We take a break from the My Children Are Great Love Festival to add this bit of reality:
(I don’t think he’s trying to strangle her…)
After a frustrating day, Ryan had this to say "If your appliances functioned as poorly as your children, you'd take them back.” (And knowing me, I’d probably ask to speak to a few managers and make them send me new ones.)
The month started with Faith’s birthday. (Little tip: if you have the option of having your membranes stripped on Halloween: Don’t do it. I know all you want is to get the baby out of there and that you think that having a birthday the day after Halloween can’t be bad. It is. You are exhausted from Halloween week, want to retch at the idea of a cake and no one wants to party after 72 parties, anyway. Good thing she was only two and had no idea how badly she was shorted this year.)
Here’s some pictures from the day.
With presents:
With her darling kitchen that she only plays with if I bribe an older sibling to go down there with her.
With her cake (the tiniest, store bought thing that Safeway had to offer):
Before she fell asleep, while I rocked her like a little baby:
Also, on her birthday, our Pediatric dentist offered a “$1 per pound of candy” deal. The kids were not too interested until I mentioned that Free Kids Meals at Red Robin were being offered. They jumped. This picture was front and center in the local paper the next week (maybe because the dentist was also our hometeacher??)
Also, I’m over Wolves in Cub Scouts. And I love it. Even after I had a mini-breakdown when the member of the bishopric (also known as Ryan) called me. Even though I have no boys that age. Even though it’s after school on our busiest night. Even though I already have another calling. Somehow that’s how callings work. You say yes and even though there isn’t much in it for you…you walk away at the end with a happy feeling.
Also, this is how Faith spends her entire day. Pushing our step-stool around like she’s 85 and this is her walker. Mind your toes while in our kitchen. Faith has counters to see over and egg cartons to get into.
My old iPhone broke. Ryan got me a nice new one. Gabe walks around the house pretending the broken iPhone is his. (Could he teach some of that “imaginative play” to Faith so she’ll use her play kitchen?) Here he is taking a picture of his PRETEND iPhone.
Also, we had the snowiest November on record. LOVE breaking records like that! The only good things about snow Novembers? 1) Cute pictures 2) the kids totally want to play in it. They refuse snow play in March.
Aunt Bekah took them sledding while here for Thanksgiving. And took pictures. Officially favorite sister.
Also, Seth and Ryan made this darling turkey “disguised” as a Captain Hook (just like Seth’s Halloween costume). (This is why I put him in charge of these big school projects.)
Also, Seth was hilarious and awesome at this kindergarten Thanksgiving sing-a-long. He only talked about it for 367 minutes the week before. And that guy loves head gear. You can find him wearing this baby any time of the day or night.
Also, we hosted Thanksgiving for my mom and her husband, Rick, my brother Sam and his new wife Stephanie and my youngest sibling Bekah. All adults is kind of a nice way to go for Thanksgiving.
They appreciated all the food:
made table arrangements simple:
were up for any outings we took them on:
(at the snowy Spokane river)
(Riverfront park carrousel)
played with the kids:
didn’t try to fight Seth for his Gooey’s sundae:
Here are Jane and Seth breaking the wishbone a few days later.
Hopefully they wished for another month as lovely and filled with busy fun as November. (I wouldn’t mind if they stuck a “less snow” clause in there, though).
(This is really helpful if you want to enjoy your kids more. Looking for the positive, guess what?, makes you feel more positive!)
Here are some things I noticed/appreciate about my kids:
--Jane so cheerful when she comes home from school
--all of them are so willing and happy to go to church each Sunday
--they all listen and contribute in church, Family Home Evening lessons, and scripture study
--Faith's awesome little voice
--G's early birdness (sometimes it’s annoying, but I can certainly appreciate a person who wants to get up and get going on his day!)
--S cheerfully doing his deep cleaning jobs. He's coming around!
--I know I can count on E to do a thorough cleaning job…so she gets the ones I know guests/visitors will see!
--how much G loves the snow. He’s been out hours every day…even in 10 degree weather.
--last week, when it was 10 degrees, on the way to swimming I asked Gabe, sarcastically, “I bet getting in a pool sounds lovely right now.” He looked at me and said “Really, Mom, it does!”
--that Emma wants to sing in choir. This is good bonding time for us.
--that S picked up something that wasn't his!
--that Faith looks like this
%5B4%5D.jpg "Faith (8)")
--that Jane was the first to memorize the first line of memorization project: The Living Christ
--that Gabe tried really hard to follow a hard to follow rule this weekend
--that Emma is so patient with Faith
--how much G LOVES his music class. He’s constantly singing their Christmas stuff. Love a 10 year old boy who’s not afraid to sing at the top of his lungs!
--I appreciate that F's insistence that everything be on her terms will make make her a force to be reckoned with in this world.
--how friendly and open my kids are. Look at how relaxed and content Faith is with Santa. I love that my kids are outgoing and loving to people around them.
Wow! Even though they aren’t robots who want to follow me around while I run errands and keep the house spotlessly organized, they are pretty great! Who knew?
I completely believe in personal revelation; I believe God knows us, is intimately involved in our lives and through His Holy Spirit will guide and direct our lives. It’s a good thing, too, because I need His help.
