Monday Musings - His Plan

 
I have been having a hard time lately trying to make sense of some spiritual promptings that I have had. I won’t disclose the specifics, but I have been having strong promptings about a certain thing. However, when I think about our life right now and the situation we are in, the prompting doesn’t seem to fit, or make sense.

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to deal with promptings. Obviously there are some promptings that you just take and run with it (like, “Call so-and-so.” Obviously, that’s probably a right now kind of prompting). But then there are more general impressions you receive, like “Have more kids.” and “Get a job.” Or something like that.

I am a believer of the principle explained in Doctrine & Covenants Section 9

Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

So when I receive one of those “general” impressions, I try to study it out and then take my “interpretation” to the Lord for approval. Sometimes I feel that burning in my bosom, and other times, I get the stupor of thought.

I also have to be very careful that I don’t inject “my” will into the impression. I have to work really hard at making sure that my will is in line with God’s will (and it isn’t all the time… which is frustrating).

The good news is that I think I have figured out those “general” impressions that the Lord has been giving me.

I’ll let you know how it works out.

Kid’s Swing Makeover

A few weeks ago, my backyard neighbor (the horse people) gave me this kids porch swing. She prefaced it by asking if I knew how to sew, to which I replied, “Of course!” Then she lamented about how sewing is becoming a lost art, and too many young people don’t know how to sew.

Well, I promised her that I would fix it up, and that I would give it back to her (not throw it away) if I ended up not being able to/not wanting to fix it.

Well, turns out it was just the project I needed to christen my new sewing machine.

Here’s what it looked like before:

I wish I had taken pictures of it when the fabric was on the swing so you could see what bad shape it was in. Honestly, I would have redone the fabric even if the fabric was still in good condition because that blue striped duck/frog print? Yeah… not really my cup of tea.

So I went to the fabric store on the hunt for the perfect outdoor material.

This wasn’t even half of the selection, but it was where I ended up with the perfect fabric (and please excuse my pictures – I left my camera at my in-law’s house, and so I’ve been using my iPhone. The picture above was from the collection I took to send to Russ so he could determine which he liked the best).

I wanted something gender neutral, kind of whimsical, and bold colors. This fit all of my needs, and it was only $6/yard.

I have a bunch of extra (plus I’m sure there is still more at the fabric store) so I am thinking about finding some patio furniture on KSL that needs recovered cushions and doing something like this as well. I might go back and get some solids to pair with the stripes.

So, the first thing I decided to do after finding the perfect fabric was to spray paint the frame. The white was dinged up and rusty, so I took the whole thing apart (not before taking LOTS of pictures so I could figure out how to put it back together again), washed the parts, and went to town with the good old Rustoleum. Thankfully the days I was spraying were pretty warm, if windy, so I just hid in the garage and sprayed away with the garage door open. I probably should have been wearing a mask, but safety-shmafety.

 
Vince was being my little helper. You should have seen him and Joss with the empty spray-paint cans making the “shhh” sound and “spraying” stuff. Cuties.

Well, I didn’t take any “during” pictures, so I’ll cut right to the chase – here it is in its finished glory!

I just copied the old material to make the swing and the canopy. My canopy ended up being a little bigger than the original, and my seat ended up being a little more stretched than the original, but who cares – it’s beautiful, right?!

I really like how it turned out. And if you are wondering why it is sitting in my living room instead of out on our beautiful porch… this is why:

Reasons #1 & #2

 
Reason #3 (although this is actually a picture of the LAST snow a few days ago… today wasn’t really snow… it was more like hail, and then slush falling from the sky. It was totally gross and made me a little ornery.)

My New Normal v. 5.0

(one of the do’s from here on Joss… yes, this is in Sacrament Meeting. Sue me)

You may remember that I am on a continuous quest to find my new normal. It (my normal) changes as the seasons change – both the literal seasons, and the metaphorical ones.

