A Week of Blessings

First off, humbled am I by my photography skills, but thankfully I don't have a great camera to use and I don't have time to really worry about light and angle and stuff, so I can live with they are better than the old overexposed/polaroid pics that were taken when I was little.  My family has evolved, if ever so slightly.  :)

 This is the view (screen and all) out my bedroom window.  There are what is either honeysuckle or columbine to the left of a lilac bush.  I am so thankful as I was going all crazy this spring prepping beds that I didn't hack those down.  Could've sworn they were weeds, but I should have learned by now the former owner took her flowers seriously.  On the side of the house, desperate to make another place for salad stuff to grow, I hacked down an ugly bush (I feel pretty confident it want have some kind of amazing blooms later and besides it is growing back with a vengeance) and then these plants with interesting leaves (which I was sure were weeds but The Husband had said he liked) I only destroyed 1 of.  Turns out the saved one has these beautiful pinkish lavendar flowers that are coned shape.  Woopsie! but at least I didn't take them both out.

I will say this yard is A LOT OF WORK for not being anywhere near an acre...or a half acre.  I have grand visions impossible dreams of the children weeding with me side by side for a few minutes every morning, just so we can make and keep this baby looking stellar.  Oh well, if they fail me, I at least won't fail myself.

In the productive type of gardening, The Husband and I were able to get a ton of free strawberry plants, so I've turned right in front of my bedroom window into a strawberry patch.  Woot!  It's strawberries versus some kind of aggressive perennial flower plants, but with my trusty sidekicks, the strawberries shall prevail.  Judy Moody is growing a cabbage for some Bonnie Plants 3rd grader contest to be entered by September.  Obi Wan insisted on a pumpkin patch, so we have 2 and I hope he will have desires to tend to them and help us take the squash bugs and eggs off to kill them and save the plants.  I planted fabulous tomatoes and peppers and for my dear Judy I saw peppercini plants and had to get those to see if we can raise enough to pickle.  She is a lover of them, if ever I saw one.  Also got cukes, pickling cukes, and zucchini and watermelon.  I shant bore you with all the seeds I planted, but I am SO EXCITED.  From end of May through October, my gardening life is a little piece of heavenly peace and something where I can have physical evidence I'm doing a good job.  You don't get that with much other stuff as a mom/wife, so gardening has become more and more wonderful and important to me with each passing year.  

Going back a ways, in April we got A FENCE!!!  I was worried neighbors would be mad or our yard would feel even smaller, but we've gotten lots of compliments, AND it made our yard feel larger.  I think maybe I had built in a 20 foot zone from the street to my kids so that they didn't get hit, and now that we are fenced safety for mom and freedom for kids in our backyard.

Now, for my miracles of the week:

Keep in mind that we all have our darkest trials and brightest days and that we can't realistically compare our experiences to other peoples' because this week I had the neatest experience over what many might consider a stupid thing.

Last week we had visitors, and it was fabulous but I didn't think about much else.  So this week, Judy Moody had Achievement day for girls, and I had specifically said the Sunday before to her leaders that I would be there early with my key to let them get in and get set up.  Cool, right?  Wrong.  The day of the activity came and I woke up realizing, "I don't have my key!"  I had no idea where it was, assumed I had just laid it some miscellaneous place in the house, so since I had until that evening, I was tearing through everything, thinking of ANY possibilities.  And I am a worrier, so I worried about if they would have to re-key the building, the shame of everyone getting a new key because I COULDN"T be responsible.  Did I mention I have a guilt complex the size of Texas?  I prayed, I pleaded (yes, I realize it was just a key), and I almost got to bargaining.  Have you ever tried to bargain with God?  I have, and the bummer is I let my side of the bargain down 9/10 times, so I try to avoid that now.  Then at least I'm honest.  I texted to ask to borrow a key, so at least the girls would be taken care of.  Well, that night after I unlocked the door, I thought I'd take a peak in the nursery and see if I just laid it there when we set up last time, it fell down, and maybe was miraculously not found by anyone.  I told the leader my plan, and she said she had found a key last time.  Behold!  My faith waxed and waned throughout the day and I thought I would have to walk my personal hall of shame and make the church get re-keyed, but right then, after me the mostly non hugger felt compelled to hug this fine leader who had kept the key and had no idea it was mine, I was filled with giddy joy.  It was rotten spending the day worrying and beating myself up, and though He made me wait ALL DAY, the Lord gave me what I asked for.  It was a righteous desire, silly but righteous, and just because of how earnest and concerned I felt, it helped me know he does care about me, silly, forgetful, basket case, worry wart me.  And I really need to remember that, every day, even if my mind is so full of who knows what that I can't hear Him, he is there waiting to bless me.  I love my Father in Heaven, and that I have a chance to be a good steward and less careless with the key I am entrusted with.

