Our Magnum Opus: 2012

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Russ Family Top Ten Moments of the Year

10. Seaworld Passes for the Year made a SPLASH of fun as we enjoyed rides and marine animals
9. Completing a full year of homeschooling finally :) and now having everyone at home learning together, progressing and participating in fun co-ops with friends.
8. Improving times of health for Mom and Dad, days and weeks that we are strong outweigh the ones when we are weak
7. Animal adventures with raccoons, bears, bobcats, chickens, a new rabbit (Miss Lily), chameleons (Polio and Jade), Blake the Snake (a red-tailed boa) and Whiplash the snapping turtle. We have our own ever expanding zoo here.
6. Growing healthy kids getting to participate in Scouts (We have a Bear & Tiger in our home), dance (Makayla gets to be an angel in the Nutcracker this Christmas, her first time), archery, swim lessons, and soccer. It was our first year to experience the Collier County Fair, we came home with three blue ribbon kids and 1st place Showmanship in Poultry, we is true country folk now!
5. Family visits in North Carolina and here in Naples with some of the Shields side; Daytona Beach and Thanksgiving with the Russ side. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful big family.
4. Birthdays Celebrated: Makayla -10, Gavyn - 9, Bryton - 6, Cayd - 4, and Bryan and Amanda - one year older ;0. I cherish the chances to celebrate LIFE. It is so precious and each year we get to spend together is a gift!
3. Our trip to Washington DC and its incredible museums, monuments, Ford Theater, Arlington and the DC temple are never to be forgotten. Our love for our country and our forefathers was enriched. We walked on sacred ground.
2. Gospel moments and chances to serve have stretched and enriched our lives. Watching and feeling the Lord's hand in ours and our children's lives, guiding us, teaching us and lifting us is a priceless and JOY-ful thing.
1. Each day is a Moment, to find joy in the simple, everyday messes and laughter. The blessing of learning, cleaning, loving, and living. May we all find more of these MOMENTS each day of this coming year!

Monday, December 3, 2012

"Live slowly and simply, so that you have the time and space to love deeply and well. Hold your children close, as often as possible.

Look deeply into their eyes,

speak words of life, love and acceptance, into, and over them.

Make it your single aim, to be their very best friend on earth.

You will in such a very short time be repaid a thousand-fold.

Read to them,

draw with them,

make play dough,

take walks,

have picnics,

make ice cream,

tossle their hair,

rub their backs,

sit beside them,

kiss them,

kiss them, as you hold them tenderly, close--throughout every single day.

Love them.
Nothing will be so precious to you as that love, making it's way in and through, and so sweetly right around back, to you.

God's ways are beyond our comprehension, always best, and beautiful.

Let Him love all, through you, but especially the most priceless treasure you possess--your gifts.

Your tender, impressionable, irreplaceable, sweet children."

- Jewels

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Cute Insight

Gavyn was loading the dishwasher as I cleaned off the dishes. Out of the blue his asks:

"Mom, when you were a little girl did you like to sneak around and act like a spy and hide so people didn't know you were there and listen to what they were saying? Huh, did you?"

"Well, No actually. Why, Gavyn? Do you like to sneak around, acting like a spy and listen to people talking?"

"YEAH!!!" (said with a big smile)

Guess, we better be careful what we are saying :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Grateful for Strawberries

I was cutting the tops off of some strawberries to freeze before we leave for the weekend. Strawberries remind me of Nanna. When we lived next door to her and Papa, they had a garden in the back of our yard. I have wonderful memories of that garden, but mostly of the strawberry patch in the corner. There were black plastic bags and dead leaves and underneath it all were the most delicious strawberries. I remember eating them in her kitchen and declaring for years there after that strawberries were definitely my favorite fruit. The ones from the store never tasted quite as sweet as hers. Sometime in elementary school we had a fundraiser, we sold little figurines of a little strawberry girl.

Nanna was always the first and surest sale. She bought one and told me I was her strawberry girl. I hope her little strawberry girl bell is still at her house and I can bring it here and remember her. I always think of Nanna when strawberries are around :).

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Oak Tree Poem

We heard this recently at our Stake Conference. It was beautiful and I don't want to forget it.

The Oak Tree

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

A mighty wind blew night and day.

It stole the Oak Tree's leaves away.

Then snapped its boughs

and pulled its bark

until the Oak was tired and stark.

But still the Oak Tree held its ground

while other trees fell all around.

The weary wind gave up and spoke,

"How can you still be standing Oak?"

The Oak Tree said, I know that you

can break each branch of mine in two,

carry every leaf away,

shake my limbs and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,

growing stronger since my birth.

