Snake Lake Picnic

The weather here was beautiful today.  The girls and I decided to have a picnic dinner at the park.  Scrambled eggs were on the menu tonight, but instead, we made PB&Js, and brought along cheese sticks, strawberries, and chocolate pudding cups.  We played around the Snake Lake playground, and then walked out to the first bridge.

I've been trying for a few months to get a good picture of my 3 girls all looking at the camera at the same time.  How hard could it be, right?  Well, it turns out it's really difficult.  I'll post a couple of the better photos I took tonight.  Sadie is our family's current Official Picture Ruiner.  She's 3 and very silly.  What more can I say?

FYI: Not one of my children.  He was just passing by.

The girls thought these looked like caterpillars.

Love this picture.  It's not perfect, but it's authentic.

All tuckered out, asleep in my bed.  Amy is the worst bed hog, yes?

Baptism

Our oldest daughter turned 8 in February.  I keep trying, but I can't figure out where 8 years went.  I remember bringing her home from the hospital when she was 4 days old and couldn't imagine her ever being 8 years old.  Lucy was baptized ON her birthday, just like I was.  She asked me a few questions about my baptism, and when she found out I was baptized on my birthday, she wanted to do the same thing.

Her baptism was really awesome.  We had a short yet meaningful service, and then almost everyone stayed for pizza, salad, cake, and cookies.  So many people came to show their love and support for Lucy.  Most of her family (on both sides) were there, and many of the people from Primary were there as well.  Even her school teacher came!  That was really special to Lucy.

She received so many gifts too!  We made a list, and I've been meaning to have her write thank you cards, but we just haven't gotten around to it.  I hope people know how grateful she is for their thoughtful gifts and their attendance at such an important event in her life.  My one regret was not having perfect pictures.  What a silly thing, especially since there were some okay ones from that day.  The okay ones are below.  I'll just call them "authentic".  That explains everything.  :)

The invitation I put together for her big day.

Lucy and her cousin, Benny.

Lucy, Aunt Lexie, and Baby Antonio on his due date.

Believe it or not, THIS was the best picture of our family.

This is most of the people who came to celebrate Lucy's special day.

 Lucy is an amazing girl.  I'm so grateful to have her as one of my daughters.  She is wise beyond her years, an old soul.  She is loved by so many people and I feel blessed to have their positive influences in her life, and in mine.
 

Crazy Saturdays

The last few Saturdays have been too busy for me!  It's nice to have stuff to do rather than sit around staring at each other and asking, "Well, what should we DO?"  But I'll tell you, 2 girls in Girl Scouts, 1 husband who works weekends, 1 three-year-old who thinks she's missing out on all the fun, and whatever I've committed to makes for a lot of busy-ness and exhaustion for me at the end of the day.  I didn't include meals or baths in this either!
Well, here are a few pictures of the girls from recently.  No explanations, just pure, unadulterated pixels.  Enjoy.

Pimpin' My Money!

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my mom's financial advisor for Edward Jones, and I am really excited that he is now my financial advisor too.  One thing I really like about Edward Jones is that you get to meet with someone face-to-face and talk about what you want to do with your money.  After going to a seminar he gave about teaching kids about money, I decided it was time for me to learn a few more things about money for our family.

David and I don't have a problem budgeting, and we don't live beyond our means.  But we also haven't really thought much about the future and what we want our money to do for us.  We have only one credit card and the balance on it is about $5,700.  We agreed that we want to pay it down by half by the end of this year.  Our other financial goal is to begin investing.  I opened an emergency account yesterday, and will contribute to it each month.  The contribution will be automatically deducted from our checking account, which I like.  Once our emergency fund reaches a certain amount, we will begin to put money into other types of investments.

The other really awesome thing I found out was that David's retirement account that was set up when he was teaching is still viable, and the amount has doubled since he stopped teaching.  We're having the paperwork sent to us so we can roll that money into an IRA and be able to manage it a little closer to home.  Currently, the account is managed by a firm in Washington D.C.

Our last goal is to set up savings accounts for each of our children and contribute to them regularly.  Lucy's is already set up, and next week, I'm heading to our bank to set up the other girls' accounts.  They won't have $10,000 by the time they're 18, but every little bit helps when you're going to college or setting up your home.

