Learning to Count My Blessings

We were sick over this weekend, and I felt defeated on every front.  Not only did we not get the extra things done I would have liked for a 4 day weekend,we didn't even do Thanksgiving dinner until tonight.  From Wednesday through Saturday, I thought it was the worst Thanksgiving ever, and I was counting all the things that had gone wrong.  But when I sat down today and counted all the things that were good, they vastly outnumbered the hard things. 

My sister is going on a mission!  I was on Skype when she announced it to Mom and Dad.  It was awesome to see their faces, especially having had a conversation with them a week before about worrying and trying to find her some nice guys to date.  I said, "Whoa, I thought you were rooting for a mission, not guys right now!"  Dad said, "I don't think we've made much progress on that front."  And I just had to clamp my mouth shut.  Really tight. 

Another sister had her first baby!  I wish I was there- I love babies.  I've thought about being a doula or something occasionally, but I've never attended a birth other than my own, and I'm more than a little squeamish.  Still, I hate to miss out, and always feel like I'd like to be there helping.

On Saturday I took the children who were well enough to a birthday party.  We don't generally go to birthday parties, but I really felt like I should go to this one (which was a stressful feeling because I didn't know if I'd have any kids who were not sick!), and I was very glad we did.  Ours were the only children there for a while, and it made the little girl so happy to have other kids to play with.

We left the party early for a girl's night out I was supposed to attend.  I was upset about leaving my husband with sick children all day, and wasn't sure I should go, but he was fine, and the evening was really nice.  We decided we should do that more often and invite more friends!

Being sick is kind of miserable, but it's temporary.  The good things that happened will be much more memorable, and some are definitely more permanent. :)  We ate our Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  The kids loved it.  They pointed out all the ways we are blessed, and we had some good family time.

I took a deep breath today and sat back and watched my happy children.  They pick on each other some, but they love each other too.  I watched them play ball with the baby, delighted that he was enjoying the game.  I watched the baby take several steps at a time, happy that it was caught on camera.  He started maybe two weeks ago, but only one step and then he'd stop.  Today he really practiced.  I watched my 7 year old read a naptime story to the 2 year old, and my oldest sing him a song.  I listened to their excited chatter about the dinner, and received exuberant thanks for making a pie.  I love how they are upset if I only sing one song to them before I leave their room at night.  Little boys who love singing make me smile.  They never get tired of it, and I usually get requests for just one more. 

It was a good Thanksgiving, and I have much to be grateful for.

"Don't Say It's a Fine Morning or I'll Shoot Ya"

(Name that movie!) That's how I've been feeling the last few days.
No, I didn't get lost in a pile of dirty laundry...though some days I feel like it.  I'm lost in the small matters of life, that right now seem like big matters, even though I know better.

My sister-on-law came and stayed with us, so I got to spend time with my newest niece!  It was a blast!  Even though the day she arrived, my refrigerator died.  She was very understanding about my lack of preparedness when it came to food.  We went to the beach a lot.  Bellows was probably everyone's favorite, except the babies.  They always appreciate Ko' Olina the most.  We went to the Dole Plantation just to enjoy a Dole Whip, and then strolled over to Wiamea Bay and stayed until dark.  We spent an evening shopping while Shawn took all the kids to gymnastics :).  And spent a lot of time talking and enjoying each other's company.

 About that refrigerator.  It still doesn't work, of course, though it is still sitting in my kitchen.  I am STILL living out of a cooler.  We will get another one.  Soon.  It really impacts how my day goes though.  I don't want to go shopping for very much food at a time.  I have to go buy ice every day.  I have to plan meals carefully, and if I don't, often I'm scrounging in the pantry, short on time, trying to come up with something edible.  There are plenty of other little problems like that in life at the moment, but that is the most annoying right now.  Mostly, I'm just overwhelmed by a very long to-do list that crept up on me out of nowhere.  Shawn's schedule just changed to 11 hour days 5 days a week too. Whatever happened to 3/12's?  Those were nice, *sigh*.

