January Life Lessons

Lately I have been getting spring fever with all the sunshine we have been having. I love this atypical January accept for the fact with the bad air and sick kids I haven't really been able to get out like I have wanted. Even with how much I love the sunshine seeing all the haze makes me wish it would snow again. I did get my Christmas wishes and we had nice snow for Christmas and my kids waited until now to get sick. They both got a terrible cold, but Kate faired much better. Beck had quite the croupie cough and I was worried we were going to have to take him in for breathing treatments.
Sunday Beck had some drainage coming out his ear. Great! He had a burst ear drum last year, so I was pretty confident that was the source. He has been complaining about his head hurting and his throat hurting, but not his ears. Now that I think about it, the headache was probably really an ear ache. Even though Beck is pretty articulate for his age, it is still difficult to figure out what he wants. Here is exhibit A: Previously he had been crying to go inside, but when I tried to take him inside he cried to play in the snow. Eventually he decides he wants a snack.

I took him to the Dr. today and he couldn't even see past all the gunk to know the condition of the ear drum and the other ear drum is infected as well. The kid has snot not just the usual brownish liquid coming out his ears. Why can't he just have the usual runny nose like the normal kids? He is related to me that is why. I think Beck's pediatrician thinks I am an idiot or a neglectful parent, but he just doesn't know my history (tubes, tubes again, tubes again, surgeery to remove scar tissue and rebuild my ear drum etc.) Hopefully we can get back to sleeping again now that he is on antibiotics. I am so grateful for antibiotics! I should also add to the list humidifiers, decongestants, pain relieving and fever reducing medications, good pediatricians and several close pharmacies, as well as knowing if I absolutely had to I could take him to the ER and they could help him breath if he couldn't on his own.
We did find out on the 8th that all his food allergies are still going strong and we even ended up getting an epi-pen for the nut allergies (there is yet another blessing for which to be thankful). I really hate feeling so helpless as a parent to see him be so miserable with being sick and also not being able to enjoy all the foods everyone else enjoys. I feel so bad when he says "I want that" and I have to tell him "No you are allergic and it will make you sick" and then he cries and says again "I want that". I wish so much I could instantly take away all his allergies and instantly cure his ear infections and instantly ease his breathing. I am sure that is how Heavenly Father feels when he sees his children suffering and especially when Christ went through the atonement only intensified so greatly that I truly can't even comprehend it.
I feel like my last couple of blogs have been kind of downers or a bit negative, but that isn't really how I feel. It seems like when things are difficult I see all that I have to be grateful for and how blessed I really am. Yes, I am tired and I am getting a little burnt out and stir crazy with sick kids, but that is not really that big a deal compared to what I have learned or more accurately put what I have been reminded of as a result of these experiences. It is definitely through adversity and opposition that I learn how good life really is and more about the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus christ. I don't think I would understand that as much as I do without being a parent. Wow! I am sure I have so much more to learn since I am still so new to parenting.

Frazzled

It seems like with small children every little errand, trip to the grocery store, or even just trying to sit through church becomes an overwhelming ordeal. Then add the fatigue and lack of concentration that go with pregnancy and it seems like torture. Sometimes it takes like 3-5 hours to just do the grocery shopping.

The other day I got one of those carts that looks like a car and has two seats for kids to sit and pretend to drive. I thought it would be a good idea until they both started fighting over who got which seat and then neither of them wanted to sit they decided they wanted to run around the store instead. Beck was grabbing bags of marshmellows off the shelf and trying to bite through the bag to eat them then he was walking down the isle trying to punch the bread. I hate feeling like one of those parents with the uncontrollable kids everyone dreads being around. Everytime I leave the grocery store I promise myself I am not going to bring them anymore! Luckily, when I was shopping at the Target clearance sale, I had some candy which helped keep the kids occupied and it seemed like I was surrounded by other mothers who were experiencing their turn dealing with the screaming kids.

This past week I tried to go to costco and we ate lunch first and then loaded up our cart and as we were just about finished with our shopping they made everyone evacuate the building and leave their carts. I don't know what was going on, there was a alarm that went off while we were eating, but it went off quickly and there were no emergency vehicles as we were leaving the building. What a hassle! Just to even get out the door is enough trouble and then load, unload, take a bathroom break, eat, take another bathroom break, shop, and then to just have to leave everything and start back at zero because of a fire or chemical leak. I was down to like four diapers too. Well, off to another store and as we are checking out I lean over to help Kate with her coat and as many of you know being 6 months plus pregnant any movement can cause you to pass gas which is what happened. Then Kate (who does not have a quiet voice) says "eww mom you farted" for all to hear. It was pretty embarassing.