So here's what I've learned so far:

1. Setting goals is the key to financial success.  Set a goal, put a deadline on it, and it will happen.
2. There are 2 types of goals--short term goals and long term goals.  Short term goals are for things you want to achieve in 1 year or less.  Long term goals are for things you want to achieve in 5 or more years.  Paying off a credit card?  Short term goal.  Buying a retirement/vacation home?  Long term goal.
3. SAVING is for short term goals.  INVESTING is for long term goals.
4. Donating money (through tithing or other charitable contributions) is part of a healthy budget.  Why?  Because giving money away helps others, but also it teaches a person to budget, especially when your donation comes out of your income before any of your bills are paid.
5. There is a difference between needs and wants.  This is an important lesson for children and adults to learn.  Another good lesson is to learn to put off what you want now for something better later.  How interesting that tithing and sacrifice are such important parts of personal finance.

Amy Jo's Post-Op Update

Amy's Pre-Op Picture

On March 29th, Amy had her tonsils and adenoids removed.  Incidentally, this surgery is called a "T&A".  (My male readers, if I had any, would appreciate this.)  Anyway, Amy's surgery went really well.  The ENT said her tonsils were quite large, and it was definitely a good thing we chose to have them removed.  She was a little weepy as she was coming out of the anesthesia, but soon perked up and was asking the nurse repeatedly when she could go home.  When they discharged her, they instructed me that she was still "under the influence" of anesthesia and narcotic pain medication, and I needed to protect her from injuries and falls for the next 24 hours.  I took this to mean that it was my responsibility to save her from herself.

We got home, and she bounded into the house like she was coming home from the park.  I offered her a popsicle, juice, & ice cream, but she refused them all and instead spent the next few minutes leaping across the living room shouting, "I'M FILLED WITH THE JOY OF SPRING!"  I reminded myself of the nurse's instructions and told Amy to "sit down before you fall down".

The next 10 days were spent coaxing/threatening her to take her antibiotic--bubble gum flavored Amoxicillin.  Who doesn't love that stuff?!  Amy sure doesn't.  She gagged EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  Combine that with waking up in the middle of the night every night to give her more Tylenol & Ibuprofen, and I was one tired, cranky mama.

But last week, we saw the ENT for her follow-up appointment, and he said she was healing very well!  She's back at school and doing great.  Her voice is still really nasally (and annoying--sorry, Amy), but that should go back to normal over the next couple of months.

Day 4 Post-Op

Don't Call Me Betty Crocker

I love to cook.  I love to bake.  I consider it a hobby, a way to bond with my girls, and--most especially--a way to relax and unwind.  And it was until pretty recently.  I have a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love because it always produces perfect cookies.  But my last two attempts using this recipe have ended in complete disaster.  The raw dough was awesome.  The texture perfect, the flavor divine.  But add 8 to 10 minutes of 350 degree heat, and they end up looking like small, chunky cow pies.  Only better smelling.

Now, I'm sure that I could invite over any number of my baking friends who could take one look at the hot mess on the cookie sheet and tell me exactly what's going wrong.  But that would mean that I cared enough about producing perfect HOMEMADE chocolate chip cookies, which I don't.  So after the last tragic batch (made on Friday the 13th, no less!), I told myself and anyone else within earshot of my mini meltdown that I would be purchasing my chocolate chip cookie dough for the foreseeable future.

Yesterday I went to the store to pick up some household items (garbage bags, dishwasher detergent, pasta sauce...) and as I walked down the aisle where the baking supplies are shelved, I picked up some cookie mixes.  That's right, I said it, MIXES.  1 stick of butter, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 egg, the contents of the pouch, and in 20 minutes total, I have cookies!  My children might be scarred for life for having to consume cookies from a mix, but it's something I'm sure they'll be able to work through in therapy.

I also picked up some Easter-themed pre-made-but-bake-yourself sugar cookies on clearance yesterday, and Sadie enjoyed "making cookies with mom" in the afternoon.  Wow, my Mother of the Year potential is sure showing, isn't it?  Not only do I make cookies from mixes, but I buy clearance cookies too.  Regardless of your personal, reformed opinion of me and my cookie lifestyle choices, I do hope you enjoy the photos I took of Sadie with the bunny cookies.  She looks like she's having fun because she has no clue that other mothers make their cookies with love from time-honored family recipes passed down for generations.

