Holiday Madness

This is going to be relatively short.  Because I have lots to do, and also because I'm freezing...which doesn't have much to do with anything except the fact that I want to curl up with a blanket, hot chocolate, and my favorite New Year's movie. 

Christmas: Christmas Eve the fridge went out.  Made for interesting times and a forced cleaning out of the fridge (one less thing on my list!).  We had a pretty good Christmas.  I rebelled against the commercialization and hype surrounding Christmas and each of our children received one present, along with several "community presents" that were for everyone to use.  There was little to no candy in the stockings, but several snacks they love and don't get often.  We started a new tradition with these cute nesting boxes that stood about as high as the tree, which, delightfully enough, caused us to wrap exactly one present (the one that was too large for any of the boxes).  Pictures to come...whenever I can get them off the camera.  We were a tad unsure how the children would react, but it went wonderfully.  I don't mind presents, but I don't like being forced to buy a large number of them at a certain time of year because Walmart and Co said so...or whoever said so.  We will continue to give our children gifts (although we've decided we would wrap them so the kids would KNOW they were gifts) throughout the year and have encouraged the kids to do the same for each other and others.  We tried to emphasize the birth of Christ and what our gifts to Him would be.  Yay for new traditions!

Oh, also on Christmas, Teddy started potty training.  Why that day exactly?  It just worked out that way.  I was so frustrated and ready to give up!  But it's better now.  I might share that story later :)

New Year's: On New Year's Eve we went to the ER for a "scratch" (j/k husband!), okay, a cut on Shawn's leg.  5 hours and 4 stitches later we went home tired, but just in time for the traditional Hawaiian New Year's Celebration.  Boy did that keep me awake!  More on that one later too :). 

And now, I will settle for watching that movie while cleaning, because it's as close as I'm going to get to my ideal.  New Year's goals may have to come tomorrow, except the couple I've already made and started on.  See, I'm not too far behind!

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. 

Memory Lane

I was writing in my journal tonight and my mind wandered to childhood years.  I just thought I'd post a little section of it that some of my siblings might remember or at least find interesting...

When you become a mom you also realize as you tell your children things that you don’t want them to do, that you did exactly those same things when you were a kid.  And you might feel a little guilty…but not enough to not tell them those things.  The tricky part is when there’s proof and the kids find it.  I remember this picture we used to wave in my mom’s face sometimes when she’d tell us our shorts were too short and to go change.  It was her and her best friend in these super short white shorts and we’d start a little campaign with “What I’m wearing is NOTHING like what you used to wear!”  You’d have to know my mom to fully get this because she’s so modest and sweet but this one would really get her going and we knew it… “That was a MARCHING BAND UNIFORM!” Followed by us saying something like, “Oh so if I join the marching band I can wear-“ but we didn’t get very far with that because she’d interrupt with, “Ha! Yes, if you joined the marching band you can wear whatever you want.  I’d sure like to see that.”  Yeah that argument fell flat real fast.  It was pretty safe for her too. We didn’t even have a marching band…

            You know eventually that picture went missing.  Couldn’t find it anywhere.  I just liked to get my mother fired up sometimes, it was fun to tease her because she is so patient and it was so hard to make her mad.  There isn’t a mean bone in her body. Even when she was really fed up we knew she didn’t mean it.  One of the things we really liked to do was play tag with my Dad in the evening.  This was in the house, and it was just this ongoing little game that wasn’t too rowdy, the whole point was you didn’t want to be “it” when you went to bed.  Well, okay, sometimes it really did get rowdy, but not always!  Dad would lay on the floor near the doorway and we’d have to get past him to get to bed so there were always various tactics in use like pretending you weren’t playing anymore and nonchalantly strolling past, waiting to see if he’d fall asleep or forget, or run through when he wasn’t looking, etc.  Sometimes these games would stretch quite some time past bedtime and mom was ready to go to bed.  She couldn’t sleep unless the entire house was quiet so she’d have to wait for everyone else to go to bed too.  When she got REALLY tired of waiting and telling us we needed to be done and go to bed now, she’d eventually get the broom out (that’s when we knew she was serious and we needed to end the game quick) and start chasing us around the living room.  While we knew that meant we needed to go to bed it was just the most hilarious thing to see and we’d be laughing uproariously still trying to get one last “tag” in on the way to bed.  It was so funny ‘cause what was she going to do once she caught us with the broom?”  She wasn’t going to hit anyone with it, it was more like she was trying to sweep us out of the room with it :).  I guess you just have to know her.  And when she was mad at us she’d call us names like, “You little stinker!”  That was the most common one.  Or, “You little munchkin.”  It didn't engender much fear.  

