Changes

I got an idea yesterday. A good idea to make some changes. Whenever the weather starts to change (either summer to fall or winter to spring) I get the feeling that I need to clean the house and organize and get rid of junk. I wanted to do that today but more. I wanted to rearrange some rooms. There were some protests and a few tears, but as we worked today the boys got on board and got more and more excited. Our house is a big mess right now. We have stuff everywhere, crammed into the hall, stacked onto the kitchen table and counters. The dishes didn't get done today or the laundry. But we're almost done. It went a little faster than I thought and by tomorrow everything should be put in its place - its new place. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. And to have this mess cleaned up.

My new favorite thing

Last summer I had a swim party for my friends and our kids. I needed to make a main dish that was cheap and would feed a bunch of people. A few weeks before the party there was a recipe on the Pioneer Woman's blog that was perfect: BBQ chicken thighs. I had never cooked thighs before so I was excited to try something new. I could make the dish in the crockpot which made it more appealing, and then I went to the store and saw how cheap chicken thighs were. They became my new favorite thing. A year ago I got chicken thighs just when I wanted to make the BBQ chicken, but then I started to substitute chicken thighs for breasts in some of my recipes.  Now I buy them all of the time and I can't remember the last time I had chicken breasts in my fridge or freezer. Boneless, skinless and cheap as can be. Every few weeks I can get them for 99 cents a pound and they come in a HUGE package which makes for many meals for my small family. I like to cook a bunch in the crockpot and then shred it. I put 2 cup portions of the shredded chicken into freezer bags (counts as food storage!) and use it when I want to make chicken tacos or enchiladas or a favorite of ours Chicken in a Biscuit. One of my favorite dinners (and Dave's and Trevor's) is Cranberry Chicken and it's so much better when I make it in the crockpot with the thighs. Tonight's dinner is Chicken Broccoli casserole made with chicken thighs and tomorrow I am going to make this: Pioneer Woman's Penne With Chicken Thighs. I've been wanting to try it for a while and I am hoping Colin will like it. He likes anything with spaghetti sauce but I'm getting tired of spaghetti and meatballs. I need to change it up a little. Here's my Cranberry Chicken recipe (try it, you'll like it):
1 can Whole Berry Cranberry sauce
1/2 cup Catalina Dressing
1 packet Onion Soup mix
4-6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs
Place chicken thighs in the crockpot and sprinkle salt and pepper to season
Mix cranberry sauce, dressing and soup mix in a small bowl until combined. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. The chicken should fall apart easily after cooking.
Serve chicken and sauce over hot cooked rice.

Swim lessons

When Trevor was three we were at a 4th of July swim party and BBQ at a friend's house. She had a pool and Trevor fell in. He was at the deep end of the pool reaching for a toy when he fell. Most of us were out of the pool eating at the time, but thankfully one of the adults was still in there swimming. He got Trevor (but not before he went under) and pulled him out. Trevor was fine, but after that he was afraid of going under the water. Because of that experience I put Trevor and Colin in swim lessons a few years later. I wanted them comfortable in the water and to know what to do if they ever fell in. Swim lessons were good, but it wasn't until we had our own pool that the kids really started to learn how to swim. This summer Logan started out not wanting to go under water and only got into the pool if he was surrounded by anything that helped him to float. Day after day I would try and get Logan to let me help him swim but he refused. But then he went from arm floaties and a tub around his body to just the arm floaties and then Trevor got him to put his face in the water. Before I knew it Logan had taken his arm floaties off and was jumping in the pool to swim. Dave and I worked with him to show him how to swim under water, how to come up for a breath if he needed and he was off. In just a few weeks of swimming on his own he's doing so great. And now he'll swim to t he bottom of the shallow end to get toys, venturing out a little deeper each time we swim. I love having a pool and I love that each summer my kids and getting better and better at swimming. Colin is the best swimmer of the three, but I think by the end of next summer Logan just might catch up to him.

