Quick one about Jaymeson

Jaymeson has been cracking me up with "how old he is".  Whenever I tell him he can have something when he's a certain age, he turned that age his last birthday.  For example. 

"No Jay, you have to be five before you get music lessons". 
"But I turned five on my last birthday!" 


"Kaia and Kienna are going to basketball camp this July"
"and me! and me!!"
"No Jay, you have to be eight to go to Basketball camp"
"I AM 8 Mom!!"


"Look, Daddy's passing the sacrament"
"I want to pass the sacrament."
"When you turn 12, you can get the priesthood and do that too"
"But, MOM!  I AM twelve!"


Jaymeson has also started mimicking Jarett in everything.  If Jarett's wearing a tie, that's what Jaymeson wants to wear.  If Jarett is crossing his legs in a certain way, Jay does too!  My favorite is that we swung by Jarett's office and saw that Jarett was wearing his glasses.  The next day, Jaymeson dug his glasses out and wanted to wear them all day (even though they were broken).

Today and a bit of yesterday!

It's only 11am, but I've already enjoyed today so much that I'm going to post about it.

Today my kids all slept in until 8!!  I was able to read scriptures and get motivated before I got overwhelmed today.  It was fabulous!  I got all the beds made, got the kids dressed, ate breakfast with them and then proceeded with my "plan".

I got the girls going on their math after breakfast and I took the boys out in the stroller and went rollerblading for the first time in YEARS!  Man, I could feel that one.  Those little tiny slopes look a lot more like mountains when you're rollerblading up them pushing over 100 pounds in a stroller.  It felt good to get out though.  I'm hoping to really push myself to do that more.  I think that I need to move a lot more!!  I have also made a goal to lose 30 lbs before I turn 30.  Eating better on top of this exercise is my plan!!

Kienna finished her whole math book today.  Kaia finished a whole unit and a unit test and Saryn's pushing her way through the Grade 1 curriculum even though she's only in Kindergarten.  Her subtraction and addition up to 20 is amazing.  She did 5 pages of problems today with only two mistakes.  Jaymeson is getting into it too and knows his numbers crazy well!  On top of math, the kids are doing great writing and Kaia actually did her PAT (Story Writing) yesterday and did a great job!  Science is going to be our "project" in June once I move and can make a mess again.  And Social is a blast with the other families.  We're reading Story of the World and the kids LOVE it.  Scratch that... I LOVE IT!  I've learned more this year about the world than I did growing up.  Probably because I'm paying attention this go round, but either way, I'm loving it!

Benson has been walking more than crawling this past week (FINALLY) and was having so much fun today dancing with Jaymeson to our piano's "demo song" which we have called "Candyland" (thanks to Sachie).  We got all the girls down for "recess" and we were all dancing and having a blast.

Cello practice has been done and violin will be done shortly.  Ahhh, I love being productive.  I took today off of packing and decided to focus my energy on other things... boy has it paid off!

Yesterday, we had a "fun" moment.  Just wanted to share.  Our Sequoia is at the dealership getting tuned up, so they were really generous and covered our rental car while they worked on it.  Jarett brought it home for me to use so that I could still do my errands etc.  I got up, excited to drive the new car, got the van packed up with all my errands (which included all our bottles & cans, a roll of batting and other "small" things like that).  Told the kids to get in so we could take Kaia over to get her exam done and realized that someone forgot to move over the car seats.  Kinda makes the van useless to me...  So, my mom came and picked Kaia up.  Meanwhile, I looked for a place to leave Benson so I could still do the errands and luckily the first place I called was Kristy Stanford who just happened to have a spare car seat in his size.  Done!!  I was able to get a bunch done yesterday morning and then came home and packed up all the clothes in the house.  It's starting to hit me that we're really moving.  Sigh.  Mixed feelings there.  Either way, I've loved today.  Much less stressful!!

My Mother's Day Talk

What a great mother's day!  I got to wake up at 8, work on my talk without interruption, have breakfast, literally brought to me on a silver platter.  Of course, it was in the form of a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil.  But it was better than silver because the tinfoil was covered with pictures that my kids drew on the tinfoil for me (I may have packed the paper a little too soon).  I enjoyed the breakfast (while going over the details of my talk), got ready for church along with the five little ones (while giving Jarett some time to touch his up), had some Dandelions picked for me and now we’re here!