For a while, I didn’t have a very good grasp of the concept, and was down on myself for not getting enough done each day. (read: not doing the dishes, keeping the house sanitary, reading to my kids, etc). I’m not sure what on earth I was doing, but it most definitely wasn’t being productive.

So I went into “super-structured-productivity” mode where I attempted to write every task I could do on an index card, put them in a box, and tried to go through them in the day. Rarely did I get all of them done, and more often than not, I would end up at noon with 5 cards before the one that said “Lunch.” Obviously, that method wasn’t working.

For a while, I tried paring down the cards, but that just left me frustrated at the end of the day, because I wasn’t doing everything I really wanted to do.

Then I ditched all methods of organization and structure completely. Which basically led to chaos and destruction.

Finally, I read President Uchtdorf’s talk for the millionth time (okay, probably for the 30th – but dude, for a Conference talk, that’s a LOT of reads!) – this time I read it to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting. Remember that one I wrote in Portuguese? Well, I guess this time, the talk actually got through to me. And all those other times I thought I had been learning something.

Well, I don’t know if it was the actual words of the talk, or just all the gears the talk got turning, but I finally figured it out.

What did I figure out?

This:

 There has to be a balance between structure and flexibility.

The structure part needs to be those four most important relationships that President Uchtdorf talked about. The flexibility is for all the other stuff (the laundry, the dishes, etc etc).

In my new normal it means this:

- meal times are structured. They happen at (roughly) the same time every day. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

- morning devotional, “preschool”, special play time, reading time, and nap time happen at (roughly) the same time every day.

- everything else goes on a card in the box, and I do the cards as I can throughout the day.

                                          (Vincente doing Warrior 2)

So far this has been leaving me feeling great. I feel good because the most important things are there (I’m taking care of the temporal and spiritual needs of myself and my children), and I can still get a lot of the other things done. You know, the semi-important things like having clean clothes to wear and clean dishes to eat off of, and food in the cupboards.

I’m still tweaking the cards – I think I’m going to start having the ones I have to do every day, and then the “other stuff” that carries over to the next day if I didn’t get to all of it today. Instead of always washing the toilets, and never vacuuming (seriously, I like cleaning toilets probably more than any other chore. Call me weird. Or maybe a veteran BYU custodian. Either one works.)

But at least now I am less stressed, I feel like I’m doing the most important things, and I still feel like a good wife and mother (i.e., the house is – mostly – clean when Russ gets home from work, and dinner is either ready, or getting ready). My kids like me more, and I get to play with them more often, and do the things they want to do, instead of having some system or schedule control me. I can drop what I’m doing and go play with them, and then just come back to the task later, because there is no pressure to “get ‘er done” before lunch. I’ll just stop and do lunch if it gets to be lunch time.

P.S. I left my camera at the in-laws (over 30 miles away) and therefore will only be posting pictures from my iPhone or from forevers ago until further notice. My sincerest apologies. And eventually I will post more birthday stuff for Vince. I do love him, I promise. I just left all his bday pics on the camera in Salem. Sad day.

Little Biker Dude

 
Vincente is getting to be quite the little bike rider. I feel bad that he’s only now discovering the joys of biking. I haven’t had a bike since we were married, and we only bought Vincente a real bike for his 3rd birthday, and we only now live in a neighborhood where we can ride all the time (the streets are relatively flat, so great for learning).

He really likes it, and I like being out with him. Russ bought me a bike for Christmas, and I just recently bought a little baby seat that mounts on the front. We’ve been meaning to take our bikes down to the river trail, but we need to get a bike rack for the car first.

Weather Bugs

Remember this weather?




Well, over night it turned into this:




And filled our house with these:




And these:




We're hoping for the warm weather to come back. And stay. Our sinuses do not appreciate the sudden changes in temperature.

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One Year Older

And wiser, too.

I will probably post a few more Birthday posts about Vincente. Mostly because he is awesome, but partly because his birthday is on General Conference weekend, so it has been a little stretched out.


