The Tooth Fairy

It's a beautiful Saturday morning!  I am going to take Hope to the church to practice her skit for the talent show, in just a minute.  When we get back we are headed to the lake.  Bryan took the day off today.  It will be nice to spend some time as a family. 

This last week was soooo busy!  I take my Psy test Tuesday morning, early.  I feel like I will do well.  Then I get a couple weeks break before I start in on my summer term.  I think I'm going to do some painting during that time.  Now that we are staying, for sure, I want to start making this house mine. 

I'm going to go eat breakfast now.  Just wanted to touch base really quick. 

Kid Moment for the Day:

The tooth fairy has a really hard time showing up at our house, at least in any sort of timely manner!  (This is where I get an "F" as a mother)  After tucking my kids into bed I went into my room and noticed a piece of paper stuck to the wall above my bed.  It said "Teeth that fall out of your head deserve quarters!" (Charity pulled one of her teeth out a few days ago and has been patiently waiting for the tooth fairy to show up!)  Quarters were under her pillow when she woke up this morning.  She is collecting the states and I think I got her a new one, so she will be happy about that.   

Hope

The day has finally arrived!  It is Hope's birthday!  She turns 10 today.  I can't believe I had her a decade ago!   

She was born at 11:59pm on May 12th, Mother's Day that year.  I got to the hospital and they broke my water because I was dilated too far, but not contracting regularly enough.  She came one hour after that.  

I remember walking the halls with Bryan, leaning over during contractions.  All of a sudden, as soon as I would stand up to continue walking, I was leaning over again.  Then the upper part of my legs started hurting.  I could hardly walk.  I told Bryan that I needed to go lie down.  After I got settled, he went to get me a few ice chips.  He wasn't even to the door and I told him I needed to push.  The rest was a whirlwind after that.  Trying to get everyone in there and everything ready.  They told me not to push, which is about impossible to do!  She was crowning as the doctor was getting his gloves on.  My sister Rachel, and sister in law Michelle came in at that point.  It was crazy.  She came out in one push!  After Charity's 18 hours (they are only a year apart so it hadn't been that long ago for me) I couldn't believe I was holding a baby in my arms.  So fast it was surreal.  There was suppose to be so much more labor, much more hard work on my part, before the grand finish.  I had a hard time taking it all in.

Now it's 10 years later.  She still is the easiest on me, by far.  Nothing is hard with Hope.  She's my little angle from heaven!  She is Heavenly Father's gift to me!  I love her so much! 

Hope is the most forgiving person in our family.  All she wants is to be close to those she loves.  She is quick to apologize and quick to appreciate any little thing you do. (like I said, she is really easy on me!)  She wants everyone to feel loved and included.  We call her the family diplomat.  

I asked Hope what she wanted to do today.  She said she wanted to be a part of making all the things that are on her list for the day: fruit shake with homemade granola for breakfast, bean dip for lunch, and taco salad for dinner with gingerbread men and apple crisp for dessert.  So we are going to cook all day and fill in the gaps with whatever she would like.  Then she requested a Harry Potter movie this evening and a sleepover with Mom.  

Well everyone is starting to get up, so I'm going to go tackle Hope!  

Kid Moment for the Day:

When Hope feels mad, angry, sad, hurt, scared, you name it, she wants a hug.  Even if I'm the person she is mad at, she still wants me to give her a hug.  She will burst into tears and tell me "I just need a hug."  Everything is better after that!   
  

The Hand That Feeds You

Today has been a great day!  I feel so happy.  I love school! (with my kids and myself) I love our schedule.  I had a fantastic time at Pilate's (an exercise group I started; we did a video)  I got all my chicks and ducklings situated out in the chicken shed.  My kids are all tucked into bed.  I read to them for a bit before lights out.  I worked on school.  Now I'm snuggled next to my hubby and am going to head to bed after this.  Such a nice day! 

I went out to do one last thing with my chicks this afternoon.  I came in the coop and several came running up.  I squatted down and a few of them let me pet right under their beaks.  I was a bit surprised.  They were much more skittish the last time I spent time with them.  I decided to get some food and feed them from my hand.  They dove in with a vengeance!  I thought, wow, they must really be hungry.  Maybe they don't know where their food is.  (I had moved them to a new spot in the coop to make room for our ducklings)  So I took them over to the food.  They looked at the food and then at me.  I showed them again.  They were giving me the "not so much" look.  So I thought I would try feeding them again.  I got another scoop and held it out for them.  Once again they scarfed the food, and sometimes my skin, until every last bit was gone!  Oh, my chicks love me. 

Well, I'm going to head off to bed.  I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Kid Moment for the Day:

The kids are adjusting to Daddy being gone again.  He is home a lot during the winter, and is slammed in the spring, especially until all his customers are mulched.  Hope was really missing him and decided to make him a welcome home sign.  It said "Welcome home, Daddy!  Thanks for working so hard! Love Hope T.C."  He got it late that night, after a really long day at work.  It meant a lot to him. 

Good night!

The Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo yesterday.  (Bryan was working, so he didn't go with us)  I haven't been to the zoo in FOREVER!  As we were pulling up, it felt like I was going to Disney World or something.  The kids and I were so excited.  We purchased a membership and headed in for the day's adventure.  

We didn't see everything.  We plan on going back a lot, so we just focused on a few areas.  I promised Faith we would go see the lions first.  It took us a while to find them, and we saw a bunch of stuff on the way, but we finally reached our destination.  They were sleeping, of course.  Here is a picture of them enjoying the afternoon sun. 

On the way to the lions we saw these bats.  They were the coolest bats I have ever seen.  They are the largest bat in the world (if I'm remembering right) and have a wingspan of 6 ft.  We were watching one groom himself, stretch, and just be busy.  I thought he was going to bust through his wing, it is so thin.

