The Adventures of the Kajma Family

Congratulations! Here is a sample of what I have done in the past weeks... If you have any questions, just leave a comment or e-mail me at jenkajma@gmail.com. Thanks!

Where to start? It is 1:30am and I have been sitting here at the computer for about 1 1/2 hours staring at the screen wondering what I should write about or if I should even write at all. I have been so overwhelmed with everything lately... house work, projects, being mom, the list could go on. I have been so caught up in what everyone else is doing and doing it so much better than I think I could, so I just haven't done much of anything! Poor Eric, he has totally picked up the slack for a long time, I am so grateful to have such an awesome husband!

Being a "stay at home mom" is hard. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to have the job and don't want to be doing anything else right now. But my shoulders are definitely heavy from all the worrying you do as a mom. Am I doing a good job raising them? Do I worry too much or not enough? How much info do you give and at what age should you give it when you children are 1)being taught about sexual abuse at school 2)wanting to know just how all of them came out of my belly exactly and 3) why you can't spend all day in your panties running through the house.
How do you help a child focus on getting simple tasks done when you yourself still (after medication, resource and 20 years later) struggle with the same thing!
How are we supposed to keep up on all the laundry, dishes, toys, yard, the latest home decor, grocery shopping, car pools, school volunteering, etc. and still have time for FHE and home work, reading with kids, bike rides, play dates, etc. And still find time for ourselves? I feel like life is a big juggling act and I never learned how to juggle! I feel like a total whiner complaining about such simple little tasks that should be so easy to complete, but if it is so easy why can't I seem to get it all done?

I like to blame the keeping the house clean part on one thing... our house! It has no storage (we use our upstairs bathroom as a walk-in closet that you really can't walk into.) No hall closet, no coat closet, no linen closet, no pantry! We have seriously out grown our little home, I have sent so many boxes to the DI that I don't have much to get rid of, however our house is still over flowing with "stuff". How do you organize and compile food storage when you have no where to put it? But is it really the house that is the problem or me? Why can't I just seem to get things done?

And for all of my "projects". First of all the house that we purchased, we purchased as a "project". It was totally a fixer upper, but when we moved in Eric was going to school and it was all we could afford. So besides making hair bows for the girls, and all the other crafty things I TRY to do, our house has been a work in progress constantly for the 6 years that we have lived here. I'm not talking paint and new carpet construction, but plaster falling off the walls behind layers of wood paneling and wall paper which had required us to gut and start over in every room in the house (except for the living room and our bedroom, they are last on the list). So I never really hung anything on the walls when we moved in because I thought then that it would all be coming down in a few months anyway so we could paint, little did I realize that 6 years later some rooms still need to be painted! Over those 6 years I have lost any kind of "home decor" knowledge that I thought I had. So now when I walk into Tai Pan I am completely overwhelmed and have no idea where to even start.

BUT how can I complain when I really have so much to be thankful for? We have a job! Thank goodness that the Fire Chief refused to do layoffs and worked out other budget cuts with the Mayor. We have a roof over our heads! We have food on our table, and for the first time the start of our 2 year supply. We have cars that are both running, finally! And we have 3 wonderful kids that bring a smile to our face constantly (or at least 90% of the time!)

So my goals are:
1- to make a "to do" list so I have something to help keep me focused.
2- pray and read my scriptures more, so I can receive the help and guidance I need to raise good and righteous kids.
3-try to be more grateful for the house that we do have despite it's size.
and
4-slowly work on one room at a time to get stuff hanging on the wall to it feels like a family really lives here and not just a weird cat lady who can' t keep her house clean.

I have a vinyl sticky thing that is supposed to be on a wood board hanging on my wall that says: "The greatest work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home". So true, and such a nice reminder of just how important being a mom is! That is going to be one of the first projects that I tackle... now if I can just figure out where to hang it!

Here is Katelyn dancing as a snow flake at fundraiser for the Valley Dance Ensemble. She is the cute blond in the white skirt and white long sleeved shirt. The girls had not practiced, my friend Tessa is the teacher and was showing the people with the $$ some style of interpretive dance that the girls are doing as she talks them through the motions of the snow flakes. That probably doesn't make sense, so Tessa you might want to leave a comment explaining what is really going on. All I know is that I am a computer idiot who couldn't figure out how to pull this up and post it as a video until now. So hip hip hurray for me!! And thanks again Tessa for asking Katelyn to participate, she is still asking when she get to go do her ballet with Tessa again!! I guess I better sign her up!

So I have found another funny youtube video! It is an entry at a Ward Talent Show. I wish our ward had this much talent...Enjoy!

I just wanted to post a little update about my mom. She started Chemo in November, from what info she shared with us she seemed to have handled it pretty well. She started loosing her hair and decided to shave it the week of Christmas, I think that was pretty hard for her. I was with her the day that she had it shaved and Katelyn kept asking her to take of her wig so she could see that her hair was gone, my mom wasn't quit ready for that, I felt really bad. But since has gotten use to it enough to take a bald picture with my little bro Scott who chooses to shave his head.
She had her last chemo treatment about 2 weeks ago and meets with the Dr's this week to check everything out and get ready for radiation. If I remember right she will receive radiation for 6-8 weeks and hopefully be done for good. All of the treatments have seemed to go by pretty fast, my mom has been really strong with everything (or she has a great poker face!). Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and support!

We were so excited when the parks baseball diamond suddenly turned into an ice skating rink! It was the first time in about 9 years that we had the "perfect" winter to make this happen. The past couple of years the city has done the "prep" work only to have January warm-up just enough to make the foundation for the rink melt. So you can imagine all our excitment when we realized for the first time that it was ice! (It takes many weeks of city employees working through the night to compact the "base" down with trucks and then many more nights of spraying it down with water from a fire hose.) I think we pulled off the road and just stared at the big slab of ice in a state of shock and disbelief that it was really there! That started our race to find ice skates (since the city no longer rents them), we called everywhere in the valley and nobody sold them or rented them, we were totally bummed. After no luck at our local DI, Eric stopped at every DI between our home and SLC on his way home from work. He was able to find skates for me and the kids (and plenty to share with friends) but none for himself. I feel so bad, I think he was the most excited about the rink, and the only one who hasn't had a chance to skate. He has taken Riley down everyday that he is home, and boy has Riley loved it! He has gone from being a little nervous and a little wobbly to racing anyone willing around the rink. Katelyn has enjoyed doing her "ballet" on the ice... I think that she would really enjoy figure skating lessons. Hailey thought that it was fun for the first minute and was then ready to head home where it was warm, if she would have agreed to wear gloves and a hat maybe she would have lasted longer. The ice rink in the park has definatly brought a little magical winter fun for our family this year!