Ah, well

So much for the goal that I would be blogging more. There's always the irony of journaling (or, in our day, blogging) -- when you are busy with all that life brings, you don't always have (or take) time to write. But it's during those times that you want to (and should) write to capture all of that life that is happening.

I wished I had kept updates during all the dishwasher and strep and hubby trip time. It was insane, but we had some serious tender mercies through that time.

Someone doorbell ditched us dinner on the day that both hubby and I had to stay home from church because we both had strep. The day that our son gave his first talk! I cried.

My home and visiting teachers brought us dinner. Twice. (Home and visiting teacher are married, so we have double coverage there. ;) )

The disposal guy never came, even though I called him. Twice. (Or maybe it was thrice.)

Why was that a blessing? Because Mr. Really (Really!) Nice dishwasher repairman fixed it for me while he was here. Just because. SOOO nice. (There is a longer story there...if it weren't for him making an extra effort, our appointment would have been canceled and I would have had to wait another week to get the repair done.)

And did I mention that this dishwasher is only a year old? No, it was a year and two weeks old when it died. BUT I actually had purchased the extended warranty (which I rarely do)! So all the repairs cost us zero dolares. The paper goods, however, well, let's just say I'm stocked up for the next unexpected emergency. With the strep and everything, and then hubby out of town, I just didn't have it in me to hand wash dishes. (I know, I'm a wimp, but you do what you can, right? I was actually pretty proud of myself for just letting myself see my limits and let them be.)

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Yesterday, I woke to the sound of children playing outside. Is there anything more lovely than a summer day and children playing with abandon?

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I was proud of myself on Friday. My son went on another winter campout and I just waved and didn't stress. I am convinced that part of why Scouts exists is to help mommas let go of their boys. (Note to self -- pack the better sunscreen and encourage son to apply every hour. These boys came home FRIED after ice fishing for several hours. We're talking swollen faces, blisters, and inability to eat. Fortunately, the sunscreen we packed for #1 worked enough to keep the serious stuff at bay for him, but I still have never seen him so burned. Owie. But how blessed this boy is to have leaders who invest so much of their hearts in these young men and their spiritual and physical progress.


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Saturday night, there was a stake Valentine's dinner for the adults in our neighborhood. It was lost somewhere in my brain last Sunday, I think. We ended up cleaning the garage together, hubby and I. (And listened to the BYU basketball game. Go Cougs!) I know. We are romantic devils, aren't we? Wanna hear how romantic we really are? I've asked him to not buy me gifts for the next who knows how long so I can get a turbo blender. (I'm backward, I know. Usually a gift like a blender would put a man in the dog house. (Watch the video. It's funny. Unless you are sensitive about gender-related joking. Then don't watch it. I laughed so hard I cried. But remember, I'm a girl who couldn't care less about girly gifts.)



And here's the second one, if you liked that one.

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We finally finished our family read-aloud book. I'm happy to report that we were all good to our word; no one read ahead! It was a fun read. I can't believe how long it took us, though. Any suggestions for the next one?

Falling Apart

I.

Drip. Drip. I was finally going to get to bed a little earlier (which isn't saying much, I know) when I heard it. Drip. Drip.

"How long has that been there?" I wondered, as I felt underneath my bathroom sink.

After several minutes of fiddling, I realized one of the parts of the cold water fixture had corroded. The more I fiddled, the worse things got.

DripDripDripDrip.

Panic.

It's not like I could do much in the early hours of a Sunday morning. I cleaned out the garbage that was under the sink (uh, am I the only one who never looks under their sinks?), put a little container under the leak, showered, and got ready for bed.

Plop. Plop.

The container was a third of the way full after an hour.

HOW LONG HAS THAT LEAK BEEN THERE?

More panic. I switched the little container out for a little garbage can. It was 3/4 full in a couple of days.

II.

I looked at the pile of dishes last nite, debating about whether to just put them off. I can't do it, I realized. I can't leave that mess for the fam to wake up to. For me to wake up to. Ignoring the deep pain in my head, I quickly emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, loaded the soap, closed the door, and pushed the button.