We went to the polar bear exhibit, which is a new exhibit.  This guy looked like he was playing the guitar.  He was a crack up, so full of personality!
 

We went to the underground viewing there.  They had glass that went up over your head so you could look up and see water right above you.  Because you can't see the water, it looks like the fish are flying!  Such a neat effect.

We are getting ready to move on to the next area.

We headed to one of our favorite areas last.  We love the aquarium.  I could spend hours just watching the fish.  It was neat to see how excited David was! 
 

This guy came up and started eating the lettuce right in front of us at the manatee's exhibit.  My older girls thought that was so cool. 

Here the kids are right before we left.  We had such a good time!  I really wish Bryan had been able to go with us.  He loves the zoo too.



I wanted to add one more thing to my previous post's list of things to help me be successful.  It won't always be possible, but most of the time I would like to work hard during the week so I can spend Saturday playing with my kids!  That means house work, school work, everything.  My date night with Bryan is Saturday night as well, so that gives me Friday night to push hard!  That's my goal.  I worked really hard last week, and spent a lot of time Friday night doing homework, so I spent Saturday with my family.  It was so wonderful and refreshing.  Sundays always recharge me spiritually, so by Monday morning I'm going to be ready to hit it hard again.

I need to get my kids ready for church. (we have church at 1:00pm this year) It is fast and testimony Sunday, one of my favorites!  Charity always shares her testimony every month.  I am always in awe as I listen to her talk.  I'm excited. 

Kid Moment for the Day:

A little while ago David was eating breakfast and talking with me.  I can't remember what about exactly, but I think he was telling me about monsters or something, and maybe a dream he had.  He said the cutest thing during that conversation.  He said, "I shoot bad guys.  I'm a saver.  I'm a bad guy to bad guys!" (said with emphasis)

Man, I love him! 

Have a great Sunday!

  

My Gold Nuggets of Success

So here are a couple thoughts that will help me to be successful with school and wife/mother responsibilities.  If I stick by these, I know I will do well.

1) Get my sleep.  This is one of the first thoughts I had.  If I'm shortcutting this, in the end I will not gain anything, but lose a whole lot. 

2) I need to have good food on hand. (which means I need to cook)  Especially with my dietary requirements, I can't live off quick foods, and starving isn't really an option. 

3) My house needs to be clean.  I can't think straight when it's not.  It doesn't need to be eat off the floor clean, but picked up and not filthy.

4) I need to spend time snuggled up to my hubby every night.  I can study, I just need to be studying next to him.  (thank goodness I'm finding it easy to study while the TV is on, not something I use to be able to do)  It allows me to connect to him and keeps things going well between us.

5) Date night once a week.  No studying or anything else.  One night a week that belongs just to Bryan.

6) No studying on Sunday, for religious reasons.  I am using Sundays for my planning day.  I get everything ready for my next week.

7) I read over this and realized that I forgot my morning routine.  I learned, when I started homeschooling my kids, if I don't do this, my day never gets started.  It's horrible!  So my routine includes: up, exercise/scripture reading, (I have started putting these together for time) dressed and ready.  If I miss any one of those, I'm in trouble.

Boy, I am sounding high maintenance!  How do I have time to do anything else.  I don't know, but I get many hours of studying in every day...and I'm blogging now.  No pat on my back.  I was hardly making it happen BEFORE I took on school.  That's how it works, though.  When I feel that something needs to happen, a way is always provided! 

There it is!  I am already reaping the benefits from following my own rules. They truly are my gold nuggets of success.  If I get off, it won't take me to long to rectify the situation;  I will start failing miserably.  It is one of the advantages of taking on something challenging later on in life.  I have learned the things that really help my life to work, and the things that sink me immediately. 

Here is my Kid Moment For the Day:

I woke up a couple of days ago and found this on the fridge.  Hope reminding us that her birthday is coming up quick.  I thought it was creative how she manipulated the other letters to create her message.  Very Hope!   

 

My Study Schedule

I have spent the last few days figuring out a new schedule.  Starting school definitely requires some changes.  How do I add several hours of studying in every day?  Good question.  It's not like I had a bunch of down time before. 

I went to schedule my classes for this summer and realized I needed Psy 100 to get into 2 of my classes.  I asked them if they would wave the prerequisite but they said no.  I begged and pleaded and they agreed to give me the study guide and then let me take the final.  If I pass with a 70 or above they will give me credit for the class.  Hence the need to figure out my study schedule already. 

I did some juggling and brainstorming, found a way to keep the most important things, scratch less important ones and fit it all in, amazingly!  I teach all my kids their lessons for the day then we all study.  After lunch I cook, clean, spend time with my kids and everything else that needs to be done, until bedtime where I then snuggle up with Bryan and study for another couple of hours.  Works rather nicely.  It's amazing how a little bit of organizing can go a long way to freeing up some time.  I honestly can't believe I'm getting it all in, but I am and it is working out. 

It's late.  I have more I want to say, but I want to get some sleep too.  I will tell you more about a few thoughts I had on how to be successful at what I'm undertaking, next time. 

Before I sign off everyday, I would like to take a moment to share something one of my kids did or said, that way I'm getting as many of those cute memories recorded as possible. 

My kid moment for today:

Charity made up a song about the foods that are on Hope's "I will not eat" list.  She sings it to her when she wants to be especially annoying.   Hope is oh so fond of it.  It goes like this: (I wish I could give you the tune, it's really obnoxious!)

Peanut butter and honey,
celery and Carmel too. 
I'll chew it all up
and give it all to you!

Sweet, huh?  Yeah, Hope thinks so too.  Ha. 

That's all for tonight!  Hope you all have a great night.