Backyard Campout

We love camping. A lot. You wouldn’t know because we haven’t really ever been camping since we were married (other than the summer we spent in a cabin at Scout Camp – which was pretty much the most adventurous thing we have ever done).
Memorial Day weekend this year (2011) was the perfect opportunity for us to head out on a long awaited adventure. We were going to do it. It was going to be a blast. Then we looked at our budget. There was no way we could pay for a campground and gas to get there and still be able to pay the bills. Being the responsible (HA!) grown-ups we are, we decided to have a backyard campout.

It ended up being perfect. The weather was fine (a little cold, but hey, camping out is about roughing it, so that was perfect). Our backyard was mostly a big level area of dirt, perfect for pitching a tent. So pitch a tent is what we did. Then we started up a fire and cooked tinfoil dinners, then roasted marshmallows for S’mores, and then stayed up late into the night eating horrible snacks around the campfire, simply enjoying one another’s company. Then we piled into our little tent (we have got to upgrade before we go on a real campout) and spent the night enjoying the outdoors in our backyard. Doc stood guard over the campsite. And then slept in the tent with us. That sweet dog. We really like him!
Because I have lots of pictures about this campout, and not much to say, I have included recipes of the evenings food for your camping enjoyment!

And remember, you don’t have to even leave your backyard to have an adventure! Camping can be super fun (and super cheap) if you just camp in your backyard. You can even invite a few neighbors over and pull out the guitar and ukulele (what we always did at family campouts) and sing some fun camp songs.  Don’t know any camp songs? Check out the LDS Young Women’s camp songs on the Church website. Or just do a Google search for camp songs. You won’t come up empty, I’m sure of it.
Tin Foil (aka “Hobo”) Dinnerspotatoes
carrots
onions
meat (ground beef, chicken, steak, whatever whets your appetite)salt
pepper
other seasonings as desired (we use seasoned salt and a little garlic powder – we love garlic!)butter
square pieces of tin foil
---------------------------Slice the veggies (potatoes, carrots, onions, and any other veggies you decided to use) very thinly. If desired, spray your tin foil with non-stick spray, then line with carrots, then potatoes, then onions, then meat, then layer it again, but backwards (onions, potatoes, carrots). Your meat should be surrounded on all sides by the veggies – otherwise your meat will get dry and your veggies will be crunchy. No one likes a hobo dinner that is crunchy. On each layer, sprinkle some of your seasonings, and add a little blob of butter.
Once you are finished layering your food, take two sides of the tinfoil and pull them together, forming a triangle with the tinfoil (your food is at the bottom of the tinfoil). Roll the top (where the ends meet) down until it is tight on top of the food. Then roll up the ends.
Throw your dinner on the hot coals. Let it cook about 5-10 minutes on each side (depending on the amount of veggies, etc). When it’s done, dump it all out on a plate and enjoy!
Campfire Cornenough ears of corn for everyone in your campsite (plus extras if you want to share with the neighbors) – do not shuck your corn
salt water
-------------------------------------Make a big bucket or bowl of cold salt water and soak your (unshucked) corn for a few hours (we only let ours soak for about an hour and a half, and that was fine). About five minutes or so after you put your Hobo dinners on the coals, set your unshucked ears of corn on the coals as well. Turn the corn constantly – every few minutes or so – until the husks start looking cooked. It probably will only take about 5 minutes to cook the ears of corn. Take them off the coals and let them cool for a minute (probably about as long as it takes you to unwrap your Hobo dinner). Pull the husks down, but leave them on the corn – no need for ear holder things, just hold the husks. Smother your cob of corn in butter and salt, and enjoy!


