Strawberries

These beautiful strawberries are in season and my kids new favorite snack.  I bought a large flat and froze them last week and they are all gone.  When they're frozen my kids think they're candy.  With all these yummy berries about, my sister Amy and I decided to make some strawberry jam. We took a trip to DI first in hopes of scoring some mason jars.  Just our luck there was a whole box of jam jars with rims.  Each jar was marked 25 cents, we counted a little over $10 worth. I took it up to the cashier to see if he would take $5 for the whole box.  He was about to agree when the neighboring cashier mentioned that if they were in a box there was most likely a price for the whole box.  We looked and saw a price tag for $3, even better we'll take it.
It took a big chunk of the afternoon but we did can about 15 pounds of strawberries.  Each time we can, we say we should have bought a pair of jar lifter tongs and each time we forget. ( I am determined to have them by the time I am ready to can my apricots! ) The little ones kept sneaking these Delicious reds every time they passed through the kitchen.  We tried to limit them so they didn't get adverse effects from the fruit but with the bright color, the juice, and the fact that the kitchen smelled like a smoothie shop proved too tempting
 I have to admit they did turn out pretty, and pretty tasty too.  Each time we can something, I think back to the old days when they had canning frolics, and realize what a wonderful time that is.  Sure its a lot of work but I wouldn't pass up these memories for anything.  Now if I could get all my sisters together for a canning frolic that would be awesome!! What so you say ladies are you up for canning?

Geek of the Week

My nephew's just had to try out my new wedges (high heeled shoes for those who don't know what a wedge is) I so thriftily bought at DI.  I have to admit they are pretty fabulous, I just didn't realize they were this fabulous. These nephew's of mine are often Geek of the Week worthy.  I just never have my camera around the capture it.

Father's and Sons

the visitor

 This year for Father's and Sons my dad offered to come and bring his motor home.  the boys were so excited about it they love that motor home.  This was Brennen's first year going and he could not have been happier to be included.  They camped fairly close to where we live so that was nice.  They had tons of food of course and showed a movie on one of the trailers.  The weather was cold so most of the night was spent around the campfire. My dad has a hard time with the cold now so he spent the rest of the night in the motor home.  They did do some hiking and rock skipping or throwing depending on who tossed a rock. They even had a little visitor (a deer) come see what all the fuss was about.  All and all they said they had a great time with campfire songs, marshmallow roast, and camaraderie.  Scott even remembered to take some pictures for me,

3 year olds

I have decided I don't like 3 year olds.  In our family its the terrible 3's not the terrible 2's.  They finally get their personalities but it comes with a sense of Independence and stubbornness.  They can no longer be swayed, they decide they want something and they nag until they get it or melt down into a tantrum when they don't get what they want.  They cannot be rushed and don't believe in the word hurry. Their whiny and extremely frustrated I guess that's why they are so cute.
Peter was having a very typical 3 year old day when I finally asked in a fed up stupor, "Peter what is your problem?"  He points his two fingers directly at me and says "Your my problem."  Then he cracks up into his bad joke laugh.. . .   Ahaaaaa 3 year olds

Mother's day

Mother's day is my least favorite holiday.  Truthfully I hate it.  It reminds me of all the things that I am failing at as a mother.  I think of all the things I should be doing and how I should be able to have my house clean all the time and my kids should never fight so I must be doing something wrong.  Now I know that all of those things are not realistic but still a part of me thinks so.  Usually my children don't get the memo that its mothers day and they act up even more.  But I have found a way to deal with this holiday and I have come to the conclusion that mothers day is not for me as a mother but to honor my own mother. It was a much better year this year for mothers day because I was near my mom,  it was easy for me to do things for her and appreciate her.  I actually enjoyed mothers day.

All the husbands got together and prepared a delicious meal for us ladies and they even cleaned up after.  We got to play volleyball in the back yard and we even got to watch what we wanted on TV.  It almost killed the boys to watch the designing and fashion show. So we were merciful and tuned it to a guy show in between commercials. 

So happy mother's day to all you ladies, if your like me and have a hard time with this think about your own mothers and what wonderful people they are, and maybe along the way we can become a little more like them.

p.s. I only had one child have a melt down this year, they must be growing up.

tiny

I took Brennen and Peter to the doctor for their check ups.  Brennen was having his kindergarten check up, I can't believe he is that old already.  They were very nervous about going until their wise sister Ellie reminded them of Doc Mcstuffins. Doc Mcstuffins is a Disney cartoon about a girl who is a toy doctor. Once they heard that, they were excited to go.
At the Dr.'s we needed them to get on the scale to see how big they were.  Brennen hopped right on to show Peter there was nothing to be afraid of.  Peter refused to get on the scale.  We kept saying, "Peter it doesn't hurt we just want to see how big you are." He wouldn't do it, we tried to talk to him rationally he wouldn't do it, we tried to bribe him with a sticker, he wouldn't do it.  Finally Peter speaks up, "I don't want to be big I want to be tiny!"   Oh!. .. "Well get on and lets see how tiny you are."  He hopped right on and held perfectly still.
Once in the exam room the Dr comes in with Peters chart and says "your in luck Peter, your tiny."  He is now in the 10th % for height and the 6% for weight.
At the end of the appointment they asked where Doc Mcstuffins was.  A small part of me wanted to revert to a lie and say it was her day off, then I thought better of it and explained that she doesn't work at that office. They were disappointed  but had their stickers and suckers so they shrugged it off.

