{ The Tale of Two Turtles }

Once upon a time there were some playful children who decided to go on a walk with their cousins and aunt. After walking for some time, they came upon a cute little baby turtle. They oohed and ahhed at him, and even though he was shy, he came out of his shell to meet them.

The happy children ran home to show their mom, and then proceeded to play with him, and talk to him, and hold him lovingly. Some of the children were patiently waiting their turn to spend some time with their new friend, when they came upon another baby turtle. He was just as cute as the first, but much shyer. They called him “Scaredy” because he would hardly ever come out of his shell.

The children thought it only fair to give one turtle to the cousins, and keep one turtle for themselves. What could be better that two turtle friends, and 11 happy children showering them with attention. As time went on, the children thought what fun it would be to race these two small turtles, and see who was the fastest.

The race track was drawn, and the turtles were helped to the starting line.

As turtle #2 was set at the starting line, and shouts of “GO!” filled the air, Scaredy decided to come out of his shell! Off they raced towards the finish line.

One little foot in front of the other, they slowly moved along. The children cheered their little turtle on. They were sure he would win the race.

But as the finish line came into view, Scaredy wasn’t so scared anymore, and off he ran with all his little turtle might to win the race. The cousins cheered and shouted praise to their little baby turtle Scaredy.

The children held him close to let him know they loved him still as they whispered encouraging words in his little baby turtle ears, “You will get him next time!”

He was a winner in their minds, and would win the next race.

As evening time neared, the cousins took their fast racing turtle and bid a tearful farewell to the children until tomorrow. The children took their sweet turtle and made him feel like a king in his own backyard. They decked out the wagon with mud, and some fruit, and a little bucket home for him to have sweet dreams in all night.

There was a night and a day, and as the next night was coming upon the children, one of them noticed that something was not right.

This house is far too small, and not quite right for such a wonderful little turtle as they had found. Perhaps it needs a little more mud and some pine straw to soften his bed she thought to herself. So off she went to work in preparing his home to be much more to his, and her, liking. Only the best would do for that little baby turtle-the finest red clay, and softest pine straw were picked out. A bright yellow dish and plate were crafted out of gold so as to serve him his food and water in style.

Hand cut grapes and the finest of lettuce were placed on his plate for him to enjoy. He delighted much in the golden bowl that was placed in his new home, and took a nice swim before dinner to cool off and refresh his little turtle legs, and clean his shell.

And though the little turtle loved all the attention he was getting, there were times he wished he were back home. He tried with all his might to climb out of his new home, but to no avail. He was stuck. How would he let his new friends know how much he missed his family?

The only thing to do was what every brave little turtle would do. Refuse to eat until the children would have no choice but to return him to his real home in the woods. It was hard. Those juicy grapes and crunchy lettuce leaves were calling his name. But firm he stayed. One day passed. Then two. He could hear the worry in the children’s voices and they surveyed what he had eaten. He knew he was mere hours away from freedom.

Finally, one of the long haired children took him out of his red metal home, and announced to the others she was returning him to the woods. There were tears, and shrieks of sadness from the others. The turtle smiled inside realizing how much he was loved. The tears turned to calm talks of love and care for their sweet baby turtle from the children’s mother.

The children walked him slowly to the edge of the woods, and set him down. They said their good byes and wished the baby turtle well on his journey home. Promises of a safe place to stay if he ever needed were uttered from their lips, and off he went to find his family. He turned only once to see the children again, but then trudged onward in hopes of living happily ever after.

THE END

{ For The Love of Tulips }

Tulips are by far my favorite flower. Last November we had bought two large packs of tulips bulbs at Sam’s Club in hopes of getting out and planting them with the kids sometime over Thanksgiving Break. The weather never seemed to cooperate for us, so in the garage they sat. When my parents came to visit us over Christmas, they gave me one of the best birthday/Christmas gifts I could ask for. They planted almost 100 tulip bulbs for me in the front area of our house. We have had such a mild winter-with the exception of the two days that they were trying to plant them. It was probably the coldest it had been all winter. But the outdoorsy troopers that they are, they bundled up and were determined to plant all of them.

