So Much for That Idea- And, an Update
At Christmastime, I sent out this really nice postcard to our friends and family telling them all about our blog. I had been writing so often, finding great joy and contentment in the process of recording our life and gathering things that make me happy in one place! I had BIG PLANS!!! Then, I think because I told everybody about the blog, I started to feel like it had to be something really special. Something clever and unique. It became too big and no longer just for me but for other people. Well, no more. This blog is for me. It is for my little family and if someone happens to stumble across it and find something good then, well, great!
So, for my records here is a list of happenings from the last few months during my writing sabbatical (not in chronological order – but in order of when the memory comes back to me):
Last month, Grant and I celebrated our 17th anniversary by going to The Chateaux in Deer Valley overnight. It was so romantic. Grant surprised me by bringing our “Love Book”. It is a blank book I made when I was taking bookbinding. We have been writing love letters to each other for the past 17 years. We took turns reading entries to each other. It was such a wonderful idea and so nice to hear the entries in our voices. Another romantic thing he did: Before I put on my socks in the morning, he warmed them one by one in front of the fire. I didn’t realize warm socks on a snowy morning could be such a luxury! I loved his thoughtfulness. I also loved the night before sitting in the hot tub together as the snow came down on us! It was so beautiful. And peaceful. Oh, and did I mention the food? We went to an Italian restaurant in Park City called Grappa that, while over-priced, was delicious. It was one of those places that had an explosion of new flavors. We ate marinated grapes! And I never knew that oyster mushrooms tasted like turkey!
On Easter night, William had a seizure. Then over the space of a few weeks he had six more, all at night. It was a scary time. …
Whoa Nelly!
On Monday Grant and I are hosting a farewell open house for some friends who are moving to the East Coast. We had this conversation:
Me: So, I think I’m just going to make a few simple things for the party like brownies and cookies, you know, out of a box, instead of asking people to bring potluck snacks to share. It’ll be really low key and easy. What do you think?
Grant: I think that sounds like a GREAT idea!
So, after a bit of time on Pinterest, here is the quick and easy menu I came up with for the party:
Samoa sheet cake
Chocolate chip cookies
Key lime bars
Spinach bites
Mexican pinwheels
Samosa bites (This idea is my sister, Al’s fault. Since she mentioned that she made some last weekend, I haven’t been able to get them out of my head!)
Carrot cake muffins
Grant’s homemade popcorn
Rice pudding with some toppings
You know, simple, easy, low key. Time to reign myself in a little…
So Long, Farewell…
This weekend we said goodbye to our goats, Chester, Friendy and Caramel. After five years it was time to allow them to move on to greener pastures. They have gone to live at HillShrine Farm where hopefully they will enjoy a bigger place to roam, more regular feeding than distracted teenagers can give them, and a lot more attention as it is open to the public as a petting farm on Saturdays. Grant is the saddest to see them go as we will now have to figure out what to do with all of our weeds and lawn clippings. I am excited to plant pumpkins in their pen which is probably the most fertile spot on the planet. Or maybe the droppings are too fresh and the plants will just burn up? Either way, it will be a fun experiment. And it will be nice not to nag kids to feed/water anymore. At any rate, it was a good five years. Wait…I’m not being completely honest here. Truthfully, I couldn’t stand them. They were annoying, stubborn, crafty, menaces to the neighborhood. They ate everything in site, chewed through fences, escaped at every possible opportunity, ate Anna’s hair and dresses every time she came near them and they were even miserable failures as fainting goats! They hardly ever fainted!!!
Needless to say, I shed no tears at their parting.
Notice Anna is standing where neither hair, nor dress could be devoured by the devils
The Book That Ruined My Life
DO NOT! I repeat, DO NOT read the book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”, by Marie Kondo. It is life changing, but not in a good way. The book was inspiring and had so many great points and tips in it (along with a few weird things), that I decided to dive right in and de-clutter. Yes, I have gotten rid of car load after car load of junk. Yes, I feel so good when I look at the uncluttered spaces in my house. But NO, I do not like that I am still in a state of upset as I move from one project to another. For example, in the process of going through the kids toys and clothes we decided to move rooms. We put William and Anna in the same room (since neither of them like to sleep alone) with just their books and clothes in there (thanks Whitney for that tip) and then made one of the bedrooms their play room. In the new play room there is a huge closet that I thought would make a perfect room for all of Anna’s princess and girl stuff. However the closet/room had some drywall work to do and so I have been mudding and taping and sanding, and now I have to prime and paint. What was supposed to be a smallish job turned into a huge one! And all the things that go in that closet/room are still sitting out in the toy room. Furthermore, it is the time of year when I update our food storage and put our emergency preparedness in order since there are great sales right now (camping and food storage items) so I have project upon project piling up to suffocate me! All of our food stores that were once in our garage are now being moved into the vacated storage room that used to house all of the kids little used toys. Saddest of all, I was excited for the long winter months that I could use to populate my recipe index on my blog like I did last year. Instead I have been slaving away, tidying my house. I long for days when I don’t have big, huge projects hanging over my head! So for now I say, I wish I had never read the darn book. Evidently, I’m not alone. A friend of mine in my book club sent me this review she read about the book:
I know this book is quickly making waves among most literary groups, or anyone who owns more than one possession, which is the majority of North America. So I thought this group would appreciate this comprehensive review on Goodreads of the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up. I have this book on my to-read list for January, but she has made me rethink my plans. I now need to meet this woman, I think we were meant to be good friends, even if I do find joy in a good vegetable peeler.
