A wonderful list...

"Lessons I endeavor to help my children embrace so that they may be healthy, whole human beings, capable of living an abundant life:"

• Trust God.

• Be curious.

• Read. Read. Read.

• Help the underdog.

• Entertain thoughts.

• Set goals.

• Observe nature.

• Have compassion.

• Discuss ideas.

• Do hard things.

• Create: Build. Paint. Plant. Draw. Sing. Bake. Play an instrument.

• Care for your body.

• Follow through.

• Appreciate beauty.

• Ask questions.

• Take responsibility.

• Eat good food.

• Play hard.

• Plant a garden.

• Try new things.

• Share with others.

• Manage your personal finances. Well.

• Solve problems.

• Plan for the future.

• Keep house. Well.

• Prepare for emergencies.

• Nurture relationships.

• Travel.

• Give of yourself.

• Value truth.

• Keep your word.

• Smell the flowers.

• Pick up after yourself.

• Use time wisely.

• Encourage others.

• Laugh. A lot.

• Brave storms.

• Cultivate a spirit of gratitude.

• Find passion for life.

Staying up late, hanging out, and loving it!!

[Life is about RELATIONSHIPS!!!]
With the weather being SO AMAZING...we've been bending our bed time routine a little. I guess I've felt a little less worried about sticking to our normal routine, because we are on a modified homeschool style fall break this week.

Anyway, its been great!! We've been staying up late, playing outside, and just bonding as a family. Last night after dinner, we put the two little girls to bed, then headed outside for a few hours.



[So what did we do?!]
1. Play catch!! Scott and the kids played a fun game of catch for 20-30 minutes which the kids just loved. It was impressive how good they all were at judging where the ball would come down.


2. Let's get our SWING on: Then I felt like I was back in elementary school as we all laughed and swung on the swing set. I don't know what it is about swinging, but it just makes me feel young, carefree, and alive...I know I'm a bit crazy.

3. Race, race, race: The funniest thing that happened last night was that for probably the last 30-45 minutes all the kids wanted to do was race. We raced as a family, they each took a turn racing themselves against the clock, they tried to race against the dog, and finally they convinced grandma to let them race her. What a HOOT!!



[TIME=RELATIONSHIPS]
Sometimes I have to remind myself that life is really about relationships, NOT about schedules, agendas, or projects. What does this mean...it means I put God and my family first. It means that I'm dialed 100% into my family most of the time, and not distracted by less important things. It means I lead a simple life...always trying to keep my priorities straight and my focus on my Savior. Sometimes its just plain hard. I like my projects, my quiet time, my schedules, and my agendas.

['WE' Projects NOT 'ME' Projects]
However, if it ever feels like my kids are getting in the way of me getting my stuff done, that is when I know I've totally missed the point. Life is about building relationships with others, and when you have a family one of the most important areas to do this is by building REAL, deep, and meaningful relationships with your family, by working together, playing together, learning together, talking together. I've found that most of my 'ME' projects, have become 'WE' projects. What a HUGE AMAZING gift this paradigm shift has been for me. Its a balancing act that's for sure, but I'm learning a TON!! I'm a happier mom, a better wife, and feel A TON more fulfilled as a woman.

My Meg is growing up!!!

[Salt Dough]

Last week Megan was talking to her friend Olivia about the Salt Dough creations they had made as a family. She was just in love with the salt dough necklace hanging around her neck, and wanted to go home and make some up that very next day.

The problem was we had CoOp the next day, and then on Saturday we had TONS of work projects, and on Sunday we just plain ran out of time. Needless to say, Megan was a very disappointed little girl on Sunday night.

As I tucked Meg into bed that night, she asked again if we could PLEASE make the dough tomorrow. We are on 'Fall Break' so our days are a lot more open than normal, so I said sure, and suggested that she wake up and try to make it on her own.

I totally forgot about it after that, but Meg didn't. She woke up early Monday morning, found the recipe online, and made the dough totally by her self. She then rolled out the dough, and used cookie cutters to cut the very salty dough into Halloween shapes. SO FUN!!! I couldn't believe all that she had done (she had even cleaned up the mess)...she really is growing up on me, and I'm so proud of her.


