I always think of song lyrics when I write blogs, and ABBA is it today.
Yesterday, my daughter sold some toys. I wanted to get rid of them, even though she still plays with them, and she agreed to it only if I sold them. So I listed them online... a beat up barbie house and a doll stroller for $1.50 (which is especially lame, because I think they were both given to us by neighbors... I know, I should have stressed the importance of charity, but I just wanted the thing out of my house and would agree to anything). Whatever, I figured if it didn't sell in a couple days, I'd sneak it to DI and just pay her.
It sold! And the lady who bought it was so cute, she gave Bekah a few extra gold dollars. Bekah was SOO excited. That, with some money she got for Christmas and money saved, she had enough (drumroll please...) to "buy a BANK ACCOUNT". To sweeten the deal, we told her for every $20 she puts in, we would add $5... we figure that will help her understand interest, since she wouldn't get any from the bank. Anyway, it was great to see her excited about saving.
Speaking of money, I just read a FANTASTIC financial book. Very understandable, interesting to read and very specific with suggestions. It's written by this guy who is a millionaire and became so on a teacher's income. Seriously. He paid for his own education, never inherited a dime, and is now rich enough for massages for him and his wife every week and travel. Massages... my ears definitely perked up. It is called Millionaire Teacher. I would really recommend it, and I'll lend you my copy after the person who I lent it to is done. What's awesome is it was pretty in line with what Rob and I read in uninteresting financial books. So his advice is sanctioned by others, only you can actually understand what he is saying.
It has also got me excited for some financial goals for the new year. It has taken me a month, but I have finally gottens some ideas of what I want to accomplish this year other than just "survive." It probably also has to do with the fact that I haven't needed an IV in 2 weeks, and survival looks easier to accomplish.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Just when you think they aren't listening
My kids are not quiet talkers. And while we have worked on whispering for years... well, I don't know why I try. I love how I remind them in church to whisper and they look at me and keep talking in the exact same volume. You all know what I mean.
Well, my daughter talked through most of Sacrament meeting this Sunday, reading to herself or talking to her brother. Which was actually great because she was sitting almost the whole time and wasn't bickering or bothering anyone almost the whole time. Who cares if THEY listen to anything... as long as the people around us can listen.
So later in Primary, the primary president asks the Junior primary (over 100 kids) if anyone knew what one of the talks was about. One kid raises their hand. My daughter. And she answered it correctly. WHAT!!??! I was completely blown away!! I know people say that kids hear when you don't think they do, but usually, you would expect the kid to at least not be talking to hear! Anyway, completely amazing. It made me feel pretty good.
Kind of made up for my son answering another question by the primary president, "My mom was really crabby yesterday!"
Well, my daughter talked through most of Sacrament meeting this Sunday, reading to herself or talking to her brother. Which was actually great because she was sitting almost the whole time and wasn't bickering or bothering anyone almost the whole time. Who cares if THEY listen to anything... as long as the people around us can listen.
So later in Primary, the primary president asks the Junior primary (over 100 kids) if anyone knew what one of the talks was about. One kid raises their hand. My daughter. And she answered it correctly. WHAT!!??! I was completely blown away!! I know people say that kids hear when you don't think they do, but usually, you would expect the kid to at least not be talking to hear! Anyway, completely amazing. It made me feel pretty good.
Kind of made up for my son answering another question by the primary president, "My mom was really crabby yesterday!"
Saturday, January 21, 2012
What's been coming up
We have gone through the stomach flu this week. Why do children always start after midnight? My two oldest both started within 5 minutes of midnight, but 5 days apart. No lie. I guess it's better than 2am... although they were up then, too.
My daughter is hilarious. She had to run into our room to tell us that she just threw up in her bed and had to throw up agai... too late.
We assured her that next time, we really CAN hear her from the bathroom, and she should just run there first. Of course, she has a hard time throwing up INTO anything. Like she will wake up, sit up in her bed, and throw up next to the bucket, which is in her bed. It is amazing. A couple years ago when we were in a little apartment, I ended up dragging her mattress into the living room, so I could lay next to on the couch and hand her a bucket throughout the night.
This time, after changing sheets several times in less than an hour, Rob patiently explained again and again how to use the toilet and the bucket effectively. He was awesome. If there is any trial of patience, it is speaking kindly at 3 am while you are explaining for the 3rd time how important it is to throw up IN the bucket. My job, being the light sleeper, was to holler every time I heard my daughter move during the night, "THE BUCKET! USE THE BUCKET!". Cough... "THE BUCKET." She rolls over, "THE BUCKET!"