“There is no rating low enough to compensate for the way this book has ruined my life. Whatever you do, don’t read it as it will haunt you. This is a long review but it behooves you to stick with it.
To begin, you have to touch each and every possession and ask yourself if it brings you joy. If it doesn’t, it needs to be discarded. Do you know how hard it is to summon joy for beige underwear or Neosporin? Yet summon you must. I like my carrot peeler but is joy too strong a word?
It gets tougher. Not only must you “apply hands” to every piece of clothing while checking for your joy response, you must fold your clothes in very specific ways in order to find each piece’s “sweet spot”. I never knew that “Every piece of clothing has it’s own ‘sweet spot’ where it feels just right”. This will lead to an historical moment when “your mind and the piece of clothing connect.” Don’t forget to thank your clothes for protecting your body. Thank your accessories for making you beautiful. “Express your appreciation to every item that supported you during the day.”
Never, never “ball up your socks” as they can’t get their much deserved rest that way. They need to breathe a sigh of relief. You must visit your off season clothes to “let them know you care and look forward to wearing them when they’re next in season. This kind of communication helps your clothes stay vibrant and keeps your relationship with them alive longer.”
Everything must be stored standing up rather than laid flat. “Stacking weakens and exhausts the things that bear the weight of the pile. Just imagine how you would feel if you were forced to carry a heavy load for hours?”
You must empty your hand bag every day.”Being packed all the time, even when not in use, must feel something like going to bed with a full stomach.” When you get a new phone, it is kind to text your old one with a message of thanks for its service.
Every single thing must be in its assigned place before you go to bed.” Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have no fixed address?” It is equally important for our possessions to have “that assurance that there is a place for them to return to.”
If we greet our house properly it will ” be happy to tell me what the family no longer needs and where to put the things remaining so that the family can be comfortable and happy in this space.” Not sure if you do this before or after applying hands and checking your joy response. It did come near the end of the book, if that helps.
So what do the things that get discarded for not sparking joy feel? “I think they simply want to leave. Lying forgotten in the closet, they know better than anyone else that they are not bringing you joy.”
The people who tidy as this book recommend experience a change in their appearance. “Their figures are more streamlined, their skin is more radiant, and their eyes shine brighter.”
Unfortunately, my eyes are crossed, I’ve gained 10 pounds, and I feel hives ready to pop. I had no idea when I picked up this pretty little book that it was going to necessitate my search for a live-in psychiatrist. I had NO freaking idea that I was squashing the self-esteem of my possessions. I can NOT find those folding sweet spots and everything in my drawers is in a mosh pit. My hand bag looks sad every time I walk by its nightly fullness. My socks are falling down. I’m not sure why. I hate the word joy now. I’m sleep deprived. My possessions call out to me for help but I don’t know if they want me to summon joy or if they want to leave. The other day my husband heard me thanking my underwear for staying up all day. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be married.” – Diane
I’m laughing and crying re-reading this review. Maybe in a few months I will be grateful. We’ll see…
A Few Kid Quotes
I offered Anna a piece of baguette. She declined saying matter-of-factly, “That kind of bread makes me tired of chewing it and it roughs up my mouth.”
We just began reading Isaiah in our morning scripture study. We gave the children a little heads-up that Isaiah can be a hard to understand at times. William (with full confidence in my abilities) suggested that we read each verse and then I “translate” the verse for him. I only wish I understood Isaiah so well.
This morning William had a voracious appetite. After having huge amounts cereal and kefir, and asking for some tacos I offered him a chicken sandwich (he loves non-breakfast food for breakfast). He held it in his hands and said, “I don’t know if I should eat this. My tummy is saying ‘no’ but my mouth is saying yes!” How many times do I eat more than I should because the food tastes so good while my tummy is saying, “NO!”?
