A Most Excellent Solution

So I put my kids in bed at 8:30 tonight. By 9:30 I had had it. I was trying to clean the kitchen so I could get ready for bed and I had to stop what I was doing every 2 minutes to tell one of them to get back in bed, and tell the other one to stop reading and turn the light off, or stop jumping on the bed or whatever else it was that they were doing to keep from going to sleep. I am in the kitchen thinking how mad I was that I couldn't get anything done because I had to keep dealing with the whole bed time thing. Then it came to me. If they were so wide awake and wanting to be out of bed, they could come and help me clean the kitchen. Well, let me just tell ya. Cleared that whole problem up right then and there. I have never seen three children get so tired so fast. They started crying that they needed to go to sleep because it was late and they are doing testing in school this week and their teachers said they needed to get a good nights sleep. Well "TOO BAD!" was my reply, "YOU ARE HELPING ME GET THIS KITCHEN CLEAN!" By the time they were finished they ran right back into bed and I haven't heard a thing from them since. Why didn't I think of that 10 years ago??? Ok, so I didn't have any kids 10 years ago but still.

Ode To Joy #5 - I Am Doing God's Work

Steve and I go to the "Marriage And Family Relations" Sunday School class. Today our lesson was about the Sacred Roles of Mothers. In the class we read a quote from Elder Jeffery R. Holland. There are some things that really stuck out in my mind. He is talking about a mother who was discouraged. Here is the quote:

“But one thing, she said, keeps her going: ‘Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that in my motherhood I am in an eternal partnership with Him. I am deeply moved that God finds His ultimate purpose and meaning in being a parent, even if some of His children make Him weep.
“ ‘It is this realization,’ she says, ‘that I try to recall on those inevitably difficult days when all of this can be a bit overwhelming. Maybe it is precisely our inability and anxiousness that urge us to reach out to Him and enhance His ability to reach back to us. Maybe He secretly hopes we will be anxious,’ she said, ‘and will plead for His help. Then, I believe, He can teach these children directly, through us, but with no resistance offered. I like that idea,’ she concludes. ‘It gives me hope. If I can be right before my Father in Heaven, perhaps His guidance to our children can be unimpeded. Maybe then it can be His work and His glory in a very literal sense’ "

Wow. That really puts a different perspective on motherhood. To look at it as a partnership with my Heavenly Father. What kind of partner am I??? Scary question. I really like that last half of the quote that says that if I can be right before my Father in Heaven and go to Him for His help in raising my children he can give unimpeded guidance to my children. Again, wow! I guess I have a lot to think about today....

Ain't It Great To Have Friends

Meg, Kierra, Maddy, Cammy & Aubrey

It is such a beautiful day today. Aubrey, Addison and I went to the park with our friends and had lunch. We had so much fun. We have been cooped up inside for too long.

Loves To Read

Zac LOVES to read. He started reading the Harry Potter books about 2 or 3 months ago and is on the last one right now. He read one of them in 2 days and they were school days at that. He is always reading. He even gets in trouble sometimes because I catch him reading in his bed at midnight on school nights.

Ode To Joy #4 - The Voice Of Heaven

A few weeks ago our Sunday School teacher passed out quotes to our class to read. I don't think it was by accident that I got the quote I did. Here it is:

"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention...The voice of Heaven is a still small voice; likewise, the voice of domestic peace is a quiet voice." -Gordon B. Hinckley

I have to admit, I have a problem with yelling at my children and it is something that I have tried to work on for a long time. I always use the excuse that my children don't listen to me unless I yell. And it is true. I could ask them very nicely and sweetly to go clean their rooms 20 times and they don't even know I am talking to them. In fact they act like they don't even know I am in the room. But when I finally get mad and yell, "GO CLEAN YOUR ROOMS NOW!!!" They jump up and go clean their rooms. Or at least they jump up and go into their rooms. So over the years the time between my asking nicely and then reverting to yelling has become progressively shorter. I feel like I am yelling all the time and that that is the only way I can be heard. But I hate yelling and I don't want to be the crazy yelling mother that all the neighbors look at with raised eyebrows. I don't want my kids to grow up and have memories of their childhood filled with their mother yelling at them all the time. So after I read this quote in Sunday School I really was determined to stop yelling. It isn't easy and I was at a loss until I talked to my friend Betsy who was going through the same struggle I was, for the very same reason. She said she started taking her child's face in her hands and very firmly, but nice and calm, says, "I want you to go clean your room now, please." And that way she knows the child is listening to her and knows that she means business and that they need to obey. I have been trying it for a couple of weeks now and it actually works! No yelling, imagine that. It doesn't work 100% of the time but it probably works about 95% of the time and that is much better than before. It is nice to not have to yell all the time to be heard and obeyed. However life is not perfect and neither am I and I got really angry with my children last night and yelled at them for the first time in a while. I felt really bad after and that is why I chose this as my ode for today. I felt I needed a little reminder. I love this quote from our prophet and I really would like for my house to be peaceful and a little bit of Heaven on earth.

