Am I Prepared?

The recent news about the Swine Flu is causing me to ponder if I am prepared if a quarantine were to be imposed. If tomorrow the call came that we had to stay in our house for the next month or two or three would we be okay? Somewhere in Mexico they are not only in quarantine, but they also had an earthquake. Such a thing makes me realize it's not only my food that needs to be saved aside, but also emergency supplies. I've been working the past year on being more diligent in gathering food supply - the problem is we eat it and I'm not keeping up with always maintaining the supply. I started putting together our 72 hour kits last month, but only have most of the food stuff and a couple other things. One post I read today highlighted the fact that you are going to want something to do so yo won't be bored, especially for the kids - books, word puzzles, anything small and lightweight that can go in the backpack is good.
My goal for this weekend is to get supplies on hand for a flu situation: powdered and bottled juice, otter pops, diarrhea medicine, bleach, face masks, applesauce.
I don't have any of this stuff. We don't get sick much at our house and I haven't had need to keep this stuff on hand.
We were thinking about going to Disneyland at the end of May, but yesterday Jeremy said there is no way he is going. I thought he was over reacting but then I saw a map of where outbreaks have been noted and then I too decided that now is not a good time to go to California. Bummer.

Jon Schmidt video

This is a fabulous video that shows what passion meets talent looks like. This music touched my soul and I love music that touches me that deeply. Enjoy!

Hidden Talent

There are ordinary people that can do unexpected and extra-ordinary things. Click here to watch Susan Boyle, a seemingly ordinary woman share something extra ordinary.





The first thing that struck me as I watched this video was how judgmental people are. As soon as she walked on stage people were judging her, assuming that she wouldn't be capable of much. More amazing than her talent is to watch how people's perception of her change as they experience what she has to offer - their opinion of her changes and their respect for her grows and she didn't change anything - they did.

Last Weekend

We started the morning with breakfast on the back deck. It was a little cool out, but overall a beautiful morning. Jeremy made us pancakes and bacon.

The kids were excited to go to the art festival - even though they didn't know what it was. This is the 30th year of the Art Festival in St. George. Nine years ago in 2000 it was held the week end that Jeremy and I were married. That was the first time I attended the art festival. It definitely was more art worthy to go when it was just the two of us, we got to see more of the art, this time around, with four kids in tow, we got to see a different side of the festival - it's not about the art, it's about the food and the face painting and the crafts for kids.
Becca and Lydia in the stroller - this didn't last for long, soon enough we were carrying both of them and the stroller was just something extra to drag along.

"This is just what I was dreaming about"

was what he said after he got his soda and corn dog. We let the kids choose what food item they wanted most - keep in mind that we had just had lunch before we went - I thought it would be cheaper to eat at home and let them get a snack type treat - but low an behold the treat they wanted most was soda and a corndog. Of course it was really just the soda that they waned. Both Tom and Charlie only ate a couple bites of their corn dog, but they drank the whole soda. Soda is a treat for them because we don't ever have it.

Charlie decorated the glasses and hat at the kids craft table.

Aunt Susan visited for the weekend and she met us at the festival after she had lunch with her friend. The kids love when aunt Susie comes to visit - and her trips are less often then they used to be. Every one wanted to ride home with Susan in her car after the festival and Becca was very sad that the boys got to go in Susan's car and she didn't.

Life

I've had a hard time lately finding my groove. My regular routine is so out of whack. This morning we didn't have breakfast until 11 am - I think it doubled as lunch, so that was a time saver. I pulled it together by dinner time - I even made a fabulous dinner - homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade french bread, and homemade strawberry jam -yum! the soup I make is a fabulous recipe from the Lion House cookbook - it is the best soup ever. This was my first time making french bread and it was surprisingly easy and fast - 1 hour start to finish and it made two loaves - I may never have to buy french bread again.
Since I haven't been in my regular routine lately my housework is behind. Tonight I had a burst of energy and got a bunch done. I've decided that night time - with no little ones to interrupt me is a perfect time to do housework - I can get so much more done - the only thing is that is also the only time I get computer time - so maybe I'll have to trade every other night, cleaning night and then computer night, I don't know, we'll see what wins out.
Our day time routine has been thrown off by Jeremy - he works nights so he sleeps during the day. I try to keep the kids quiet, but they still are so loud. We generally go to the park in the afternoon so that he can have silence for his last few hours of sleep. Last week was beautiful and last Tuesday we spent four hours at the park. This week hasn't been as nice. Yesterday we went to Jacy's house for a couple hours where the kids played with their cousins. Today the weather was even worse - only 45 degrees, compared to 75 degrees last week - so we went to the library for a very long time. Thankfully there is story time on Wednesday afternoon - Mrs. Mann does it and she is fabulous - it's more like a mini preschool time.
Usually Becca does not participate in story time. She sits and listens for a minute, but then she wanders around and does her own thing. Today she sat and listened almost the whole time. She came over by me one or two times, but always went back and listened more. After the story there is always a cut and color activity. Becca had some other mom help her with the cut and paste activity - that other mom was so nice to help her, I was holding the baby, who was sleeping.

