At the risk of being perhaps a little too personal, I am going to cut and paste my most recent journaling, which includes much about pets, children, houses and miracles. Enjoy and please read without judgment ;D.
May 31, 2021
Yesterday we went to an open house for a young man in our ward who is heading out to a mission and then BYU afterward. The family is really nice. No one was wearing masks, which was so refreshing to see everyone's faces. At church we still are wearing masks, which I respect the need for. Next Sunday we will have our first second hour meetings together since before COVID. I am excited.
As a family, we are shutting off our wifi except for intentional use. We are trying to create an environment for healthy defaults for the kids. Last Saturday, after the Georgia family left, we spent the day playing games and relaxing and enjoying each other. It felt really good. The oldest kids only watched one episode at the end of the day. We laughed and played together. So bueno!
The Georgia family came to stop over for a visit on their way home from visiting other places. It was great! We got the house super clean and organized and that also meant finishing up my book case for scrapbooks in my room (made out of only five purchased boards and the rest scraps!). I filled them with scrapbooks and journals and it looks so amazing!!! I love coming into my room and seeing kids sitting in our padded rocking chair and looking through the scrapbooks with whimsical smiles on their faces. Family history in every aspect is so rewarding! Next step, hang up all the pictures I have in the house somewhere :D.
I am working on finding joy in the moment and not feeling driven by lists.
I have realized that it is still okay to have lists and projects and dreams, though.
I am also working on having “charity” be my default...the directive of everything I do. It is powerful! Today I am working on “thinking no evil.”
I am also excited to plan my trip for having ALL MY CHILDREN ON EARTH together :D!!! Less than a month!!
June 7, 2021
Wow! What a busy week. Today I am just going to capture a little bit.
This week we got guinea fowl keets. Because my phone and I are frequent strangers, I have not pictures but you can Google them: big, ugly and loud.
And they eat ticks by the pound.
So I ordered guinea fowl.
Apparently, they are flock creatures so you can't order them in quantities less than 15. Most places required 25 but yikes! We'll start with 15. Like I said, they are noisy.
And right now? They are absolutely adorable.
Just imagine picking up tiny beaks and legs combined with soft fluffy air with less mass than a cotton ball.
I reached in to the box they came in last Friday morning to get them out and put them in the lovely new home we had just completed for them moments before (no time like the present, eh?). I could feel tiny faint scratching limbs and then soft fluffy weightlessness. I gently closed my grasp to a ball and lifted. In it was a tiny baby. Crazy! And super cute.
Later that day, Maia and Piper chanced upon the coop when all the little fluff mites had made it out of their enclosure---apparently they are tiny enough to squeeze through the holes of chicken wire with not much fuss. The keets were all over the inside of the coop so they corralled them back inside. However, one was missing as evident by the next incident: two chickens were desperately trying to escape the chicken yard through an opening and upon investigations, Piper and Maia discovered a small pullet behind them, honking loudly and terrifying the much larger hens. Hilarious!
I have to share a miracle about this experience: I felt compelled to start the day early, at 6:30 am. While not being early for me personally, I don't like to force the kids to get up to work with me then. However, I kept feeling driven to insist upon it, so I told them I would get up at 6:30 but needed them all up by 7--Lily and Hava to help with breakfast and birthday set-up and Drew, Hyrum and Piper out helping me get the guinea fowl area ready. I anticipated getting the guineas in the afternoon like I had the chicks so felt there was plenty of time later...but kept feeling like I needed to insist on early prep.
Well, the morning rolled around and I forced myself out of bed around 6:20 am, remembering I had told everyone else they had to be up soon. I had experienced a rough night with Penelope but...here we go! I grabbed my cell phone (with whom I am frequently a stranger) per inspiration insistence (recognized in hindsight) and after prepping the breakfast with waffle batter, headed out. I had felt driven to prep the tools and supplies we would need for the pullet enclosure the night before so most of it was ready to be taken out to the coop where we were building it.
The phone rang a little after 7 am. "Ma'am, your keets are in." Miracle number one--I actually had my phone with me and working when they called. Miracle number two--because we were up and everything was in place, we had just enough time to build the keet enclosure before they got there. They require a 95 degree temp to keep them alive at first, which requires heating lamps and somewhere to experience those heating lamps.