I heart school

I am not afraid to admit it: I am super excited for my kids to go back to school. I love summer and the laziness of it, the break we all get and the time I have to be home with my kids. But after a while, it gets to me and I realize that school is a good thing, a very good thing. When my kids are in school I am more productive during the day and when they get home I am more excited to see them. They get along better when they are in school because they come home wanting to hang out together. There is less computer and TV time, less time for them to argue and get into trouble and fight with one another. The house is cleaner. There is a routine, a schedule to follow and keep us all on track. I love fresh boxes of sharp crayons and empty notebooks waiting to be filled with ideas and stories and doodles. I get excited for Meet Your Teacher Day so I can see how the classrooms are decorated and drink in everything the teachers say about what we can expect for the year to come. I love the anticipation of finding out which friends will be in my boys’ classes and hearing all about their first day when they come home tired, hungry, their fingers itching to play video games.

     I was a teacher before my life as Mom. I wasn’t one for very long, but even then the first day of school held something for me that was almost magical. There was the promise of  a new year, a new beginning, of being something better than the year before. There was the mystery of who my students would be, what I would discover about them and what I would teach them, if I could teach them. There were always the ones who sat in class and did nothing. The kids who told me they were only in school because they weren’t old enough to drop out yet and, legally, they had to be there. The ones who thought they didn’t need school, didn’t need my class to get to where they wanted to be. They had their minds made up and there was nothing I could do to change it. I tried, but at the end of the day they still handed in empty pieces of paper and their grades never came up, never amounted to anything higher than failing. I remember a few of them still. I can still see their faces and I wonder what became of them. One boy, he was a junior in my American Lit class, told me on the last day of school that even though he never did any work he did listen when he was in my class. He told me that he had learned things, that he had never liked poetry before but he finally understood it and it wasn’t as bad as he had once thought.

     When I think back to my days as a teacher I get excited for my kids. I know they are going to learn and grow and their teachers are going to do things for them that I can’t. Everyone always says how under appreciated teachers are, how much extra they do but don’t get paid for, how important they are for the future of our kids. So start out this year appreciating your kids’ teachers. Be kind to them, support them. Treat them the way you want them to treat your child. Remember that teachers have lives outside of the classroom and sometimes they have bad days, too. They’re not magicians and they don’t have super powers, so don’t blame them if your kid comes home with a bad grade. Instead, ask them what you can do to help. It's not an easy job, but the good ones sure do make it look that way.

Not all boys play sports

When people find out we have all boys, they very often assume that our house is like an ESPN zone full of sports on TV, practices and games. But in reality we are quite the opposite. Growing up, my dad and brother loved sports and very often the TV was tuned into one game or another. I always said that when I got married my husband was not going to watch sports on TV and I got what I wanted. Dave is not into sports, he doesn't follow any teams and we don't watch games on television. He played a few sports in high school, but it was never really a big interest of his and there were other things he liked better. My boys don't play sports and we have never taken them to a sporting event. It's just not something we're very into. I've had conversations with people before who have told me that if I want a well-rounded son I need to get them into a sport. I have had people before tell me that if I don't get my sons in a sport when they are young, they will have no chance of being on a team when they are older. I know lots of boys who play sports, who are athletic and love going to practices and games, who are competitive and enjoy being on a team. I think that's great and good for them. But not all boys play sports. A while back Dave and I asked Trevor if he wanted to try to play soccer or baseball. His answer was, "I'm more of an indoor kid. I really don't like playing sports." And that was fine with me. If he doesn't want to play a sport, then I'm not going to make him. Trevor has expressed an interest in golf recently, after watching it at my dad's house. I'd like to take him golfing and see how he does, how he likes it. And if he does like it, then maybe when he's a little older we can get him into some lessons or take him more often. But I'm in no rush to get him going now. Colin likes to draw. He will draw for hours at a time. Recently he's also been making his own  books, little stories he writes and illustrates. Colin also loves to swim and he's by far the best swimmer in the family. I love that we have a pool and he can swim as much as he wants. Someday it would be nice if he can be on a team, but I'm not going to worry about it now. Logan is more naturally athletic than his brothers. He runs better and likes to be outside more. Maybe when he gets into school and starts taking PE he'll come home excited about a sport, maybe he'll show an interest and want to be on a team. But for now I don't worry about it because, honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal. Every family does things a little bit different but that doesn't make one better than the other. My kids have different interests, different personalities, but that doesn't mean they are worse off or better off than another kid. We're just doing the best we can with the things we've been given.    

