Power of Moms

I fancy this wonderful source of goodness for Mothers. I was asked a while back if I would be interested in contributing my ideas for articles at their site. I felt very flattered. Here is my latest article http://www.powerofmoms.com/articles/two-sanity-saving-phrases.html



I really can relate to April Perry's article here http://www.powerofmoms.com/articles/sometimes-do-you-just-want-to-cry.html especially the last few days.



I don't think you need to be approached to write for them. They have several categories that you can submit articles to Check them out http://www.powerofmoms.com/ So if you have great ideas or stories see how you can contribute.



I have been wanting to get a "Learning Circle" together, but one of things I am not a good at is being a salesperson. If any who live in my area want to form a group I would be willing to be the Learning Circle leader. And if you live somewhere else and want to have your own learning circle group start one up where you live.

Creative kids

I am not talking about arts and craft. I am talking about how our children seem to have a knack for being able to come up with the 3rd option. At least in our home we have a nice group of deep thinkers who seem to spend all of their spare time creating plans of what their third options can be. This may be helpful for them in the future when they are asked in some important meeting to come up with several ideas in a brainstorming session. Not so much when I give 2 options for our children to choose from. For example, sometimes when it is dessert time this can often be heard in our home, especially by the younger children:

Parent:Your choice for dessert is mint chocolate chip ice cream or cookies and cream ice cream

child: How about strawberry ice cream?

Parent: What did you just hear me say?

Child: My choice is mint chocolate chip or cookies and cream

Parent: Okay so which do you choose?

Child: Strawberry

Parent: We don't have strawberry. mint chocolate chip or cookies and cream?

Child: How about a brownie?

Parent: Ooh I like mint chocolate chip ice cream too! Great choice.

Full

The past 2 weeks have been very full. All last week the two older girls had their spring break. My in-laws came in a couple Saturdays ago to spend time with us and to support Emma as she choose to be Baptized.

It was so wonderful to listen to the great messages from general conference over Easter weekend. On Easter Sunday we had a couple widows from our congregation over and I went and got my Grandmother from Port Huron. We had a delightful ham dinner. I enjoyed getting to spend extra time with my Grandma driving with her.

Last week on Monday started out with Lucy throwing up. She had a nice fever to go along with her sickness. By Tuesday morning she had developed a small little rash on parts of her arm and legs and chest. When I had taken Emma for her yearly checkup that morning I asked our pediatrician about Lucy and he asked me to bring her in. So I dropped Emma off and brought Lucy in where upon they did some tests and she tested for having strep. We got her on antibiotics that day. Her fever finally broke Wednesday afternoon.

It was a blessing to have my in-laws here to help with everything else that needed to keep the home functioning. Wednesday evening my Mom and her husband Chad flew in. I had gone to bed before they flew in because early Thursday morning Sera, Eliza and I flew down to St. Louis for her follow-up visit down at Shriner's for the Enobia study she is doing for her hypophosphatasia.

Eliza was such an amazing little traveler. Very cheerful despite her lack of sleep. Sera did great on her routine tests that they do. She is so amazing! By mid afternoon we were able to get into the hotel where were staying at, and we ordered dinner in and I bathed the girls. The closet was big enough to put Eliza's pack'n'play in. She was ready for bed at 4. I fed her and she got down to bed by 4:45 which is 5:45 our time. She normally goes to bed by 6 so she was right on schedule.

Sera and I ate our dinner which was good up until I found a fly in my salad. Not extra protein in my opinion. I chose not to eat the salad and asked for it to be removed from our bill. We got to wathc the movie "Tales of Desperado" while we ate. I couldn't believe how much food Sera packed in. Once we were done with our dinner and movie we played "fashion girls" and I painted Sera's finger and toenails.

Then we chatted for a few minutes about the importance of being respectful because she had been having a hard time remembering that throughout the day. If I myself had not been sleep deprived I would have realized sooner that she too was sleep deprived and probably didn't need my little lecture. Live and learn. So we got to bed by 6:15. I woke up lots but rested very well. The other two slept straight through til 6 the next morning.