Until Friday night, I had no idea what I would talk to you sisters about today.  Let me assure you, it had nothing to do with wanting to procrastinate like it normally would.  Over the past few weeks I have agonized over what to say to you. There are so many women in SO many situations here, yet you ALL women whom I look up to and admire in many, MANY ways.

I spent Friday in, quite possibly, the best way that I could have.  I went to Lethbridge to honor possibly the most incredible woman on earth.  My Grandmother turned 85 and we went to celebrate.  There, I spent the day with my mother, who I know would sacrifice the world for me in a heartbeat – no questions asked.  I spent the day with one of my 5 sisters, whom I admire so deeply (despite her being 6 years younger than me).  I spent the day with my Great Aunt, who has never been married, or had children of her own, but has been a mother figure for me because of her incredible love and sacrifice.  I spent the day with my Aunt, who somehow raised 6 children without ever raising her voice (I still don’t know if I fully believe this is possible, but I certainly haven’t ever heard it, and neither have any of her kids).  And last, but not least, I was surrounded by some of my cousins, who really are more like sisters to me, who are raising their families the best they can, and trying their hardest to make it all work.  We were able to sit and talk about motherhood and voice concerns, brainstorm, reflect and love each other.  It was such a fantastic day to be surrounded by so much love, support and people with the same standards.  After a day like that, I came home and it hit me (just before 1am), that I wanted to share this message with you sisters.  I wanted to each of you to know that I admire, love and care for each of you.  As I thought about all you sisters in the ward, I thought of some who are mothers to many children, sisters who have suffered great loss, sisters raising kids on their own, sisters who are dealing with children with handicaps and health concerns.  There are sisters who ache to be married and have kids.  There are sisters who have a hard time becoming mothers physically.  There are mothers who feel (for one reason or another) like they have failed at motherhood.  There is a lot going on out there.  But, I also see sisters who come to church smiling, despite it all.  I see strength that I have rarely seen elsewhere.  I see a sisterhood where you can feel safe, accepted and loved no matter what.  I have found so many “real” people here in this ward, people who I have instantly felt this closeness with. 

I have known some of you for longer than I remember, and some as recently as a couple weeks ago!  And there are a few that I only know your names, but I anxiously want to get to know you.  I know that many of you (being the supportive people you are) loved listening to the Layton’s inspiring story of training and completing an ironman, I particularly liked a quote that I found in a book called “I am a Mother”.

“I have a friend who often refers to mothering as ‘The Ironman of Living.’ Exactly!!  We go into motherhood expecting that it will require some strength then we find ourselves in it and realize we’re completely out of breath – with miles left to go.  Indeed, motherhood is an extraordinary test of endurance and strength, some days requiring that we sprint, and other days asking us to swim uphill against the current.”

What an accurate depiction of how motherhood feels some days.  As I am a busy mother, like many of you, I hadn’t really had time to sit down and study what I was going to say today.   I was asked to give this talk THREE WEEKS AGO, and still hadn’t been able to sit down and read.  I had been thinking a LOT about what to say and just couldn’t quite come up with how to say it or what aspect of motherhood to talk about.  I thought that if I could just read some talks by general authories, or read this book that I had read long ago, but had forgotten much of, I could materialize some things, but I just hadn’t had the time by myself to focus.  This week has been an extra busy one.  Between packing up to move in a couple weeks, home schooling, filling in for my sister at a studio in Okotoks for five and a half hours, and getting my students prepared to write their Theory Exams yesterday, I literally hadn’t had any time to myself and had just crashed in bed every night completely exhausted.  Wednesday night came with the same feeling when I realized that I will NEVER be able to work on this talk without the Lord’s help.  I said a prayer that I would be able to wake up early and be alert (which is possibly one of the biggest miracles ever – I LOVE my sleep) so that I could have some time without the kids to really be focused.  Of course, Heavenly Father answers prayers and this time, it was in the form of Benson crying out at 5:30 in the morning.  It was all I needed to drag me out of bed.  I said a quick prayer of thanks admiring how much He really knows each of us.  He knew exactly what I needed to have happen to get out of bed.  I stumbled in the room to change a diaper, give him some water, and miraculously, he went right back to sleep without any of the other kids waking up.  I literally had TWO WHOLE HOURS to myself to read, take notes and think about motherhood.  I’m telling you, He answers prayers!!  I know that many of you sisters have had weeks like this.  You just can’t continue without divine intervention.  I know that sometimes sheer exhaustion takes over and if you possibly could, you would just pull the covers up over your head and pray that no one else wakes up until tomorrow.  This attitude is perhaps not that best one, but I can know that I’m not alone.  Jeffrey R Holland spoke to mothers, and quite frankly, made me feel a lot better about it all.

