Live Simply

Today we cleaned out the garage. A monumental job to say the least. We took everything out, planned a new layout, executed the plan and brought everything back in. It took until noon to take it all out and then until 5 to get it figured all out where it will end up. It was an exhasting job. But so needed! We could barely walk in there anymore. We had several bins full for a garage sale but decided to donate it and reap the blessings than the financial returns. However small they may be. I have way too much stuff, and I will never purchase "stuff" again, don't we all say that? Being labor day weekend, we really felt it as laborious. I am royally pooped.

I think the cycle of life must contain a purge in it somewhere. Where we simply get rid of things that no longer have a purpose. Those are easy to get rid of. Then there are those things that you must say goodbye to that you still love but no longer have space or any reason to keep it. Sigh. So you must move on. In order to make room for new things and blessings in our lives you must live simply. Not easy at first but sooner of later you totally forgot you even had them.

Sunflowers make Sunflower Seeds!?

One day Jessica and I were walking in Walmart and the alluring display of all the seed packets caught our eye. I thought it would be a fun project to plant a few things in paper cups and watch them grow through the bleak months in March. Well our little sunflower seed moved from a cup to a small pot, to a larger pot to eventually outside. Most plants don't make it past the paper cup. While both our thumbs are not green our eagerness overruled and we were elated about our healthy little plants. Eventually it got so big we both could not believe our eyes! They were HUGE! Gardening is something as new to me as it was for Jessica so I felt like a child discovering the fun along with her! When we discovered that WE had made our own sunflower seeds, we were hooked!
Now what should we try?

One year sooner.

Well I didn't think this would come this quick. But from a late night call from the principle, I received two days before school started that they have moved Logan's half day kindergarten class to full day. I felt like I went through all the stages....shocked, happy, sad, guilty, and many more. Today is my first real day home, and I can't keep smiling, but then I do feel like something is missing. Noise.
I circled the school twice and cried once, I think it will all be okay.

Life is supposed to change. Go with it. You can have a little cry and then jump into the next wave with gusto! We can't keep everything always the way it is, so it just makes you appreciate what you have when you have it even that much more.

Goodbye Caterpillar

When we go camping Jessica always seems to find a pet. We don't plan to take home any new pets, but somehow she finds one. Last month she found a butterfly that was stuck in the grill to the pick up. It turned out to still be alive but had a broken leg and was forced to walk only and couldn't fly away. Instant pet. She spent the weekend allowing this poor creature to crawl all around her as she pet it and loved it. It started to lose more body parts and after so much love eventually went to the other side. We talked of a funeral service but got a little too busy and one day mommy had to dispose of the poor creature.

Last weekend as she was swinging on the hammock with Auntie Shauna her new pet fell our of the sky. A caterpillar. This particular caterpillar was very colorful and wild looking to say the least. I was a wee bit worried it would be poisonous. So I warned her not to touch it. But, she had to love and take care of it and we put it in a cup. She then moved it's home my lovely large glass vase, (which has been home to her springtime ladybugs and beta fish) It has stayed a live with trees and grass until today she came down and said. "Mom. you made the holes too big for my caterpillar" I said, "oh?" She then said he was gone. One lost caterpillar. Maybe even a poisonous one. Oh no. So we proceeded to spend the next half hour looking carefully in every nook and cranny of her bedroom. I kept thinking we can't leave it just in case it was poisonous! I finally found it on the other side of the room climbing up her closet hanging thingy. We then slowly proceeded to the toilet where he was flushed. I said, "Say goodbye to caterpillar honey." she says softly. "good bye, caterpillar."

For some reason children are drawn to creatures of any kind. Maybe because they have found something they can really be in charge of and govern. So when they find one that isn't so nice or is poisonous they learn to still be good to it, bring it home and care for it.
(Until it gets loose of course then he needs to go...)

School days here we come...

