to a basketball game.  The theme, of course, was to recognize our veterans.  We applauded those that were present, and recognized a handful who had received purple hearts during different wars.  We stood for them, and watched three of them entertain us during halftime. At one point, the announcer said that the basketball team is defending the court and we should applaud the great men and women who defend our freedom everyday.  I thought that comparison was a little weak.  I mean, basketball court compared to our freedom?  Silly. But, I appreciate the opportunity we had to take the time to thank those who really do work so hard to protect our country and our freedoms.  I do not fully understand what they do everyday, what they have done, but I do appreciate it.  I don't know that I could leave my family for such an extended period of time, never knowing if I'd see them again.  So, I am grateful tha...

Yesterday at stake conference, one of the speakers talked about The Sabbath.  She mentioned how relaxed we've become as a people when it comes to the Sabbath Day.  She quoted someone saying how to our great grandparents it was called The Holy Sabbath Day, to our grandparents it was The Sabbath, to our parents it was Sunday, and to us it is "The Weekend." It really made me sit back and think about my Sabbath Day activities.  Most often, I take a nap, make dinner, and put the children in bed.  We rarely do anything special just on the Sabbath.  But, I realize that the Sabbath Day is a significant part of my worship of Heavenly Father and Jesus.  As I attend my church meetings, read my scriptures, write in my journal, and generally think about things that I don't think about during the week (because of distractions due to work), I realize that I am really rejuvenating my spirit for the week ahead. I read a book almost two years ago about an orthodox Jewish...

Today I've spent the entire day doing laundry.  The last couple of weeks I haven't had the time to get caught up on our laundry ... I just can't figure out where all of my time has been spent.  Most moms can say that they have been running their children to and from school, to their piano lessons, to their church activities, to their sports activities, etc.  I, on the other hand know that we have "done" school everyday the last two weeks (yay!), we've gone to group classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, we've had church activities, and singing classes.  But, I cannot account for our Monday and Friday afternoons!  Normally, I do laundry on Mondays, but I just haven't had the time to do it the last few weeks, and I have no idea why. So, today, I spent all day folding laundry and switching loads between the washer and dryer.  And, what were my children doing during this time?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I think they watched some tv ...

Tonight we had some friends over for dinner and games.  As we were standing around deciding on a game, I exclaimed, "There are four of us!  We can totally play spades!" I love spades.  I love playing it with real people, and I love playing it on the computer.  It is, by far, one of my favorite face card games.  But, rarely do we have two more people with us who can play.  We had to teach our friends how to play, but they caught on really quickly, and even won.  But, the best part, was that I felt okay about being competitive (that will happen when I play with someone I've known since junior high and who knows me quite well), but not to the point that I was disappointed in their victory.  I was just so excited to play, it didn't matter the outcome.  That rarely happens with me ... maybe it was just the game? At any rate, tonight I am thankful for the game of spades ... ah, it felt good to play again.  :-)

Please excuse this very grainy, very ugly picture.  I decided that there are so many times when I am behind the camera, that I needed at least one picture of me with a child. Today I am grateful for my Miss Maryanne and her helpful attitude.  Sometimes she is not ready to be helpful, but for the most part, she does like to help.  At least, she likes to help me when I allow her to help me. On the particular day this photo was taken, the children were all being great cleaners.  We were working together going from room to room, and cleaning together.  Maryanne is always a little stubborn when it comes to cleaning, but she really wanted to help vacuum the school room.  So, I decided that was one chore she could do. She's such a cutey.  I'm so grateful that she wants to help me clean ... dishes and vacuuming are her specialties ... which I'm grateful for because those are the chores I really dislike!

Today I am grateful for a living prophet.  I'm grateful to know that as we look toward the future, we can have guidance when times are more difficult than we've ever known. I will fully admit that last night and this morning I was extremely disappointed with the majority of Americans after the election.  And, I think that's partly due to the fact that I've been a little confused.  After everything that I've read and heard about the state of our country today compared to where we were four years ago, I don't understand why we would want to entrust our future to someone whose past performance didn't really measure up to our expectations.  But, I realize that I am talking about billions of people.  And, billions of people think in billions of different ways, and have billions of different opinions. When I look at our country and the state of our country at this time, I have a certain set of expectations for my leaders.  And, other people may share those...

