meet Emma

This is my sweet little girl. She is such a blessing to me.

I "scraplifted" this layout from one in the Simple Scrapbooks March/April issue by Donna Downey.

P.S. Her bangs really don't usually look that crooked!

Motherstyles

I went to Janet Penley's site and took the quick quiz to find my style. I laughed out loud when I read the short description. Here is my profile from the web site:

Your type is: istj —The “Responsibility” Mother

“I have a serious love affair with to-do lists. I could sit for hours reading, organizing, and rearranging my weekly calendar.”

• The ISTJ mother has a highly developed sense of responsibility: for work, home, family ... particularly her children. Whether she’s overseeing daily baths or insisting on a 10 p.m. curfew, her efforts are largely focused on providing her children with order and routine. She wants them, regardless of age, to be able to count on her and the structure she provides.
• In carrying out her commitment to her responsibilities, the ISTJ mother is organized, industrious, and detail-oriented. Because her focus is the day-to-day realities of life, her children are likely to feel secure and well provided for.
• The ISTJ mother also sets a good example and provides her children with practical guidance on being a productive, responsible individual. Still, with all her seriousness, she may delight family members with her quick wit and observations about the details of life.

Did you catch that first part? "I have a serious love affair with to-do lists. I could sit for hours reading, organizing, and rearraging my weekly calendar." So totally me! Go check out your motherstyle and let me know how well it fits you.

Bettering myself

Yesterday I went to the Successful Mothering convention and enjoyed being alone and sitting in class (yep, I was one of those people that actually liked school). I was able to listen to six different classes and enjoyed them all except ironically for the keynote speaker.

1. My first session was with Don Aslett and Sandra Phillips. I am a big fan of Don Aslett's books. I have learned a lot about cleaning and time management from him. Sadly, I did not enjoy his speaking nearly as much as his writing.
2. I decided at the last minute to come into Connie Sokol's class and I was so glad I did. I really enjoyed it. I laughed, cried, nodded A LOT and felt generally uplifted and inspired. She basically talked about letting go of our perfectionism while still seeking to live our best life. Seek after your dreams and you never know what opportunities may fall into your lap.
3. I couldn't pass up a class titled "What's for Dinner" by Jana Schofield. I actually bought her book because there were so many familiar recipes in it. Its 29 weeks of dinner menus including the main dish, side, salad and dessert. I am not sure how much I will use it but it will be a nice resource to have.
4. Janet Penley's class really intrigued me. Her work is all about using the Myers-Brigg Personality Indicator to find our parenting style and encouraging women to play to their strengths.
5. When I told Dave later about what I learned in Dr. Jane Nelsen's Positive Discipline class, he laughed. No time-outs? No real punishment? I, on the other hand, would like to learn more. I have already implemented some of the things I learned from reading Glenn Latham's book titled The Power of Positive Parenting and have seen real results. Maybe there is something to it!
6. If I had left at this point in the convention I would have enjoyed each session I attended. Dian Thomas's presentation fell very flat. She did have some fun ideas for camping but it was all very poorly presented. Oh well.

There were plenty of other workshops I wish I had been able to attend and I would like to go again next year. Anyone want to join me?

spring is in the air

And I sure hope it stays. Yesterday was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a long walk over to one of the parks near our house. Sad to say, but this was the first time that I have been to this park. I live in great neighborhood with parks and walking trails along a creek but with being pregnant, then having a brand-new baby, then being stuck inside during the winter, I have not really seen much of it. It felt so good to be outside. We had no reason to hurry and we just enjoyed the day. I took my camera along. It was so frustrating. In this case ignorance is not bliss. I knew the pictures that I wanted to get but I just didn'tknow how to do it. It didn't help that I had Sawyer in a Snugli making my movement rather limited. Oh well. I am learning. I'm not even shooting on Auto mode much anymore. There is just so very much to learn.

Dave comes home tomorrow night for the weekend and I get to go to a convention. Alone. Hurray.

it begins

Dave will be up in Boise during the week for the next six weeks or so. I'm not thrilled with the prospects of being on my own to say the least. Life continues to roll on though so on I must go with it.

The day began with Dave waking up early to catch his flight. He was pulling out of the driveway when he noticed our sprinklers were flooding. Dave and our neighbor (who was still so nice even though we woke him up at 6:30 in the morning) tried to get them turned off (something which Dave didn't know he had to do in the fall) but weren't able to do so. Instead, they turned off the water to the house. I woke up to find Dave still home and no bathroom to use. Dave finally was able to leave only to get stuck on the freeway in a snow storm. He missed his flight but was able to get on one a few hours later.

The rest of my day was typical. Kids crying and fighting. Messes to clean up. Lots of laundry to do. One wonderfully atypical thing though was how quickly and easily Emma and I got through all her schoolwork. She was even asking for more math problems. Definitely out of the ordinary.

We had Family Home Evening tonight. Emma gave the lesson which she wrote herself:
My lesson is going to be about that Jesus love's us. love is important because it make people happy. Baptism is when you the holy gost. When I em 12 I get to baptism for the ded. I love my family and frends.
Slade chose our activity. It started out as an Ice Queen/Lava boy/Superhero adventure but somehow turned into "burro rides" aka climbing on the piled couch pillows on Emma and letting her bounce you off.

