Happy Birthday and We Miss You!

We’re jumping the gun a little bit here.  Doug’s birthday isn’t until this weekend, but he’s out of town right now, and we all miss him, so we thought we would send him our love today.  In honor of his 37 wonderful years of life, we thought we would list 37 things we love about him.  This is for you honey!

From mom:

1- You love me.

2- You’re the best father in the world.

3- You support me in all I do.

4- You give me great advice.

5- You say I’m pretty, even when I’m not. 

6- You help me be the best I can be.

7- You’re a great example to me and the kids.

8- You’re the fastest man I know on a bike.

9- You’re good at everything you try to do.

From H. Man:

10- You dominate in b-ball.

11- You watch Jazz games with me.

12- You give us presents.

13- You build Legos with me.

14- You’re huge.

15- You work for us.

16- You’re funny.

17- You take me to dinner.

18- You’re great!

From I. Mac:

19- You’re a really great dad.

20- You love to play basketball with us.

21- You’re good at cheering us up when we’re ornery.

22- You’re really good at chess.

23- You go on bike rides with me.

24- You’re very, very funny.

25- We have good chats.

26- You’re a good friend.

27- You’re a big man.

From G. Diddy:

28- You play basketball with me.

29- You’re the best dad on earth.

30- You do the right things.

31- You help me.

32- You play with me.

33- You make me laugh.

34- You are teaching me how to ride a bike.

35- You’re a good artist.

36- You take me to dads and doughnuts.

From Little C.:

37- You make me happy!

Happy Birthday!  We’ll see you tomorrow!

Green Hour Challenge #2

I have been anxious to start doing nature study consistently for quite some time, but have yet to be successful at it.  I found Barb’s Green Hour Challenge at Heart of Harmony this week and it seems to be the perfect solution for me.  We took the challenge this week and had some wonderful results.  I started by reading the assigned sections of The Handbook of Nature Study:

Read page 15 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (The Field Excursion) Read page 23-24 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (How to Use This Book)

My favorite passage from this reading was from page 23:

“Make the lesson an investigation and make the pupils feel that they are investigators.  To tell the story to begin with inevitably spoils this attitude and quenches interest.” 

I am finding with my boys that I have to approach all of our learning as an adventure or else I am met with much resistance.  That has been part of the reason I have struggled with doing our Nature Study.  The kids have seen it as another things to “study”, and have fought and complained about having to do it.   Well, despite the resistance, we went out today and by the end the boys were so enthralled with the things we were discovering, they forgot they had ever complained about having to do it.   Hopefully we will have less of a struggle in the future.  Here are the boys “words” from our walk.                           

H. Man (9)

What he heard: creaking

What he saw: rushing water

What he felt: freezing cold wind (note the short sleeved shirt...)

I. Mac (7)

What he heard: chatter (there were lots of birds)

What he saw: pretty birds

What he felt: dry smooth fruit

G. Diddy (5)

What he heard: screeching

What he saw: chirping bird

What he felt: smooth hard ground

We found some interesting things we want to look into more.  These nests, which look like huge wasps nests.  This picture doesn’t do them justice, but their were probably 30 of them under the eve of this bridge and they were about 1-2 feet long and 9 - 12 inches wide.  I’m guessing they’re some sort of bird nest, but we’re going to have to do some work to find out what kind.

We also found this tree with these lovely white berries blushed with red.  It looked like all the other scrub oak around, but it was the only one with these berries.  Again, we will be doing some research.

All in all, it was a beautiful outing.  My normally very noisy boys actually enjoyed the challenge of being quite and listening and observing everything around them.  They loved trying to listen for the different bird calls, and finding the different plants and trees.  I for one, can’t wait for the next challenge.  Thanks Barb!

