So You Think You Can Be a Rock Star

Finally, the end of the day had come. The kids were in their jammies and playing nicely. . . but what were they playing.
"Are you guys going on vacation?" I asked.

"NO, we're rock stars!"
Ah. Yes. Now I can see. I don't know how I didn't guess that to begin with. :)

Pumkins, Apples, and A Big Big Mess

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Just Another Day

Today I was a little camera happy. Sometimes, I just want to snap shot my day. This or that. . . just a moment frozen in time. It started this morning. Nate was home when the kids woke up. One by one they all filed in and piled on top of him. Hey, he's a fun Dad. And they love it when he teases them. . . like when he says "Group Hug!" and smashes them all together.

Sadly, Nate had to be to work at 11:30. When he left, it seemed all the happiness of the morning went with it. Those three little scoundrels started fighting. First, Emily and Rachel wanted the same chair. . . then Ben and Rachel wanted the same chair. . . then Emily wanted Ben's toy. . . then Rachel didn't want to play with Ben. . . and on and on. I thought I might pull my hair out.

We finally left the house to purchase something for dinner at the Walmart. It was a break, I guess. Except for me repeating "Get off the cart. Your too big and heavy and I can't turn it" like 10,000 times. Really, I used to like them to hold on to the cart but now it's like pushing around 100 extra pounds. Unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up on my weight lifting.

Luckily, by the time we got home our friendly little neighbor came to invite Rachel over and that saved us from more fighting. Ben retreated to play games on the computer and Emily and I played peek-a-boo.


Many years from now I will read this blog and naively say "Oh, that was so fun. Look at those cute kids. I miss those days."

Success!

Sometimes I really worry about screwing up my kids. So much so that I think I might not have anymore children. . . I mean. . . how bad can a mess up on just three children. And messing up three would be better than messing up five. Right.

So, Rachel has been having a little problem with major tantrums. She is a very headstrong girl. And, frankly, I think it gives her an adrenaline rush to fight a battle, which seems to be the perfect brewing ground for her tantrums. Now, you might think that I would be an expert with such behavior. I mean, I spent all last year dealing with this exact behavior everyday. Alas, many times I get frustrated with her and have to remove myself to my bedroom for prayer and meditation before I do something I may well regret.

Well, I have tried to institute a sticker system. Each kid has 5 things they can do each day to earn a sticker. The stickers can be exchanged for a treat at the store, friday night movies, happy meals, and other fun activities. This plan has been working pretty well. Rachel has been doing better with her tantrums. But, last night I had real success. Rachel was in the throws of a rather huge tantrum. During family scriptures she was playing with a toy telephone.
"Rachel, if I hear that phone make one more noise I am taking it away and you won't get it back for a week."
Shortly thereafter, what did I hear. Oh yes, one more noise. She just had to test the limits. So I took the phone. . . and then the tantrum erupted. But the success came about 2 minutes into the tantrum. She calmed down just a little and I said
"Rachel, do you know what I liked about what you did today?" She stopped and looked at me "What?"
"I liked how nice you were to Emily today. Thank you for being such a good sister."
"Do you know what else I liked about what you did today?"
What?
"I liked that you didn't fight with Ben all day. You did a good job on that today."

And just like that the tantrum ended. I have been thinking about this. I posted a Bill Cosby sketch on facebook today. In it he talks about how parents often get a perma frown on their face. Picking up on the negative, we forget to point out the positive. Well, here's proof that the positive has power to overcome the negative. I spent half of my expensive college years learning it. Positive Power. It's going to be my motto from now on. I can do it!!!

Pumpkin Painting

This weekend was a big disappointment for our sweet children. See, every year the Baxters throw a Halloween Party for all the grandchildren. They go to a pumpkin patch and have a scavenger hunt as well as other games. Well, after much anticipation, when the time came our family was sick. I couldn't bring myself to spread our pathetic situation to our relatives. So, to make up for it we purchased pumpkins and painted them. A small consolation, I know, but the kids accepted it.
The smallest child creates a beautiful piece of abstract art.

Slightly less abstract with a face is Rachel's pumpkin masterpiece.

Ben planned his out but then his creativity got the best of him.

I made a stirring pumpkin patch scene

While Nathan went with a witch. No, I was not posing as his inspiration.

Clean up time. Gee, where did everyone go?

Next on to the costumes. I have to come up with Harry Potter as well as two Barbie Three Musketeers. Good luck to me.

Why Ben Loves His Class

Ben loves his first grade class. I didn't know exactly why until this last week. The kids were preparing for a treasure hunt. They talked about it all week. The night before the treasure Ben told me that I better get him to school on time the following day because they were doing the treasure hunt first thing in the morning. Apparently I am often late bringing Ben to school. . . I don't know what he's talking about. :) Anyway, Ben woke up bright and early the next morning and got to school earlier than he ever has. When I picked him up after school he came out clad as the pirate and immediately showed me his treasures. They had a list of things to find in nature. . leaves, rocks, sticks. . . and they also found gold (gold painted rocks that is). He came home with quite a stash and now I know why he likes his new class. What a great thing it is for elementary students to have fun.