Now, my other "big to me" blessing of the week:

See those little fellers up there?  They don't look like much, but they are 2 of my 8 pepper plants.  Here in TV, once the snow melts off Schafer Butte by the ski resort, it is "safe" to plant your summer flowers and vegetables.  Well, eager Anna Banana, impulsive and irrational (yes we are talking about the same person) at times, was wanting so much to have all the beautiful flowers that the previous had, and so I went and spent $100 bucks in mid April and planted away all day.  It was so unseasonably warm, and then as I covered the last roots with dirt and a neighbor came to compliment me, I realized that NO ONE ELSE had planted and that the me who has been gardening here for 12 years knew that I should not be planting these frost sensitive plants.  Still, I had no inclination to dig them back up, so in our well kept neighborhood, every night after dark, I would tromp out with mason jars, sheets, broom sticks, 1 x 4s, bags of fertilizer and cover up all the plants.  It was so tedious and I had to do it all by myself which was really ridiculously hard on windy nights, BUT I only lost a few of the plants which was a small price to pay for my less than genius choice. 

 Then, it officially warmed up, the snow was melted off Schafer, but with our VIG (very important guests) here, I didn't feel it would be right to disappear as I planted on Mothers' Day weekend, because that is normally when it's okay to plant.  Still, last weekend, only 1 week "late", I spent a blissful few hours playing in the dirt and got all the things in.  I was so bummed because I had to go to work at that point and hadn't planted seeds, but over the next few days, I got EVERYTHING planted that I wanted to.  JUBILATION!  I am so simply pleased.  It is a bummer that my husband doesn't agree.  BUT THEN

THEN

THEN....

this last Tuesday night, a frost warning.  What the?  Not fair.  Again, I couldn't very well dig them all up, and as I am using the already created beds, the plants are spread ALL OVER THE YARD.  No easy task to cover them all, and I was quite sick of it after my early flower planting debacle, so I took my chances.  And my gamble paid off just this once.  I think that God new my heart and that this was really important to me, and that from my silly mistake in April I had paid plenty.  I followed the rules this time, and when I went out to check the plants it A. didn't feel too cold and B. they looked fine.  I figured the frost warning wasn't as severe as they had said it would be.  Then at church today, come to find out that lots of people lost their plants.  I don't know if my backyard is blessed with a heat pocket or what, but not 1 of my plants had any sort of problem.  I am happy to simply consider it a small miracle to me from Heavenly Father.  He truly gives us what we need when we need it and lets us learn lessons along the way from some of our mistakes at least.  So there you have it-dos miracles that made my week great.  NOW my challenge is to live this coming week to actually be worthy of those blessings because I need to pay a little more attention for sure.

I'm THAT Blogger

I think the difference is I don't have regular readers, but I hate it when I am following a blog and they never post and never post and now I am THAT person.  I suppose it is okay if blogging dropped from a great idea at the top of my New Year's goals to bottom of the barrel of my life (it's a deep, deep barrel).  In the name of recording a bit, here goes:

Currently, we have grandparents here (Husband's Dad and Step Mom) and they are in all out grand kid spoiling mode.  Oh, if only grand kids were less greedy and more grateful.  We haven't seen them for 2.5 years, since my SIL's wedding, so it is fun to show them how the kids have grown, especially The Hulk, who they have never seen in person.  He is quite the charmer, in his violent little way.

The Hulk likes to do something really naughty then instantly turn on cute and innocent in hopes of saving his misbehaved little self from discipline.  He is SO cuddly when he isn't violent-that hasn't changed.  He is saying a ton of words and busting out sentences, and deep in my heart I am hoping that he won't have a speech delay...please, just 1 of them.  I am thankful that I have had 4 healthy kids, but 1 of them not needing speech therapy and being able to have meaningful conversation with people besides me as a toddler would be quite a treat.

The Quiet Man gets to go to an inclusion preschool this fall.  He is not picking up his speech quickly enough.  Ironically, he is the first kid who his speech therapist has had who can make every individual sound without any problems, but then resorts to gibberish as soon as you engage him in conversation.  What does that mean?  I don't know.  His therapist says she wouldn't be surprised if he just started talking crystal clear one day, but I doubt that would happen.  I have great faith that preschool where he has 4 teachers/aides interacting with him and working on sounds and no mommylator (mom who translates) to help him out will help him grow and grow.

