Sweet Dreams

The Sandman surely visited our house last night. Everyone was sleeping peacefully,enjoying visions of..whatever, including me. I happened to be dreaming that I just brought a baby girl home from the hospital. That's just how my dream started. Walking in the front door with a bundle of sweetness. I sat on the couch and then realized that I didn't have a diaper bag for this little girl. I had gotten rid of all my baby things but the crib. The next thing was that we didn't have a name for her. I was telling Nate that his choices were Millie or Meah and that I was at a total loss for a middle name. I had mentioned Molly and he started slapping his leg and making noises like he was calling a dog. So I knew that name was out. In the middle of this important discussion, someone started calling me in the distance. I could faintly hear "Mom, Mom,Mom!" I kept answering "What" and they kept calling me. Finally I awoke to MyLeigh standing over me. It was 5:30 in the morning. Apparently there is a VERY scary noise in her room and she needs to sleep with me. As she is settling in and wiggling around, J comes running in the room with the same story. I rack my brain trying to figure out what it could be. I'm not even going to humor anyone with what I came up with. I just said a prayer and tried to go back to sleep. The kids drifted off but not me. At 7 J got up to get in the shower. I think he forgot it was spring break. I managed to slumber for about 20 mins while he showered. Then got up. I had breakfast got ready for a workout and then waited. And waited. And waited. This sleeping beauty who is ALWAYS up before 8, didn't want to get up this morning. I finally woke her up at 9:20 so we could get on with our day. At least it wasn't a day that we had pressing things to do. Oh, and while waiting for her to wake up, I ventured downstairs to check on that noise. Turns out it was the battery in the smoke detector in MyLeigh's room. I popped in a new 9 volt battery and the scary noise was gone. Which now leads me to the question, Why don't all the smoke detector batteries need to be changed at the same time? Is one used more than another? It's the same thing with light bulbs why don't all of them in the same light fixture go out at the same time?

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Today

Today is the first day of Spring Break for MyLeigh and Jordan. Jaxon got out last Wednesday and has 2 weeks off. So what am I doing today?

• Today I am not going ANYWHERE.
• Today I get to read stories and play Memory
• Today I get to make Bread with MyLeigh
• Today Jordan is helping me make granola bars.
• Today I get to read scriptures with my kids.
• Today I will exercise because I want too.
• Today I want to read a grown up book.
• Today I get to listen to MyLeigh play Fur Elise on the piano for the 120,000,000,001 time.

* Have I mentioned how blessed I am to have a daughter that DOESN"T complain to practice the piano? Have I mentioned that her recital isn't until the middle of May and her song is already perfected??? Please pray for me that Fur Elise doesn't send me over the edge.

• Today is going to be great.

Cereal for Dinner...crap

I was just telling someone the other day that yes, sometimes we have sandwiches for dinner,but I am proud of myself that I have never given my kids cold cereal for dinner. I think I just broke my streak of 11 1/2 years. Really it isn't too hard cause I don't buy cereal unless Nate happened to be with me at the store and he sneaks some in the cart. Seriously he does, But its gone the next morning.

Tonight we were going to have leftovers and then 2 kids didn't want that (of course). I made granola last week that they have all been snacking on and I told them they could have that with milk. I was thinking it would be good. About 3 bites into it I realized what I had just done. At least it wasn't frosted flakes.

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Breakfast with a smile

This is what Nate and I awoke to this morning. At 6:45 I heard some noise in the kitchen. J did this a couple mornings last week too. I taught him to make an egg sandwich and he is loving the independence of making his breakfast. I love seeing this smiling face and good mood when I wake up. It makes the day go so much smoother. I am racking my brain to come up with something else to teach this kid that gives a sense of accomplishment like making his breakfast does.

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Sunday Afternoon

Here is Mady's favorite Sunday activity. Actually it is her new favorite game. She has even figured out that she likes playing by herself better than playing with others. When you play by yourself you always win. She is very competitive when it comes to Memory. She will always play me though cause she knows she can beat me. My memory just isn't what it use to be.

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Cow eggs?

Yesterday morning Jordan was cooking himself an egg that we got from some friends that have their own chickens. Jaxon, "what kind of egg is that?" Me, "what do you mean? Jaxon, "well, where did it come from?" Me, "you mean what kind of a chicken?" (yes, we have brown and green colored eggs) Jaxon, "like, is it from a chicken? " Me, " where else would it come from?" Jaxon, "a cow" Hummm. Last week on the way home from school, I was waiting to cross Yellowstone. Down the street was a firetruck parked at a house with a police car behind it. Jaxon says, "I didn't know firetrucks could get pulled over". I remember having a 4th grade parent teacher conference with Jaxon's teacher last year and she described him as " the first blonde boy she has ever met". Sometimes I agree with her.

Switching Rooms

We have been busy this week, once again switching around rooms. Jordan decided awhile ago that he wanted to move downstairs. He has worked so hard on sleeping in his own bed and has done a great job. So, last weekend he started sleeping donwstairs. He has gone right to sleep and stayed there the whole night. It feels weird to have most the kids down there. I finally got the office upstairs put mostly together yesterday. MyLeigh likes doing school up here and it is easier for me too. Jordan is taking his new room seriously. He has made his bed every morning and gotten up to his alarm. He is also keeping things very clean, but we will see how long that lasts.