We ended with popsicles for Nathan's treats and watching a couple of episodes of Backyardigans so I could get my energy up for bedtime. Why is it that putting the kids to bed seems to take more energy than the rest of the entire day? When the the littles were finally asleep, this awaited me:
Now I am enjoying my quiet time on the computer. If I were smart I would go to bed before midnight but sometimes I think alone time is more important than sleep. Ask me tomorrow if my opinion has changed.

sick and tired

It started with a sore throat that didn't go away for ten days. As I was breathing my sighs of relief that I was finally healthy, I caught the cold/crud that my kids have been down with for the last week. So we have been homebound, wiping running noses, hacking up lungs, watching more movies than I care to count and basically not enjoying this mid-winter yuck. The other night, Emma actually prayed that school could continue, so I know she must be REALLY bored. I think we are enough on the mend the we can return to our regularly scheduled life tomorrow. Perhaps the only bright spot was getting to watch a few of my favorite childhood movies with my children. Its so interesting how things get recycled, like Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. After basically all our movies had been watched, we asked to borrow movies from our neighbor and she blessed us with Star Wars which Nathan just loved. Nathan is very much into swords right now, especially lightsabers. We have the Star Wars Legos video game which he constantly asks to "play" (which means swinging his lightsaber at the TV while Slade is actually playing the game). We also borrowed Swiss Family Robinson. And that one was old when I was a kid! Now I just need to introduce my family to all the classic musicals which were so much a part of growing up for me--Singing in the Rain, On the Town, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Oklahoma, Royal Wedding and so on. I guess, everything old is new again.

Inspiration

About this post, my very wise mother commented: "On the other hand, there is value in the perspective gained by time/distance. Then you recognize and remember what is really important." Those words have been spinning around in my mind along with all the thoughts I am having about scrapbooking because of my Library of Memories class. Then tonight, I was reading the latest issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine. I love this magazine's philosophy about telling stories and letting go of the guilt about not being "caught up." At the end of so much inspiration, I came to the ever incredible, scrapbook genius Stacy Julian's editorial note. She wrote about being aware of our everyday life and surroundings and letting scrapbooking help us appreciate the beauty of it. Here is what struck me the most: "I believe that when you nurture awareness and act on it, you will be better able to decide which bits and pieces of your life need to be documented and preserved now, with your immediate perspective, and which can wait until later. This, more than anything else, will simplify and improve your scrapbooking." It was such an "aha" moment for me. Now to act on it!

I got tagged...

by Amanda. She is a folk dance friend of mine from back in the good old days at BYU. For my response I will just post the layout I did for Cathy Z's class at Big Picture titled 5 Random Facts. These really are more random than unusual but I think I am pretty darn boring too.
The five facts are:
1. I can't sleep with socks on. I usually stick my feet out from under the blankets too and then throw most of the covers onto Dave's side of the bed.
2. I hate squash, green beans, chocolate ice cream, and seafood.
3. I wear my hair in a ponytail everyday except Sunday. On Sunday my hair actually gets curled and styled until after church when I put it back into a ponytail.
4. I absolutely detest wearing turtlenecks. I really like the look of scarves but can't stand to have things on my neck so I can't wear them either.
5. I would rather read a book than just about anything.

I don't think I personally know five bloggers who I could tag back, but Amanda, at least I did my part.

my dream job

I came across this post on this blog. I love the sentiment.

"WAIT!" i thought, "i've got it!" the ultimate most wonderful job that takes the cake! being a mom, who can make her home inspiring, clean, and inviting...who can fill it with fragrant smells of cupcakes and bread baking and throw fabulous parties.. who can sit on a comfy couch and knit when the days duties are done...who can take pictures of her family and life any time she'd like, who can learn anything at all that she'd like to do...who is responsible for clothing and fashioning her little family...who runs her little company with hard work, saving, and all the wisdom of the best corporations- in charge of molding the most important things and people in her whole world. why, yes THAT would be the most perfect, the most fulfilling, the most rewarding job (with the most fruit). and would you look at that? i have it.

Sometimes I need a reminder like this that I really do have my dream job. I am decorator, teacher, photographer, historian, crafter, chef, financial planner and a lot of other things too. But most importantly, I am wife and mother.

Why we homeschool

A friend of mine asked me how I manage to homeschool and if I thought the benefits outweighed the cost. It took me three weeks of thinking and several drafts to finally get an answer sent to her. It was good for me to think about especially because we seem to be at a crossroad with homeschooling and need to redecide how we want to do things. Anyhow I thought I would share my answer to her. Maybe it will help somebody else.

