Good Morning, Thursday!

Good morning, Thursday. Let's get along today, shall we?

Violet was just trying to plug a cord into her ear. "Hey, Vi. When you're done charging, pass that over my way, will ya?" My brain is thinking that I'm tired today. I might have to disconnect it.

A couple months ago, we were over at Nels's parents house for the weekend. We'd gotten there LATE the night before and it was EARLY the next morning. Mel (Nels's dad) was sitting at the table reading the morning paper. He looked up and said, "I bet you're tired." I said, "Nope. I never get tired. As long as I don't ask myself if I'm tired, I'm not." It's true, but today I was feeling inquisitive.

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Tomorrow my little sister is getting married. To a really great guy. From Alabama. He says ya'll, ma'am, granddaddy, calls my dad "Pops" and my mom "Mama Debbie," and calls Genny "Ginny." I like him. 

Last night as I looked through pictures Nels was putting together in a slideshow for her, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with love for that little sister of mine. What a pretty little girl she was. What a beautiful woman she is today. I've never in my whole life, known anyone as kind and genuine as Genny. So sweet and loving through and through. I'm so, so happy for her to have found a man that is good, that knows how to work, that loves the Lord, loves families, and adores my baby sister.

She is going to look stunning. I'll have to post some pictures when we get back, because she is SO beautiful. No one could ever outshine the beauty that comes from a happy bride getting married to the man of her dreams. What a great day it's going to be!

Incidentally, tomorrow is also my birthday. Everyone's getting all dressed up and they're throwing me a huge party. :) It's going to be awesome.

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Violet has started calling me Mummy and calls Nels Daddy. I love being called Mummy. She no longer has any kind of binky issues. She's amazing. She's also learned to climb up the chairs onto the table and go up and down the stairs. Fun times ahead!

Elsie is obsessed with her birthday. Having four birthdays in our family in two months time -- and none of them being her's -- is just doing her in. "Mommy, is it my birthday today?!" Several times a day. Poor kid. I remember Hazel going through the same thing when she was three ----- and I actually remember telling her the same thing. "Not today. When the summer is over and our new baby is here, then it will be your birthday."

Lilie and Hazel are both getting burned out of school. Lucky they've only got another five weeks. Lilie told me yesterday that she gets bored in class (really hope she gets into Taylor's Crossing with Hazel next year) and Hazel was crying yesterday that after school there's never time to do anything fun. (I told her that maybe if she hadn't spent 2 hours watching TV, she probably could have squeezed some play time in . . . ) Anyway, I think they're getting ready for the school year to be over and I am too.

Nels has been working his brainy-o's out the past few days. He's had several video projects on his plate and then the "Never Not a Crisis" motto that Melaleuca seems to employ has reared it's ugly head as well. We'll see if we get out of here tonight before 1:00, but I'm not going to be holding my breath on that one. I'm going to be snoozing in bed with the van all packed up and ready to go, so I don't look like a zombie on my birthday.

As for me, aside from being more tired than I have with my other pregnancies (what? you think that being a little older and having four other children might have something to do with that?), I'm doing pretty good. Just busy. I'm still trying diligently to get my house caught up after months of being pukey and then traveling all over the western US. It's a s-l-o-w process. But I'm finally making some headway. Mountains of laundry, dirt, school papers, and children make it difficult to see the light sometimes, but it's coming. Sounds exciting, huh? Well, most of the time I actually really, really like the process. I like practicing and practicing until I get it right. I'm learning, sometimes slowly, and I'm okay with that.

Creation

I should be doing a great many things today -- well, tonight. And truly, we have done a lot of things today - like rototill the garden, replace a broken outside faucet, library, grocery shopping (then coming home and going back to the grocery store when I realized - while checking out - that Violet had taken my wallet out of my purse . . . lovely), cleaning rooms, sorting laundry. Lots! yesterday I even mowed and edged my lawn!


However, I really should be currently sleeping --- or at the very least, preparing my lesson for Relief Society tomorrow (since I haven't started that yet). I'm awesome, I know. And I actually feel LESS stress preparing my lesson with only a few hours to spare. :) (This was my downfall in college.)


BUT.


Instead of having my mind focused on "Tithes and Offerings" (the subject of my lesson tomorrow), my mind has spent the day lingering on the desire to create. Creation.





This has been one of my favorite General Conference talks of all time. Given by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf in October 2008. I have thought of it often throughout the past 2 1/2 years.


Yesterday my thoughts lingered on my choice to be a mother and how much I love it. Creation at it's very core. Creating another human being. I love it. I love my children. I am so very blessed. I know many women, while love being mothers, don't really love being pregnant. I won't say that it is my most favorite state of being, :) but I really do love the process. There is a part of me that feels like I could just keep having babies forever. :) Sadly, I think that I'm going to run out of girl names after this one, so it will likely be our last. :) BUT. I LOVE what I am doing right now. I love this process of creation.


Today my mind has been obsessing over other avenues of creativity. If I could only explain the thrill that I get from seeing a rainbow of colors meld together. The intense desire to surround myself with bright beautiful things! There are not words to convey it.

I LOVE making things with my hands. And I am going to make some of these pillows.

And then I'm going to crochet a whole bunch of these little flowers and make garlands out of them to decorate my girls' room.

Aren't they gorgeous?! Yes. I know they are. Do they make your heart flippity-flop? They do mine. I love color!

The other thing I've been obsessing over all day is this etsy store with their adorable hat patterns. Because I'm awesome, I'm going to make some of these too.

{Sigh}

So there you have it.

Via

I.

Via

LOVE.

Via

COLOR.

The Skinny

I get tired. I'm really sorry.

