Serenity Now

I'm not sure who ran faster this year... the kids or me. They were racing to get eggs and I was racing to get pictures of them finding the eggs. I know because my legs still hurt a couple of days later.

As usual we spent our Friday afternoon dying eggs at Brett's grandma's.



It is a wonderful tradition and this year Sheriff was old enough to participate in stuffing the plastic eggs with candy and money. I was busy helping Sunshine with dying eggs and although I feared that she would tip the egg dye all over I really should have known better. She is a bit of a clean freak and required that I do most of the dirty work. I ended up with more egg dye on my fingers at the end of the process than she did!

Here are some of Saturday's highlights:






Easter Sunday was also wonderful as our choir performed a number we have been working so hard on: How Great the Wisdom and the Love. We don't have a large choir but we work diligently on all of our pieces.

Later in the day for Family Home Evening, three of the boys narrated from The Friend an Easter program with pictures of our Savior's crucifiction and resurrection. Sometimes I wonder how much they understand but they surprise me with how much they know. I guess they really are paying attention in-between all the wiggling, shifting, sighing and eye-rolling.

For some reason our school thought it would be a great idea to have three days of no t.v. right before spring break. Because that's what we want to do to our kids right before we have them home for 5 1/2 days straight 24/7 ... get them super mad and frustrated with you as you ban them from t.v. and video games for 3 days straight, and then you reap their vengeance as they bicker and quarrel with one another during the ensuing days.

Sheriff was the most affected by the ban...


this picture doesn't do his reaction justice. Really there was more weeping, wailing, etc. only I preserve his 11-year-old dignity and not take a picture of him during his tantrum. When he calmed down he asked if we could burn the paper at the end of the three days. I try to be accommodating when I can so I agreed.

I realized in the process of turning the t.v. off for 3 days that it wasn't easy to do. I actually have a couple of favorite shows that I missed and I have a habit of having the t.v. on when I clean up. It is a comforting filler to hear voices (not the kind in your head mind) when I putter around and clean up the house. But I committed to the kids that if they went without t.v. I would do the same. And no, I didn't cheat (although I was tempted to while they were at school) :)

I found it ironic that on the paper sent home it encourage kids to "get creative". Sheriff and Wannabe "got creative" and were passing a ball back and forth across the kitchen counter on Tuesday night - the second night of no t.v. Sheriff went for the ball and fell but his hands didn't make it in front of him in time. His face hit the kitchen floor first...


He would normally have been watching t.v. during this time. Should I send the dental bill to the school?

Don't get me wrong... I love to support my school in their programs but this one caused a lot of strife in our house and a dental bill to boot. Thanks to Brett who had already swallowed part of his molar over the weekend and so had a dentist appointment already set up that Sheriff could take from him. Talk about providence - for Sheriff - not Brett. :)

The paper burning was a success. Maybe we should have those more often - like when I get letters from my insurance company that I don't like - but that's another story...

It's true. The Pearly Gates officially closed to me forever on Wednesday at 10:25 a.m. My husband and my sisters have always figured I was a shoe-in for the Celestial kingdom. They don't see me the way I see myself. I have a lot of faults. A lot! My kids KNOW I'm not perfect and in fact don't see ENOUGH of what I do for them. I am too impatient in fact I'm so impatient I don't have the patience to list all of horrible, terrible character traits that should keep me out of the celestial kingdom. I had ONE thing going for me, however. It was a something that I figured no matter what I did... if I yelled at my kids, didn't make a home cooked meal every night, didn't do my visiting teaching every month, if I could just get through life with this... I could get through those Pearly Gates and say I had done this ONE thing right. No more.

I'm 40 years old and I just got my first speeding ticket. :(


Whose fault is it? Mine of course! That section of highway goes down by 10 miles and I wasn't paying attention. I usually travel further down the road where I live and it is 60 mph so I am in the habit of being on that road and traveling 60 mph. I didn't see the 50 mph until the motorcycle cop was in my rearview mirror waving me over.

Brett laughed because I have now joined the ranks of humans everywhere who get tickets on a daily basis. I didn't find it funny. He didn't understand that my very salvation is at stake here! This is the only thing I had going right here! So much for that. My perfect record is ruined and I now hate pink. -sigh-

Not long ago we had a family council to choose some fun family activities. One of the things that I found out about was actually an activity for Brett and the older boys. It was a sleepover at a local dinosaur museum. Apparently the museum does this once a month and the evening is filled with all kinds of activities for the kids.


They made fossils, filled dinosaur molds, took a tour of the museum, did a scavenger hunt and met a real live palentologist! (as opposed to a dead one) :)


They then got to chose which dinosaur they wanted to sleep under. I was surprised by the choice that my boys made and relieved that I sent Brett with them. I figured for sure they would choose a T-Rex. Oh no!!! It was the megaladon:


I'm most afraid of spiders, sharks and puking (in no particular order).

In the morning they did some more fun activities, watched a movie on the mammoth screen (Brett took in some zzzzz's) and had some waffles for breakfast.

All in all they had a great time and can't wait to go back again.

Last weekend was Conference weekend and one of my nieces came down from Vancouver to visit and attend a couple of sessions of Conference. My sister has joked many times that her daughter should have been mine because we are similar in so many ways. Sierra even admits that she is more like a mother to her own mother. Boy can I relate to that. I was always telling on her mother when we were growing up. Sierra also has a very positive way of looking at people...she sees the best in them. I remember having that. Let me give you an example. As I drove her downtown we saw a man running with a flag:


She thought, "that's really cool. He must be on a military exercise."