The kids helped them dig up some better soil from the back woods, and Austin passed off some service hours for Boy Scouts, and together they planted them all. Since, it hadn’t been very cold this winter we wondered if they would even come up and bloom. As the first part of March came the kids would give me daily updates of the little green buds poking up out of the pine straw.

They didn’t all come up, but the ones that did were so beautiful. Hopefully by next year they will have had some extra time to grow and will surprise us with a front yard full of tulips. Thank you mom and dad, they are so beautiful!

{ Our Goals Revisited-Goals VS.Plans }

At the beginning of the year we set our family goals that we wanted to work on. When we set our goals, we just set them for the month of January –hoping they would be more attainable, but as the end of January rolled around we evaluated what we had accomplished and unfortunately it wasn’t much.

At about the same time I was finishing reading a book I got from a friend for Christmas called The Entitlement Trap by Richard and Linda Eyre. I love reading books that have great ideas for parenting/organizing/homemaking/decorating/loving that have a main goal or theme that is already along the lines of what we are doing and what feels right for our family. This book fit the bill perfectly. The first half of the book was about helping your children (and ourselves really) earn and budget money through a variety of methods. I loved that many of the ideas were ones that we were doing or had done in the past, but it had that boost of motivation we needed and a few great ideas to add to ours to make it a success. The second half of the book talks about helping kids own the choices they make, values, taking care of their body through their choices, etc.

There was a part during the last half of the book that caught my eye as I was having a hard time trying to figure out why our goal setting strategy wasn’t really working for us. It talks about the difference between goals and plans. I realized when I looked back on many of our goals that they were more of plans than goals. At the beginning of March for FHE, we talked about the difference with the kids and Aaron helped us know the difference with a method he had read about at work called SMART. The goals need to have all of these things:

S-Specific

M-Measurable

A-Achievable

R-It is suppose to be Realistic, but we thought that was very close to achievable, so we changed ours to Recordable. We wanted them to be able to record down their progress.

T-Time Framed

A lot of the goals we had set before were great, just a bit too vague. Mine was too lose weight, but I had written it as exercise 3 times a week. What did I ultimately want to accomplish? To lose weight. Aaron’s was a list of things to be healthier, but really he wanted to max out his PT test in April. When we saw our real goals, it was a lot easier to come up with the plans.

We decided that just focusing on one goal for right now would really help us know this system well, and be able to accomplish it. I typed up papers for us that had two columns. One for our goal, and the other column for our plan. I numbered that column from 1-5, because I wanted us each to think of quite a few ideas to help us achieve our goal. I also made each person a paper with a large circle on it. In the book they talk about having something like a pie chart to show your progress. I loved the idea to be able to visually see when we had accomplished even a little bit of our goal. I know that I feel so much better and stay motivated when I can see that all my hard work is paying off.

We helped each of the kids come up with their own goals. Whatever the goal was we they helped them divide their circle into that many pieces that they could mark off as they accomplished that part. I loved seeing all of our papers hung up on the wall in our family room, with our pie charts ready to be filled in. It was exciting for us all. Some of the kids took a little longer thinking of goals and are still working on deciding exactly what they want to focus on. That’s okay. It’s a process.

Most of us took one of our goals that we had previously written down at the beginning of the year, and fine tuned it to make sure it was a goal not a plan. Here are a few that we chose.

Scott-be able to go potty by himself. For his we just used his circle to put stickers in each time he was able to go by himself. Before this, his usual routine is-hop up and down to tell me he has to use the restroom, ask me to help him (which really only involved me coming into the bathroom until he got on the toilet, then he would say,”okay, now get out”.), yelling at me to come back in and get toilet paper of the roll for him, then insisting he wanted to do the rest. He was so close already.

Abby-To pass off a word list a week until the end of school. She had already passed off one, so we divided her paper into 10 more sections (there are 11 total). Her plan had three parts:

1. To read my list with mommy each day.
2. To write my words 3 times each week.
3. To circle the words in a magazine.

She was so happy when she passed off a word list to be able to color in one of her pieces of the pie.

