Today was Cherry Pie’s first time to give a talk for Sacrament Meeting, she being newly 12. I looked up several stories, scriptures, and quotes for her. She chose a story from our family history to share and the quote she wanted.
Today is Mother’s Day. Today we remember and honor our Mothers. Our mothers give us life. They teach us the gospel. They feed us. They keep us from eating too much candy. They help us feel better when we are sad.
President Monson said: May each of us treasure this truth; one cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one.
I would like to share with you a story about my great great great grandmother, Lucy Ann Bingham. Lucy Ann had 13 children. In the spring of 1908, her youngest child, Florence, who was 6 years old, became very sick with scarlet fever. Lucy’s husband was away. Her neighbors were so afraid, they passed by the house on the far side of the street. With humble faith and patient work, Lucy Ann nursed Florence back to health. But before Florence was quite well, her 12 year old daughter, Bertha became sick. For 2 whole weeks, Bertha’s fever burned at 106*F every day. The doctor said there was no hope. He told others in town that he did not know why or how the child was still alive.
Lucy Ann worked and fasted and prayed. Bertha asked for a priesthood blessing, but the family was quarantined and no elders would come. After 2 weeks, suddenly Lucy Ann could tell that her daughter was dying. She gathered her children together around Bertha’s bed and prayed, “Heavenly Father give us wisdom to know what to do, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” Just then, she heard out in the street, one man call to another. She went out and called to them, “My daughter is dying, are you afraid to come in and administer to her?” The 2 men left their horses in the street, came in, washed their hands, knelt by Bertha’s bed and anointed her with oil. Before they had finished the blessing, Bertha’s eyes were closed in peaceful sleep and her fever was gone. Lucy Ann’s prayers and the prayers of her children had been answered.
Later, Lucy Ann’s daughter wrote:
Mother’s hopes were high; that we, her children, would always remember and do the things she taught us, by her life, her words, and especially her deeds.
“Are there any sick among you?” She was there.
“Are you burdened with sorrow or shame?” a touch of her toil worn hand or words of encouragement she gave with a smile. Honor the Lord’s anointed. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy! If you cannot say anything good of people, say nothing at all. But if you look you will find good. Remember a tenth of your earnings belong to the Lord. These are words of our Savior, but they came to us from our mother’s lips.
I think all of our mothers have the same hope that we will remember and do the things they teach us and that we will obey the Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Last April my sister Katie came to visit for spring break. She really wanted to take her boys to the George Washington Carver Monument that is near where we live. So she and I drove over and my brother Peter and his family met us there.
We had a great time. There is a trail through the woods with history markers and lots of fun activities inside as well.
The sun was hurting Orville’s eyes. Lucy is concerned for him.
Banana Cream Pie is so cute!!
I loved this little white flower. I’m sure it’s a native Missouri plant, and I want some in my flower bed!!
Edit
I think the sun was in Orville’s eyes.
I think of Banana Cream Pie as blonde–she has the fairest hair of all my children. But here with her cousins, she definitely does not look blonde.
This is our new Family Home Evening job rotation chart.
I made it. *self-satisfied smirk*
I am so proud of it and it WORKS!
We have a special night each Monday where we get together and sing a couple songs, have a short spiritual lesson/devotional, eat a treat, and play games together.
At least that has always been the goal, but it didn’t happen regularly enough.
Then I made the job chart. I looked on Pinterest for inspiration. There were many beautiful, trendy charts pictured. Some were even a free printable download. But they had two problems:
1- usually they only had 4 jobs, some had as many as 6, but I needed 8.
2- my children who are not old enough to read wouldn’t be able to tell what their job was.
Then I stumbled across a picture where the family had hand drawn bodies for each job and then everyone made a self portrait head. The heads rotated from body to body each week.
I drew this one– tracing some to make the bodies more uniform. Then I gave each person an oval to draw their face in. I mounted the ovals on card stock and Popsicle sticks to make them easy to handle. The chart is mounted on a Manila file folder. I used a mat knife to cut slits through the folder at each neck.
I love this chart because:
1: the kiddie pies are so excited about it that we haven’t missed a family home evening in 4 months, except the Monday is was in hospital with the new baby. In fact, Key Lime Pie gets upset because she wants to have family night more often.
2: The ones who can’t read can look at the bodies and know what their job is.
3. it looks like something my mom or aunt would have made back before there were computers and free printables online for everything. Back when you had to make stuff yourself.
4. it is hilarious when Blueberry Pie or The Man of the House is in charge of the song, and their head is on the body with the necklace.
5. The self-portraits are awesome. Key Lime Pie’s face is purple because she insisted on coloring the blood that is under her skin.
6. did i mention that I made it?
I had scanned my body drawings and made a PDF for anyone else who wanted to use it, but that file is trapped in my dead computer, so if you love this idea you’ll just have to make it yourself like I did. It’s worth it!
Three days before Christmas, our little Beanie Baby decided to be born. She just was not going to wait until the Christmas fun was over.
