Josh says I'll make a good grandma

I was curious as to what that meant. He explained that I already like to do the things that grandma's do. Like quilting. :)

Motes and beams

Why is it so much easier to see flaws in other people?

I was irritated with somebody this week. I thought they were trying to 'steady the arc' and I wasn't going to let them do it. Like the whole part of not steadying the arc is to have faith that God can take care of His job.

It took me a little over a day, with some help from my sister, to see that I was trying to 'steady the arc' right back.

Other people's weaknesses that bug me the most are the ones that I struggle the most with myself.

So today I tell myself to calm down and protect my buttons. Own my emotions and not give others the power to irritate me or make me angry. You know the way we say that is all wrong.

How many times do I say, "He made me mad!"? When actually I let him under my skin and I chose to get mad at him. (Or her, as the case may be.)

Time to pull the beam out of my eye and leave others to deal with the mote. I think this is a life-long quest.

Busy during the break

Spring break and the kids are home. Thea is here. Craig is off work. It's lovely. With so much more going on, I have found the time to get back to sewing stars.

We are going back to the park today. We went yesterday for a bit. The boys played with their dad outside. They have loved having Thea around.

Thea has been dirt biking. She is now checking out the community college here.

I have laundry in the wash and grocery shopping to do. But all I can think about is the last 8th of the block I've been working on for two days.

Sandcastles

 

Sand everywhere on my 5 year old boy. Sun in his eyes, but still signaling peace.

Treasures displayed on the castle. :)

Agate Beach

 

Yesterday the beach was beautiful. The boys ran and ran and ran. They dug and played and found shells and danced in the waves and threw sand at each other and made sand castles. I sat on the blanket and talked on the phone and listened to the ipod. I did wander the beach and find cool shells and rocks. I let the very cold waves wash over my feet and get my pants a bit wet. We looked at barnacles and mussels. We didn't hit low tide, so the anemonies and sea stars remained hidden. We watched the surfers play safe in their wetsuits.

I have a bit of a sunburn. We took jackets, but didn't need them. A lovely day.

Parent Teacher Conference

I love going to parent teacher conference for kindergarten. Really, how many bad things can possibly be said about a five year old?

So, today, I had joyful anticipation for our noon meeting. True, I know the teacher well. I've been in the classroom almost every week all year. I find her delightful.

I have a very good idea where my son is, school wise. He does well in math, reading, social setting, etc. It's fun to see the improvement from October. I was expecting all things wonderful. Truthfully, I got it.

What I didn't expect was a delightful story about art. The teacher drew an abstract wavy line and asked the kids to make a picture with it. I saw an example of a face and another one of a cloudy sky.

My Boaz had trouble with this assignment. She noticed that he just sat and looked at his paper. She went over to ask him if he needed help. Boaz told her, "It's just not my thing." She struggled to cover up the laughter and went on to other things.

Recess time was coming and he still wasn't working on the assignment. She came back to him and he looked up at her in total seriousness and asked if he could skip this task. She said yes and he happily got ready for recess.

I was told with giggles and twinkly eyes that my son would probably not be an artist. It just wasn't his thing. :)

(But we did identify that he likes to paint, and he would probably like clay. )

The new monster

 

I seem to have a talent for getting into projects that are too big for me. This quilt should have been done by Christmas, but here is it March and I am still working on the quilt top. But a big milestone today. I have the sun rays done and the sun face is ready to be appliqued down.

The moon is still a separate piece, waiting for the other three stars before I can sew it to the main quilt. So after the stars are done, I still have to get started on those, I can get the entire quilt top ready for the borders and then worry about the back and then I'm ready to sandwich. I think I'm projecting a bit, but I'm excited to move on. :)

Oh, that and I have detail work -- the actual face on the sun and more detail on the moon face. It's turning out bigger than I thought when I first started it months ago. But of course, that is the way I roll. :)

Jog-a-thon boy

Today Boaz ran for school. I planned on being there the whole day, but Josh has been sick. So I went in quick for a few minutes. I was a bit late and Boaz had been running for a while already by the time I got there.

My friends who were there told me that he had been running the whole time and that he was fast. :)

He was wearing an orange shirt, so it was relatively easy to pick him out of the crowd. His face was a shiny pink from the exercise. I saw him walk for just a bit here and there. But it was at the end of the time slot. They ran for 20 to 25 minutes.