For two days, my baby ate poorly and Rob and I just waited for it... extra sheets and blankets ready next to his bed every night. Turns out he was teething.
I have a belief that a carseat is new until it is thrown up in. Stephen got a carseat for Christmas... a new snazzy, expensive one. You can see where this is going.
Well, as it happens, when it comes to carseats snazzy is NOT good. You have to have a PhD in Engineering to get the cover off. Seriously, I know this because only my husband WITH the PhD could get it off, and only after 40 minutes with the manual. If it were warmer, I probably would have just gone to a self-service car wash and sprayed it with the high-power sprayer.
So far Rob and I have escaped the worst. Rob felt sick one day. I thought it was kind of funny. You see, the last couple months I have been throwing up non-stop (I'll let you guess why), even needing IVs. So every time he complained about feeling queezy, it made me chuckle. Literally. I obviously need to work on my compassion.
Gotta go, Saturday night, kids are bathed and we are all going to watch part of Empire Strikes Back... I can hear the baby laughing downstairs ready.
My daughter is hilarious. She had to run into our room to tell us that she just threw up in her bed and had to throw up agai... too late.
We assured her that next time, we really CAN hear her from the bathroom, and she should just run there first. Of course, she has a hard time throwing up INTO anything. Like she will wake up, sit up in her bed, and throw up next to the bucket, which is in her bed. It is amazing. A couple years ago when we were in a little apartment, I ended up dragging her mattress into the living room, so I could lay next to on the couch and hand her a bucket throughout the night.
This time, after changing sheets several times in less than an hour, Rob patiently explained again and again how to use the toilet and the bucket effectively. He was awesome. If there is any trial of patience, it is speaking kindly at 3 am while you are explaining for the 3rd time how important it is to throw up IN the bucket. My job, being the light sleeper, was to holler every time I heard my daughter move during the night, "THE BUCKET! USE THE BUCKET!". Cough... "THE BUCKET." She rolls over, "THE BUCKET!"
For two days, my baby ate poorly and Rob and I just waited for it... extra sheets and blankets ready next to his bed every night. Turns out he was teething.
I have a belief that a carseat is new until it is thrown up in. Stephen got a carseat for Christmas... a new snazzy, expensive one. You can see where this is going.
Well, as it happens, when it comes to carseats snazzy is NOT good. You have to have a PhD in Engineering to get the cover off. Seriously, I know this because only my husband WITH the PhD could get it off, and only after 40 minutes with the manual. If it were warmer, I probably would have just gone to a self-service car wash and sprayed it with the high-power sprayer.
So far Rob and I have escaped the worst. Rob felt sick one day. I thought it was kind of funny. You see, the last couple months I have been throwing up non-stop (I'll let you guess why), even needing IVs. So every time he complained about feeling queezy, it made me chuckle. Literally. I obviously need to work on my compassion.
Gotta go, Saturday night, kids are bathed and we are all going to watch part of Empire Strikes Back... I can hear the baby laughing downstairs ready.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Hope?
So I hit this moment that everyone goes through in their life. Usually many times. The moment you stop and look at your life and say... "wait a minute... this is not where I'm supposed to be." It's not that I don't know how I got here; I got here through lots of prayer and trusting God. And it's not that where I am is bad. But it's just that sudden realization that I'm not where and who I thought I was going to be years ago when I visualized this. And what is the harshest is the realization that life is NEVER going to be what I thought it would be. It was kind of a blow to the gut.
I think it became even more of a blow to the gut when I looked around me and found that other people... even people older than me... were going through the EXACT same thing. These are good people who are following what they feel God wants them to do, and have done so all their lives. And they still come to these crossroads where they are hit by how different their lives are from what they had hoped, dreamed, or even expected.
It's all about expectations, isn't it. If my husband tells me he will be home late, I am just fine when he's late. But when I call him at 6:15 to find out where he is since we are sitting around the table waiting and he says that he hasn't left work yet (at least 35 min. away)... more difficult.
I have been reading the Bible a lot lately, and I am struck by how regular this phenomenom is. Nothing turns out how it seems. Nothing. Mary, the mother of our Lord is told by an angel that her son "shall be great...and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever..." I cannot imagine her confusion and pain when over 30 years later, she watches that Son be crucified. Can you imagine her cry to God, "You told me that he would be great! And instead he was made the lowest of all!"