Silence.

III.

Even an hour or two before my appointment, I still at war with myself. But I don't feel that bad. I've never had strep. This is stupid. I need the rest anyway. I mean, really, when don't I have a sore throat lurking and a headache creeping into yet another day? They just sort of come with the territory with this whatever-it-is-that-I-have thing. But I figured I'd get the stupid strep test, get another 'normal' result, and be on my way (to get a new dishwasher, grumblegrumblegrumble). At least I could say that I did something, even if that little idea that popped into my head out of nowhere really was the Spirit. But I still felt like a fool as I sat in the doctor's office as I waited for the result.

The test was positive.

IV.
The quick email from the claims department really impressed me, but the message they sent sent my mind reeling. Your homeowner's insurance has expired. I checked with the underwriting department and they confirmed that no payment has been received. This will affect your claim of 1/9/2011. (That would be the possible lake effect we have sitting under my bathroom vanity from part I above.)

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Needless to say, it's been a long week. It started with the leak (and with me consequently not being able to get out of bed to make it even to my later schedule's sacrament meeting), was mixed in with a sick child (yet another reason why going to the doc for myself wasn't really on the radar screen), is complicated by a disaster zone in my house that has been exacerbated by the sickness we've had going on (now with piles of dishes I don't have the strength to do...and now hubby feels sick).... It just feels like things are falling apart around here. [Update: I forgot about the car repairs that hubby found out we needed this week, and I'll add the fact that hubby got a positive strep test on Friday.]

Truth be told, they kinda are.

(But here, I try to sort through some of the little tender mercies in the midst of the craziness.)

My favorite things

I have a goal to post more of the little day-to-day things of my life, so I can remember and cherish them. (My children are just growing too fast! I want to savor it all.)

It's already tomorrow (Wed) as I write this, but for me it's still today (Tues) so, today, some precious moments included:

Hearing my baby (age 9 now) singing some happy song. Can't even remember now (see why I need to write things down?)

Finally being able to take #2 to school. She's been sick. But wow, she's maturing a lot with how she deals with hard things. I'm so proud of her.

Watching #2 and #3 throw a bday party for their Build-a-Bears.

Making dinner according to what #3's Build-a-Bear's favorite food is. (Tacos, in case you were wondering.)

Bagging the Easy-Bake cake idea (why did I buy that thing in the first place?) and instead giving the girls each a little cup of fondue chocolate with some pretzels and mini-marshmallows. OH THE JOY that was on their faces.

Curling up with #2 to read her Revolutionary War stories. Really amazing to read about youths who did some amazing things. (Consequently, she couldn't sleep. Ah, well. I then got to cuddle with her while she read The Friend to get her mind off of the war track.)

Lest you think I forgot #1, I didn't. It was just one of those days when he was pretty much in his own world working on homework. But I was proud of him for the way he focused on it.

Sometimes I hate the whole homework thing, to be honest.

Fave other little thing -- at the store, hearing a child in the other aisle singing, the smiley-frowny face song from Primary.

And getting lots of healthy food from the bulk bins at WinCo. (WinCo, where have you been all of my life?)

I'm baaaaaack.

Well, maybe.

Life these past months came with enough of the usual and the unusual that blogging just sort of took a back seat. But I'm sort of feeling the bug again, so I may be back.

Holidays were good, but still busier than I would have liked. My health took a downturn during the break so that was a bummer (but it was going better before then, so that is good -- I just think I overdid it).

#3 got strep on Christmas day, which was a bummer, but truth be told, being able to lay low and take it slow on Christmas was good.We love being together. We had a fun make-up day with my side of the family last week, too.

Church schedule for our fam is back to the early schedule, which means I am back to not going to church with my family. Definitely a bummer. But I get to worship with some of my dear friends from our former ward, which is so very good. I call it a compensatory blessing in my life to have this strange opportunity to expand my circle of friends and associates at church. This will be the fourth ward I have attended in the last four years.