WE FOUND THE BEACH

After checking out the mine we decided to find a park to have our picnic lunch. With no place in mind we found this great park in Daybreak.  Sam has dubbed it the "Awesome Park," and I have to concur.  It has these cool spider web play structures where the kids can climb to their hearts content.  There was a cool spinny thing that Amy and I had fun with kind of like a modified merry-go-round.  They had a separate area like a skate park for little kids and the best part.  They had a beach!!

modified merry-go-round

Brennen w"water bending"

My kids have been begging and begging me to go to the beach, They keep forgetting there isn't one here.  Imagine how thrilled I was to find this little gem.  Now I know it's not the same thing but for the little ones its pretty close.  It felt so good for me to have my toes in the sand and water again I can't even describe it.  I was momentarily transported back to lazy summer days when we would head off to the beach so the kids could play and I could take in the sun and sand (not to mention I WAS avoiding house work).  All I needed was my beach chair and a book.  It would have been nice to have the sound of the waves but I bet I could download something on my ipod. Brennen had a great time practicing his water bending (their into Avatar again) Peter and Lizzy couldn't get enough of the sand.  Sam was trying to build the dam of all dams, and Landon was just happy to be there assisting in any way he could.

I think I might be heading this way a little more often than I should.

avoiding house work

I woke up this morning trying to think of something to do to avoid doing house work. I love a clean house but some days I just don't want to do it.  At that moment I got a text from my sister asking if we wanted to go to Kennecott copper mine.  Here was my out so I said sure.  It was such a nice day I suggested we pack a picnic.    The kids thought the giant tire was pretty cool but they weren't that amused by the actual view of the mine.  So we went inside to the visitor's center.  Here was their favorite thing there.

  The microscope was also a hit.  Peter wanted everything in there for his birthday.  He would point to something and say, "Mom, check this out, I want that for my birthday."  So I would reply "Great, put it on your list." (my favorite saying for my children when ever they ask for something.  It works for more than Christmas.)  The kids didn't last long at the mine.  There are only so many hands on things to keep them entertained. So we headed back outside to get one last look of the mine and check out the old fashioned relics where Peter decided to  "read the instructions"  on an old mining cart.  Once he had it thoroughly memorized he was ready to go. Soon they were all asking for lunch.  Good thing we brought the picnic.

hardest thing

Sometimes I take the kids running with me.  This is the time that William finds to pelt me with all kids of questions.  Doesn't he know its hard for me to talk while I'm trying to run?  On this particular day he asked me "Mom what's your hardest thing?"

I asked "what do you mean?  Like something that's hard for me physically? (like running)."

He simply said "not necessarily, just whats the hardest thing for you?"

William my deep thinker.  After a moment of thought I answered "balance"  He said, "Like balancing a ball? or on your feet?"

"No, just to balance everything in life."

He understood right away . "Oh, you mean like us kids and the house work and stuff like that."

"Ya"

Balance my white rabbit.  I sometimes find it overwhelming to try to balance all the things I need to in my life.  That strive for perfection is impossible yet I keep killing myself to achieve it.  In my mind I should be able to balance my health, my children, meals, my home, my yard work, my spirituality, my church callings, my duties as a supporting and loving wife, missionary work, helping and caring for my parents, and so on and so forth.  In my head I should be able to do it all but I can't and it frustrates me to no end.  

I know if I work on one thing I can get that down, but if I perfect one thing something else suffers.  I know what I am supposed to do and I can do it but not all at once or all the time.  So I think its me being lazy and I work harder but then I am so wound up I miss those precious moments that I should be enjoying.  I feel guilty for taking a break when I know there is something that I should be doing, but on the other hand if I don't take a break I burn out so I feel guilty about that. Today as I sat in church and listened to all the stories of amazing women all I could think of was "that's another thing I should be doing" so more guilt washes over me.

As I pondered over all this all consuming stuff I should be doing and perfecting the scripture that talks about everything in its season came to me.  There is no way I can do everything all the time. But I can perfect things in seasons, meaning I could probably focus on just a few things at a time at get them under control then work on others later. That way when I focus on the other things my first things wont be so far behind.