S’moresAs if I need to post this recipe.name brand graham crackers (I’ve tried store brand, and unless they are different, store brand crackers are too crumbly to squish the marshmallow – our favorite brand is Honey Maid, but you use whatever you like – or have a coupon for)Hershey’s chocolate (again, a place you should not skimp when it comes to S’mores)Large Marshmallows (here, doesn’t matter what the brand is. But we tried these chocolate swirl marshmallows a while ago – WHOO HOO they were yummy)------------------------------------------------
   Take a whole graham cracker and break it in half. Place three squares (more if you like) of chocolate on one of the crackers. Place the marshmallow on a roasting stick. Hold it over the coals, turning constantly. Don’t worry that it doesn’t brown up all at once – the key to a perfectly brown marshmallow is to be patient, and turn it constantly. Once the marshmallow is all goldeny-brown, lay it (using the roasting stick) on top of the chocolate cracker. Take the other cracker and smash it down on top of the marshmallow. Slowly pull the roasting stick out of the marshmallow. This is the perfect way to make a S’more with the least amount of stickiness.

 

A Little Bit of Everything

I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet – I promise. There’s proof over here and over there. Okay, not super recent proof, but proof enough.

You know how when you’re climbing a mountain, you can’t really tell how far it is to the top when you’re actually on the mountain, doing the climbing. Well, that’s kind of how I feel right now.

Although, the nice thing about climbing a mountain is that you can usually stop for a breathtaking view every now and then, making the uncertainty of when you’ll reach the top somewhat bearable.

The view of the Arkansas River on the way up Pinnacle Mountain in Arkansas. I had a picture of the fog coming off the river from a different hike, but I couldn’t find it – so this will have to do. Not quite breathtaking, but beautiful nonetheless.

So we’re still working through some things (I say working through because we really are working through them. Things are getting better, not worse, so that’s good) but in the meantime, we’re enjoying the view from the side of the mountain.

Remember how much we missed this face? (photo courtesy of Vincente, of course) He came back from Brazil on May 15 with lots of goodies for us! Mostly books, but some flip flops for me (I basically live in flip flops – especially in the summer, but I’ve been known to wear them even in the dead of winter – as long as the ground is dry), and a berimbau, from which the airline took the tall stick – because they were going to charge him $100 to check it, and they wouldn’t let it in the cabin. Bummer. But Russ managed to take it apart and brought home everything except the long stick, which are not really a rare commodity around here.

Thanks to a lot of thiswith a few days of this in between, our yard has been growing a lot of these and a bunch of these

(disclaimer – the four previous pictures are not mine – I found them on Google images. I’m pretty sure as long as none of you say anything, no one will sue me. Right?)
Needless to say, whenever the heavens aren’t pouring their liquid gold upon us, we’ve been outside working the yard. I’ve got to put some before and afters of the little patch of our backyard where we laid some seed. Thanks to all the rain, it looks thick and luscious without us even running the sprinklers! And I wish I had taken pictures of our tulips. We ended up with mostly orangy-red ones, but a few yellows, purples, purple-whites, and a few pinks showed up later in the season. We’ve got what appear to be some dark purple irises coming up, too, and an unknown bush that I think is a hibiscus, but not entirely sure. And a lot of decorative grass. I mean… a LOT. If anyone wants some, please let me know, because I’m going to tear it all out.

Tonight we’ll be building the vegetable garden, and hopefully planting tomorrow. I know it’s kind of late in the season, but all this rain has made it nearly impossible to plant anything.

Russ mowed the lawn a little over a week ago, and it looks like a jungle again already! I’m not complaining – we’ve had to do a lot of repair work on the landscaping of this house. Remember what our yard used to look liked? (if you don’t, there are pictures in this post) I’ll post an update on the yard later, probably after we get the garden up.

We’ve been enjoying visits from friends – especially this friend who now lives very close to us, and who we adore very much!

We’ve been working out and running, and in general just plugging on with life.

Oh, and enjoying some really yummy watermelon ($.17/lb at Sunflower Market a few weeks ago! The absolute best! PS, Vincente took this picture)

So I can’t really complain about much, but I can’t wait to be at the top of the mountain. I’m sure the view will be amazing.

I’ll post a picture of the view from the top when we get there. And we will get there.

Little Slugger

Because I just downloaded these pictures from my camera today, and we have a T-ball game tonight, I thought I would share our little slugger:

Running home -

With “coach” -

And would he be a man (or a jock) if he wasn’t caught adjusting himself?

