Ho, Ho, Ho

Have you ever felt so anxious that your stomach curled up in knots? So stressed that you thought you might actually throw up? That's how I felt Saturday evening. Our last guests left in the morning and the day was spent washing bedding and putting the house back in order (I wish I'd been able to keep it in order so my family could see what our house usually looks like, but alas, I was not). By dinnertime my stress level should have been low, right?

Wrong.

Remember how Bryan and I are in charge of two Christmas parties? Well, they're scheduled to happen this week. Between Stake Conference last Sunday and family in town for several days, my internal calendar is out of whack. I'm usually good at gauging time, but days must be speeding up because these parties are coming fast.

We've delegated almost everything. And by that, I mean given our committee members autonomy to make decisions about their individual responsibilities. We've weighed in and given opinions and guided, but most big choices have been made by the committee. This has worked well, mostly. But it also means that on Saturday night I didn't know the status of several party-related plans. And lacking information stresses me out.

After telling Bryan how I felt, then discussing what still needed to be done, I spent the rest of the evening (and several hours of the night) making phone calls, writing emails, and sending texts. I am happy to report that the parties are in good shape and my level of freak-out has gone down considerably.

And hey, after this weekend I only have a Relief Society craft day and the Relief Society Christmas Party to worry about. That's right, I'm in charge of all the Christmas parties this year!

Big and Little Artists

A highlight of our week with family was an art lesson with Grandma Bonnie. She started with the kids.

Then she moved on to the much bigger kids...and Cooper. (My brother Ian was there too, even though you can't see him.)

Thanks Grandma! We love you!

The Day of Turkeys

After weeks of planning, days of cooking, and not enough hours of sleeping, we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, there are two turkeys on the table. In spite of all that food, we have very few leftovers. Thanks to Bryan, my brother Jordan, my sister-in-law Falisha, and my Grandma Bonnie for preparing so much wonderful food.

Happy Thanksgiving!

531 Pages

At the beginning of 2013 we started reading the Book of Mormon as a family. We had worked on it previous to that, but we had started and stopped so many times I couldn't quite remember where we were. So at the new year I decided we should begin again.

For a long time we read one verse per person each day. Occasionally we would recite a verse instead of reading when we were short on time, but most nights we read all five. About a year ago I decided it was time to increase our output. We went from five verses per day to ten verses per day.

After General Conference this October, Bryan challenged our family to move up to one whole chapter per day and to finish by Thanksgiving. We gave up bedtime stories and read more each night to make that goal.

On Monday night, with some of our Thanksgiving family guests there to help read, we finished the Book of Mormon. It was a wonderful and spiritual experience.

And now we're reading the Pearl of Great Price.

Family Time!

We have a house full of family this week. Gathering from both coasts, my parents, my Grandma, my siblings, and their families are converging on my mid-western domicile for this holiday week. So far we've had days of playing with cousins in the snow, an afternoon coloring with Nana, and a delicious trip for authentic Chicago dogs.

We're looking forward to deep dish Chicago pizza, family pictures, and a gigantic Thanksgiving dinner.

Huzzah for family time!

First Snow

Numbers One and Four

Sometimes the kids get my camera and take selfies...

Bowling

We're having a sick day. On Tuesday night Sophie threw up. It lasted for a few hours, then she slept. The next day, other than taking an extra long nap, she was fine. Bryan and I weren't sure if it was a stomach bug or food poisoning. I still cancelled my plans for the day, just to be safe.

This morning at about four, Peter threw up. The food poisoning theory went out the window.

As I called in Peter's absence, Cooper said he didn't feel well. I told him if he threw up before school then he could stay home, otherwise he would need to go. I also assured him that if he did get sick at school I would pick him up right away.

You can probably tell where I'm going with this.

Thirty minutes later I got a call from the school. Cooper was in the nurse's office having fallen prey to the same illness. The nurse knew that Peter was home with the same symptoms. I don't think she was happy that I had sent Cooper to school knowing that we had vomit germs in the house.