Erika-To be able to run 1 mile without stopping in one month. Her pie chart was the cutest. Where we live there is a big circle that circles around our neighborhood. From our house all around the circle is one mile. Aaron helped her to draw a map of the neighborhood in the shape of the circle. He divided it into four parts (one for each week) that she could color her line in on the map road as she accomplished running a little farther around without stopping. It was so clever. Her plans were set up as a daily and weekly schedule.

1. Week 1-Be able to run 2.5 minutes (or about 1/4 mile) without stopping. Monday-run around out side while mommy times you for 2.5 minutes. Tuesday-go to soccer practice (run there) Wednesday and Thursday-run like on Monday. Friday-go to soccer practice. Saturday-go with daddy and try to run the mile around the neighborhood. Try to run at least the first 1/4 mile part without stopping, but finish the whole mile either walking or running.
2. Week 2-The same routine except try to do the run for 5 minutes and run for 1/2 mile on Saturday.
3. Week 3-The same routine except try to do the run for 7.5 minutes and run for 3/4 mile on Saturday.
4. Week4-The same routine except try to do the run for 10 minutes and run the whole mile on Saturday.

Brooke-still nailing down her exact goal.

Austin-To be able to run a mile in 5 minutes 45 seconds. His plan was set up kind of like Erika’s with daily and weekly plans.

1. I am going to run 2 miles 3x a week.
2. I am going to run 1 mile and record 3x times a week.

Monday-Run 2 miles in the evening 9pm

Tuesday-Run 1 mile in the morning before school 6:15am

Wednesday-Run 2 miles in the morning 6:10am

Thursday-Run 1 mile in the morning 6:10am

Friday-Run 2 miles in the morning 6:10am

Saturday-Run 1 mile in the morning 9:30am

Brianna-To be able to run a mile under 7 minutes 30 seconds in a month. Her plan was like Austin’s.

1. Run 2 miles at least once a week. Run 1 mile at least 3x a week.
2. Record results.
3. Get enough sleep (10 hrs).
4. Drink at least 5 full glasses of water a day.

Monday-Run 1 mile at night after FHE.

Tuesday-Run 1 mile after school.

Wednesday-Stretch day.

Thursday-Soccer practice.

Friday-Run 1 mile after school.

Saturday-Run 2 miles.

Monae-To lose 20lbs by our anniversary trip to Puerto Rico in April. I divided mine into 20 pieces of the pie. I liked being able to mark off even the littlest accomplishment. My plan was this:

1. Record food I eat on myfitnesspal.com Limit calorie intake to 1240 per day.
2. Exercise at least 3x a week for 30 minutes and record on myfitnesspal.com.
3. Weigh in only once a week-Monday mornings.
4. Limit treats to 2x a week.
5. Drink more water. Try for at least 5 cups a day. Record on myfitnesspal.com

I also made smaller rewards for myself at each 5lb mark. After 5 pounds I would get to buy some new itunes songs. At 10 pounds I would get to buy new workout pants. At 15 pounds I would get to buy a new swimsuit (for our trip). And at 20lbs I would get to buy a new pair of jeans. We talked with the kids about rewarding ourselves with things that would help us with our goals. If I rewarded myself with a big candy bar, that would kind of defeat the purpose.

Aaron-To be able to max out the PT test at work. His plans were basically the same as what he had listed for his goals before. Eating healthier, excising certain days, and lifting weights/pushups and sit ups other days. He was so busy helping the other kids he didn’t get a chance to write his out. He is doing great working on his though. It totally motivates me to see him get up early before work to exercise. I love that he also has joined me on recording his calories on myfitnesspal.com-his is to gain weight though so he gets a ton more calories than me. The thing is with his super high metabolism he probably needs more than that. A problem I totally wish I had. His goal is a little hard to write in pie chart form until the actual test, unless he does his own practice tests.

It feels so good as we are closing out the month to see all that we are accomplishing. Our pie charts are filling in, and we are becoming better at those things we want to do. I love that we are able to see our plans becoming reality-such a boost for us as a family. Austin and Brianna both made the track team, so they have been doing a lot more running than they had planned. They are both really close to their goals. Tonight is their first track meet, so it will be fun to see their times that they each run the 1 mile in.

