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Happy Mothers Day

Usually i feel a little silly on Mothers Day, being heaped with praise for doing what is just my job. It’s not like I do what I do because I’m looking for applause. Today though, I have to admit, it was very nice to be showered with flowers and chocolates. I haven’t felt well for several days and have been dragging myself around trying to keep up with producing food and keeping the house clean (not doing so well though, the DH washed dishes 3 times because I had not been able to.) a day of pampering is lovely when one has been feeling sorry for oneself. Some one else doing the dishes is even better! . Also, I
feel much better today than I have felt for the last several days. I think chocolate is good for me

Photo credit: Cherry Pie

Also, I finished reading Les Miserables and I have to say that while Jean Valjean is carrying Marius through the sewer and all of a sudden, victor Hugo begins talking about quick sand on the beach in Scotland, I may have panicked a bit and forgotten that I knew they would make it out alive. Why was he talking about quicksand? Anything but that! Quicksand in the sewer? What could be more horrible?

He got out alright though. Phew

Tags: Chocolate

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Categories family

Testimony Art

1 Apr

Preface: this all happened a couple months ago and I’m finally writing about it now. Anyways …

We finished reading The Book of Mormon as a family, so for Family Home Evening we re-read Moroni 10:4-5 with the kids. We talked about what we had read in the BoM (that’s right, the Book of Mormon is the BOMB!) over the past year and how each of the kids could choose to pray and ask God for themselves to know it was true. The man of the house showed the kids this article from The Friend about a man who painted his testimony of Jesus. Then we got out paper and crayons and colored pencils and drew our testimonies. Here is our awesome artwork:

It sounds kinda lame maybe, but we had fun.

Tags: Family Home Evening

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Categories Churchy thinkings, Faith, family

“Y” not?

13 Mar

The DH and I made a tough decision, but a good one, I think. We suspended our Internet service at home.

Why?
#1 Yours truly was wasting too much time on pintrest and Facebook .
#2 Cutie Pie. Wanted to spend all day watching Dora on Amazon Prime.
#3. Our town just opened a new YMCA with pool and climbing wall and Zumba. The price of the monthly membership for a family is the same as what we were paying for internets.

After much debate we decided that we would be healthier and have more fun as a family if we canceled the internets and got a Y membership instead.

I can link up to free wifi a few places in town, so i’m pretty sure I will be able to keep up with the bog. Yay!

I went to Zumba this morning and had a great time. Yay for a change from my same old aerobics tapes! I jiggled my fat all over the place. And I talked 3 friends into going with me. Bwa hahahahahaha…..hahahahahaha…..

I feel thinner already.

Tags: Exercise, Internet, YMCA

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Categories family, health, Uncategorized

Muddy Ditches

2 Mar

So I was thinking about my drama and I remembered this incident from a few years ago. It made me chuckle to myself, so I thought I’d share:

Back then, my husband and I and 3 kids lived next door to my parents. I don’t consider it “out in the country” because we lived on a paved road, but it was 18 acres and on a well, not city water. So some of you all might consider that country.

I had just returned home from something breezy and fun.

My dad was knee deep in a muddy trench and water was spraying at him from a broken pipe like a fire hose.

The water finally slowed to a slow gush, and I walked closer. I forget what the exact problem was he had been trying to fix. In any case, there were 2 lines, a main trunk line bringing water from the well, and a spur line that was for just such a thing as adding a hydrant or adding a waterline to somewhere new. Not having been the one who laid the original lines, my dad called the man who did to double check which was the main and which was the spur line. The man told him backwards, so when dad cut what he thought was the spur, the geyser began. Now he had a whole new problem an addition to the one that had required digging the ditch in the first place.

So there dad was, up to his knees and elbows in mud, in a ditch he had dug, struggling against water spraying from a pipe that he, himself, had cut. He kind of leaned against the side of the ditch and looked over at me and said something like,

“I know Lehi tells us that there is opposition in all things. I have faith in that principle. I don’t need any more opposition to learn it.”

I think what he was trying to say was, “I think I’ve had enough opposition for today. I’d like to be done with opposition now.”

Sometimes when I have a particularly hard day, that memory of dad in the ditch will flash through my mind and I’ll smile to myself. And then I’ll remember how hard he always worked for our family, and that gives me the strength to cheerfully keep on keepin’ on.

****

2Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one;

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Categories Churchy thinkings, family, Father, FunnyDadFriday, remembering

Hello, Old Friend.

13 Feb

What’s that saying?

Pain is just weakness leaving the body?

No pain, no gain?

Hello Darkness, my old friend?

DH likes pain. How about you?

Hello, Old Friend..

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Categories family

Favorite Phrases I’ve heard at family gatherings in the last little while

14 Jan

“He just thinks he’s THE-BOMB-DOT-COM.” (my teenage niece re: her ex)

“You can’t throw stones from a glass whore house.” (why must it be a whore house?)

