April 12, 2023
Eli is working on his monster book. I am grateful he is continuing to explore his artistic skills. He sure gets discouraged easily! I keep telling him that people have to grow into their talents with time and hard work. Just today he drew five platypuses–I loved it! Now we are watching a “snake quiet time” video. What a crazy world we live in! Eli also loves smashing carpenter bees–even making them into a bug soup for he and Liesl to eat. (They never did try it, surprise, surprise.) I am thoroughly loving our snuggling time together at night. He is super observant and I love his use of words. As we were listening to the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square, he turned to me with an expression of awe, “how do they blend so well?”
Xai fell down, tripping over Piper’s foot while playing basketball. He insists he is never going to play basketball again and is still nursing his hurts. He told me today he may never use one of his arms again. He valiantly strove to practice his piano in spite of the injury, brave man ;). He has also been finishing up math work book after math work book–I think he has earned three boxes of cereal and four movies (longer ones get both). It’s fun to see him devour them and figure them out. He is great at cooking pancakes and eggs for people and frequently will call out at meal times, taking orders. I really appreciate his obedience. He’s one I can count on to really do what he is supposed to do, immediately after I ask it. It is amazing how great that feels. No wonder God says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Liesl is “doing a piano lesson” with Maia teaching her. Maia gets paid a little and Liesl gets some patient, loving time with her big sister. Liesl is getting more regimented in her ritualistic goodbyes, but I think she is less desperate with them. It has definitely helped having her sleep in the same bed as me every night. I am hoping that this ten days with Quinn gone where the kiddos can sleep with me will be helpful in the long run for their security at night. Both Liesl and Eli were babies during some of my more mentally strained early motherhood times–at least that’s what it feels like. Maybe not. I’ve never been a rockstar at night when it comes to being patient, but I do feel like I’m getting better. Anyway, Liesl is enjoying learning how to read, was super happy to practice dribbling today at our family basketball time and is also doing well with her workbooks. She is my little buddy and loves to spend time with me. If there’s an option of going with me and either going with someone else or staying home, she almost always chooses me. It is sweet! Yesterday she cried a lot because she was missing Daddy. We all miss him, but I know he is having a great time with Kelka and will enjoy Croatia. I will pray for good weather for them all!
Penelope is sleeping right now. She is all about “mine!” right now, and so we have many “conversations” about how things are everybody’s or that we are going to share. Go game: “Mine!” “No, everyone’s.” Hummus: “Mine!” “No, we share. It’s for everyone.” Markers, colored pencils, balls, Oma’s little stuffed wolf. She is great at running and walking and it’s fun to watch her tiny little body move and climb. She LOVES her little bed in the corner and will often go in of her own accord at night. I am grateful! She will even lie in there for a while before going to sleep. I kind of wish that I had done this with the other kiddos. It seems to create some great sleep patterns. I don’t think she even awoke once last night! She hates having her hair combed but it develops such a rat’s nest there’s really nothing to be done but to work through it. She also got a little sliver on the tip of one of her baby fingers. It was super sad and hard to get it out. I got Maia to pump her full of candy while I tried to work it out as gently as I could. It kind of worked. She and Liesl are keeping me in supply of fresh flowers, primarily dandelions and daffodils. When she gets an injury or sore she says, “hurt!” and loves to get a kiss. I love the power of kisses.
Maia is growing so quickly. She is a darling. I appreciate how much she is trying to take a deep breath and come back from conflict. She is quick to say sorry too. She did track for a short time and already got a first place on the 400 meter dash. She did well with hurdles and her 4x400 medley. We decided not to do it because it wasn’t very efficient or worth all the time and effort. It was a hard decision but I believe Piper and Havala feel peace. Maia took it very well and thought of other things that she could do instead. It is fun to see her progress so much in different areas: music, dancing, math, writing (a story currently) and her art is fantastic! She is making lots of great friends wherever she goes. It’s fun that she calls herself “more outgoing” now. I’ve always felt she is pretty outgoing so I am glad for her feelings of self-confidence.