Obi Wan (is that my smarty pants name, hoopsie) is officially GT (that's what the people in the know call gifted and talented kids), and though everyone gets bored of a bragger, I can't believe that out of my average self came a kid who is super smart.  It cracks me up, and suddenly so many things that he's done and said through the years make sense.  He is just functioning on a different plane than the rest of us.  I feel guilty (mom guilt, bleh) because I want to stimulate his mind enough so that he can grow, but that mind can soak in a lot of information.  I need to learn more and strike a balance between encouraging him to learn and teaching him that he doesn't need to act like a know it all in all situations.  Sometimes, he is just cute about it, and then I don't mind.  He keeps reading and reading, and he informed me yesterday that he didn't like his brand new curtains his grandma made for him so much but that he could live with them but they were boring.  I just had to leave the room.  I already tell myself I'm not good enough.  It stings when the kids join in the beatings.

Judy Moody is still getting that sense of humor.  Explaining the birds and bees to her last fall has brought on a lot of questions, a lot of moments where my innards were squirming uncomfortably on the inside as I tried to calmly and clearly and concisely answer her odd questions.  I am trying to avoid the freaking out and yelling who put you up to this that my mom did.  Another thing I have to have faith on is that we have done the right thing and that being open but age appropriate won't bite me in the butt later on.  I want her to know the "LOVE" is a beautiful, natural but meant for specific times with a specific person.  The questions he comes up with, though!  Who thinks of that stuff when they're 9.  I thought of stuff like that when I was a teenager or already married.  Life is full of YIKES moments.

The Husband and I are training up to first a 5K.  I AM SO HAPPY because he thought he could never run due to a sore knee, but lo and behold with appropriate training he is rocking and has actually increased my speed.  Our hope is a 10K or half marathon in October but that is a serious amount of mileage for my busy, tired, chocolate and ice cream loving soul.  We will see.

I just got a job opportunity in my same field which I would need to do in addition to my current job.  I kind of think it's too crazy and kind of want to try it because what if it led to something that allowed me better hours with my family.  It's one of those things where you ask if it's the Lord making something fall into your lap or a temptation to lure you away from what's important, etc.  IDK, IDK, IDK.

But warm weather is good and fun family in town is great, and I love life.

Except for the screaming SERIOUSLY

This is how I wish our family was all the time


In reality, this week feels like a constant headache as The Quiet Man (ironically not so quiet) and The Hulk have perfected a form of scream fighting that makes my eardrums ache and my blood run cold.  They are healthy, at least.  Judy Moody has her first piano recital next month, and I am so excited ahe will be playing REAL songs w/ both hands!  She has been really self motivated and my heart could burst w/ joy as 2 and 3 are NOT self motivated so much, and The Hulk is self motivated...but to my detriment.  Come what may and love it?  I'll miss these times?  Too many people have said that for me to question that it will happen someday, but each day my heart yearns for more love and less quarreling in this house and for some occasional peace and reflective time.  I can't always go to the temple, but it seems the only way lately.  Remember What About Bob? W/ Bill Murray?  That, my friends is my family.  I WANT, I WANT!  I NEED, I NEED!  I love them (even if Judy Moody and her friend decided 58 degrees is perfect swimsuit weather), but being a mom never ends, let alone trying to be a really good mom.  How does an introvert successfully pull this off?

And in my health news, does 4.5 days of healthy eating and exercise combat a day w/ a big bit of work/kid related stress eating?  I sure hope so.  I will be good for tonight and all,of the new week though...promise.

SPRING!!!

Ah, this week is looking amazing weather wise.  Strongly encouraging (never nagging) my husband to get our fence in.  The children are DESPERATE to be outside lots, and I have a strong desire to preserve them from being road kill.  We had a fun family bike ride last Saturday and a good walk today.  These family outings are fascinating case studies of human behavior.  Judy Moody (so extra moody this week) is speedy and always thinking of what she wants to do next, so she go, go, goes and is hearing challenged.  Obi Wan (on the 7th HP book) is ALWAYS last and that is w/ much encouragement to keep up so the wolves don't catch him.  Tonight, he was contriving plans for his Minecraft world, brows furrowed as he tortoised along behind us.  The Quiet Man (set up for preschool to help w/ his speech development next school year) runs ahead and lags back and visits w/ everybody.  He was determined to push the Hulk's stroller a good ways tonight, but I have the sneaking suspicion if I had let go he would have pushed it straight into the road.  competition is stiff between those 2 .  They will seriously just sit, both holding on to the same object, scream, cry, and slap/hit/pinch each other for long periods of time if I don't intervene.  Wow.  The Hulk, displaying his softer side, has attempted a little sharing and a lot of hanging out w/ Daddy this week.  He may give bite marks and concussions, but beneath it all lies a caring, compassionate person...right?


