Big Promises

Lesson Learned:
Grocery shopping in a wholesale warehouse club is not the time to start believing your son's promises that he will stop eating only the marshmallows in Lucky Charms. (2 lbs. 12 oz. of Lucky Charms, to be exact).

Happy Memorial Day

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!

-Katherine Lee Bates, "America the Beautiful", vs. 3

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me....

As you well know, the world did not come to an end last Saturday. But, don't worry, according to this MSNBC article, Howard Camping has recalculated, and there is a new "end" in sight: October 21st. Woo hoo. My favorite part of the article is that Camping is not returning money to listeners who donated to his cause, because it is already being used to educate people about the world's end. Which he apparently knows nothing about.
Which leads me to one question: having twice miscalculated the world's end, does he have any followers left?

We Know the Family to be Eternal

A quote from the March 2011 Ensign article, "Teaching the Doctrine of the Family"

"Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. ...
"... There are those who would define the family in such a nontraditional way that they would define it out of existence. ...
"We of all people, brothers and sisters, should not be taken in by the specious arguments that the family unit is somehow tied to a particular phase of development a moral society is going through. We are free to resist those moves which downplay the significance of the family and which play up the significance of selfish individualism. We know the family to be eternal."

-Spencer W. Kimball

Salt in the Wound

A little bit ago, after a bitter inner struggle, I caved in and authorized the use of food storage boxes as nightstands in our bedroom and my son's bedroom. Sad, I know. As someone who appreciates great design, this was (and still is) kind of buggy.
I came to this point, because a.) we do not have any more room under beds, b.) I refuse to store our food in the garage, and c.) we do not own nightstands. I do not like them, but they serve a purpose.

And I figured I could lower my standards just a little. Maybe I'm being just a little ridiculous afterall. It's not like the rest of our house is anything great. No one will ever see them. It's better than nothing. I'd rather have food if I'm starving. Etc., etc., etc.

After all that inner turmoil to arrive at this point, you can imagine the distress the following conversation with my son caused, while organizing his room:

Me: "Get me your books off your nightstand."

My Son: "Nightstand? What nightstand?"

Me: "The nightstand next to your bed."

My Son: "Where?"

Me: "The boxes next to your bed."

My Son: "Those aren't a nightstand. Those are boxes. I call them dummy boxes."

Me: [to myself] "So do I...."

Nothing like a child's perspective to bash any delusion that I might have in fooling somebody into thinking that a stack of boxes are furniture. Talk about selective imagination. [sigh...]

I'll Think About it Tomorrow

Last night, I was amused to see this headline in Yahoo! news: "5 Reasons to Skip Your Workout". I have to say, I am disappointed in the quality of journalism these days. Could they really only think of five reasons???? Next time, they should contact me. I would be happy to share my endless number of reasons to skip a workout.
(Like, posting on my blog....)

A Child's Perspective

The perspective of a child is so refreshing. Here are two comments my son made within days of each other, that prove how much they adore even our simplest efforts. If only we could see ourselves more often through the eyes of a child:

"I'm going to draw a tree like my teacher. [draws a simple tree] She says she doesn't draw very good, but that's not true. She draws beautiful."

My husband took my son with him early to church one day for choir practice (I was home with a sick baby). The choir happened to be singing many of the Easter songs from the Primary Songbook, so my son joined my husband in practice. The new choir director (who also happens to be the Primary music leader) told the group that she was not a very good musician, and would be happy to take suggestions on song arrangements. My son turned to my husband and said, "She lies. She's a great musician."

Riddle Me This!

It is at certain times, that I have felt the true power and weight of my responsibility as a mother, to shape and mold the understandings of my son. How is a mother to answer such an innocent, unassuming, and naive question, as this one posed by my son the other day?

"Mom? Do girls mostly listen and boys not listen, or are girls mostly chatty and boys listen?"

Happy Mother's Day

"We thank all of you, including our own mothers, and tell you there is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God, in bringing to pass the mortality and earthly life of His daughters and sons, so that immortality and eternal life can come in those celestial realms on high.
"...Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are, better than you are, and better than you have ever been. ...We thank all of you, and tell you there is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God." 

- Jeffery R. Holland ("Because She Is a Mother")

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2010-06-13-motherhood-an-eternal-partnership-with-god?lang=eng

The Grave Hath No Victory

Yesterday, my son and I captured a katydid in a jar. The word "capture" really doesn't accurately describe our effort, as the poor thing had a broken leg and didn't put up a fight at all. We threw some grass in the jar, and put it on our counter top. All evening long it moved in slow motion, if it moved at all. Before my son went to bed, I prepared my son for the inevitable. His bug would probably be dead in the morning. I almost threw it out in the yard last night, but I decided I would let my son oversee its burial services. I mindlessly widened the air holes in the plastic cover and went to bed.
After my son left for school this morning, I checked on our little dead bug. This is what I found:

That would be a picture of an empty jar. Which means, somewhere in our house is a fugitive katydid- most likely laying eggs, my husband considerately suggested before he left for work. How can a humongous, bright green, gimpy katydid disappear without a trace in a little house? I can't wait to see where it turns up... or when the infestation will begin.

* It was probably crawling on us in our sleep, per this Onion article that my brother sent me a few weeks ago. (I wouldn't read it if you're sensitive to talk of earwigs...)

What a Wonderful World

I see trees of green, red roses too.
I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

I see skies of blue and clouds of white,
The bright blessed day and the dark sacred night.
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of people going by.
I see friends shakin' hands sayin', "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love  you."

I hear babies cryin'. I watch them grow.
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know.
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Yes, I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

-Louis Armstrong

Bachelor for a Night

The other night, my husband had to work so I had a self-proclaimed night off. With no husband to impress, we had pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner (not that that's ever stopped me before). The garbage can was full, so empty food boxes took up residence on my counter. The dishes? I didn't touch the clean dishes in our dishwasher, and the dirty dishes stacked up in our sink. After my baby's bath, I didn't bother to drain or put her tub away. After I got the kids in bed, I indulged in a little T.V. while I worked on a sewing project.

And then I cleaned it all up before I went to bed...