What happens when the weather hits 65 degrees on a Saturday and it's blue skies and no wind for the first time this year?

You get sun kissed on your cheeks and nose!

The neighbor kids across the street played ball all day in their yard while their parents planted flowers. The neighbor next to us mowed all the dead tips off of his grass today and now it is a beautiful rich green. I want to run barefoot in it. The boys down the street shot off rockets while somewhere nearby we could hear the motors of some dirt bikes. The sights, sounds and smells of Spring were everywhere today.

My kids rode their bikes all afternoon around and around the neighborhood. The tops of their hand are bright red from the sun and their cheeks and noses are rosy red. I love it! Their skin is so fare that the first sun of the year quickly brightens up their faces. My little A took a bath tonight. When she came down to blow her hair dry, she said sadly, "Mom, I took a bath but my face is still red. Do I have to bathe again?" I said, "It doesn't wash off, honey. It's kisses from the sun." Now she's embarrassed of her red cheeks and nose. Soon enough she will turn tan and that will mean long, dry, hot Summer days. But for now, I'm happy to enjoy the weather one season at a time.

Welcome to a Beautiful Spring Day!

Change!

Today I cut my hair!

Still Sore

(If you haven't read yesterday's post yet, read it before this one.)


This morning Z was making pancakes for breakfast. He was very proud of his work. He made the comment that he was a great cook. J then had to add, "Yeah, better than Mom!" In my defense I said, "Hey, I'm not that bad and besides, I'm going to teach you to be better than me so I can retire and you can do all the cooking." S piped up with her two cents: "How can you teach us to be better cooks than you? That doesn't make any sense. You can't teach what you don't know!"

Nice!.....Where did she come from and who asked her anyways?


She's a tough one and now I feel challenged!!!! My new goal: Become a GREAT cook!

Funny K! Not so funny Mom!

Funny:
Tonight I made Egg McMuffins for dinner. I had piled the cooked eggs on a plate while I was busy cooking the bacon. I turned around and K's face was all yellow and she was holding an uneaten egg up to her mouth. I counted what was left on the plate and decided that 3 eggs were missing. Hubby admitted to eating one so that left the one in K's hand and the one on her face. Since she hadn't taken a bite out of the one in her hand yet, Hubby took it away and told her she couldn't have seconds. We both went back to what we were doing and a moment later looked back to see K eating the egg. Hubby said, "K, you can't have seconds. Those are for dinner." K started to cry and said, "I already ate my second. This is my first!" We let her finish her first!



Not So Funny:
The boys wanted pie for dessert. Let me preface this by saying, I do not make pies! But, I figured I could handle this tonight since I had two pre-made pie shells in the freezer and a can of apple pie filling and a can of pumpkin pie filling. What could go wrong? It's just open, dump, cook!
When the apple pie was cooked, the boys decided that a crisp topping on top of the apple would finish the pie off perfectly. Easy enough. I put it back into the oven to cook the topping. Yep, started it on FIRE! It didn't turn so well.

That's okay, there's still the pumpkin right? WRONG! Forgot to add the sugar! OOPS!

The French Vanilla ice cream was really good though. No cooking required.

Julie, you're on for Thanksgiving pies again this year!

Silly Girls

Weekends are fun for the girls because they enjoy being together. This weekend they found their big dolls. They were the big sisters and the dolls were their little sisters.


They also painted their fingernails. Then they imagined that they were fairies with magic powers in their fingernails. They had to use magic to protect their little sisters.


They spent alot of time hiding upstairs making up this performance for us.


Silly Girls!

Line Upon Line

Once upon a time.....
there was a little girl. She was born into a family where she was the oldest child with 6 younger sisters and 3 younger brothers. She grew up on a small farm way out in the middle of nowhere. She was surrounded by much family; all her grandparents and many uncles, aunts, and cousins and she knew she was the luckiest girl alive. She learned to milk cows, move hand lines, hoe sugar beets, and pick rock but mostly she just played and played and played. The whole world, for as far as she could walk, was her play ground.
And she was happy!

As she grew, life seemed to become more complicated, but with the support and unconditional love of her family, she knew she would always be okay. She could make it through anything because she knew who she was and she knew that her family would always be there for her, no matter what choices she made.
And she knew she was blessed.

One day, she met her prince charming. It was love at first sight, sort of. After one date of water skiing, a slight misunderstanding and a second chance at a Young Single Adult activity, they were engaged a week later and married 6 weeks later. It was an exciting time but mostly this girl knew that she had found someone who was perfect for her. Together they were a good team.
And she loved him very much.

Children came quickly. There were many moves, college, more children and job changes but this girls heart was overflowing with love and joy. There were good times and bad but she knew that together, side by side, they could face any giant that came across their path. Her life was full of good.
And she was happy.

