Living Full on Life

The Boys Speak

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Sam and I were discussing what he wanted for Christmas and why he was so excited he said:
“Last year I didn’t really want anything for Christmas and that’s because I didn’t know neodymium magnets existed, or powerful lasers or the periodic table!”
Sam’s Christmas list is as follows:
Neodymium magnets (he would like the ones with a 300 lb pulling power but knows he wont get it)
A science tie for church
A huge periodic table poster for his room
A powerful laser that can burn through things. (Something I’ll let him buy when he is a grownup)
This week William was in the bathroom and was calling to me urgently. I was in the middle of washing all of our garden onions, carrots and beets for winter storage but came into the bathroom since he apparently really needed my help. He asked me the following question:
“If you could extroy (destroy) one thing in the world what would it be?” And without waiting for an answer he excitedly exclaimed, “I would extroy badness!”

A New Dedication

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We got a bingo game. Sam used it for a different purpose. He started turning the cage that had the wooden balls in it with numbers from 1-75 and said, “If I get a number higher than 41, I will dedicate the rest of my life to God!” He got 28. He said, “That one didn’t count.” So he turned it again and again until he got a number above 41. I have a feeling that he was only looking for an excuse to do something he committed long ago to do. Once he got his magic number I said, “Well Sam, what does that mean for you now?” Interestingly he said, “I guess that means no more teasing!” Funny that that should be the biggest temptation for him right now. He may not stop teasing even with his new resolve, but at least I know leading a life of dedication is something he is thinking about.

Autonomy

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autonomy |ôˈtänəmē|
• freedom from external control or influence; independence
For a few weeks I have been working on refinishing our kitchen table. It is the table that my parents passed on to us and is nearly 20 years old. It is big, and expandable, and solidly built. Sadly the finish on the table was wearing thin and so it was time to take action. I stripped, sanded, stained, glazed and applied three coats of oil based finish. By this time it had gotten too cold to work outside and so last Saturday we brought it into the kitchen. By Wednesday the final coat was drying. (I let each coat dry for 24 hours.) I warned and pleaded and reminded William and Anna to not put things on it, touch it, brush past it or even breath too much by it.  Sweet Anna is a wonderfully strong-willed child. While I was on the phone with an old college chum, she took a sanding block and copied what she had seen me do for days and days and SANDED a 2×1 foot section. Fortunately for her I was on the phone so I could only sweetly say, “Anna, I said no touching! Why did you do that?” To which she replied, “I didn’t, William did!” (Nothing like a friend on the phone to calm a seething temper.) I fixed it and put another coat on which makes the table that much more durable (I think there is a spiritual significance to be found here) and the table is done! (left: old, right: new)

Another example of Anna’s autonomy does not require any explanation except that she loves to do everything for herself now. This is from today’s lunch:

Do I feel grateful for Anna’s growing sense of independence? One good thing that has come from it is that she decided it was time to be potty trained and has stuck to it this whole week! I guess I would rather have a child who is developing into her own rich personality than all the smooth tables, and full bottles of ketchup in the world!

From Grant

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 I was looking for something in my e-mail archive and found this long forgotten e-mail from Grant who had written down the following conversation with five year old Sam…

October 9, 2006 (Monday Evening)