Really I am just posting today to share this adorable picture of my little boy. He is so grown up!

We are having a birthday party for him today at the Rowleys, so later I will be posting birthday pictures from my camera.

And I will be posting about General Conference either later today or tomorrow. It was amazing, to say the least.

For those of you who listened/watched - we are doing foster care because we want to be enrolled in Parenting 505. So far, we've only had Parenting 101. If you didn't listen/watch, go listen to the Sunday afternoon session. And I'll be posting more about that talk on my scripture study blog (My Soul Delighteth) once the transcripts are available.


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April Fools

I guess I should add 'APRIL FOOLS' to my previous post.


It's Vincente's birthday today. He was born at 0047 on April 4, 2007. (that's 12:47 am, for all of you non-military folk) 47 minutes away from being an April Fool. The silver lining to my long labor and 2 hrs of pushing? My baby wasn't born on April 1.

We're not pregnant (yet) and not actually trying (yet) and those of you who thought we would call and tell before we posted it on the blog are right - we will ;)

Love to you all!


And happy birthday to my April Baby who is not a baby but a 4 year old who will be playing tee ball this spring, rides a bike (with training wheels, but I think that won't last long), is learning to do a front flip on the trampoline, an can sing all of the lyrics to 1,2,3,4 by Plain White T's and You're Amazing by Bruno Mars, not to mention the Primary songs (in Portuguese), and insists that he speaks Portuguese (and he really does sometimes!!)

PS - my friend was telling me that this month she will have been married for 4 years and I thought "Wow! Four years is a LONG time to be married!"

In June we will have been married for 5 1/2 years. Which must be like an eternity if 4 years is a LONG time. Here's how my brain thinks about stuff: when I was getting married at just over 19, I thought that I was a little young for a bride, but coming out of BYU it wasn't that bad. And I didn't even think twice about my age when our 5th wedding anniversary came and went in December (probably because it was around Christmas time and it usually catches me off guard). But now, I remember that I am only 24, I have a 4 year old, and I've been married for over 5 years and suddenly I feel too young for all this. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I love my husband and my children. We have an awesome family and I am excited to share it with more children - whether fostered, adopted, or biological (and the last one won't be happening for another year or so, and I promise not to announce it on April Fools day! ;)



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Announcing....

Baby Rowley #3!!!

Due September 21, 2011!!

We find out if it is a boy or girl in about a month!

Stay posted!

A Garden Party

Our Relief Society had a garden party on Tuesday evening, and I bought this hat to wear. And I rode my bike. It was awesome. I love my hat, and I love my bike.

Wednesday was probably the worst day ever. My iPhone’s home button died, and if you know anything about iPhones, you know that the home button is the most significant button on the entire phone. So I got that fixed, but lost the sim card tray, so I had to go back out and buy one. I didn’t get anything done because of the stupid phone (because then I had to set it up, restore, etc etc etc).

It’s back to normal now, though, so hopefully I will be, too!

Happy Hump Day

Is it Wednesday already? I am so ready for the weekend – probably because it is General Conference weekend.

I hope that I didn’t offend anyone with my breastfeeding post. I was just feeling kind of strongly about it at the moment.

I dreamt last night that I gave birth to a little baby boy who weighed about 7.5 lbs. He was beautiful, and I breast fed him. And Christy (my sister) was there with me at the birth instead of Russ. And I didn’t even have to push him out. Ha ha ha. That was probably the part that gave it away as a dream!

Not sure if it means anything (I am not pregnant – and not trying to be pregnant). Just thought I’d share. It was kind of a crazy dream. And at first he wasn’t crying (he was doing that silent cry that really really made babies do) but then he suddenly started crying, and that’s when I woke up (around 1:30 a.m.) to hear Joseline screaming in her room.