I was embarassed again at church. We changed to a new schedule and Beck is having a difficult time. We use to have sacrament first which was much easier with kids at 9:30 than now when it is reversed and he has to go to sacrament after nursery at 11:00 when he is starting to get tired and hungry. He will start yelling "I wanna go bye bye" or "candy" or "pizza" and has yelled even more embarassing things that I don't feel I should meniton here. Hopefully it will get better as he gets use to the new schedule.

Well, if anyone has developed some fool proof methods or tricks to make all this easier I am open to any suggestions. How am I ever going to do this with three!!! I think I will have to go at 5 am or 10 pm.

Resolutions for 2009

It feels like it has been a really long time since I have made any resolutions, and I am not sure it is such a great idea to try to make and keep resolutions when I will have a newborn in just three months to disrupt everything. Hopefully I can keep things going after a few weeks of adjustment (I think it took 15 months to adjust and recover from having Beck, so I am probably delusional). I just feel kind of desperate for a change. Lately I have been feeling like I am getting dragged through life and that I am in a state of constant survival mode. I decided I need to make some changes, so that I am directing my life and that it has a sense of purpose instead of feeling like I am running a race and getting no where or treading water and barely keeping myself from drowning.

I have decided I need to be a more valiant daughter of God and no longer neglect the spiritual responsibilities I have to myself, my family and the Lord. We had a lesson in Relief Society about being more valiant and it really made me realize how many things I am not making room for in my life or not doing well enough. Elder Maxwell once said something like this, "many of us are not in a state of transgression, but a state of digression" I have decided I need to wake up about an hour or more earlier if I am going to make any difference in the what I am able to accomplish in a day. The first change is to give more attention to scripture study. I definitely don't "feast on the words of christ" like I should be and I probably can't even say that I nibble. Luckily I have to teach once a month or I might not have any form of gospel study in my life at all. That is a pretty easy change to make you basically decide to do and then you do it.

Another change I want to make is to be more positive. I feel that I have not been experiencing the joy of life because I get too caught up in the details and mundane but necessary duties of a wife and mother. I am like Martha and as the Savior said “thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” I definitely need to realign my priorities and restore some balance to my life. I want to possess more charity toward others and to find ways to relieve stress and tension, so I will be a happier more relaxed person. I want to live in the moment and not be in such a hurry to get to the next thing. I want to be flexible. I need to learn to laugh at life instead of taking it so seriously all the time. This feels overwhelming to me, but I feel it is extremely important. I almost feel like I need to completely change who I am, but I am not happy with how I am now so I feel like I have no other choice. I think I could be such a better wife and mother and enjoy life more if I wasn't always so serious about life and so task-oriented all the time.

I am pretty sure I don't have to worry about neglecting my duties or getting out of balance the other way since the worker bee is too ingrained in me. You'd think with how hard I work at trying to get things done that I would have a lot to show for it, but I feel like I have been working so hard and accomplishing nothing. My house is still always a mess, I haven't accomplished any fun scrapbooking projects, I haven't read my scriptures or exercised and yet I am tired and onery because I have been running around all day doing so many things. It doesn't make sense to me since it seems to me that everyone else is able to do those things and they seem content and happy. I am not exactly sure how to go about these changes, so if anyone of you have been able to make these types of changes or have any ideas on how to approach this please let me know. I am just praying that the Lord will tell me how and that he can perform the miracle when I do whatever it is he asks. I thought as part of this post I would show some cute video of Kate and Beck just being silly since that is what I need more of in my life.

Celebrating the New Year

My husband's sister's family was in town for the New Year and we spent a lot of time eating, playing games, and playing in the snow. I had a Dr. appt. on the 2nd and of course I gained almost 10 lbs since the beginning of December. I was doing well with the gradual and normal weight gain of pregancy until this month. I was hoping to only gain an additional 5 lbs than where I am now and that might be kind of difficult considering I have three months left. I guess I shouldn't admit that right now I am eating oreos dipped in hot chocolate:).

Okay, now back to my intended blog entry. I thought it would be fun to post some pictures and video of the fun in the snow. Kate discovered snow angels this year and with a little help from mom, she loves to make them every chance she gets.

