Happy Thanksgiving

What are you Thankful for? 

Here's (from a child's point of view) what we are grateful for on this day. . .

Karabear: To be healthy. She just recently spent 10 days down with what we think is the Swine Flu (our area doesn't test anymore for it's to prevalent and expensive).

We didn't have to look very long to find pictures of what Tater is grateful for:

(She is thankful to have a dress or skirt to wear everyday.)

We have a blessing can. During the month of November we put in what we are thankful for and then read these sometime on Thanksgiving.

Here's an entry from Minnie: "I am thankful for colors cause if we didn't have colors everthing would be black, white and gray."

I couldn't pick so here's another:

Minnie: " I'm thankful for food and are house and because if we didn't have food or houses we would be cold and would starve."

These are Bud Boy's favorite two items.

They are a must before naps, bedtime, or whenever

he needs comfort and mom's not available.

We will leave you with this poem Jolly J wrote:

 

THANKSGIVING

Hot crispy rolls

With turkey on the side

Laughing, loving families

Visiting everywhere

Children running rapidly

And Decoration hanging

Quiet down

And sit down

To have the big...

THANKSGIVING FEAST!!!

Love, Laughter & Life

In November, our family gets to celebrate two very special birthdays that just happen to be a week apart.

 

I asked my kids something they loved about their dad and this is what they said:

Karebear: a hard worker
Jolly J: nice, awesome
Minnie: a good bishop, cooks good food
Tater: I like him because he likes to play with me

There are many things I could say but let's just sum it up with: My best friend.

We all love him because he makes us laugh. This is a picture taken the day before our wedding. We were scheduled to have family pictures taken with his family. He came to pick me up. After knocking on the door, my grandmother (who had yet to meet my future husband) answered the door. From the other room, I heard Roman's voice ask for me and my grandmother  respond with, "oh my". I walked in to see him dressed like this.

As it turns out Roman had asked his sister, who had arranged the picture, what they should wear. She had flippantly responded with " I don't know about you but, I am going to wear a dress."  After hanging up the phone Roman then turned to his brothers and said something to the effect of then I'm going to wear a dress as well.All five of the men then proceeded to show up in drag to the family pictures. It was a family picture none of us will soon forget.

My children have affectionately called my mom over the years as the brown grandma.

Here's what we love about her:

Karebear: caring

Jolly J: nice, plays the organ well

Minnie: loves her homemade root beer and grape juice

Tater: plays hide-n-seek with me and gives us snacks.

Once again I could say many things but my thoughts are summed up with the common heard response:

Gave me Life.

Like most things in life, this phrase took on meaning for me when I become a mom. I truly gained an depth of understanding of just what my mom went through to give birth to me and why she did so.


With my first child I gained a level of understanding of the morning sickness and discomforts of pregnancy.

With my second I understood what it meant to go through the difficulties of pregnancy but also do it while caring for someone else.

It wasn't until my third that I gained an a sense of awe. The birth of my second child happened in an unexpected, very rushed way (a story to be shared another time). So of course I did this delivery natural. You know, they way they always did it. The way my mother had all six of us. Needless to say when it came time for the delivery of my third child I was very confident. I had done a natural delivery I could do it again.  I was, however, very unprepared. To this day I remember being very scared and oh how it hurt. The immensity of the pain was one of my central thoughts for the first few days. I remember my mother walking into my hospital room the next day and I just looked at her with new eyes. A sense of awe and respect. She too had gone through that kind of pain. Not once for me but six times.  I also knew exactly why she had too...

Love.

Even though the pain was very real and central in my thoughts I also felt an immense love. Love for this new little one and love for our Heavenly Father. There is a special spirit around a newborn and as I held my little one I could feel a little taste of what it must have felt like in Heaven. I was immensely grateful to have been a participant in our families' miracle, that of birth. I knew that because I had been willing to sacrifice our family was blessed and somehow everything we had gone through was necessary and worth it.

So on my mother's upcoming birthday I thank her for giving not only me, but my five other siblings, the Gift of Life

The Long Awaited Trip

Each year my husband's brother comes down from Washington for Christmas. He brings will him his two golden retrievers and they all spend a week at Grandma's house. All of my girls have been afraid of his dogs  (unfortunately they get that from me). Last Christmas when Bud Boy first saw these dogs there was no fear. He loved them! He immediately wanted down to pet them. At one point during our visits we even found him resting his head on the dogs. This started his love for animals. Since that time I have looked forward to when we could take him to the Zoo. We recently took advantage of a final warm fall day(our favorite time of year to go). It was all we hoped for and more. We loved seeing so many baby animals and I think we were able to see every animal active and playful.

You Say Tomato, I Say. . .

Each one of my kids has their own unique personalities but I have definitely seen a trend. My first and third have a lot in common. As do the second and fourth. I guess that is why we had a boy (blond hair and blue eyed) for the fifth. He had to break the mold in every way.

One common thing between my second and fourth is their ability to label things to how they heard them. Jolly J (the number 2 child) has long outgrown this stage but I will never forget her calling cauliflower; caulifornia.

Can't you hear it now,
"Please pass the caulifornia."







