Women

I'm sitting here late on a Friday afternoon.  Thankfully the sun is shining and has warmed things up enough that the children have been outside since they arrived home from school.  All I've done is read the newest National Geographic cover to cover while laying on Amelia's bed.

I am tired.  Really tired.  I could cry - not a sad cry, just a "we made it another week" cry.  I am thinking of all the mothers out there who are feeling that way, maybe at this same moment.  Of the kids out in my yard right now, all their mothers are experiencing trying times.

My neighbor across the street has been struggling to support her family as her husband frantically searched for a new job due to a lay-off.  Thankfully he just found work, but it is more than an hour drive from home and she is learning to do more than she's ever had to do before as he is gone first thing in the morning and does not arrive until much later at night.  She's tired.  I can hear it in her voice and feel it when she comes to pick up my kids every morning to drive them to school before heading off to her full-time job.

I am watching two other boys this afternoon as their exhausted mom tries to cram last minute bookeeping tasks before the end of the month.  She is doing all she can to help support her husband and their beautiful family.

Another friend just drove up minutes ago in a rush to get her daughter and get to a soccer training.  She thanked me for picking up her kids from school today as she had only had 5 hours of sleep.  She mentioned with a sigh that her husband would be working all weekend.  She's trying to help pay the mortgage by working the night shift for a cable company.

And I am now divorced.  I've got all sorts of things I am trying to figure out.  How can I stretch myself farther?  How can I make things run more efficiently?  What can we get rid of so we don't have so much to clean up all the time? (:

I'm not here to complain.  Far from it.  Mike has actually continued to be a great support.  I am just surrounded by this wonderment of women.  Who we are.  What we do.  Why we do it.  I think of the four of us neighbors.  We watch each others kids, we feed them dinner when we know their mom just needs to put her feet up, we take turns picking up kids from school, we go on a late night walk together, we drop off the occasional flower bouquet or birthday card or cheer up card, we give hugs, we don't ask "how are you?" when we know it's best to leave it alone.  We don't even notice if we walk into each others houses and it looks like a bomb just went off.  Sometimes we commiserate, lots of times we laugh. Lots of times none of these things happen, but we know that if we ask, they will come.

It's made me remember that wonderful 3 years we lived in Michigan.  I will forever hold dear to my heart the wonderful friends I made while there.  We had each others back.  No matter what.  We lived in family housing which consisted of groups of townhomes that all faced inward surrounding a courtyard.  In my courtyard we had huge trees, grassy areas, picnic tables, a sand box and a playground.  Everyone's kitchen window opened out onto that courtyard.  I could stand there washing all my dishes while my baby slept and see my 3 year old run around and play with the other kids and know that all the moms out there had their eye on him.  And then two hours later I might be the one out there watching their kids.  We swapped ideas for dinner, pushed each others kids for hours in the swings, encouraged each other when we were feeling loaded down while our husband was busy studying for finals, helped the newcomers learn English, looked to one another for help with parenting, shared our thoughts on God.

A woman has so many responsibilities.  So many.  We see everything that needs to get done, and then all those extra things that we think should be done as well.  It can be overwhelming sometimes, but we just keep going.  Just keep doing.  Just keep loving, and wiping, and washing, and teaching, and sighing, and crying, and yelling, and hugging, and encouraging, and taking deep breaths, and remembering how much it is all worth it.

I am so proud of all women.  Ours is a tough gig.  I really am so grateful to all the women who support me and, in turn, my family.  Ours is a bond of sisterhood.  May we have cheerful hearts and allow our load to be lightened.

Some Christmas Break and Andrew's Birthday Party

On Andrew's actual birthday, AKA the Day before Christmas Eve, we went dowtown to go ice skating at Central Market and found to our dismay that they were booked through 5 p.m. So we went in to Central Market and got donuts and hot cocoa. All the pics this day were taken by Jacob.

Next we went to the Capitol. Mainly to kill time since we were already downtown, but we are always sucked in by its charms and history.
Isn't it so cool that this cannon was used in the Civil War?! Jacob and I spent much of our time on the grounds in the frigid weather (it really was cold! Like in the 30's!) reading the inscriptions on all the monuments. He and I are good museum buddies.

Looking up at the rotunda. He worked for a long time to get a shot he liked.

He took about a million pictures of all the paintings in the place. Bet you can guess what this is a painting of.

And what's a day without a Lego stop motion video? This is the first picture. Andy is quite unexperienced in this art form, but is persistent.

This last shot cracked me up. Just in case you needed clarification at the end.

Here is Andrew's party. Nani made the awesome dark chocolate cake and Jacob made the topper.

Uncle Kris has a birthday in December as well, so we made it a combo party and had lots of fun. Huge mexican fiesta dinner made by yours truly and lots of great company.

Kris showing off his new duds. Watch out ladies. (:

There was dancing....

and just plain chaos.

The Anderson boys. Look at ALL.THAT.HAIR.

Awwww...sweetness. And at the time we were dogsitting the best dog on the planet. We wanted to keep her. We miss you, Sandy!!!

Somebody Turned 8 Around Here!

Enough of my last pity party post. Nothing is fixed but my attitude, and that HELPS! The rest will be taken care of this weekend. Oh and I must add, a number of friends have done kind and very helpful things for us so that helps a lot!

Now on to something marvelous!

Andrew got baptized! December 27.
It was lovely and he was so very excited.