The next few hours were spent baking the dough and painting the dough. The kids had a blast.

What a weekend?!

[Ginger MIA]
Saturday we had kind of a crazy day. I went to Costco and Scott went to pick up his parents from the airport. When we got back our sweet dog Ginger was missing. We looked everywhere, and we totally confused. She never got out...why would she leave...where would she go?! Finally I remembered that the day before she had been acting strange. On Friday she'd been shivering quite a bit. I knew the weather was getting colder, but I was surprised that she was shivering so bad. Then on Friday night she kept whimpering by the back door. I went and checked on her, but could see what the problem was and didn't think of it again.

After I told Scott this he thought maybe she was hurt and hiding somewhere in our yard. So, he went back outside to look again. He came back in a few minutes later with a huge grin on his face. He asked the kids, "What's the Greek God of fertility or love?" The kids and I were confused. "Aphrodite" we answered back not sure what he was talking about. Well, Scott smiled even bigger now. I think Aphrodite has visited us again. WHAT?! Ginger wasn't missing, she was hiding under the slide, and she's had a puppy.

We were such ding dongs that we didn't even realize she was pregnant. Our neighbor's dog had jumped over into our yard about 2 months ago...lucky us we now have a little mixed breed puppy. I just couldn't help from laughing at the ridiculous situation we were in...yet again. In May our cat had 2 kittens and we didn't even know she was pregnant...and now it was happening with our dog. STRANGE!!

Here we are after discovering the new puppy with our new animals...4 kittens and 1 puppy. WOW!!!
[EGGS, EGGS, and more EGGS]

With the weather getting cooler, we are finally starting to see and increase in our egg production. Today Cooper (who's job it is to bring in the eggs each morning) brought in 9 eggs. WOO-HOO!!


[PAINTING]

During the summer I had this great idea to paint a few squares using black magnetic paint. I thought it would be great to be able to use magnets to post a picture, or project from one of the kids. The issue was: 1. I never finished the product as I thought I would (meaning I never framed in the black paint). Which meant the edges of the black paint weren't totally straight and looked lame. 2. The paint wasn't that magnetic...so the pictures were always falling down...lame again.

SO, I decided we'd just repaint the room, cover the black paint up, and start over. (Scott was a totally good sport to run with me on this one). The room is a light pinky color, so I'm more than happy to use the left over paint from another project to spruce up this room a bit. However, I do have to admit, I'd forgotten what a big project painting is. :)

Saturday afternoon Scott, Megan, and I worked hard on prepping the room by taping everything off. I'm hoping we can paint on Monday and Tuesday and then start putting the room back together so its all ready for school again on Monday!!

[iPhones]


Two or three months ago Scott and I both, within weeks of each other, cracked the glass on our iPhones. We'd both just been living with it...until TODAY!! Scott finally found a DIY kit online to replace the otherwise VERY expensive glass. It was a pretty intensive project, and took him and Jarom about 2 hours to complete, but now our phones look brand new again. What a champ. It was a little touch and go there for a while. I was nervous as I saw my phone opened up and spread out on the counter.



[Sunday morning activity]


With the weather so great the kids and I can't get enough of the out doors. We've been cooped up all summer, and are just loving this wonderful weather. So, I decided to pull out the paints this morning before church. We had a lovely time, but Scott out-lawed me from ever painting prior to church again, and I can't blame him. Most shirts got paint on them...but boy oh boy did we have a great time.


I guess I'll have to think of something else for next week. Susan, told me about a great little Sunday activity sheet she made for her children when they were younger. I think its a great idea, and am already excited about making something like that up. To bad painting won't be on the BEFORE church list.

I'm Dr. Mom?!

[Nursing School]
Going to school as a nurse taught me TONS of things that I will be forever grateful for...but one of the things it taught me was that a lot of the medicine we take isn't all that good for us. Don't get me wrong I think Western Medicine is AMAZING...especially with emergency situations!!! However, now that I'm a mom, and I'm not working in the hospital I seem to see a lot more cuts, runny noses, coughs, fevers, upset tummies, burned fingers, head aches, bug bites, bruises, sore muscles, ear aches, crying kids, hormonal mom, etc... Which most of the time isn't an emergency situation, and usually something I can't do much about.

