Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...it stopped raining and the sun shined down on us all. And there was much lawn mowing, weeding, trimming and general busy-ness in yards across the Wasatch Front. And there was much painting, which brought much rejoicing. The following day was filled with more rain, but the sore, tired people were grateful for a day off.

How was your rain free Saturday?

(We finished painting the trim, doors and shutters on our house, it looks so nice! Much better than the "half done job with tape still around everything" look we had for a week. Rejoice, rejoice. Now we just have the foundation and the shed. I'm excited!)

In other news, Felicity and Caleb both had their class programs this week. Felicity was part of a dance, kind of a Charleston thingy, very cute and she did a good job. Caleb had a small speaking part for the program, which I didn't know about until that morning. Never fear, he had it memorized and could say it all in one breath. His teacher told me all the kids memorized their parts by themselves so they didn't send any home to parents. What good little first graders! Both the kids had a good school year with good teachers. But I'm really ready for the end of the year, it's getting harder to get up every morning and keep the kids on top of homework and other assignments. Three and a half more days! Joseph keeps asking if that means he's starting kindergarten. He's like a little pistol waiting for school. He's a pistol anyway.

Seth story: After the kids were in bed for the night, I left Seth in the kitchen by himself (mistake #1) and went into the living room with Farris. When we washed the dishes after dinner that night we had put one of my Pyrex casserole dishes on the counter to dry (mistake #2). You can guess the rest: a large smash, a kitchen filled with small pieces of glass and a Very Wide Eyed little boy sitting on the counter, looking over his devastation. Farris picked him up and put him to bed and the first thing Seth said to me the next morning: "Breakable. On the floor. Daddy put me in bed." Yup, that's pretty much it. But I needed an excuse to get a bigger one, anyway.

Joseph and Seth story: I opened the bathroom door earlier this week and found a beach party in progress. Joseph was in his swimsuit sitting on the counter with his feet in a sink full of water and all the rubber duckies surrounding him. Seth was on the other side, fully clothed and soaked from his socks to his sweatshirt. They had laid out about five towels on the floor to try to collect some of the overflow, but like keeping sand out of the car at the beach--it's impossible--there was water everywhere. I think my kids need some sun. I think I need my kids to get some sun.

The world didn't end. Although I did get most of the mopping done, almost an end of the world event. Maybe in Heaven we'll have a little more carpet?

grumble, grumble

I've blogged a bit (or a little more than a bit) about how we're painting the outside of our house. It's been kind of a long, long, wet, cold, long spring, but it gave us time to buy and then paint and then buy some more and then paint the seven samples on our walls to choose from. We had a beautiful weekend and got most of the painting done, and then we bought (three...we're funding our local Home Depot with just sample paint colors) more samples for the trim, shutters, and doors. Saturday was supposed to be another wonderful day with a storm moving in on Tuesday, so we got taping and painting and I loved the paint color. It looks like chocolate pudding. Which might seem kind of weird to you, but it looks just right with the main paint color. So we're painting away...and I see clouds moving in...and I paint faster...and then Farris, who is the practical one in our family, says that we better stop. So our house is still taped and half painted. Grumble, grumble. Our neighbors must think we're crazy. Well, I think they knew that after the first Joseph in his underwear incident. How embarrassing to be standing in the driveway lecturing a three year old on the necessity of clothes when your sweet neighbor comes out to put her trash in the dumpster. Oops. Anyway, moving on. I love rain. We never had quite enough growing up in the desert-y part of Idaho, and we'd get a little giddy when it came. The smell of rain on sage brush! Can't even explain, you just have to experience it. But I want just a few days of sun, please! I just want to finish the painting and then I'll gladly stand outside soaked with rain just to look at our pretty (ier) house. Just a wish, Mr. Weatherman. And next time: get it right!

[-
k7uyuyykky7yjkyukly7lj8/Josep759/h and* Seth want to help:5 896\

]
ikk.'ok/2kkkkk...kkk.j.j.jj.j...hg.6g.5rt.4ee.4.5ryu8u.u.

