A.J. is 14!

I love this boy!

I loved him the first moment I saw him, 14 years ago today.

This morning we were telling him about the day he was born and what his dad’s first words were.

The first thing John said was, “Can we have another?”

At the time, after 19 hours of labor, I responded, “Can we wait a little bit?”

Now it is thousands of days later, and I agree with John in those first moments, “Can we have another?”

Another one like A.J. would be a blessing to any home.

A.J.~It is your day, so I would like to tell you 14 things that I love about you…

~I love your smile.

~I love how when you apply yourself to anything, you succeed!

~I love how you volunteered to come first…to set that example for your younger siblings.

~I love how you know what you should do, and for the most part, do the right thing.

~I love how you adore your baby sister, Annie.  The way your eyes light up every time the two of you see each other, is truly priceless.

~I love how you embraced going to junior high school.  So sure of yourself and ready to conquer whatever came your way.

~I love how you know what you love.  Whether it is football or food, you know what you like.

~I love how you have a love for sweets.  You sniff out any goodies that are in hiding and make short work of them.

~I love your sense of style.  You can put any outfit together and pull it off.  (My last favorite was the tie around your head as you headed off to school.  Silly boy!)

~I love how teachable you are.  I love those moments we have where I am able to teach you what I know, and you apply that to your life.

~I love your habit of prayer.  What a blessing in your life to know who you are, and that your Father in Heaven is listening.

~I  love your testimony of Joseph Smith.  I know you can visualize him in that grove and you believe in what he saw and heard.

~I love your sense of humor.  You can make me laugh everyday!

~I love, maybe most of all, how you trust me.  You trust me as your mother and your friend.  For that, I will forever be grateful!

May you continue to grow both physically and spiritually and enjoy all life has to offer.

Happy Birthday A.J.!

Love, Mom

The calm before the storm…

It is a Monday morning.

The usual responsibilities await me, but my mind is somewhere else.

I have had this intense desire to “figure” everything out.

I don’t even know what “everything” is.

You know when you can feel a storm coming.

In Colorado, you can see the storm coming over the snow-topped mountains. 

In California, you can see it coming from miles out, across the ocean.

You can have a beautiful day. The sun is shining, just a light breeze and calmness, but you know something is coming.

It is the calmness that I feel.

We have a job.  We have six beautiful children that have very few things weighing them down.  We have a home that keeps us warm and safe.  We have each other.  We have families who love us despite our imperfections.  And we have a belief in things that are not seen, but are true.  Really true.

Yesterday, the children sat very quiet, too quiet, during sacrament meeting.  The baby was asleep in my arms, the teenagers actually listened to the talks, and the other little ones were quietly sitting.  It was calm.

Last night, we shared a family meal with grandparents around the dining room table.  Then followed it up with games in the basement.  It wasn’t quiet, but there was a calmness in the air.

I don’t know what our next “storm” will be, but I do know that if I get up, do what should be done, love my family and honor my Father in Heaven, it will be ok.

The fact is…storms make us stronger.

Without them, life is always calm.  No extreme joy.  No feelings of need.  No chances to hope.  No chances to rely on each other when things are really hard.

When it is dark around us, the Lord is there for us.  However, he is always there for us.  We don’t have to learn in the middle of challenges.  We can learn and grow all the time.

We can become better everyday.

We can wake up, start in prayer, and have that guidance that we need to figure it all out.

A couple of weeks ago, Colorado had a beautiful day.  This is not unusual.  Colorado is one of the most amazing places to live.  It was 68 degrees in the middle of October.  The kids wore their summer shorts for what they thought would be their last chance.  We heard that there was going to be a storm.  A snow storm.  For the record, the weather people seem to be guessing most of the time here in CO.  Well, this time, they were right.  We spent the next three days with snow on the ground and kids home from school. 

What I want to remember is that only three days after that record storm came the other side.  The days were even more beautiful then before the storm.  Record highs in fact. 

I am grateful for the days before the storm, the days, weeks, and sometimes months during the storm, and I am grateful for the days that follow.

I’m ready.  Bring on the storms and the record highs.

I am going to go and tackle that laundry, clean those bathrooms and read to those little girls, for I know that I will never figure everything out, but I can do those things that mean the most to my family.

May your storms bring you as much sweetness as mine bring me.

In the meantime…I’ll enjoy the calm.

Tricks AND Treats

The kids seriously scored in the treats department this year.  A loot like I haven’t seen since I was in 7th grade and trick-or-treated for FOUR hours in the streets of Anchorage, Alaska.

I don’t know if people were just feeling certifiably giving or if they had slipped something into their cocoa.  Whatever it was, the children certainly capitalized on the opportunity!

After the loot was sorted, stared at, eaten, and re-bagged…it was time for a “trick.”

Doesn’t this pot look like a delicious cider with cinnamon settling into the bottom after being slowly brewed all day?

Well…that is what Easton thought too.

I decided to offer him a taste of divinity.

