"Gratitude is of the very essence of worship. … When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives”. Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love”
Eirik asked me how to write "DAD" today. I looked down to see that he had grabbed the D and the A fridge magnets to use as a guide so that he could write a note to Dad.
( I wrote this a few weeks ago, but I'm just posting it now.)
This weekend was tough, and I was up many times last night with crying boys and I had let myself get too busy again, and woke up really grumpy. I knew I couldn't let today go on plummeting, so I worked really hard. I think it's one of my hardest tasks to reverse a bad mood spiral when momentum builds and I just want to roll with it. But I did it. I did the things I knew I needed to do, and it's the end of the day and I'm in a good place now. Experience is a beautiful thing.
Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise. -Maya Angelou
When I was much younger I knew a family that had a star chart in their house. I was intrigued and loved the mystery and passion it represented to me. I promised myself that I would be the kind of mom that put up star charts, and wind chimes and globes and posters with every type of whale and science experiments and all sorts of fascinating, mind opening pockets all over our house. I dreamed of trap doors, telescopes rooms full of books, a dining room table scribbled all over with notes and sketches made during vibrant dinnertime discussions. So when I found this shower curtain on Urban outfitters, I had to have it. For some reason it really fit my vision and I want my boys to grow up with this shower curtain. It makes me really happy. I knew that part of why I was feeling so down this morning was because I had let other things get in the way of the time I should be devoting to my kids. They could tell, and were in turn driving me CrAzy! So the first thing I did this morning was sit down in the toy room with my boys and play cowboys and indians and build train tracks with trolls under the bridges and rescue baby elephants who have fallen off the circus train and we all got dressed up in cowboy gear head to toe. We played for almost 2 hours after which I had to lock them in for 10 minutes while I decompressed because I actually really hate playing pretend and it was all I could do to pretend to love to prentend for 2 hours. But I did it, and my boys loved it. After "pretend time" I did the mom part I love which is teaching. We practiced writing letters on the chalkboard and Eirik drew his first shapes today. He drew an E with lots of lines going to the right and then said, "mom, it's a sideways swingset." I worked with Joren on his ABC's and then we read a book we have read lots of times but I discovered that Joren has it completely memorized. Good for him little smarty. Then I made this cute little lunch because I knew if I did it I would feel better about myself. (Not really because they would love it, but because I needed a way to be creative and here's how it came out.) They, in fact actually ate lunch and Eirik only begged for different food for half of the meal. After lunch we read more books and Eirik practiced reciting his favorite new book which he knows word for word after only reading it 12 times or so. (I certainly don't have it memorized, but he does!) It's called Bedtime at the Swamp. It's adorable with awesome illustrations. If you don't have it, you should buy it. Then they had naps and I got to paint for 2 hours. When Eirik woke up he painted with me meticulously in his coloring books at my feet for 20 minutes. I was so proud of him. He didn't get paint anywhere it shouldn't be and he actually broke out of his shell and used a color other than blue black and green for the first time in his life. Even if it was only white. He was a delightful painting buddy. When Paul got home we all had a $6 dinner at Wendy's and then went to Chucky Cheese. The boys had a blast and I felt good because I spent the day as I should, loving my boys. Sometimes I just get off track and worry about too many other things.
I just "baked" a cake for an hour with the oven off. Am I crazy or did my 3 1/2 year old turn it off for me? I know it was preheated when I put it in. I am really baffled. I just can't see Eirik turning it off. Really!? I turned off the oven when I put the cake in?? I'm so confused. Maybe it's a Halloween mystery. Does anyone else feel like this Halloween season has lasted Foreevveer? There are so many fun fall things to do; pumpkin patches, nature walks, pumpkin carving, pumpkin soup, Halloween decorations, Halloween library books, leaf collecting, Halloween candy and Halloween cakes and cookies and pumpkin crunch. I think I start in on Halloween a little too early. I felt this way last year too. I think 3 weeks of Halloween is my max next year. I'm a little relieved that tomorrow before I go to bed I can take down the bats and spider webs.