In other news, my mom-in-law is coming for Fall Break (a school break unique to Hawaii I think?) so we're planning more beach/pool/water park time. :) And, I'm very excited to watch General Conference.  It's usually somewhat relaxing (even with the kids) and always uplifting.  It will help me to calm down and stop stressing over little, temporary things that I won't remember in a year (or probably even 3 months from now!). 

Baby Lorenzo can stand up (for 5 seconds at a time or so)!  He also has two teeth on top to match the bottom two.  He's a very busy fellow.  He sneaks outside if anyone should happen to leave the door open, got to the top of the stairs several times before I managed to get a gate up, makes a run for the bathroom occasionally, and is always after the bookshelves.  I take this all to mean he's quite normal. 

My Awesome Chaotic Life (Or How Summer Has Flown By)

Ah yes, ahem.  About that blog.  Well, I wanted to write several times in May, but May was a tough month.  Shawn was gone for the entirety of it.  In Singapore.  He had fun, I survived it, and the kids didn't forget who he is.  Then I have had company (different people) for a month.  I like company, so this is good.  We tried/cooked new foods, went to the beach,/waterpark/pool a lot, did Pearl Harbor/the PCC, went to the temple with my whole family (that was pretty cool!), went paddleboarding (thanks Miguel!), more beach, got to sit around a little and talk story with some of my favorite people, and just generally had a blast.  I also went to the Army ball- which was a nice change of pace. 

This weekend my sister-in-law was visiting.  We went to Nanakuli for an hour to get some sun and ocean time before going bowling, and then Saturday we managed to get a few hours in at Pokai Bay.  Hope she didn't mind the chaos of our house and trying to get ready with so many small people.  They are very sad that everyone is gone, and want to know when we can go to Idaho (and can there please be snow).

Lorenzo started scooting a few weeks ago, and in all the mayhem, I'm not even sure I have a video of it.  He also has two teeth.  That all happened in the middle of the night, for about two weeks.  I remember, because I was up with him, pacing, and he under no circumstances wanted to sit or sleep horizontally.  There were a few rough nights, but it passed, and he's mostly back to his bouncy, happy self.  He loves the ocean.  He loves poi. 

Time Passes Too Quickly

Demetri is crying.  Maybe I am too.  Olie is saying he loves his Grandma Wilcock and doesn’t want her to go.  Their great-great-grandma is still here, but fading quickly.  Her 92^nd birthday was just a few days ago, and she seemed to be doing great.  Now she doesn’t recognize anyone and is being taken down to Hurricane, UT, where she grew up and raised a family.

I’m not brokenhearted.  She has lived a good, long, and full life, and I’m sure she is ready to be with Grandpa again.  I have wonderful memories of being with her, living in her house when I was 19, visiting, taking my children to her house to visit and take pictures. 

I am, however, very upset about living so far from family.  (I’m also very sad that I didn’t send the letter my sons wrote to her with the pictures of Lorenzo- still sitting on the table in my entryway).  I like Hawaii just fine, but I HATE living so far away from everyone.  I don’t believe it is supposed to be this way.  I think children should grow up knowing their aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  There is nothing I can do about it right now, so I might as well just learn to accept it, but I’m sad that my kids can’t just walk over to Grandma’s house to give her flowers, or at least drive over for Sunday dinner.  I’m sure technology is a great “cure” but we don’t use it like that very much.

There is always the wish that you had more pictures, remembered things more clearly, had asked for more advice, listened better, spent more time…

My favorite memories of Grandma Wilcock are of washing clothes with her in her really old washer (with a wringer to put the clothes through before you hang them on the line); listening to her play the accordion, piano, and sing (usually with Grandpa); playing with toys and puzzles on her living room floor- and watching my kids play there; gardening with her, and listening to her tell stories about Grandpa.  I also loved to play with the prisms in her window.  She would get them down for us to hold and tell us how they worked- and let us make rainbows.  I was quick to point those out to my boys when we brought them. 