Sunday Scripture Insights

I am home from church today, because Little C. has her first ear infection and is miserable.  I took advantage of her 45 minute nap today, to do some scripture study, and had an awesome experience.  It was one of those days where things that you have read a million times, suddenly hit you in a new way.  The spirit was so strong and I was dying to share my insights with someone, but everyone is still at church.  So naturally I decided to blog about it.  

There were several things that stood out to me today, but I will just share one.  It was in 2 Nephi 26: 25, 30-31:

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: ^aCome unto me all ye ^bends of the earth, ^cbuy milk and honey, without money and without price.

30 ... wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have ^acharity, which ^bcharity is ^clove. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish.

31 But the ^alaborer in ^bZion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for ^cmoney they shall perish.

God is so good!  Like any loving parent, He wants to provide for His children.  He is ready and waiting to give us what we need.  In return for all He blesses us with, He expects us to bless those around us.  The problem is that we get so caught up in the money and things that we forget the true equation.  We know we need to work to get money for food and shelter, etc. so we spend or lives worrying about how to get it.  The problem is that once we start thinking about the money, it’s hard to draw the line.  We forget that God has already promised to bless us with what we need and we just focus on the money.  We become consumed with how to get it, and once we’ve got it we try to figure out ways to get more of it.  The answer to this trap is in verse 31, we are not supposed to be working for money, we are supposed to be working for Zion (for our families, and for others, and especially for “the building up of the Kingdom of God”).  Once we start working for money, we’re trapped and we can’t ever truly draw the line.  We either fall into the trap of not having enough money, so we covet what others have, or we have so much that we are filled with pride about all that we have.  When we focus on the money it’s a lose, lose situation.   Instead, we need to put God first and trust in His ability to provide for us.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  This is one of those things that I am sure will be more easier said than done.  I guess it’s another item to add to my list of things to pray for...

Confessions of a Book-A-Holic

I have to admit, this is what I am.  I do fine with books, if I am not reading one....  But, as soon as I pick up a book I become consumed.  I can’t put them down until I turn the last page.  It doesn’t even have to be an exceptionally good book, although it does have to be at least somewhat interesting.  Once I start, the book calls to me, and I feel unsettled and anxious until I know the whole story.  My most recent binge was The Goose Girl.  It was a fun story, the kind that is easy to loose yourself in.  It was light, but adventurous, slightly thought provoking, but didn’t require too much brain power, and romantic.  It took me two days to get through the 400 pages.  Which indicates that I did exhibit a little bit of self control.  We did school yesterday, (although I was tempted to make it a free day so I could read) I cleaned the house, (we had people coming over last night so I had to) and I taught piano lessons.  Not bad, considering it was like torture trying to keep myself from giving in to the overwhelming desire to take my book into the bedroom, lock the door, and let the kids fend for themselves.  I finished this morning.  Now I had better get some things done before I discover a new book and the obsession starts all over again...

Six Random Things about Me

I was tagged by my SIL, so apparently you get to hear a little bit more about me.  Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you. (See above.)

Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.

Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Let the fun begin!

With that in mind, here are six little known facts about me:

I don’t like eggplant.  I can’t stand the texture, or the flavor.   I know that’s not very spectacular, or all that unusual, however, it is the only food I can think of that I don’t like, so I felt it deserved a mention.

I dream of one day owning dairy goats, and chickens.  I don’t know if anyone but my kids and husband know this about me, but it’s true.  In fact just this morning I threatened my husband that I was going to get us some chickens this spring, but he’s still not on board (yet...).

I’m afraid of heights.  I don’t know if afraid is a strong enough word.  It is really silly when I think about it (on flat ground), but get me at the top of some metal bleachers, and I start thinking about all of the ways the thing could end up crumbling to the ground.

I guess this is really part of #2, but I also dream of one day living out in the country with a huge garden and those dairy goats and chickens.  I don’t know if it is my affinity for The Little House books, or what, but the idea of living off the land and being mostly self sufficient is so romantic to me...