This reminded me of a sand hill we went to at Lake Powell.  It was a large hill and for every 2 steps you took  your foot slid back one, but with enough steps you made it to the top. Sometimes we took a rest half way up but we always made it to the top because the best part was running down it into the cool water.

My sister made the comment during a conversation with my mom that there are times when we build our faith and times when that faith we built carries us.

So I'll keep trekking up my sand hill to get to the top.  I know it will eat at me every time I see some one who has gotten one of their things under control when I am still struggling with it. But for now I am trying to remember that I made it up the sand hill before.  Maybe just maybe if I live long enough I can make it up life's sand hill.

Tough guy

On Sunday we were watching Ramona and Beezus while daddy was taking a nap.  when it got to the part where their cat Picky Picky dies I look over at Brennen who is sitting on the floor in front of the TV.  As I look I see this giant crocodile tear roll down his cheek.  Self conscious he sees me looking at him.  He wipes his arm across his face and defensively says "I'm not crying!!" Then he comes over to tackle/hug me because he's a tough guy that doesn't cry at things like that. He buries his face in my lap and I just smile and rub his back assuring him that I know he's not crying. 

Oh my sweet teddy bear that is Brennen.  He would love the world to think he is so tough but I know underneath all that toughness is a tender heart.  I love you Widow.  You're not a man of many words but you understand so much of life.

Dino party

Brennen is 5!
How did that happen?  My widow ( a nickname his daddy gave him) is not so widow anymore.  He is going to start kindergarten this fall.  That can't be right.  It means I am getting older, and we all know that's not true.  On our way home from Moab I realized I hadn't even started planning his birthday party. So I pumped my mom for ideas. She said since I have that great sandbox why don't I have a dinosaur dig.  What a great idea.  We let our imaginations work on what could go with that.  We came up with making impressions of dino foot prints, and making a dino call.  I could work with that and it would certainly fit within my budget.

dino impressions

I headed to my favorite party supply store (the dollar store) and found some great pith hats (thats safari hats to the rest of you) I also got the typical pary fare of balloons and streamers.

dino foot print maker

I looked on KSL for dinosaurs and found some one selling some great ones for a total of $2.  Then I was off to my next favorite store DI.  Where I found a bag full of Dino's for only .75 cents, score!  I used my new scroll saw to cut out 4 Dino foot prints then tested the plaster for dry time.  It took me a couple tries to figure out the right ratio of water to plaster to make it dry within 10 minutes.

When the party started all the kids got their hats then we headed out to the sandbox to make the impressions.  The kids thought this was really cool.  While we were waiting for our impressions to dry we did the dino dig.  I buried about 30 dinosaurs in the sand for the kids to dig up.  I thought they were going to love this activity but all I got was whining.  How I hate whining. After much encouraging and prodding they dug up 12 dinos.  Oh well you can't win them all.

So we bagged the rest of the dinos and headed over to make dinosaur calls.  To make a call you get a paper of plastic cup this even works with a soup can.  Drill a small hole in the bottom center.  get some cotton string, thread it through the hole  and tie a not on the end.  The string should be hanging in the cup if its held upside down.  cut a small strip of cheap sponge tie it on the other end of the string.  Get the sponge wet and wrap it around the string and pull down. It makes a dino (or duck or chicken call)  If you use a large can and some thicker rope it makes a bear call.

dino call

The kids thought this was next to magic.  I served the cupcakes and juice boxes while Scott hid my dino eggs for the final activity.  I got the eggs from an Easter clearance sale so it worked out great for me.  The whole party cost me about $30 and the kids had a great time.

Happy Birthday Brennen we love you!! 

Ewwww

During one of our hikes at Moab I pointed out all the cow chips.  I told the children that in pioneer times they used these to help start their fires.  It was usually the children's job to gather them from the fields.  My kids thought that was so cool and started to act like good little pioneer children and gather the cow chips to use in our fire.  As they proudly held one up for me to see I let them know that a "chip" is really poop.  They dropped that chip as if it were a hot coal squealing Ewww!  "Mom you let us touch that?"  They wanted to immediately wash their hands or at least use some hand sanitizer.  I got such a kick out of their reaction.

Williams ego

  This could also be posted as a Geek of the Week.  While we were at Moab we went to the dunes to " tear it up" At one point my sister Kate got off her ATV, William who was her passenger always the opportunist took off and tried to drive up one of the dunes.  Not understanding the terrain he got himself stuck deep in the sand.  He was so defeated after that.  His ego crushed he let us dig him out and didn't bother to try the dunes by himself again.

That didn't stop him from riding around out campsite.  After one of his little skirmishes he came back with a dirty face and a huge grin.  As he took off his helmet he announced that "Happiness is riding a 4-wheeler!!!"