I put a scoop in a favorite cocoa mug, slightly heated it in the microwave, gave it a sweet “motherly” blow to cool it just right and handed it over.

He lifted, he sipped, his face went SOUR!

You see…leftover hot dog water DOES NOT taste like cinnamon apple cider!

Score 1 for mom in the trick department!

Love you E-man…but that was hilarious!

May he remember how much he loves the mother who feeds him, occasionally does his chores, and helps him every night with homework when April Fools rolls around!

Warning: Snow days can be hazardous to your health

I know that you think I am going to go into a long dissertation about how my children took their skateboarding ramp and dung it into the hill and then jumped it over and over, and how in reality I should have been paying serious money to the urgent care for broken arms and mangled limbs BUT…

I am going to talk about what was happening IN the house.

We spent all THREE snow days making batch after batch of cookies, finding every gas station with fresh donuts of every kind, homemade soup with homemade bread, pan after pan of brownies, and delicious hot chocolate and cider to wash it all down.

THIS is a problem!

A triple load of calories, way too much sugar and a carb count that could line any heart with darkness.

I am grateful for the memories.

I am grateful to have had 3 days of nowhere to go and nothing having to be done.

Just keep the warning in mind next time you hear, “Snow day!”

Secret admirer

I have been thinking about a friend of mine since last night when I saw her.

I have been thinking about her a lot.

She made a sweet comment about a fun post  I had written, and expressed how she had enjoyed it.

I thought about her again.

I thought to myself, “I wish it could be totally natural and easy to express to her right here in the middle of this pack meeting, with Halloween games going on all around, guessing games on the table beside us and lots of yummy holiday treats lined up on the stage, just how much I admire her.”

I admire how patient she is.

Not just with the eight beautiful children she shares her life with, but with all of us around her.

She quietly sits there, I’m sure knowing the answer to almost every question presented around her, but waiting for someone to answer first, but alas we turn to her to know.

Did I mention she is brilliant?

She is.

A math teacher by trade, a mother by choice.

I admire who she is as a person.

She is the kind of person who is always on time.  Not to be perfect.  To be polite.  To show you that she respects the people who are holding the activity, doing the visiting or teaching the lesson.

She is the kind of person who never shows her displeasure of what has been said.  She will give her opinion, but never to the destruction of someone else’s idea.

She is the kind of person that everyone trusts. 

She is reliable and kind.

She is knowledgeable and generous.

Generous with her time, talents and love.

When I think of her, I think of how our Heavenly Father must love the way she lives her life.

Always thinking of others.  Always learning more.  Always trying hard.

She doesn’t boast of her days’ activities, no doubt watching others’ children, caring for her family, making a difference in her children’s schools  and living a noble life.

Yes, a noble life.

I am one of your secret admirers.  But you have many more.  Many, many more.

Know that your kindness, forgiveness and love is felt by all who know you.

You are more brilliant, more kind and even more beautiful than you will ever know in this life.

But when you are greeted  by our elder brother, he no doubt will look at you, and tell you that these words are completely insufficient for the way he feels about your turn on earth.

From one of those that are blessed to call you sister, thank you.

Thank you for being who you are!

My friend, the dishwasher

 

Seriously speaking, can an appliance be a “friend?”

I think that for all you mothers out there who make a sink full of dishes just by making a meal, you would have to agree.

I am grateful to live in a time when we have so many things that truly give us time with our families.

I am looking at my life with a “half-full” view.

Loads, and I mean A LOT of loads of laundry, greet me each Monday morning, but I am grateful that I have laundry appliances to tag team the need to clean.

Sunday dishes meet me on Monday morning, when we are aiming for an early bedtime on Sunday to start the week right, but I am grateful for the dishwasher that allows me to load and walk away. (I will add that the child with the kitchen chore for the week, HATES the double, and sometimes, triple unloading chore that occurs on Monday)

Our fruit bowl gets eaten almost as fast as I can load it, but I am grateful for a wonderful store nearby with fresh fruit at very inexpensive prices.

The cool 22 degrees that met me this morning as I was taking children to the bus stop, did not greet me while sleeping , thanks to a reliable furnace.

I can read to my children, as we snuggle in bed, by a light located very nearby.

I also know that throughout all generations of time, with and without these luxuries, families have embraced what they did have, and made it work.

Hopefully, I will be able to take advantage of the time I have been given, and work a little harder to make those lives’ around me better and brighter!

I’d better go load the dishwasher from dinner, the washer from sports practice…

*Note: I was trying to help out the child on kitchen duty by unloading one load in the middle of the day, and this is what greeted me when I turned around from the silverware tray…little miss annie…I am definitely going to keep this smiling photo for the first week her name is added to the chore chart and she has kitchen duty!

Trunks, treats, and little sweets!

The Ponderosa family all celebrating together…

 

Creative costumes and lots of fun.

Trunk-or-treat lets us know that Halloween has just begun.

I love the families all gathered together.

Cars side by side, just like mansions in our forever.

Tonight I am grateful for family and friends.

And the knowledge that these relationships never need to end!