Last night our community hosted our annual Thanksgiving Sing.  It is where all of the churches in the area get together and each congregation’s choir sings one number.

I always enjoy going, not for the music, but because I like people.  I enjoy watching them interact, seeing that most of their church choirs in talent resemble most Latter-Day Saint congregation choirs, and hearing the lyrics of the music they have chosen.  What music would you chose to present to others of different faiths in your community?  Would you chose something with a common and shared doctrine?  Something to represent the season?  Or something that expressed a unique doctrine?  Loud?  Soft?  Active? Soothing?

Some of their choirs have only three people, some have 30.  Some use instruments.  A few choirs even had choreography.  Of the performers last night, one choir stands out to me.  Their music was beautiful and their lyrics simple.

Here are the lyrics:
     I’m so grateful.
     I’m so grateful.
     I’m so grateful.
     I’m so grateful.
     I’m so grateful.
     Gratitude in front of me.
     Gratitude behind me.
     Gratitude to the left of me.
     Gratitude to the right of me.
     Gratitude above me.
     Gratitude below me.
     Gratitude within me.
     Gratitude all around me.
     I’m so grateful.
     I’m so grateful.
     (repeat)

FOR FIVE MINUTES!!!  I heard their song one time.  I woke up singing their song.  It has been in my head all……………………………..day……………………………………….long…………………………despite my conscious efforts to replace it!!  The genius behind their lyrics is that I cannot forget them, and you know what?

Straight out of the Camera (sootc)

was the sunrise this morning.  Now we have spectacular sunsets, but sunrises???  Not usually.  On my way out to snap the photo, I almost stepped on this:

in………………………….my………………………..socks…………GROSS!  But I didn’t!!  One more thing on my gratitude list!!

Today I signed the boys up for community basketball.  I thought I had missed the deadline and they would be placed on a waiting list.  I didn’t!  DING!  Gratitude!

Earlier this month, Elle suggested THIS!!!  I wonder if I can get my list done before Thursday.  Montesserrat @ Chocolate on my Cranium has been focusing on gratitude for an entire year.  She has some GREAT ideas!

Watch for tomorrow….I think I might post 5 Things Friday—Gratitude Edition with photos!!  Should be interesting!

One minute AFTER I pushed the post button, the baby shut off the power strip for the computer…….DING!  Gratitude.

While Speedy was babysitting the baby, he opened the front door and escaped before Speedy noticed.  A nice elderly neighbor knew a 16 month old shouldn’t be out front by himself.  She kept him busy until Speedy noticed and went to get him…….DING!  Gratitude!  (very, very much gratitude…..we live on a busy intersection.  I guess we will have to start chaining the doors.)

So I have been wanting to change my profile picture.  I took a few more.  What do you think??

This one??

With baby?

Snarky?

Chilin’

Profile

I don’t know…..I am just so OLD and not the same pretty face I used to be.  Guess I’d better get used to it. I don’t think it is coming back until the resurrection!  Let me know what you think.

This week I have been trying to manage THIS:

We, by that I mean I, have been turning them into these:

applesauce and apple pie filling.  I really need to include the children and have them help me.  I am not getting very much done on any given day.

This is my little son’s homework.  I found it at home after he had left for school.  Did I mention it is due on Friday mornings?  Did I also mention that I asked him in the car before we left the house if he had it in his backpack, to which he responded he did??  Did I tell you this is the THIRD week in a row that he has left his homework at home when it was due?  It is done, and has been every week.  He just doesn’t take it to school…………because he just has to miss five minutes of recess.  He still gets ten minutes.

THAT is going to stop!

My little daughter is almost old enough to go to Girls’ Camp, an amazing week filled with spiritual enlightenment and tons of fun, food and friends!  She has been begging me to teach her each and every song in this book:

We have learned most of them and now she wants me to sing them with her everyday, several times a day.  I think the boys are going BANANAS!!  But we are having fun!

Best.New.Of.The.Week!:  After six months, we finally have a garbage disposal that works, and works quietly!!!  Woohoo!!  Being that we only have one drain in the kitchen sink, this is a BIG deal, especially when we have a lot of children doing the dishes….. Just be happy for me :-)!!