Nani and Poppy

This is a classic picture of me procrastinating. This is about ten minutes before we get started. I am the one speaking on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I am just now beginning to pull thoughts together. My mom on the other hand is the Queen of Preparation. She is sitting on the other side of my dad. She gave a talk on baptism that was stellar. Really brought the Spirit. Full of easily digestable teachings. There were a number of people there who were not familiar with all our church's teachings so I know it was helpful for them as well, to understand why Andrew is making the choice he is.

Lenore, Cara and Josh, the Bonners, the Porters. Lenore is known for her cooking skills. Andy requested that she make doggy cookies for the refreshments and so she did. A great friend.

Poppy and his little admirer. Well - I am going to call them co-admirers. If they were not related Amelia might find a way to marry him.  Oh, and beyond Millie is Uncle Kris talking with Jacob.  Jacob thinks the world of him and I am so grateful that Jake can have Kris in his life.

Goofing around.

The wonderful Martinez family

I'm so pleased to see Andrew choose to be baptized and to be so faithful in reading the new scriptures Grandma and Grandpa got him. He LOVES to read them. (Stays up late at night knowing full well that if he is reading those it will be harder for me to get upset and insist on lights out.) Anyway - he has a testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. He shared it with us all as we did a lesson on testimonies the other night. He is a good boy. Persistent in all he deems important. I love him to pieces!

I'm Filing a Complaint.

An official complaint.  To whomever it may concern.

I give.  Uncle.

I am not a fix-it person.  Never have been.  I find it highly irritating to go through directions printed in small type and work with something I've had no experience with.  I am not a pansy - give me a really hard thing to do (physically or emotionally) and I will do it.  Tell me what to do and I will.  I don't really like figuring things out.  Using the old brain upstairs.  I know.  Not an awesome trait.

So "recently" (I use the term loosely)  I discovered the upstairs toilet running constantly, even after my father in law did the basic whatever you do to stop that sort of thing.  (I know it's been explained to me many times, but it hasn't stuck, and I couldn't do it right now if I tried.)  So anyway....it's still running and I decided that was it.  I AM GOING TO FIX SOMETHING MYSELF, darn it!  I bought the replacement kit over Thanksgiving weekend.  It's still in the Home Depot bag sitting in my garage.  The toilet is still running.

But after today I don't even want to think about it.  You wanna know what has gone down and out around here in the last seven days?

1.  My garage door broke.  Finally.  Broke as in  the gear from the motor flew out onto the garage floor and the door fell.

2.  My kitchen sink sprung a terrible leak underneath the counter.
  -In response to this (while foolishly promising myself I'd look at it this weekend) I have been scraping plates in the trash and getting water from the bathroom to soak them and then quickly tossing them all in the dishwasher.  Thank goodness I still have that.

3.  Oops.  Spoke to soon.  My dishwasher just broke.

4.  To make myself better I decided, like any normal American, to make myself a chocolate cake.  Ummm....my hand mixer broke.
(don't try to use one of these immersion blenders to save yourself.  The motor gets really hot and the result isn't awesome.)

5.  And just for the icing on the cake (pun intended) my electronic panel in my van is turning off consistently now while in the middle of driving.  Yes folks, my speedometer is included on that panel.  And the oil started leaking on Friday. 

Do I need a speeding ticket right now?  NO.  But it would seem fitting, don't ya think?


Yes, WOE IS ME.  Pull out your violins.  Waaaaaaaahh!

Luckily the chocolate cake just came out of the oven so I can go smear myself in it and get drunk on chocolate butter frosting.  How does cake sound for dinner, kids?

Soccer Girl!

Amelia is SOOOOO excited that she is old enough to start soccer just like her big brothers. Since it is winter we are doing indoor soccer. She got shin guards, a ball, and shoes for Christmas and immediately (and very seriously) informed me that "I'd better call Leah and Hailey (neighbors of ours) right now so they can help me learn drills."

This is the outfit she picked out for her second practice. Super cute. I was surprised by the tutu since she is pretty hard core on what constitutes appropriate soccer shorts. Her reasoning was "Look Mom, they have bloomers. You can wear bloomers for soccer."

At practice she is very intent. While the other kids all run around playing chase, wandering back to their parents, or repeatedly announcing that they are Scooby Doo, Amelia is trapping, kicking, and dribbling. Last night as we headed to practice she said excitedly, "I can't believe I am in indoor soccoh!" (I love the sound of her funny r's). Then very seriously she added, "I am going to be a champion."

Little Notes

I found this "attachment" to our posted schedule. It made me laugh. I'm sure it was written in a fit of vengeful anger, but I wasn't around for that part of it. Thank goodness! My poor children and all the things I make them do. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

So what's been going on around here?

Here's a bit of December catch up.

Kids making "funny videos" with their friends. And for some reason they are loading as still shots. I'll work on that. Millie was a happy spectator.

Many boxes of chocolate were sold for a school fundraiser in hopes that they would win an ipad.

Amelia decides to water the flowers and insists that even though it is 50 degrees outside, a swimsuit must be worn in the off chance that some water gets on her.

Many many hours are spent playing with the little darling that I watch everyday. She is seven months old and she and Amelia cannot get enough of each other!

SO MUCH DRESSING UP! Amelia makes sure that even little E gets in on all the action.

More dressing up.

And more pics to come!