Lydia has had a fever last night and today and has not been feeling well. I feel so bad when little ones are sick - it's hard to be so helpless. I think the fever is due to teething - I hope anyway, because if it's not, I'm not sure what is wrong with her.
Lydia is crawling like a champ. I think she enjoys being able to get around. Being able to sit up on her own is starting to cause her some problems - at night when she wakes up she sits up and then she fusses because she can't go back to sleep sitting up, so I have to go help her get laid back down so she she can go back to sleep.

Sound of Music - fun video

This video reminds us to take a moment to do something random and fun.
It is just a really fun video and will leave you with a smile. Enjoy.

Two silver dollars

This is a very touching story of two boys who learn the beautiful lesson of giving.

My new blog

For an enrichment class we are having a parenting class that is based on searching the scriptures to find principles and patterns for us to follow and implement in our lives. Go check it out
parentingpatterns.blogspot.com
The plan of happiness diagram shown above is one I found online and I wanted to share it with others, although it's not really mine to share, but is online and available to download for personal use. It is a beautiful diagram. I made a large copy and am going to hang it on the wall and use it often for teaching my children. (Click on the link above of my new blog and you will find a link to the website to download the picture).

So glad that I blog

I've been reading through past blogs of mine - imagine that, reading my own blogs instead of other people's. I found it to be quite interesting. I didn't remember a lot of things that I posted on there. Crazy how I've forgotten stuff from just last year. That makes me very glad that I took time to post those thoughts. I think that is the point of keeping a journal - we forget things too easily and too quickly. Writing things down where we can later go back and re-read them is invaluable. I read some things about my kids that I had forgot about - things that are insightful to their personality and who they are. Things like that will be wonderful for them to be able to read later on when they are older.
Some one recently asked me what I do with my past blogs - well, nothing so far. I need to look into the sites that publish them. I really do want to have these in physical form - not just words and pictures in cyberspace. Has anyone tried putting theirs in book form? Who did you use? Was it expensive? Easy to do? At one point I was cutting and pasting everything into Word and then was going to print it out, but got sidetracked from that.

Here's a moment for me to remember. I took all four children shopping with me to Walmart, we were there for over and hour and I did not get frustrated with them at all - it was a great shopping trip. This is in complete contrast of a shopping experience I blogged about last year when I only had 3 kids. My parenting skills are really improving, and I better not brag too much or I'm likely to be humbled, but it definitely feels good to feel like the puppet master and not the puppet. What is that supposed to mean? Well, mostly that I couldn't figure out a good metaphor, so I just went with the first one that came to mind. But really, with little kids too often it feels like they are the ones pulling the strings and I just react to what they do. As I gain more skill I'm cutting those strings one by one and I'm not so affected by them - I'm able to maintain my cool and stay in control of myself and say things like, "no problem" - those are majic words. I've been reading and listening to cds from "Love and Logic" parenting helps from Jim Fay and Foster Cline. We have a Family Resource Center that has all of their cds and books and I've really appreciated the cds because it's added depth and perspective that I didn't get from just reading the books. Plus it's really reinforced the "phrases" that they use that help build skill in using their techniques. I'd read the book before, but it wasn't until I listened to some of the cd's that I realized my dad uses many of the same phrases that they use. I called him and asked him if he used this parenting program and he said no. This just reinforces to me that this program is based on principles and not just whims of the lastest and greatest. It's all about agency and helping teach and guide the children to learn to be agents unto themself. I already understand that from a gospel standpoint, it's just nice to have extra help in translating that into "how do I handle this situation" or "how am I supposed to maintain my cool when they behave like that".

So, last night, after my Tom and Charlie had been in bed awhile and I was in the kitchen doing dishes, they come wandering out. In previous times I would have ordered them back to bed and expected them to obey. I decided to try something new and offer them a choice. I said, "would you like to go to bed or would you like to do chores?" I thought they would probably choose to go back to bed, usually kids are looking for a way to get out of doing chores, but I was okay with offering chores as a choice because it would benefit me. So the fact that they both immediately said "chores" was a little surprising, but I embraced it. I set them right to work and for the next 30 minutes they were busy little bees helping and asking what they could do next. It was wonderful, except the part where they were arguing over who could help load the dishwasher and Tom ended up in time out until he was able to control his anger better. Now I just need to figure out how to get such enthusiasm in the regular day time hours when it's chore time.

Tom ready for Conference

In preparation for General Conference Tom got a general authority haircut.
Okay, so we didn't really leave his hair like that, we finished buzzing off the rest of it. Tom is our scissor boy and took out a patch front and center on his hair, the only remedy was to buzz it all. Luckily he didn't do this to his sister, I don't think she would look so good buzzed.

Charlie came home from school yesterday all excited about general conference. His attends a private LDS school and they were talking about general conference and the reading in the scriptures about King Benjamin and how the people assembled in their tents and were prepared to listen to the prophet. So Charlie is excited to set up a tent and get things gathered like crayons and snacks and all the necessary things to participate in conference. On Sunday our Primary gave each of the children a conference packet of activities and pages to color.
One page in there shows a picture of each of the Presidency and members of the Quorum of the 12 and has a line next to it where they can write the main message that speaker talked about and then a line where they can write what they are going to do the incorporate the message into their daily life. That is a page I'm going to make a copy of for myself and do that - what a simple way to be able to review conference and see not only what was talked about, but what I am going to do - the goals I set as a result of listening to conference.