I promise that I wasn’t trying to get this shot! He moved his hand just as I snapped the picture. I think it’s adorable.

T-ball is certainly fun. No stress, just fun, every gets a chance to hit, everyone gets a chance to “catch” (and by catch I mean, hold up their mitt, then after the ball sails past them, or falls 4 feet in front of them, run to pick it up, and throw it at – er, to – a teammate, who then throws it home), no strikes, no outs, just fun! And the last kid up to bat hits a home run by default (so all the kids can come back in and the teams can switch).

The worst drama is when two kids run after the same ball when they are playing on the field. And then there was the kid that did somersaults to second base. And the one who skipped first base altogether and decided he’d go straight to second. The fun that is 4-year-old T-ball.

wisdom

Remember this recent post, and this one?

Sometimes I think Heavenly Father likes to build us up before He allows us to experience trials. That sounds kind of mean – seriously, it’s almost like a really mean joke. “Here are a bunch of blessings. And now I will try you beyond anything you’ve ever experienced.” I’m not sure if He is teaching me to appreciate my blessings more, or if He just wants to give me extra strength to get through the hard times.

But I know that Heavenly Father just knows so much more than we do. Our little human minds can’t even begin to fathom the duties and blessings He has in store for us.

In the talk from Elder Cook that I quoted in my last post, he goes on to recite this passage from Doctrine and Covenants – when Joseph Smith is in jail and cries to God, and Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom and mercy comforts Joseph with this powerful promise:

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.”

Recently in our family scripture study we have been reading 2 Nephi 2, where Lehi teaches his family about opposition and gives an excellent logical argument for God existing. Elder Cook teaches us (in that same talk) that an essential gospel doctrine “is that there must be opposition in all things for righteousness to be brought to pass.”

Well, we’re definitely experiencing that.

“We know from the scriptures that some trials are for our good and are suited for our own personal development. We also know that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. It is also true that every cloud we see doesn’t result in rain.”

Right now, what we are experiencing is a very very ominous looking cloud. It hasn’t rained (yet) and we hope that it won’t, and fortunately, this cloud is the kind that we can blow away if we have enough faith and work hard enough.

But the best part about having trials?

“Regardless of the challenges, trials, and hardships we endure, the reassuring doctrine of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ includes Alma’s teaching that the Savior would take upon Him our infirmities and ‘succor his people according to their infirmities.’”

Being able to partake of the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, and feel its power in our lives, and feel the Savior succoring us, “according to [our] infirmities.”

And how sweet that feeling is.

Ultimate Mothering Success

Vincente just woke up from his nap crying, and I could tell he needed to go pee. When he got on the potty, I realized that he had peed a little bit in his undies, but he woke himself up to go pee! And then, he went back to his nap!

He has been dry for the past week or so, but we still make him wear a Pull-Up to bed (mostly because I hate changing pee sheets every morning – especially now that he sleeps in a full bed).

I feel like this is a huge step toward dry nights and dry naps!

I could not feel better as mother as I do right. Not that it has anything to do with me – but it’s just one less thing I have to worry so much about!

hope ya know, we had a hard time

“…many of the trials and hardships we encounter in life are severe and appear to have lasting consequences. Each of us will experience some of these during the vicissitudes of life.” (Elder Quentin L. Cook)

We’re experiencing a little bit of this right now and could use some extra prayers.

Don’t ask for any details, because I won’t give them, but we could use some extra prayers for the next little while.

Monday Musings – To Delay Action

From the Google Dictionary:

wait
    verb /wāt/
waited, past participle; waited, past tense; waiting, present participle; waits, 3rd person singular present

1. Stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens

We had scheduled our home study for Wednesday a week and a half ago, and about 45 minutes before our appointment, our licenser called and said he was stuck in traffic, so we would have to reschedule. Well, we rescheduled for Tuesday, and then on Monday we remembered that it was Vincente’s first T-ball game that night. So we called our licensor on Tuesday morning and asked if we could reschedule (again!) – and not three hours later, we were getting phone calls from the rec center saying the game had been rained out.

So since Russ is going to be gone for two weeks (military stuff) we have to wait until he gets back for the home study.