I have also been reading through Genesis, and Abraham's story is another perfect example. The Lord promises him children, that they would become a great nation. He promises him the land. Well we know how long he went without any children at all, and then he didn't have a lot. Then he was forced to leave the very land he was promised because of famine. In fact, after that he feared for his life and had to pretend that he was only the brother of his wife twice! And the story is similar to Isaac and Jacob. Nothing turns out how it should. Nothing seems to end like you imagined it would in the beginning.
The only answer must be that this is not the end. Abraham and Sarah's story can not end with him dying and being buried in a cave of Machpelah, having relatively few offspring and only one with him at end. Rebekah (one of my favorite women in the Bible!) was obviously a very righteous woman, and while she lived in a culture that heavily valued motherhood and she had been promised many, she only had twin boys. And she must have died with grief in her heart, not ever seeing those two reconciled. So that cannot be the end of her story.
I am learning that submitting your will to God is not only giving up your will, but your expectations. Your understanding. This is very, very painful. And that is where hope comes in. Thank God for Hope! As Paul says in Romans, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. ... Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."
I like how C.S. Lewis poetically captures what we have hope in, in the Last Battle, after Eustace, Lucy, Peter, and all of them learn that they are dead,
Isn't that beautiful? I cry every time I read that. To think that somehow my life of diapers and vomit will someday become poetry!
I think it became even more of a blow to the gut when I looked around me and found that other people... even people older than me... were going through the EXACT same thing. These are good people who are following what they feel God wants them to do, and have done so all their lives. And they still come to these crossroads where they are hit by how different their lives are from what they had hoped, dreamed, or even expected.
It's all about expectations, isn't it. If my husband tells me he will be home late, I am just fine when he's late. But when I call him at 6:15 to find out where he is since we are sitting around the table waiting and he says that he hasn't left work yet (at least 35 min. away)... more difficult.
I have been reading the Bible a lot lately, and I am struck by how regular this phenomenom is. Nothing turns out how it seems. Nothing. Mary, the mother of our Lord is told by an angel that her son "shall be great...and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever..." I cannot imagine her confusion and pain when over 30 years later, she watches that Son be crucified. Can you imagine her cry to God, "You told me that he would be great! And instead he was made the lowest of all!"
I have also been reading through Genesis, and Abraham's story is another perfect example. The Lord promises him children, that they would become a great nation. He promises him the land. Well we know how long he went without any children at all, and then he didn't have a lot. Then he was forced to leave the very land he was promised because of famine. In fact, after that he feared for his life and had to pretend that he was only the brother of his wife twice! And the story is similar to Isaac and Jacob. Nothing turns out how it should. Nothing seems to end like you imagined it would in the beginning.
The only answer must be that this is not the end. Abraham and Sarah's story can not end with him dying and being buried in a cave of Machpelah, having relatively few offspring and only one with him at end. Rebekah (one of my favorite women in the Bible!) was obviously a very righteous woman, and while she lived in a culture that heavily valued motherhood and she had been promised many, she only had twin boys. And she must have died with grief in her heart, not ever seeing those two reconciled. So that cannot be the end of her story.
I am learning that submitting your will to God is not only giving up your will, but your expectations. Your understanding. This is very, very painful. And that is where hope comes in. Thank God for Hope! As Paul says in Romans, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. ... Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."
I like how C.S. Lewis poetically captures what we have hope in, in the Last Battle, after Eustace, Lucy, Peter, and all of them learn that they are dead,
"We can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."
Isn't that beautiful? I cry every time I read that. To think that somehow my life of diapers and vomit will someday become poetry!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
3 more things
As I'm laying on my couch feeling lousy, I felt that I must write my thankful list for a pick me up.
#1 Great books. I was reminded today of a book that I loved... I don't even remember much about it, but this summer I saw it at a yard sale and bought it just because I remembered that 15 years ago, I had loved that book. I need to go and find that book and start it. Winters are for good books. I'm not a big fan of the cold, so tromping through the snow is not very appealing. I just don't generate much body heat. But snuggling up with a good book under a warm quilt... mmm. So perhaps I'll start "A lantern in her hand".
#2 My Oma's soup. Yesterday I was on my way to her house for lunch when the baby threw up all over and we had to turn around. But my Oma got in her car and drove at least 45 minutes here (more because she got lost on the way) to bring me some. Is that love or what? You have to try this soup to understand... it's legendary in our family. It just tastes like savory love and warmth with meatballs. She even left all the leftovers from lunch, which I will not share with anyone else. There are just some things you do not have to do when you are a mother... and sharing my Oma's soup is one of them.