Today I walked over to the school to vote.  As I was standing in line, I saw a friend from church.  We kind of talked together across all the other people.  She mentioned that she saw someone else from church who stood in line for a long time.  When that friend finally made it up to the table with her early voting ballot, she was told that she actually didn't have to wait in line to turn in her ballot.  I held up my ballot and said, "So, I can just go in?"  My friend said that yes, I could.  I walked in, was directed to sign and seal my envelope and then place it in the early ballot box.  It took all of five minutes for that whole interaction with my friend and dropping off my ballot. I am so grateful I received that early voting ballot!  I really only had 30 minutes to vote, and I was done in ten!  So grateful I could vote in a very convenient way.  Really saved my day.

Today Jon showed the children a video on YouTube that shows a couple of young men in Provo canyon finding an animal that appears to be big foot.  It's still not very conclusive if it really is big foot, but my Adam was enthralled with the idea of big foot. So, he decided to dress up as big foot.  He put on his sandals, then slid his feet into my sandals (which incidentally are wedges), just so he could be taller.  Then, he layered on one Jedi robe the right way, with the another Jedi robe the wrong way.  He finished his "disguise" by pulling the hood of the back Jedi robe up on his head, and then pulling the hood of the front Jedi robe up and over his face. Adam went stomping around and didn't get much of a reaction from anyone.  Before long, he had taken off his costume and put it all away.  At any rate, I am grateful for the creativity of my fourth child.  He is always interested in new things and he wants to find a way to participate and ingr...

Today is Sunday.  We have church at 9 a.m. until 12 p.m.  At about 1:15 p.m., I found myself sitting on the couch almost asleep.  But, instead of taking a nap, we went to choir practice at 1:30.  When we got back an hour later, it was definitely nap time.  After being up late the night before (which is normal occurrance), I was all ready for nap. There are some days when I think a "siesta" law should be passed.  What is so wrong with shutting everything down at 2 p.m. everyday for an hour, only an hour, for a nap?  I wish I could take a nap every single day, but that is not on my daily schedule.  At any rate, I got to take a nap today ... and most Sundays I do. So, today I am grateful for naps.  I always feel more like myself after a nap.  :-)

Today I was able to attend Time Out for Women.  It was a pretty good day.  One of the speakers talked about how we, as women, have negative thoughts about ourselves all the time.  She said that if we were to actually say to other people what we say to ourselves, we wouldn't have any friends.  At that point, I leaned over to my friend and said, "Yeah.  You're so stupid."  She laughed.  It's so true!  I almost want to count all of my negative thoughts about myself just to see how many I have all day long. For example, this morning I was thinking that the person I'd been talking to in regards to my church calling probably was rolling her eyes and complaining about my ignorance and ineptness at what I was supposed  to be doing.  But, imagine if I were to go up to someone I work with at church and say, "Okay, when are you going to finally understand how to do your calling?  You're so stupid!  Just get your act together.  It's...

Today I am reminded of how great Jon's job is.  Yesterday, a friend was asking me about how we are adjusting to Jon's calling in the church.  I love that I was able to tell her that it hasn't been too much of an adjustment for us yet.  Granted, it's only been a couple of weeks, but I haven't felt any difference in our family life.  I'm sure this is due to two reasons: 1) This week was Halloween, so all meetings were pretty much cancelled due to the Trunk-or-treat on the 30th and Halloween on the 31st.  Plus, Jon has been sick this week, so he didn't have anything scheduled for Thursday. 2) He works from home. *This, I'm sure, is the really reason I haven't felt too much of a difference.* Jon's job is so flexible and great for our family life.  I love that he will come out of his office for just five minutes, or ten minutes, to get something to eat or just take a break.  It's ideal because we are able to see him during the day for th...