My nephews Jared, Isaac and Luke helped my husband build a luge in our back yard and I think they enjoyed it because they weren't very excited to leave when their parents came to get them.

On Saturday we went sledding as a big group. Beck enjoyed the sledding, but didn't last very long in the cold. He has snow pants and a good coat, but that didn't help with his hands and feet which were covered with little knit gloves and his regular tennis shoes to keep warm. Kate stayed out quite a while and really enjoyed the "sliding" as she still calls it.

Beck and Byron getting ready to cruise down the hill on a tube.

Beck chillin' in the shade with Jennie

Luckily a few days after Christmas Beck decided he was ready to start walking again. He kind of hobbles a bit, but it is so nice to have him more independent and he is much happier with his increased mobility as well. I got really excited about him walking and started cheering and clapping for him and he surprised me with his reaction. Instead of beaming with pride at his accomplishment like I thought he would he threw himself on the floor and started crying. He was self-conscious because he knew he was walking funny and was embarassed when I gave him attention. I thought it was pretty funny that he could have that type of reaction at such a young age. He does the same thing if someone catches him singing and he doesn't want them to notice or pay attention.

He sure had a lot of fun wrestling with his older cousins and even learned to say all of their names.
We were glad we could spend so much time with family and celebrate the new year together. I think the only thing that would have made it better was if the Arizona cousins could have been there too. At least we got to see them at the wedding less than a month ago.

Holiday Treats

I think I could dedicate an entire blog to my favorite treats since eating is practically a passion for me. The special treats I make just once a year do add to the enjoyment of the holidays and since I haven't really mentioned them in my blog yet, I figured I should do it now. I think part of the reason they are on my mind is that we are finally running out of the Christmas treats and I am getting anxious for more and the New Year's celebration doesn't seem to be getting here fast enough.

I made these chocolate reindeer cupcakes for my husbands home teaching families. I got the idea from studio 5 (Alisa Bangerter) and it was easier than I thought. The antlers are made from almond bark melted and then drizzled into the antler shape onto wax paper from either a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the corner or a pastry bag with a medium sized tip. The cupcakes themselves are just from a cake mix, but the frosting is homemade (I am not a big fan of ready made frosting in a can). You sprinkle the tops with cocoa powder and then you decorate the face. You can use any candy you want to decorate the face. I just used butterscotch chips or chocolate chips and red spice drops. I was excited with how they turned out.

Anyway, I have two favorite sugar cookie recipes one is my Great Aunt Klea's melt aways which take me back to the Christmases of my childhood. They are my absolute favorite and it just doesn't seem like christmas to me without them. One funny side note. I have been super clumsy this pregnancy and I dropped a whole tray of these cookies in my inlaws drive way Chirstmas Eve on top of a jar of olives that had fallen out of the car and shattered.

1 lb butter (pretty good start eh)
1 1/2 C Corn starch
1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

2 C Flour

Beat together until creamy. Roll and flatten slightly and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes (I usually check them starting at about 8 minutes). They are very fragile cookies, so bigger is not better in this case. The recipe says you can use 1/2 margarine, but I have always just used butter.

Frosting:

6 oz Cream Cheese

2 tsp vanilla

2 C powdered Sugar

pinch of salt

I tend to add more powdered sugar to make a bit thicker frosting.

The next recipe I have only been making since I've been married since my husband for some odd reason doesn't love the melt aways like I do and he prefers this Sour cream sugar cookie recipe. This recipe is also fun for the kids because it is a traditional roll and cut, but with the sour cream and almond extract I think they taste a lot better than most cut out sugar cookies.

1/2 C butter (not margarine)

1 C. Sugar

Cream together butter and sugar then add sour cream and eggs.

2 eggs

1/2 C sour cream

add remaining ingredients (combine dry ingredients and add slowly) and then refridgerate for at least 2 hours.

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Roll out and cut desired shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Frost with favorite frosting with a few drops of almond extract added to it.

I have found if I follow the original recipe above I cannot roll it out because it is too soft and sticky so I end up adding at least 1-2 cups more flour. I add it very slowly because I don't want to take away from the softness of the cookies. I also end up adding 1/2 C. more sugar because I don't want the extra flour to take away from the sweetness of the cookies and make them too bland. I am still perfecting the recipe, but so far I haven't really found anythng better in a cut out sugar cookie.