I got myself ready while they watched TV. Sera had to fast for her morning blood draws. I grabbed a bowl of cereal at the cafeteria in the hospital and a danish for Sera when she was done fasting. They got her all prepped for the blood work. They put this numbing patch on her arm for about 30 minutes. Then they took about 8 vile's of blood. They have a special helper who is specifically there to help distract the kids. She got to blow bubbles and have bubbles blown at her this time.

Afterward she got to pick out a prize. She picked out a Tinkerbell hair care set. Eliza was tired by this point so I was able to get her to sleep. Ms. Amy, one of the workers in the study who help make the trips easy, took Sera on some walks so Eliza could sleep a little bit.

Once we were all done with what we came for, we still had a couple hours before we had to leave for the airport, so we had lunch and then we went outside to their play area for a good hour.
The Shriners (really nice old retired men) drove us to the airport. We got there a bit early and I was grateful because we were able to get on an hour earlier flight. Huge blessing!

Again the girls did great on the flight. We got home safely and it was nice to be home. Earlier in the day Jared had called and asked what they could do at the home to make Saturday run more smoothly. I asked if they could deep clean the home and so it was so refreshing to get home to a very clean home. Which I know can be a difficult task when you have little ones under foot.


Saturday was full of Birthday celebration. Emma turned 8! Emma wanted to go to Frankenmuth for the afternoon. Emma took her sisters and Grandpa Chad on a horse drawn carriage ride. We had the yummy famous chicken dinner and then we walked through a couple shops and then headed home for cake. What a nice fun full day. It was nice to not have to worry about cleaning the home and just focus on family fun. Sunday was Emma's Baptism.












Emma had been taking the discussions from our missionaries to make sure she understood the significance and importance of the covenants she was going to be making. I was always at awe listening to her pretty much teach the missionaries what they were there to teach her about. Needless to say she had willfully chosen to prepare herself for the covenants she made on Sunday when she entered into the waters of baptism. She was so incredibly excited to be baptized. She simply could not contain it in her little body. It was oozing from her. It was exciting for me to see! I am constantly grateful for her example of how to be excited to live the the principles of the gospel.

My very talented Mother in law sewed Emma a Baptism dress and a nice spring dress.

Monday was the sad day when our company left. We were so grateful to those who were able to come and share in the joy of Emma's baptism, and from the support we felt from those who were not able to be there physically. My Mother spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. Emma told me Monday that she told her friends about the story my Mother shared. Which the essence was that if my Grandma, her Mother, had not listened to the spirit then my Mother probably would not be here and therefore I would not be here and then consequently Emma would not be here.

I did 8 loads of laundry Monday on top of having the pleasure to take care of my dear friends 3 small children. Tuesday I made my bread and watched those 3 cute kids again. Luckily we were all able to get a nap in the afternoon.


Last night Emma got to attend her first "achievements days activity" for girls 8-11 in our church. They meet 2 times a month. She was so thrilled to tell me of the fun they had making fruit kabobs and talking with the other girls.

Afterward the Mother who brought her home took her and the other kids to 7-11 to get a Slurpee. I was so touched when one of my friends whose husbands was the Bishop before my husband, and happens to have 7 young children herself, called and expressed her willingness to help bring Emma home if we ever needed help, because she knows how hard it can be when you have other small children at home. I felt so cared for and really appreciated her kindness. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends.


So now are here Wednesday which started out with Lucy coming in to us at 6 this morning to let us know she threw up in her bed. We got showered and cleaned up and laid back down in our bed and within a minute she threw up again. Poor thing. She still is on antibiotics for another day for the strep she had last week. She threw up one more time and luckily has kept the medicine down. She does not have a fever so that is nice. I am thinking her tummy is a little rumbly from the medicine. This is the first time she has been on antibiotics in her 4 years of life. When our kids get sick I typically take them to our chiropractor and within a day they are better. So they rarely get infections that need antibiotics. For today we are going to do about 3 loads of wash due to thrown up on bedding and some sheets from Eliza. And we will do some resting and a walk this afternoon. I am looking forward to the warmth the next few days.

