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Baby Bean is 8 months old

11 Sep

Lesue Family (153)

Baby Bean is 8 months old.

She is 30 inches long and weighs 21 pounds.  Most of my other babies were not that big even at a year old.

She has grown so fast, it’s like watching someone’s life on fast forward, it kind of takes my breath away.  Pardon me the Twilight reference, but it’s like I have a vampire-human hybrid baby.  She is crawling and pulling up to stand.  When she crawls, she stomps her hands and knees down like  “HERE COMES THE BABY!”  When she starts walking, I’m pretty sure the house will shake.  This week she climbed up our stairs all the way to the top.

She says “mama”  when she is crying and wants out of her crib, and when she sees a dog, she says “gog!”  She is my first baby to say mama before dada.

I feel like she is a super good baby because when I hold her she doesn’t cry.  (I had a little brother who cried all the time no matter what, so I know it can be worse.)  My sister says I should have a higher standard and that good babies are happy to lie in their swing or play on the floor for hours while mom gets housework done.

…yeah, I’ve never had a baby who would do that.  Baby Bean does play happily if she has just been fed and I stay in relatively one spot.  If I try to walk away, she starts crawling after me and howling.

She puts everything she can grab in her mouth. She finds every bit of candy wrapper/trash/dead bug and eats it as fast as possible.  We haven’t had candy in the house since Easters, but she finds foil wrappers almost daily it seems.

Getting her to sleep through the night has been kind of hard. She did very well for awhile and then suddenly had to be touching my skin to stay asleep.  Finally, I thought I had it figured out.  I was so tired and desperate for sleep that I left her in her crib to cry and before 5 minutes passed, she was asleep and slept through the night.  3 days in a row, she slept through the night.  Victory!  I thought.  I told my friend that I had figured it out.  Then she got her immunizations.  (Which I totally believe everyone should get.)  But she was miserable for 2-3 days, and she needed me.  Back to sleeping with me she was.

I tried the letting her cry thing again, but 5 minutes is the maximum amount of time I can stand to hear her cry without getting her, and either she’s figured that out, or she just still needs me.

I have figured out some things though:

#1  if she falls asleep nursing, 9 times out of 10 she will wake up as soon as I put her down in her crib.  So I feed her, but try to make sure she doesn’t fall asleep until after she is done eating.

#2  if she is still wide awake at 10:30  and I’m desperate (I have to get up at 4:45 a.m.), I can put her in her crib.  She will cry until I come get her again, but 5 minutes of crying wears her out enough that she will go to sleep by 11. Is that terrible of me?   I’d be delirious with happiness if I could get her to sleep by 9 p.m. but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen any time soon.  11 p.m. is my max

#3 Sometimes she will sleep through the night after all that, and sometimes I wake up in the morning and wonder how she ended up in bed with me, but that 1-2 hours of sleep that happen before midnight make all the difference for me.

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I sure love her a lot.  I try to restrain myself from covering her fat cheeks with kisses and blowing raspberries on her neck when I’m in public places.  But lots of times I forget.

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Happy Mother’s Day 2014

11 May

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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.

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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.