Have a GREAT week!

Not to embarrass my little daughter, but I thought it might do someone good to read a conversation I had with her the other day.  To set the stage, my little one had been complaining of stomach aches for a week.  She had missed four days of school and church because her stomach hurt, but she had not thrown up and was eating fine all week.  Here is our conversation as we sat in the parking lot, Sun telling me her stomach hurt so bad she thought she was going to throw up on a Monday morning.

Me:  All right, little dear, what exactly is going on?

Sun:  My stomach hurts.  I am sick.  I think I am going to throw up.  What do you mean?

Me:  You have missed four days of school and a day at church.  You say your stomach hurts, but you have not thrown up and you are eating just fine.  We already know that sometimes when you are nervous, scared, sad, hurt or upset, you put your feelings in your stomach (a slight grin crosses her face…aha! truth!).  So what are you feeling?

Sun:  I don’t know.  My stomach hurts.  I don’t know what you mean.

Me:  You are the only one who can know.  What are you feeling?

Sun:  I don’t know (tears)!!

Me:  (thinking…OK different approach)  Sweet sister, when I was your age, and my parents were trying to get me to talk about things, I was always worried I was going to say the wrong thing and then I would get into trouble.  So when they started to grill me, my mind went blank and I couldn’t think.  This is not what this conversation is about.  You are not going to get in trouble.  I am not going to get angry with you.  I am trying to help you and you are the only one who knows what you are feeling and what is going on inside you.  So I am asking what is going on inside you?

Sun:  Me and Heavenly Father, you mean.  I don’t know what is going on inside.

Me:  Yes.  Then you need to think about what you are feeling and what you are thinking.

Sun:  (tears, big tears)  I think I just miss Scuff (a brother at college) (bigger tears)

Me:  (finally!!)  OK sweetheart, tell me all the things you miss about Scuff.

Sun:  I miss how kind he always is to me.  I miss his laugh and his jokes.  I miss his hugs.  I miss talking to him and his personality.  I miss having him at home every day.

Me:  Good!!  Let all those tears out.  Has it been bothering you that we have been talking about when Scuff is putting in his mission papers and when he will be leaving for his mission?

Sun:  YES!!!!  (More tears and sobbing)

Me:  Good, little sister.  Cry all those tears out.  Are the other boys mean to you or not nice to you?

Sun:  No.

Me:  Do they tease you or say things they shouldn’t?  Or is Scuff just special and you just miss him?

Sun:  No the other boys are fine. I just miss him.

Me:  Did you miss Slim when he left?  Or Spanky?

Sun:  No.  Just Scuff.

Me:  OK…deep breath.  How does your stomach feel?

Sun:  Fine.

Me:  So what you need to think about whenever your stomach hurts is:  Are people around me sick?  Have I thrown up?  Am I eating?  What am I feeling?  Am I sad?  Nervous?  Scared?  Hurt????  Isn’t 15 minutes of crying better than a week of stomach ache??

Sun:  Yes.

Me:  So are you ready to go off to school or do you have more tears in there??

Sun:  No, I’m ready.

Me:  Off you go.  Have a great day!!

This was just such a profound example to me of how our emotions can affect us physically.  I tend to use food to mask my feelings.  When I cannot seem to control my eating and I really do not care about watching what I am eating, and I just keep stuffing things in my mouth, that is my clue that maybe I am feeling something that I don’t want to and I am using food to keep from feeling it.  At those times, I have to stop what I am doing and take time out of my day to think about the things I am feeling and why I am feeling them.  It is usually through this process that I come across the emotion that is keeping me stuck or in my case, fat.  Then I have to make time to allow myself to feel the emotion, which for me is usually hiding away in my bedroom and crying my eyes out until I am sure I have exhausted the emotion.  Then I pray, read the scriptures, words of the prophets, or call my husband or a girlfriend and then I don’t need to eat.

The trick is learning how you manage negative emotions.  Are the ways you manage them healthy and appropriate?  Or are they damaging to your person, emotionally, physically, socially, spiritually, or otherwise?  Once you learn what your triggers are, or your tells and you have determined if they are healthy or damaging, you can then change behaviors to be healthier ways of managing negative emotions.

