April Notes

I sure love April!  Especially General Conference.  This is the first time I didn't fall asleep at all!  I enjoyed it so much.  I am always sad when it is over now.  It is so nourishing to feel supported and inspired by our Prophet and Apostles.

 That weekend ushered in Spring Break for us.  We had talked about doing a family vacation, but things kept getting scheduled in here and there and we finally gave in and just stayed home.  I'm so glad we did!! It would have been fun to go on a trip, but it was much more fun to just be home and be together.

 My favorite thing about my birthday was that I didn't have to check the clock once all day.  We spent some time playing together at the park, we went to Pizza Pie Café, and we watched the new episode of Studio C.  It was just so nice and relaxing and lovely to be with everyone. 

We spent some time the next day at the park before taking the girls to their book club.  The next morning we got up very early and drove to Fillmore to play in the hot pots there.  It was a highlight of our Spring Break last year and it didn't disappoint this year either.  There were some other campers there, but they were just waking up and it worked out just fine for us to enjoy the pool.  We were hoping to go to the Statehouse museum again, but ran out of time.  We all went up to Trenaisa's so she and Tanner could go with Dallin and the boys to the Oquirrh mountain temple.  I stayed back with the little ones and had a nice visit with Paul.  The younger kids had a great time with Connor and their doggies.  Paul and Trenaisa are so generous to us!  They fed us a wonderful dinner and sent us home with bags and bags of amazing hand-me-downs.  What a blessing!  Trenaisa even let the little kids take a big bubble bath in her deep jetted tub.  It was such a treat, and so nice for them to go home nice and clean in fresh jammies.  Sullivan completely freaked out when we turned on the jets, though!

Brandon spent all Friday at a Constitution Bowl with his Key of Liberty class.  His team did not do very well, but he had fun and learned a lot about the Constitution, so it was all good.  Grandma and Grandpa came that night and stayed with us.  I traveled with them to Heber the next day to attend Garth Brown's funeral. (My first cousin)  It was incredibly beautiful and spiritual.  It was lovely to see Suzie and all of her children.  She has always seemed like such a soft and spiritual person.  True to that form, she delivered a very beautiful and spirit-filled life sketch of Garth's life.  It was really neat to see some of the family members that I haven't seen for awhile, especially Suzie's 11 living children and their families.  What an example she is!  We had fun sitting at a table with Tanaya and Sheryl and Chris and Kalynn and visiting with them during the luncheon. 

Nathan has been having a really great soccer year, getting better and better throughout the season.  It is always amazing to me what he can do when he is so much smaller than everyone else.  He has really learned how to hustle after the ball and keep up his energy during his games.  He got a couple of injuries that kept him out a few times.  I finally took him to the chiropractor and he instantly healed the hip flexor problem he'd been having for months.  He went straight from the chiropractor to one of his final games and was able to play just fine.  He hasn't had a problem with it since.  Unfortunately, he never got back on top of his game.  He kind of struggled for the rest of the season and ultimately told us he was done with soccer.  He was done with the profanity and bullying of some of the kids on his team.  It was really heartbreaking to hear that that was going on and that it really began to affect his ability to perform.  He was also trying to decide what to do about choir.  He decided not to try out, but to do other things.  His choir teacher begged him to try out, alluding that he would be able to make the advanced choir.  So Nathan practiced and made it to call backs and then wasn't chosen.  And his soccer coach who is a seminary teacher belittled him in front of the team for missing a couple of practices to go to the temple.  Let me just say that my mama bear instincts were fully tested!  I wanted to punch a few people in the face!!  I'm proud of him for handling it all so well and ultimately deciding to keep going with choir and soccer because he loves to do them.  (Some of this happened in May).

Easter was really neat this year.  In March, my friend showed me an e-book she downloaded about Lent.  We decided to do some of the activities and try to make Easter as special and Christ-focused as Christmas.  We learned some of the traditional sayings and rituals associated with lent.  We put up paintings of Christ that we have from several different artists.  We hung a banner in the living room that says He Is Risen!  We planted Wheat Grass to remind us of resurrection.  I hung my string eggs and some wallet-sized prints of Jesus over the kitchen table.  It was serendipitous that when Nathan's friend returned from choir tour and told us they sang in a cathedral, but couldn't sing All Creatures of our God and King because of Lent.  We pulled up some articles and found out that they save the "Alleluia" for Easter and don't use it during Lent.  We all wore purple one day as it is symbolic of Christ's bruising and also his royalty.  We downloaded some really beautiful music from Hoffmanhouse.com about the savior that really added to the spirit.  The Sunday before Easter was my Choralais Choir concert.  I was asked to prepare a children's choir number for the program.  I knew I wouldn't have time to practice with a group, so I just asked if my kids could do it.  They asked them to sing Gethsemane.  It was really really wonderful!  A lot of people said it was the highlight of the concert.  Ruby, Daisy, Simon, and Sarajoy each had a little solo part.  It was so cute to hear Sarajoy sing at the top of her voice, "Get-sem-a-nee, Dee-sus loves me!" and to see Simon with his little paper that he always wanted to have to remember his words.  The big boys stood in the back and did background harmony.  It was pretty special!  We sure love that song and another one by the Hoffmans, I will Anchor My Soul In Christ, that has become a sort of anthem for our family.  I also got to do a solo that really showcased my voice, so that was neat.  I was surprised at how much I loved singing in the choir this year.  I was so busy, but glad I made time for it.  The music really stayed with me and strengthened my spirit throughout the week.  I loved having a more Christ-centered Easter. 