Perspicuous
I pride myself in being quite the logophile. I read too much. We have many, many discussions, debates and even bets about words and their meanings. The other day Lizzie casually used the word “perspicuous” and I was prideful enough to accuse her of making it up. My thirteen-year-old daughter actually stumped me with a word! And not only did she accurately use it, but accurately defined it, too! Lizzie is not only smart but humble too; she didn’t gloat, not for a minute.
Before They’re Gone
Recently I was reading about a book called, “Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks”. This is what I thought the book was about: I thought it was about a family who took a year off seeing a bunch of national parks before their children grew up and left home. I thought it was a wonderful idea and wished we could cherish our time together in such a way before Sam leaves in just 3 1/2 short years. Ironically, the “They’re” they’re talking about is not their children, but the national parks.
Speaking of lost childhood…
A few days ago I picked up Anna from a playgroup with four other kindergarten girls and asked her how her time was. She said it was great! Then I asked her what she talked about. Her reply, “ISIS”.
A Good Week
Well, it was a kind of good week- it definitely had its ups and downs. On Sunday, I got a massive cold that really put me under for a few days. On Wednesday I was feeling so lousy that I took my bigger kids to school then put a movie on for Anna and fell asleep. Then I woke up in time to get her ready for her afternoon kindergarten at 11:30. I took her to school then came back and slept some more. My kids got home and I got them where they needed to go and then fell asleep again for another hour or so. I knew that if I could just get some good sleep I could kick this thing. However, this was the week of Lizzie’s Irish dance performances and she needed to be in Orem (25 minutes away) every night from 5-9:30 or 10. Monday and Tuesday were the run-through and dress rehearsal and Wednesday through Saturday nights were the performances. We got home late every evening but it was thrilling to see her dance and she had such a fun time. I seriously think that Lizzie would be happy to dance for four or five hours every night. Now she just has to catch up on all the homework and practicing she missed this week!
The Shelley Irish Dance Company and a few other girls who were in the show
Also this week was the surprise birthday party that Lizzie threw for Anna on Friday. Lizzie is so creative! She started planning the party over Christmas break and ended up doing a spa theme. She enlisted the help of her three school friends and while Anna was playing at her friend, Mary Beth’s house Lizzie and her friends decorated and prepared for the party. Anna showed up after her friends got there and they all popped out and yelled, “SURPRISE!!!” Anna just stared. And then looked questioningly at me. Then a minute later she got it! It was so fun to see the big girls giving the little girls facials, foot baths (with rose petals in the water), hand scrubs, manicures and pedicures. Lizzie thought of everything and her sweet friends really got into it too! The little girls loved the pampering. I loved watching and helping. I didn’t love that every towel in the house was used and now, two days later I am just finishing the laundry! I think having four creative, energetic teenagers help with the party planning and executing is totally the way to go. Here are pictures from that day (My favorite is the last one with the girls and the cucumbers on their eyes):
…
Machismo
One warm Christmas Eve in New Mexico a certain 28-year-old man invited a certain 14-year-old boy to punch him in the arm as hard as he could. Boy, attempting to impress his uncle, the aforementioned man, punched him hard, causing slight pain to the man and extreme pain to the boy. The next morning, that boy showed his swollen, painful hand to a not-very-sympathetic mother, who dismissed it as a “jammed finger”. Ten days later, the neglectful mother brings the injured boy into the doctor only to find out that what she hoped was a jammed finger was really a broken hand and that through her neglect the small piece of bone that broke has now moved. After talk of pins and surgery the doctor referred the mother and son to a specialist. The mother, getting her just deserts, had to worry, and panic all day until the afternoon appointment where the specialist reassured both boy and mother, and simply put a cast on the poor boy’s hand. No surgery, no pins, no guilt trip. Both mother and son appreciated the cool name of the fracture, known as a Boxer’s Fracture or Brawler’s Break. Apparently it’s original name was the boxer’s break, but since most boxers know how to punch without breaking their hands, it was given a more appropriate name, “Brawler’s Break” for those dummies that get in street fights and can’t punch without hurting themselves. In two weeks lucky boy gets his cast off. In four, he can resume normal usage. Until then he is grateful that he is excused from practicing his viola and having to use good penmanship in school (it’s his right hand).
Sam, the hero of the story, said after his morning appointment, “It has such a cool name. Boxer’s Break? It sounds like a pair of underwear!” And lastly, said the boy who, for ten days lived with and even played basketball with a broken hand, “Now that I know it’s broken it hurts more!” Go figure…
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