We all have them.  And I believe, we all try to avoid them.  But we just need to learn how to handle them in a healthy way.  Depending upon where we are in the cycle, we may need professional help.  But I think a lot of us can do fairly well if we will ask for our Father in Heaven to help reveal those negative behaviors to us and then be open to changing them and redefining how we cope with them.

Happy Pondering!

Stephanie, at Diapers and Divinity, hosts the General Conference Book Club where they discuss one talk each week of the most recent General Conference.  This week, they are discussing this talk:

photo credit:  delparsons studio

He then goes on to share his own story of when his sixth child, an 8 month old son, passed away from aspirating a piece of chalk.  His story is deep, personal, and sweet.  He shares his ‘natural man’ responses to that tragedy and expresses how the Atonement of Christ helped him through that period in his life and even how it helps him today in putting that experience into perspective.  His words are so moving that I hope you will go and read them for yourself.

I have thought of these words often this week, as I have pondered about some of the tragedies that happen in the world in which we live.  Two families in particular have been on my mind, this family suffering tragedy from the storm, Sandy , and this family, suffering tragedy from a long term nanny.  As a mother, I have thought about both of these women and the insurmountable suffering they must be trying to manage and overcome.  My heart hurts for them, though I do not know either of them or any of their circumstances other than those reported in these stories.

I wonder if the words of Elder Bowen and Moroni would provide the same ‘Balm of Gilead’ it did for Elder Bowen.  Would this information bring them peace?  Do they know it already?  Like Elder Bowen, just because we know the information, does not mean that we automatically get to skip past the pain and the emotional and sometimes literally, physical process of healing.  Life is so different in theory than it actually is in application.

The older I get, the more I learn that it is indeed the application of the doctrines of the gospel we have been sent here to learn.  How difficult and soul stretching it is to put them into practice!!  It seems that the Lord has a unique way, a specifically designed and tailored, individual path for each of us as we learn to put into practice those principles which are most difficult for each of us.  He does require us to, or gives us opportunity to, make our weaknesses become strengths, if we will succumb to the required curriculum and allow the doctrines to penetrate our hearts.

I, personally, am not very fond of His teaching methods, but I can testify to their effectiveness.  I do not like feeling pain, or sorrow, remorse, or any of the negative feelings.  For a long time, I thought I could avoid them by just not feeling, or as I like to say, by blocking my feelings.  I have learned that by doing so, I cut off my ability to feel all of the feelings.  I could choose to be happy, but I did not feel a deep sense of joy.  Since I have had to learn how to allow myself to feel and not let those negative feelings incapacitate me, I have actually had some days where I am deeply, deeply happy.  I can feel my heart singing……….  and I have to remind myself that I cannot have the good without the bad.  Jacob, in the Book of Mormon
teaches us that very thing:

     For it must needs be, that there is an ^aopposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

So these photos were taken the day before our oldest son left on his mission.  Because we have so many boys so close together I am thinking it will be the last time we have family photos for a long time!  They were all taken by our friend, David Forthoffer.  I LOVE these photos.  Some of them are the same sittings we have of our family at earlier stages.

This is the same pose as a previous photo.

We have a THING for sunglasses.

OK…this one is my FAVORITE! LOVE the bat wings!

The first time we did this photo, the oldest was the tallest.

So during this photo shoot, we had a lot of fun.  We moved the kitchen table and took them in front of the big window.  Unfortunately we didn’t all fit in front of the curtain…..Oh well.  Now we are two years, almost two and a half years, older and wiser.  OH….and we have added this little man to our group:

At the time of the photo shoot, we didn’t have any idea he was coming.  Welcome little man!!
Happy November!
PS Click here to see Heather’s Halloween Costume post!!  
Sorry this isn’t a Halloween edition 🙂 or even a Friday Five…..