So now we are home. When we got back Phoebe announced that her tummy hurt too. I told Cooper and Phoebe to get bowls and go sit on the couch. Notice Sophie? She followed her older siblings example and grabbed her own bowl.

We're staying calm, watching an episode of Nature, waiting for this very mild stomach bug to finish its course.

Star of the Week

Cooper is the Star of the Week for his class. A blank poster board was sent home with instructions to fill it with pictures of Cooper through the years. He and I sat down at my computer and sifted through many photos, then sent his favorites to print at Costco.

He and I organized them then he taped them all down. I labeled the pictures this morning before school. After reading the various locations the pictures were taken, Cooper remarked,"Wow, I've been a lot of places."

Yes you have Cooper.

Mouse Trap

This is our magical mouse trap. It was totally worth the $40 we paid for it on Amazon. That red light tells us when it needs to be emptied. When we see it flash, all we have to do is carefully pick up the box, dump it into the trash, and turn the light off.

In other news, our mouse death toll is up to ten.

Learning About the World

Over the weekend I've thought a lot about our trip to Paris in early 2012. It's a place that I would love to visit again. Phoebe loves everything she knows about Paris and often talks about going there someday.

On Saturday I told the kids about the terrorist attacks on Paris. I didn't provide many details, but I did tell them that many people in Paris died because of what happened. The kids asked why someone would do that. That's a question that I've asked myself. Why? Why bring death and sadness and pain? And why do it in the name of religion? I told them that there are people in the world that want to hurt others because of what they believe. And I said that we need to make sure we don't do that. 

I know that Heavenly Father loves his children and doesn't want them to hurt each other, especially not in his name. Peter's best friend in school this year is a boy from Syria, so this subject was already on my mind. Peter asked him why they left their country and his friend told him that evil men were in charge and it wasn't safe to stay.

My children's education of world events is scary, but important. I want them to understand that not everyone thinks the way they do. I want them to be brave in spite of that.

On A Golden Afternoon

Like a Security Blanket, But Shinier

Today while cleaning my room I found some of last year's Christmas card pictures. I handed one to each of the girls and carried on with my sorting. Later, when I put Sophie down for a nap, she asked me to hand her the picture in her bed. I did and then left it there when she went to sleep.

Tonight after she was tucked into her bed I watched as she stared at that picture. She named each one  of us as she pointed, "Mommy, Daddy, Baby, Peta, Pooca, Phoebe." It was adorable.

A short time later, Bryan went in to console a now-crying Sophie. He found the picture and, not knowing that I had given it to her, and in an effort to prepare her bed for sleeping, he tried to take it out. That was a mistake. "No! My Mommy! My Daddy!"

He left the picture.

Fabulous

During this week's library trip, Phoebe picked up a how-to book on drawing. She spent her quiet time today following the directions inside.

She was delighted to find Sophie's name in the book.

And then on the next page, she found her name!

Phoebe: (sounding out) F-a-b. Fab Phoebe. What's fab?

Cooper: It's short for fabulous.

Phoebe: AND I AM FABULOUS!

True story.

A Longer Run

Some of my most faithful readers (my Mom and Grandma) liked the video of Sophie running that I posted a few weeks ago, but requested a longer one in the future. Well, the future has arrived.

FYI, when she asks to see the baby on the phone, she's talking about herself. She likes to have her picture taken, as long as she can immediately see the result.

Like a Bee

The last two weeks I've felt over-scheduled. Between meetings and play dates and regular mom obligations, my calendar has been packed. I was thinking this week would be a reprieve, but that is not the case.

Why is it so busy? A few reasons. Bryan and I were asked to head the Ward Christmas Party committee. This ward has two parties, one grown ups only party and one kid party. We're in charge of both and have two committees we're working with. The people on the committees are great and have been working well together, but it's still taking a lot of time from me and Bryan.

I am determined to have my house in order by Thanksgiving. For whatever reason we've had a hard time moving completely into this house. I finally put pictures on my living room walls today, which classes up the joint considerably. As soon as I get off the computer tonight I'll put in some more time organizing. This project has been drawn-out.

