HAPPY! birthday

My birthday was at the beginning of August and my family took good care of me.

Evan got the day started right by making crepes for breakfast. Actually, he made two kinds of crepes!  He made a small batch of gluten-free ones for me and a large batch of regular ones for the rest of the family. They were delicious with fresh fruit!

Molly made my whole week special by asking members of our extended family to write me a birthday wish. Every day she emailed me letters from a few of my loved ones!

My sister Jenny said she would take me to see a Shakespeare play and she more than kept her promise. We saw a really fun musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a few days later she took me out to lunch and to see a film version of Much Ado About Nothing.

John took some time off from work and we went out to lunch, walked along the beach and played frisbee in the sand and then went out to dinner.

When we got home, we found that Marianne had made yummy German chocolate cupcakes from scratch. My favorite flavor and gluten-free to boot!  I know they were a lot of work and it was even harder because Lavender really wanted to eat them all.  Marianne kept telling her that they were for my birthday and tried to teach her to say "Happy Birthday." Lavender got half of it right.  She did wish me "happy" when we got home.  Then she ran to the kitchen, frantically begging for cupcakes and shouting "happy, happy, happy." She seemed to think the cupcakes were called "happy."  Now, almost a month later, any time she wants a treat she still asks for "happy."  John brought home a big box of donuts yesterday and she was thrilled to have "happy" for dessert last night..  Guess what she wanted for breakfast this morning?

Do you like the way she is attacking that donut in the top picture?  She may not be smiling, but she is definitely HAPPY!

The Flight From Beauty

It is no secret that I love children's literature.  Long after my children were past picture book age, I kept shelves full of outstanding books.  I even have a few books saved from my own childhood.  Now I get to read them to my granddaughters and Lavender!

I also really enjoy young adult literature and when my children were little, I had a shelf full of books that I hoped they would enjoy reading some day.  Unfortunately, over the past fifteen years I have noticed a disturbing trend in YA literature.  It has become darker and more violent in the name of "reality."  Even books for young children have been impacted.  I have read a couple of articles about this trend, but I finally read a compelling article on this subject that I have to share with you.  Read "The Case For Good Taste in Children's Books" by Meghan Cox Gurdon HERE. She is a wise woman and she's got the experience and credentials to prove it.  More importantly, she is the mother of five children!  She also includes incredible quotes such as this:

For beauty makes a claim on us; it is a call to renounce our narcissism and look with reverence on the world. 

Waterbaby

This girl loves water, especially the ocean. Yesterday she had a new experience in Palm Springs--splashing in a puddle of rain water.  We also went swimming and she is able to grab onto the side of the pool and hold herself there.

Sweet Sunday - I Always Have A Happy Feeling . . .

I usually sing "When I Go to Church" to Lavender on Sunday morning.  Today she was especially excited to go to church because it was her first week of nursery.  We have been talking about it all week and she was ready to go!  When we opened our eyes after the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting, Lavender was already running out of the chapel.  Evan caught up with her near the nursery room and took her inside.  She happily said good-bye and started playing.  It was extra special because her nieces were visiting our ward and got to join her in nursery.  I feel a little bit cheated though.  Remember my list of 13 things to do in 2013? Can I cross off "take Lavender to her first day of nursery" if I didn't actually take her?  I did take her last week and stayed with her the whole time, so I guess that will have to count!

 

28 Perfect Days!

What would you give for a perfect day?  Most days, even good ones, have their ups and downs.  In fact, the imperfections in life are often the source of laughter and family memories.  I know I will never forget the time I almost ruined Passover or the sleepless Christmas night!  Still, I long for days when I feel successful.

I always want to improve and often I set goals, but it can be hard to follow through.  Fortunately, I found something that really helped me.  For the past month I have been part of a class called "Mothers Who Know."  We set goals, keep track of our progress and have weekly conference calls where we learn to combat negativity and draw closer to the Savior.  Everyone in the class has three goals in common:
1. Pray 5+ minutes morning and night
2. Write a page in your journal daily
3. Study the scriptures (or words of the prophets) daily

Each of us also chose three personal goals.  This month mine were:
1.  Make my bed every morning.
2.  Log my food and exercise daily and stay within my Weight Watchers point total.
3.  Sweep the kitchen floor every night.