So we spent nearly the entire night trying to calm a freaked out two-year-old. Several prayers, songs, water bottles, and snuggles later, she was asleep. But I think she’s going to need a serious nap.

Monday Musings – Breastfeeding, the outcast

I have been thinking about breast feeding a lot lately. Mostly I’ve been thinking about all the misunderstandings surrounding breast feeding. What has spurred this? No, I’m not pregnant (but I wish I was – more about that later). I think what started me thinking so strongly about breast feeding was finding that my aunt who just had her first baby has stopped breastfeeding before her baby was 2 months old because “her milk dried up.”

Now, before I go on, let me say that I know that there are some women who just can’t (physically) breastfeed. But let me also say that the number is a lot smaller than people think it is. However, there are a lot of women who emotionally can’t breastfeed, due to lack of support or lack of desire. I think those are the two real reasons why women aren’t successful at breast feeding. And really, the lack of desire is closely linked to the lack of support. Women who were brought up in “non breast feeding” homes I think are more likely to lack the desire to breast feed.

The whole perception of breastfeeding is what is messed up. Too many people think that breastfeeding is something that is nice to do “if you can” but not essential, and it’s “okay” if you don’t breastfeed. Sure, in way, that’s true. You’re not a sinner if you don’t breastfeed. However, breastfeeding is completely natural, normal, and is actually how God intended for us to feed our children. He didn’t make women produce milk “just in case” someone didn’t come up with formula.

Being a strong advocate of adoption, I completely understand the significance of better infant formula that is almost as good as breast milk (formula will never ever be as good a breast milk. Ever.) There are infants who would die if it wasn’t for formula. So for that, I’m grateful for formula.

But there are women who plan on feeding formula for the majority of their baby’s lives. Vincente never had formula, and Joseline only had formula a handful of times (and I think they were all when I was gone longer than expected).

Now, back to the perception of breast feeding. To a lot of women (even those who are stay at home moms) “breast feeding” involved pumping breast milk, sticking it in a bottle, and giving it to the baby.

This is not breastfeeding. The only time a mother should be pumping is when the baby cannot latch (ie, a preemie, severe latching problems, or separation). I pumped for Joseline when I was away from her for a weekend when she was about 5 months old.

I think part of the problem is that women don’t associate having a baby with breastfeeding. There is a reason why milk comes in when you have a baby. It’s because you are supposed to put that baby on your breast and nourish it.

BREASTS ARE FOR BREASTFEEDING. Sure, they are for other things, as well, but their very nature is for breastfeeding. Women think of their breasts as a sex symbol. We worry about our cup size, we worry about how a shirt makes our breasts look. But breasts are originally and ultimately for breast feeding our children. That’s why even very small-breasted women (like myself  - I barely fill an A cup) can still breastfeed successfully (Baby #1 – 10.5 months, exclusively breastfed until solid food around 4.5/5 months when he started cereals; Baby #2 – 12 months, exclusively breastfed for 6 months). Both of my babies are ultra healthy, have never had ear infections, and have never had anything worse than the sniffles.

I think that if women who wanted to get pregnant would equate that with wanting to breastfeed, and would think about breastfeeding while they were thinking about what color to paint the nursery, there would be better breastfeeding figures in our society.

I do not judge women who choose not to breastfeed (whether for real or perceived real reasons) but please do not spread your lack of enthusiasm for breast feeding to new or expectant mothers. Too often, I hear this from people who (often) chose not to breastfeed (because it was hard because ______ – news flash – breastfeeding is NOT easy, just like being a mother is not easy. Oh wait, that’s right, breastfeeding is part of being a mother). I hear people saying “It’s okay if you can’t (read: don’t want to) breast feed. Your kids will be just as healthy if you don’t.”

