One Fine Day

This morning Danielle woke up at 6:01 am. After I fed her Nathan started to get up to take her out of our room, so I could sleep in. But this was one of those mornings when I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, and I felt bad because Nathan let me get more sleep the last couple of mornings. I told him to go back to sleep, and I went out to the quiet of the morning. I was treated to quite a view.


This was the very first Saturday since Danielle was born that I didn't have a single commitment (if you don't count General Women's Broadcast). It was such a rare and fresh experience to wake up in a morning not knowing what I would do that day.

The past couple of months have been a whirlwind of busyness, including:

embarking on yet another cub scout journey...

throwing a baby shower for my friend:


a trip to Colorado Springs to celebrate memorizing The Living Christ as a family:


my first girl's Birthday party....wow girls are so much more fun to host a party for....I'm glad I didn't know what I was missing before....


teaching my nearly 7 month old to sit up by herself....(she still doesn't roll over)...

not to mention throwing a dinner party for all the City Department Heads to celebrate building a new City Hall/Library Complex, and starting an Orthodontia adventure.

Phewwwwww.........................................

It was a delight, this morning, to make french toast for a leisurely breakfast. I went back to bed when Danielle took her first nap and then later threw in a load of laundry. After lunch, I spontaneously sent Nathan and the boys off to the Adam's State football game, and Nicole and I surprised them by cleaning the bathrooms for them on their day.

Then during Danielle's nap I got to work on her baby scrapbook while the kids watched a movie. Brandon got home early from her overnight scout trip, full of stories and anecdotes to share. Finally, I was privileged to listen to President Monson tonight.


What a perfect ending to my day.

The Ticking Clock

It is Wednesday night.

Wednesday night is our City Council night.

This means that I won't see my husband until late. I never know what time. Sometimes as early at 9:00 and sometimes after 11:00.

I have learned that when a meeting should be really quick, that it will instead go at least until 10:30.

Even if a meeting goes quick, Nathan usually comes home wound up and he never sleeps well.

I have also found that the house makes a lot of noises that I never hear during the day...clocks ticking, the refrigerator running, creaks from kids walking to the bathroom.

This is the part of his job that I don't always like.

When we were still in our poor years he agonized over what to choose as his major. He was pre-med for a while, but his fifth Chemistry class killed any desire to continue. He tried out Computer Science but knew that he couldn't do that the rest of his life. He was going to settle on Political Science and then go on to law school, and then a miracle happened. A new program was started called Public Policy that had a Masters option. They accepted 12 students. Nathan read about it and knew that he was interested.

I'm glad that 90% of the time he is doing interesting things and feeling like he is making a difference in our community. The other 10% of the time I hope I can be a support and buoy him up.

I also am glad that he isn't a doctor or a lawyer, because I have a feeling that I would listen to the clock ticking a whole lot more.

It's About Time

One thing that we share rich or poor is that we all have 24 hours in the day. How we use those hours is up to us. I've been reading the Little House books to the kids in the evening and love hearing stories from an earlier era. Things were so much simpler back then. But then again, they had so much work each day just to exist. In our society we don't have to replant the corn 4 times after the prairie dogs eat the first few plantings and we don't have to grind the wheat to make our daily bread.

We have more choices of how we want to spend our time. Still, there is only so much time and not enough to do everything that I want to do. I look at my life as having different seasons. Whenever I feel bad that I don't have time to do something I would like to do...such as going out to lunch with a friend or practicing the piano more, or fitting regular workouts into my day, I have to tell myself that I have had that season in the past, and I will have that season in the future. This season is for raising my children. There are challenges along the way, but oh, such rich rewards as well.


I think the best reward will be looking back and having no regrets.

There are a few things that I have learned along the way about managing my time:

1. Multitasking is essential. If I can kill 3 or 4 birds with one stone I am thrilled.

2. I can't do everything so I have to choose carefully what matters to me. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

3. Each week I need to do something that is just for me, so that I don't lose myself. I have to keep my own separate interests. For me that includes music, books, and time alone.

4. Plan ahead. This applies to planning out our meal calendar, making school assignments in advance, making time for my church calling as well as setting goals for each week and deciding the night before what I want to accomplish the next day. I don't get everything done that I intend to do, but I get the most important things done when I make a plan and stick to it. This does require discipline.

5. I can't be so rigid with my schedule that I lose sight of opportunities to build relationships whether with my children, neighbors or friends and family. I think that Elastagirl is the perfect superhero for a mother, because we must be flexible.

6. Each season is wonderful. I think it's important to savor the time we have at each stage of life.


7 Finally, it's important to have a healthy sense of humor. As long as we can laugh each day I am happy.

While the Boys are Away, the Girls will Play

This has been a strange 3 weeks for me. My boys have been with their grandparents in Nevada, and it has mostly been me and the girls. The house has been QUIET and for the most part clean. I can't help thinking at times that this will be my life in a short time.

I have had more time to work on projects with a willing helper. Nicole loves to do anything with me, and especially as she has been so lonely. We clean, cook and read together. I also have worked through a list of 41 things that I wanted to get done while the boys were gone and I had the time. I have painted, rearranged, thrown away, scrubbed, traveled, and organized to my heart's desire.

I have also made some painful discoveries. I have not been meeting the needs of my younger children the way I thought I was, particularly Nicole's. I really believed that she understood what we were reading at family scripture study until she was the only child in attendance. I also have recognized how often I was taking my frustrations out on her when I no longer had any. I feel regret, but I also feel a resolve to learn from this experience and change for the better.