A quote from the talk by President Monson about Living an Abundant Life that we put on our goal charts to reminder us to not give up:

Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

{ My New Year’s Words to Live By }

I taught a lesson in Relief Society on Sunday and in it I used my quote for the year to help explain a point. I realized that I had never officially written it down anywhere, so it hopes of making it a little more real for myself I wanted to jot down a few thoughts I am having.

LIVE YOUR LIFE

I have never really picked a word or quote for the year. Goals-but not words. As the end of the year approached, I was thinking a lot about what I wanted out of this next year. A lot had changed since that time last year. I felt like I had a lot of new things going for me, and a lot of new opportunities to grow and learn. Lots of new makes me feel optimistic-like there’s a clean slate of sorts in front of me. I felt like the time for me to do things was now.

I don’t know if you have even felt like this-but as a parent I would often tell myself when I wasn’t being the best parent I could, “Okay, that was not the best response. Maybe my kids are too young they won’t remember this. Maybe there is still time to be a “great” parent, and they will remember that instead of this.” I discovered that those years are past. My window of opportunity is past-for most of my kids that is. Let’s see… my earliest memory in life is about age 4 or 5..okay, yes almost all of my kids. My dreams of being that great mom have to be NOW (hopefully they have already been a little).

It’s not that I think I will always choose the right words to say to my kids, or always respond in the most patient loving way-I’m striving to but I’m not there for sure. I guess I just wondered in 10 or 15 years from now, when my kids would be asked what their mom was like what they would say. I’ve heard other’s describe their moms, and I could tell pretty quickly from their tone what kind of mom they remembered.

She was a yeller.

She was always serving.

She was always there to talk.

She was adventurous.

She was an athlete.

She was so impatient.

She was a dreamer.

Those comments from others about their moms really stood out to me. I wondered what thoughts my own kids had about me. I worried that the things that would stand out in their minds would be:

My mom is always pregnant.

My mom is always tired.

My mom always has to have a nap.

My mom never cooks good meals we like.

Okay, I am seeing a theme here. I am always tired, pregnant, and need naps. (And no I am not now-well maybe the nap part) Kind of funny when I actually write it down. I was just so worried that the occasional life circumstances-like bearing children and all those tired times would place me in the bummer list of moms. I can’t tell you how many times my kids asked to go swimming at the pool or have friends over and I was just too tired or sick from being pregnant or just having a baby. I didn’t want my kids to feel like they were missing out on things because “We all have to sacrifice because mom doesn’t feel good” . My words, not theirs. Which sacrifice is not a bad thing for sure, they need enough of it to stay humble.

Luckily, I feel like I have been blessed with children who rise above myself, and are able to worry about and focus on less petty things than I. I know it because I hear their excitement when they remember something fun we did together as a family, or when they talk to me about things that are important to them. I know that they see the joy in families I have always wanted them to see when they notice someone at church or in town with a new little baby and ALL my kids look at me and coo and say how cute that baby is. They all get it. They don’t focus on how tired mom is ( I DO LOVE MY NAPTIME), or things they may miss out on. They just focus on us. They focus on the little everyday things that bring kids joy. They fill their days with playing, and having fun, and being a kid. I am all about responsibility (our new work system post to come), but I am about my kids being kids too. Life often comes to much, too fast, and we look back wondering where those precious years of childhood went. I want their life brimming with joy, that it carries over into the times that those life experiences and challenges will come.

This is where my quote comes in. I wondered to myself-more like pondered many day, weeks, months about what my role was in this. Was I being the mom I wanted? Was I being the mom they wanted? Was I being the mom my Father in Heaven wanted? And in striving to do this, was I really living MY life or was I living the way I thought I should be. Not the “way I should be” in a good way like how we should always strive to be better, but the “way I should be” because that’s how someone should –based on the world’s views. It sounds a lot more confusing on paper than in my mind. I wanted to make sure that I was being the best person for myself, and my husband, and my kids because that’s what I wanted, and we wanted, and that’s what would make me be better-not because I was trying to keep up with the Jones’ so to say.

I felt like this was a year to really reflect on the way I wanted to mother. I have often felt guilt for not volunteering enough at the kids school, or not writing little notes everyday in their lunches, or planning and taking the best vacations, or waking up cheerful everyday so my kids could start the day with a happy attitude. The list could surely go on and on. The truth is all that precious energy was spent worrying instead of DOING.