They counted 31 laps that he ran. Granted it was inside the gym. (It's been raining all day). I saw a 29 lapper and 25 lapper. I also heard of a 30 lapper, but to my knowledge Boaz ran the most. :)

I know this is not important in the whole scheme of things. All the kindergartners did their best job and every one should be celebrated. Somehow I still have a glow in heart that he ran the most laps.

He's my little stud.

Rocker Hair

 

He is into his hair. :) This is what he can do with it after I cut it.

A good life

I am at times petulant. Instead of seeing the silver lining, I see the cloud.

Yesterday I spent the day at school with my kindergartner. I helped out with reading assessments. There are 31 sight words they are supposed to know by the end of the year. Cute little words like: a, I, am, it, is, my, me . . . all the way up to said and little. I have been working with Boaz and wondered at where he stood in class. The other kids seemed to know the words better and I had to give myself the "he's doing fine" talk.

So yesterday, Boaz missed only one word -- said. It's tricky because how do you explain that sometimes an "a" sounds like an "e" to a five year old. I don't know the rule that is used in this particular case, if there even is one. Anyway, kids eventually learn it and all is well. The other smart kids in class missed a few more. One cute girl missed 6 and another cute boy missed 2. I had a glowy feeling, a bit self congratulatory at the accomplishments of my child.

The last boy of the day came out with me and we got to work. I've worked a bit with him before. He didn't have any homework stickers. So they asked me to help him with his homework so he could get a sticker. Once I explained it to him, he did it so well. A smart boy who wanted to please and do well. A boy that just needed some one on one attention. A boy that apparently doesn't get that kind of attention at home.

So, back to yesterday. This very smart boy knew the first two words. His happy face looked at me as he told me the words he knew. For the remaining 29 words he didn't want to look at me and just shook his head. I tried to keep it positive and compliment him on being brave. He broke my heart.

I am blessed that I don't have to work. I can stay home with my boys and volunteer in their classrooms. Starting today, I will go in twice a week and work with my sweet, smart friend that needs some special one on one time. I know he can learn these few small words. I want to see his happy confident face as he begins to learn to his potential.

It's a good life when I can find ways to help others and spread just a little joy in the heart of a sweet, intelligent boy that wants to learn how to read. Today, I see the silver lining.

I am grateful for toilets

Last night between 1 and 3 in the morning, my poor boy was sick. I don't know why it is always a middle of night thing, but there we were. His best friend was the toilet, and I was grateful for the porcelain throne too.

I started thinking about pre-toilet times. What did mothers do to get rid of the offending matter? How did the all pervasive smell dissipate without the flush and the fan? How did mothers protect other family members from illness?

This morning we seem to be fine. But I am gearing up to get out the steamer and clean, clean, clean that wonder of modern technology upstairs.

Sacrament Talk

This week was invitation Sunday. We were encouraged to invite friends to our Sacrament Meeting. I invited three, my children's teachers. They were very nice in accepting my invitation and I was hopeful they would be there. Yesterday as I sat up on the stand waiting to give my talk, I looked for them. They did not come. I looked for new faces, and truthfully did not see many. I had prepared my talk for non-members. Ruefully I got up and gave my talk on Joseph Smith.

I had worried about what to say on such a big topic in only 10 - 15 minutes. I had the unpleasant surprise of seeing four speakers on the program and knew I had prepared too much. I pared down what I could and kept it to about 10 minutes. The other speakers were all wonderful. I saw our resident non-members. Those who come fairly regularly. I had not thought I was talking much to them. Being so close and friendly to so many members, I thought this was something that they already had heard.

After the meeting, I sat down by Craig to get ready for Sunday School. My friend that I am getting to know was three pews up. She looked like she wanted to say something and so I gave her my whole focus.

She told me that Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon were things that she was struggling with. That makes sense to me. Those are the things that make us different. She said she had never heard the narrative presented in that way before. She had heard parts of the story, but appreciated the few added details I gave. And she had not thought of Joseph being like the other boy prophets of the Old Testament.

I had prayed a lot and pondered what I should say as I prepared for this talk. I got out my old charlas and our copy of Preach My Gospel. I wanted to keep it simple. I worried that I left out the part about priesthood and authority, but I couldn't see where to put it. And I knew I had a time limit. Actually I went over, even before I knew about that fourth speaker.

I am grateful to the Lord that he allowed me to know why I prepared what I did. Who knows how my friend will respond further. But knowing that what I said helped her to reconsider Joseph Smith is wonderful to me.