I love the stories of when Christ heals the crippled, blind and maimed. I love the stories of when He called the little children to his side. After much soul-searching, I believe that He can heal me of my impatience and anger just as he performed all the miracles we read about in the scriptures. Our weakness can become our strength.

That is my goal for this coming school year. I want my children to see a marked difference in me, due to the refining power of the atonement of Christ. I want to see a marked difference in myself. Instead of falling into all the same ruts, I want to travel down a new road.

I believe that with Him I can do it.

The End of an Era

I have had a case of the nevermores after realizing that my season of little boys has passed. My youngest son Connor was baptized this month and has passed the era of playing with trucks and is now following in his older brothers' footsteps into legos and riding his bike to play with his friends.

He was blessed to have both sets of Grandparents come out for the occasion, and we had a wonderful weekend with everyone.


Connor had a special baptism, and he is such a good boy. It's hard to believe that he is so old so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that he was spitting up half of what he ate and sleeping all day, so he could be awake all night.

A couple of days after his baptism, all the boys left with their grandparents to go stay for a three week visit with them. The house has never been so quiet for so long and stayed so clean, and the refrigerator has never stayed so full.

I was worried how Connor was going to do, being away for so long, but when I talked to him a couple days ago, I needn't have worried. He told me that he has already had 17 Root Beers, and swims 6 times a day. He stayed up past 3:30 am playing video games (after Grandma thought they were asleep), and told me that Grandma asks at the store what they like, and then she buys it all. Tomorrow they are going with their other grandparents camping overnight and then to the new Nanny McPhee movie coming out. They are going shooting with their new uncle next week.

How did our Connor go from this:


To this:


We love our good boy!

Homeschooling 2010

Often, people ask what we do for school. There is no way to truly describe our average day, but I have come up with a list of what we are doing this coming year, just to give an idea of what we are learning.

I have learned a lot about curriculum over these past homeschooling years. I really like the ideas I've read about in Susan Bauer's "The Well-Trained Mind," but I am definitely not as rigid as her, and after reading about the High School years, we may be parting ways. I also like to talk with other people and see what they have had success with in teaching their children. I would say that my curriculum choices are eclectic, and while I believe whole-heartedly in the unschooling method and use it over the summer, I can't let go completely during the regular schoolyear.

As my kids have gotten older they have actually preferred more structure. I break down what I want them to do for the year and print out weekly lists that they check off at their own pace. My oldest likes to get it all done as fast as possible, while my second takes his time and gets things done by lunch on some days, by dinner on others, and sometimes gets them done right before bedtime. My younger two are still figuring out their pacing, and I try to help them get things done in the morning, because by the afternoon they have no patience left.

This is my list of what we are doing this year from oldest to youngest:

Math: Teaching Textbooks-Pre-Algebra (This is a new series I am excited to be starting. So far I like what I see, plus my son likes it),

Singapore Math for the others with a little Saxon mixed in to fill in the gaps.

Language Arts: Spelling Workouts for all, A Beka Grammar (at a much slower pace than they recommend....I have 3 boys after all), Writing Strands (They like the structure but not too many guidelines), weekly journal entry, and for the younger kids Draw, Write, Now and Some writing and grammar workbooks at a mellow pace.


Music: Piano Lessons with Theory for my older three and Singing songs with my girl. (I'm stuck teaching them myself this year, since there is no one to teach them; but I feel alright about it now that I decided to spend the money I was spending on lessons on a housecleaner every other week: ).

Reading: Luckily my kids love to read and do plenty of it, but I am assigning specific literature every other week and having them type a book report to keep up their typing skills. They blow me out of the water with what they do in Word Processing. They think it's fun, and they hate to write by hand. I'm also adding a poem a week to my oldest that we can discuss. My younger two will still read out loud to me, and my favorite part of the day is reading to all of them. Right now we are deep into The Long Winter.

History: Story of the World for the younger three.


I wasn't sure what to do with my oldest, so he's reading the Usborne World History book as a springboard into whatever interests him.

Science: Monday experiments for all (we started that last year and I have an earlier blog about it), and Science Detectives for the older two.

Art: A family art project every 3 weeks.

Plus: Critical Thinking, Rosetta Stone Latin and Hands On Equations for the older two, as well as a Surprise day every two weeks.

I do a 4-day school week which leaves one day for Doctor's appointments, visits to the library, playgroup, and field trips, of which we have plenty.

Some days I feel like we have too much to do for school and other days I start to panic that we're not doing enough, but overall I like the pacing we have. It works for us.

The End of the Day

Summer is supposed to be a break from homeschooling, and it is. But that doesn't mean it is a break. So far this summer I have spent the past few weeks driving kids to three separate swimming lessons a day, taken the boys to a two-week long pottery class, added an exercise time to my morning routine, packed for a camping family reunion 11 hours away (which was wonderful!), and today I just got back from girl's camp.


Sometimes I wake up in the morning and don't know how I will be able to do all that needs to be done in the day.

That is the plight of a parent and a responsible woman: when you have nothing left to give......but you have to anyway.

It works out in the end, and there are lessons learned.

I am grateful for this season of my life. I am right where I want to be, and it's good at the end of the day to step back and regain perspective. It's worth it all!


But at the end of the day, I'm just plain exhausted.