Havala is progressing well with her guitar. She also wrote an incredible short story for her CC class called, “Brave.” I was really impressed with her organization of thought, beauty of story line and structure of her words. She was looking for a picture for her biography and found that there were no recent pictures of her. So sad! So we are going to take some pictures of her today for it. She is one of the main characters for their Mock Trial group, too, and excited/nervous for the trial in two weeks. I wish I could be there but they scheduled it on a day when I have dress rehearsal for my other groups. She also got a job this summer where she will be teach an “art” class to youth for six weeks. She will be great! She is excited. It will take care of her expenses for CC, since she has to pay half.
Lily is doing well in Australia. She is really enjoying her fellow missionaries and the people in her area, even if it is hard to make contacts with people. She is such a gem! I love chatting with her. She is also getting along really well with one of the young men she is serving with. While she is being super cautious about expressing her feelings, I am happy for her to have that feeling that can help her look forward even more to becoming a wife and mother. She does heart attacks for people’s houses, has fun games with the local community–members and friends alike–and has been told by her mission president’s wife that she is a good and hard-working missionary. We miss her–just last night Havala was crying because she missed her.
Hyrum is now officially in Denmark! He seems super happy to be doing missionary work. He had a snowball fight in the hallways, enjoyed oreo ice cream pops, worked hard and rested well and even got to see Elder Uchtdorf. Super cool!
Drew is still in the polar north regions of Canada, enjoying “My Turn on Earth” on the long drives with his companions. They love rocking out to “everybody wants to have a body!” He’s loving enjoying his favorite companion so far for a second term. My polar opposite children who are on polar opposites of the world–almost literally–are just doing their things!!
April 15, 2023
Interesting day…
I came across three empty tape rolls in the garbage can, a product of Liesl’s creative endeavors to make her multiple “books” made out of cardboard out of the burn-box with papers taped very well into the center of it. I absolutely LOVE this creative stage.
We cleared out a HUGE segment of what I like to call DREAD BRIAR ROSE…multi-floral rose. I now have battle scars all over my arms but WE EMERGED TRIUMPHANT. We now have a huge section of creek cleared for the kiddos to wander in.
We went up to weed at my parent’s house and Liesl helped for a while and then started wandering around, doing her latest favorite project at Opama’s–gathering chives. Then she dreamed up a surprise soup for dinner. I convinced her that her chives could go well in our family potato soup. So the rest of us pretended like it was a surprise to the end….even I, who helped her make it.
But the crowning moment of the day had to have been when we were headed out to Opama’s with the soup. I turned around and saw a dead snake on my countertop. Eli had found one earlier, put it into two testtubes filled with water and taped together. Apparently his set-up wasn’t set up to endure little sister attention. And then he brought it onto my kitchen food prep area. Totally off the radar. I had the unique opportunity to text my mom: “Snake’s out. Going to be late…”
So cool, right?
April 17, 2023
I am grateful that I get the chance to see and talk to my missionaries over video chat! Even though the connection isn’t always the best, it is so great to see their faces, laugh and share together.
I am excited that Quinn is getting home tonight. It will be SO GREAT to have him home again.
I went running again this morning and this time ran more of the way back. I am focusing on just showing up as a mark of my success and not worrying overmuch about my progress, but I AM super happy to see a little progress. I take Kujo more mornings and he seems to enjoy being able to explore sights and smells. Today we stopped by Love when we got back–to say “hi”--and I made Kujo stay near her while she smelled him. ALL over. It was like his legs were the neighborhood dog news. It was hilarious.
Today during Drew’s video call, Penelope lost it outside. She threw a tantrum for like 30-45 minutes because no one would drive her somewhere. What a funny girl! She really had a hard time calming down. I’m so glad she’s sleeping now!
Maia, Xai, Liesl, Eli, Penelope and I made some pretty paper Easter Eggs today. It was fun to see their creativity. We are going to put some “praising” stickers on the back and hang them up in their rooms as a reminder of what Easter is really about.
I am trying to remain calm about what we have coming up. Deep breaths. Pray. Stay steady but not overwhelmed. With about three hours of my Monday used to video call, I have to be patient with my at home generated efforts. I am excited to hang some pictures in the laundry room.
