announcing... we are hereby UNPLUGGED

For the next week I won't be hanging around in blog land. It is national "TV turn-off week 2009" and much to my children's chagrin, we are choosing to participate. Aaron literally cried for about 10 minutes when we announced last night that this is the week, and there will be no TV, or computer for the week. I am going to be allowed to check my email once a day, but that's it.

I wish it wasn't THIS particular week, being as Bryan is sick with croup right now, plus Caleb, Katrina, and I are all sick with this yucky cough/cold thing; but oh well - We will just have to do the best we can.

See y'all next week!

Easter

Here are a few (late) pictures from Easter. I should probably explain - we don't do the whole "Easter bunny" thing or big baskets. We usually just buy a few bags of candy, some plastic eggs and hunt away... this year I really scaled back. I bought two packs of pre-filled eggs (32 total) plus I had some left over from the eggs I prepared for Primary, so there were probably 50 eggs total, each with 1 - 3 little treats inside. It was the least amount of candy I have ever done for Easter and I worried a little that the kids might feel gypped. I told the kids we celebrate Easter to celebrate the life and Atonement of Jesus Christ - Not to get presents and candy. The treats are just for fun. Aaron was asked to say the closing prayer in primary, and I was so pleased when (of his own accord) he said, "and please help us to remember that Easter is about Jesus, His death and resurrection, and not about getting candy."
After church, they all changed out of their church clothes and ate lunch, then Tim and I hid the eggs in the back yard for them to find. The "super winner" was the person who found the empty golden egg -- the one to remind us that on Easter morning the tomb of Jesus was empty and He had risen. Of course, after they had found the eggs, they went back out and hid them again and Tim and I had to go look for them. This went on for a while - the kids re-hiding and re-finding the eggs, while I took a nap. It was nice. The kids were excited about what they got, and I wasn't tempted by candy sitting around the house for days, since the small amount they got was gone by that night.
We invited Tim's parents down to share dinner with us, and that was fun. (Didn't get any pictures of that.) All in all - it was a good day.



This is the Easter tree I took to primary. Inside the eggs were the songs we sang. I also gave each child an egg with 3 small candies. We talked a lot about "symbols." The songs were all either about Jesus or about Spring. We discussed how spring is a symbol of coming alive again. One little boy (Bryant) was chosen to come up and pick a song from the tree, and instead of picking a song, he let his little brother (Mason), (who had been hoping and hoping that his name would be chosen) pick an egg instead. I pointed out that Bryant's sacrifice was a symbol of Jesus' sacrifice for us. It was the kind of teaching moment you just can't plan, but it is great when it happens on its own...
I told them that the eggs I gave them were also symbols. The candy inside were sweet-tarts, kind of sour and kind of sweet. We talked about how the atonement can be like that. It is kind of sad to think of Jesus suffering so much pain and anguish, yet the glory of the Resurrection is so SWEET. Repenting can feel rather bitter at times, but the feeling of forgiveness? Nothing is sweeter! We talked about how after they ate the candy, the egg would be empty, just like the tomb of Jesus was empty after he was resurrected. The children seemed receptive and it was all good.


I am so very thankful for the Savior and for His Atonement.

PEE-YEW!!!! STINK-A-RAMA!!!!!

You know that horrific smell of burnt-to-oblivion microwave popcorn? The eye-watering, nostril-burning, linger-in-the-house-for-days smell? You know the one, right?

Well, tonight we discovered one that I think just might top that awful burnt popcorn smell; sniff for sniff, tear for eye watering tear. I can't tell you how long the stench lingers, but it's been just over 5 hours now and it's still going strong...

I know you are dying to know....

A while back I made some apple cinnamon pancakes. I made an extra large batch and froze the leftovers. I wasn't feeling too well tonight, so this made for a quick, easy, and yummy dinner. Bryan had successfully heated up 2 pancakes already, so when he went to microwave a third, I just told him "push 3-zero, then start," and I didn't bother to look. I was working at getting my stuff ready for primary singing time tomorrow and didn't notice how long the pancake had been cooking. Pretty soon Bryan says to me, "mom, there is smoke on my pancake." OH BABY - was there ever!

You may know the drill - (my family knows the routine all too well, thanks to my amazing ability to become distracted easily whenever I am cooking) open all doors and windows, stand under the smoke alarm waving the broom in the vain attempt to keep the smoke from setting it off, then covering your ears (or the baby's ears) until the air clears and the alarm finally goes off.....
We still have a couple windows open, which wouldn't be bad except that it is a bit chilly outside tonight. Oh well, such is life.

Here's a shot of the offending pancake:

(looks tasty doesn't it???)

So now you know - if you ever need a mean prank and want to stink up someones office or home, but you are out of microwave popcorn - throw in an apple cinnamon pancake and nuke it to death - it'll do ya proud!

warning: this last part is the "late night addition" and is really kinda gross... read at your own risk!!!

I mean it, you're going to wish you had stopped reading....

you're still here? okay... here you go.

All the adventure with the pancake, and house guests and all, I guess it got to Caleb or something, because I was just sitting there working on this post, holding Caleb, when he suddenly decides to HEAVE!!! Luckily, I have pretty good 'kid vomit reflexes' and most of the foul smelling stuff landed on the floor instead of me, the keyboard, and the computer desk. Another good thing is that the scripture about dogs turning to vomit is based on fact, and Jasmine did most of the dirty work as far as clean up goes.
(I know, I know, EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW gross and TMI, but I tried to warn you!)