THIS IS NOT TRUE! Sure, choosing to formula feed your babies is not giving them a death sentence. But PLEASE do not tell people flat out lies – that formula fed babies are just as healthy as breast fed babies because THIS IS JUST COMPLETELY NOT TRUE. NOT TRUE. NOT TRUE!!! It is a load of crap mothers feed themselves (and others) to make themselves feel better for not breast feeding. Well, I have two things to say to that:

#1) You have no reason to feel bad about choosing not to breast feed. Like I said before, it is not a sin. If you really do feel bad, then make up for it by encouraging other new mothers to breast feed – not by spouting untruths to them to make yourself feel better.

#2) It is a scientifically proven fact that breast fed babies are indeed healthier than formula fed babies. SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN.

You know what, breast feeding is even so important that the Surgeon General of the United States himself has issued a call to support breast feeding.

Breast feeding is natural, normal, and our God-given ability as mothers. Have faith in that God-given ability, and go find help from people who know what they are doing, and by golly, breast feed your child! Don’t pump and give them a bottle – latch that baby on your breast and let them drink the liquid gold that your body creates in a beautiful miracle. If it hurts, find out why and fix it! Don’t just give up because it hurts for two weeks. Fix your latch, talk to a lactation consultant, call La Leche League, go to your OB, your midwife, your friend, your neighbor, SOMEONE, and GET HELP!

And then, if you really can’t breastfeed – then blessings to you for trying, and for wanting to, and for doing everything you could to keep breastfeeding, and my heart goes out to you – you are a great mother, and please help other women breastfeed, don’t feed them a load of crap just because you weren’t able to breastfeed – you are still a good person, and breast is still best.

Sorry for my rant. I hope I don’t offend anyone. I just had to get that off my chest.

Breastfeeding reads:
The Surgeon General's call
Dr Jack Newman’s website
La Leche League International

Happy Birthday, Baby!

 
Today is my sweet Joseline’s 2nd Birthday! We went to IKEA last night to buy her a “big girl” bed for her birthday. She has been asking to sleep in Vincente’s bed for the past few nights, and so we decided it’s about time. We bought this bed in the black pictured below.  It also come in white, but the white looked dingy when it got scratched up, so we went with black. It fits our tastes. We hope Joseline will like it! I’m sure she will. I also love that it is wider than a normal crib mattress, because she’s starting to look cramped on the crib mattress. We’ll probably be getting Vincente bunkbeds for his birthday. We’ve been meaning to get bunk beds for a while, but we haven’t because, well, probably because we are lazy. But since it’s his birthday, and we got Joseline a bed (ironically, her mattress is bigger than his now) we feel we should probably upgrade our 4 year old into a twin mattress.

For her birthday, I blew up some balloons and put them in her crib before she woke up this morning. We were going to get some helium balloons from the party store last night and then tie them on to her crib this morning, but I think she actually enjoyed this more. She was actually HAPPY when I went to get her out of her crib. Joseline is pretty crabby most mornings, so this was a nice change. And she spent a good 20 minutes or so playing with the balloons before they moved on to something else. We’ll do the helium balloons for Vince, probably. It would have been fun to switch her beds in the night while she was sleeping, but we probably would have woken her up.

We’ll have cake and ice cream for her tonight for a party, and eventually we’ll have a family party with Russ’ family for both her and Vincente (their birthdays are 10 days apart).

Happy Birthday, Joseline!

(below: Joseline’s 1st birthday – she has so much more hair now!)

Caution: Bumpy Road

This is what our life has been like the last week – a very, very bumpy road. Thank goodness it’s almost over, and everything has worked out.

I’m always amazed at our Father’s ability to make the hard times not seem so bad.