My quote was meant to be a reminder to me-one that I could say to myself everyday:

“Monae, today life YOUR life. Not the neighbors, not your best friends, not the lady at schools’, not so and so from church. Just yours.”

My mind and heart are so full of things I want for my own family. Experiences I want them to have (the theme from my Sunday lesson that this quote reinforced-I’ll have to write down sometime soon). Feelings of love they can securely feel within the walls of this home. Activities and family fun that bring such joyful memories that will overshadow the less meaningful “tired mom” ones. I am confident as I live MY life for them and with them that as they grow older their memories of me will be something like this:

My mom gave the best hugs.

My mom is so creative. She planned the funnest activities for us.

My mom served us.

My mom was funny. She laughed with us.

My mom was a dreamer. Not always a doer-but she loved to dream up great things.

My mom was tough. She worked so hard.

My mom wrote me notes sometimes and put them in my lunchbox. I saved them in the top zipper because they meant so much.

My mom supported me at my games.

My mom let us always have Family Home Evening.

My mom loved taking pictures.

My mom loved us.

My list of things to do this year have some of the same things as in years past, but they also have some new ones too. Ones that will hopefully bring a little more me into the equation. Ones that will show my kids who I am, and by so doing will show them who they are. I hope that my old self and all it’s time spent worrying will be put to the doing. Doing things to better

 LIVE MY LIFE.

Note to self: As I was just reading over this proofreading, Erika came up to me and said,”Mom, you have to come take a picture of this! We made the coolest thing”. I grabbed my camera and smiled inside that taking a picture was her first response. I took a picture of their fort they made by the front door out of umbrellas and blankets. Their bookfair books and stuffed animals were lined up by their pillows, ready for some fun.

Then Scott comes to me and announces that he will be going to the restroom, and Abby comments, “Good job! You can put a sticker on your goal chart when you’re done”.

They get it. Fancy foyers are for play in this home. We support each other in worthwhile goals, no matter how small they may seem. Cameras are for preserving memories of fun and important things. Living MY life seems pretty good right now.

{ Paper Play }

The other day when I was unpacking all my “UNPACK ME NOW” boxes, the kids had fun playing in all of the paper that was wrapped around the pictures.

They took turns burying each other in it, and then jumping out of it like a monster waking up. I think this was one of Abby’s “Day off” days, hence the pajamas. I think it was a sore neck that day if I remember right. Pretty sure that paper jumping helps to cure that.

{ St. Patrick’s Day Brunch }

Top O’ the morning! I loved waking up to a beautiful clear day, with the whole backyard covered in GREEN for St. Patrick’s day. With all the rain we’ve had this spring, it seems like everything is in bloom earlier than in years past. It was so fun to see all of our new trees that were planted last fall, have leaves budding on them, and the grass seemed to turn GREEN almost overnight. It was a very picturesque scene to see out our back windows as we enjoyed a St. Patty’s Day brunch.

With St. Patrick’s day falling on a Saturday this year, we switched our usually “GREEN” dinner to a morning brunch instead. For weeks I had been scouring the internet for cute ideas to celebrate our GREEN day. We are about as non-Irish as they come, but the kids love to have little Leprechauns come visit who turn everything GREEN, and leave little bits of chocolate gold scattered about.

The idea I finally decided on I found here and some of the artwork I printed out to display was from here.

With a soccer game at nine, and another one at noon, we opted for a brunch in between the two instead of trying to get everyone up before Austin’s game. I set up everything the night before, and had all the food prepared and in the refrigerator, except for the waffles which I made that morning.

The little Leprechauns that visited left everyone bags of gold at their place setting, and helped turn some of our food GREEN to add to our St. Patrick’s day fun. Our brunch was a waffle bar, with all kinds of festive toppings to choose from, as well as some fruit, or Lucky charms if that’s what they wanted instead.