I actually said that to my husband the other day.  I had cleaned the closet and done this really awesome job of organizing everything, and he went through it and pulled out all this stuff I had just put in there and LEFT it on the living room floor.  When I went to clean the living room and saw what he'd done to it I hollered, "You little stinker!" and started on this mini rampage. He didn't even know I was talking to him.  Eventually he went, "What, oh, you mean me?!"  Yeah, thanks mom :)

Traditions

Family Traditions: Something mentioned today that I’ve thought about before, is that sometimes we do something once, and then kids remember it forevermore as something we “always” used to do.  I think everyone does it.  Things are cemented in our minds as things we just “did” in our families, not accounting for freak accidents or chance.

Some things I remember in my family, that really stand out to me right now.  Mom making her own cheese, carrot juice, butter, sprouts, and always experimenting with new foods or recipes (usually to make them healthier).  Cutting up deer together.  Going huckleberry picking.  Getting firewood together.  Camping.  Wrangling cows.  Hunting mushrooms.  Dad picking the first water lilies of the season for Mom.  Water fights!  Tubing down the river. Tunnel Beach.  Family reunions. Hot dog roasts and piling slash together.  Canning fruit. Gardening.  Family Home Evening.  Family Scriptures.  Sleeping on the trampoline or back porch.  Quilting with Mom.  Baking bread.  Fishing with Dad.  Potato Salad.  Healthy pies.  Pot roasts on Sundays.  Family prayer at night.  Bedtime stories.  Singing! Sledding parties at the Lloyds.  Tea.  Picking herbs for Mom.  Staying up stuffing stockings for the other kids on Christmas Eve.  Picking out the tree Christmas Eve with Dad.  Dad always telling us we were going to “Timbuktu” whenever it was supposed to be a surprise. -Surprise trips to Grandma’s.  Picking what’s for dinner on your birthday. Going to ward choir with Mom.  Circle games.  Family pictures.  Cleaning out the attic.  Sliding down the barn roof in winter.  Tag on the hay bales.  Harvest Parties and Extension Club meetings at the old schoolhouse.  And so much more.

I was listening to a program that talked about traditions as the glue that holds families together, and intentionally establishing them.  I think I need to do that.

Our 4 day weekend. Happy Veteran's Day

Current Events- Demetri’s bike and scooter were both stolen from our fended patio, in the light, while we were home.  Unhappy.  But he took it well.  I think he knows we’ll try to make it up to him.  It was put away where it goes and the other boys’ toys weren’t stolen.  Strange.  Three scooters and two bikes and they only picked his– they weren’t even the nicest.

-My phone is broken.  Love having a computer/electronics geek for a husband.  What I need is ordered and it should be fixed by next week.

-Household goods arrived early!  They come bright and early in the morning :)

-The pipes under the kitchen sink busted over the weekend but are now fixed. 

And we had gymnastics trials.  That was interesting.  Olie loved the first place we went to.  Demetri thought the teacher was too strict, haha.  However, the second place, which we’re leaning toward for many reasons, was a sad experience for both boys.  Olie accidentally went to Demetri’s class, which was first.  The teacher worked them much harder than Olie’s class would have been, and didn’t put in the “fun” activities for little kids. Olie hated it, and came back early to sit with me, saying he didn’t like gymnastics anymore.  But at the end the coach came up and told me how great he did, found out he was too young, and was surprised but recommended him for the long and more advanced class.  There’s no way, because Olie’s really just in it for the fun, not to work hard, but it’s amazing what we can do when it seems to be expected of us.  Of course, Demetri went to pieces because he didn’t get to go to his class, but we rescheduled, and it will be just fine.

A Long Day

Today is election day.  Also a holiday for all the children in the neighborhood- which means I had little success getting mine to stay inside and do their schoolwork today.  They did a little this morning.  But right now, there are about 8 children on my porch playing with Demetri’s CSI forensic entomology kit.  What does a bug kit have to do with CSI?  As nearly as I can tell, nothing...just hype to help make the kids want to buy the product.  Anyway, my kids, and all the neighborhood kids, seem to love it!  They’ve been catching insects and studying them for days now, from the time everyone gets home from school till dinnertime or dark, whichever comes first.