You'll never touch them, for you see

they are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn't sure

of just how much I could endure.

But now I've found with thanks to you,

I'm stronger than I ever knew.

Monday, February 13, 2012

What I Did Today

Sometimes I get to the end of the day and am like WOW, I wish I had made a To Do List so I could look back and see what all I get to mark off today :). (Did I mention I love lists?)

* I made cereal for Bryton and Oatmeal for Cayd
* Picked out Bryton's clothes for school, warm ones and helped him get dressed down to shoes
* Had family scriptures and prayer before Bryton left and he didn't miss the bus :)
* Picked out clothes for the other kids that were "Valentiney"
* Made two ham sandwiches and one PB and honey cut into triangles and baggied
* Packed apples, found a bag of goldfish, almonds, juice boxes, water and my crackers to take
* Helped children get their clothes to change into for gymnastics into another bag
* Gathered school work to do in between Nursing home and gymnastics
* Made my own rice cake, PB, and almond milk breakfast and read scriptures while I ate
* Helped children to remember to get dressed to shoes, do their own scriptures and prayers, and brush their teeth and comb hair and finish their math for the day by saying it at least 20 times
* Got myself dressed with hair and makeup, took meds
* Printed off addresses to Nursing Home and Gymnastics, then grabbed Bryan's GPS anyway
* Out the door at 9:05 with computer, lunches, school work, and change of clothes
* Ran back for jackets because we were in the 50's and everyone was freezing
* Drove to Nursing Home while talking about the residents we'd meet, practicing singing songs we did not know "Jesus Loves Me" and "I've Got the Joy"
* Had a wonderful time at the Nursing home singing twice to the residents, watching the kids hand out Valentines, visit, smile and serve lovingly. Gavyn was asking the men if they were Veterans and they almost all were, Makayla was observant for ways to serve and found many. It was a wonderful experience for us all. We made some new friends in the homeschooling group as well.
* Got new friend's contact info
* Sat in the car and did school work - watched a science video, did Book of Mormon phonics, Language Arts lessons, ate our lunch, helped little boys go to the bathroom
* Got confused by the GPS and was 10 minutes late to Gymnastics
* Visited with other homeschool Mom's and finally planned our first little co-op meeting
* Rushed to get Bryton from school, listened to Story Hour My Heritage Series about Alexander Graham Bell and sent Daddy instead.
* Unloaded the car and actually got the bags emptied and put away
* Rested for a while and read some Family Fun
* Made Dinner - Stir Fry with Letuce wraps, and leftover turkey soup for those who wouldn't like the stir fry
* Helped Makayla look for a new bunny on my computer
* Got the mail and filed it
* Helped Bryton clear and set the table
* Ate Dinner and made Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for FHE dessert
* Sang the little boys choice for songs : "I've got the Joy" twice
* Read a story about service from the Friend
* All worked on finishing Valentine's for tomorrow's party - 80 + Valentine's made!

* Got medicine for our sweet Gavyn who had a headache
* Read "Knuffle Bunny" to the kids
* Prayer and kisses to all kiddos
* Finished loading the dishwasher where Dad had started and washed the rest of the dishes
* Made Mom and Dad's Valentine's for the kids, put in pink envelopes with a bunch of M&M's
* Used the leftover felt fortune cookies for each of the kids to get one, set it all out on the kitchen bar with their Valentine's for each other

* Straightened up the table for in the morning
* Brushed teeth, took out contacts and took meds
* BLOG
Now shower and Sleep so we can start afresh

Can I just say and YELL from the roof tops how thrilled and grateful and joyful I am that the Lord has blessed me with the strength to DO!!!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Florida Primary

Bryan early voted because of his Puerto Rico trip, but I got to take three of the kids with me to vote. Cayd cried because he wanted to vote for "Mic Romney" (I got it on video, but still have not figured out how to get my pics and videos off my phone). Makayla took our sample ballot and had them all vote. Cayd was thrilled. They were cute and had dressed themselves all patriotically and wanted flags to carry with them. We go in and are the only ones in there at the time and the workers had big smiles.

After voting, we moved our van and carried out signs...one huge one our friends brought to us yesterday and some yard signs. We were the ONLY ones around our precinct with any signs at all. We lasted about an hour with the winds pulling on the big sign, the kids were great!

They have excitedly watched the numbers come in tonight and ROMNEY win Florida and all our 50 delegates. Still a long road to travel, but moving forward.

PS -We started our 2012 Presidential Scrapbook yesterday with them labeling a US map with delegate numbers on them. Some of the election process is so complicated, but I'm excited for them to be excited about our country's democratic process.