Increasingly over the last few weeks, I’ve felt really frustrated with my kids because
a) they are not robots
b) they seem to have slightly different goals than I do about how to treat our stuff, how to use time, etc.
I’ve felt badly about it and have been praying for help. I pretty much got hit over the head with that Help yesterday because
1) at church the speakers spoke about charity and loving rather than judging and being long-suffering with people who are different than you (see b above).
2) during class time, we’ve started attending the marriage class. Instead of getting any insight into things I need to change about my marriage, I spent the entire time mutating the excellent teacher’s comments about spouses and marriages into ideas about children and mothering.
3) Ryan taught an excellent lesson for Family Home Evening on how we show Respect. (Not super respectful when I snap and yell at the human beings in my house, is it?)
4) I listened to a Conversation with Julie Beck and her daughters and it was all about motherhood and priorities and safe havens.
5) I read Julie Beck’s talk on Priorities and Power.
I’m thinking Someone was trying to tell me something.
I got lots of ideas about how to tweak my routine and thoughts, but the main one was to Pay Attention to the Good Things They Do. So…for the next few weeks I’m going to do one post a week where I list why they are such good children.
We’ll start tomorrow. Should be easy…they are pretty fabulous.
Faith always asks us for a “Piece of Bite” when she wants something. Other notable Faith quotes:
1. “I’m just Yooking, Mom!” (when I told her not to touch something)
2. “Mo-om, Ses is being a meanypants!”
3. “Hey Mom, what a dinner a night?” (While leaning casually on the cabinet: “What’s for dinner tonight?”)
4. Not a quote, but hilarious to us, still: While praying, she folds her arms at her forehead and then, while keeping one arm at her head, uses the other arm, crane-like to scoop up food. If she’s praying, too bad, you’ll just have to wait until she’s done chewing.
5. “Hey. Guess what?” And then proceeds to show us some pointless body motion.
6. While “cooking” in her toy kitchen: “Jus a minute, Mom. I’n almos ready.”
I realize these don’t read super hilariously, but really: when you have a 2 1/2 foot tall person, who was a BABY 3 seconds ago, in a little lispy, high voice, saying this stuff, you kind have to die all day long.
(This is one of those mornings when someone has been crying in my ear since they started waking up. You know those mornings? We’ll see if I can be fun in the midst of the insanity-inducing-constant-stream-of-tears…)
Our neighbors across the street have been holding the annual Halloween party for 4 years now. I realized it was a big deal when Seth told me “Only 4 more days till the party!!! I’m so excited!!!” I corrected him by saying, “oh, hon. Halloween isn’t for 11 more days!” He looked at me like I was dumb: “MOM. Not Halloween! The Liaboe’s party! Duh!” There was the usual carving, food, tons of kids and bobbing for apples. (I L.O.V.E when I don’t have to initiate the carving or the apple bobbing.)
Gabe wanted to make breakfast. This is what he did completely on his own…Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread. Please tell me that takes care of some Webelos requirement?
Matching dresses for the Primary Program. Too bad the mini-dress wasn’t featured on the stand. The Primary program went well…especially considering I was the pianist and hadn’t played in front of an audience for more than 2 minutes since I was 16.
This is where Poor Seth has to go if he doesn’t want Faith to mess up his puzzles. You learn a lot of flexibility when you have this many siblings, I think.
Here’s Emma’s “fun” school project. Can you tell that the only extra help she got was from her 10 year old cousin? Whatever. She got an “A” on her Golf Course Themed Map. The most notable story from this project was that she made the Rice Krispie Treat Frosted base on Saturday, didn’t turn it in for 10 days (it was left in the fridge while she procrastinated the labeling part) and the 6th graders STILL ATE THE ENTIRE THING! So gross.
Another Halloween tradition that I didn’t have to set up or clean up. Ryan’s family always made Spider Cookies and while I was gone one day, he had the kids take part. You know how you know I wasn’t a part of it? Look closely. The Spiders have no black frosting. That’s because Ryan realized we were only had 1/2 c. of powdered sugar and so ended up with a 1/2 c. of frosting. Certain more anal baker/traditioners would have begged some from the neighbors or run to the store. Not Ryan. And of course the kids could have cared less. Bonus: I didn’t want to eat the frosting-less insects. That’s good, right?
Gabe and Jane were part of the “Staff Shootout”, a fundraiser where the teachers “play” basketball against the students. It was a packed, crazy night and the kids were each part of the half time show. I LOVE watching them mingle with their friends, sans parental dampening.
An easy and successful FHE: have your kid check out a book on how to make paper airplanes and make some. Have a few races. Send the kids to bed.
Spokane is truly a fabulous place to live…except the weather’s kind of annoying. After a ridiculous short summer, we were blessed with a long mild fall. I can kind of enjoy fall when it’s 60 degrees for 6 weeks and we live in an insanely tree-filled town.
The problem with fall, for me, is that inevitably leads to gray gray and more gray as we head towards winter. That’s what it’s like today. So I have gray skies and weepy kids. My only remedy? Wrap up this post and go shopping. The flourescent lights of Target and the free cookies from Fred Meyer should solve everyone’s woes, right?
