Unexpected insights

Today was my Grandmother’s funeral. It was a very unusual day to say the least. We waited to leave until this morning because the boys had plans last night with their buddies. The funeral was 4 hours away, so that meant getting up at 4:30 AM! Thank heavens I had my wits with me and showered last night and got the girls’ clothes picked out. I had the boys get their suits out before they went to bed as well. Then this morning, we started out for East Texas. We knew it would be a fun drive, not only because of the length of time, but because the air compressor went out recently in the van and the AC blows nice and hot air. :) This morning, we were blessed with an added treat. It rained for over two hours of our drive. The rain was nice because it helped it be nice and cool. The unfortunate part was that the wipers decided today was a good day to not work. “Jesus take the wheel” took on a whole new meaning this morning! Haha Eventually, the sun came up and the sky quit crying. We made it safe and sound. I couldn’t help but think of how the journey was similar to our trials we go thru in life. How many times are we determined to get to a certain destination while all kinds of forces rise against us? Heavenly Father helped us see thru the rain (trials) just enough to keep forging ahead. Once we go thru the choice part (turn back or keep going), he helps us even more until we can see for ourselves. Then the destination is all that more special to us.

The service was nice. Jake was one of the pall bearers. He was quite nervous, but he did really well. It was quite an honor. After the graveside speech, the pall bearers passed by the casket and placed their white boutonnieres on the casket. It’s probably a normal occurrence, but I haven’t paid enough attention to know. To me, it was a beautiful show of humility and love.

After the funeral, we all went to my Aunt and Uncle’s home for lunch. I ate WAY too much. It was nice to laugh and talk with everyone. Lots of pictures were taken, but I left my camera in the car.  I didn't think we were going to stay as long as we did.  ;)  On the way home, Mike let Jacob drive along the back roads to my Grandparents old homestead. No, the other kids did NOT want to get in the car. Yes, they screamed they were going to die. We made them get in the car anyways!  Haha  Jake did a good job, though. I think his top speed was 20! It brought back memories of me learning to drive along the same dirt roads by Grandmother's house WAY too long ago.  :)  It was really odd how much the old home had grown older. Of course, I haven’t aged at all! Yeah, right! ;) We just walked around the old house and it was as if I was 10 again, hanging out with my cousin Ashley. I really miss him sometimes. Grandmother gets to see him, though. She gets to see Aunt Joan and Mama Parish (my great-grandmother) as well. I’m sure Grandmother is enjoying catching up with them.

On the way home, we were able to have some pretty great discussions with Jake and Josh about death and how to live your life. It’s amazing to me how teaching moments place themselves in the most inopportune times. For me, at least, it’s when I’m super tired or needing to get twelve other things taken care of that the kids come looking for help and guidance. On the way home, we were stuck in a car and super tired. What a great time for learning more about their characters and helping give them insight to making their journey thru life a little less roller coaster like. :)

All in all, I would call the day a super success. :)

Grandmother

My Grandmother passed away yesterday. I know that my Grandmother loved me. I can still hear her say, “Come here little darling” in her strong southern accent. I grew up going back and forth to Grandmothers. She lived a few hours away, but it seemed like forever to get back and forth to her house in the middle of East Texas. Walking into her house was like walking back in time. She ate lunch at noon precisely every day, no exceptions. She washed her dishes in a pan in the sink. She had a REALLY old refrigerator. She didn’t have a laundry room in her house. She kept her washing machine and dryer in the dairy down the road. She lived on a big farm. Her house had the biggest & best heater I’ve ever felt. She also had little space heaters that didn’t have covers. I was always afraid I would burn myself on one. :) Her house was like entering an oven on a cold day. It would almost smother you with the heat. Often I would go outside in the dead of winter without a coat just to cool off a bit from the house. Her bathroom scared me. I don’t really know why, but it did. :) The fixtures were old and the tub, toilet and sink were all stained. They were clean, just stained by the hard water. The door would often stick as well. That didn’t help any. Many times someone was stuck in that old bathroom. :) The bedrooms were off limits for most of my childhood. I always wondered what was so secret in the bedrooms that we weren’t allowed into. Haha She was always smiling when I grew up. She was very soft spoken, very timid. In the end, she had Alzheimer’s. Her personality was not the same. She wasn’t as shy or as timid as before. What a horrible disease. She was blessed with a peaceful passing, though. A final blessing from Heavenly Father for a lady who had had a rough life.

Life is a roller coaster

It’s official. I’m a bad mother. It’s been almost 3 weeks since my kids have started school. Do you think I took a picture of them for their first day of school? Nope. No way. Not me. Do you think I have gushed to anyone about how spectacular they are doing in school thus far? Nope. Nadda. Not me.