We are happy and blessed indeed, and w/o FB, I have no idea how so many loved ones are doing.  I hope very well.

Jolly Good

It has been a funky week-much better than last week as we haven't been on the verge of death by infection, but I had a lot on my mind and did take a few too many hours to hide in the world of my anglophilia.  Let me tell you, I LOVE BRITISH TELEVISION.  I especially love the series where there are a million stunning views of the countryside.  My biggest costs a lot of money dream (which I am not a materially lustful person and normally just want the basics, except for a bit more travel perhaps) is to go to the British Isles for a month or more, tour Ireland, Scotland, England, tons of ruins, tons of history, tons of set jetting (I just learned that term this week).

BUT, until I have $10,000 burning a whole in my huge old granny purse that I will have someday, I LOVE BRITISH TELEVISION...and movies.  Heaven, I tell you, heaven.  So clever, so beautifully done, so suspenseful, and, this might sound weird, but they all have "normal looking" people as the actors.  In British television, a chick that looks like me *ME* can be considered eye candy.  And great actors/actresses can be old and fat with swollen legs and they are totally appreciated for their acting skill and not their perfect, surgically altered or extremely diet and exercise sculpted bodies.  Aside from the scenery and humor, that is my favorite part about these shows.

Some of my all-time and recent favorites:

One that has kept me company this week.





Doc Martin is much anticipated.  Oh the awkwardness of the romance and, well, everything about him.

My old friend Monarch of the Glen.  I can just run this for hours.  Love the scenery, love/hate-in-a-good way all of the characters.

Wives and Daughters.  Interestingly, I had seen this 1 advertised at the beginning of my Monarch DVDs for years and was never interested until this week, and I'm glad I got to enjoy it.  Felt a little like a Jane Austen.

Yes, you can't beat British stuff.  I am a little choosy, because often you can get nudity and no-no words in shows from over the sea, but there are so many, like these, that just aren't skanky.

So many shows I love, that make me feel at home and happy.  I haven't mentioned Downton Abbey, but I'm a fan of that club too.  I love the BBC Jane Austens from the 90s, and I could list 30 more shows I like, but it would get to be quite a long blog.

I'm also studying geography and history of the UK too, but that is going to be a pretty big thing.  I made it through 700 years of the monarchy and well...I'm a nerd about all this.  It is kind of my hobby at present.  Escapism at it's finest, but some day I WILL BE THERE, soaking it all in, and until then, I am soaking it in vicariously.

Enough about my personal obsessions.  To catch you up on my fabulous family, The Husband has been doing some crazy pricing changeover stuff at work (still have no clue).  Judy Moody is still making me smile with her piano.  She has her first recital 4/12, so cross your fingers for her.  Obi Wan is on Harry Potter Book 6, and he has yet to ask me what Damn or snogging means, yet I know he gets the plot because he talks and talks and talks about it to anyone who will listen.  He has no problem being a walking spoiler for any plot lines.  The Quiet Man seems to be getting a little more frustrated about having communication challenges.  He is improving but it is slower than he and I would care it to be.  I love him so much.  I am doing an SLP program with him that I need to redouble my efforts on, and I found a great articulation app (if I haven't already mentioned it), that gets him saying all sorts of words correctly.  Love it!  The Hulk has taken over his brother's Hulk action figure, oh-so-appropriately, and he and The Quiet Man fight and fight until I feel quite batty.  BUT, The Hulk has been a sweet little cuddler at times this week, reminding me that he is still my baby, and he feels so perfectly chubby and heavy and sweet in my arms.  I love the kid.  I have grand bike riding schemes for our whole family, if I can get my resident bike expert/repairman on board.  We need a bike seat for The Hulk and some new helmets as the little brains are all growing, and in our old neighborhood, we had a serious goat's head problem, so many bike tubes need to be replaced.  Hopefully it happens soon if I bat my eyelashes enough.  That's plenty of sharing about thing I LOVE for now.  Will write soon.

Often, on Rare Occasions, I Cry

Sometimes, it is just nice to not make sense.  Really quick catch up (which is better than nothing, right?) is that we had the official, terrible, hideous, plague-like flu at our house this week).  Shout out to Judy Moody, presumably, for introducing it into our house.  You know it's bad when on day 5 you are still not 100%, though improved from day 1 when you were thinking of what you should have included in your will.  Obi Wan and The Quiet Man escaped this one...I hope, I hope, I hope.