We did Easter Baskets a week early since Grandma and Grandpa were here for Spring Break.  It was fun to have them be a part of it, and especially fun to stay up with Mom getting them ready.  So nice to have help!  We had lots of good candy, a few kinds we'd never tried before!  The kids got a few fun outside things like chalk and bubbles.  We got some nice soccer goals to use in the backyard and they've seen a lot of  use!  Hooray for having a lawn!  The day before Easter was a gorgeous day, and we had a great time at the annual neighborhood Egg hunt.  We were the last to leave because the hosts are so neat to visit with.  Brother Bigler has helped us a lot with our landscaping and he was telling Dallin about a good deal on a used fence he knew about! 

Shakespeare really got busy in April with lots of long rehearsals, and I was asked to be the costume director.  The director had already purchased quite a few costumes and the boys were mostly wearing their own suits.  I was in charge of all of the little details in accessories and props and also in charge of keeping everything in order and together.  It was a big job, but really fun! 

Thanks to Chris skyping in and giving us a tutorial, we were able to finally build the new computer.  It was a really neat project.  I'm still (in June) trying to figure out how to use it!  It has been nice, and all of the kids have enjoyed creating on minecraft.  I love how they can make their imaginings come to life.  Ruby is in heaven because she made a farm with horses she can actually ride and cats that follow her around everywhere. 

One night when I knew I was going to be gone and Dallin was feeling a little under the weather, I suggested he take them to the movies.  The Lego movie just happened to be playing at the cheap theater.  They had a great time.  Dallin was thinking he'd go on a campout with the boys, but the campout ended up being cancelled.  Brandon was really glad because he was kinda burned out from all of his Shakespeare classes and campouts are not his favorite.  He was thrilled that he got to go to a movie.  When the kids announced he wasn't going camping and they were going to a movie instead, he thought it was a mean joke!  They had a great time and so did I at a mom's planning meeting for next school year. 

Fulfilled

Things I've studied and learned because I am a stay at home mom:

Organization
Time Management
Meal planning and organizing
Food storage and emergency preparedness
Food preservation
Natural Medicine, nutrition
Natural Childbirth
Gardening
Discipline, Parenting, Self Discipline
How to stay calm when emotions run high.
How to be cheerful on very little sleep for extended periods of time.
How to seek and receive inspiration about my family
Homeschooling, educating
History, Science, Classical music, art, and literature
How to let go and let kids learn
How to manage a large home
How to train my children to work and contribute to the home
How to manage the use of entertainment in our lives
How to be a better wife
How to appreciate the moments
How to be thankful in adversity
How to appreciate a person as-is
How to give when I don't think there's anything left to give
How to sacrifice the insignificant for the divine
How to help and love when someone is acting unloveable
How to lose myself and become really me

And every day is brimming with more opportunities to practice patience, learn something new, learn someone better, solve problems, manage something, grow.

I am so glad that I am blessed with this life of learning by love. 
It is hard, but life is hard. 
What a blessing to be able to learn so much and grow so much in such a joyful way! 
I get to learn the lessons that prepare me for heaven surrounded by 7 angels. 

People like to comment that I have my hands full.

Oh, yes! FULL!

March Notes

March started out with another Speech and Debate tournament.  I just love being able to go and be a judge and be with the kids!  Ruby and her friend got to come along and help take care of their baby.  It was really fun to be there with a friend.  It was the first time I'd ever judged Student Congress.  It was really fun!  It kept me busy because I had to keep track of the action and make notes on 17 or 18 kids all at once.  Some of them had really silly bills and others had really intelligent ones.  The interesting thing was to see how they voted.  Sometimes it was just to keep things moving, not because they really had the details of the bill worked out.  Sounds a bit too familiar...