I began playing a song on the piano, improvising like I often do, and Sam walked into the room.  When Sam entered, I began adding words to the song that I thought he might like:  
“I remember when Sammy was born, a beautiful boy.  I remember rocking him to sleep, and singing to him, and reading to him.   I remember walking him in the stroller.  I remember teaching him the commandments, and learning about Jesus with Sammy my boy…” (words to this effect; the music was a simple progression of chords repeated a few times).  
To my surprise, Sam began to cry.  He walked over and sat next to me on the piano bench.   Embarrassed that he was crying, he buried his face in my shoulder and put his arms around my neck and kept crying.  I kept playing.  I thought maybe he was feeling guilty for something, or that maybe he didn’t want to go to bed.   Then I stopped playing and asked him about it.  I was stunned by his response:  “It’s just that… I feeled the spirit so much.”   He further explained that it made him “warm” and “that’s why I’m crying.” 
But he was just getting started. 
For the next hour-and-a-half, he spoke to me of the Gospel:  Jesus, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, Moses, sins, repentance, obedience, testimony… he even took out a piece of paper and began writing his testimony: “i love Gesus i fel the sperit”   … all this with no prompting from me other than an occasional “really?” “that’s amazing” etc.  Then he got on his knees and said a prayer.   I sat entranced.  I hoped that Candice might overhear and come in, but I didn’t dare move and I couldn’t call out to her for fear that I would interrupt this astounding vision.   I could not help but think what it must have been like to have been one of the elderly and learned who sat in the temple every bit as stunned by words that seemed unearthly coming from the lips of a child.
I kept wishing that I had a video camera, a tape recorder… a piece of paper, a pencil… something… anything to record this – but I didn’t want to interrupt the spirit that had overcome him.   So I sat motionless in his room.  He had led me from the piano to his room so that “nobody else could hear.”   Finally, after about 45 minutes of his ceaseless testimony… he began leaving the room for brief periods of time to report to Mom what he was feeling.  At one point I followed him, and Candice (also very surprised by the depth and passion of the discourse) recommended that I please record some of this.  
So I came into my room, sat on the bed, opened the laptop computer, and began to record what I remembered.  Within minutes, Sam came in, sat on the bed next to us, and proceeded to repeat some of what he had said earlier.  He needed no prompting.  He was in the same interminable talking mode that we captured on video when he was a toddler preaching a spirited sermon of jibber-jabber.  Just as then, he had something of urgent importance to say and it mattered very little who was listening at that point.  
He talked – I typed:          
“When Dad sang that song, you know, he kind of… see I’ll tell you how I feeled.  I thinked back when I was little.  And when I thinked back when I was little, I really felt where I was, who I was.   You see, sometimes I know that there are sins coming.  Let’s say that this is the forceshield and little sins come into this hole, and pretty soon the sins destroy the forceshield.    Sins are like little people – they lock your repenting and goodness… and when the goodness goes away, the forceshield comes undone, and all these sins can get into your body.”  

…

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Thoughts from William and Anna

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While we were in the car Anna said:
I want to go in an airplane to see Jesus.
William (knowingly) : Jesus is too far away for an airplane Anna, you need a rocket ship to go see Jesus.
Later Anna showed me a little cut on her side and said, “Look at my owie! A shark scratched me when I went in the water!”

My little Rebel

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When our children get out of bed after we have tucked them in the consequence is that they have to go to bed an hour early the next night. So last night I sent Sam to bed at 7 pm and he was not too happy about it. This morning we had the following conversation:
Me: Good morning Sam! How did you sleep last night?
Sam: I slept great! I was going to be a rebel and just stay up and read all night but I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
I laughed and prayed that that would be the most rebelliousness we would see in our home in the years to come.

Winners

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lizziefeis
Yesterday Lizzie competed in the Crossroads Feis (pronounced “fesh” or “fetch” if you are Grant) and earned her first first place trophy. She was the first dancer in the first dance of the day. It was a delight to watch her dance as usual. I am always so proud of her attitude. She isn’t overly competitive and simply loves dancing.  And, as long as she gets a couple of medals, which she usually does, she doesn’t care what place she takes.  And yes, for this picture she was in socks! She was in the process of changing from her ghillies (shoes on girl on the right) to her hard shoes (girl on the left) when she was called up to get her prize. Even shoeless, she looks the part of a winner!
Today I decided I ought to forgo my typical Sunday nap and play a game with the children. I made the mistake of starting Monopoly with them. All these wonderful memories of playing with Lex came flooding back. We would play for days (literally) and would write I.O.U’s to each other, make our own money, cheat, hide money, put thousands into the free parking jackpot…we even made our own Monopoly board with different names for the properties.  The mistake in playing this game is that I can’t just play a timed game of say, one hour…no, I need to play Monopoly to the death! Finally at 10pm my poor children were having to mortgage their properties to me in order to pay me for landing on my squares. Lizzie sold out first and to remind herself that she is a winner despite the outcome of the game she left the room and came back clutching her trophy.
It is amazing to me how grateful they are when I invest a little time playing with them! I can spend five hours in a day driving them places, and sitting through lessons and don’t get as much gratitude as if I spent 10 minutes tickling/wrestling with them or playing tag, or a board game. I’ll have to remember that next Sunday when I am just aching for that nap! Perhaps that is why I played for four hours (plus we went on a walk to the park)… now I can have four Sundays worth of naps without feeling guilty!

