Preschool program

Sanders had his preschool graduation at the exact same time as Karaia and Tennyson's soccer games. Who's ready for summer? THIS family! 

Sanders was hilarious. He only recently began to think that singing was "cool". Before that, any time I sang to him or asked him to sing he would only tolerate it and that was only if the song was on his short list. A list that mainly consists of Thomas the Train songs. I was over the moon when I Am a Child of God made the cut. 

Church songs were always met with glares and then lectures about how much he didn't like church songs. He happens to call this song the God song. I don't care what he calls it. I'm just glad he will let me add to our playlist and more importantly sing part of it with me.

But I digress. Sanders loved his program. He was wiggly and excited. He knew most of the actions and occasionally graced us with a word or two of the song. I know he knows more because he sings to himself now and again. But mostly he just did his thing and forgot that he was in front of a bunch of people. There may or may not have been some nose picking, booger eating going on that makes me gag. WHY does anyone do that?!?!!??! 

The highlight of the whole evening came after the last song. He thought his teacher had given them permission to give their moms the gift they had made us. Instead of walking around the tubs that held the props he, like any rational, fun loving boy, decided the fastest, most fun way, to me was to jump over the tub. 

Yup. You guessed it. His foot caught the tub, tipped it over, while the teacher was still talking, and he sprawled out on the floor. 

SO funny! AND I caught it all on tape!

He's a cute kid and always keeps us laughing. 

Sanders' picture is at the top right above him.

Oh how we LOVE Mrs. Karen!

In other news, we have decided to have Karaia and Beckahm go competitive in soccer. We found a leauge, DFC (Davis Futbol Club) that will give them the competition they need without sucking the fun out of soccer and there isn't too much travel. Karaia had try outs today and Beckham's are tomorrow.

One day at a time

I had a few calming thoughts these past few days amongst the stress that I'm starting to believe I don't know how to live without.

The Lord has a time line for me. Whether or not I try and micromanage it or not. I noticed it last week too. What I didn't share is that on my end, things seemed to keep getting in the way of progress, but it was also happening on the production end. The printer threw a hissy fit for two whole days. So even if my part had been able to be completed it would have just sat as a file, waiting for the printer to show up for work again.

Interesting.

Also, I finished all my files done before May even started so I would have time to get yardage out to the helpers (oh my goodness, how I LOVE the helpers!). But today, two days before June, I just barely got the fabric to them.

But I'm ok with that. For some reason, I very much feel like things are happening as they should. Which is weird, but cause technically every last thing is late.

Are deck is taking a bit longer. OH, but it's going to be gorgeous. I'd show you a picture but our hard drive died on our desk top and this lap top doesn't play well with the SD card. But trust. It's a beautiful space.

Still, not stressed about it. We are working on it when we can and when life demands to be lived we break from the deck and know that we will get back to it.

I did post a few pictures of my new line :) I am loving how it inspires me to create with it. I keep having moments where I think, "I love this fabric! ....wait...I made this!" It's surreal to have those experiences and I am so grateful for them.

June is going to be FUN!

I feel love with you

Today Sanders walked into the living room. I was in the kitchen. He stopped, looked at me, gasped, and then ran and put his little arms around me legs.

Looking up at my face he said, "I feel love with you! I want to marry you!"

"You do? What did I do to earn your love?"

"You snuggle with me."

Tonight he set the table and whispered to me, "I gave you the first fork because you snuggle with me."

Those two little interactions make everything worth it and then some.

The definition

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

I'm so grateful Tennyson and I had a wonderful day yesterday because today was exactly the reason Heavenly Father gives you good days so you have a little reserve to pull from. Tennyson is still learning to listen to his body and take the appropriate measures when it tells him to. (Yes, I know this is potentially embarrassing for him and I realize my blog is public AND I also print my blog into a book for my children to read. But guess what, this is my real life and it isn't always pretty and quite often things are embarrassing. I have no wish to scar my children, but I do wish to document what our life was really like. The good, the great, the awful, the embarrassing, the wonderful, the silly, the unhappy, the joyful, all of it. I want it all down where we can remember it and grow from it. )

Anyway, off my soap box now.