As a parent, I've always been intrigued by the idea of homeschooling. I was the kind of kid who liked to stay indoors all summer and read book after book. I think I would have LOVED homeschooling as a child. My parents chose to homeschool my younger sister Merrit in 8th grade for a variety of reasons and that was my first real exposure to homeschooling. As Emma was approaching five, she was clearly academically and socially ready to start kindergarten but since her birthday was in fall she missed the cut-off. I read everything I could find on the subject for about a year, thought a lot about it and prayed often. In the end, we felt quite strongly that we should try it. Basically it was free year because if it turned out to be a negative thing we would just send her to kindergarten the next year when she was supposed to go. However, I think it has turned out to be a very positive thing for Emma and our family.

A lot of moms say they could never homeschool because they have the notion that it means "school at home", meaning teaching from 9 to 3 just like in public school. I couldn't do that either. We on the other hand spend an average of two hours a day on actual lesson time. I keep lessons short (about 15-20 minutes) and we finish up by noon. As in all things some days are better than others. I don’t think we have very many ideal days but we sure get a lot of days that are great. I love that I can immediately see if my daughter is struggling with something. I can spend longer on a topic or tweak the way I am teaching it. I don’t have to wait for a parent-teacher conference to know where her struggles are. I also get the wonderful joy of seeing those light-bulb moments when she does get something for the first time. I get to be the one to hear my children read their first books, see them learn to count or do multiplication tables, and watch their faces light up as we do a science experiment.

There is also a lot of support out there for the taking. I am involved with several on-line groups where I get to glean great ideas and wisdom. I also participate in a few homeschool groups here locally. I know that if I see a need for my children I can go and find a way to meet it, whether it be through a co-op or simply inviting others to come to our home for a book club or a play-date.

The beauty of homeschooling is in the freedom. We can change our curriculum year to year, or even month to month. We can spend a day in pajamas just because. We can take a month off to enjoy Christmas time. We can take some time off or relax our schedule when a new baby comes to our house. We can vacation in the off season. We can go on field trips during less busy times. I get sanity breaks because our afternoons are free, I don’t have to get Emma do to homework after a long day, and I have no early morning rush trying to get out the door. And perhaps most importantly, I have a husband who supports in any way he can and lets me have plenty of time alone.

As for keeping the rest of life together, organization and routine are the keys for me. I have a morning routine which helps me get the laundry done and keeps the bathrooms clean. I have a menu plan which helps me know what I am cooking everyday. Home/time management is a bit of a hobby for me. I read books all the time looking for another great organizational or cleaning idea. Keeping our home and our schedule fairly clutter free makes a big difference too.

What can I say? I have found that the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. I find far more reasons to keep my children at home than to send them somewhere else. I am not going to be so presumptuous as to say that homeschooling is the best option for everyone. I just know that for us it is the right thing right now.

Freezing moments in time

I get to go to my first photography class tomorrow. I want to get better so my pictures can be something more extraordinary. My real hope is that someday my photography skills will just approximate the women here, here and here. I want to learn how to shoot on manual, to know what I need to change when the picture doesn't turn out so well. I'd like to understand natural lighting better and all the technical terms like aperture. I need to remember more often that I don't have to get a smile or even have them looking at the camera for it to be a good picture. I recognize this is going to be very long process but hopefully I will start to some progression soon. These are pictures I took tonight. I have great models to practice with at least, if I do say so myself!

Food (not so) glorious food!

You know the feeling when you come home from the grocery store after having spent too much time and money there only to feel like there is still nothing to eat in your house? Grocery shopping is so frustrating! Tonight I went to two grocery stores to take advantage of sales and to build our year supply. I spent almost $300 and came home feeling like we are still nowhere close to where we should be. It feels so overwhelming.

Those bygone days

I am taking the Library of Memories class at Big Picture. My first assignment is to sort all my pictures into chronological order. Last night, I was pulling pictures out of the old magnetic albums and sorting through the other stashes of pictures I have. As I was dismantling my high school album, I felt such a wide array of emotions. I smiled at the good memories, the pictures with friends, the plays and concerts, and awards. I laughed at my youthful follies and cringed at my youthful mistakes. I yearned for my high school figure. Anyhow, it all got me thinking about how I was going to scrapbook those years of my life. Certainly, my perspective has changed. What was so important to me then is so very not important right now. I don't remember even a smidgen of the details. Nor would my journaling contain so much of the teenage angst I show in the tidbits of writing I did then. I just realized how very important it is for me to scrapbook/journal/record our life moments in the now or at least close to it. Otherwise, too many things are just lost.

Just begin!

Ali Edwards in her weekly newsletter challenged everyone to come up with one word to be their motto for the year. It was an interesting challenge which I enjoyed contemplating. Eventually, I came up with "begin". This year I want to begin. Begin getting up early. Begin improving my photography skills. Begin Kids' Company. Begin to lose weight and live more heathfully. And lastly begin this blog! I am a blog-lover. I love to read them, unfortunately a bit to distraction from the more important tasks of my life. Its just like how I always read the journaling in the scrapbooking layouts I see. I love getting a glimpse into how other people live their lives. I have gotten great tips off of them too so they are not entirely useless! Anyhow, I am trying to let go of the perfectionism that has held me back and just start this baby up! Here's to a happy new year, happy new blogging, and happy new beginnings.

me