Brandon had a fun birthday.  We celebrated part of it early because he had a campout that weekend.  We had the traditional Bagel breakfast and had vegetable bagels for lunch instead.  It was fun to share that lunch with the Jacob Meyers family who we were visiting with that day.  Brandon has developed a really great friendship with Jared and Isaac's cousin Michael!  It has been so fun to get to know their family better.  That night we rewarded Nathan for finishing his Eagle project with a Vocal Point concert.  It was very very enjoyable and fun!  It was not very expensive compared to the globetrotters game, but way more fun!  Dallin, Nathan, and Simon got up early to go to meet Brandon at the campout.  They were at the Midway hot springs and had a great time.  As soon as they got home, we were all excited to watch Brandon open the giant presents that had been sitting covered in the guest room for a couple of weeks!  Inside were all of the components for a new computer for him to build so he could work on some graphic design stuff and FINALLY get his own minecraft account! I was excited to find Sour Patch gum because it combines two of Brandon's favorite things!  Grandma got him the zipline set for his nanobugs, and it is so fun! Then we headed out for an early dinner at the Pizza Pie Café.  It is a salad/pizza/pasta/dessert pizza buffet.  It was pretty good food and fun for everyone.  Plus we had a buy-one-get-one coupon for up to 4 uses that made it very affordable! 
The next week I went to a class and came home with some herbal remedies that we made right there.  Seems like stuff like that will become more and more of a blessing to know about and have as the healthcare goes farther and farther south. 

For Sullivan's birthday, we unveiled a spring surprise for our kids:  We bought two mini-tramps and some gymnastics pads for the racquetball court.  So fun, and perfect for an activity for his birthday.  We went to the Gem Show in Spanish Fork which is always a fun free activity.  They give each of the kids a polished stone, and they can buy a variety bag of rocks and learn what each one is for $1.  Sarajoy was so excited to bring her purse and get to buy things.  She has just recently started earning money, and she loves it so much!  Her purse is really big and she's so cute carrying it.  After the Gem show, I wanted to get a couple of things for Sullivan, so we decided to get some "hangaburgers", which he was really excited about.  I got him some fun balloons and pinwheels at the dollar store.  He also got some really awesome motorcycles from Grandma that he loved and took everywhere.  We got him a big nerf soccer ball and a nano goldfish that really swims in water.  It is really cute!  We had Trenaisa's family for dinner and she brought him the cutest Duplo Lego set that you can make several different vehicles with.  It is the perfect addition to our other little sets like that.  I love it when presents can make an old toy seem new again.  After he ate his cake, he got to have a bath with his little fishy.  So fun!  He LOVED having a birthday.  He had donuts for his cake.  It wasn't until days later that I realized that all of the other kids got an elephant cake on their 2nd birthdays.  Bummer.

Nathan did a presentation on his Eagle project for the Empty Nester's Family Home Evening group.  He did a really good job.  That weekend was a reunion dinner and slide show for the people who went to Mexico.  It was great for  me to meet some of the people they got to know so well.  We had Milee join in on Skype, and it was really fun.  I was surprised that she stuck with it for so long.  I think they people all really enjoyed her and vice versa.  I'm glad it worked out for her to go.  I had fun taking the girls to the Women's Broadcast.  We all went to Wendy's afterwards to use some coupons.  Eating out is a pretty fun family activity.  We had a lot of fun that night.  I love how much fun and liveliness teenage boys bring to our family.  For Dallin's birthday we went to the temple and we got him a large print of Agony in the Garden from the Sacred Gifts exhibit.  It really is such a touching portrayal of that sacred event.  We always have tacos and strawberry shortcake as well!  I got him a new waffle iron, too.

Early Spring

Lovely weather came so early this year.
Flowers blooming. 
Front Lawn growing in. 
Birds and buds and bugs.
I was ready for a season of renewal.

January and February Notes

 
January was all about trying to get back into the swing of things.  It was really hard!  I was just too tired from the hectic December to let myself jump back into a fast-paced routine.  One of my favorite new habits is to get up in the morning for scriptures with Dallin and the big boys and go lie on the couch on my side.  Soon Ruby's alarm would go off, and she'd come down all wrapped up in her blanket and cuddle down behind my legs in my "nest".   It was sooo cozy and nice to start the day with cuddles and we'd drift in and out of sleep while listening to the scriptures in Spanish and English.  Often the other kids would come for a cuddle or a story as we slowly started the morning.  I'm tempted to say "not super productive", but I know it is just a different kind of productive.  A lot of us had lingering sickness that was never really bad, but left us feeling tired and achy.  The girls had a lot of earaches, sore throats, and swollen glands. I took Brandon to a Speech and Debate tournament at LDS Business College.  He did really well.  I really like that school.  It has a nice feeling to it.
I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we started using our weekly character qualities chart that we got from the Duggars' website to give us a theme for each family evening.  It has been great because it takes away the guesswork of "what are we doing for FHE?" as well as helping us dig a little deeper into the meaning and application of the virtues.  Our co-op hosted a family dance.  I was nervous about being mostly in charge of it.  It turned out really great!  We did a little math/science fair with our co-op  just before the dance started.  Brandon did a little demonstration on the "Dice of the Gods" which is a set of regular solids that fit inside one another.  It was neat to see the symbolism and see how it crossed many cultures and religions.  I thought it was amazing that when you have 2-dimensional objects, there are an almost infinite number of regular shapes (regular meaning all sides are equal), but when you add the third dimension, there are only 5 regular solids.  