It was truly miraculous.
June 12, 2021
Another busy week has flown by.
Apparently, both of our dogs have Lyme's disease so they are going to start antibiotics after I capture a urine sample from my dog Kujo (??right??).
Penelope is pulling herself up on furniture right now, progressively figuratively following in the footsteps of her nephew, Akos. (Soon to be literally! They are visiting in two weeks!!) Unfortunately, her mobility led her to bruise her cheek on an end table by our bed and it is super sad to see the cut and bruise on her sweet pudgy cheeks. She is still as adorably sweet as ever, smiling and enjoying her life so much—interspersed with occasional frustration at not being changed, fed and adored as much as she may feel necessary, little darling. The last few days, she has been particularly insistent on being near me, content to play near me or in my lap while I work on something else or help another child.
I feel myself waxing eloquent after reading excerpts from a collection of Jane Austen biographies. Sigh. Perhaps I should scale it back a wee bit ;P.
Xai is excited to go to a Primary young boys activity. I am excited to use that as an opporunity to fulfill the last steps of a miracle...
I have felt for some time to make Drew's room a real room. It is one of those “pushings” from heaven that I have learned to recognize. I also recently reviewed President Nelson's talk about believing in and seeking for miracles. It all came together yesterday.
The next step in his room is to secure two more mattresses to make the room's bedding complete. We used to have viable bunk beds in there, but as Drew sleeps on the floor as his preferred space, I had him move the bunk beds to the other room for a visiting family to use. His room has become more and more an extension of the storage room, with box springs and bedding frames stacked about. Buying mattresses right now seems like an extra expense, not desirable on top of Quinn switching jobs from NY to Ohio and all the expenses we have had for upcoming vacations, building our chicken “palace”/coop at the height of lumber prices and finishing up our Medina home to get it on the market.
Feeling prompted to buy more mattresses I looked online and found nice mattresses on sale at a location over an hour away. However, I would be passing that way en route to taking Xai to his activity.
Now, for the money.
I didn't feel right asking Quinn. So I asked God. “Please let me know about or find any stash of money that may be about so that I can purchase the mattresses not using funds that we are currently delegating every other direction. I really don't want to stress Quinn out. Please help me if possible, but if not, no worries. I trust You.”
Enter miracle number one.
Hyrum came up to me after using our old laptop for some “random” reason and held out a roll of bills. “Here, Mom. I found this in the laptop and it is probably yours.” (No one else in our house loses $100 without noticing...the kids are always paying me back for random expenses on Amazon and I frequently stash the bills somewhere that I am “sure” to remember later!)
I felt driven a day later to organize my bookshelves downstairs. We had recently purchased two more on sale (only $35 each, yay!) and had emptied the storeroom of the extra book boxes...so it all matched up to happen soon. I started yesterday and upon clearing off a top shelf, I found the money from our plays that people had paid me that I thought I had already deposited. And—witness the miracle—it was just over the amount I needed for the two mattresses. Amazing.
As we say in our house, “God is good...” “...all the time...” “...and all the time...” “....God is good.” (From “God's Not Dead” the movie.) Truer words were never spoken.
Another miracle: this week I went to Medina with Lily, Hyrum, Xai, Eli, Liesl and Penelope. We were there for less than two days and were able to get our house there pretty much ready for market--adding flowers and mulch to the flower beds, painting trim, mowing and trimming the lawn (thanks to superhero Hyrum) and still have the little ones be mostly happy (thanks to superhero Lily). Quinn added the final shutters and grow boxes and I had fun filling them with fake flowers. I felt guided and not frantic, with a prayer in my heart. The only disappointment was that I wasn't able to get my kids back for their church youth activity this week--I hate making decisions that make them sad or suffer at all. I need to learn how to better deal with that but until then, I will get a little grumpy and my heart will hurt a little whenever I need to make those decisions.
Maia hurt her foot this week...bruising it pretty severely. She has been rocking it on crutches, though making her keep the foot elevated and iced has been a challenge. We have "Family Camp" next week so hopefully she can keep it happy until then!