I can't either. It was more like,

"EWW! what is that?" (as I bought some in the grocery store) and my educated daughter telling her younger sister "It is caulifornia"

Tater (number 4 daughter) is currently in this love-able stage. No matter how much her sisters or cousins try to correct her she reverts back to her old ways and I can't help but smile each time I hear her say:

People as Poople

or

Elevator as Alligator.

So the next time you take your little poople on an alligator you can smile right along with me.

Accomplishments

Karebear entered this into the reflections program. On Friday she was excited to find out she was selected to move on to the District Level.


Jolly J has struggled with her writing. This year on encouragement from her teacher she entered a literature entry for the reflections. She received an award of merit along with five other friends. It was neat to see her work over the years finally click and be rewarded for her efforts to improve on a weakness.



In my children s' elementary school they are focusing on what they call learning priorities (LP's). Basically this is reading, writing & math and trying to encourage the children to meet the grade level standards in that area. To help encourage this each term they hold a drawing from kids who have passed off their LP's. There was quite the excitement in the air as various prizes where randomly awarded. Minnie went home that day with two prizes-a barbie and a set of writing supplies. We all now are finding thank you notes under our pillows. A pretty great use of her writing supplies.

Two Cents Worth

It has been an interesting weekend. In our neighborhood we have had a convert baptism, the funeral for a lady, who died after battling breast cancer. I have also dealt with the news of a dear friend possibly moving and last night I attended my oldest first young women's fireside. I can't believe I have a daughter that old. I originally sat down to edit an entry I started about some accomplishments of my girls but my thoughts keep wandering.

Awhile back I ran across some suggestions to put in a blog. One was to write why you started a blog and this is what my thoughts keep going to. So in a round about way I will answer that.

I have been reading blogs of family and friends for about two years now and love it. Beside the obvious, that it helps me keep in touch, I love it because I am constantly getting ideas. Ideas of things to do with my family, recipes to try, etc. I have also found that often the words of others addresses feeling/concerns I'm currently dealing with. Their word's inspire me and I want to try to be a better person.

I had such an experience this weekend. My husband currently serves as bishop of our ward. This calling comes with it's own unique challenges and adjustments. I was surprised though to find how it has effected me in one particular area. I have had a hard time with the recognition(or more accurately the thanks) my husband receives for the work he does. Don't get me wrong I feel that he deserves and needs to be told how much the work he is doing is appreciated. Being a bishop can be trying physically, emotionally and spiritually and he needs all the support he can get.

My thoughts lately though have been on the lines of what about what we go through as a family to support him. Often what I do is what is expected in the role of mother but that doesn't mean it isn't easy. This weekend I was feeling especially guilty that I even felt this way at times. I came across this blog entry. Knowing that someone else felt like they would like to have the everyday work they do recognized was just what I needed to hear. Surprising this alone was all I needed. I don't really need the recognition but more the validation that this is normal and okay to feel that way. Yes, being in a supportive role of any kind. Whether it is of a spouses calling, work or school is difficult and it's okay to feel that way at times.

I feel like I am fairly new to the world of blogging but learning fast the ins and outs. The very reasons I love reading blogs are the same reasons I have waited so long to start a blog. I have felt very inadequate. Inadequate in my ability to know how to do it and inadequate that I wouldn't have anything worth writing about. So why then did I choose to start a blog? It certainly wasn't because I love to write. I prefer to communicate in writing for I can proof read but I definitely don't feel like I'm the greatest writer. Each week I help out in my daughter's school classroom. One of the main things I help with is editing and I am truly learning right along with the kids.

Anyway, one day I was on facebook and my oldest asked to see my page, which is fairly sparse. She commented, "it seems like you spend most of your time reading about others and not doing anything on yours" She was right.

I have been blessed with a wonderful mom who is an avid journal writer. I was good at this until I became a mother but now my current journal is sparse. In fact anyone reading it wouldn't even know that I have had my last two kids. I have often sat down to write in my journal but feel as if I need to catch it up and that task is too overwhelming. I have kept baby books for all my kids and each month put highlights into a monthly family letter my grandfather compiles. But my daughter's comment got to me. Are there things in my life I will wish I had recorded? More importantly are there things my kids will someday want to read about our life's and maybe be a help to them?

The answer was a resounding, Yes!

I decided that since I love reading blogs I would ignore my feelings of inadequacy and give it a try. I have found I love it and enjoy tapping into my creative side. Thanks to those who have shared their two cents worth on their blogs and blessed my life. And thanks to a daughter who helped me delve into something I truly enjoy!

Double Space

Often as adults we forget that kids don't always understand what we are saying the same way we do.

I am reminded of a teacher training video I saw once. The mother is talking about how they live at the intersection of a busy street. She has repeatedly told her son to not go to the corner. One day she is upstairs cleaning, while keeping on eye on her son who is outside playing. When she looks out the window, she sees him once again skipping towards to the corner. She immediately chases him down.

Upon catching him she scolds "How many times have I told you to stay away from the corner?"

Her son responds with, "Mommy, what's a corner?"

My oldest loves to write so she chose to take a creative writing course. One day we found her very frustratedly typing her assignment. "This is so stupid. My teacher wants us to double space it".

Upon further investigation we found the source of her frustration.
She was typing a word , doing two spaces and then typing her next word.

Yes, a pain! (I typed the previous sentence that way but it auto corrected itself when I published and I can't find a way to turn it off)

She was very relieved when we explained what double spaced meant.