I love to cook.  I am not artistic in any way, but I think that cooking is my creative outlet.  If it weren’t for the kids, my crazy life, and the clean-up, I would probably cook a gourmet five-course meal every night. In another life I would have loved to go to a French Culinary School and become an excellent chef.

I am running out of ideas here so this last one is kind of lame (not that the ones above were really stellar). I grind my teeth at night.  I don’t know if it is a stress thing or what, but I do it rather consistently, and when I do it, I get really bad headaches the next day.  I never knew I did it until I got married and my husband pointed it out.  The worst part is that my oldest inherited the habit from me.  The funny thing is that he is the child that is most like me in personality... 

Little C's Room

Little C. is seven and a half months old and I finally finished her bedroom today!  I have had her curtains and a cute cross-stitch that my grandmother made for her, that I just haven’t gotten around to putting up, but I finally got up the gumption and did it today.  OK her room is still decorated pretty sparse, but this is still more than I ever did for the boys.  Pink is so much fun!  Here are a couple more pictures

Resolutions

Here it is, almost the middle of February, and I am wondering how many of us (who actually dared to make them) are still keeping our New Year’s Resolutions.  While there are a few things I am still doing OK on, I must admit there are others that I have already let slide.  I recently read this post which got me thinking and I started wondering why it is that we have such a hard time doing those things that we know will make us better, healthier, and ultimately happier?  I have been pondering this conundrum for the past couple of weeks and have come up with all of the standard arguments. Among the many is “it’s human nature”.  Why? I want to know what is in our natures that persuades us to settle for mediocrity.  Why are we afraid of the greatness that God intends for us.  I know it is part of the great struggle that has been going on since Adam and Eve first partook of the dualistic fruit, but why are we so apt to buy into the “easy-way-out”?  

Let’s take a look at one of the common goals that many people make as the New Year rolls round:  exercise.  I will confess that it made it on my list of improvements this year, but I am still struggling with doing it consistently.  Now, everybody knows that exercise has been proven to make us healthier, stronger, more resistant to disease, and it will increase the length and quality of our life.  I also know from personal experience that exercise gives me more energy (so I can get more accomplished in my day), it helps me sleep better at night (so even if I have to get up a little earlier to do it, I feel more rested than if I don’t), and it increases my endorphins (so I generally feel happier on the days that I exercise).  What excuses are left that cause me to turn off the alarm in the morning, instead of getting up to exercise and reaping all of these benefits?  You would think that looking at the pros and cons would convince anyone to get up and exercise every day, and yet most of us don’t.    The same could be said for most of the things that we “resolve to do”, we know the benefits far out-weigh the drawbacks, but we still don’t do them.  Again I ask, why?

After a lot of pondering, I am inclined to believe that the answer is lack of vision, which manifests itself as laziness.  Yes, I know that I would feel so much better if I; exercised regularly, ate better, cleaned my house more, kept on top of the laundry, thought of others more than myself, prayed more, etc., etc., but when decision time comes it always seems like it would be so much easier not to.  We convince ourselves that it is easier not to , but in reality it is so much harder.  Going back to the exercise scenario; at 5:00 in the morning it seems so much easier to stay in bed, but if I could see clearly at that moment I would realize that the rest of my day would be easier if I just got up.  So, how do we keep our vision in line with reality?  I guess that is the great struggle.  I know it has a lot to do with relying on God, and allowing His vision of us and the world around us to become our vision.  We also need the courage and fortitude to act upon the things He prompts us to do.  I think this quote by Marvin J. Ashton sums it up. “The recognition of the need to change has to be a greater force than the luxury of staying the same.”

I don’t know if I’m any further ahead than I was before I started thinking about all of these things, but I guess the battle isn’t over until we throw in the towel.  I have to believe that as long as we keep recognizing the need to change and strive to do something about it, we are on the right track.  When we mess up, we just get back up and try again.  Eventually, with a lot of help from above, we’re bound to get it right, and then we can move on to the next thing...