“In speaking of mothers generally, I especially wish to praise and encourage young mothers.” Which most of us in this ward are!  “The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. But with night feedings and night teethings, often the greatest challenge of all for a young mother is simply fatigue. Through these years, mothers go longer on less sleep and give more to others with less personal renewal for themselves than any other group I know at any other time in life. It is not surprising when the shadows under their eyes sometimes vaguely resemble the state of Rhode Island.”

A couple Sundays ago was a rough one for me, and that morning found me in tears.  I was reflecting on myself as a mother and feeling all the ways that I was falling short.  I was worrying about my kids and who they would become.  All the things that I wasn’t doing right were falling on my lap and I just didn’t know what to do.  I was sure that I was going to mess them up for good.  Suddenly, the phone rang.  I didn’t even answer it, but one of my kids did and brought it to me.  Thank heaven she did, because it was my mom.  She doesn’t usually make a habit of calling on Sunday morning, but she was in Arizona and just “felt like checking in”.  I was able to talk to her for over half an hour about my concerns.  Whether she realizes it or not, my Mom gave me so much strength that day.  Because she has been there, because she loves me and my kids as only a mother can, she shared my concerns, she showed me love, she lifted me up and made me be able to re-group and feel like I could be a stronger person because of it.  This is what we women can do for each other!  We were giving the responsibility or motherhood because we are nurturers.  It is in our genetic makeup.  We were this way before we were born.  We are here to take care of others!!  Now, in those situations, it’s not always the case that your mother will call you at the perfect time and say the perfect things, but you CAN put this quote by Jeffrey R Holland up on your wall and read it daily if you like.  I can’t imagine a better thing to have as a constant reminder.

“It is clear that some of those Rhode Island–sized shadows come not just from diapers and carpooling but from at least a few sleepless nights spent searching the soul, seeking earnestly for the capacity to raise these children to be what God wants them to be. Moved by that kind of devotion and determination, may I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you.  You are doing God’s work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging.”

What more do we need?  How much more could we be promised?  I know from experience that when He blesses you, as often as not, it comes from the hands of someone else.  We need to remember to turn to each other for help and support.  Even if we can’t fully understand each other, we ALL know what it is like to just need a shoulder to lean on.

I remember Marjorie Pay Hinckley (whom we all love) saying, “Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young. And, hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old. It is a sociological fact that women need women. We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other.”

Ann Quindlen alluded to this as well when she said, “The great motherhood friendships are the ones in which two women can admit [how difficult motherhood is] quietly to eachother, over cup of [herbal] tea at a table sticky with spilled apple juice and littered with markers without tops”. 

What a perfect picture this paints!  Jane Clayson Johnson said, “The sanctity of motherhood can be hard to appreciate when you spend endless hours making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, singing along with Elmo, helping create elaborate science projects, or enforcing late-night curfews.  Many in the world will shout that motherhood is full of small, mundane tasks.  And certainly, if you look only on the surface, this is true.  But underneath all of the secondary things mothers do – cook, clean, read, chauffeur, nurse and so on – is a mother’s real occupation and, I believe, the definition of true success.”

She continues, “Many of us don’t remember often enough that we are daughters of God, doing his work.  An astute seven-year-old – a true princess in training – told her mom, “Snow White was still pretty in rags.”

Sometimes the monotony of motherhood catches up with us and we forget who we are underneath.  We teach our daughters, our primary children, our young women that they are daughters of God.  We remind them constantly, but sometimes we forget that it means us too!

In a world where things are measured by money and recognition, motherhood frequently takes a back burner.  It’s not recognized as a high and noble profession.  In fact, by many, it’s not really recognized as a profession at all.  As silly as I feel quoting Oprah over the pulpit, I was surprised to read this inspired quote by her.

 

“In our society, we give motherhood plenty of lip service.  We pat moms on the head, bring them flowers on Mother’s Day, and honor them before crowds.  But at the end of the day, we don’t extend them the same respect we would a professor, a dentist, an accountant, or a judge.
 