PSS - Makayla and Gavyn got to shake Romney's hand at the rally in Naples this weekend. They are hoping they can say they shook a president's hand ;)

Monday, January 30, 2012

Raccoons and Rabies

SO to end the week on an especially memorable moment, Bryan had to have a new adventure :)

As we were just getting ready to lay down, we hear a noise outside. Nothing new, a raccoon had found some chick feed on the back stoop outside the family room. Bryan went and watched for a minute or so, then came on to bed. Then, just as we are falling asleep, we hear noises outside our sliding glass door that opens onto our lanai. Sure enough, a different raccoon had gotten onto the porch and found the chick feed bag. This is a first! We turn the lights on and try to get it out. We open the door wide, but the poor thing is frightned and instead keeps rushing back and forth across the porch, slamming into the screens and scaling them. Bryan tries a few methods to no avail. Finally, he is putting on his leather work glove and thinks he will just pick it up and put it out....BAD idea! He yells and sure enough, the bite cuts through the gloves into a deep puncture wound and blood. We wash it for a long time while I look up details...yep...ER.

Sidenote, Bryan has had a rough weekend. He has felt badly since Friday night, taking multiple naps, upset stomach, leg aches, etc. He had just finished packing his bags for his trip to Puerto Rico on Monday morning. We had just calculated that he needed to leave the house at 6:30. The raccoon decided to visit at midnight :).

Back to our adventure. I call Moffitt Cancer Center to find out about the vaccines and his medicines. Normally, we have been advised to avoid vaccines, but the Dr. on call says the risk is too great. Bryan heads out the door around 12:45am. He comes back home at almost 5am with hilarious BRuss stories of huge syringes, a handful of vials and multiple shot-givers. All in all he says he received 10 shots and antibiotics, plus he has to get more shots in Puerto Rico and when he returns.

Moral of the story....LEAVE THE DANG WILD ANIMALS ALONE!!!!!!!

:) Really, he really wishes he had been more patient:)

PS 1/31/12 Collier County Animal Control comes knocking on the door today and I have to explain the whole situation, hopefully nothing comes of it. Mainly they wanted to know he had been treated.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

New Year's Resolutions :)

I'm not going to say WHAT my resolution was in regards to blogging, but am a bit behind, but here I am :)

One day, I'll figure out how to get my pics off my phone, I'm up to like 650+. We took a lot this week because we celebrated Makayla's 10th Birthday and Cayd's 4th Birthday. We had separate parties for the first time and both on days other than their actual birthday. It made for a crazy week. The kids were out on Mon and Tues, so we did Cayd's party at the park at the Branch playgroup time. It was great, lots of friends and fun. I made dirt cake cups with little lizards and dinosaurs in them. Our favorite quote of the day, "Four-year old's do their chores, and do the commandments and do what God wants them too." He's being a very good four-year old :)

Makayla had an "Almost Sleepover Party" on Friday. She had her two neighbor friends and Achievement Day girls over dressed in pajamas. We made pizzas, played some funny minute to win it games, danced to the Wii game, spun in chairs and made parfaits (layers of chocolate cake, chocolate and vanilla pudding, real whipped cream, crunched up sugar cookies, and cruched up chocoalte animal crackers). The kids were great and Makayla had a wonderful time celebrating.

Our other major adventure for the week was a field trip to the U-pick citrus farm in Fort Myers. The kids had a blast playing with the dog, Little Bob, watching Hannah the alligator, picking oranges, tangerines and grapefruit, playing with the "Happy tree", etc. They were such a sweet couple! She even gave us her extra electric juicer when she heard we just had a hand one. The kids have used it every day!

Tarantulita

Cute Cayd before church with his tie and Puppy.

After Church, we fed the missionaries and in our Naples Branch it has now become tradition for the Elders to hold Dad's Tarantula, named "Tarantulita" before they leave. i thought it fitting to show the brave Elders, children and even visiting friends :).

Elder Glover, the first brave Elder :)

Big Brave Bryt

Elder Andersen had no real fear of spiders.

Makayla, who thought putting it on your face would make a cool picture....crazy kids!

Gavyn is never one to be left out of this kind of fun.

The Elder from Nepal & France with Elder Ames along with some of the other animals.

Elder Packard, no he's not related to Elder Packer

Elder Ames, by far the Most Improved Elder in his fear of spiders. This poor Elder was TERRIFIED of any spider!!! He had to stand far away and sweated to watch his companion get close. Then after his 3rd visit, he surprised us and said, "Okay, if I do it will you leave me alone?" Not only did he hold it, but eventually let it get this close. Go Elder Ames!!

Our friends the Hilts

Cute Cayd always has to have his turn!