My Status

Here are my Mother's Day gifts. I love them all, but the one on the far right really boosted my status from "aunt" to "most favored"!

This colorful heart-shaped extravaganza was created by my 6 year old niece Cammi. The message she wrote said, "Thank you for being my teacher." I think this refers to my teaching as Primary president, but I'm not entirely sure.

I was impressed with my gift and I couldn't help laughing when Cammi handed grandma a very small, simple card. She explained, "Sorry it's so little Grandma, but I spent so long on Aunt Melanie's card that I ran out of time." Apparently Cammi told her mom the same thing when she gave her a rather small card.

I was surprised to have merited such a wonderful Mother's Day card from my niece, but I'm not asking why, I'm just feeling grateful! I hope my Mother's Days are always filled with little children and homemade cards.

Mother's Day

My kids know that Mother's Day is not my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong. I love my mom! I love honoring the great women in my life. I love sending flowers to my Grandma. But I don't love Mother's Day.

Aaron recently asked me to explain why. He was preparing a Mother's Day talk for church and I think he felt a little pressure. I explained my feelings about Mother's Day. Then I told him to be sure and cry a whole bunch during his talk and gush on and on telling everyone that he has the best mother in the whole world, better than anyone else's mom. I may not have been very helpful, but at least I made him laugh!

I think these two pictures sum up my feelings about Mother's Day.

This is the kind of Mom I want to be:

Bright, cheerful and happy
Perfectly put together
Pleasing and full of surprises

This is the kind of Mom I really am:

A work in progress
Clean, but a little frayed around the edges
Lots left to do

I think Mother's Day just leaves me feeling really inadequate. I'm working on that. Right now I'm just working on getting the towels folded and put away. And no, my kids don't want to help.


PS. Click HERE for a great article about overcoming the Mother's Day Blues

A Symphony of Horror

Do you like scary movies and books?

I don't.
And I'm definitely not into vampires.
I've never read any of the Twilight series or seen the movies.

But thanks to my sweet husband, our extended family
had a great time last night at Copley Hall
watching the world's first Dracula movie!

It was a silent movie first shown in Germany in 1922
and because it was an unauthorized version of Bram Stoker's Dracula
they changed the name to
"Nosferatu."

This vampire was definitely not the handsome type.
In fact he was pretty creepy.
He reminded me of a rat with his big ears, skinny teeth and claw-like hands.

But one aspect of Nosferatu was gorgeous-- the music!
The San Diego Symphony accompanied the movie.
The conductor and arranger spent 8 months reconstructing the score from the original musical accompaniment. And the results were awesome!

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, but Bram
Stoker's widow didn't feel quite the same way.
She was upset that the movie producers had "borrowed" her husband's story and she successfully sued for copyright infringement. She didn't receive monetary damages, but instead had the negatives and all copies of the film destroyed. Fortunately, a few copies survived.

Interestingly, Mrs. Stoker wanted to "clean up" the hairy, evil monster of her husband's book and the film version. In future stage and screen productions, Florence Stoker authorized a santitized, well bred, gentlemanlike Dracula.

Ah, now we now who to thank for Twilight!

My New Best Friend

This morning I got dressed in black jeans and a white shirt. When my husband told me he had a sore throat and wasn't feeling well, I had the perfect remedy! I offered to make him a blueberry smoothie. I even brought the glass upstairs to him. But during the hand-off, I managed to drip smoothie all over the front of my shirt.

So I quickly grabbed another white shirt, only to find it was all wrinkled. I ran downstairs to add it to a small load Marianne had in the drier. A few minutes later it was nice and crisp, so I slipped it on and went on my way. Thank goodness I didn't actually leave the house because, as my children pointed out to me, I had failed to notice that my shirt was covered with greasy pink spots. A quick investigation proved that a tube of pink chapstick had found its way into the drier--and all over my shirt.

I headed back to my closet for my 3rd shirt of the day, only this time I chose a black and grey print!

Evolution of a Mom

I've been a mom for 20 years now and I'm sure that my parenting style has changed over time--hopefully for the better. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. Here's an example, so you can decide for yourself!

THEN - 2002

I decided my kids should study birds, so I bought a science kit and planned everything. My sister and I even ordered owl pellets for the children to dissect. My friend who lived in a rural area offered me some for free. I refused, claiming I didn't want to bother her, but secretly I was disgusted at the idea. The own pellets I had ordered were sanitized and wrapped in foil and we used tweezers and other tools that came with the kit to remove and identify the bones. My kids enjoyed it, but when we finished they were done with their study of owls.

NOW - 2010

Evan has been really into birds for at least two months. With my older kids I would have called it a "unit study" in our homeschool. Several weeks ago during my morning walk, I noticed something on the sidewalk. I recognized it as an owl pellet and excitedly told Evan about it. He brought it home and we sat on the patio while he dissected it. He was thrilled to find the vertebrae, a ball and socket joint and identify the femur, tibia, fibula etc.


He has also:

• drawn, painted and sculpted lots of birds
• read several bird books
• identified birds using the field guide
• spent hours on bird websites
• caught (and released) wild birds (in that rusty old trap behind him in the photo)
• put up a bird feeder to observe more birds
  
• trained and cared for his pet parakeet "Scott"
• watched Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
• found a forgotten science kit and completed several lessons on birds and flight
• dissected an even larger owl pellet he found down the street

Even more impressively, he convinced me to let his bird sit on my head. This may not sound like a big deal to you, but I have issues with birds. I freak out when seagulls swoop down looking for a snack at the beach. As a toddler, I was repeatedly attacked by nest-building bluejays who wanted my hair. And do you remember the name of that poor girl who is nearly pecked to death in The Birds? That's right--her name is Melanie!

One thing's for sure. I definitely have way more gray hair now!

Happy May!

May is always a busy month for us. This year we even missed May Day, but maybe we can play catchup for Family Home Evening tonight. Here are a few of the exciting events coming up this month:

• May 13 - Aaron turns 18
• May 19 - Our granddaughter is scheduled to arrive!

• May 21 & 22 - Performance of Shakespeare's As You Like It. I'm directing and Marianne is "Celia".
  
• May 30 - Aaron's Eagle Court of Honor & our 23rd wedding anniversary
  

Chips From He!!

Actually, the chips are good. It's the bag I hate!

Last night Evan and I went to see a fun production of You're A
Good Man Charlie Brown. On the way there, we stopped at Target to pick up a few things and I told Evan he could get a snack to munch on during the play. When we got out to the car, I was startled by a horrible rustling noise. Evan explained that Sun Chips now come in a "green" bag. The bag even has a little warning label: "Louder because it's compostable!"
And believe me, they're not kidding.

Evan loved the noisiness of the bag and took great glee in tormenting me on the way to the show. But when got there, even he admitted, "Mom, I can't take this bag inside. There's no way I can get a chip out without the bag crackling."
He solved the problem by dumping his chips into a plastic (non-compostable, but very quiet) Target bag.

Today after church he went around the house annoying his sister and me with the empty and now even LOUDER bag. I finally told him to get rid of it.
And because we aren't currently composting,
he threw it in the trash.

I'm all for going "green"
but not at the price of my sanity!