“I believe the choice to become a mother is the choice to become one of the greatest spiritual teachers there is.  To create an environment that’s stimulating and nurturing, to pass on a sense of responsibility to another human being, to raise a child who understands that he or she is created from good and is capable of anything – I know for sure that few callings are more honorable.  To play down mothering as small is to crack the very foundation on which greatness stands.”

Other great people have said similar things.  Barbara Bush said, “Your success as a family…. Our success as a nation… depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.”

Napoleon Bonaparte had the same idea, “Let France have good Mothers, and she will have good sons.”

I believe this is so true.  Neal A Maxwell confirms this when he asks, “When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies?  The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods?  Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses?”

My favorite quote EVER, is the one that Margaret Nadauld’s gave in general conference.  It is a quote that has forever been imbedded on my mind.  “Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

You sisters in the ward, I have felt as though I need to express my love to each of you.  I feel as though I have found a group of women who are trying their very best to be the women that we have been asked to be.  I am so grateful for those women who work so hard to make other’s lives easier.  I have never met so many people that are SO ready to serve.  I have felt your love through your smiles, your testimonies and your genuine natures.  I have felt that you are women truly trying to live up to President Hinckley’s challenge to be the Very Best you can be.  What an honor it has been to be in your company.   I will miss you all!

The House

Well, I feel as though I have a good reason this time for the ridiculous delay.  Our house has finally sold and after a whole days relief, I decided that I needed to start to stress about what house to buy.  We went through a lot of houses, put an offer in on one in Midnapore.  After a couple days, we began to feel uncomfortable and luckily, the offer became invalid.  We found another house that had an en-suite in the basement that we could rent out which made it more in the price range that we could afford.  We have just fallen in love with this house and we're so excited.  We put in an offer immediately and after a house inspection, things were sealed up and we officially bought the house.  We'll be moving to Sundance, be in Midnapore Ward and are excited to get there.  We just have to get everything all packed up and over there.  We also have a layover for a month at my parents house, which means moving twice.  Otherwise, though, we couldn't be more thrilled with how things have worked out!  I've had a few requests for some pictures of the house, so hopefully they make sense.  Enjoy!

 Somehow, I only got a partial picture of the kitchen, but this gives the general idea.  There's a pantry cupboard to the right and an island to the left.  It also has a BOSCH dishwasher.  Hip hop hooray!

 Dining room and living room above.  Den below.

 Washer and Dryer are on the main floor in a closeable closet off of the bathroom.  Lots of storage too!

A Truly Sweet Heart

We started noticing it in BC.  We watched "Kung-fu Panda 2".  In the middle of it (after multiple kung fu parts and some scary people), the panda has a flash back and remembers his mom being chased away by the wolves.  His mom puts him in a wagon full of turnips and then runs away to save her baby by sacrificing herself.  Of course, it's a very moving part, but Jaymeson burst into tears and needed to be held.  I was pretty sure that it might be because he didn't like the idea of her dying, but I thought he may have gotten hurt or something because he had seen scarier things in movies, and he'd NEVER done that before.  He's always a "super brave boy" and he's always telling me that he fights the bad guys just like daddy (especially dinosaurs).

The next day, we were watching "Megamind" and within minutes, Megamind is sent away by his parents to a new world.  As soon as he parts from his parents, Jaymeson ran to me crying and buried his face into me.  Strange occurance #2.  I was fairly certain at this point that he didn't like the idea of a baby being separated from his parents.

My kids often watch a movie on Sunday morning while I get ready and Jarett gets the breakfast taken care of.  There have been times where I hear the kids breaking out into a fight Of course, we all know the story of Moses and the Bulrushes.  His Mom put him in the basket and put him on the Nile River.  From upstairs, I could hear Jaymeson burst into tears and start running up the stairs so that he could be with me and have me hold him.  This confirmed any suspicion I had.  He really does NOT like the idea of a Mom and Baby being separated.

Today, without knowing it, the girls put on Hercules.  Jaymeson had never seen it.  I didn't think anything of it really.  It's a hero fighting the bad guys.  This is right up Jay's alley.  But, at the beginning, Hades sends his little bad guys to kidnap Hercules and make him mortal.  This is when Jaymeson walked in the room.  He began to cry, and climb up me before I had a chance to notice what was going on.  He was jumping up and down and just panicked.  He couldn't stand it.  Finally he calmed down when I told him that he got a nice Mom and Dad and he beat the snakes up.  Jaymeson even laughed for a second (although he wouldn't let me put him down), but when he saw that Zeus and Hera were his real parents and they were so sad because he was gone, he lost it again.