        

Storytime

I love to read.  I don't do much personal pleasure reading because I usually fall into bed exhausted at the end of the day.  But I love to read to my girls.  My mom read to us a lot when we were kids, and so I credit her for my love of reading, large vocabulary, and uncanny ability to fall asleep when sitting still for more than 5 minutes.

Lucy's Girl Scout Brownie Troop meets at the library, and it's been a good thing because we've checked out a lot more books lately.  We have quite an extensive collection of children's books here at home, but honestly, if I don't ever have to read "Pinkalicious" (or "Purplicious" or "Goldilicious" for that matter) again in my lifetime, I could die perfectly happy.  So we've been reading lots of new books, courtesy of the public library.

I think the girls would agree with me that our favorite book series is the "Mr. Putter and Tabby" stories by one of our favorite authors, Cynthia Rylant.  We think the world of Mr. Putter, Tabby, Mrs. Teaberry, and her good dog, Zeke.  We feel like they could live down the street, and I know we would love going to visit them, IF they were actually real people.  I say "we", but really, I haven't actually polled my children on this, so I should just own up to the fact that it's ME that adores Mr. Putter, Tabby, Mrs. Teaberry, and her good dog, Zeke.  Anyway, after reading the entire series with my kids, I was feeling a bit depressed that I'd read about ALL of their adventures.  I just didn't want it to end.  Ever.  Do you know this feeling?

So when I was at the library about a month ago waiting to pick Lucy up from Girl Scouts, I checked where Cynthia Rylant's books are shelved, hoping against hope that there would be a "Mr. Putter and Tabby" book that we had somehow missed.  But no such luck.  However, I did find another series that we've pretty much plowed through already: the "Poppleton" books.  Amy and Sadie LOVE Poppleton.  He's a pig, who left the city to move to a small town, and lives next door to a llama named Cherry Sue.  I have enjoyed Poppleton's stories, but not in the same way as I enjoyed Mr. Putter and Tabby.

I don't know what my point was in all of this, except to say that I love reading with my daughters.  Some days, it's the only time they aren't arguing with each other or fighting for my attention, and every time I ask them where they want to read, they all agree: "Your bed, Mom!"  And that works out fine for me...just in case I fall asleep.

The Missing Piece

I just visited my own blog and was horrified to see that my last post was on February 2nd!  I really love blogging, but I guess my heart just hasn't been in it.  I don't want to be too busy, too tired, or too uninspired to blog.  My kids don't do amazing, funny, or irritating things on a daily basis.  I don't like to share the irritating things anyway, because I don't want to expose the less-than-patient moments I have, and I don't want anyone to think my kids are less-than-adorably perfect.

Sometimes I really feel the need to write something about me, but I haven't felt like this is the place for me to do that, and Facebook isn't either.  I like Facebook for being able to catch up on what's happening with other people, but I don't like the lack of permanence of posting there.  Sure, there's always going to be a record of anything anyone types, but the posts just seems fleeting and inaccessible to me.  One could argue that a blog isn't permanent either.  It is on the internet, after all.  But apparently, there are companies out there who will print your blog, bind it, and send it to you.  As far as I know, no one offers that for Facebook posts.

I guess what I have taken a long time to say is that something is missing.  I've been thinking about this a lot in the last week or so, and I think I finally figured it out. What's missing on my blog aren't pictures and updates on my family (although lately, yes, that has been lacking).  What's missing is me and my feelings about the pictures and updates on my family.  I very rarely say anything about what I'm up to--other than that I'm doing the same mundane stuff that makes up the life of a stay-at-home mom.  And it's even rarer for me to actually insert any of my own emotions into any update I type.

I think that for my blog to go forward, I'm going to have to suck it up, get in touch with my feelings, and sit down and write about it.  If I don't do this, I'll just lose interest in blogging altogether, and it will be one more item on my "Things I Never Finished" list.  And worse, Carolyn (whose blog is full of cute pictures of her kids AND her feelings about them and life in general) would never let me live it down.