The last recipe is one I love on either halloween or new years and it is my favorite carmel corn (I am a fan of the gooey caramel corn).

This recipe says just to use the popcorn in a bag from the chip isle, but I usually just use a couple of bags of whatever microwave popcorn I have on hand with the unpopped kernals removed.

popcorn

1 cube butter

2 1/4 C. brown sugar

1 C. Light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Bring butter, sugar, corn syrup and milk to a boil. Boil for 2 min. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix well.

I did try one other version that I really liked which starts with crunchy caramel corn with drizzled white and milk chocolate over the top.

Enjoy!

An early Christmas present

Today we took Beck back to the orthopedic Dr. and they removed his cast. Yay! Beck fell asleep in the car on the way there and he was so tired he slept through the X-rays and the removal of the cast. He woke up when they took the actual cast off but he slept through all the cutting. I had my hands over his ears which helped. I have heard that part can be kind of traumatic for them, so I figured the longer he slept the better. He kept saying "cast boken" and "leg boken". He doesn't seem ready to stand or walk on it yet, but it sure makes crawling a lot better. I am excited to be able to give him a regular bath without having to make such a huge ordeal out of it and that he can fit better in his PJs. It is a nice early Christmas present. I was getting tired of having to carry him constantly. Hopefully he will be more mobile by Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas

I am combining the topics for this week and last weeks Tuesday tell all. Last week's was your favorite Christmas carol and this week is how do you bring the spirit of christmas into your home. I love all the hymns of course and I really don't have a favorite among any of the hymns. Aside from the hymns I would have to say that my next favorite Christmas carol is "O Holy Night" which if I am focused on listening to can really touch my spirit and bring tears to my eyes. In the catagory of radio versions of Christmas music I would have to say my favorite is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by the Bare Naked Ladies/Sarah Mclachlan. However, I think this year this "Jingle Bells" by my son Beck is going to be my favorite. whenever he hears "Jingle Bells" or even "Jingle Bell Rock" he will start singing and dancing. He gets distracted easily though so I usually have to prompt him to keep going and it is very difficult to get on video. He is much better live than when we try to record it, but I thought I'd post the video anyway. He will sometimes sing the la la la la la la la part of "Deck the Halls". but he is not as good as he is when he sings "Jingle bells".

As far as bring the Christmas spirit into our home. This year I decided to do an advent calendar for the kids. I got the idea to make it out of a mini muffin tin from Studio 5 which worked for us because I didn't need to spend any addititonal money except for the candy. I could just use the muffin tin and decorate it with left over scrap book supplies. It has candy, but also activities to do to celebrate the Holdiay season. The kids are really enjoying it.

Each year I try to get the decorations up as soon as I can so we can enjoy them for as long as possible. I love having nativities around to teach my kids that Christmas isn't really about Santa and toys. They love pointing out all the animals and making the sounds and then pointing out baby Jesus. I also listen to as much Christmas music as possible. I am not much for cold weather and my kids are still small so as far as Christmas lights we usually just see them from the car. I do like to have snow at christmas time and of course the kids love building snowmen with daddy and going sledding.
I think the most important thing that helps me feel the Christmas spirit is the focus of our family home evenings during December.

I know my kids are small, but I really want them to understand who Jesus is and all the things he has done for us and to help them develop a sense of gratitude instead of greed at Christmas time. We are trying to find ways to minimize the focus on the the gifts and if you want some good ideas you can visit Suzanne's blog: goldilocksandthe3bears.blogspot.com. Another way to focus on being content and happy with the blessings we have instead of wanting more is to spend time doing charitable service during Christmas. I like that my kids are able to see us gathering food to give to the food bank and to hear the bells of the Salvation Army donation collectors everytime we go to the store and to discuss the answer to the question "why are they ringing a bell momma?" I like that there are so many opportunities to give in the community whether it is a clothing/coat/shoes drive, toy drive, angel trees, sub for Santa, etc. Sometimes it can be overwhelming, but I think it is how Jesus would want us to celebrate the season. I think my favorite thing is the wonder, surprise, excitement and joy that you see in the eyes of your children. They are so young and innocent that a simple candy cane and a checkers game from the dollar store is enough to make them happy on Christmas. They don't need or want a lot and they are just happy with life and being with family. I never realized how much my children would teach me and Christmas time is another time to be reminded of how much I need to be more like them.