Among the issues of the week was Russ’ car’s alternator dying. He got it to start at work in Lehi and drove it all the way down Redwood Rd and it died waiting for the light to cross Bangerter highway. So I gave him a little nudge with the van (which scratched the paint on my beautiful bumper!!) and he made it across the intersection. Then I put a cloth shopping bag on my bumper and gave him another little push into a bank parking lot where we jumped his car. It made it a little farther down the road, but then he had to stop at a red light and it died again. So we pulled it over and charged his battery again a little with my car. Rinse and repeat, basically. This time, he made it to the left turn lane right in front of AutoZone and was able to push the car into the parking lot. We had originally thought it was the battery (which apparently in a Dodge Stratus you have to get at through the wheel well -  we will never ever own one of these cars again… ever) but at this point we were pretty sure it was the alternator. Sure enough – the battery was fine, but it needed a new alternator. Our favorite shop is all the way in West Valley, and at this point we were in South Jordan (10400 S 1500 W ish). The shop is at 5600 W and 3100 S. Oh yeah, and it’s been raining pretty much this whole time). So we buy a tow cable at AutoZone and hook up Russ’ car to the van and tow it all the way across the western Salt Lake Valley. It was an adventure. I was actually really enjoying myself. I had prayed the whole time that we would make it safely to the auto parts store (because I figured we just needed a new battery, and the guys at AutoZone could help us figure out how to replace the battery).

Well, we made it safely, and sure enough it needed a new alternator, and it’s all fixed and ready to go for us (we seriously really love this shop – they do a great job, warranty their parts and labor, and you don’t have to pay out your nose for it! and they are honest, and helpful, and fast – we left the car there last night with the key in the drop box, and by the time I called at 9am, they had looked at the car and were finding out which part to order so they could call and give me a quote. Then they called around noon to tell me it was done and ready for pickup).’

So we’re doing well, and have experienced the fact that Heavenly Father doesn’t always make our life peachy, even when we have faith – but he does help us through our trials, whether by actually making them lighter, or by making them seem lighter.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Philippians 4:13

General Conference Prep

I played the Prophets and Apostles matching game with Vincente again today. He did really well remembering the names! He even got Elder Hales and Elder Scott straight (I really struggle with those two when I see them – hearing them I can differentiate, but their pictures look a lot alike, especially in black-and-white printer paper quality).

While we were playing, Vincente says to me, “I was the prophet when I was telling you what to do.” It took me a minute to remember what on earth he was talking about, but then I remembered for Family Home Evening last Monday we had Vincente pretend to be the Prophet, and Russ pretended to be Heavenly Father – Russ would tell Vincente something to tell me, and then Vince would come around the corner and tell me (“put your hands on your head” “sit down” “stand up” “fold your arms” etc). I couldn’t believe that Vincente remembered that lesson! He has been surprising me left and right with his gospel knowledge. I worry, because we attend a Portuguese ward, and sometimes I think he doesn’t understand what is going on in Primary. On top of that, he doesn’t have a long attention span and never looks like he is listening, so half the time I think we’re just talking to ourselves. But then he goes and says stuff like this, and reminds me that prophets talk to Jesus, and I’m just floored. Over and over again.

Anyway, I was getting excited for Vince to see the General Authorities at General Conference in April, and then I remembered that he has never really heard their voices. So I hopped on to LDS.org and looked up the “General Conference Highlights” and showed him this video:

He actually did pretty well naming them while he was watching.

The thing that struck me, though, was how quiet he was during the first clip of President Monson. I could tell that he was feeling the Spirit while he watched. After a minute, I started explaining what each apostle was talking about in Primary terms - “He’s telling us that we need to obey.” “He’s telling us that we can have the Holy Ghost with us to teach us.” “He’s telling us to be like the Savior.” “He’s telling you to keep the commandments so that you can have the Priesthood, which means you have the power of God.”

Then, on one of the clips of President Monson, Vincente says, “Hey, President Monson! Do you talk to Jesus?” And then, Vince changes his voice (to sound like President Monson, I assume) and says, “Yes, I do.”

It was a really humbling experience for me to listen to that sweet (if somewhat silly) testimony of my not-quite-four-year-old son, affirming that he knows that President Monson is a prophet, and that President Monson talks to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

When Elder Oaks talked about the two lines of communication with Heavenly Father, I tried to reinforce the testimony and explained that Elder Oaks was telling us that we can talk to Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father when we pray, and that we can also listen to the prophets because they talk to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and tell us what to do.

