Ah, spring!

Amazing what a little color does for the spirit.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

I abide by that principle when it comes to food. I map out my weekly menu around the perishable items I find in my fridge that will inevitably get thrown out if I don't put them to use. In other areas of my life, I'm not quite as conservative with my resources. I definitely don't subscribe to the practice of hoarding virtually everything in case of emergency. In fact, I LOVE to get rid of stuff. I call it simplifying. Tim calls it obnoxious.

So when Tim brought me six pairs of his "work" jeans last week, hoping that I could repair them back to usefulness, I cringed. The last patch I mended had to be sewn by hand - and it took almost two hours. Despite the cuteness factor of the result, it was difficult for me to surrender to my more practical side and restore what had become obsolete.
Luckily Tim's pants are large enough to warrant the use of my machine, cutting the time significantly and voila! Two hours later, I successfully turned six pairs of jeans into five. Which, for the record, included four crotches and four knee patches. And yes, we had both had a good chuckle over the fact that four of the five pairs needed the crotches repaired...



And here's the pair I refashioned for Lily:

Easter weekend.

Friday night:







And Saturday:





Sunday - no pictures to speak of. Morning church, afternoon Easter stories, yummy dinner, and an overwhelming gratitude for the Savior of the world, His resurrection and His Atonement, and the power He has to heal us all. Now, that is hope. Happy Easter to all!

A good day.

What makes a really good day? Today was one for me and, as discussed over dinner, for the rest of my family. So here's why it was good for me. I woke up super early to play the Easter Bunny - the waking up early was the good part - freezing my tush off hiding eggs at dawn in the backyard - not so fun. The kids woke up at a reasonable time, got their chores done, obviously motivated by the plethora of candy eggs that awaited their eager hands. In fact, we had chores done, the egg hunt and the associated clean-up completed all by 8:45 this morning. We could have ended the day right there! But no, I actually got a few things checked off my to-do list, Tim finished a few of his own to-do's, the kids played happily (mostly) outside for the majority of the afternoon, and I made dinner complete with fruit and vegetables and the kids ate it all!
Apparently, it's not so much in the details but it appears that my recipe for a good day includes the following:
1. Rising early (but not too early).
2. Happy kids.
3. Work - completed.
4. Satisfied husband.
5. Oh, and happy kids.

As if that weren't enough, Tim and I get to go on a date tonight! Icing on the cake.

What makes a good day for you?

You win some, and you lose some.

Does the tooth fairy give money for lost teeth? I mean, really lost teeth, as in, the kid pulls it out and then proceeds to lose it and find it over and over again until it finally never materializes? Well, she came to our house. And boy am I glad. What a shame it would have been for a 6 year old to lose her first tooth and not even reap the monetary benefits of such an accomplishment. Next time, though, I'm not sure the tooth fairy will be so generous. But maybe next time, Lily won't be quite so exuberant. She tells everyone she sees. And I do mean everyone. Even the clerk at the store. That's my Lily.

Spring break.

We do strange things during spring break.





Others, not so strange.

Thirty-four.

Sometime in the past week, I celebrated a birthday. I use the term "celebrated" rather loosely, since it was really just an ordinary day, as one who is the mother of four young children might expect. So, ordinary, in fact, that when my husband came home for lunch, my kids were stumped by his mention of the occasion. What? It's mom's birthday? Did she make a cake? And, as a side note, I am not in the practice of making my own birthday cakes - I think the only reason to do so would be to "allow" the kids to celebrate on my behalf and, selfishly, I don't want to do something for the kids on my birthday. Furthermore, I turn down Tim's offer to make one every single year, simply because my birthday is always sandwiched between Anna's birthday and Easter and, let's face it, who needs another dessert? Much as I LOVE them, not me.

Many have asked me since how my birthday was. The truth is, once my kids discovered the fact, it was pretty crummy. Perhaps I'm not the only one who has adopted the same annoying practice of my own parents, who would ask only for obedience and kindness from their children as a birthday present. Well, my kids blew off that request within the first five minutes. Nah, mom couldn't possibly be serious. I'm telling you, they pulled out all the stops. I came darn near locking myself in my bedroom for hours on end. Oh, Tim did his best to make it special - but, having had a crummy day at work himself and coming home to an exasperated wife could do little to salvage what was left of my thirty-fourth birthday. Anna remarked sweetly to me before bedtime that night, "Mom, I'm sorry you had such a bad birthday." To which I could only reply, "It's okay, Anna. I have a wonderful life - I can handle a really bad day once in a while, even if it is my birthday." Next year, though, I won't bother telling you girls when my birthday rolls around. Deal?

P.S. Lest you think my birthday was an entire disaster, I will mention that facebook birthdays are pretty cool - I guess social networking is good for something after all. I was gifted a breakfast date with my neighbor and free babysitting from another friend so Tim and I could go out for lunch to an Indian buffet. Yum. And, Tim endowed me with two beautiful mahogany bookshelves to put in our living room. And a bouquet of roses. Can't complain at all.

Chuck E. Cheese, you've got nothing on us.

I freely admit that I do a lot of things wrong as a mom. But, since this is my blog and I can paint whatever picture I want about myself and my success in the home, I will mention briefly one method where I can claim success. I actually happened upon it a couple of years ago when I taught the six-year-olds at church and had a few, shall we say, "spirited" personalities in my class. Okay, they were rotten. And I believe in positive discipline. So I created a method of rewarding them with "tickets" for certain behavior (ie. staying in your seat for more than five minutes, perhaps?) which, when we came to a certain point in the year, they were able to trade in Chuck E Cheese style for prizes. It worked magic.

I implemented it at home and three years later, it's one of the few methods still holding strong. I surprise the girls with tickets if they set the table without being asked, complete their chores on time and without constant reminders, help a sister with her work, etc. Another bonus to this method is that, when we are out and about and someone asks me to buy them something for no apparent reason, I might suggest that we put it in the "ticket closet" so that they can earn it for themselves. I avoid giving them a flat out "no" and spoiling them at the exact same time. They learn responsibility and ownership without my having to pull teeth.

So last week the jar was brimming and we had a ticket party. My prices were grossly inflated, but who are they to know, right? Anna scored a laptop, Lily a tea set, and Rachel a bunch of new food for their play kitchen, among other things. It was like Christmas in March!

Here they are, tickets counted, ready to roll!

One down. A million to go.

About a month ago we completed the Book of Mormon as a family for the first time. The kids were terribly disappointed the next day when we opened up to 1st Nephi to start over again. I admit, it is a bit anti-climactic. But what an accomplishment! After all, we began over three years ago!

On a similar note, I purchased several CD's with scriptures put to music. As a kid, the hours we spent in the car were eased by listening to such (but not the exact same) scripture songs and consequently, I had many Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures memorized long before my early morning seminary days.

I had to cringe the first time I inserted one of the discs into our van's CD player - it's beyond cheesy. But, when Anna came up to me the other night, scriptures in hand and opened to Matthew 5:14-16 while singing the verses word for word, I was officially sold. Music is such an effective tool for memorization and learning and although its obvious that memorizing scriptures is not the only way to learn the word of God, it sure comes in handy!