I just heard a talk in sacrament meeting by a friend of mine. She and her husband sppoke about their marriage and family. She was so funny. She talked about the primary theme for the month..Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. D&C 88:119 She talked about how when the Bishopric came to extend a call there was blood smeared on the walls because one of her little ones had just bumped into the wall. There was stuff all over the place and it was embarrrassing to her. She talked about how hard it is sometimes to be organized, so when she saw the theme she felt disheartened. But, as she and many of us stopped to examine that scripture we were enlightened. All that the compulsive person might see is the part where it says a house of order, but all of the things that come before that are what determine if your house is a house of order and therefore a house of God. I like the part that says a house of glory In sharing time a sister mentioned that it means joy, so I looked it up among other definitions that are quite similar, I found the following; the splendor and bliss of heaven; perfect happiness, enjoyment. This is what I strive for and to be honest sometimes it's loud and there's lots of crying. My home has always been open to my neighbors they stop by and if it's messy so be it. I have a dear friend that is 51years young and she and I do turbo jam and hip hop abs together. She's told me not to worry if it's messy. She remembers those years when she too had a bunch of kids running around.
I love to teach primary and I love the kids. I remember last year these twins that were in my class asked if I could come play. For a moment they forgot I was their teacher. That made me so happy and honored. They came here to play with the kids and we had a great time. I have another little boy this year he had been asking to come over, but we were sick for over a month. He loves to play with Harold. He came over a couple of weeks ago and had a graet time. I don't think he cared that it was messy because he felt love in our home. He and his little sister live with their aunt because their parents just can't do it. He had been acting up in class. The Sunday after he visited he was reverent and during sharing time he sat by me and held my arm and I felt his love and he knew that I love him. My joy was full just like the Savior's joy was full when he came to the Americas and he wept because of the love that he felt for the Nephites and Lamanites and the love they felt for him. I have been told by Our Stake President that the love he feels in our home is not common. We are different. So, yes it makes me sad sometimes that is is not all neat and organized, but We have love , a roof over our heads , food to eat, and a husband that provides, presides and protects us. I do my part to nurture my children. They are loved and they are taught not out of compulsion but because that is who I am. I have probably spent way too much time typing this up when I could have been cleaning, but I wanted to get this down because I wasn't going to write it on paper. This is much easier. Well we're gonna get ready for Our Blue and Gold Dinner now. I have to find some Mexican decorations for it. I'll proof read this later and make any gramatical or spelling corrections then.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
our yard
I planted a new apple tree yesterday. It's where a pear tree used to be. I don't have much of a green thumb, but I do like to dig in the ground a bit. The perennials are growing and the grass is greener. It's very windy today and it will most likely rain. I hope that it does not snow. I just am so tired of it.
We made a delicious cake on Friday. The batter has mandarin oranges in it and the topping has ccolwhip, vanilla pudding and crushed pineapple. It was a perfect cake to celebrate the first day of spring. Harold also went to a rock and gemstone expo for cubscouts. He brought me back a crystal. My kids are quite a handful, but I am so grateful for each one of them and their uniqueness. We found a nest in one of our arborvitae in the front yard. There were a few berries from the tree in it. It's very cute. The birds are gobbling up the bird seed and they ate most of the berrries off the trees. I hope that Ashley will put in the pump for the sprinklers this year. Our lawn looked like crap last year. We'll see what happens. This year I hope to find someone to help me with the yard. It is just too much for me. Between homeschooling, exercise, cooking, laundry and sorta cleaning this huge house, I can''t mow and weed properly. And I really don't want to either. I do want to plant more trees and plants to attract bees, butterflies, and birds. My goal is to plant at least 10 trees and some shrubs and at least 50 bulbs in the fall every year. Even if only half of them make it that's still 25 trees in the next 5 years. All of last year's plantings are still alive. It is really hard to maintain them during the summmer when it is hot.
Well I've gotta go now.