And since I'm on this bummer/good theme, just flip the two around in order and then go read this post. It may very well be my favorite post on motherhood. Ever. (Doesn't matter if you aren't a mother. You should read it.)

That's all for now. (Bummer? Or good?)

Roar!

Stress release is going on at my other blog today. Hear me roar.

Back to School

How is it possible that it's that time again?

You can feel it in the air -- the cooling crispness, the excitement in the kids' faces, the buzzy hubbub at the stores. (I thought I had it all ready -- but, alas, I still ended up with a last-minute trip to the dollar store tonight.)

This summer has in some ways been personally very difficult, but all I really remember is that it was fun. And I think this post by my friend Julie sums it up very well:

“The adventure [summer] is over.  Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough.  Except the part you carry with you.  It’s the same as going on a vacation. Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”
E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I welcomed my summer inside of me.  I made real clicks and heart clicks over and over to preserve the vibrancy and action and emotions; the people, the places, the feelings.

Most of my favorite childhood memories were just the times of pure play. I have many photos in my mind and heart of watching my children be children this summer, playing until way past sunset (oh, boy, are we having a hard time readjusting to a sleep schedule). My inability to be all over the place has in some ways been a real blessing. We did have some outings and a vacation, but mostly, we had a lazy summer here at home. Ahhhhh.

I'm more than a little sad to see summer end. But I'm excited for my children in their excitement. As we went to the back-to-school open house, it was fun to watch my children scurrying around the school visiting former teachers, walking around the grounds surrounded by their respective friends -- content (close to giddy, actually), ready to be getting back into the swing of things.

In their prayers as of late, they sometimes say, "Please bless Mom that she won't be too lonely while we're gone."

I will miss them, that's for sure. But at the same time, I LOVE watching them grow. I love who they are becoming. Mothering just keeps getting more and more fun, and more and more rewarding.

All sorts of sighs, for all sorts of reasons.

When a BYU Education Week Financial Class Becomes a Miracle

"But I don't want to end my Education Week experience with a class on finances," I argued silently.

I figured it was probably my overactive brain talking anyway, so I marched away from 446 MARB toward the Jesse Knight building without thinking much of it.

Until I had gotten settled in the next class.

I had picked a nice seat, way in the back, where I could juice up my laptop and convince myself that I could find the information from the finance class online. With no internet signal available in this particular room, that approach failed. I couldn't dismiss the nagging feeling I had that maybe I needed to go to that finance class. I was not happy.

As the nice host gave his usual schpeel about moving in toward the center so the latecomers would have a place to sit (this brother's class filled up every night -- he was good), I realized it was now or never. I walked past the instructor apologetically and marched back out into the gorgeous evening.

Right back to 446 MARB. (Ha. Joke's on me. Chalk it up to exercise for the day.)

After sitting for ten minutes, I thought of leaving. After all, I got the handout when I walked in. My stomach was in knots; I couldn't help but wonder what I was missing in the other class (and I've been known to split time between classes when I've been conflicted about which to attend).

But I held on, looking for something perhaps that could give me some reason as to why I felt pressed to come.

I learned a couple of cool things, got information about a great budgeting spreadsheet (you should check it out -- it's a Dave Ramsey special), and felt overall that it was a good class. I figured I'd leave and share the spreadsheet and hope someone could be helped by it.

But as the class ended, I looked over and saw a woman who looked familiar. I did a double-take (or two) and decided I'd take the chance that she was who I thought she was. (I even had a name come to mind.)

She was, indeed...someone from my high school days. Someone I'd never talked to, mind you. Someone who had actually moved away during our high school years.

But we proceeded to chat, and the chatting turned into a heart-to-heart conversation that lasted, er, well, a long time.

Oh, OK, I'll tell you. It lasted four and a half hours. It was as though we'd been friend a long time. (Bonus: We saw seven deer cross the parking lot and street while we talked in her car.)

Interestingly enough, she had planned on going home before this class, but a few things happened and she stayed.

The experience left us both in awe and feeling the Spirit from all that we had explored together. It was amazing.

I really need to learn not to argue with that "voice in my head." I'm glad ultimately He won out.