It February we still kept things slow.  We focused on relationships instead of achievements.  We spent time with friends that helped us know them and learn and grow from them.  We've been involved with a Commonwealth this year.  It is a sort of co-op that offers classes for homeschooled youth.  Once a month they have a parent meeting.  We have had some neat discussions about learning and liberty and about preparing our children to deal with persecution and about focusing our families on the Savior.  It is so nice to feel supported and get ideas.  I've really enjoyed going to them with Dallin.  Dallin and the boys went to the Klondike derby this month.  They were happy to have snow.  They placed 2nd out of 50 troops, so not so bad!  We love the Porter Valentine Party every year!  Yahoo!  I love doing the folk and ballroom dances.  Thanks for putting up with a lot of Virginia Reel!  I am always excited when every age can enjoy an activity like that.  On the 21st was the Shakespeare Fair for Brandon's class.  I was pleasantly surprised to see what a great turnout we had and what some of the fun activities were.  We had dinner there and watched Brandon get "crowned King" the 2nd year in a row for reading/watching/ or listening to at least 17 unabridged Shakespeare plays.  Brandon's math/science class phased out so we decided to have him take the 2nd semester of Key of Liberty because his teacher wasn't able to finish out the year last year.  I sat in on the class a couple of times and was really impressed with the great stuff they were learning about the government and how much Heavenly Father loves liberty.  We also had a fun Valentine party with our co-op.  So far Sarajoy has used her box for 3 years and just adds a little to it each year.  Simon made a cute Alligator box and handed his train valentine box down to Sullivan.  Daisy updated the froggy that Ruby used last year.  Brandon did his trash can with the pop-up lid from last year and Ruby made a really cute giraffe. 
The last day of the month, we went on a group date with our friends from Spanish Fork to the BYU Museum of Art to see the sacred gifts exhibit.  It was so nice to be able to go slowly and read the information and really enjoy the art.  It was also great to catch up with our friends and have a nice dinner with them.

It Must Be February

Because I find myself thinking constantly about the people I love. 

I feel a drive to seek out friends I haven't connected to in awhile. 
Peoples names and faces interrupt my thoughts with a yearning to get back in touch. 
My friends I see regularly seem to linger longer in conversations that have been wholesome and soul-nourishing.
Dallin got a love letter early, because I just couldn't wait until the 14th to say it all!
I find myself pulling big kids onto my lap or dancing around the kitchen with them.
I find myself stopping to look into little people's eyes, playing games, and listening with wonder at the still one-year-old baby's speech.
I find myself admiring people I don't know as well and just aching to get to know them better.
I am tempted to think I don't have time for all of these interruptions, playdates, conversations, and get-togethers.
Won't I get behind?  (Seriously, when was the last time I was ahead?? )
No.  I feel myself embracing this season of love. 
Relationships are really what life is all about.
And spending time with people I love energizes me and nourishes me better than anything this planet has to offer.
And I'm so incredibly blessed to have so many people to love.

 So much love, such a little month.  February has charmed me like never before.

He Is In The Details

This post is about a really sensitive subject.  So sensitive that I can't share a lot of details, even though I usually love to share details. 
But I would feel ungrateful if I didn't take this chance to shout out to the world that God is in the details of our lives.  If we are listening, He has things to show us and ways to prepare us for the things that lie ahead. 

It started with a phone call from my friend mentioning that she would like to start learning more about the 12-step addiction recovery program.  I told her that I had had a similar thought, and I remembered that someone had come to our Relief Society a couple of years ago to explain a little bit about it.  We scheduled a time to meet and discuss a few things since we both have loved ones recovering from addictions.  Two days later, I was cleaning out the computer desk and found the 12-step handout from Relief Society that had been hiding under a stack of papers for years. 

Two days later, my husband and I were watching our Becoming Spiritually Centered DVD, and the lesson was on how to handle it when someone you love makes a mistake. 
My favorite part was that he taught that when someone is in a state of high emotion, their heart is wide open, so whatever message you send will go straight to their heart.  You can emphasize their eternal worth or you can send a message of rejection. 

Two days later, my friend and I met with another friend and talked about addictions and weakness and how we are ultimately all dependent on Christ for our salvation.  We shared a hope that we can help our loved ones through recovery and we can be free from our own issues through Him.

That night, well, (enter "sensitive information" emoticon)....

But I was able to feel so loved, and express so much love, and feel so much peace. 
Sorrow, for sure, but not sadness and depression and anxiety. 
Sorrow and peace.

I was prepared.
And I am so grateful.