Ode To Joy #3 - Leave Something Good

A while back my sister Farrah put some quotes on her blog. I love them all but there is one that really stuck out in my mind and that I printed out and read often. Here it is:

"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...let it be something good." -Author Unknown

We only have one life and that life is made up of days and those days are made up of hours which are made up of minutes. I love every part of this quote because it says so many things. We are given each new day to do whatever we want with it. We don't know how many days our lives will be made up of, and each day that we live is another day of our life gone by and we can never get it back. And it is true that we leave something behind each and every day. It is our choice what we leave behind. I would hate to look back on my life and see waste or hate or sadness or ingratitude behind me. I want to leave something good behind in the place of each and every day of my life so that when I look back, I can look back with no regrets, no sadness, nothing wanting. I want to look back and see joy and love and fulfillment and a life lived to its fullest. So go out to day and make it something great. You hold that choice in your hands.

It's A Complete Mockery Of The Institution Of Marriage (but it's funny)

I just watched the funniest show. It is called "The Real Wedding Crashers" and I loved it. It has a group of people crashing a wedding. The Bride and Groom are in on the whole thing. They do crazy stuff. They even set up the friends of the bride and groom before the wedding. In the one that was on last night, the grooms friend goes to take the brides dress to be pressed. When he isn't looking they hang the dress out of the car door so it drags on the ground the whole time they are driving to the cleaners. The minister answers his cell phone in the middle of the ceremony, the groom almost gets arrested the night before the wedding, they trip and drop the cake in front of everyone at the reception, the waiter is eating food off the trays he is carrying. Anyway it was so funny. I am not a laugh out loud kind of person when I watch TV, especially when I'm watching it by myself. But I was laughing out loud the whole time I was watching this.

Ode To Joy #2 - The Power of the Post It

So much for my posting an Ode every day. I had a busy weekend. Oh well. I'm back. I was listening on BYU TV to a fireside by John Bytheway. He was talking about how to be better parents. One of the things he talked about was how we need to praise our children more when they do something good. It is easy for us to say something to them when they are doing something wrong but they need to hear more than that from us. A lot of times we forget to compliment them on things or say, "Thank you for clearing off the table", or "thank you for obeying me the first time". Things like that. He read a story about a mom who left post it notes every day for her daughter that said something nice on them or that thanked her for something she had done. I have been feeling like a lousy horrible mother so I thought that was a great idea. It was something I could get in the habit of doing and it would help me remember to point out all the good things they do each day and help them feel better about themselves. So a few weeks ago I started writing them each a little note on a Post It and sticking it up in their room where they can see it. They love getting them and on the few days I forgot to leave them one, they came to me and said, "where is my note from you?" I went to the store the other day and they really have some cute Post It notes now. I got some that are in the shape of stars and hearts. I am glad I started doing this because it helps me to have to pay more attention and look for the good things that my kids do that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Ode To Joy #1 - i thank you God for most this amazing

I have been having a little bit of a struggle lately dealing with the monotony of day to day life. Since voicing my struggle a while back it seems like everywhere I go or everything I hear is about having joy in your life. I don't believe in coincidences and feel that these things were put on my path of life for a reason. I have learned some amazing things in the past few weeks and I thought I would share them with you. Maybe they can help you with the things you are dealing with in your life. I am going to call it my Ode To Joy series and I will share one thing each day that I have learned that has helped me to find joy in my life. I am calling it Ode To Joy because Beethoven's 9th symphony has always been one of my favorite pieces of music, and the 4th movement entitled "Ode To Joy" has always been my favorite part of that symphony. So for my first Ode To Joy I would like to share a poem that my sister Kristy shared on her blog a while back. Since she shared it I have not been able to get it out of my mind. I think it is a beautiful poem and I decided to memorize it. I have and I find myself repeating it several times a day. It is the first thing I say to myself when I wake up in the morning before I get out of bed. I am so not a morning person and there is something about this poem that wakes me up and excites me about the day that lies ahead. Whenever I start feeling blah about my day I repeat it to myself and somehow it helps me feel better. It makes me realize that each day is AMAZING in it's own way and a is gift to us from our Creator. A gift that needs to be lived and loved and appreciated to it's fullest. The poem is by E E Cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings;and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

A Conspiracy Against Mothers

I am of the strong opinion that toy manufacturers have entered into a conspiracy against mothers everywhere. I spent the majority of the day yesterday cleaning Emily and Aubrey's room. If you have seen their room recently you will understand why it took all day. So about the conspiracy theory, how else do you explain the fact that every little girl toy out there comes with 5,000 little teeny tiny parts? It makes me CRAZY! I remember several months ago when I was going through toys and getting rid of a lot of stuff, I got rid of about 20-30 little tiny hairbrushes. Every toy comes with a hairbrush. It is ridiculous. Especially when any hair that you would brush on a toy gets messed up when it is brushed. This thrilling reading material for you I am sure. Anyway. After cleaning their room I had Steve come in and take their bed frames out of their room. You see they have developed this great system of cleaning called, "shove it all under the beds". I was so mad yesterday when I was cleaning it out. And I am sick and tired of them never being able to find shoes that match or clothes or homework or library books because it all get shoved under the bed. So if they think that is an option, well, I have taken that option away. And I would just like to clarify that the above picture was found on the internet, that's not all our stuff.