“I used to think bare-back riding meant that you didn’t wear pants while riding.” (Blueberry Pie–me: I guess that would be called “bare-butt” riding. Oh Dear. Lets stop this conversation now. )

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Categories family, random thoughts

Our New Family Mission Statement: Side by Side

5 Jan

We have our Family Mission Statement written! Just in time for the New Year!

The Man of the House and I have been reading Steven R Covey‘s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families.

We’ve had some family home evenings where we shared what we were learning with the kiddie pies. They picked right up on the ideas. They are better than I am about changing their behavior.

Habit 2 [Begin with the end in mind] has you create a family mission statement. We had a couple of brainstorming sessions as a family. We let everybody say all their ideas and I wrote them all down. No one was allowed to interrupt or criticize anybody’s idea.

We talked about:

What kind of family do we want to be?

What do we want to do together?

What kind of feeling do we want in our home?

What is important to us?

How can we contribute to society as a family?

What is our purpose as a family? These were my favorite answers
Pumpkin- So we won’t be by ourselves
Blueberry- so we don’t live in boxes when we grow up
Cherry- learn to love each other
Cutie- be nice

We got ideas ranging from “no shouting” and “be nice” to “Dad should give mom chocolate” (thanks, Blueberry) and “pizza on Fridays.” I had about 3 pages of notes of things we wanted to do and learn and be as a family.

So how did we take all those ideas and form them into a Family Mission Statement that we could all get behind and be inspired by? For 2 or 3 months, we just let those ideas cook in our minds.

Add in this: At my brother’s wedding, his bride’s family sang a song I had never heard before, but instantly loved. The song is called Side by Side.
I thought, what a great thought to have as part of your family culture–that you’ll do things together and enjoy it.

That sounds really like, duh, as I type it, but I’ve been going through this phase where I just want to be by myself and do my own thing and everybody just leave me alone and do their own thing. It’s not a good attitude for a mom to have and I’ve been struggling against it, but I keep catching myself back in that attitude. Clearly I need more than just to realize my thoughts aren’t right, I need a paradigm shift.

Add in this: One evening, Ben and I had a real heart-to-heart discussion about a few things and I realized what he was asking for was for me to be his friend. He doesn’t just want to do the things he likes (example: climb mountains). He wants to do the things he likes WITH ME (climb mountains with me).

Suddenly I knew how to put our family mission statement together in a way that would be inspiring to us (I felt inspired) and would help us keep focused on what is important. I ran the idea past Ben & he liked it. So here it is Ta Da! Our Family Mission Statement. We might edit it a bit more before it goes up on our wall, but essentially we’ve got it. It is a little bit long, perhaps, but I didn’t want to be too general with things like just say “Be Responsible” I felt like it needed to be more concrete for me and for the kids.

Side By Side

Our family is committed to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will serve the Lord by being missionaries, by serving those around us, and by keeping our covenants. Being a Celestial Family is our goal.

Education is important to us, and we will never stop learning. We value the arts and other cultures. We will honor traditions we have received from our heritage and create new ones. We will discover and develop our talents to share and uplift others.

We love working and playing together, especially outside, keeping our bodies strong and healthy. Everyone will help with chores without complaint. Being self-sufficient is important to us.

In our family we promise to be each other’s best friends. We will do fun things together; we will help and encourage each other. We will always speak kindly and give each other hugs and kisses. We will love each other. We will stay together and encourage each other even if hard things happen.

We will respect each other by being polite and never shouting. We will appreciate each other’s efforts and remember that everyone is trying their best.

We will keep our house a clean and peaceful place so that we want to come home to it. We will keep the Holy Ghost in our home.

We will be thankful in all things acknowledging the Lord’s Hand in our lives. We will show our gratitude by being generous with what we have.

We will walk through life together: side by side.

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Categories family, Mission Statement

Hiking at HaHa Tonka State Park

1 Jan

Hiking in the cold was harder than I thought it would be. But we still had a great day.

But the castle was very interesting.

The spring was beautiful and mysterious, and the kids had fun counting the 300 wooden steps down to it.

Baby Dumpling got a free ride.

Why so serious, Blueberry Pie?

This little girl is my cousin, but she’s the same age as Cherry Pie.

Cutie Pie had lots of energy early on.

Cherry Pie is getting to be sort of grown up.

The best part was stopping at Uncle Jon’s on the way home for some fish tacos! Scrumptious. So scrumtious.

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Categories family

Dyin’ to be at Dianne’s

7 Nov

This is my dad’s little sister, my Aunt Dianne. I’ve told you about her Cheddar Pear Pie before. Which is delicious and also, it is delicious.