Socks

We have completed our first trial week of a new method of washing socks at our house. Last week I gave each of the kids a lingerie bag. I got the one that could hang so they can keep it in the inside of their closet handle or the back of their bedroom door. I asked them to keep their dirty socks in it. The rule is that a whole pair has to go in together. Then when they bring their laundry to sort, they can zip the bag and put it in the white pile.

When it is all washed, I unzipped the bag, dumped the socks, QUICKLY matched socks and put them back in. The kids took their bags with their piles of laundry back to their rooms and filled their sock drawer back up. What I already liked about this was that socks weren't getting lost in the sorting phase, falling on the floor or being dropped as they were transferred from here to there. Also, I didn't have to search and search for someone's socks. All of Jaxon's or whoevers are right there together. I am hoping that this will seriously cut down on lost socks. We shall see!

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Look -a-Like

Jordan was acting like me and thought the glasses were a nice touch. I wonder if I am as cute as him?

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Green Eggs

While I was checking off Jaxon's math, I asked Jordan to play quietly with Mady. This is what he picked to do with her! She loves anyone and everyone to read her a story.

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Ready for Daddy

Mady was so excited for Nate to come home last week. She got ready all by herself. She was so proud of her outfit and accessories. She even did her own hair. Don't ask me where she found what she found to put in her hair. She kept asking when her Dad was coming home. Unfortunately it wasn't for many mote hours and she got tired of waiting. So she went back into her pajamas.

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Mama and Me

I saw this idea on Pinterest and fell in love with it. I got some composition notebooks, covered them and put contact paper over them to protect them. I wrote each of the 3 older kids a letter and left their book on their bed. They write me back when they want and leave it on my pillow. It brings a smile to my face to find these books on my bed. We started this about 6 weeks ago. We have covered many topics in our writings. What I think is going to be neat is that they will have these books to keep and show to their kids if they wish. I also hope it helps when they get older and maybe find it hard to open up. I hope that at least they will be able to still write to me and the habit / tradition will already be established!

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Thankful for my Brother and Sisters

Jaxon bore his testimony today. Actually after one of his friends did, I heard him mutter, "next is Crayson, then me". I looked at him. He told me a couple of weeks ago in their class his Dad had challenged then all to bear their testimonies. So, they all picked the order they were going to do it. Calen went first, then Brandon, Crayson, Jaxon. About 10 minutes before the meeting was over, Jaxon figured that Crayson wasn't getting up. So up he went. I must say, he did a wonderful job testifying of the things he knows to be true. In the end he said, " I'm thankful for my brother and sisters (pause) for the trials that they give me so I can be stronger".

Tie a Knot...

"When you feel you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on!" I can't remember where this quote came from, but I remember when I first heard it. I was in college and teaching Relief Society. It was a quote that went with my lesson. At the time, life consisted of school work, jobs, friends and who was going out with who, roommates and if you had a date for Friday night. At the time, I think all the young girls in that Relief Society thought they were stressed to the max. "Tie a knot and hold on" was the exact words that went through my head when Nate called wednesday morning to let me know that he wasn't coming home on Friday. Instead it would be at the earliest the next Wednesday. If that is the case, it makes it 16 days gone. Mady has not felt great this week and her Asthma got pretty bad on Thursday. I also started to get the body aches again and have a Headache that isn't letting up, not cool when you aren't use to headaches period. My frustration made for a good 4 mile run with a time on 31:52. Never have I done better than 8 min miles, and that just happened a month ago. During that run, I reflected on the blessing Nate gave me the morning that he left. I was still not feeling that great and felt bad that I was half asleep and laying in bed as he placed his hands upon my head. I don't remember most of it, but I remember feeling my Savior's love and being given the strength to take care of my family in Nate's absence. Choosing to not tell the kids till Friday afternoon was good and bad. I felt bad cause they kept asking when he would be home on friday and I had to keep saying that I didn't know for sure. Good cause we made it through the school week and didn't have tears...till Friday afternoon. After the tears, Jaxon went a birthday party and the other kids stayed up late and watched a movie. Saturday Jaxon had a basketball game in the morning and I had an errand to run. We came home, did some cleaning and had an early dinner and headed to the movie. After the movie we went and played at Brooklyn's playground till it was dark (and freezing cold), came home and headed for bed. It was my turn to teach all the Young Women today. I of course have lots of time to prepare. (Knowing a whole year ahead the schedule) Last week I looked at it a couple of times, but just felt that with Nate gone, I needed to take care of the kids and not dive into a lesson, like I let myself do. I kept putting it off waiting for some quiet time to work on it. The problem is, once there is quiet in this house, I want to shut down and go to bed. Finally thursday night I forced myself to stay up and work on it. Friday night I did the same thing. Saturday night I looked over things once and went to bed and found an episode of "Everybody loves Raymond". Just what I needed! Well, the next thing I knew it was 10:15 and MyLeigh was trying to wake me up cause she needed some cough medicine. The show was Looong over, Now that Sunday is almost over, Hopefully the next few days will fly by. With piano lessons, wrestling practice and a meet in malad, gymnastics, scouts, basketball practice and a trip to Aberdeen all by wednesday, it should, shouldn't it?