These are from the our Ward Halloween party. We have an awesome activities committee. There was a spook alley for the kids and trunk or treating, a chili cook-off with prizes, and my dear, mustached pumpkin got an honorable mention at the pumpkin carving contest. The cake ended up cooking fine and it turned out like this: A Ghost town.
it was only half gone at the end of the night because I forgot to cut it. My witches hats however, were more accessible and were gone in moments. The boys got to be Power Rangers this year! (I got their costumes at mom2 mom sales for $2 each!) They were a great team. 2 minutes before we left for the party Eirik decided he had to be Luke Skywalker in black and was trying to shed his power ranger suit at top speed. Luckily talk of Joren being left to fight all the bad guys by himself without his power ranger team helped talk him into keeping his clothes on. He does have black spider man boots, but will he wear them with the power ranger suit? No," cowboy boots are better mom!" At least I can still dress Joren to look cool. I'm enjoying the last few weeks/ months of having Joren match and dress in the clothes I like. Eirik has been wearing the craziest things lately. Today it was Joren's church sweater vest over his inside out and backward dragon fire shirt and Joren's black sweat pants with cowboy boots. It's really hard to go out in public with him sometimes. :)
I love this picture because it has Eirik's two favorite people to play with; Johnathon and Benjamin. AND, they are all actually facing the camera all at once! Wow!
Paul and I decided to dress up as the scariest thing we could think of:
H1N1!!! Ahhh! We thought we were pretty clever.
You have to see these amazing monster hats my new friend Jena made for her kids. Are those AMAZING or what??!!
We had a fun FHE night carving pumpkins. I used to have to twist Paul's arm, but by now, he knows I'll complain enough that he might as well have fun and get carving. Check out the coral reef he made. Seriously, that's great isn't it?? Joren has been saying one phrase over and over and over and over again. It goes: "Guess what Mom? I'm not a big a dinosaur crying. Huh?" We don't really know what it means, but he says it all the time. Also, he usually makes sense but once in a while he will just jabber and jabber and every phrase ends in T-Rex. It cracks us up. He's picked up a Canadian thing too. After each phrase he says, "Huh?" or "Eh"?" He says, "Scary huh?" It's so cute. So, he got a T-rex pumpkin. Eirk gave Paul very detailed instructions about how to carve his vampire. He had to have a forked tongue. "Scary huh?"
And a few more cuties to make you smile.
Eirik picked up the "Guns" somewhere and I love it. You can't teach someone to be such a ham. That's pure talent.
This blog is about the life and times of Paul, Melody and our three little tadpoles Eirik, Joren and Teig. I seem to talk mostly about them, but I try to throw in some other things of interest like my creative home endeavors, religious and political views and updates about the progression of our never ending medical school adventure. I post my artwork on my art blog (link below). Thanks for visiting!
The boys got to be Power Rangers this year! (I got their costumes at mom2 mom sales for $2 each!) They were a great team. 2 minutes before we left for the party Eirik decided he had to be Luke Skywalker in black and was trying to shed his power ranger suit at top speed. Luckily talk of Joren being left to fight all the bad guys by himself without his power ranger team helped talk him into keeping his clothes on. He does have black spider man boots, but will he wear them with the power ranger suit? No," cowboy boots are better mom!" At least I can still dress Joren to look cool. I'm enjoying the last few weeks/ months of having Joren match and dress in the clothes I like. Eirik has been wearing the craziest things lately. Today it was Joren's church sweater vest over his inside out and backward dragon fire shirt and Joren's black sweat pants with cowboy boots. It's really hard to go out in public with him sometimes. :)
I love this picture because it has Eirik's two favorite people to play with; Johnathon and Benjamin. AND, they are all actually facing the camera all at once! Wow!
Paul and I decided to dress up as the scariest thing we could think of:
Eirik picked up the "Guns" somewhere and I love it. You can't teach someone to be such a ham. That's pure talent. 