Wellness Challenge, #2

Here's another challenge from the BYU Wellness department for all of you who want to join me. If any of you finish it, I can make something homemade for you as a prize again! Here's the details: Beginning today until July 2, you either exercise for 800 minutes (which is an average of 20 minutes a day/5 days a week) or walk 320,000 steps (which is an average of 8000 steps a day/5 days a week) and finish 4 of the 8 mini challenges:

--Set a budgeting goal for this week or month to become more aware of your spending.

--At the end of the day, write down ten things you are grateful for.

--Stretch for 10 minutes before or after exercising three times this week.

--Do a secret act of service.

--Call someone you haven't talked to in a while, or someone you feel may need a call.

--Study a gospel topic you would like to better understand.

--Eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables today.

--Read an article or start a book about a topic you want to know more about.

Not too hard, right? You can actually increase this if you want to push yourself (by ten minute increments a day for the exercise or 2000 steps a day for the steps). Anybody want to join me? I'm doing the exercising because pedometers bug me, but if you have a nice pedometer, I think the steps would be fairly easy. How many times do you pack laundry up and down the stairs every day, or chase kids down the street or go from fridge to counter to sink to oven, or even up and down the aisles in a store. Those add up pretty quickly! Let me know if you want to do the challenge, and what prize you would like ( I make bags or purses pretty fast--sort of!--or I can try something you find on-line. Please no full size quilts, or you won't get it for about ten years:)).

And Tasha and Cindi, I haven't forgotten about you! Did you finish the last challenge? What do you want Tasha? When can we get together Cindi?

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been a busy week/weekend, but first I have to pay tribute to my mom and my kids who make me a mom, and my good hubby!
I'm very grateful for my mom, she taught me and loved me and worked harder than I knew (until I had my own experiences with those kind of days!) and I took her for granted way, way too much. She not only loved all of us crazy kids, but she liked us, and still does. She even likes our kids! My mom is creative and taught me to sew for 4-H. She made me unpick things until I got it right...which I hated...but now when my projects are crooked I feel guilty until I unpick them and start again (usually!). If I need help with colors or patterns or arrangements, mom always gives good advice, and if I don't follow it, I regret it (I still want to repaint the trim in the boy's room, the color I picked isn't quite what I wanted, should'a listened to Mom). I love my mom and can't imagine not having her around to vent to, ask for help, or just chat with every week. Happy Mom's Day to you!
I'm grateful that I am a mom. Yes, there are days when I scream (too many), there are days when I just want to drive somewhere quiet for two hours, there are days when I think I must be insane to have so many little quacking ducklings around me. But then Felicity gives me a hug and tells me I'm the best mom ever, and Caleb wants to snuggle and read a story, and Joseph does his funny dance before showering me with kisses, and Seth hugs my leg and says "My mommy!" Even the little girl I haven't met yet does a little dance when I first get up in the morning, making me smile. Heartful moments. I don't know why Heavenly Father gave me these guys, why I've had an (comparatively) easy path in motherhood. But I'm grateful. Every day. Even on those days. You know what I'm talking about.
I'm grateful for my husband. Being a mom without him would be the hardest thing, I can't even contemplate it. Today he let me sleep in (on a Sunday, with church at 9:00, with four wiggly kids to feed and make presentable), gave me breakfast in bed, co-taught Joseph's class--about TEN four and five year olds...yeah, that's what I thought--so the regular teachers could go to Relief Society, let me take a nap while making lasagna, homemade crescent rolls, chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing, and a yummy green salad, and even let me type for awhile on this thing. And he even let me talk him into painting the house. He loves me even when I'm in tears, and helps me focus on what's important. He balances my more insane moments. He lets me stay at home and be a mom while he works hard all day and still washes the dishes every night. I love you Farris!
Here's a link for a great mom moment: http://www.godvine.com/Pregnant-Women-Celebrate-Life-as-a-Flash-Mob-409.html
I wanted to put the video on here, but it wouldn't let me. Two thoughts I had while watching it: I cannot do that right now and Did any of them go into labor right after this? Joseph was dancing to it and Felicity thought I would be great at it.

