Oh, the joys of babysitting!

As many of you know, I watch 3 adorable germ factories in my home, ages 1, 3, and 4. (We all know how kids at that age spread their wealth via slime and uncleanly habits. ) Sometimes I watch a 4Th child (age 8), who incidentally attends a different elementary school than Christina and Nolan, adding to the mix her own brand of bacteria and virus' even when she doesn't come because she is the sister of the other 3 kids. Then you have Matthew, who attends a different school as well, which then multiplies our exposure to even more illness provoking life forms.



Mix in 3 other adults, aside from me, who each have contact with numerous friends, coworkers, church families, service personnel, neighbors, and so on. They, in turn, have their own cesspools going on as well, exponentially magnifying our chances for exposure to what ever sicknesses going around even further. And, if that weren't enough, we had Halloween, when countless numbers of people passed out candy concealing who knows what kind of stowaways, incidentally providing the perfect food source for said trespassers once they settle in with their new hosts.



Ewe! It's no wonder we all have Strep! The fact that this type of Strep tests negative for in-office testing, but then positive for the more stringent lab tests, makes it all the harder to eradicate. Maybe I should just wipe my home down with alcahol and bathe everyone in vinegar!

Just a Few of My Blessings

Though counting my blessings would take far too long, naming a few will do for now. And, since putting them in order of importance requires more time and brain power than I posses at this late hour, I will list the few things that I am grateful for in no particular order save the wanderings of my sleepy mind. So, please do not be offended if you feel jipped, as I most likely am grateful for you more than you realize, and more than I have probably ever expressed.

1. The beauty and miracle of life, whether it be through the lives of loved ones, friends, or of the many creatures and plants that dot the face of this planet. And, not to sound selfish, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to take place in it's miracle.

2. The diversity and intrigue in non-living elements (whether it be of this world or another) and the many great creations that can come of them.

3. The marvelous plan of salvation and all of it's divine components, such as repentance, faith, and the atonement, of which I have been blessed to learn about through the gospel of Christ.



4. For my relationships with all family and friends, including the various ward families in which I have lived.

5. For every experience I have ever had, which have both taught me much and shaped who I am today.

6. For the basic needs with which my family has been bestowed, in addition to an abundance of love and mercy.

7. For a Father in heaven who loves us enough to give us freedom of choice for our own good, despite the pain and sorrow it causes him when we do those things which he has cautioned us against.

8. For the health and strength with which my family and I have been given, for there are many who suffer far worse than we ever have.

9. To live in a country where I am able to receive an education and not be forced to live my life the way another dictates, or in which I am unduly oppressed.

10. To live in a fairly peaceful part of the world.

Duh.......!

Have you ever had a day, or a moment, when you were totally unable to think outside the box? When you had somehow fallen into a mental trap that things could only be approached by certain angles? Then, to your amazement and/or embarrassment, someone else comes along and says something so simple and effective that you can't believe that the same idea hadn't occurred to you as well? Well I have. And, if things couldn't be any worse, it was a young child who brought me out of my stupor! Ouch!


A few weeks back I was agonizing over how to keep Pierce (the cute 1 year old I watch) from destroying my downstairs array of African violets and other indoor plants. The gate which Dave had made for me had fallen apart and needed some serious repairs. Since Dave was sick, I needed to come up with some other temporary fix until he could mend it. I decided to block off that same corner with a double stroller and toy bucket, as moving the plants would only change the location of my dilemma.


Soon the little whippersnapper figured out that if he climbed up the couch, mounted the arm rest, and reached over, he could still get his hands on some of the forbidden foliage. Unable to think of any other alternative, I then resigned myself to the stress of keeping Pierce completely off of the couch for several days, or distracted at the very least. He tested me every time he thought I wasn't looking ,though. Over and over, bee-line after bee-line, he persisted until one day the inevitable happened. He decimated one of my poor plants!








"What did you do?"


(Hmm...... tempting.)



The other kids came running and shouting once they saw what he'd done, eager to tattle on the little rascal. We then confined the culprit to his high chair, gave him some crackers, and cleaned up the mess. After we were all done, I turned my attention to what was left of my African Violet and tried to see what I could salvage.