Predicting the Future

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Coming back from Mrs. Willey’s house this week Lizzie said, with great earnestness:”Do you know what I am really, really, really going to beg for and hope you give me when I turn 16? A really nice car, a bright red one, those kind where the top comes off. I would like a car just like grandpa’s car (Audi TT).  If you gave me one of those cars I would put in really big speakers,  so I could drive with the music really loud and a lot of bass. I would drive with the top down, my music playing really loud, something like “Dynamite” (the kids favorite song). And people could hear me coming from down the road.  I would wear nice clothes and wear my hair in a high ponytail then I would pull up next to a cute guy and all my friends and tell them to get in and I’d give them a ride!”
I was taken aback that 1) She had put that much thought into this dream of hers and 2) That she actually thought if she begged enough she might get it! I told her that if she was lucky she would get to drive Grant’s Subaru which would be nearly 20 years old by the time she is 16 and that the only sound people would hear from down the street would be the breaks squealing, the engine backfiring,  and the muffler dragging on the ground.
On this same strain of predicting the future, Sam and I had a discussion today about his future. It started with him saying, “I can’t believe that William will be 8 in just three years! Next thing we know I will be a father and then a grandfather!” I protested, “Whoa Sam! You just took me from a mother of a five year old to a great-grandmother in the space of two minutes! You are starting to make me feel old!” Then I asked him if he was excited to be a father. He said yes, but that he is nervous about it too. He is nervous that because he will be so successful in his career and will make so much money (he says millions), and so many people will seek his expertise that he will have a hard time not dedicating all his time and efforts into it and that he will not spend enough time with his children and family. I told him that if that is the case, then he will have the same challenge that his dad has with balancing all the demands on his time and talents (we don’t have the millions though). Thankfully Grant is the perfect example of balance! He also mentioned that he is nervous about working with so many atheists since he is planning on working in a scientific field. I think he is realizing that he has a lot of work to do in fortifying his testimony so he can be strong enough to counter the attacks that may come on his faith.
I love the glimpses in the lives and future of our children. I  may complain about all the hours we spend in the car, but it is giving me such precious time with my children to listen to their hopes and dreams and concerns. I love that they fight to sit in the front seat next to me because that person gets a better chance of a conversation with mom since the competition is all in the back of the car. I am a lucky, lucky mom! I also think I need to spend some time before bed just talking to each one of them individually.
Now, a few other things I want to remember from this week…
Lately we have been doing a half hour of reading together each night. Last night I read, “I Love You Forever” and made Sam cry.
Wednesday, William spent about an hour working on his grave site in our backyard and instructed me that that was where he was to be buried.
williams-grave

I love his cheerful expression over such a macabre scene!

Today Anna was looking through a bin of clothes the next size up  that I pulled out of the shed.  She found an old blue and white dress that belonged to Rebecca. She said, “This is super cute!” (I’m not kidding! Hearing the words “Super Cute” coming out of her mouth was super cute!) Then she asked if she could wear it. It was 9 am and we were on outfit number three…not unusual for her- I’m just glad she is wearing clothes now unlike a year ago. I put the dress on and then suggested that we take a picture to show Rebecca. Anna hates having her picture taken as much as she loves clothes. This is what I got…
annasad
And one last thing…
I was talking to William today about being better behaved in class as his teacher told me he was a little too chatty. William told me that he couldn’t be better behaved because Satan makes him misbehave.  I explained that he was more powerful than Satan. He excitedly stated, “Because I have the power of God inside of me!” I think he is still working out the whole good and evil concept. To add to the confusion he mentioned that the teacher told him that when children misbehave they will have to go to the BISHOP’S OFFICE! I’m pretty sure she said Principal’s office. I’m also pretty sure that for a child who’s dad is in charge at school and at church things can get a little confusing.