Eli has drifted from "sweet momma's boy" to "belligerent feisty man" in his transition from five to six years old. I am always amazed at how much Skousen's "So You Want To Raise A Boy" nails the stages of boys on the head! He just needs a good wrestle, tickle-session, or battle of some sort every day. Several times. Enter Hyrum, Drew and Daddy....invaluable.
Liesl calls me and everyone else "stupid" at least a hundred times per day. Quinn tried to help her transition to "stupendous" but she didn't buy that.
Speaking of Quinn, he is currently still in Medina longer than his usual three days a week. Even though I saw glimpses of him earlier this week, I miss him excruciatingly. The house, however, is now officially on the market so he is trying to get it under contract asap with the hot and hopping market in Medina right now. My prayers and heart are with him...I miss that man.
Xai is still doing so well at trying to do what is right. I love conversations with him about making good choices. He really thinks clearly about things. Unforunately, that means when others don't think clearly or want to make negative decisions he is not very sympathetic. He, Drew and Piper are so much alike in this regard! And maybe a little me.
I think the dogs may turn out to not me chicken killers after all. We haven't lost one yet, miraculously, but will still keep them in our prayers and keep actively training and observing them. While I got “extra” chickens for the express purpose of “just in case,” I still don't want to lose any of my silly feathered darlings.
Havala and Piper had a great time staying home this week taking care of animals while we were in Medina. It is fun to see their friendship grow! Last night I was touched to listen to Havala play the accompaniment to a song called “Footsteps” while her sisters sang along. I am so grateful that I still have children in the home that I get to watch grow and unfold in their talents. Being a mom is so rewarding.
I am still amazed on occasion walking through our woods at the beauty we have here. While there is thick humidity at times and more bugs than I am used to, I guess that is to be expected to have such green and to be in such "camping" type place. I love watching Penelope outside. She is almost always looking up at the sky, watching the light filter through the branches in wonder. So sweet. I love having little ones around me to help me remember to find wonder in the world around me.
Here's an excerpt from a Messenger conversation with Tova, after she shared some Jane Austen biographies and other documents:
I
loved this one so much! What depth and perspective it gave into her
writings and life. and from so many people's view. Loved it! Right
now I am going downstairs to organize my bookshelves. I need a little
time to myself...I think this is the only time I am going to get it,
as I love my darlings during the day and want to spend it enjoying
them
.
Love you! Thanks for the delicious opportunity to hear from you
yesterday! My phone is struggling to recover from its encounter with
baby slobber so I may not be able to communicate much in the near
future, save for this medium, but I must confess that reading those
biographies have inspired me to wax eloquent in my written
communication with you, most darling Tova
.
LOVE YOU!!!
I felt a little overwhelmed with the projects I feel I need to do and still spending time enjoying my darlings. I prayed for help. Maybe getting up at 4:15 am after a moderately interrupted night's sleep with Penelope is the answer? I just needed some alone time.
I think I will go and organize my bookshelves some more and get Drew's room ready.
Life is truly about doing a great work. And that requires...work, ironically enough :D.
We also watched "Raya and the Last Dragon" (enjoyed it), had a delicious waffle, sausage and Orange Julius breakfast by Lily, ate "chicken with a bone" and went swimming at a local pool after buying a summer pass, which we intend to use weekly! Super fun! The kids love the water and little Penelope is like a tadpole. I can't wait to see how my grandson does in it in a couple of weeks <3.
Best news ever!!! My parents are closing on a house and are moving next door this summer! I am super excited for the kids to have grandparents living near them after so many years of being at only extended traveling distance. There has been a lot of ups and downs for them, but having them near will be the fulfillment of a dream I have had for years. Super excited!
We also will be able to spend time with Quinn's parents this summer, between a reunion and hopefully a visit later. Coolio!! My kids are super blessed with loving grandparents on both sides and this summer seems like it will be a great time for the kids to bond with them again <3!
Ah! Lyme's disease? That doesn't sound fun. Yay that Oma and Opa are moving next door for sure. Tell Eli that I say happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteSure thing! And yes, we're super happy to have them here!
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