We made a delicious cake on Friday. The batter has mandarin oranges in it and the topping has ccolwhip, vanilla pudding and crushed pineapple. It was a perfect cake to celebrate the first day of spring. Harold also went to a rock and gemstone expo for cubscouts. He brought me back a crystal. My kids are quite a handful, but I am so grateful for each one of them and their uniqueness. We found a nest in one of our arborvitae in the front yard. There were a few berries from the tree in it. It's very cute. The birds are gobbling up the bird seed and they ate most of the berrries off the trees. I hope that Ashley will put in the pump for the sprinklers this year. Our lawn looked like crap last year. We'll see what happens. This year I hope to find someone to help me with the yard. It is just too much for me. Between homeschooling, exercise, cooking, laundry and sorta cleaning this huge house, I can''t mow and weed properly. And I really don't want to either. I do want to plant more trees and plants to attract bees, butterflies, and birds. My goal is to plant at least 10 trees and some shrubs and at least 50 bulbs in the fall every year. Even if only half of them make it that's still 25 trees in the next 5 years. All of last year's plantings are still alive. It is really hard to maintain them during the summmer when it is hot.
Well I've gotta go now.
Friday, March 13, 2009
spring projects
It snowed again on Monday. It was horrible! We went to Starr's house to visit because Helen's family was in town. It is scary to drive in the snow , especially at night.
The weather cleared up and we have had a great week. We had a good time visiting with the Porters and are glad to have more family moving here soon. It increases our chances of doing family activities.
This was a regular week. Harold had a friend over and hey went to scouts together. There's a family who has lots of birds and they went to their house for cubscouts. We've been studying zoology for over a year now so we are very interested in birds. We put a bird feeder out and are constantly filling it up. All the berries have been picked off the arborvitae birds and we're glad to provide some nourishment for our feathered friends.
The imposssibly easy cheeseburger pie turned out delicious. This week we are making dessert. Our friend makes an awesome pineapple cake. I think we'll do that.
So my friend Judy and I have been doing hip hop abs for a few weeks now and I just got some wrist weights. We've been doing the total body workout and we love it. My main problem is that i love food. The times that i have lost the most weight, I have totally restricted myself and I feel that it's no way to live. That means that I have to exercise a lot more. I'm looking forward to doing some heavy gardening this year. I'm also going to get out on a trike. I think I'm getting an aqua colored one. I wanted a pink one but then Harold wouldn't ever want to use it. I'm so glad he learned to ride a bike lasst year.
It sounds like Ashley is working all day tomorrow. I still have a bunch of painting to do. I'm also fixing up the kids bathroom downstairs. Then I'll move on to the piano room and other bathroom downstairs. This year I have vowed to put in a beautiful backsplash in my kitchen and we are going to put in arches downstairs and finish the crown moulding. I don't know when this will get done this year but slowly but surely it will get done one project at a time. We won't work on our room until we put a patio down in the back we want to put a hot tub right outside our room so we would put in some french dooors where the window is at. This is at least a couple years away. It's nothing too expensive just very time consuming. It's exciting. I think that we are putting in our huge workshop this year too. It will be great to have the extra space in the garage for my projects eventually.
I am so excited for our bulbs to open up. It takes a lot of faith to plant something in the fall. The kids are excited to see the beautiful flowers also.
Well We're going to do our science lesson and put more bird seed out now. For the two of you that read this have a good weekend!
The weather cleared up and we have had a great week. We had a good time visiting with the Porters and are glad to have more family moving here soon. It increases our chances of doing family activities.
This was a regular week. Harold had a friend over and hey went to scouts together. There's a family who has lots of birds and they went to their house for cubscouts. We've been studying zoology for over a year now so we are very interested in birds. We put a bird feeder out and are constantly filling it up. All the berries have been picked off the arborvitae birds and we're glad to provide some nourishment for our feathered friends.
The imposssibly easy cheeseburger pie turned out delicious. This week we are making dessert. Our friend makes an awesome pineapple cake. I think we'll do that.
So my friend Judy and I have been doing hip hop abs for a few weeks now and I just got some wrist weights. We've been doing the total body workout and we love it. My main problem is that i love food. The times that i have lost the most weight, I have totally restricted myself and I feel that it's no way to live. That means that I have to exercise a lot more. I'm looking forward to doing some heavy gardening this year. I'm also going to get out on a trike. I think I'm getting an aqua colored one. I wanted a pink one but then Harold wouldn't ever want to use it. I'm so glad he learned to ride a bike lasst year.
