I'm taking up chanting

I LOVE two-year olds. I love TWO year olds. I LOVE TWO YEAR OLDS... Yeah, how bad can one day with a two year old be? After the last mess, I gasped "Seth! NO!" and he walked over to a wall and set himself down in time-out. Seriously. So to make me laugh a little, here's my list:

When I was exercising at the church today, he lost my keys. Not too bad of a disaster, we do have a spare key...oh, except I pushed the little lock/alarm button on the keyring on the way into the church. And we do not have another alarm button to turn it off. I know, normal two year old thing, but ARRRGGGG!

When we got home, he decided to throw frosted flakes at the cats. All down the stairs. Half a bag of those huge malt o meal bags. Yeah, that was a fun crunchy mess.

During quiet time he emptied five shelves of our book shelves downstairs. Nice big pile.

During snack time he threw carrot sticks at the cats (um, the cats aren't fond of two year olds either). I was finding carrots upstairs and downstairs.

He did try to help me clean...but it was the toilet with my duster, so I didn't appreciate it as much as I could have.

I was making cookies for Preschool tomorrow, and he spilled a number ten can of wheat on the floor. This was when he put himself in time-out. As he was sitting there he pulled off his boots and emptied them of wheat, too.

I feel like there is more, but I may have just blocked it from my mind. There was, of course, the usual: pillow fight with brothers, chasing cats, messing up Felicity's room, the normal things. This doesn't seem like too bad when I write it all down, but it happened all in one day. When I was trying to get ready for preschool and trying to clean out our guest bedroom/craft room/storage room so my brother can fit in there for a little while. Thank heavens I am pretty much over morning sickness!

Since I started this post, Farris took the kids to the Church and spent an hour looking for the keys. He found them! The little stinker got them stuck on a chair hanging in the middle of those huge racks. It didn't fall all the way through, just got stuck on an edge, so you couldn't see it unless you separated the right chairs. Inspiration in answer to a prayer!

Oh, I love that little guy, he makes me and lots of other people laugh every day, and he is the greatest snuggler. He's growing so fast and learning so much it's incredible. My cousin has adopted two year old twins, I shouldn't even complain. But I still might take up chanting as a way to relieve stress.

weekend, spring, similes with Joseph

I'm catching up. If you just want a laugh, skip to the bottom for Similes With Joseph.

This weekend was wonderful and busy. My sweet niece Rylee was baptized and she asked me to give the talk about the Holy Ghost. Recently I went to a special RS meeting where a man and his wife talked about making stain glass windows for many of the temples, and about light, and how it compares with what Heavenly Father does for us (this was an amazing meeting, I'll have to write up some of my favorite stuff some time). They shared a favorite quote from Plato something like "The shadow of God is Light" and one of my favorite quotes from CS Lewis is "The Son is like the sun, not that we can see Him, but that because of Him we can see everything" (not an exact quote, but the gist. And I have to admit I have only read the Narnia series and the Screwtape Letters, I got the quote at Institute from wiser people than me). Anyway, back to the topic, I compared the Holy Ghost to a flashlight. I was going to make a little stain glass (fake, I'm not that talented) window for Rylee, but the glue I used is apparently not to be used with glass, and it never dried. **Anyone know a good glue for non-porous materials that dries very clear?** All in all, it was a beautiful baptism and the Spirit was strong. Two of her older brothers were able to be the witnesses, and her oldest brother stood in the circle to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. Lucky girl, she's the youngest in a family of five--and the only girl. She's the automatic Princess of the House, and the boys are so good to her. And terrific news (for us!) came this week. Rylee's dad, my older brother, accepted a job in our corner of the woods, and they'll be moving to a town near here in the next couple of months. Yahoo! Very excited! It'll be a blast to have family a lot closer to us, and they are a great family. After the baptism it was yummy lunch (thanks Tarilynn!) and lots of chatting with family. My family likes to talk and laugh while kids run around and entertain us. Then, it was a quick run to Burley for Farris' brother Sam's fiance Kolleen's bridal shower (got that?). Kolleen is going to be a lot of fun to have in the family, I hope we didn't embarrass her too much at the shower...their wedding is in about a month in Idaho Falls, very excited for them. It was nice to have some chatting time with Farris' mom and sisters and sis in laws, we don't see them enough either, although we missed Desi and her too-brand-new-to-come baby. But we have plans to make dresses or skirts or something for the girls for the wedding. Which is in a month. Which we'd better get started on soon...eep. After the shower we went to Mom and Dad's and then church in my home ward for Sunday (how comfortable is it to go back home? love it) and then the long drive home again. My brother caught a ride with us so he could start training for his new job, it will be fun to have him around us for the next while. Sorry this was so long...