Photo credit: spirogs.deviantart.com/art/Jack-O-Lantern-140863622

Well, today began quite interestingly.  For starters, our little baby was up for 2 1/2 hours last night, in the middle of the night, for no apparent reason.  After half an hour, I thought maybe his teeth were hurting, so I gave him some ibuprofen.  An hour later, I thought maybe he had eaten something he was allergic to, so I gave him some benadryl.  Finally about 40 minutes later he passed out only after I decided to sing him to sleep.  I turned the alarm off, hoping to sleep in.  That didn’t work either.  The cat meowed at the bottom of the stairs demanding his breakfast.  From past experience, I know he will wake the baby up, so I jumped out of bed and flew down the stairs to instruct the little ones to feed the cat.  Well, they couldn’t get the can opened, so he was still making a lot of noise.  We finally got that out of the way and began our day.

Extras for the day included climbing into the attic, without waking the baby, because my sweet husband instructed the children to put away the costume box.  It was in the way.  What was he thinking?!  Oh ya….order!  Also, providing fairy make-up and hair for Sun’s costume was on the agenda.  Yesterday, I received a frantic phone call from a room-parent asking for any assistance for a classroom party.  Well, sure I can drop something off.  So today I am a treat-deliverer. 

Today, I am also an English tutor.  One of my children is struggling with a paper.  He received a C and asked me to read it to help him with the rewrite.  I read it.  The criticisms are valid.  I told him so.  Then I became aware that he has another paper due tomorrow in the same class.  I asked him to let me read that essay.  After reading it, I said, “Son, we have to rewrite this.”  He, of course, was totally overwhelmed because it is due tomorrow and it has to be completely revamped.  I told him the options were to turn it in the way it is and have to rewrite it later, or to overwork it now and hopefully not need to rewrite.  So today we are writing a research paper and paying close attention to organization and style.  Citations, punctuation, spelling, mechanics….those are just going to have to wait.  He has a pretty decent grasp of those things so it should be fine.  The other issue is just writing to the particular style required by the class.  I am not too familiar with that style (MLA) so he is just going to have to do what he knows and work within the formatting.

Today, I am a math tutor.  Another child is struggling with Algebra.  He has been focusing on a social studies research paper and although it is not a long paper, he is a creative writer and not too keen on academic details.  In the process (days of writing), we have neglected his math.  Today we are trying to get caught up in that subject.  It is coming, but the least common multiples of fractions are killing him.  So we have to focus in there a little more.

For Halloween, I am supposed to be a pirate but have not yet had time to put on my attire.  And with the way the baby is behaving, I may not have time the entire day.  I think he is sick.  Poor little thing. 

We may just have left-overs for dinner.  But at least tonight, I know we will have fun.  We will sit around and watch our favorite Halloween movie……….The Legend of Sleepy Hollow followed by The Ghost and Mr. Chicken for the older ones.  OK….and you have to read this book:

We LOVE Dav Pilkey at our house!!  It was a great book.

Happy Haunting!!

This idea came from Stephanie @ Diapers and Divinity.  Thanks, Stephanie!

Sport, the artist, said, “Mom, that’s not realistic…..”  Then we both laughed.  It is for Primary (children ages 3-11).  It doesn’t need to be ‘realistic’!

I am the Primary chorister.  We will pick leaves off of the tree for choosing songs, or different ways to sing a song, whatever.

Last week, I made this poster:

Do you know what song it is for???  Maybe the visual aids will give you a clue:

Sorry about the camera flash glare!

My little man is cutting his molars.  He has not been very fun, especially in the middle of the night when I cannot figure out what it is he wants!  Ugh!  And he is the SLOWEST teeth cutter I have ever had.  I am not quite sure why it takes him so long, but it seems like they are taking about a month from the time I notice they are coming and beginning to bother him until they finally erupt through the gums.  Maybe he is just a horrible teether and especially sensitive to pain.  Maybe I am just astutely aware of them because he is the ninth baby.  Whatever!  We are both struggling with the process.  Hang in there little angel.  Not too many more to go for now!

photos courtesy of Speedy

6:00 a.m. Hopefully get out of bed without waking up the baby or hubby.  Say prayers and read scriptures (though the more regularly the baby is getting up at night, I sleep in until 6:30………this weekend it wasn’t teething, it was the flu…….lovely!)  Say good morning to Sport as he heads off to Seminary (early morning scripture study class).  Oh ya’—feed the cat.