I always wanted to do more to help my family with these small...but HUGE things. For instance I've been wanting to help Jarom out with his difficulty getting to sleep, make a burned finger feel better, help a cut stop bleeding, or just get rid of that yucky runny nose (especially when it starts to turn green...ICK!!). But I didn't know what to do most of the time. Then, I started to realize that quite a few of my friends were using these weird things called essential oils to help them doctor up their kids.

[Oils]
I started doing research...what were these oils, why did they work, where did they come from, why wasn't everyone using them, ect... What I found out was amazing. Essential oils have been around forever. They are basically concentrated herbs that are super duper powerful. I just LOVE them. Here are a few reasons why:

[My Proof]
1. Megan was sick...pink eye, cough, and fever. With the help of my friend Sarah's oils she was better within 24 hours.
2. Becca (who's 2) two days later got even more sick than Megan. She had everything Megan, but even worse, PLUS a terrible green runny nose, and was totally lethargic. Again I called Sarah and she was better within 36 hours.
3. Becca burned her finger on a hot cookie sheet. She was totally crying, (by this time I had purchased a few oils of my own) and so I put some lavender on it. Within 30 seconds she was totally calmed down, and had completely forgotten about it.
4. Jarom got bad allergies, and could barely breath. We finally looked up his symptoms in the oil book, applied some oils, and within 1 hour he was breathing great again, and felt better.
5. Jarom has trouble sleeping, but ever since I've put lavender on him at night he has slept better and tells me every night how much it helps, and asks to please put some on.
6. Brea started getting a running (greenish) color nose. I put some oils on her and within 24 hours it was gone.
7. Scott had sore muscles, and I put some oils on it and they felt tons better.
8. Me...anytime I get a headache(which seems like it happens every day) I put on some oil and my headache is gone within 30 minutes...LOVE IT!!

[Dr. Mom]
I'm sure there are even more reasons why my life as a Mom has been much improved since I discovered oils. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that I have something that is totally natural, non-invasive, non-toxic, and actually works that I can use when my family has a little health issue. It brings me peace, and makes me happy knowing that I really can care for my family in a more whole-istic, nurturing way!!! The best part really is that it WORKS!! WOO-HOO!!

Karate

After at least a year of my kids begging to PLEASE do Karate, I finally gave in. Why?! Because I figure after asking for that long it isn't a passing phase, and they actually really want to do it. Jarom had researched all types of Karate, and had been teaching the kids about it. So, when I was able to find a Karate studio that was close to our house, had a family rate, and great flexibility with the classes they offered we tried it out.

We started in August and the kids just LOVE it. They always want to go and are practicing their moves constantly at home. In fact they love it so much that Jarom and Megan have created their very own customized at home workouts for themselves. Their instructor told them they really needed to practice and work out at home, and my kiddos took this very seriously. While I was reading to the two oldest tonight Megan was busy doing squats, sit ups, burpies, crunches, and loads of other work out type activities. I just love my kids!!


The last week of September was our first belt testing. Not only did all of them move up a belt (Jarom and Megan to Yellow, and my two little ones to White-Yellow), this now meant that Jarom and Megan could start assisting with the Little Dragon class (Cooper and Hyrum's class). Today was the first time they had a chance to, and they were on cloud 9!! It was so fun to see them out there helping out.

TACO

[CoOp]
So this year we are in the most AMAZING little CoOp...actually its called The Totally Amazing CoOp or TACO for short. Its kind of a long story...but anyway it stuck, and now every Friday from 9:30-12:00 we have our Love of Learning, and Core classes for all the kiddos. Its been a BLAST, and my kids just LOVE it!!

This summer we kicked off our planning for the CoOp with the most amazing 13 hour (literally) planning and bonding session. I'm SO GLAD we snapped this picture before we wrapped it up for the night. I felt like I really got to know these wonderful woman and their amazing kids that day, which gave me perspective and a unique foundation for our CoOp!!


[Lunch]
What's been almost as fun (for me at least), is the two hour lunch at the park that has kind of become a TACO tradition. I love it because I get to talk to all these wonderful women for a few hours, and get inspired and uplifted. Its a total win win...the kids play, the moms talk, and everyone is happy.