I can't decide what kindof person I am going to be. A blogger, a scrapbooker, a digital scrapbooker, a paper and pen kind of gal. I don't know. I don't even know if I am going to be night owl or early bird yet, I know I tend to go toward the night owl, but I tend to like the idea of being an early bird. Shell is and I think it is neat to get a bunch done before 8, but then I don't like the idea of being too beat to acomplish anything the rest of the day.

So school starts in 2 days. Ya. I am READY for the kids to be occupied again with homework, school and soccer. These lazy days are nice until they get so lazy you go crazy. We are close to going crazy.

Business is crazy, 42 orders in one week. EEK. We aren't quite sure what to think. We love the moola. I infact just love the idea of bringing in a regular salary. We are moving out to the cottage October 1st which is right behind Camilla's house. We are pulling out the carpet, putting flooring down and painting walls. We also might have Melannie, Haydens mom work for us starting then too. We need it seeing all the orders!

My cramps are bad. Everyone tells me to get a hysterectomy, easier said then done. I am sick of the bleeding and pain. I have an appt tomorrow. I will go from there.

The cyst

Well I had a laparoscopy this thursday. Turned out the cyst was gone but they found endrometriosis. Oh Great. Now what. Every one I talk to says get a hysterectomy. I feel indifferent with it. I don't really want to have major surgery, but I also know I don't want it to get worse. People ask if it is at all related to my other issues, I dont' know. I am tired of it already. I hurt.

FHE Movie Night

Shauna is here visiting for a couple weeks. It is always nice having her around to chat with. Today was an errand day, bank, drop off library books, shipping, staples, walmart and the DMV. It felt good to get all the errands done cause I have been down for a couple days. My belly button still hurts though. I had some cramps today but I tried to put the aside, all during dinner they bothered me. Mind over matter right?

Today we did a quick lesson about temples, Logan conducted, we sang "I love to see the temple" and then we split up. The boys went to the new star wars clone war movie, and then the girls took all the foamies out, cuddled up with candy and popcorn and we had a girls night watching Nim's Island.

Lessons Learned
Family Home Evening doesn't always need to be a big effort, but I really try to give a big effort to really get it accomplished each week. Just having those little nuggest of spiritual lessons each week however small, grow someday to be the keys and tools they will need and use one day. And those fun silly little games and together times grow to create a strong family...
Some of our fav's: 1. paperplane flying contest off the stairs
2. zucchi boat sailing down the ditch

Go Play!

By the middle of August, the fun craft box is empty, the video games have been defeated, the pool is full of dirt, and we are all kind of tired of everything. So the kids will here me say "Go play!"in exasperation. I know soon we will hit school days and the lazy dazy days will soon be gone. So this particular day they got busy and decided they were going to dig to China. The best part was they really did think they were going to make it somewhere. They had no intentions of stopping until we said...STOP!

Grand Central Station

Our Full House

Our house is grand central station. Most kids go to peoples house to visit for an hour or two, our neighbors may not be an hour or two out of the day. Yesterday one more for lunch and 3 more for supper. Today 4 more for lunch and dinner was a quiet 5 our family. I don't mind, in fact I enjoy the hustle and bustle, the sliding down the stairs, the slam of the screen door of the kids coming in and out. The picture above is when Jessica sneezed right before the blessing of the food and I saw the spit fly across the table onto poor Hayden's plate. He MUST feel comfortable here, he still ate all his dinner.

The kids these days are busy playing pokeyman cards, which make absolute no sense to me, when they talk about the people (if they are people?) and I think they are talking a different language. In fact I think they are. Jessica is busy still playing in the mud daily and spending her time at the girls next door, so I guess it is a trade. I like being ground zero for all the friends because hopefully when they are teens it will still be that way. When I get tired of them all, I yell, "okay! time for everyone to go home!" They then vulture around the house on their bikes checking in every half hour to see if they can come back, after 3 time I usually break.