Getting Ahead of the Housework

4 Jul
For almost 13 years, I have been on a quest to improve my house cleaning skills enough that I’m not ashamed when people come over.  Also I like to have the house clean because I am happier when things are neat and uncluttered. I feel so peaceful when things are neat and so out of control and cranky when things are messy. 
Myths/Lies I told myself:
  • If I can just get more organized, the house will be clean.
  • If I weren’t so lazy, the house would be clean.
  • If I would get up at 5 a.m. every morning, the house would be clean.
I’ve read many books on the subject.  These are some of them:
Organizing from the Inside Out- Julie Morgenstern
Time Management from the Inside Out- Julie Morgenstern
The Art of Homemaking- Daryl Hoole
Make Your House do the Housework- Don Aslett
Is there Life After Housework?- Don Aslett
No time to Clean- Don Aslett
How to have a 48 hour day- Don Aslett
Sink Reflections- Marla Cilley
The Ultimate Career- Daryl Hoole
It’s all too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff – Peter Walsh
The Sisterhood of Wonderful Wacky Women- Suzy Toronto
I’ve been to many time management classes.  I’ve made schedules, weekly plan sheets, lists, color coded spread sheets, chore charts, chore binders.
Only one thing has worked.  Achieving this one thing has brought not just success, but lasting success. 
Want to know the secret?  
Here it is:
Reduce the amount of Cleaning.
That’s right, the only way to keep up on the sisyphean task of keeping a house clean is to make it so there is less cleaning that has to be done. I still have more reducing to achieve.  But I’ve had some success. Here is my short list for how I have managed it (and how you can too!):
  1. Get rid of stuff.  De-Junk, De-clutter, De-treasure.  Re-shuffling piles of stuff around isn’t cleaning.  I gave away half of the family’s clothing and saved myself hours of laundry time every week.  None of the kids has had to go naked yet.  (Though one of them goes nekkid by choice quite often. And I think we can all agree that there is a difference between naked–as in “Naked came I into the world”–and nekkid–as in “plum stark nekkid.”)
  2.  Get traffic mats.   Good mats at every door will stop so much dirt from entering your house.  Dirt that you don’t have to clean up if it isn’t there.
  3. Put things away right the first time.  If it is in your hand, put it away right- it will take less time than if you drop it any old place and then have to go back later to put it away.  Unless a child is in mortal peril, you have time to put things where they go.
  4. Clean as you go. Example: Fold clothes as you pull them out of the dryer.  It hardly takes more time than pulling them out and mashing them into a laundry basket.
  5. Set a timer.  When you are cleaning, set a timer for 15 minutes and race it.  See what you can get done.  We’ve all performed cleaning miracles in the 2 minutes from when we saw an unexpected car pull into our driveway and when the doorbell rang.  Have a miracle every day and then have more time for what you really want do do. (Like read a good book!)
  6. Wait for your toddlers to grow up.
If you need more help with #1, especially if you are really emotionally attached to all your stuff, I recommend  It’s all too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff – Peter Walsh.
For more ideas like #2, I recommend one of Don Aslett’s books;  Make Your House do the Housework is my favorite.
For more help with #3 & #4 the best one is  Sink Reflections- Marla Cilley
To remind yourself that being a mom is so much more than keeping a house clean, read one of Daryl Hoole’s books.  

If you are still waiting on #6, sit down with your toddler and read him a book.  You’ll both feel better.
D&C 42:41 And let all things be done in cleanliness before me.
Psalms 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Being a Mom is kind of like being Bipolar

13 Jun


Some days I feel like this:

My children are smart and amazing and I am so blessed.



Some days I feel like this:

Trophy Days

8 Jun

Twelve years ago, I was a brand new mother, sitting at church, with my new baby boy in my arms. Somebody said gloomily from the pulpit, “They don’t give out trophies for being a mother.”

I think the gist of what they meant was that being a mom and raising children right is important, even though the world doesn’t recognize it as a prestigious job/occupation/career.

But as I sat there, I thought to myself, Maybe they don’t hand out trophies, but there will be some “trophy days.” The day my child turns 8 and is baptized a member of the church, that will be a trophy day. The day my son turns 12 and helps to pass the sacrament for the first time, that will be a trophy day.

I don’t mean trophy in the sense that everyone would recognize my “achievements” and heap praise on me as the winner of something. But trophy in the sense that the happiness I would feel on those days would be like the happiness you feel when you finish a race and you feel that all that hard work and sweat and days of running in the rain and running in the heat were all worth it. Or when you receive highest marks on your piano solo at Music Festival and all those hours of practicing until your back ached and your fingers were too stiff to move are *nearly* forgotten/forgiven in the glow of those highest marks.

As I decided what days my trophy days would be, I admitted to myself that they would be few and far between–an allowance for that person who thought there weren’t any trophies at all.

Now 12 years have passed. I am mother of not 1 but 6 children. I have a new baby. My little baby that was is now a 12 year old boy and will be ordained a deacon on Sunday. In another month a daughter will turn 8 and be baptized.

Those trophy days aren’t few and far between at all.

And there have been many more trophy days that I never dreamed of twelve years ago.

Days of finding little scraps of wrinkled paper love notes on my pillow.

Days when a child comes home from school with a poem they had to write about the color brown, and they wrote about brown hair waving in the wind.

Days when I ask the kids to clean up and they actually do it without complaining or fighting.

Days when I’m sick and my 3 year old curls up in the bed next to me and pats my neck with her little hand because that is the best kind of comfort she knows how to give.

Days like last Sunday, when the DH was gone to guard drill and I had an early morning church meeting. I set breakfast on the table, woke up the children, and asked them to eat and dress themselves for church, promising to be back in one hour. When I returned home, they were dressed with shoes on and even hair brushed, ready to get in the van. (p.s. I did take the baby with me)

On Sunday, when I shared these thoughts, I said at the end, “Every day is a trophy day when you are a mom.” That was just nerves, realizing I’d said what I’d thought and didn’t know quite how to end and get away from the microphone… and maybe a bit of the emotion of the moment making me feel like that if I were a perfect human, I would find those trophy moments every day. I know that every day isn’t a trophy day.
But they are there, generously sprinkled in, and they are what remind me to be happy when the struggle of life has made me forget.

True Wisdom: "Don’t Carpe Diem"

11 Jan

What she said

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