This week was a little crazy. Luckily, Seth has decided he's a super hero and has been wearing his cape all day, everywhere (I did convince him to take it off for church, but he cries when we take it off for bed. Great present, Cindi!) so if I needed a hand with any thing, I had my Super Seth right beside me. Tuesday was Preschool at my house. My last week, sad, but also a big Wheeeeeww. Melissa came to visit and we went to Felicity's track meet at the high school and ate a picnic lunch. The day was beautiful--hurrah--and we got a little sun burnt. Felicity picked the 50 Meter Dash because "it's the shortest." She did call it the 50 Mile dash, which I don't think would be much of a dash. She also did the long jump and the softball throw. I think she liked the long jump the best, she practiced in our kitchen quite a bit. Thursday was preschool again, and again the weather was so nice we spent a lot of time outside. They all recognize the letter X anyway, right? That night we prepped the house for painting! Which is good, one of Felicity's friends, when she saw the SEVEN paint samples we tried out on the walls said "Oh! Are you going to paint your house in stripes?" No, I just can't make up my mind. We finally went with Cottage Walk, which doesn't describe it much, but it's a tan with a tint of green to it. So Friday Farris came home about 3:00 and we got to work. Then on Saturday (after a little yard sale-ing, of course) we worked and worked some more. All we have left now is one more coat on the front and then the trim, doors, and shutters. And maybe the foundation. It had been painted the yucky blue, so we'll probably have to paint it, too. And our shed. So we still have a lot left to do, but we're getting there! And it's so nice. But I do think I'll be all painted out when this project is finished. Then it's off to the garden! If it doesn't snow anymore anyway...

P.S. Seth just had me kiss his little basketball because "it has an owie." My kisses are powerful medicine. Mother's Day moment, right there.

What should we feel about this?

Since this is my "journal," I need to record a few things I'm feeling today. Don't get scared away, these are just a few thoughts and I'm the one putting them out into Blogland, and I would even like to get your thoughts on today's news.
This morning we turned on the radio to get the weather and the first thing we heard was "President Obama announced late last night that Osama Bin Laden is dead." The kids, of course, kept eating their breakfast, but Farris and I turned to each other, chins on the floor. We hadn't been married quite a year when 9/11 happened. Farris was schooling (yes, a word) and working for the Herald Journal and I was schooling and working for Anderson's. Farris had gone into work while I was getting ready for school and he called me with the news that Something Big was Happening in New York. What a day! I went to some classes and spent time at friends apartments watching the news. Horrible, horrifying, insane, scary. The pictures are still heartbreaking, so many stories of families being hurt, sobs and cries of gladness, heroics and miracles upon miracles. I still remember the title on a news story from the Herald Journal that said "A Day of Infamy."
And now that evil person behind it is dead. What do I feel? Sad would have to be the first feeling. I know he was an evil person and the only way to stop him was to STOP him permanently. But I still feel sad; not that he is gone, I believe that is justice. Maybe it's that such a person existed, and hurt so many and deluded so many into hurting people. I'm angry that they found him living in a huge luxury home. While so many people who followed him and so many people who were affected by him live in absolute squalor. He even encouraged the opium trade in Afghanistan to fund his horrible mission, how many people are hooked on opium so that he could live the high life while directing evil acts? I feel sad that even though he is gone, what he led is still alive and prospering. I'm worried for the world that my kids are growing up in. Yes, I do know how it will end (thankfully!) but it's the between time that I'm a little nervous about.
I am grateful for our military and their tenaciousness, their intelligence, and how much they have given up to make our world safer. One of my brother's friends was in Special Op.s, and when he came back from Iraq a few years ago, his sister worried for him. She said he had changed inside--hurting, not angry, and that he still can't tell his family where he was or what he did, probably glad he had been ordered not to. He's doing well now, he's a professor at some college, but the things he saw or did have changed him. I wonder what he thinks of this news. What all those wonderful people in the military are thinking, feeling. Relief? Joy tempered with memories of their time in Iraq and Afghanistan?
How did people feel when Hitler died? It almost feels too big, too important and ominous for me to understand now, ask me in twenty years.