So, here goes. :) Elaina has been at this school since Kindergarten. She loves it. She doesn’t know any better. Haha Actually, it is a really good school. It is a public charter school. :) She is now in 2nd grade. She came home with homework the first day of school (the only one to do that I might add). She has 15 spelling words a week to work on. She must play games with these words on the computer and take tests twice a week online. She also must write sentences with each word. She also gets to read 100 minutes per week. More like I get to sit with her and help her read for 100 minutes a week! I’m not complaining. I love spending time with her, but it’s hard to find 100 minutes a week to find a quiet spot to read, without interruptions. We haven’t started math homework yet, but I know it’s coming. YEAH! :(

Emma is doing really well in Middle School. Her school moved into a new building this year and it is really neat. She feels like she is super grown up. She has gotten a bit taller and thinned down a bit, so now she is starting to look the part a little more. :) She still LOVES to read and does it every chance she gets. The homework hasn’t really started too much for her yet, but she is usually pretty good at taking care of it at school. This year she even has study hall once a week to work on homework during school. She is excited about her drama class as well. :)

Josh was leary to start the new school we put Jacob and him into. He is starting to open up a bit and come out of his shell a little better. He is taking German and loving it. He is constantly teaching me new phrases. :) He knows more in the three weeks of German than Jake knows from a full year of Spanish last year! Of course, Jake wasn’t really into it last year and Josh is super excited about German, but hey, it’s encouraging!

Jake is in heaven at the new school. He loves getting out of school at 12:45 Monday, Wednesday and Friday! He thinks that is the neatest thing since sliced bread. I’m not so sure he isn’t right. For now, all the problems he had at the public high school are not affecting him. He has really enjoyed his fresh start and is making the most of it. YEAH for him! He is enjoying his classes and making new friends. I am super happy we went ahead and moved the boys to this High School. :)

I am on the road constantly. :) I wish that were an over-statement, but it’s not. :( I used to love driving around, but now I look forward to staying home a little. It’s been nice that Mother has been with me this last week. She has kept me company while I am dropping off kids then picking them back up a few hours later. :) She is doing much better and determined to go home in September. My selfish side wishes she would just move in and help me year round. Not just for a week or two. :) It’s amazing the things she does, even when she is “slowing down” and not doing as much. Haha

Mike is doing really well, as well. He works quite a bit. I have a new understanding of his dislike of traffic because I am in it each morning right behind him. :) He is enjoying his calling with the young men. I know Jake and Josh enjoy Mike helping with that as well. They tolerate me, but I think they prefer Mike because he doesn’t pry into their lives as much! Haha

Who doesn't love a party?

Emma went ahead and turned 11, even though I kept telling her she wasn't allowed. ;) She decided this year to have a party. We have only hosted 1 other real "party" for a birthday in our house. We decided long ago that the kids could have a party, or have $5 for each year they've been alive. Usually, we have money grabbers. Something about going to the store to pick out their own gifts really entices our kids! haha

This year, Emma got the better of us. She had a party AND got her $. She decided on having a karaoke party. We decorated the house a bit and prepared to P-A-R-T-Y! haha

One of the girls’ mother volunteered to help the girls with a fun craft. All the girls had a great time. They made the most adorable hair accessory. The girls were really proud of themselves.

After the craft, they had fun dancing and singing. Everyone had a great time. Some of the girls said they want to have a party just like it for their birthday parties. :)

The boys even got in on the act.  They ended up having as much fun as the girls! 

What a difference a week makes

I took the girls swimming at a friend’s community pool last Wednesday. I didn’t put sun screen on my legs thinking it wouldn’t be necessary. That was my first mistake. Haha Once I felt the burn, I quickly put sun screen on, but it was too late. I got a severe burn on my ankles, legs and feet. OUCH! The girls were fine. They had a blast and it wasn’t until later that evening when I couldn’t walk right that Elaina noticed she was “burnt really bad too”. Have I mentioned that she is very talented at developing illnesses I have? I have to make sure if I get sick, not to mention it around her or she will develop the same symptoms. Haha These pictures don't really do justice to the redness of my poor defenseless feet.  I can tell you they made/make the coolest purple color when I put on the blue aloe vera gel!  haha

This is how they looked after going to the pool. Not so bad, eh? I didn’t think so. I just knew I was on fire and couldn’t walk right. 