Summer vacation, take 2

I had big plans for this summer. My house was going to stay clean, I was going to workout every day, the kids were going to do chores, and read and work on writing and math, I was going to do preschool with Logan, we were going to cook and play games and spend the days doing art, swimming, going to the library, the park and other fun outings. I made a schedule and I was going to stick to it. I'm good at making schedules, but I'm horrible at following them. Horrible. I want to be structured and organized and run my home like a classroom, but I just can't do it. I get lazy and I let the computer lure me in every single day where I spend precious hours looking at Facebook and reading blogs, looking up things on Pinterest, e-mailing my friends, watching shows and wasting time. I waste a lot of time on the computer. Some of the stuff I do is good, but most of it is a big, fat waste of time. So, I decided that since it's July and a new month I am going to try again with my big summer plans and try my hardest to follow that darn schedule. But just so you know, June wasn't a total waste of time. We did have some fun. Here are some pictures to prove it:

swimming with family on Memorial Day

Playing with cousins

The Smalley family visited us from Boston. Logan and his new best friend Jeffrey.

The kids being goofy. We had a great time swimming, eating and playing
with my friend Pam and her family.

Pam and me! She is one of my favorite friends from high school.

A tried to the Leid Discovery Museum. Yippee for free tickets
from the library!!

Logan loved playing in the grocery store

Hanging out with the Hutchings on 4th of July

Independence Day

 

Very often, around this time of year, I think back to when I was 16 and at girls camp during the week of the 4^th of July. We went to camp at Deer Haven in Cedar City and some of my best and favorite memories come from that campground. This particular year of camp, I was in the group of girls who helped plan the activities for camp that year. Because we were there on the 4^th of July we wanted to do something special to celebrate the birth of our country and our freedoms. The idea was presented that we have a Burning of the Flag ceremony for the flag we flew at camp year after year. It was getting old and worn and it needed to be replaced. As we planned and prepared for this retiring of the flag ceremony, I felt a new love for my country and especially for the Founding Fathers. The other girls and I decided that for the ceremony we would dress up in costumes that represented a different country. We wanted to remind everyone that this great country was settled by members of many different nationalities. I will never forget the amazing peace that was present at that ceremony that night. AS the sun was setting, we pledged to the flag on last time, words about the flag were spoken and patriotic songs were sung. We lowered the flag and prepared it to be burned. As we placed that flag into the fire I remember the tears coming as I felt a sweet Spirit and knew that it was no accident that our Founding Fathers created the government the way they did.

            Yesterday, as I prepared a lesson to teach my boys a little about why we celebrate the 4^th of July, I came across this quote by Wilford Woodruff in an article: “those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits…[and] were inspired of the Lord.” When I was in college I studied the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in my American Lit class along with other works by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. When I read those things in college I could not remember ever reading them in their entirety before. It’s sad to me that the most important documents ever written in the history of our country are not studied more. Abraham Lincoln said, “Let [the Constitution] be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it becomes the political religion of the nation.” I think that sometimes it’s good to go back to the beginning of things, to remember what it was that made it so we could be where we are today. Maybe if everyone read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution a little more often things would be just a little bit better.

(you can read the article I read here: http://www.lds.org/ensign/1987/09/the-constitution-a-glorious-standard?lang=eng&query=constitution)