Perhaps the biggest reason I've felt busy is that I have a new calling. Well, I've had it for a month, so I guess it's not so new anymore. I'm serving as the second counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I'm still learning my responsibilities, but so far it's going well. I enjoy what I'm doing, it just takes a lot more time. I'm in charge of activities and I have two committees that I'm working with, with a possible third committee starting in the new year.

And I'm putting in time to make friends. I know that will help me do all the other things I need to accomplish, it's just a long process at first.

Writing out some of the reasons I've felt busy helps me see that I am being productive and not just scattered.

Sportsing

Tonight instead of getting their pajamas on, the boys decided to play balloon volleyball. To enhance the experience they both put on athletic shorts and took off their shirts. Bryan had gone to drive the Missionaries home after our dinner appointment, so I was on my own to enforce the bedtime routine. Rather than becoming angry, I decided to mostly ignore them and focus on calmly getting Sophie ready for bed.

After five minutes of the game, a very sweaty Peter walked into the girls' room with a white hand towel slung around the back of his neck. He grinned at me and said, "We're not done yet, this is just intermission."

I'm not sure what the break in a volleyball game is called, but I don't think it's intermission. Then again, I'm sure that's what I would have called it too. Maybe we should spend more time learning about sports and less time watching movies and plays...

Nah.

Cookie Lady

Tonight I attended a Relief Society activity for our ward. I was tasked with providing the dessert and told to keep it simple. After much deliberation I decided to make cookies, because you can't get much simpler than that, right?

Except I didn't want to just make one kind of cookie. What if I made chocolate, but several people didn't like chocolate? So I made four kinds. Of course.

I thought through this enough to realize I couldn't make all the cookies in one day. Monday night I mixed one batch, Tuesday a second, then the final two on Wednesday. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I remembered something important: I only have one oven. I stayed up into the wee hours of Thursday baking, then spent the majority of Thursday's daylight hours baking.

When I finally turned off the oven this is what I had:

From left to right: 

Coconut Macaroons, Cake Batter Cookies, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chunk

The kids LOVED the Cake Batter cookies, the chocolate and the pumpkin were tied for second, then the Coconut Macaroons "smelled delicious, but didn't taste all that good," at least according to Phoebe. The Relief Society sisters on the other hand, LOVED the Coconut Macaroons and only sort of liked the Cake Batter cookies.

Did I mention only half the people that were invited actually came? We have A LOT of cookies left over!

"Let's Pretend We're Teenagers"

Can You Find Peter?

Soggy Halloween

On Halloween it rained. And rained. And rained. The kids were worried that the annual tradition of knocking on doors and begging for candy would be canceled due to inclement weather. Then, right around 4 o'clock, the rain slowed to a light mist. We got our first trick or treaters at 4:30 (that's the standard trick or treating time here) and took that as our cue to head out as well.

First Bryan gathered the kids for a picture.

Then he gathered the candy for a picture.

Since Bryan enjoys watching the reactions of the kids when he hands them a gigantic package of candy (a perk of his job), he stayed home while I took the kids out. I thought I would take Sophie to a few houses, then bring her back. Sophie had other ideas. She caught on to trick or treating almost immediately and she was a huge fan of the concept. She said "Tick Tee" (trick or treat) without being prompted, sometimes said "Tan Tee" (thank you) on her own, and when no one came to the door she would look at me and say "Home?" as in, "So no one's home, huh?"

All four kids trick or treating with Ninja Cooper in the lead.

Peter was the first one to call it quits. He walked home with our neighbor while the other three stayed out until dark. Cooper and Phoebe started to complain about wanting to go home before we were quite done with the houses between our position at the time and home. I asked Sophie if she wanted to go home too. "No! More!" She finally admitted she was tired at our next door neighbors house.

Then we went home, switched out all the peanut stuff, and let the kids eat ridiculous amounts of candy while we watched Hocus Pocus. Best of all? Thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time, they all got an extra hour to sleep off the sugar.

We all agreed, it was a successful Halloween!