I can't seem to stay on top of everything - anything. I'm hoping to climb out from under this rock soon - as the weather warms and my children spend more hours in the great outside. Working around the house is tiring, taking the kids out for fun days is even more tiring. Today was a fun day. And a working day.

Updating will happen someDAY. At night time. I'm sorry. I get tired.

Chicks make CHICKS!

Can you believe it? FIVE girls! We are going to have a whole lot of fun at our house. I tell you what. Lots of emotions, lots of silly fights, and lots of love.

I was raised in a family with four girls (and two brothers) and while we didn't always get along, I sure love my sisters. They are some of the very best friends that I have.

I am a little overwhelmed at the responsibility that is placed upon me as their mother. I think that the identity of women has been hugely distorted in our world today and I'm so amazed at the faith that the Lord has placed in me to show them how to be daughters of God. Or maybe more correctly, to guide them back to Him, so that He can teach them who they already are. How to be examples to the girls and women around them. To live with faith, integrity, strength, peace, and joy. To raise them with a desire to be mothers themselves. To have families and to serve the Lord. To seek after righteousness. To discover the divinity within themselves.

I am so excited for this new little lady to come. (But I have no problem waiting until September! :) I know many people who say things like: Oh, girls are so much calmer (or easier or harder) than boys! or Girls are so much easier to potty train! or any hundreds of other things that they have observed in their own families of "mixed gender" children. LOL! However, I can tell you right now, that each child comes with their own distinct personality -- quite regardless of girl or boy. Some of my girls are calmer than others. Some have been eternally easier to potty train than others. Some like pink. Some like blue. Some like princesses. Some like dragons. Some like robot-princess-dragon-ballerinas. :) Some like to sit still for hours, working at the same thing. Others lose interest in a matter of seconds and are always on the move. The ONLY (usually true) "gender absolute" that I have found in my last seven years of parenting all girls is this: girls are much more likely to deal with conflict in an emotion-based way, while boys seem much more prone to deal with it in a physical way. - But even that has its exceptions. :) I have found that each of them is entirely unique and I've never made two the same. -- Never even made two opposites! They all seem to come from entirely different planets all together. :) And I am so excited to meet this new "different" little person.

I absolutely love the variety of our seemingly-imbalanced family!

"If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child." ~ Linda Sunshine

Friday's Fabulous Five

1. It's supposed to be sunny and in the 60's today!! Oh my, that sounds like heaven. It will probably also be windy, but I'll take the warmer weather in whatever form today! - Might even take the kids to the nursery, just for funsies. There's not a whole lot that we can plant in Idaho this time of year still, but . . . a girl can dream, right? :)

2. I've been able to feel this baby move for a couple of weeks now. It's only occasional and easy to miss, but still there. It's nice to know that there's really a little person in there and I'm not just getting chubby. :)

3. It's April Fool's Day. Is that good? I don't know. The "holiday" has never meant much to me, but it does signify the beginning of my birthday month. The beginning of a really busy month. The beginning of hopefully a warmer month. Plus, Hazel has been talking about April Fool's for months . . . she's not much of a natural jokester, :) so maybe I'll have to break out of my boring mom role and find some fun things for her to plan for Daddy this evening. :)

4. Violet has been doing awesome at going to sleep with no binky since those first two times. She is a model baby. The only problem that we've had is her waking up at about 5:45 this morning. - Normally, we would get her a binky and she'd be back out, but this morning didn't work quite like that and neither Nels nor I got much sleep for the rest of the morning. Nels, because I asked him to take care of her (when really I should have just let her cry it out) and me, because I couldn't fall back asleep with her screaming and Nels getting frustrated in the other room. I think both of us were left feeling like we'd been cheated (April Fool's!) by the time seven rolled around and it was time to get Lilie up for school.

Oh man, that doesn't sound fabulous, does it? (Okay, I'm kind of having a hard time coming up with fabulous this morning, having gone to bed with a migraine and then getting 'joked' out of my last hour and a half of sleep.) What I was trying to say before my bad mood got in the way is that Violet is a champ and I really hope that she continues to be good for us as we work out any kinks. :) And she'd better take one really great nap today.

5. Okay, this one really is fabulous. This has been the first week of Hazel's two week Spring Break. Lilie's week off begins today at 11:15. Often times during the week -- especially on those days that Lilie is out of school for 'teacher training' or some-such, she and Elsie fight all day. Beginning with the moment that they see one another and continuing until well after I'm yelling as much as they are. Two incredibly strong-willed girls (with a stupid mother). They are two of a kind and often that is some kind of monster (with a monster mother). (Sounds fabulous already, huh?)

Needless to say, I had been dreading the weeks of Spring Break. Dreading the addition of another sister to the daily mix of fighting nutsies.

However, to my surprise, this week has actually been happy (for the most part). -- In fact, the only real arguing that Hazel has engaged in has generally been with me alone. :) -- I've found that Hazel's sweet and inclusive personality has actually helped tame the tension between the other two, leaving most days with three sisters playing happily together. Hazel is so good at rallying everyone to one game and does her best (most of the time) to make sure everyone is having fun. She is like a buffer between two very strongly reactive chemical sisters. (Do you miss Chemistry? sometimes I do. :) Hazel is happy. Hazel is kind. Hazel never wants to be mean or disobedient. Hazel is just good, through and through. Hazel goes about singing or humming or making happy 'sounds' most of the day. :) Hazel believes life should be fair (which is usually the source of argument with her parents). Hazel is very strong-willed in her own right, but usually that doesn't come in conflict with her sisters. For some reason known only to the Cosmos, both her sisters are usually quite compliant to letting her have her way. Hazel is honest, loving, and very helpful. I'm so thankful for the sweet influence that she adds to our . . . stubborn, explosive, determined home.