I plan on playing the matching game with Vincente more, and then also playing the “highlights” clip from last year’s General Conference. During the six months following April’s General Conference, I’ll play the new “highlights” clip for him every now and then. I think the “highlights” clip is probably the best tool yet for exposing little kids to General Conference. There is gentle background music, and the clips are short (1-2 minutes) and it’s only 16 minutes from start to finish. Vince was just about done at 12-13 minutes, but I tried to help him stick it out. It’s just perfect for his attention span – 4 two hour sessions is going to be entirely too much for him right now, but this will help get him ready to sit and listen to longer talks. And later as he gets older, we can play clips of the talks by the apostles in longer segments.

I think we will have him sit and listen when the Prophet addresses us. I haven’t decided what to expect out of him for the rest of it. We’ll try to get him and sit with us (by me explaining what the speakers are saying – in Primary terms), but I don’t know how much he’ll care to sit through, and I would like to be able to just sit and soak up one or two sessions. We’ll see how it goes.

Honesty is the best policy

From Friday night:
That cup wasn't in there until just before I snapped this picture.

And tonight, the cleanliness of the sink was all Russ' doing.




From tonight:
Here are all the dishes from tonight. Russ' family came over for dinner, and just after they left, my sister and her hubby came over with their adorable dogs, and we ended up playing with puppies instead of cleaning up. I did load and start the dishwasher, so it is mostly just the dishes in the sink. But this is part of moving my mountain - not being scared of doing the dishes the next morning.



So tomorrow I will move this mountain.

Posting these pictures is good for me. It's really keeping me accountable for my attitude about keeping my house in order.

I should do this more often with other habits I want to form.

Segue O Profeta

 
Last week for Family Home Evening, we made a matching game with the pictures of the prophets and apostles. I just printed the pictures from the November 2010 Ensign on cardstock (two copies) and then cut them out to make pairs of each prophet/apostle’s face. I had to resize the pictures of the First Presidency, but that was pretty easy.

Both of our kids love matching games, and this one was no different. At first it was a little hard for them, because there were 15 pairs (30 cards) and they are used to 8-10 cards. But Vincente still did really well, and Joseline even found a few matches on her own! Next time we will probably do them in smaller sets – 4-5 pictures at a time.

As we flipped over the pictures, we practiced saying the names of the person pictured. This was good for Russ and myself as well… I’m ashamed to say we’re not as good as we thought we were at remembering all the names. The leadership has changed so much since I was a teen! I still remember listening to Elder Maxwell and President Faust. It seems like it was just yesterday that they were speaking to us – but it’s been years, hasn’t it?

I hope that this will help our kids enjoy General Conference more when we watch it in a few weeks.

May The Force Be With You

I caught Vince using the Force to open the doors at PetCo a while ago...




It was quite possibly the best thing I have seen in a while. Although I think the manager wasn't amused. If I remember correctly, he was approaching just as I snapped this picture. And he didn't look particularly happy. But that may have just been because some of the animals got loose or something.

Mission Accomplished

Here it is - Day no. 1 of moving my mountain.



It wasn't actually as hard as I thought it was going to be. Once I started thinking about it in terms of 'moving a mountain' - and having faith to move that mountain, it became quite easy. I jut went to work.

The best part? It only took me about 5 minutes. And doing the dinner dishes (I loaded plates, etc right after, and rinsed the pots and pans) only took about two minutes. I think this mountain is going to be a lot easier to move than I thought it was.

And to remind myself of how to think about those dishes in that sink, I put this up on the cupboard by the sink:




Does it seem weird that I am exercising faith to do the dishes? I don't think so.

What mountains do you have that you think you might be able to move just by reminding yourself that if we have enough faith we can move mountains?