Can I just say how much it yanks at my heart strings when I see my little boy so deeply affected by the idea of a baby and his parents being separated.  Especially because it is going to so deeply affect me when my sweet little boy is going to leave one day.  I'm sure I'll be glad and proud of him as he leaves on his mission or off to school, but I'm not going to lie, I'll miss my little boy.  He's just the sunshine in my life (and pretty much anyone who really knows him feels the same, I'm sure).  I'm glad he feels that special connection with me too!!

What Home Schooling Looks Like

Well, I confess, I only have time to take pictures on the smoother days, so it doesn't always look like this.  But, as I get a lot of questions as to what goes on and how I balance things.... here you have it.  Some pictures that I took two days ago.  (Saryn is always happy to model for me!)

We each have a Math Workbook that we do a section out of daily.

We also have a workbook which covers maps, writing, grammar, science and social studies.

Music Lessons daily

Saryn pointing to the country we studied that day out of "Story of the World"  We talked about the Nazca Drawings found in Peru.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.

The girls all pointing to some of the fun places we've studied.  Of course, the boys sometimes get in the way.

Favorite places that we have studied thus far!  (Jaymeson doesn't get in the way quite as much.)  He just wants to be a part of things.  Jaymeson pointing to Calgary, Kaia to Peru, Saryn to Africa (supposed to be Egypt) and Kienna to China.  If I was on there, I'd be pointing to Mesopotamia, because I've found that fasc inating.

Art Class

Bookmarks we made yesterday

One of the things Jaymeson does, while we're in school, is fly around with his super capes and watch for bad guys.

Our bead creations from last weeks art lesson

What Jaymeson did for art while we did the bookmarks.

Kaia doing music lessons

On of the main questions I'm asked is "What do you do with the younger kids while you're with your older ones in school?"  Thus the pictures of Jaymeson.  He keeps busy, enjoys the stories, loves the art and has his own math book which he LOVES because he feels like such a big boy.  Benson, on the other hand, frequently gets in the way, but is starting to enjoy coloring, reading books and crawling around to discover stuff while we're in school.  Generally, he naps in the morning and we're done by lunch time, so it's rare that he's there for it, but when he is awake, he's doing better!

We still are loving home school.  It definitely has it's rough days, but overall it is so wonderful to spend time as a family.  This afternoon, we'll be heading to the zoo for phys ed and for science class!  Maybe a post about that will be soon to follow!

SPARK!

The new Science Center has opened in Calgary and we have partaken of the goodness.  We've been there multiple times and we've had a blast.  They have a Children's Museum section where the kids learn things and play with things and climb walls and act in a theater.  They make water slides, water falls, water paintings, block towers, magnetic bridges, rings spin and SO much more.  That's just in the Children's Museum part.  They have a section on the Human Body, on Weather, on Electricity, on Oil, on Sound.... the Works!  We have absolutely LOVED our passes and we'll be attending many, many more times!

Saryn has all her ducks in a row!

Jaymeson has played with these waterfalls for hours in total.  It's the first place that he runs.

Oh, and did I mention that we got to play hovercraft hockey??  WAY too much fun!

Not always a bed of roses.

 Saryn can be a fireball.  Saryn can be the sweetest thing on earth, as well, but she can definitely be a fireball  Violin seems to bring both of these sentiments out the strongest.  Music can be good for that.  Or in this case, bad for that.  About 2 months ago, we were practicing a song for Christmas and she had HAD it.  I jotted down a few of her comments that made me laugh (in my head - wanting to burst out so bad).

Saryn: "I don't want to practice today, can I do two practices tomorrow instead?"
 Mom:  "Why not now?"
Saryn:  "There's just something lost inside me and I'm waiting for it to come."

During the middle of the session that then started, I asked her why she was getting so frustrated and screaming.  Her answer as simple, "I don't know, all I know is this:  (pause, the screaming...) "I'M SO TIRED!!"

I'm pretty sure that we ended soon after.  I just wanted to jot this down so that I can remember these times and laugh.

Sweet Little Benson

 

You can see why Kienna has a hard time practicing Cello when Benson is awake.

 

Watching "Baby Noah"

 After watching Baby Noah for about 5 minutes, I heard him whine a little and I came down to see him like this.

Tonight while we watched "Megamind".

And one of Jay - just because it's too cute too.