I would love to live up in the mountains of Idaho, and raise my children near family, sharing and doing all the things I got to do when I was growing up.

I Had Better Write Now, Before The Holiday Season Overtakes Me.

Sorry, no pictures to share right now.  My sister left me with a few, and I have a couple of our backyard makeover, but not on this computer at this moment.  I will try to post them.  But, when I wait for the time to find and upload the pics, I somehow don't get around to writing for a really long time...as you may have noticed.

So- recent events:  My awesome sister and bro-in-law came and magically transformed our tiny yard into something usable and pretty.  Yay!  Eating dinner out there with the tiki torches lit is now my children's favorite family activity.  We also went around and saw some fun stuff while they were here- like the Pali lookout, the Byodin Temple, and of course, we went to several beaches :).  Great fun, and I'm so glad they could come out!  Oh, and did I mention my sister also cleaned out my nursery (formerly the junk room) and made me get rid of a bunch of clothes from high school?!  It was great.  I love that room now.  And it was an inspiration.  I'm continuing to get rid of clothes I never wear, and going through the boys' clothes again too.  I'm also just putting random "things" into a large trash bag and stashing it in the closet to see if I'll miss them over the next 6 months.  If I don't need anything in the bags, I can get rid of them, right?!

Currently, I'm 34 weeks along, and no longer sleeping, due to a ramped up case of RLS.  It's okay, I have a new mantra. "6 more weeks, 6 more weeks."   Then I probably won't sleep for the next year anyway...

I'm also looking up fun traditions for Christmas (usually for hours in the middle of the night, since I can't sleep anyway.)  I'll make a list with links when I'm done :).  And, trying out Mark Bittman recipes.  I made homemade hummus today, and bean burgers.  The hummus was gone within minutes.  The burgers, on the other hand, were force fed to my children as I promised to try a different recipe next time.  The appeal was that they took 10 minutes to make, and I love fast and easy meals.  But I didn't have a food processor so I used my Vitamix, which made them too soupy, so I added cornmeal....yeah, well, they were edible...barely.

Everyone is well and happy.  We're very blessed.  I'm going to at least try (for the first time since I married Shawn) to produce a Christmas card/family news letter.  No promises.  I'm just going to actually make the attempt.

A Fun Trip Home

We had an awesome, and effective, trip home.  It was great.  Two family reunions, so we pretty much got to see everybody (except my brother Kyle who is on a mission :)) and family pictures with my husband’s side of the family.  We did 5 generation pictures with my great grandma, and visited with her for a while.  Lots of fires, marshmallow roasts, four-wheeling, and trampoline jumping.  Massages from my mother-in-law, and the best company in the world.  I helped my sister clean so she could move and got to hang out with my adorable nieces, met my new nephew :), went to track districts, caught up with a couple of friends, helped clean out the basement, and generally had a great time. Time flew and it wasn’t nearly long enough, but I’ll take what I can get. 

On the way there we flew standby on a C-17 (military cargo plane).  A new experience for sure, and very different from a commercial flight.  The 13 hour drive to Idaho from Travis AFB was…well, much longer than 13 hours.  I would have to think about whether I’d do things the same way again.

On the way home we stopped at the Ramada Inn by the Spokane airport.  I picked it for three reasons: the shuttle to the airport, the swimming pool (with waterslide) and the in-house restaurant.  We didn’t have a car so we weren’t going to go somewhere else to eat, and I wanted the kids to be entertained.  They were only in the pool for about 3 hours, haha.  The food was great, for a hotel restaurant, and didn’t give me indigestion as many before have.  They also had enough food for my boys.  Often the “kid’s menu” comes with little enough food that the boys could each eat two of the meals.  The hotel had no problem with all of our family being in one room, and a crib was there for us.  I think it’s my new favorite stopover in Spokane.  Accommodating and convenient.