But Spring! Is coming! My bulbs are shooting up, my crocus have been blooming right through snowstorms, and the kids have been playing outside occasionally the last few days. I know, I know, we'll have at least one more snowstorm, probably more, but we're getting to the end! I'm thinking planting, raking, pruning, fixing, trimming, digging, watering, and all the outside stuff to do and since it's spring I'm still excited about all that work!

And now for that special time, Similes with Joseph:
We cleaned his room, and he proclaimed "It's as clean as a pancake!"
My sis's were telling him about something that was cool (slang cool, not temp cool) and he said "That rocks like a rubber band!"
No cliche's here, it's all original.

Busy day today! Just because I'm getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow is: My niece's baptism--in Idaho, my almost sis in law's bridal shower--in Idaho, a friends baby shower--here, Joseph's friend's birthday party--here, and a lady in the ward's wedding--here. Sooooo, obviously not gong to make it to everything, but trying to acknowledge all these good people around me and my family. I'm throwing things together, but I still had to take a sec to check out my usual stuff on the Internet, and I have to post this from I am Momma Hear me Roar:
I have got to learn how to do freezer stencils. I can think of a dozen kids I want to make this for. Some adults, too. Here's the link:

http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/2011/03/you-roared.html

Someone named Jillian deserves big kudos for this.

And now I've got to go be responsible. Happy weekend!

Dustin' off the ol' sewing machine

This week for the wellness challenge, I chose:
Do Something You Love: Free up at least an hour this week and do something you love but never have the time for, like trying a new recipe, knitting, reading a book, or attending a sports event.
With my feeling sick half the time I haven't had a lot of time to do my things. Just staying on top of laundry and dinner (plus cleaning those pesky bathrooms every now and again) has been about all I can handle. Now that I'm feeling better (some days it doesn't knock me out at all, and the rest it's only a couple hours, much better), I can take a little bit more time to do the things I like to do. I haven't touched my sewing machine since I finished my Christmas presents, and I've missed the creative-ness. So today I decided to dust it off and get to work. One of the neighbor girls had asked me to make a hobo sack for her--it's one of those bags with the backpack straps that cinch it closed at the top, apparently they are all the rage at the junior high. She'd brought me the materials about three weeks ago, and washing the fabric was a far as I got. I had a bag to use as a pattern and with just a few (OK, a little more than a few) mistakes that had to be unpicked, I figured it out and now she has a cute bag. And I might have to make a few more now that I know what I'm doing. She wanted her name on it, so I got to figure out that option on my sewing machine, very fun, and easier than I thought it would be. I might start putting names on more projects...hmmmm. Creative juices flowing. Which is good, because I have four babies I need to make something for (congrats Desi! Can't wait to see little Derrin!). Do you think babies would like a hobo sack? Maybe I'll stick to cute little booties. Ohhhh, maybe in a hobo sack...

On a side note, Farris is coming home tonight! He's been in Florida at a conference since Tuesday and I'm looking forward to him being back. The kids are excited too, when he called he told them he'd been walking on the beach and they were completely agog. Me, too, it's been awhile since I've seen the ocean. Joseph even wrapped up some of his Valentine's candy in a funny little package to give to his Daddy. Awwww.
Seth has been talking more. The other day he told me "Cat bite Caleb," very serious. I tried to sound just as serious (the cats bite the kids every day, I think they would stop if the kids were nicer to them), and said "That's terrible!" Seth nodded solemnly and said "Terrible. Kitty terrible." I know just a silly story, but I think it's cute. Speaking of the cats, tonight Caleb was supposed to be getting p.j.-uped, and told me that the cat dissected him. He meant distracted. Hee-hee, 'nother one. At preschool the other day we were learning the sound "V". The kids bring things that start with that letter to feed the Sound Monster and one of the little boys brought a Visor. He handed it to me and told me it was a Virus. He's had a little bit of sickness running through his family, but I'm hoping it was just a visor. Oh, those kids. It's a good thing they make me laugh every day.

We're mending

Not socks. I hate mending socks (hence lots of holes in our socks). Our bodies. The doctor thinks it was the flu we went through, and yeah, this was the year we didn't get the flu shot. All six of us went to church today, Seth even went to nursery. Wow! We talked about keeping him out for one more week, he has a cough, but as soon as Amen was said to the last prayer in Sacrament meeting, Rocket Boy ran for the nursery. Can you believe it took six months of crying to get him to go in the first place? Now it's his favorite place in the world. Beside the candy jar, of course. So, point is that we're all doing better. We all took (enforced for some of them) naps after church because we all still have coughs. But the light is coming and soon we will sniffle and cough free.

This week I decided to do the Random Acts of Kindness for my BYU wellness goal.
Random Acts of Kindness: Do five random acts of kindness this week. You can smile at a stranger, hold the elevator door for a co-worker, let a car in front of you on the highway, etc.