It was then that Christina bounded up to me and cheerfully declared that she had fixed the problem. Sceptical, I asked her what she had done. "Moved the couch!", she said matter of factly. "What?" I said doubtful, then walked over to see exactly what she had meant by that. Sure enough, when I got there I could see that she had moved the couch over to the left about 6 inches or so, which consequently left enough room for the stroller to be place directly between the armrest and the speaker, rather than in a diagonal like before. "Oh!" I said, rather dumbfounded at the simplicity of her genius.

We then placed Pierce on the armrest to see if things had been moved far enough. He worked it, and worked it, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite execute his old menacing plan. Bewildered by our laughs of triumph (and sighs of relief), he realized his predicament. After a few more tries he gave up in frustration, and moved on to find the next thing that would cause the same kind of uproar. Meanwhile, I just stood there incredulous to all of the waisted time, energy, and agony I could have used else wise, had my head been screwed on just right. :/

what's your favorite calling?

Most of us have had many callings in life and in church. Some of them easy, some of them not so easy. Up until my current calling (Bear leader for Cub Scouts), I would have said that being Primary Chorister was the funnest thing I have ever done in the church. I just loved seeing those cute little faces get all animated and work so hard.

Being Primary Chorister wasn't all that easy though. It took a lot of work and preparation to do things the way I felt I should. Perhaps the reward was greater because of all the work that went into it, I'm not sure. I do know that my mission worked under that same sort of principle though. Being a mother seems to follow suit too.

For the time being, I am more than happy being the Bear leader for our ward. Those 9 year old boys sure can be a lot of fun, not to mention easy to entertain. I love it! My calling isn't really hard though, in that is doesn't require tons of preparation. Yet, somehow I still seem to reap the same sort of blessings and satisfaction from it. Perhaps it is because I give it my all. Who knows? What I do know is that it is a sacrifice for me to fulfil my duties. (They aren't hard or time consuming, but considering all that I have going on in my life, I don't think I could handle much more.) So, maybe there are some other principles at hand that I haven't quite figured out yet. All I do know for sure is that this is my favorite calling and I'm grateful for the things that it teaches me.

Face lift for my blog

Today I decided to be brave and try a couple of new looks for my blog. Normally I'm not very experimental with computer stuff, but I saw several cute sites run by women that shared their own backgrounds for free. They made it sound so simple too. I figured that if these ladies could do it, I could too. So what do you think?

For now this will do, though I'm tempted to learn how to create some of my own backgrounds later on. This particular background I found at http://simplychicblogs.blogspot.com/
There are also lots of other free backgrounds available at http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/

If you are interested in making your own alterations, just google "free blog backgrounds" and you'll find that there are many other options out there besides those mentioned above. Just make sure that your text colors stand out enough to be seen through your new backgrounds. (I had to change mine, but that was rather simple to do.) Most of these web sites share additional helpful tips like that, in case you wish to make other changes to your site, and even tell you how to do it. In return for their services most sites just ask that you give them proper credit and that you supply their link for others to see. Hope this helps! Happy blogging!

Hungry?

This morning Matthew had a rough time waking up for school. He didn't have time to sit down to breakfast, so I advised him to grab a few Fig Newtons and raw almonds to hold him over until lunch. Nolan helpfully piped in that if Matthew needed to, he could always go to the school nurse and tell her that he had a stomach ache because she would give him crackers to help him feel better. I kind of chuckled at this, and then tucked the memory away without a second thought.

Later on today I get a call from Nolan, who was "sick" in the nurses office for the second day in a row. After getting mixed information from Nolan about whether he needed to come home or not, I decided to talk to the nurse. After we went over things like temperature and so forth, it finally dawned on me what might actually be going on. I then proceeded to tell the nurse what Nolan had said earlier today and she laughed. She then told me that she hadn't tried giving him crackers today, like the day before, but that she would try it again and see if they made him feel "better". LOL !!! (I then gave Nolan crackers after he got back from school too.)

One way to make a living

Somebody should give this kid a scholarship, he makes for a great linguist!