-- Post on the go

Moving Mountains

I am about to confess something horrible. And embarrassing. So please don’t judge.

This is what my kitchen sink looks like right now -

Yes, there it is – in all of it crusty-food-dirty-dishes glory.

It is my MOUNTAIN.

Figuratively, of course, but it might as well be one. Yesterday I didn’t clean the house. Not one bit. I didn’t life a finger at all. It was awesome. I did go to pump class, I played with the kids, I read books to them – but I didn’t clean. Then Russ came home, and I remembered that I didn’t clean, and I felt bad. Really, really bad.

Later in the night, after the kids were in bed and we were having some meaningful pillow talk, I mentioned to Russ that my “mountain” is dirty dishes in the sink. I have been trying really hard in the past few years to get in the habit of rinsing my dishes and either putting them straight in the dishwasher, or if the dishwasher is clean or running, in a wash bin under the sink. Why? Because if I have a clean sink, I feel like I can do anything! This is why dirty dishes in the sink is my mountain – if the kitchen sink is clean, chances are the rest of the house is clean, too. If there are dirty dishes in the sink, I feel like I can’t clean anything until they are gone… and, like I said… mountain – so nothing ends up getting clean.

Now, the biggest problem with this is that if there are dirty dishes in the sink, rather than just clean them up and take care of them, I get discouraged (remember… mountain) and add to the mess. The other kink is that I’m not the only person in this house who uses that sink. The other person shall remain unnamed, but he isn’t quite as good as me at rinsing dishes. It comes from how we were raised. In his family, everyone leaves their dishes in the sink (leftover bits of food and all) and one person who’s duty it is to do dishes then rinses everyone’s dishes and loads the dishwasher. In my family growing up, we were each responsible for our own dishes and were supposed to rinse our dishes and put them in the dishwasher, or rinse them and leave them on the counter if the dishwasher was already running. Not that we ever did it, but that was the rule. As I have matured and started running my own household, it is one of two things that make me crazy – dirty dishes in the sink/counter, and clean laundry that needs to be folded. The laundry only makes me crazy enough to take care of it, whereas the dishes… well, like I said… “MOUNTAIN.”

But today I was reading a talk by President Eyring, and for some reason I starting thinking about faith moving mountains, and that reminded me about calling the dirty dishes in the sink my personal “mountain” – and then I had no excuse. If I want to have faith to move mountains, then I can have faith to keep my kitchen sink clean.

I am going to start taking a picture of my kitchen sink twice a day. Once before I go to bed, and once after the kids go down for a nap. Because I want to document (mostly for myself, but a little bit to show off) my ability to have faith to move that mountain.

 

Bring it on.

Casey Jr

Probably one of the kids’ favorite pastimes is playing with the trains. Well, only if we are playing with them.

These wooden tracks are my favorite. Our collection is a mod podge of Ikea tracks and trains, Target tracks and trains, and a few random trains we inherited from friends and family.

Mostly Russ is the one that plays trains with the kids. He’s the one who plays most “pretend” games with the kids, too. I’m just not as exciting. But I do enjoy building train tracks with the kids, and towers. More than that, I enjoy being with them and seeing their personalities, and watching them learn and develop.

I wish I had new exciting things to report about our kids, but mostly they’ve been doing the same old, same old. Joseline tries to talk more, so that’s good. Vincente loves the daycare at the gym, and Joseline finally went yesterday without screaming as I left. Last Thursday I took the kids to the gym daycare, and Joss cried when I left them, and Vince cried when I picked them up. That’s just about how it goes with them.

The pump class is amazing. The instructor is fabulous and upbeat, and the class is at the same time on Tuesday and Thursday, so I get to do pump twice a week and then run the other days (although… I haven’t really been running much because it’s been so cold, and I can only run so long on the track or the treadmill).

I’m doing yoga on my own at home with some good yoga videos I found on YouTube.

It’s nice to get back in shape… and boy do I need it!