Flying Allegiant was much better than anticipated too.  We brought all our own food, and water, because their prices were ridiculous for both, but that was expected.  They seated our family together because we had little kids, the flight was on time, and they didn’t have a problem with my one-year-old constantly walking up and down the aisle.  (It was that or listen to him scream.)  It all worked out, and the price was great.

Time to plan the next vacation!

Bah Humbug?

I just walked in the bedroom to find the cutest scene ever; I was moving my clothes off the bed and getting in when I spotted the baby sleeping on Shawn’s chest.  Wish I could take a picture of them both sound asleep like that but I’m sure it would wake at least one of them up.  I love that my husband loves his baby so much!  My life feels like an ABC family movie today.  At least that’s what I was thinking tonight…after all the kids were in bed and Shawn and I were stringing up lights.  I’m sure that during the day I was frustrated with the children, but I couldn’t remember what I was mad about after they were in bed :).   

I usually have a pretty bad attitude about Christmas- including this year, but I decided today to make a little more of an effort.  We bought a bunch more lights and I decorated, bought all the stuff for gingerbread houses (good thing ‘cause I spontaneously invited all the neighborhood kids over for a gingerbread house making party tomorrow), I’m digging out my Christmas music (which I never listen to), and I even went on the hunt for some cute wall decals and a nativity scene.  I guess what really makes the holidays is your attitude about them. 

Progress

Good things:

I am safely ensconced in Kamiah, and the drive was the least stressful 16 hour drive I’ve ever been on- thanks to my wonderful father-in-law who flew to California to drive me up here.

My midwife says I’m doing great, and as of tomorrow I have 6 weeks left.

Teddy seems to be healing quickly!

My sister and two adorable nieces are here for a week :).

Taxes are done, and we now have $0 in credit card debt (…student loans are another story, but it’s definite progress).

My husband sweetly took the time to redo the budget with me, even though it took several hours and a lot of repetition on his part so that I could understand it.  (There really are many different ways to think about money.)

I have been sleeping much better.

The boys and I love it here!

Have a great day :)

It's been a good weekend

Shawn took Teddy to a home teaching meeting this evening, complete with backpack full of coloring, books, and stuffed animals.  Teddy took such a long, late nap that I had no illusions of getting him to bed at his normal bedtime tonight.  He was ecstatic to be the only one to go with Daddy, and it’s good to have a few one-on-one activities.  

Demetri is reading a book to Olie, and helping Olie to read some words to him.  I can’t believe my 4 yr old is sounding out words already!  He’s working on Hop on Pop.  Go phonics :).  He wrote the ABC’s today in sacrament meeting, while quietly singing the song, and is starting to write words like “cat” and “dad.”  Demetri is struggling with writing, but Shawn thinks it will be like reading.  He hated it until he started to get good at it.  Now he can read for a couple of hours a day without getting tired of it.  Here’s hoping.

I’m packing, and packing, and, hilariously enough, still wrapping Christmas presents as I pack (for people in Idaho), though most of them are wrapped.  The kids keep asking who they're for, and are eager to pass them out.  I’m also reading John Adams (by David McCullough), which I love.  I need to have a notebook with me.  I used to have a notebook specifically for books I was reading but I must have gotten out of the habit somewhere.

Shawn is reading Journey to the Center of the Earth to Demetri.  I’m not sure Demetri gets much of it, but he enjoys the time and insists on it every evening.  He has a 4 day weekend coming up, yay!  Maybe we’ll actually get to finish the running Scrabble game we have going.  And maybe I’ll actually put it away after this round…since we’ve been playing very slow game after game for the last several weeks.  I’ve learned a lot of new words that way. 

Olie’s new famous quotes (this must just be the age): “Mom, why do you follow me everywhere?” (said while we were in the huge Dennis the Menace Park this weekend).  And when I asked him if he wanted his coat zipped up he said, “Yes!  Then people will think I’m a different person!”  Haha, I guess changing shirt colors does that?  

Both of the younger boys have taken to calling Shawn "Dada."  No idea why.