Encouragement

The last little while I have found myself more often than not wanting to find a place in my home where my kids can't find me and hide. Better yet, a place where they can't find me, and I can't hear them....and chocolate happens to be hidden there as well. Driving down the block in the van, parking, and watching a bit of a movie until I'm calmed down has come close to reality many times. My alarm each morning is usually one of my kids "Mom! Nathan licked me. He knows licking is my weakness!" or "Mom! the boys aren't letting me play the Wii with them (which they aren't supposed to be playing, with or without their sister) I want to be Princess Peach!" The complaining usually wakes up Calla, and my day starts out with everyone, including me, grumpy.

So yesterday during our ward conference our Stake President gave a talk that was very encouraging. He talked about his 5 sons, and their constant fighting. How competitive they are (that doesn't sound familiar at all!), and how every other family home evening was on the topic of contention. He talked about the scriptures he would always quote about how we should avoid contention in the home...the exact same scriptures we read to our kids every other family home evening, since the topic in our home is usually on contention as well.

He talked about how his sons are now all grown and out of the home. This Christmas they all got together and one of the activities was a ping-pong tournament. He worried about it, knowing how competitive they are. To his surprise, they actually played with good sportsmanship and encouraged each other. His message, which was so encouraging to me, was that miracles still happen! It was so nice to hear about other families going through the same trials. That my kids may actually get along...even if it is 20 years down the road. It has given me perspective. Maybe I'm not a horrible parent. Even good parents can have kids that fight to no end.

I was also reminded about how you can't have quality time with your kids unless you have quantity time with them.....and that quantity time has to be with me mentally involved. Not focusing on the computer saying "uh-huh" to whatever my child is trying to tell me, having no clue what she is actually saying.

That being said, I'm going to try to find the joy in the little moments with my kids.
Ok. Enough of the deep thought stuff. The worst two months of the year are over! Other than basketball, there haven't been any big activities going on. It has mainly been just the little things.


Nathan's favorite time of the year is the two months where he gets to play basketball. Lehi City drives me nuts. You would think that by the time they are in 4th grade they would call fouls, traveling, etc. It's pretty much free for all. Next year is going to be a rude awakening for lots of kids. Nathan really improved over the last year. He's got great control of the ball, and is a really good guard.

Anika is getting to that point where she really needs to be in school. Every second that she isn't playing with friends, she is bored, and begging for a friend to play with. She has lots of little girls her age in the neighborhood, which helps. Calla got to join in the fun during this playdate because they were playing with their dolls, and her friend wanted Calla to be her baby.

Anika's favorite meal is noodles. Every now and then she pulls out one of the microwaveable cups of ABC noodles. She downed the entire thing and was telling me about how much she loved it. A second later she said "Wait a second! There's a tomato on this cup. Are there tomatoes in here? I hate tomatoes. Yuck! I'm never eating this again." So much for an easy, quick meal.

The other day I had to run to Home Depot. It's Anika's favorite store, just because of the car cart. I got her into the cart, and went to put Calla into the basket in her car seat. She threw a fit. So I took her out to hold her. She started leaning toward the car, so I decided to let her give it a try. She was in heaven. When it was time to leave, I had to pry her fingers off the steering wheel. I could tell she was so proud of herself--felt like a real big girl.

Tanner came home from school looking like this. Actually, this is the cleaned up version of what he looked like. Loose rocks by the crossing guard, and little scooter wheels don't mix. And to think his big brother had to tell him two days before the accident that helmets are just for nerds. He was really good at wearing his helmet every day before that, until his brother had to shoot off his mouth. He was pretty excited to go to school the next day and show off his scars.

Now that we have the late church schedule, we have lots of time to kill on Sunday mornings. Tanner decided to put on a puppet show for Calla. He had her giggling, which had the rest of us giggling. Gotta enjoy those precious moments when nobody is fighting!