All Sunday morning, I felt pretty miserable, in fact I dropped all my responsibilities and left church an hour early. There was nothing that I could point to and say, “it is definitely time to go to the hospital,”but something was going on. We took all the kiddie pies to Grannies house and hung out with family while I tried to decide whether this was the day or not. Grannies house has the added benefit of being 15 minutes closer to the hospital. Finally at about 6:30pm, there was no doubt our Christmas baby was on her way.
I was a tiny bit worried (okay a lot worried) that she would come faster than the 45 minutes it takes to get to where the doctors and drugs are, but we got to the hospital just fine and at 9:28 pm, Nina arrived. And yes, I got the spinal block I wanted, and it was a good thing, and the DH is converted to the awesomeness and calm that is provided by the drugs before mentioned.
(After 4 not so calm deliveries without the drugs before mentioned. Not that he doesn’t let me have whatever I want, just that he seemed a little like, “but you did it without before” and my attitude was of the “and that’s why I don’t want to do without this time.”)
Anyways, our little bright eyes was
9 pounds 15 ounces
20 1/2 inches long
Yep so glad about that spinal. What a Fatty McFatsville.
Baby Dumpling, who is now 2 and henceforth shall be called Banana Cream Pie, is having a rough time with the transition of not being the baby anymore. She doesn’t want any of her new Christmas toys. She just wants to hold the new baby. However, she came down with stomach flu on Christmas Day, so I haven’t let her hold the baby since then. Her second choice is for me to hold her, but I’m mostly needing to hold and feed the new baby and not strong enough to be carrying Banana Cream Pie around. So life isn’t much fun for her right now.
Yesterday morning, I woke up (after not much sleep) to a very stinky flu mess in someone’s bed. I felt pretty sorry for myself while I cleaned all that up.
But today, having not had to clean up any nasty messes, I am back in Happy New Baby Heaven. We will see how I feel in a week when all the big helpful kiddie pies have gone back to school and the DH has gone back to work and I am home taking care of the 5 year old and the 2 year old and the new baby all by myself.
My sisters Katie & Amanda and my brothers Matt & Eddie came to visit for July. I spent as much time as I possibly could visiting with them and playing with my nephews.
Frog Hawk
It was not enough time!
The first day they were here, my sister Mary planned a huge Bug Party. It was the most awesome party ever since it included bugs, food, and water games.
Bug Party Baby Team
Don’t worry that George totally sat and watched from the porch the whole time. That is what you get to choose when you are 3.
Bug Party Big Kids
Aunt Amanda made sure everyone got sprayed with the hose often during the relay races. Just to keep moral up and the games moving along.
Bug Party Little Kids Team
Enthusiasm is very contagious! and Aunt Mary is like a walking plague house of enthusiasm contagion. We are all so lucky she is part of our family!
Waiting patiently for their turn.
Riding a BigWheel is serious business
The Best Part about a day like this is how well everyone sleeps that night.
June 30th was my Grandmother’s 83rd birthday. For the past 34 years she has handmade a Christmas ornament for each of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Here is a link to a post by my cousin in 2006 showing the ornaments up to then. Grandmother had 13 children, and so her grandchildren and great-grandchildren number over 100 now. That is a whole bunch of ornaments that she makes each year. I think she begins working on them in January. This year one of my cousins suggested that we all make her an ornament for her birthday. My siblings and I were out of the information loop until about 2 days before the party. When I found out about the plan, I instantly felt that Grandma, who had been a kindergarten teacher for more than 15 years, would most love ornaments featuring original artwork by the littlest kiddies.
Thanks to the miracles of internet, scanners, and email, I had all my siblings who live far away send me pictures of their children’s drawings. I printed them out on fabric and backed them with felt. Cegan helped me and we got them all put together in time for Grandma’s birthday. I think they turned out super cute and the kiddie pies were all excited to make something for Great-Grandma.
It turned out my mom had a plan for us all along, so we also made button ornaments to represent each of us who are grandchildren and too old to be good at making cute drawings. We also made button ornaments to represent the great-grandkids who were too little to draw or didn’t submit artwork. (My mother contributed 12 children and 24 great-grandchildren to the total of Grandma’s progeny, so we had no small number of ornaments to make.) My girls and Cegan’s boys helped make the button ornaments, and those all turned out super cute, too. I have to admit that I had been skeptical because anything I’ve ever tried to make with buttons was never as cute as the picture promised it would turn out to be. But my mom is good at picking the right kind of buttons and these all looked even better in real life than they do in the picture.
My grandmother is one whom I look up to and try to be like as I strive to become a better person and a better mother. Here is a picture of her when she was a young mother in 1954:
Here is a picture of her from when I was growing up and she was teaching kindergarten at the school I attended. When I was in 5th grade, I got to go to her classroom for a few hours each week to be her helper. I loved it so much.
To one who bears the sweetest name,And adds a luster to the same,Who shares my joys– Who cheers when sad–
Want more resilient kids? Teach them your family history. Tell them where Grandma went to school. Tell them about challenges family members overcame.
“The more children know about their families’ histories, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem, and the more successfully they believe their families function.”~readers digest Sept 2013 issue “The Stories that Bind Us.”
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 