While You Were Sleeping

Last night, when I crept into the girls room to tuck them in I encountered this sweet vision. All of her beanie babies protected in her arms. And Emily sleeping so peacefully with them. I just couldn't resist the photo op. It's so easy to be a parent when the children look like this. . . why can't they look like this all the time? I would get a lot more done. :)

Sniff, sniff, cough, cough, sleep, sleep,

Well, if you haven't had the swine flu yet. . . I think I can safely let you know that it stinks! The last week and a half has been filled with it in our family and it's still going. Starts with congestion and runny nose then moves into the chest for a deep cough. Rachel laid on the couch for an entire week. I was so happy the day she smiled and got up to play with Emily. I got sick and tried to be strong. I am sure Nathan would attest to the complete opposite as I called him each day practically begging him to come home so I could just lie in bed. He even skipped his bishopric meetings one night so I could do just that.
Anyway, while Rachel and I have served our time in the torture chamber, Nate, Ben, and Emily have just begun. Hang in there guys. I have to admit I am a little paranoid. The news makes you think that you might die if you get this flu. So far we are still living. . . apparently defying the odds. I was going to get my whole family vaccinated but I guess we got it done for free. Just have to sacrifice our comfort. Dang Swine Flu!!!!!!!!!

My Little Buttercup

This week we celebrated Emily's 3rd birthday. I can't believe my youngest is three now. It makes me feel like I should probably get cracking if we want to have any more little munchkins. But, that is for another years post.
Emily was the perfect birth. I was induced first thing in the morning. I had Emily around 1:30 in the afternoon. I relaxed and enjoyed her for the rest of the day and left the hospital promptly the next morning. It was awesome. And Emily was an easy baby. She is not so easy now seeing as she still has absolutely no intention to potty train and she likes to make me smell her feet. (She does it just to irritate me too.) Speaking of irritating me on purpose, yesterday Emily dropped a cracker on the floor. I picked it up and told her not to drop anymore on the floor because it would make a mess. I headed toward the stairs only to hear the sound of another falling cracker. Emily, you need to pick that up. She smiled her evil smile and said "you pick it up." Then, to up the stakes, she put her foot right over the cracker, taunting me with smashing it.
Hmmm. "Emily, you are going to have to clean up what ever mess that cracker makes." I continued up the stairs. Later when I came back down I found the broom, dust pan, and cracker bits in the place Emily had been. I confess, I finished cleaning up the mess. I mean, she had obviously given it some effort. She's a handful. All of our kids our sometimes. But, I love that. It shows personality and independence. Right?

Baby Steps

I love the movie "What About Bob". In it Richard Dreyfus plays a psychologist who has written a book called "Baby Steps". Anyway, that is irrelevant, excepting the fact that I feel like our family is taking baby steps to our future. But, at least they are steps in the right direction. This week was funny. After waiting forever for Dillard's to get back to me about the job I thought they wanted me for Nathan and I finally gave up and decided he should get a second job. Promptly following that conversation Dillard's did call to offer me the job. Too little, too late. Nate and I had already put together our plan. He went back to a former employer and got himself hired on for some part time work. We both feel good about that plan. I'll miss Nathan though. It's lonely at night when I am putting the kids to bed all by myself.

You know, I have been thinking about this all week and I finally made the connection that baby steps are necessary. When Nathan graduated I expected huge changes to just drop at my feet. It's taken me this long to accept that God means it when he says "line upon line" or "by small means are great things accomplished". Patience with the process of reaching our goals is part of what we have to learn in this life. Most of the time, though there are some exceptions, getting where we want to be will always take hard work and patience. Otherwise, we experience very little growth.

Great things are happening. Nathan loves his day job. He is learning so much there and they are pretty nice to him. Hey, I got to say, seeing Nathan love doing the work that he put so much blood, sweat, and tears (maybe just one of those) into training to do is a gift. I want him to be happy because he is going to be paying me back for my support and encouragement for many years to come.

Proud. . . of Myself :)

O.k. I completed my very first canning project this year. We have a huge amount of grapes growing on the side of our yard. In the 4 years that we have lived here I have never given these a thought, really. Then, this year I was chatting with a friend of mine outside and she said, oh I love these grapes. She began eating them as we chatted. Surprised, I thought I might try one. And guess what, they were good. So, I juiced them and made grape jelly. Thank goodness I ran into a friend at walmart when I was searching for cheese cloth to do my juicing. She had a steamer for juicing that was awesome. Although, I let the water dry up once and scorched her poor pot. I hope she forgives me. We actually drank most of the juice but it doesn't take much to make the jelly. The jelly turned out perfect. With the exception of the fact that the recipe called for 7 cups of sugar to 5 cups of juice. I couldn't believe that, however it was necessary. Believe me, I tried to find a recipe that didn't call for those ratios. Anyway, in the end, when used sparingly, it is delicious.