Do these sound like simple goals?  Well, they are!  They were simple enough that was able to do them perfectly for 28 days in a row.  It was empowering to keep my personal commitments and it motivated me to do more.  Once the bed was made, I picked up the rest of the room.  When I swept the kitchen, I continued sweeping the dining room.

Best of all, the principles we learn in class help us defeat the adversary and overcome bad habits.  In fact, the class was originally developed to help people struggling with addiction.  I can use what I am learning to help my children become self-disciplined.  This is something I can do to help my sons and daughters prevent addictions before they begin!

Our mentor, Celestia, starts new classes every month or so to help women become "Lionesses At the Gate" and "Mothers Who Know."  HERE is a link to her blog with more information about an upcoming class. Why don't you take a look?  It is exciting to have perfect days!

Song For a Fifth Child

We've all heard the little poem:
"So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep."

My sweet daughter Molly even made me a beautiful wooden plaque with this verse! Today, I learned a little more about the poem and it was fun to realize the similarities between our families.  The poem is entitled "Song for a Fifth Child" and it was written by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton. Ruth was the mother of four children, all two years apart.  In 1957, when her youngest child was five years old, she gave birth to her daughter Jane.  Ruth explained,

“The children were all older when Jane was born and they would rush home to see her and hold her. Since there were five years between my next youngest and Jane, I had a bit more quiet time with her.”

I have an similar, but even larger space of fourteen years, between my youngest son and my fifth child. And like Ruth Hamilton, I was blessed with a little girl whom we often call by her middle name, Jane. After raising four children I knew that babies "don't keep," so I took full advantage of  Lavender's babyhood.  I spent many hours holding and rocking her and I let certain things go.  Now I am paying the price by having to catch up on deep cleaning and other projects like cleaning the garage, but it was worth it!  I am grateful for the many hours I was able to spend rocking my sweet baby.  I still love the quiet time we have together each morning when she wakes up and each night before I put her to bed.

Oh, and by the way, there is a whole lot more to the poem!

Song For a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
(Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.)
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo.)
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.)

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep

Ironic, considering my last post!

When I think about my baby growing up too fast, it is usually when I see her doing something like this:

Here she is modeling her sister's headband.

Today I realized she is growing up in other ways too.  I was making dinner and no one else was around.  Suddenly Lavender was much too quiet and I went to check on her.  Here is how I found her:

She had climbed up on the couch, hefted the computer onto her lap and opened. it.  She even had the mouse in her right hand!  I was surprised because she isn't usually very interested in "screen time".

She sure seemed interested today though, so I went to lds.org and pulled up a scripture story video.  It was one based on the scripture readers.  It's not really animated.  It just has a series of pictures.  When the narrator started talking about Jesus, she pointed at the screen and then folded her arms.

I guess it's inevitable that she's going to be a tech-savvy toddler, but at least she's developing a testimony of the things that really matter!

A Sad Decision

Last summer, I decided to jump on the Instagram bandwagon.  I've loved it!  It has been a great way to connect with friends and family and to record daily photos of Lavender as she grows.  I've sent most of my Instagram photos to Elder Aaron so he can keep up with the family while he's on his mission. I even made a photo book of all my Instagram photos from 2012.

Yesterday, I realized how easy it is to look at pornography on Instagram.  And there is plenty of it. Anyone who picks up my phone (from my 3 year old granddaughter to my 15 year old son) is few seconds away from pornographic video and pictures.   I have filters on my wifi, on my computer and on my phone, but there is no way to filter the filth readily available on Instagram.  I had to do something.  That's not the way I live my life.

Today, I deleted the IG app from my phone.  I will really miss keeping in touch with so many people, but I know it was the right thing for me to do.

Tomorrow? Well, I haven't decided about that yet.  I may delete my account, but I'm holding off at least until I've made a book of my 2013 photos.  And there's always Facebook.  Several years ago I made the decision not to be on Facebook.  I've re-evaluated that decision on many occasions, but I haven't changed my mind.  At least not yet.

#recommittingtoregularblogging
#onelasthashtagforoldtimessake