I thought,"that's odd. What's that guy doing running with a flag downtown? I hope he doesn't have any guns on him."

I really don't know whether he was some uber patriotic military guy making a statement or in training, a guy who lost a bet and as a result had to run the block with a flag or a poor soul who ran out of his anti-psychotic medication.

Of course I don't think anyone would mistake ME for being cool or odd. I know I USED to be odd with my retainer and bad perms and horribly out of date clothing. Perhaps that's why I now stick to the ordinary simplicity of Old Navy and Eddie Bauer t-shirts and jeans. I can just fade into the background and NOT be noticed. My lack of color coordination in my teenage years could be a thing of the past. Theoretically. I was involved in school plays - not cool. I was in the library club - definitely odd... in fact REALLY ODD. I preferred reading to watching t.v. and playing video games - odd. One of my friends doesn't believe me that I wasn't cool in high school. Of course she is like my niece Sierra in her view of people and doesn't want to believe the worst of me.

Thanks to the DMV this week I can be reminded for the next few years what it is like to have a permanent reminder of a really bad hair day like my bad hair years as a teenager. For some reason the guy after me rated a re-take of his picture but I didn't. He must have been hot (I don't know I wasn't looking) whereas a mother of 5 kids has lost her fire. All I heard was the guy say to the man after me, "let's do that one again... this time put your chin down a little." Really? He gets a retake? I got my picture back and my jaw dropped. Even though I had fixed my hair in the morning I forgot about the 100 mile an hour winds on the way in (yes I exaggerate - but it was really windy). He couldn't politely ask me if I want to freshen up my hair? Okay maybe not...maybe he's been punched too many times for well-meaning comments to ladies whose hair was SUPPOSED to have the "wind-blown" look. -sigh-

I won't ever be cool. I have accepted this. I think I am just doing my best to no longer be odd. I hope my plan is working.

Every year for Conference Sunday I have different "stations" for the kids to help them handle the two hours of Conference. It isn't easy for kids to sit and listen to an hour and 10 minutes of a sacrament service let alone tack on another 50 minutes of Conference. I have a coloring station:

a bingo station, and a reading station:


Yesterday Sheriff asked if we could add a sleeping station. (He probably got the idea from watching his dad have a sleeping station over the years during Conference). I didn't think he would actually sleep so I said why not. He brought a pillow and blanket and made himself comfy on the couch.


Sure enough he didn't sleep (he's just pretending) and he picked up a Friend magazine and read from it.

I couldn't find my Conference bingo cards this year and was running around the house trying to find them. Brett told me to stop looking because he would make me some. I think I should have kept looking....


Brett has a very different sense of humor. There were spaces like whining, Smiley crying, Sunshine screaming, and tattling. Of course Brett knows the kids well because these spaces did not remain empty. They were filled more than once.

This weekend we also had my niece Sierra visit from Canada. I wish she could have stayed longer but I'm glad that we were able to have her stay for a couple of days. The kids just loved having her here. Hopefully she comes back despite my mad crazy home!

At 10:00pm last night I realized that I had not prepared an April Fool's prank for my boys. How could this be??? I always prank my boys! Never fear! Family Fun rescues me every year with great ideas to prank my kids come April Fool's morning - so great that I have successfully made Smiley cry every year with each prank I have pulled. I know... aren't pranks supposed to make one laugh? You don't know Smiley. I might have to consider renaming him... hmmmm. This is Smiley on his birthday...

He hadn't quite recovered in time for his candle blowing...

I could take a million of these everyday and he would have a million reasons why he cries. Last year I pranked each kid with a different certificate. Smiley's certificate was for a non-Earth birth (meaning he was an alien). True to form, when everyone laughed at it he cried. I think it has something to do with being 5. No five-year-old likes being laughed at. Scratch that... most people don't like being laughed at.

This year I went with Family Fun's idea of a package of "Doughnut Seeds". On the front is a plant with doughnuts growing on it. The instructions tell you to put the seeds in a bowl of milk. You open up the package and inside are.... Cheerios. Get it??? Smiley didn't. "It's just Cheerios mom". "I know Smiley, doughnuts don't grow on plants." "But it's just Cheerios mom." "I know," I said again, "doughnuts don't really grow on plants... it's April Fool's day."

But at least he didn't cry this year. I couldn't believe it. In fact I was a little let down. I didn't make my kid cry this year. I'm going to have to pick a better prank next year. :)

I know, I know, you are wondering... where did weeks 11 and 12 go???? I'm wondering the exact same thing!!!! Life does that though doesn't it. You blink and it's gone never to be retrieved. You know you lived it because it was a chaotic blur of cubscouts, scouts, moms and muffins (don't even get me started on that because the dads get doughnuts), two birthday parties planned and executed, multiple doctors appointments, multiple temper tantrums experienced and diffused (not me of course although I felt like it on more than one occasion), a broken dryer (still not fixed) and multiple nights of Sunshine waking in the night crying. Thanks Sunshine... I love you anyways!

So hopefully I'm back on track with week 13 and the topic of Green. With Sunshine and her powerful 2 year-old personality... you know the stage... "mine"!!!! And my seven-year-old who is still in the same stage. They have to have their separate boxes of crayons. I didn't let them see me combining their greens momentarily or all you know what would have broken loose...


My kids need to lighten up a little. Wait... did I just say that? hahaha!!!