But about crying, work just made me cry.  Doing medical transcription, I hear all kinds of "stories" about patients' lives as they are treated, and it is ALL CONFIDENTIAL, so I will do no details, but a little baby fighting hard to survive who didn't make it just made me feel so sad.  I can imagine a little how hard it must have been for the mom, and it makes me want to complain less about my glorious little minions as they have all been so healthy.  This also hit home when The Hulk was sick earlier in the week.  Sometimes, watching the house get destroyed every day and constantly having to try to teach the right things to do and fix all the messes gets a little old, but seeing him look and feel so horrible makes me think a messy house with healthy kids is better than a sick smelling house with sad kids.  Less complaining, more gratitude Anna!!!

I don't know that I can think of any exciting stuff since I was just trying to recup most of the week.  The kids enjoyed Valentines.  We got those lovely taxes done--The Husband did it actually while I was gravely ill, so I didn't participate at all.  What a man!!!!  Obi Wan is being tested for a Challenge program at his teacher's request, which got me thinking, after I asked him what he wanted to read after HP, that I need to stimulate the poor kid with some nonfiction reading material.  And now we have a beautiful Saturday.  Got the Christmas lights down; it is over 50 degrees (but I'm working :(  ), and we get to have some stromboli in 2 hours.  Lyfsgud as one of my favoritist people would say.  I hope that each of you loved ones and the liked ones, and most of the not liked so much or unknown ones, have a pleasant rest of your weekend.  Remember to enjoy and treat wonderfully those you love.  You never know and regret bites.  BUT the promise of eternal families makes many of life's unfair and tragic events more doable for sure.

My Precious

I have no idea why, but I love this picture!!!  It totally reminds me of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or something else fantasy/sci fi, and, again, I have no idea why.  Hehehehe!

Today, I learned that The Quiet Man has an DOWN escalator phobia but not an UP escalator phobia.  On that same note, did you know it is really embarrassing to take young ones to the mall who have never been before.  They made several sweet, elderly mall walkers nearly break their hips, running here and there, paying no attention to what was going around them.  The Hulk screamed and arched his back every time I tried to carry him down some stairs (as we couldn't ride the escalators due to above phobia) because he wanted to do it himself.  Keep in mind he is 18 months, so it is a slow and laborious process, but so let it be written, so let it be done...and it was...so slowly.  The Hulk managed to open a package of girls undies and scatter about various other lingerie.  I hate the mall.  All I wanted, all I really wanted, was to just find a dress that would go to or past Judy Moody's knees.  She's tall but not like freakishly tall, so what's the deal.  Does it cost that much more to add 6 inches of skirt to a dress, so a girl can feel a little more comfortable.  RI-DIC-U-LOUS.  It truly was, especially trying to find this dress with a little boy with phobias who also liked to take off his shoes and pretend to sleep on the floor whenever I stopped to measure dress lengths, as well as an even littler boy who was determined to see if mannequins work like dominoes.  As I said, I dislike the mall, loved it as a teen, hate it now, but Hulk and Quiet really upped that disdain for me today.  

To reward myself for the heinous crimes committed against me earlier, I pulled out my NEW sewing machine from Christmas and fixed some tank tops and also made Judy Moody a skirt and belt, so we can make her wardrobe last while I try to figure WHERE IN THE WORLD YOU CAN GET A KNEE LENGTH DRESS??? for a sweet little (actually super tall) 9 year old.  I was SO happy sewing with a machine that gave me no grief.  JM wants me to teach her to sew soon, so, um, that sounds like a good challenge to help me work on that patience thing.  Such a good skill to give the girl, so I better man up, I suppose.  

In other news (oh yes, there is always other news), Obi Wan is now over half way through with Harry Potter Book 5.  I laugh at him inwardly when he cries as his sister calls him a bookworm.  He is, he totally is, and of all the things to be called, a truer name has never been called, maliciously or no, and dude, trust me, Tub of Lard, Fatso, and Gimp are way worse things to be called than Bookworm--not that I would know that personally, but I wear the name bookworm like a badge of honor and so should my little Bookworm. :)

Oh, I love my little brood, but I don't love every little bit about them.  It has been an introspective week for me, trying to figure how I need to change some major behaviors that have been detrimental to my progress, and I'm not even talking about eating, nope, something different, so I suppose always having the distraction of my little nutters can be a good thing, so I don't torture myself with my own problems and can focus instead on the fact that Quiet Man poked Obi Wan in the eye after hitting him with his Thor hammer but before slapping The Hulk.  Still, when they are all older and mostly capable of taking care of themselves, I am off to Scotland/Ireland/England for a month to fulfill the dreams I am building in my head.  Peace Out!