Cute story about Scott and the pinch-proof potion. Brianna also had a soccer game today at 3pm, and while we were there, Scott was sitting next to Brent Clarke who we know from church. Aaron had already left earlier that afternoon to go to a Family Medicine conference, so he let Scott sit on his lap and was keeping him entertained for me. He started tickling Scott, and Scott said, “You can’t do that because I drank the potion!” only we couldn’t really understand the word potion very well. We kept asking him what? until Abby finally interpreted for us and we understood that he was saying “Potion”. We laughed and explained that tickling and pinching weren’t the same thing, but he sternly insisted that he was free from both since he had drank the special green potion that morning.

Aaron took Austin to his game that morning at nine, while I stayed behind with everyone else who was still asleep. I finished up the waffles, and greeted our tired bunch as they slowly climbed out of bed. Erika and Scott were my first two up, and were super excited with all the St. Patrick’s day goodies. Erika had been reminding me for the last week about St. Patrick’s day, and everyday she would say, “Have you gone to the store yet? Have you got anything for Saturday?” She was really worried that I would forget. I asked her if it was worth the wait, and she grinned sleepily and said, “YES!”.

As they helped me make waffles in our new waffle maker, I was explaining to Scott what St. Patrick’s day was. Not the real version I guess, just that little Leprechauns live in Ireland where it’s really GREEN, and they like to go look at the end of rainbows for a pot of gold. They sometimes cause mischief and turn everything around them GREEN. If you aren’t wearing GREEN on that day you will get pinched, but if you are you will get kissed. He quickly went to find a GREEN shirt he could wear. Both of his GREEN ones were dirty, but he cried until I let him put on the less dirty of the two. After that he was happy to point out everything he could that was GREEN. He found:

• Towels in the kitchen
• Ryan’s highchair seat
• Special water that was turned green
• Our cup holder on the counter
• Bowls in the cupboard
• The bowl I was mixing the waffle mix in
• All of our shirts
• The plates on the table
• Flowers on the island

We let everyone wake up (and helped a few tired girls who had been up late watching movies-AKA Brianna and Brooke), and we gathered around while we waited for Aaron and Austin to return. Ryan went straight for the table, and the chocolate on the table.

He was happy to discover that he too had a bag of chocolate waiting for him on his highchair tray. He was happy to let us put him in there once he saw that. He sipped his milk, spilled his milk, played with his fork, and grunted for his chocolate to be opened.

We were all trying so hard to wait patiently, but we were hungry! I tried to distract the kids by coming up with games they could play with their bags of gold-like hold onto the string and roll them like you were bowling, but they just ended up breaking and Reese's were all over the floor, and they were running trying to retrieve their own. I finally just let the kids break into their chocolates and have a few while we waited for the boys.

Ryan saw everyone else eating yummy chocolate and wasn’t about to be left out. He grunted until I gave in and let him have one (or two..or five) too. I think this is the first time he has ever had a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, but he knows what chocolate is, so it didn’t take long for him to be convinced it was something good.

First you taste a small bit…

..nibble the edges…

…evaluate what part to eat next…

..try licking the top..

…try eating only the top section…

…and finally just biting the whole top right off.

Scott just dug right in his once he got the okay from me-eating as many as he could get away with, but the girls were trying to ration theirs out for the rest of the day. They kept themselves busy by building Reese's towers..

..and we played math games with Brooke to help her get the concept of division with remainders. (Grandma Bonnie would be so proud) Finally, the boys got home so we could let the feasting begin. We insisted that everyone start with a little fruit first before having treat waffles. After the chocolate they had just downed I’m not sure it really mattered much, but we tried since we knew the rest of the day would be treats.

They had their Rainbow on a stick with whip cream “Clouds in a bottle” to dip their fruit in, and then we let them each make their own waffle masterpiece.

Austin-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, shamrock syrup, and lucky Leprechaun teeth.

Brooke-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, and lucky Leprechaun teeth.

Scott-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, and some green sprinkles.

Brianna-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, shamrock syrup, and some green sprinkles.

Erika and Aaron-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, shamrock syrup, and some green sprinkles.

Abby-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, and shamrock syrup.

Me-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, and shamrock syrup.

When we were done eating I remembered while I love brunch so much-you stay full almost all day it seems! When the kids got hungry again, I kindly led them to the Lucky Charms and milk.

Low cooking day-now it seems that it’s my LUCKY day!