Tennyson is working on stuff and today seemed to be one of those days he decided not to work so hard on it. Sigh. He will be in first grade in a few months. It's a concern. Mostly because he really is SUCH a great kid. His giggle is amazing and infectious. He is so independent and gets things done when he sets his mind to it. He has an incredible mind for inventions. He is a wonderful friend. Even when we are super frustrated with each other and I don't like the choices he's made and he doesn't like the consequences he's earned, that I'm enforcing, he still will curl in my arms for a hug if I offer it. I try to offer it when I am most mad so I can remember he is still little and we are both still learning.

But nothing seems to be helping the learning in this area. Day after day, multiple times a day. Night has it's own set of things we deal with, but I'm not worried about that. Sometimes a body just needs to grow more to be able to handle the night. But the day? Yeah, that one should be handled. already.

I really have no idea what to do. It doesn't seem to matter what he is or isn't doing at the time his body tells him it is time to move! It's frustrating and I worry it will affect how he thinks about himself. I want him to focus on the good. Are you kidding? I want to focus on the good, but it's tremendously hard when his behaviors require multiple consequences for the SAME behavior during one day.

Sigh.

I've got to change the way I'm doing things. I'm just not sure what. 

Someday, Tennyson. You can do this!!!! Go Mr. T!

To completely change subjects, my dear friend, Jo'ell, had some complications shortly after delivering a baby yesterday. It was pretty scary stuff most of the day today and I asked the kids to include her in all of their prayers. Later in the day the kids asked me how she was doing.

"Well, she was bleeding a lot and they couldn't get it to stop so they had to do surgery to stop it."

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Sanders piped up in the background, "No, no, no. They should have just used a band aid!"

Ah kids. I would never trade this job for anything! No matter what.

T time and a dress

Mr. T doesn't have school for the next few days because of kindergarten testing. Everyone else has a regular schedule which means I get some one on one time with the middle child-sh. It doesn't happen nearly as much as I'd like.

I took him to the gym with me today. They have a little room for the kiddos to play in. It has a big window that the kids can see what we are doing and we can check on them. We were doing back squats today and were supposed to go as heavy as safely possible. The first set I did (we were supposed to do 4 in a set on the back squats because they were supposed to be very heavy, then jump into 12 front squats ahap with the barbell and then 25 squat box jumps. That would complete a set and we had to do 3 sets) I had 65 lbs on my back. But there was this other bar all set up that I could see out of the corner of my eye. It looked heavy. WAY too heavy for me. But I thought for my second set, why not. I'll just try and if I have to bail, I'll bail.

I stepped up to the rack, got under the bar, lifted it off it's rest with my back just below my shoulders, went down into my squat---below parallel---and found myself on my way back to standing. I did it! Then I finished the other 3!!!

When I grabbed Tennyson after I had finished I said, "Guess how much weight I just did a back squat with?!? 115 lbs!!!"

With HUGE eyes he said, " Wow.......was the bar all bendy on the ends? Because in cartoons, when it's really heavy, it's bendy on the ends."

Love that kid.

Then we went shopping for some new flip flops for him. Turns out we hit a good sale and ended up getting a bunch for everyone. He LOVED helping me chose just the right ones for each kid.

It was so much fun to be with him. We have our not so great moments together and it was just so nice to refill our cups with positive interaction.

My mom bought some of my fabric and made herself a dress. She made up the pattern and it is awesome!

 Didn't she do a great job?! She even added pockets! And there is piping all over the place. Such great little details to have.

She ran right over as soon as she was finished. Such a fun memory to have together. She wants me to take more pictures when she has her hair done and make-up on. I will, but I think she looks pretty cute as is.

Thank you, Mom, you did an incredible job!

The breaks

Today I had plans.

Plans to get a lot done on my designs so I can be more present in my life. AND because my feature month starts June 1st! I've got to get this line done.

But right from the get go, someone else had other plans.

I stayed up late last night to get a job start on my usual Monday duties. And by late I mean early. And by early I mean 3:00am.  Which also meant that I did not get up with the kids. However, we have this great chart, or so I thought, and my nagging is no longer necessary.

Turns out the kids completely forgot that the chart is law even if mom is not there to remind them of this little fact.  By the time I was woken up, albeit to kids playing silly with each other, at 8:05am they were FAR from being where they should have been having been up for over an hour. Some of them had still not eaten breakfast. WHAT?!?!?!?!

Sigh.
 
Sanders slept in until about 8:20. That was wonderful. Although it did put him quite a bit behind and by the time he finished all of his stuff, playgroup had been going for almost 45 mins and he really just wanted to stay home.