#3 My pink bucket. It has seen lot's of use lately and has saved lots of mess. I'm just grateful for it.
#4 My sweet neighbors. God always seems to send help when I really need it. Today that help is my neighbor who is now picking up some much needed milk and medicine for me. When we were looking for our house, we knew what we wanted, but we also knew that what mattered just as much as the house was the neighbors... and that's not something that you figure out during a walk-through. When we drove around this neighborhood for the first time, I remember falling in love. It was a Saturday morning and people were outside, waving at passing cars, kids were playing, birds were singing. A musical waiting to happen. Neighbors like this... priceless.
#1 Great books. I was reminded today of a book that I loved... I don't even remember much about it, but this summer I saw it at a yard sale and bought it just because I remembered that 15 years ago, I had loved that book. I need to go and find that book and start it. Winters are for good books. I'm not a big fan of the cold, so tromping through the snow is not very appealing. I just don't generate much body heat. But snuggling up with a good book under a warm quilt... mmm. So perhaps I'll start "A lantern in her hand".
#2 My Oma's soup. Yesterday I was on my way to her house for lunch when the baby threw up all over and we had to turn around. But my Oma got in her car and drove at least 45 minutes here (more because she got lost on the way) to bring me some. Is that love or what? You have to try this soup to understand... it's legendary in our family. It just tastes like savory love and warmth with meatballs. She even left all the leftovers from lunch, which I will not share with anyone else. There are just some things you do not have to do when you are a mother... and sharing my Oma's soup is one of them.
#3 My pink bucket. It has seen lot's of use lately and has saved lots of mess. I'm just grateful for it.
#4 My sweet neighbors. God always seems to send help when I really need it. Today that help is my neighbor who is now picking up some much needed milk and medicine for me. When we were looking for our house, we knew what we wanted, but we also knew that what mattered just as much as the house was the neighbors... and that's not something that you figure out during a walk-through. When we drove around this neighborhood for the first time, I remember falling in love. It was a Saturday morning and people were outside, waving at passing cars, kids were playing, birds were singing. A musical waiting to happen. Neighbors like this... priceless.
Monday, January 16, 2012
A few thankfuls
We have been on survival mode for several months now. Not a survival mode where we are all miserable and unhappy surviving, just the kind where I have cut out doing a lot of stuff that is not essential.
But for a while I have been thinking that I want to write some of the moments that are beautiful.
so for things that make me happy:
#1 My baby's kisses. He turns to me with his tongue sticking out and wants to lick my face to show me his love. I kiss him and then he kisses/licks me back. Pretty adorable albeit slobbery.
#2 Family pictures on my wall. The baby turned one, so I thought that I better finally put up some family pictures that included him... especially since I had some great ones. Isn't it great having a few cute family pictures smiling at you! Makes me kind of feel like we ARE a good looking family, even if I haven't brushed my hair yet today.
#3 Music with memories. I played a song on the piano yesterday and it took me back so vividly to some wonderful college days. Isn't that amazing.
#4 Cheerios. Overrated: hot breakfast. Actually, if someone else wanted to cook, I would love a hot breakfast. But my kids can just pour whole-grained goodness into their bowl all by themselves, something that mothers centuries ago only dreamed of. Out of the thousands of years of human civilization, I am so glad to live in the time of Cheerios.
But for a while I have been thinking that I want to write some of the moments that are beautiful.
so for things that make me happy:
#1 My baby's kisses. He turns to me with his tongue sticking out and wants to lick my face to show me his love. I kiss him and then he kisses/licks me back. Pretty adorable albeit slobbery.
#2 Family pictures on my wall. The baby turned one, so I thought that I better finally put up some family pictures that included him... especially since I had some great ones. Isn't it great having a few cute family pictures smiling at you! Makes me kind of feel like we ARE a good looking family, even if I haven't brushed my hair yet today.
#3 Music with memories. I played a song on the piano yesterday and it took me back so vividly to some wonderful college days. Isn't that amazing.
#4 Cheerios. Overrated: hot breakfast. Actually, if someone else wanted to cook, I would love a hot breakfast. But my kids can just pour whole-grained goodness into their bowl all by themselves, something that mothers centuries ago only dreamed of. Out of the thousands of years of human civilization, I am so glad to live in the time of Cheerios.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)