One of the great miracles that happened the past week is my prayer getting answered that no one else got strep. Eliza seemed to have an upset tummy and some runs over the weekend but I think that was due to her teething 3 teeth at once. I just wanted to say how blessed I feel and how full my cup feels. For me it is a true comfort to be able to feel that God loves me and is aware of and cares about me and what goes on in my little life. Yes my cup is full!

Fancy Cakes

Before you all compete to see who can get your next cake decorated by me, I have to first warn you I do not go for how good it looks. I can however guarantee the cake and icing itself will be some of the best you have ever had.

The first 2 pictures are from Lucy's birthday a few weeks ago. Can you tell what kind of cake she wanted?



Don't you just love the smarties for her reversed pupils. Lucy let me know where she wanted all of the roses. Yes those big blobs of blue are roses. And Lucy said they looked like roses. She loved her cake. I couldn't quite figure out how to construct a nice looking nose.



You see with little people all you have to do to make them happy is make the cake look somewhat like what they want and they are happy as can be.
Sera wanted a pink frosted cake with roses on it and ice cream in it for her 6th birthday. This cake tasted so incredibly good. I made a bundt cake and then carved out the middle a little bit more and stuffed it with ice cream. Jared was practically licking the platter when the cake was gone.
These are actually recognizable. I made them for a baby shower. The unfortunate thing was that I had made them earlier in the day and by the time the baby shower was later in the day the gel frosting I used for the eye pupils and smiley face went a little loopy. And that is exactly how the bears looked for the presentation at the baby shower. Loopy! At least I know they looked somewhat good at a point.
When Jared turned 30 the girls and I made him a rainbow frosted cake. The only reason we made it this way was because they insisted Daddy likes rainbows. Well these were the only colors I had and I did not feel like mixing colors so it turned out looking more like a reggae looking cake. It tasted great though. And in the end that is really all that matters!

Warning

Warning: This post is going to talk about a Mother's ever expanding and deflating bust line.

SO as I was cleaning out our drawers in preparation for the in-laws coming, I found that right now I have about 4 different sizes of braziers in my drawer. Why you ask, well it is the result 8(+) years of the expand/deflate syndrome that happens through pregnancy then postpartum of the cycle of a Mother.

It all starts with that first child. Your bosoms grow to a size you thought was only possible through unnatural methods. This should be your first clue that Mother nature has a sick sense of humor. Then after you have the baby, if you nurse, they grow even larger. An increased bust line is very deceiving because it will make your larger than average waist look smaller.

Then after about 7 or 8 months(depends on the woman) of nursing you tend to shrink in size. All of the sudden your waist seems larger and you feel like maybe you need to start working on those extra pounds you put on during pregnancy.

Your bra size at this point has become larger than what you can fill in, so you have to go out and try to find one that fits. Nothing like slapping a woman in the face to go from a very large size in her mind to a more average size. But you manage. Then once you are done nursing all together it is like some magic wand is waved and overnight your ladies have disappeared. Again Mother nature has a sick sense of humor.

The more kids you have though the number of different bra sizes increases, until at the end a training bra will be what is left. At least that is what I am shooting for. I hope I can even fit into that when we are done having kids. I feel very proud of myself, because I finally threw out two of my night nursing bras from when Emma and Sera were born. I guess the shredding material wasn't enough to convince me. It was only until the snaps that were used to lower so I could nurse, which were hanging by a thread, finally broke off. I am no better than those 50 year old men who still have their T-shirts from high school or college and think they still fit in them. They still try to fit in them despite the unsightliness of the matter.

I guess it all comes down to the fact that I ABSOLUTELY HATE TO SHOP FOR CLOTHES! So I hold onto clothes until they are literally falling apart. I hate going into a store and seeing all of these cute things thinking they may fit my body type, and then being disappointed because the seemingly majority of the woman population was not as blessed with the wonderful voluptuous curviness that I am. I love my body, but department store clothes apparently were not made for people with healthy curves.

I take that back. They do make my size, it is just not the size that is always left on the rack when I am finally able to go and shop. This is even true with the bra sizes. So this is why I have so many bras and so many different sizes, because it is just to hard to find them when I am in need of them. I am thankful for my collection of different bra sizes!