So, I let him. I thought, I'll just turn on a show and I know I've lost 45 mins of design time, but spending that time with Sanders was important and he will be perfectly happy to sit and watch his show.

And that's true, he did. But then PYP stuff went up in smoke and I ran around putting fires out during the time he was absorbed in his stuff.

Soon it was time for Tennyson to come home. Wonderful! I thought I'll feed them lunch and then Sanders can finish his show with Tennyson and then they can play together while I get some design stuff done.

However, Tennyson's homework today, while usually something he can do on his own, felt extra challenging to him today and he needed his mom. Which I was happy to do. THEN the garage door man came because our garage wouldn't shut this morning. Although when he asked what was the problem and I told him and then pushed the button it went down just fine. Of course! Still, the garage door was hanging crooked so he fixed it for us. The best news is the whole thing only cost $80! Best news of the day!

Meanwhile, Sanders and Tennyson were having battle of the siblings, while Tennyson was still trying to finish homework and then get to eating his lunch.

After all of that, I had time for one file before PYP stuff needed attention again. Then more moments with the boys. They were good, they were just unplanned. Which is great, but it means less time for the things I thought I was supposed to be doing today.

By the time that was all over, Karaia and Beckham came home. We talked school stuff and Beckham talked about being nervous for his baseball game tonight. They were playing the most challenging team in the league.

My friend Nicki's computer was throwing a fit and she asked if she could come use mine for a bit. I LOVE that! So nice to have friends that feel comfortable in your home. It was nice to chat with her for a while.

While all of this was going on, I learned that the printer at Modern Yardage was also throwing a fit today and not a whole lot of anything was happening down there either.

That's when I paused.

What was I supposed to be learning/doing today instead of what I had planned? Clearly, the Lord was throwing every possible road block in my path to get me to stop or slow down. Or was this a trial to see how I would chose to take the day or because really good things will happen when this get done and someone doesn't like when good things happen? Either way, someone was trying to put on the breaks and slow things down. It felt a lot more like gentle reminders than thwarting.

Thankfully, I felt stressed, but calm most of the day. If that makes any sense? I knew I had stuff that needed to get done, but even if my end was done the warehouse wouldn't have been able to do anything with it today anyway. So there was no point in really stressing over it. I just did my best.

Beckham lost his baseball game. He even struck out twice and was the last out twice. He was doing a pretty good job handling it. I wasn't able to go and he said,

 "I'm glad you didn't come. The PAIN! The HORROR! I'm glad you didn't see that."

I made sure he knew I can't possibly love him less because he strikes out...ever.

On the way home Kevin and Beckham saw a rainbow that looked like it ended right at the top of our street. Kevin said, "Look! That rainbow ends at the top of the road. Let's go find the pot of gold."

"Ok! Yes, let's go find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!!"

"There isn't really a pot of gold at the end."

"Way to crush my dreams, Dad."

That kid is so funny!

Here it is almost 10pm and I have still only completed about 6 out of 50 files that need to be done. I feel, though, that everything is happening in the time frame it needs to. I have faith that while I don't think there is enough time to get things done Someone else can see more of the picture than me.

So I will pay heed to the breaks and enjoy the slower pace

Miracle at the turtle

Our regional stake center is often called the Turtle. So named because it is built as a circle with a few rectangles coming off of it.

We had regional stake conference today. Basically, it's a two hour long sacrament meeting without taking the sacrament. For the last 10 years our (read Kevin and Emilie) goal has been to see how long we can wrestle the children while pretending to hear even one word of the speakers.

Well, today, my friends, I heard them all. Every word. All two hours worth.

I was in shock!

This, this is why we are doing adding to our family. It is so wonderful to be able to go to church for the intended purpose as opposed to teaching the children the appropriate behavior during such meetings.

HALLELUJAH!

I really do have wonderful kids. They are so smart, funny, and mostly well behaved. Some more than others ;)

Tonight Tennyson asked Kevin, "Is glad more than happy or is happy more than glad?"

Pretty deep thought for a 5 year old.

For the record, I think happy is more than glad, but Google says there is no difference in intensity.

My current phrase to tell the children when they start whining/arguing with me is, "Ooooooh, I hear you. You want me to wrestle you by your eyebrows. "

It catches them off guard and it's easier to get them back on track without too much contention.

I will be using this one until it's last leg.

Anything to keep the whining at bay.