We had a great reading time–lots of rubbing of feet, Havala rubbed my back…heaven.
April 21, 2023
I just walked into the GIRL’S room (now all the girls but Maia), and almost tripped over Penelope’s tower…made out of board books. So indicative of our little girl: organization plus books. At Opama’s yesterday, she put one block on each square tile of their fireplace support section of their flooring. She also loves pulling out her books full of puzzles and “doing” them–they’re cheap puzzles challenging for an adult so you can imagine how far that gets her.
A room full of toys and she rarely plays in it. Typical of my children!
We went to go swimming yesterday at Strouds Run, but apparently it is the end of the semester and the beach and hillside were covered with partying college students, many of them scantily clad. As we drove up our hearts sunk lower and lower. As the majority of us discussed if we could make it work, Eli hid in the car. “There are so many wearing that polka-dot thing!! My heart hurts. I’m going to stay in the van if we stay here. Can we please go?” We left and found a wonderful river side beach area off of Highway 50–with just us!--to play in. Writing about this now it reminds me of the scripture we read last night…and a little child shall lead them. And “whosoever becometh as a little child.” It was amazing how much justification we were creating to stay there because we wanted to swim so much. Maybe that is also like the scripture from last night: “if they right hand, leg, eye offended thee, cut it out…it is better to go through life maimed, lame and blind than to go to hell.” I guess it is better to not go swimming than to expose ourselves to so much. I was grateful for how much integrity Elijah had to what was right and good.
Xai was hilarious to play Apples to Apples with yesterday! He was such a great sport–as always–and only had one card in front of him, but he laughs and laughs! He wants to play all of the potentially funny games lately. One night I came home to a table FULL of games and Elijah and Xai ready to go at it. I think this afternoon is going to be a game day!
Maia is maturing so fast. I see her taking a deep breath and really exercising maturity and control. There is definitely some self-righteous older sibling attitude happening regularly, but she is really trying to temper it with self-control. And seeking to reach out with love. The other day, after talking to Aunt NIesha and Oma in a group chat, Maia was a little sad. We had been on together and I recognized the deflation immediately after the phone call ended. She told me then that her cousins have the life she dreams of…a room of her own (which she currently has), sports and activities. I paused before rushing in where parents fear to tread and then gave her some space. I think she could also recognize that I was a little sad for her sorrow. I pointed out that I knew she missed her cousins. But then I gently pointed out that she has the activities like her cousins–only our swimming lessons are done all summer on our own terms in the local swimming pool and lakes. And her music lessons are happening at the local FVRC. The only thing she doesnt’ have that the cumulative Buchanan sister had was participation in gymnastics. But I guess it is nice to feel that you have something for yourself. I wasn’t sure how to proceed and just left it with a hug and a gentle wish for her happiness and actually stayed quiet without whipping out my considerable mental arsenal of logic. I could see her mulling over her feelings in her mind and later she came to me and said that she was actually really happy with her life overall and that she wasn’t sure what she was feeling earlier. That was a super cool example of letting the Spirit guide and not forcing–especially against strong-willed kiddos! I’m going to have to remember that!
I have really been working on my anger responses after President Nelson’s talk. Anger is such an easy, “powerful” default for me, but I really appreciated his example and his words. We watched a cartoon video about the cookies, where an old woman gets some cookies out of a vending machine, sits on a bench and then a youth next to her starts eating the cookies!! Her cookies! She angrily goes for the cookies one at a time while he also does the same. When he reaches for the last one, she throws a huge fit. He shrugs, breaks it in half and gives her half. The AUDACITY! She storms off angrily, plops down in the train she was waiting for and reaches into her purse to get her ticket out…and sees her full package of cookies. She had been eating his all along. She looks out the window as the train pulls away, the youth smiles and waves at her and then throws the empty cookie wrapper…his empty cookie wrapper in the garbage. After a very focused discussion on who was justified in their reactions and what choices they made, we have been calling out our responses this week: “are you acting like the woman or the genial youth?” and “Who do you want to act like?” It’s been pretty telling, especially for me!
Time to try and sneak in a run! I’ve got to keep trying, keep showing up. I want to be hiking with Penelope’s children someday!