SO - just imagine for a moment the delight of sitting there with my sweetie, watching a nice movie together for our little date night, surrounded on all fronts by the lovely smells of VOMIT and BURNT PANCAKE. MmMmMmMmMmmmm - who says romance is dead at my house? HUH?????

Happy Birthday HOLLY!!!!!

Today is the birthday of my wonderful neighbor and friend. Holly has been featured in a previous post titled "Matilda." She is the one who volunteered to take my kids over night while Tim and I had an evening away. She is a beautiful person, INSIDE and OUT, and I am grateful to be able to call her friend. (My friend Charlotte gave me the "write a poem" idea, but don't anyone else get your hopes up. Remembering birthdays is not my strong point.)

(sung to the "I have a little turtle" tune)

I have great friend Holly,
she is the very best
you may think I am joking,
I promise it's no jest

In looks - she is a beauty,
In brains - I think she's tops
No matter what she takes on
it never ever flops!

There's service freely given,
She's thoughtful day and night
She's off the chart for kindness
Loves the Lord with all her might.

As today is Holly's birthday
and shopping I detest
I hope this poem lets her know
SHE IS THE VERY BEST!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!!! I love and appreciate all you do for me and my family.
My kids couldn't ask for a better surrogate aunt. It's not the most fabulous picture, (she might kill me for posting it, but oh well...) but it's literally the ONLY one I have. It's one Aaron took from the back seat while we were riding in the van.

cleaning report (boring for everyone but me)

I feel like I am MIA from blogging right now. My brother in law Richard is in town right now with his 6 kids and they are going to be visiting and spending the night here on Friday. (I have some great pictures to post of our fun family night activity, with the cousins - but haven't had Tim upload them yet...) Those of you have been in my home know that it's going to be wall to wall people on Friday night, but it will be fun; the kids are SO excited. I am currently trying to get the house picked up so there is enough clean floor space for everyone to sleep. (and so I am not completely mortified to let them come in.)

I worked pretty hard Monday, but found it super discouraging because by the time Tuesday morning rolled around, I couldn't really see much progress. Hence, I was completed discouraged and LAZY that day. (It didn't help that I had a killer headache that day...) This morning I woke up feeling like a clean house for me was an impossible dream. I had a bunch of stuff scheduled for this morning, and after dragging my feet for about an hour I realized that I needed to take charge. We skipped speech therapy and library story time, I canceled the morning play date, and I spent the morning (and afternoon) working hard!

I am happy to report that the house looks better right now than it has for a long time! That does not mean that it's ready for our house guests, but it is a whole lot closer!

What was the best part of the day? I had basically picked up all the main rooms that we hang out in, except for the upstairs tv room. (It was just a little more messy than I had energy left for) SO - my kids decided ON THEIR OWN to "surprise" me by cleaning it. They cleaned both Aaron's room and the tv room. And they actually did a good job. I haven't found anything stashed away yet... How sweet is that? (there was one thing that made it slightly less sweet, but I thought it was cute so I'll share. After I appropriately expressed joy, 'surprise', and thrill, they said, "It's only because our cousins are coming. We'll mess it back up when they are gone.") At least they are honest. And hey, right now I'll take any and all the help I can get - and you'd better believe that I'm going to enjoy the clean rooms as long as they last.

General Conference - Saturday

Well - I'm not sure I want to publicly admit this, but the first two sessions of this conference didn't have the same "manna from heaven" affect as the last conference did. My initial reaction was concern that I hadn't properly prepared myself to hear the words of counsel from our leaders. I have since determined that I was personally prepared, and don't get me wrong, I DID glean insight and direction in areas I need to focus on. I think the reason that there was such a difference between today and last conference - was that right now I am doing fairly well. I am feeling pretty good about life, I am doing better at living and doing the "basics," and I am not living in such a state of (election) fear and despair like I was last October. I am in a much better place today than I was last October, so I guess I didn't need to hear message after message after message of hope and comfort and peace.


I did need to be reminded to be mindful of what I "can afford," and necessity of being honest with myself in regard to my NEEDS and my WANTS; and the reminder to be more generous in caring for those less fortunate than I.

I needed to be reminded to remember the cycle that repeats itself over and over in scriptural as well as the world's historical records - the cycle of righteousness, prosperity, pride, wickedness, then the despair and destruction that follows wickedness.

I needed the reminder that I am taking the temple for granted and not attending it as often as I need to. (and I will be taking OFF my watch the next time I attend...)

I was reminded of the importance of obedience, exact obedience - both to increase my personal faith and to be the "strong Christian" that the Lord needs me to be in these, the last days.

I received some promptings on how to help increase reverence in our primary and the comment that "harshness does not beget reverence; it brings resentment" was a gentle reminder of how I need to be teaching my children -- with patience, love, and proper example; not harshness.

We will be having a Family Home Evening soon on the "6 Destructive D's." I loved how Elder Pearson said that while these are tools of Satan, they are also bad habits. To me that said that while Satan may introduce them as tools to destroy me, I am the one who allowed them to become MY bad habits. Each one leads to the next if not checked. They are: Doubt, Discouragement, Distraction, (lack of) Diligence, Disobedience, and Disbelief.

There were several talks on adversity - the purpose of, learning from, overcoming, etc... Again, these weren't talks I was in desperate need of at this time in my life, but know they are true doctrine and will be ones I will need to review in the future.

All in all, it was a great way to spend the day. I look forward to more spiritual feasting tomorrow.