I'm not sure if I completed it or not. Can the random acts be for family and people I see all the time? 'Cause I spent very, very little time outside of the house this week. If so here's my list:
1. I picked up the kids from school, even though technically it wasn't my turn.
2. In one of my few excursions out of the house, I smiled at a couple that were pushing a baby stroller into a store. The husband looked really excited (that's sarcasm, if you can't hear my voice) and the wife looked like she had to pull out the big guns to get him to come at all, and then didn't know if it was worth the outcome. But when I smiled at her, she grinned back.
3. I drove three of the YW home in our weird thunder/lightening/snow storm on Wednesday. The girls couldn't believe the lightening, and kept saying "A THUNDER SNOW Storm!" You could hear the capitol letters in their voices.
4. On Valentines Day morning, even though I felt bleeechhh, I got up and made pink pancakes for breakfast, and even put in some of the m&m's that I got for my birthday. That's sacrifice, right there. OK, not really, but the kids giggled when they saw the pink pancakes. Felicity thought they looked better than the green ones I made for St. Patrick's day last year: I concur. I do need to add to the story, I mixed the pancakes up and got about half cooked and then Farris took over because I was looking a little green. Or gray. Just not like I should. That's a kindness, right there.
5. I washed the dishes a couple times this week for Farris. He does the dishes in our house, probably 95% of the time, but this week he got sick (ha, imagine that in our house), not quite as high fevers as the kids, but achey, tired, headaches, stuffed up, chills, cough and all that. He actually stayed home from work for three days. If you know Farris, that's not something he does very often. So I helped him as much as I could, and he made sure I got a nap in the afternoons, and we both got through.
So that's my list. It doesn't feel like I did anything out of the ordinary, just the kind of the stuff all of us do everyday. Except for smiling at the strangers, everything was for friends/family. There's no way I would have let those girls walk home in that storm, and of course I wasn't going to let Farris do the dishes while he was shaking from the chills. I don't know. I think goals are something that stretch you, but this week probably wasn't a week I could stretch much, anyway. What do you guys think? Did I fulfill the goal?

Happy Valentines Day!

In honor of Valentines day I'm going to tell the latest Seth story. It (sort of) has a connection to the holiday.
We just started putting Seth to sleep in his Big Boy Bed, no more crib for him. That first night, I was up with Felicity at 3:30 the other morning--sick, sick, sick. I heard the cupboards banging in the kitchen and I thought, What is Farris doing? The banging stopped, but the kitchen light was still on. I went to turn it off, but there was Seth. Standing on the countertop, calmly eating Valentine candy (see, there is a connection). No, he wasn't sleep walking, he just thought, hey everybody's asleep, I can get out of this bed really easy, and I know where mom hid that candy, wahoo. I put him down, trying not to laugh, and sternly told him to go back to bed. He did and slept 'til morning, even with a little bit of candy overload. He hasn't been out of bed in the night since. At least that I know...

Oops, I love Saturday

I missed yesterday. I haven't spent much time on the computer the last few days, maybe because every day seems to bring another sick child into the house. Poor Felicity had a temperature over 104 degrees on and off throughout the day and then most of last night. Then this morning her high temp went away...and she started throwing up. Pinkeye has now got into each of the kids, and a couple hours ago Caleb started complaining of an earache. Good grief. What is good in all this? (just a sec, I'm thinking...)
I love...a good thermometer that I don't have to strip the kids down to take it, or put it in their mouth for a very long minute. I love that we have a good supply of children's Tylenol and ibuprofen. I love that Farris has the priesthood, so in the middle of the night when someone hits 104 twice in only a few hours, we have something we can do to help. I'm really going to love the day when my post does not contain any illness.


Today is Saturday. And really, who doesn't love Saturday? I am lucky that Farris' job only requires him to work on Saturday about once a year, so it means one more adult around which is helpful, and it means that my best friend is here instead of somewhere else! We usually try to get things done that just don't happen during the week (we cleaned the family room and toy room--aww! It feels good to not step on anything when I go in there). Today Farris is painting the bathroom. Hurrah! For the last six months we've had two different colors painted in spots around the room so we could see which we liked. And we liked neither. Last week we finally bought some paint in a different color (it's called Chocolate Froth, what a name! It makes me want a Wendy's Frosty) which I think we'll like. I hope so, 'cause it isn't changing for a long time.

What else do I love today?

I love...teaching my Mia Maids in YW. What a fun calling! The girls are enthusiastic and happy and fun and always willing to add something to the lesson. It doesn't always have something to do with the lesson, but we can usually get it back on track. Speaking of which, I need to be preparing my lesson right now, so this is the end of I love The Whole Week. Ha! I made all five posts! Unfortunately, I have not been exercising...sick kids are a good excuse, right? Tasha and Cindi, how are you doing?