6:30 a.m.  Wake up the rest of the crew and begin breakfast.  Give baby a glass of milk (coconut or almond) and change his diaper.

7:00 a.m. Wake them all up again and tell them breakfast is ready.  Make hubby’s lunch and answer all the questions about what we are eating for breakfast and what is available for lunch packing and if some boys have clean socks 🙂

7:30 a.m. Say family prayers

7:40 a.m. Take hubby and Sport to catch the bus to head to work and school.

7:50 a.m. Take Sun, Shorty, and Smiley to school.

8:15 a.m. Arrive home.  Eat breakfast. Read email and blogs, begin housework and homeschooling for Speedy.  All the while trying to entertain Spike.

11:00 a.m. Fix lunch for Spike, Speedy and myself.

11:30 a.m. Spike lays down for a nap.  (Sometime before now, hope I have taken a shower…..)

12:00 Go over math, English, Social Studies, and/or Science with Speedy and help out where needed.  Also, work on any extra things I am responsible for…..planning singing time music or props, organizing Relief Society activities, agendas, or just talking to people who need help from my ward or family or friends.  (I usually make all of those pesky business phone calls about this time too……)

Usually between 12 and 2 I try to squeeze in housework and laundry but if I’ve had appointments or other interruptions to my day I am making up the work here.

2:30 begins the pick-ups from school.

3:00 We start homework and do a little house cleaning after snacks.

Using potholders to unload the dishwasher

4:00 Begins dinner prep

5:00  We start dinner (maybe) and try to organize ourselves for the evenings’ activities which with so many people going so many different directions is always eventful……except of the blessed Monday evening when we have FAMILY HOME EVENING!!!  (Which deserves a post unto itself!)

8:00 p.m. We read scriptures as a family with whoever is home and say family prayers.  Then it is off to brush teeth, say personal prayers, put on pajamas, personal scripture study and fun reading until they fall asleep.

8:30 – 10:00 ish is older kid TV time where they can watch something with us that wouldn’t be appropriate for the younger kids before they head to bed.

That is a typical day at our house.  Link up to Heather’s Post to see what her family’s typical day looks like.  Some day I would really like to be organized enough that I actually do all the housework I have planned.  But the truth is, with the number of people who live here and the number of emotions and relationships that need managing, I spend most of time in people management and not enough time in stuff management.  I guess the stuff will still be here when the people are gone, right?  And if I take care of the people, so they are educated, well-rounded, happy, stable people, I have done a much greater service than making sure the dust bunnies are all rounded up.  But occasionally, focus has to be given to the house and order.  It is all in the balance……I just wish I was enough woman to manage the stuff and the people.  I think that is what the Lord is trying to teach me.  Each year I get a little more organize and each baby I think I function better than I did after the last one……but geesh!  One woman can only manage so much!  Have a great day!

I saw this video today, and knew it had to go on my blog!!! 

Yea for WOMEN!!!

So every once in a while, my friends and I get together and just kind of play hooky the entire day (as much as a mother can really play hooky, which is never the entire day…..).  Yesterday was that day for us.  We met at my house around 10, realized that one of us didn’t get the information that we were meeting, tried to make contact via cell phone….no luck.  So we decided to drive over to her house and kidnap her, which we did.  Luckily it was late enough in the day that she was ready without any advanced notice!

Then we ran up to another little town, had AMAZING crepes in a very cute little restaurant with tons of atmosphere, all the while visiting and enjoying each others’ company.

Then we decided we weren’t done yet and we ran off to the beach, had quite a little hike to a secluded cove (I am told it is the only approved place for nude sunbathing…luckily it was too foggy and cloudy and no one else was there :-), and just took in the ocean air, smells, sounds, mist and all!  And we only arrived home in time to pick up the children from school.  It was a glorious day!

Here are some photos:

Us resting in the middle of the uphill hike home

Not part of the day, but too beautiful not to post.  Sunset

 I couldn’t help but feel such profound gratitude for my beautiful children and sweet spouse after such a refreshing morning.  “Sometimes you just have to get out of the hamster wheel” one of my hiking friends is apt to say!  Thanks for the break ladies!!  So needed at my house.  I love you my dear friends 🙂