It sounds like Ashley is working all day tomorrow. I still have a bunch of painting to do. I'm also fixing up the kids bathroom downstairs. Then I'll move on to the piano room and other bathroom downstairs. This year I have vowed to put in a beautiful backsplash in my kitchen and we are going to put in arches downstairs and finish the crown moulding. I don't know when this will get done this year but slowly but surely it will get done one project at a time. We won't work on our room until we put a patio down in the back we want to put a hot tub right outside our room so we would put in some french dooors where the window is at. This is at least a couple years away. It's nothing too expensive just very time consuming. It's exciting. I think that we are putting in our huge workshop this year too. It will be great to have the extra space in the garage for my projects eventually.
I am so excited for our bulbs to open up. It takes a lot of faith to plant something in the fall. The kids are excited to see the beautiful flowers also.
Well We're going to do our science lesson and put more bird seed out now. For the two of you that read this have a good weekend!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Spring is near.
So, We're not sick anymore. It felt like we woild be sick forever. The kids had ear inections last week or was it 2 weeks ago? Sometimes the weeks and months all seem to meld together.
Harold is back in piano class. Our teacher had knee replacement surgery. She was out for 2 months. My children remembered her in every single prayer that was uttered in our home. They are such good kids even though they fight with each other. I think the close contact has something to do with it. Children that are at school all day in separate classrooms are so much more disconnected from each other. We thought about sending Hannah and Harold to public school next year. But with the way things are going in the world, I think that we are better off not doing that. I thought that it would be great to give Henry and Haley more one on one attention and it would also free me up to finish all my projects around the house and finally have a cleaner house. It sounds kinda selfish and stupid. I think that I'll just keep working on decluttering. The painting will take forever, but so be it!
The snow had melted completely and we had enjoyed some great weather. I even took the kids to the park on Saturday, but it snowed again yesterday. It mostly melted though. The bulbs we planted last fall are starting to emerge. I can't wait to see the flowers in the spring! Hannah says we planted 100. I don't remember. I just know that we wanted to be able to cut some and put them in a vase. We'll plant more this fall again.
I'm looking forward to planting a garden this year. We have chives and strawberries that come back every year and we'll plant more this year but this year we will also plant zucchini , squash and tomatoes. I planted them in containers last year but the only things that grew were the squash. We are also looking into planting corn this year. We have made no money on the alfalfa so if we plant corn we can at least eat a lot of it. We love corn on the cob. I have a friend that gives me a ton of zucchini and I would love to give her corn this year. Plus it would be tons of fun to run through the corn field with the children and play hide and seek. I have to call the neighbor's son about running our property from now on.
Today is Friday and it's our modified school day. We do cooking and science on Fridays. we didn't plan out our cooking project this weeek so we're going to wing it. I think we're making the impossibly easy cheeseburger pie off the bisquick box. It'll be good and fun. Well gotta go do my thing now.
Harold is back in piano class. Our teacher had knee replacement surgery. She was out for 2 months. My children remembered her in every single prayer that was uttered in our home. They are such good kids even though they fight with each other. I think the close contact has something to do with it. Children that are at school all day in separate classrooms are so much more disconnected from each other. We thought about sending Hannah and Harold to public school next year. But with the way things are going in the world, I think that we are better off not doing that. I thought that it would be great to give Henry and Haley more one on one attention and it would also free me up to finish all my projects around the house and finally have a cleaner house. It sounds kinda selfish and stupid. I think that I'll just keep working on decluttering. The painting will take forever, but so be it!
The snow had melted completely and we had enjoyed some great weather. I even took the kids to the park on Saturday, but it snowed again yesterday. It mostly melted though. The bulbs we planted last fall are starting to emerge. I can't wait to see the flowers in the spring! Hannah says we planted 100. I don't remember. I just know that we wanted to be able to cut some and put them in a vase. We'll plant more this fall again.
I'm looking forward to planting a garden this year. We have chives and strawberries that come back every year and we'll plant more this year but this year we will also plant zucchini , squash and tomatoes. I planted them in containers last year but the only things that grew were the squash. We are also looking into planting corn this year. We have made no money on the alfalfa so if we plant corn we can at least eat a lot of it. We love corn on the cob. I have a friend that gives me a ton of zucchini and I would love to give her corn this year. Plus it would be tons of fun to run through the corn field with the children and play hide and seek. I have to call the neighbor's son about running our property from now on.
Today is Friday and it's our modified school day. We do cooking and science on Fridays. we didn't plan out our cooking project this weeek so we're going to wing it. I think we're making the impossibly easy cheeseburger pie off the bisquick box. It'll be good and fun. Well gotta go do my thing now.
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