My family has our own Happy Birthday song that we tag on the end of the one everbody knows. One of the lines is “May your birthdays be bright with cheer and delight.” Because my dad’s other sister is named Chere, I always amended the song in my head to “May your birthdays be bright with Chere and Dianne.” It was like a birthday wish to get to visit them in the next year.

Well this year, I got to visit Aunt Dianne. I and 9 members of my family stayed at her house for a few days when my bro Eddie got married in August.

We drove about 20 hours, including through the night, to get there.

(I suppose I shouldn’t say “we” drove, as my dad and bro Jimmy did most of the driving. I did lots of talking to keep the drivers from getting bored. I’m selfless like that.)

Anyways, I’m sure that if you’ve been on a long trip like that, you know that sort of nauseous bleck feeling you start to get after eating trail mix and celery sticks in the car for 2 days. Even when you have your choice of 5 different kinds of peppermint gum (thanks, Dad) you eventually start feeling a little green.

We entered Utah valley at about 2-3 o’clock in the afternoon. Dad offered to stop at Burger King, or something, but it was just an hour or so until Aunt Dianne’s and we all voted to wait. A Whopper might be warm and taste good going down, but then it sits there in your gut feeling oily and heavy–especially if you are already kinda bleh. We were sure Aunt Dianne would have a better option, and she did!

We landed at her house, crowded in and somewhat bashfully admitted that we were starving and tired of car food. Well Aunt Dianne told us to sit down and before we knew it, there was a huge pot of pasta soup and loaves of homemade bread and lots of sliced up cucumbers from her garden: all my favorite comfort foods loaded on one table. The 10 of us plus a couple more who were already at her house gobbled down as much of that delicious soup and bread as we could hold and then we all had glorious naps on her many comfy couches.

This is the “Love Sack”. It is much coveted by all.

All that weekend, Aunt Dianne fed us delicious food and it all just appeared out of her cupboards and fridge like magic. If we ate it all, more appeared, until we were stuffed. Even the night that 70 aunts & uncles & cousins showed up to gab and laugh, she calmly produced food for us all.

And she had time to sit down and talk and be interested in what was going on in our lives and laugh at our jokes and loan us her stockings when ours got snags.

It was the most restful retreat I’ve ever gone too, and I felt like a new woman when I got home. I got back the energy and enthusiasm for life that I’d been missing since my last baby was born.

part of that rejuvenation came from hanging out with these 2 amazing women.

This is the kind of hostess I want to be when I’m grown up. The kind that can seemingly effortlessly produce food to feed a crown. (I know it actually takes work and good planning too.) The kind of hostess where everyone who visits feels welcome and at peace.

Until then, I’m lucky to have friends & family who are willing to come over and pretend with me that the food was great and the fun was seamless; even if there’s a pot on the stove billowing smoke and I’m hastily scrabbling together the ingredients to something else and there’s a pile of dirty dishes behind me. One day, their faith and long suffering will be rewarded (I hope.)

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Categories family, goals

Funny Dad Friday

26 Oct

So a friend of mine invited us all to blog about the funny things our dads say. Immediately my mind went blank and stayed that way all week. I know my dad is funny, and appreciates a good joke, but I couldn’t think of any. The ones I could remember had 1 of 2 problems. They were either

A-the kind of jokes that are funny if he tells them, but not if I tell them. (I had to learn that the hard way. In high school, I told my co-workers one of my dad’s jokes that was always so funny when he told it and they all just looked at me, horrified. awkward.) Kind of like there are some songs that only Willie Nelson can sing.

B-the kind of jokes that sound kinda racist in print–you gotta be there in person to hear them. ( “You hear about them new I-talian cars? Dego through ice, Dego through snow, Dego through anything, and when dego flat, dego wop wop wop.”)

Anyways, my brain finally unfroze so here goes.

My dad, the stand up comic

My Dad really likes funny little songs and poems, like this one by Austin Dobson:

Rose kissed me today.
Will she kiss me tomorrow?
Let it be as it may,
Rose kissed me today.
But the pleasure gives way
To a savor of sorrow;
Rose kissed me today
Will she kiss me tomorrow?

My dad also likes food. (Who doesn’t.) AND he doesn’t complain. He will eat anything that my mom cooks and he never complains. As long as someone puts a plate of food in front of him, he gratefully and happily eats it. He will eat a huge salad bowl of chopped cabbage and talk about how good it is.

However, if someone cooks zucchini, he will make a token protest. He’ll say, “I like everything, so I have the right to choose one vegetable to dislike and I choose zucchini. Why would anyone want to eat zucchini?”

I’ve always thought it was pretty funny that he would fuss about zucchini when obviously he ate and liked everything. But then, come to think of it, maybe it isn’t a token protest. My parents have never planted zucchini in their garden, not in my memory of 30+ years anyway, and they grow things no one else does, like asparagus and rhubarb, and bok choy.