This is Saturday evening. My ankles had swollen to where there wasn’t much difference between them and my calves. Do I even have to mention how bad it hurt? :) I was banished to my room and had to prop my legs up. Jake stayed with me during most of my banishment. We had a friend come over and give me a blessing. That was a very helpful. :)

This is how they looked today – a week later. They look MUCH better! I’m so excited. I have been able to sleep thru most of the night for a couple nights now! I’m so excited. I think I may even be able to wear pants again soon. Who knew wearing pants could be so exciting! haha

Mozzarella Sticks

I was looking at some older recipes of Pioneer Woman because I haven’t read her blog in a while. I know. I’m a very sad person! Haha Anyway, She had a recipe for homemade mozzarella sticks (Click on the link for the recipe, and YES, this is her picture above. haha). She went on and on about how much better the homemade ones are than the store bought ones. I LOVE mozzarella sticks. I had a little chat with myself and decided that since I LOVE the store bought stuff SO much, I owed it to myself to try the homemade kind. They would either turn out super yummy or not worth the effort, if you know what I mean. :) Well, Pioneer Woman was right, as usual. They are to DIE for! OK. Maybe DIE is a strong word. But these things make your knees bend and your mouth cry with excitement! They aren’t too difficult to make either.

First, you need Panko crumbs. I had never heard of them until this recipe. I am thoroughly impressed with these bread crumbs. I found mine in my local Kroger store beside the regular bread crumbs. They had some pre-seasoned ones ($3.49), but I opted for the regular ones ($1.49). Was there ever a doubt which ones I bought? Haha I just added Italian seasoning and some extra parsley to mine. :)

Then you take the cheese sticks and cut them in half. The hardest part is getting the cheese sticks out of their packaging. ;)

Then you dip them in flour. Just make sure they are covered well. This is what helps the egg/crumb mixture stay on the sticks.

Then dip in the egg. I found it easier to use a fork to help with this. It helped all the egg “drippings” to “drip” off. Haha

Then throw it in the panko crumbs. I just pushed the crumbs around the stick while gently pressing them into the egg mixture.

Then place on a pan or plate. Once they are all finished, put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This apparently helps them to stay together a little better when you fry them. :)

Once they have waited their 30 mins, drop them in oil and fry until golden brown. We had enough to let cool completely then place in a freezer bag so we can use and enjoy just like ones you get from the store. YEAH!

Got Marbles?

I was reading the magazine Family Fun while waiting in a doctor’s office one day and came across a very interesting article. It mentioned a family that used marbles to get their kids to help with chores and things and that it worked really well for their family. I thought to myself, I have a ton of kids that don’t like helping with chores. I should try something like that. That’s when the wheels started churning and my brain hurt ~bad!

I sat down and wrote out a bunch of different chores (job list, if you will). It’s nothing fancy like my talented sisters would spin out, but it will do.  :)  Just a simple table with 3 columns. I then proceeded to put a marble amount on everything. Apparently, I am a bit too giving because Mike had me to re-adjust my marble amounts. I’m a bit too free with my marbles. Maybe that’s where they are all going. Haha

Then I wrote out some “Rewards” to “buy” with the marbles. I had the kids help me with these so they would actually want to use their marbles. Don’t worry. I was a bit too “proud” of my rewards and had to re-adjust them as well. I wouldn’t want this list to think it was any better than the Job list! Haha

Then I took the kids to Goodwill. I let them pick out a container to put their marbles in. Can you guess which one belongs to whom? I was surprised at the choices, but after they were picked, the universe made sense once more. The girls picked plain glasses (Emma's has a blue tint and Elaina's has a pink tint) to decorate with different jewels and trinkets. Josh picked a fish. He was sure to put overly large jiggly eyes on it and paint it to accent the many colors (or something like that). Jake was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him get a solid piece of ceramic. Then he found a Lord of the Rings glass and he was happy. Oh the joys of picking out your own marble container! Haha

Then we went to Dollar Tree and got the marbles. I had some, but needed a few more. Plus, we needed to look at what jewels and trinkets they had we could glue on the glasses. :) We found some colorful ones and some star shaped ones. Everyone wanted a star, so I made them worth 5 marbles and only given out for special things. Haha Way to trick those kids into thinking they were getting something special. :)

Emma wants it known that she is leading the pack. She finally saved over 100 marbles and just traded them in for $10 CASH! Josh wanted to make sure I mentioned that he would have over 100 marbles, but he spent 40 on extra computer minutes. Poor thing. Haha Yesterday, Elaina told me that she doesn’t like this new game (yep, that’s what she called it). But since Emma turned hers in for cold hard cash, I think she has changed her mind a bit. Now she is asking what she can do tomorrow for more marbles. Yeah. I think we will keep this system for a while!