Her children grew and so did she. Each day brought a new surprise or challenge, but as she sought for answers on bended knees and kept her eyes focused on her eternal goal, she knew that she would have the knowledge and strength to make the right decisions.
And she was happier now than she had ever been.

One day, her life changed forever. She was faced with one of her biggest challenges ever, and this one was very personal because it hurt one of her precious children. This little girl suddenly realized that life can be really cruel and very ugly and she experienced hurt and pain like she had never felt before. She learned what it must be like when a mother animal becomes angry or scared and she follows her instincts to do everything in her power to protect her young one. She wanted to wave her magic wand and make it all better. She didn't have the answers and she was faced with the cold harsh truth of knowing she couldn't always protect her loved ones.
And she cried and cried.

She wanted to run back home to when she was a child, and crawl into her safe bed and sleep, knowing that in the morning, her mother would make it all okay. But she couldn't do that because she was the mom now. She was still surrounded by loved ones but suddenly, love didn't seem big enough to fix her world. As things progressed from very bad to worse, she felt like her whole foundation was crumbling. Everything she had ever loved or believed in seemed to be questioned and tested. She didn't know if she had the inner strength to make it through this challenge.
And she didn't know if she even wanted to try anymore.

One night, she found herself ready to walk away from it all. She didn't want to be a part of something that hurt so much. She doubted her abilities and her divine worth...and her faith. In desperation, she found herself on her knees, pleading for some kind of proof that her prayers and cries were being heard.
And she felt peace.

The next day, as she was going through a box of papers looking for some documents her husband needed, a small piece of paper slipped out of her pile and silently fell to the floor. She picked it up and her tears began to fall. It was a copy of her patriarchal blessing. As she read the sacred words spoken just for her many, many years ago, she remembered who she was and what she believed. And she knew she was loved far deeper than anything she could comprehend while here during this earthly experience. Her feelings of intense hurt and pain and of overwhelming love and desire to protect her child paled in comparison to what her Heavenly Father felt for her and her family. And through him she knew she would be able to find the faith and strength to face this monster and win.
And she wept.

As she listened to General Conference that weekend, every single talk was an answer to one of her pleas. And once again, she felt the indescribable love of a Father to his child. She was not alone. Her burdens had been lifted.
And her faith was strengthened.

As for the happily ever after ending....well, this story is still being written. There are many chapters left to live. There will be more love and joy along with pain and sorrow. That is all part of the plan. This girl knows that this journey we call earth life is not about fairy tales and magic but it is about faith, love, and joy**.
And she is strong.



** "I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters."
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine

Hard Knocks

The kids school had a fund raiser a couple weeks ago. It was a dance-a-thon. The kids were encouraged to send a letter to friends and family. There were some rewards that could be earned for different things the kids did to contribute to this fund raiser.

The students had the opportunity to draw a picture to go on the front of the dance-a-thon t-shirts.
They wanted each student to send out at least 10 flyer's. If the class could send out 80% then they would receive a popcorn party.

The class with the most flyer's sent out would receive a pizza party.

If a child sent out 50 flyer's, then he would receive a school jacket.

Z and S were not interested at all in all the rewards but J was really excited. He couldn't wait to spend a whole day dancing and if he could do something to help his school, he would be happy to do all that he could. He helped rally his classmates to participate and do their best to support the school fund raiser also.

J said that he had thought about it all day and he had the perfect picture to turn in for the t-shirt competition. He loves to draw! He also went through all my unsent Christmas cards and set a goal to address 10 flyer's a night until he reached his 50. This was a huge goal for him because he really really struggles with handwriting. (Thanks to all of you who received these random flyer's.)

The dance-a-thon was scheduled for a Friday. On Wednesday, J became very sick. His goal was to be well by Friday. His teacher sent home a note saying that their class had won the pizza party with 185% and that it would be on Friday during the Dance-a-thon. She also sent home one of J's flyer's that had been returned because the address was wrong. J had to readdress the letter and get it returned before Friday if he wanted to win the school jacket.

On Friday, J was still way too sick to go to school. He was very sad. He missed the class pizza party. He missed the dance-a-thon. Luckily, he was actually too sick to dwell too much on it that day but it was hard to watch him work so hard on something and then not get to enjoy the reward. To top it off, his sister forgot to take the newly addressed letter back to his teacher by Friday so he missed out on receiving the free jacket. The best news of the day was when J saw that his design was one that had been printed on the front of the dance-a-thon t-shirts. He had won the competition for his grade.

We bought him pizza that night for dinner and he felt a little better. His class is still waiting to have their popcorn party. J said there is always next year. He is really excited to try again for that free school jacket.

Z at the Dance-a-thon wearing the t-shirt with J's design on it.