What we thought was the last step to getting our foster care license and getting a placement has turned into the last leap. As frustrating as it is, we know that this is the right thing for us to be doing right now, and there is a reason for all the waiting.

Probably to teach Miss-Impatience over here to be okay with waiting.

I am not okay with waiting.

byU

I snapped this photo in Sandy, UT on our way home from a movie. Just a week or so before this sighting, we happened upon a big red truck driving North on I-15 proclaiming a large BYU logo, next to a large Utah logo that was crossed out.

Funny stuff, this BYU/Utah rivalry. In fact, it’s so popular that there is a Rivalry Relay – a 60 mile race for a 6 man team from Rice-Eccles stadium in Salt Lake City all the way up and over the point of the mountain and down to LaVell Edwards stadium in Provo.

I plan to run it. Anyone want to join my team?

Monday Musings - Good Reads and Motherhood

Being a mother is all it’s cracked up to be. And more. I love it. And my attitude about motherhood is improving every minute. It’s a lot like marriage. When you are young (and not married) you have this sort of “fairy tale” impression of marriage. You’ll find the love of your life, making covenants in the temple, and the rest of your life will be utter bliss.

And then you get married and realize that marriage is a whole lot of work, patience, love, and getting to know each other. Especially getting to know yourself.

Sometimes the same thing happens with motherhood.

As a young girl, you look at the moms of small kids and think how awesome it must be to have those precious children and raise them all your own and do their hair and dress them up and take them to ball games and out for ice cream.

And then you have kids. And you realize that motherhood is a whole lot of work, patience, love, and getting to know each other. Especially getting to know yourself.

For a little while you may say to yourself “What on earth was I thinking?” among other things that you may or may not admit to yourself. Like “I wish I could just give them back!” or “I’m never having another kid.” or “I wish I could just start over.”

But none of that is constructive, and you did at one time want to be a mother, which I don’t think was just naïveté. I think the Spirit does a really good job of planting the seed of motherhood in every young girl. We want to be mothers. We crave motherhood, even if we don’t know exactly what it is like. But that is what this mortal experience is all about – experiencing new things and doing things that we have never done before.

So instead of thinking all those crazy thoughts that we deny ever even having, we should be praying for the Lord to give us strength to do things that we don’t think are possible – like keeping our cool when our kids pee on the carpet, draw on the walls, and throw their spaghetti (sauce and all) on our brand new shirt and favorite pants.

It helps to remind ourselves that they are just little people, too, who are here in this mortal life for the same reasons we are – to experience new things and do things that they have never done before. And it’s our job to help them in that journey, because even though our journey isn’t done yet, we have experienced more of it than they have, and we are (hopefully) able to guide them through it all and help them make sense of the whole thing.

I have been reading a lot about motherhood lately (it is, after all, my full time job, and I want to be the best employee I can be).

I wrote my thoughts about the things I read over on my scripture study blog. At the bottom of the post I listed the articles I’ve been reading. I highly recommend the one about Quality and Quantity Time by Beppie Harrison.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mother, and I am glad that I had such a strong desire to be a mother when I was young and I’m even more grateful that I am learning to love being a mother. It is a lot more work than I ever thought it would be (it’s emotional, physical, spiritual, and temporal work) …

… but it is the best work I have ever done.

More Good

I’m feeling good and loving how our life is going right now, which is no excuse not to write blog posts. Part of the lack of blog posts might be that I still don’t have our camera (hopefully I remember it get it when we visit the in-laws for Easter).

Why am I so happy? Well, let me tell you what’s on my “happy list” right now:

- I’m getting stronger (I got to a power pump class at the gym on Tues and Thurs, and I can feel the strength and stamina I’m developing. Now I just need to start running again, since the weather is good)

- Russ and I have better gospel discussions and are more unified as parents and spouses. We have Family Home Evening, family prayer, we read scriptures together as a family, and are working on worshipping better on the Sabbath day.

- We are one step away from getting our foster care license! (home study tomorrow!)

