Lovin' Life

When I was a child, one of my favorite parts of the day was sitting down with my family and having dinner together. I remember waiting for my dad to come home and he would sit and read the paper for a few minutes while my mom finished preparing the food. Sometimes she would listen to music on the cassette player. I can still picture her standing at the kitchen stove, the stove light on overhead while the light in the rest of the house was slowly dimming with the passing of the day.

When my mom passed away, family dinner was a little less frequent and a little more chaotic. My two oldest siblings were attending college and my sister and I ran the show most days until my dad could get home from work. My dad worked hard to balance things as a single parent, but it just wasn't the same. If I never have to eat hot pockets or canned ravioli again, I won't complain. :)

When I married, one of the things I looked forward to the most was having dinner with my husband, and then involving the children when they came along. Both my husband and I were still going to BYU and working. I had an internship 2.5 hrs away on the weekends. Hubby's job was up in SLC.

When we graduated and moved away for hub's new job, I thought, "Finally!" I was so excited to have a sit-down meal each evening with my husband and growing family. What a fool I was. The first year, we tried so hard to make it work, but that meant not sitting down to eat until 8:30-9:00 at night. If we didn't have any children yet, eating that late wouldn't have been a problem. "Someday my husband's work schedule will ease up and he will be able to get home at an earlier hour," I thought. Family dinner may seem like a silly thing to fuss over for some, but not only was hubs not able to be home for dinner but he wasn't even able to get home until after the kids were in bed most nights. The busyness of his job has fluctuated and there have been weeks at a time when he can get home between 7-8 p.m and that has been so wonderful for me and the kids. But there have also been weeks at a time when he can't get home until midnight or later, just to turn around and go back to work at 6:00 a.m. If I thought it was difficult for me, I can't imagine the pressure he has felt. I am truly grateful that he doesn't work weekends too often and only travels a couple times a year.

Nine years and four more children later, hubs has been given the opportunity to work from home. This is a blessing I can't be grateful enough for!

To be continued...

I was sure horrible at blogging last year. One post...pathetic. I was going to scrap the blog all together, but I always enjoy reading updates from family and friends, so I guess I will try to keep with it, especially with all the upcoming changes.

Here is a little update on the kids:

Child #1 is still full of energy and is loving school. It doesn't come easy for her but she works hard. She is our little tomboy and is super competitive, and not a gracious loser. Reminds me of myself as a child. My siblings didn't like me to join in when they were playing games because I would make a fuss when I lost. She is always entertaining us with new songs and dance routines she makes up and has her sibs participate in. She is a great little mama and loves to hold the baby for me and change him.

Child #2 likes to read one of our Little Golden books called, "Nurse Nancy", and has decided to take that role upon herself in our family. She has a little kit up in her room that she uses whenever someone in the family gets hurt.  When she initially set it up, she told me, "I hope someone gets hurt soon, so I can give them a band-aid." :)  She enjoys school but since she is so much of a perfectionist, homework can be a challenge at times.  She loves to go outside and wander around and eat a snack when she gets home, or play in her room alone for awhile. She definitely likes her alone time. She has a sensitive little heart and gets upset whenever someone else is feeling sad.

Child #3 is growing like a weed and learning a lot. He will definitely be ready for kindergarten next year. At least academically wise. He thinks it is fun to do math flash cards. Because he is left-handed, his writing is coming along a little more slowly. He likes to read "Dick and Jane" books to me and work on his preschool book.  He is still nervous in new situations and around new children.

Child #4 is very mischievous and undoes as fast as I can do. Trying to clean up with him around is very counterproductive.  He is the clown of the family and makes everyone laugh a lot! This morning everyone was wrestling on the bed with dad and dad had oldest child trapped under the pile of children. She cried out for #4 to rescue her, so he yelled, "Cannonball!" and jumped on the pile of bodies.


#5 Little one is three months old today. Can't believe it! He loves to smile and is starting to try to talk to us. At his two month check-up he was 15 lbs 3 oz. This expression below is pretty typical. He looks at the world with wide eyes! He is starting to be less fussy and can lay on his own for good stretches and look at the lights on the Christmas tree. Wait what? We still have our tree up? We'll take it down one of these days.


I was released as Primary President last Sunday. Bittersweet. I love working with the children in Primary, but it will be nice to take a step back and focus on some other things that need attention right now.

This post is getting long already, but I hinted at some changes coming our way. That will be saved for my next post. ;)