Okay, yeah, that was this morning.  As for this evening, I don’t have anything nice to say about the election, fellow Americans, etc.  Really. Nothing.  So we’ll end it there. Oh, except that Olie said to me this morning, “I vote for Jesus!” High point of the day.

Xander is teething.  His gums are swollen, he has a high fever, and he alternated between crying and sleeping on my lap all day.  Well, this is the second day.  Poor baby.  No sleep, getting nothing done, all the normal stuff for teething time.

Demetri made dinner, mostly.  They are going to learn how to cook if they have to live at home until they are 30.  Okay, so I’ll probably kick them out before that.  But they will know how to cook...and launder clothes...and clean, etc.  They each have a night to make dinner again.  Amazing how hard it is to get back into the groove after you’ve been traveling for a while.  We’re getting there.

I’m winning the war.  Every cockroach I’ve seen in the last 2 days has been dead.  That puts a smile on my face.  But, lest they should break through the ranks, I must not become complacent and slack off!  At least it keeps the house clean.

I have been called to cub scouts.  Again.  For the third time- and so far, in every place I have lived in the past 4 years. I should give in and buy the uniform this time, and accept that I’ll probably be in cub scouts for the next 10 years or more. 

A Once-lazy housewife turned Neatfreak...for all the wrong reasons :(

Okay this post was written a few days ago...I will update again tonight if it kills me!  Well, if it maims me?

Since last I wrote life has been full of...well, life.  I shall expound.  First, we moved into our house.  We like it very much.  The one thing I have found that is difficult to deal with (besides the other terrible thing, which will be addressed later) is that we live right off a major road and the noise is unbelievably loud at all times, but especially at night.  Part of that is due to the slat-style windows which make these houses more like huts in my opinion but are great for allowing the trade winds to breeze through your entire domain.  I have been assured that we will get used to the traffic and eventually be able to sleep.  This is encouraging, as I have been contemplating boarding up all my windows. :) Beware, all you who are thinking of coming to visit.  Bring earplugs.

But there are good things also.  My favorite is having a washer and dryer in my house again.  They have been missed terribly.  More than an entire kitchen, or yard, or anything else I can think of that I missed.  I like having a second bathroom.  I like having a yard- even if it is the size of a closet.  I like my neighbors, and that my kids can run around on the huge expanse of grass in front of the house.  I like the friends they are making here.  And I absolutely love living directly across from the church (also the stake center).  My ward is great, and I adore the stake choir I am in.  (There’s an orchestra yo )

Other events have included buying hundreds and hundreds of dollars of food and supplies to stock fridge, pantry, laundry room, etc; surviving our first tsunami warning (complete with the entire stake center full of people from evacuation areas) and learning about the dynamics of the homeless here (whole nother world); and encountering cockroaches for the first time in Hawaii.  In my HOUSE.  The new cockroach alarm is my blood curdling scream, shriek, or whooping and hollering “Kill it! ”  So far I have seen seven. Four of them were alive (someone must have sprayed before we were here).  I am now armed and getting ready for battle.  I am reading everything I can get my hands on about roach eradication, and I have Raid, traps, cleaners, and I’m learning tons more.  This event has marked a serious change in the way life goes around here.  All food is put in the fridge, down to the crackers and cornmeal, unless it is in a sealed, hard container.  No dishes are left in the sink overnight.  The floors are swept and mopped twice a day, after breakfast and dinner.  There is nothing on my counters, and they are sanitized with bleach water morning and night.  All pots, pans, silverware, cooking utensils, plates, etc. are in sealed containers.  Yes, I hate cockroaches that much.  Plus one of the sighted creatures was in my silverware drawer, and I just about gagged.  Then I washed everything, and made a note to buy waayyyy more of those new tupperware sets at Costco.  It’s been keeping me rather busy.

In other news, the baby has picked climbing the stairs as his entertainment of choice, Demetri started cub scouts again, and we have tried four different times to buy a car.  You know, sometimes craigslist can be creepy instead of helpful.  And it’s annoying to have long conversations with someone who never intended to actually meet with you and show you their car.  We have internet :), and decent reception at our house, unlike in California.