- The military (finally!) paid a huge chunk of Russ’ student loans (almost HALF of the loan!!) and will make another payment this fall, and the fall after that.

- The military fixed our address in their system (finally!) and we are now getting paid enough to cover our housing expenses!

- Russ will be coaching Vincente’s T-ball team this spring, which starts next week!

- We’ve been to the eye doctor, I’ve had my first yearly exam (ever!), and the kids are getting caught up on their shots (we’ve been a little lazy about following our alternative schedule – but most of that has to do with moving around so much), and I’m going to the chiropractor regularly again, so my hips are feeling a LOT better.

- We’ve been getting a lot of work done on the yard (I thought that I had posted about how it looked before,  but I can’t find the post – so here are some pics of last fall):

The lawn is getting really green, and we have cleaned up all of the weeds and trees (well, the big ones). My plan for next week is to mow the front lawn, then weed & feed. Then in a month I’ll re-seed the parts of the front lawn that need help. The backyard is being re-seeded, and we expanding the dog run so we don’t feel so bad about keeping them cooped up. Plus, we’ve been taking them out on walks/runs/dog park visits more often so that they can get some much needed exercise. And I’ve also done a few home projects – I replaced the water line to the fridge, so we can finally use the water and ice maker in the fridge. I also replaced a motion sensor light on our back deck. The sensor was defective or something, because it would turn off and on and off and on… sooo annoying. I replaced it with a fixture that didn’t have a motion sensor, since we only want the light to be ON. We’ll hopefully be adding some motion sensor lights to the corners of the house soon. We’re also going to replace the light at the front door (which is completely broken…) and put motion sensor lights on the side of the garage door.

We’re going to replace some light fixtures and fans around the house, and replace the doors and door hardware (these two things will happen in the next few months). And this summer we’ll put in tile in the dining room (which is currently carpeted) and replace the tile in the kitchen.

We have to do things piece by piece because our cash flow is relatively low (some day Russ will be promoted). But we feel blessed because we have very little debt (and we’re paying that off) and some savings (which we’re adding to) and very low expenses, so we’re able to accomplish a lot of the things that we want to, even with our limited income. I’m always astonished with how much we are actually able to do each month with our limited paycheck. It always seems to be more than it really is.

Well, that’s why life is good here. I hope life is good for you, too!

When Life is Good

 

Life is pretty good right now. We’ve finished all the preparations for our foster care license, and have our home study scheduled for next week! I think it will go really well, and hope that we will be approved for a license soon so we can get a placement. I am so anxious to be a a foster mom!

My new normal has been working out pretty well. I love my kids, and I love just being with them, and I love my pump class at the gym, and I love that we can go to the indoor pool any time we want, and I love that the weather was warm enough for us to go for a walk and jump on the trampoline. I love that our dogs are living in their run again so that we can grow a lawn in the backyard. I love that my tulips are budding, and soon we’ll have tulips all over our front yard. I love that my husband is a sweet heart and that we have experienced so much growth in the past five years (both personal, and as a couple).

I am grateful to live so close to my little sister, who I adore more than pretty much anyone on this planet (after Russ and my kids), and who is amazing and selfless.

I am excited for my parents to come visit this summer and see our new house. I am grateful to be homeowners (even though it means we spend more time at the home improvement store than at home!) and I am grateful for a reasonable mortgage, little debt, a little savings, paid-for cars, food storage, and a handy husband.

I am grateful for my talents, my abilities, and my desire to improve them. I am grateful for my callings, and the opportunities I have for growth. I love to read, and I am grateful for all the good books there are to read – there is so much to learn!

Well, I didn’t expect this to turn into a thankful post – I just wanted to write something on the blog today, and post that adorable picture of my Mini-Me and me, and talk about how wonderful life has been lately.

Hopefully I will be updating more often. If I don’t write here, chances are I’m still posting over on my scripture study blog, or my preschool blog. So go check those out if you can’t find updates here.

When I post on the blog, I send a feed to Twitter (follow us!), which sends a feed to Facebook (friend me!), so all the posts will show up on both, not to mention any blog reader you have.

Have a great Wednesday, and I will, too!

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!