I have been particularly sore and hurting lately. I am battling with a stupid cyst, which is on off in pain. But it has been going on for about 4 months and to me that is enough to say lets get this thing out. So next Thursday I am scheduled for surgery. Sometimes I can go most the day and not feel anything and then I worry that I am doing the surgery for nothing. Then I have such bad pain I wish I could do it right away. I will just have to wait and see what happens. My back is a royal pain on top of all of this. Sigh.

Matt is gone on a Scout backpacking camping trip. He needs to backpack into camp 4 miles with his gear, and I think part of it is in the snow with cramp ons. Oh dear. We are dealing with a spring chicken anymore. I asked if he made sure he had his inhaler.

Logan had his Kindergarten placement test today. It is a twenty minute one on one test with the teacher to see where he will be placed. All day or half day. We are pulling for half day. We have been working all summer on his letters, numbers, shapes, etc. Which is good, but you can work until you are blue in the face, if they are ready, it is no use. I think he is just entering readiness. Anyway after it was all done I had a chocolate bar for him and a hug. I kept telling him how proud I was of him, I then said "are you proud of you?" he said in his cute matter of fact way. "kindof" So cute.

Business is going well, I had to peel 40 orders yesterday. I love that. Well I don't love the work of it as it hurts my back to mask. But I love how far we have come. We have lots of good things coming up to, like the wedding site myweddingfavors.com is still putting our stuff on. And then our Maui lady just inquired about 4 more designs. She can lead to our product in stores in the east. So that is exciting. Every couple of days we get inquiries for wholesalers. The prob, it is hard peeling and masking in the house, we are trying to save to get into Camilla's little house out back. We want to save about 4 months of rent before we head out there. I want to get to the point we are paying people to mask and peel and I don't have to do it anymore. In the meantime I was lying in bed trying to come up with some sort of contraption to hold my masking so I can pull it. I think it will involve a broom and some chairs.

My worm...my new friend.

Today was a mud day. Sometimes the kids connect with the mud and spend hours in the awesome feelings it brings. In our old house they spent many many hours in the mud. This is where they meet new friends in the dirt that they want to keep and find a home (jar) for. Sometimes they get let free, but not too often, poor things. It is always a big effort to clean up, but the hours of exploratory fun is worth every moment. I know daddy isn't that fond of the waterlogged grass. But as they always say, we are raising children not grass right?

Goodbye Barney, Hello Sisters...

Today was the first day with my new calling as RS 2nd counsellor. I am just tickled to be in Relief Society again. It feels a little weird just walking away from Primary, I have been music leader there for 2 years. It is weird they call you in one week and give you a new calling and boom you don't go back. I was getting a tad burned out though.

I am just very excited to be there with the other sisters and most of all be able to serve. I want to be able to help others, serve others. When I do I feel really good and love to be able to have this avenue to do it through.

I have found primary to be fun, rewarding, exhausting, frustrating and many more emotions. I am happy to now be able to come to church and feel uplifted. Not that primary didn't do that for me. But I did feel a little like Barney. Today was long, with the meetings, but I still came home feeling full and uplifted. Now, it is only day one, but still I feel really good about this. Heavenly Father really knows, I felt really like this is such a blessing.

Wall eeeeeeee

Curtis and Holly came for the weekend to visit. It has been a hoot laughing with Holly, well more "at" Holly as she is like watching a stand up comedien. We did some errands today as the boys went on a ride, and then we watched Curtis and the kids have a water gun fight. They loved that!

We went before dinner to see Wall e. Which the kids have been very anxious to see. Everytime they talk about it they say it like he does on the move, Walll eeeeeee. The best part of going to a movie with the kids is hearing them laugh. Logan's was the loudest tonight as this movie was right up his alley. He loves humor where they get hurt or fall down, or bonk their head. Which was a good part of this movie. So I spent a couple of slow down moments to just look at him with the light of the movie shining on his little face and see how it would light up when he enjoyed the funny parts. Then he would let out the cutest high little 5 year old laugh of complete delight. I love it. It is worth every expensive overpriced penny to have that moment.