It’s already working

A few months ago I hatched a plan. To start rubbing my kids feet.

You’re probably thinking “what kind of plan is that”?

I’ll tell you. I love having my feet rubbed. It calms me down, makes me comfortable, and happy, and if it’s a loved one doing it, I feel that connection. I thought that if I start rubbing their feet now, just during down time while they’re reading a book on the couch, or especially in a bad mood but will let me in…then I’m hoping and really PRAYING that when they’re teenagers, this will all pay off. I can sit on their bed at night and rub their feet as they talk and I listen and they unload and I learn. I can sit on the couch and rub their feet as they study for a test and help them calm down and relax. I can rub their feet after they get home from dates or a night out with friends and hopefully get them to spill everything, especially the stuff they might not normally share.

True, I might have a kid who doesn’t like having his/her feet rubbed, and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. All in all, I think this is pretty brilliant, and I take no credit because I believe it was divinely inspired.

Today I sat on the couch after dinner and said “yeah! Mother’s Day! I get a foot rub!” The girls were all kinds of excited and ran over with lotion. Ainsley eventually moved from my feet to my arms and hands and she whispered “When you rub my feet I feel your love for me. Do you feel my love for you right now?”

YES. So very much.

(see? it’s already working.)

Happy Mother’s Day

Love you, mom!

Turn that frown upside down

And SMILE that frown away!

Not only have I been thinking about the post a day on the blog here (which I’m really not that in to, if you can’t tell) but I’ve been doing a picture a day on instagram for the past few days. Todays photo prompt was SMILE.

But here’s the thing. The theme of the day has been SNAKES.

Those make me do lots of things, but smile is not one of them.

Josh found four snakes in the backyard only during one hour outside. He and Ainsley thought it was SO COOL! And were SO BRAVE! and it was SO FUN for them! Ugh.

Then Nathan and I snaked the bathroom sink and toilet and found that Emerson jammed LOTS of toilet paper and the sink stopper down the sink, but still can’t figure out why the toilet clogs a couple times a month.

Two kinds of snakes. None of them good.

Happy Saturday.

scenes from our afternoon

Ainsley spent most of last night and today sick with a fever between 102 and 104. By the time we picked up the boys her Tylenol and Motrin had kicked in again and she was an almost happy camper, so that when they went out, she wanted to go, too.

They call the area that used to be the chicken run their “Bug Jungle”.

I’m really quite afraid it might be a Snake Jungle, too.

The tulips are on their way out.

The peach tree blossoms are drying up but the apple tree will look pretty for another few days.

This time of year is perfect, isn’t it?

What do you do all day?!

As I was ONCE AGAIN preparing to throw in the blogging towel, I saw Jennie’s post about blogging every day in May and I was all “WHY NOT”? It’s not like I have 400 other things to do. I don’t. I have like 4,000. Details.

It’s supposed to be low key and no pressure, which are two of my middle names, so I thought, why the heck not. And if I quit in 3 days…oh well. It’s the thought that counts.

Today’s prompt is: if you can’t answer with your job, how would you answer the question ‘what do you do’?

1. I parent children and raise them and teach them and love them and feed and clothe and clean them. If I could hire out potty training Emerson, I’d do it in a heart beat. We’re dying around here.
1a. I am a wife. A pretty good one, but there’s room for improvement.
2. I read a lot. And study.
3. And think and even meditate. Yep, I’ve started a new, honest-to-goodness REAL meditation routine. And I think I already feel it working.
4. I sell houses. I have a job that comes with a business card now. And it’s fun!
5. I drive around more than I’d like. With kids in two schools and two baseball teams and gymnastics and on and on, it’s a lot of driving.

That’s the basics. What about you? What do you do?

ooh! pretty!

My birthday was this week. Jacob guessed I was two years older than I am but a friend was surprised at my age, so I guess that all evens out. It was a GOOD day. Yummy breakfast, lunch with Nathan, bike ride and bird watching with Ainsley, and after school we took the family up to Salt Lake. We spent time at the mall, time at Temple Square oohing and aahing over their gorgeous flowers, ate a yummy dinner and came home.

I tried to get just one picture of me with all four kids on my birthday and while it wasn’t a complete disaster, it was mostly a disaster.

Also? While on Temple Square taking pictures of the flowers, I got pooped on by a bird. How gross and kind of funny is that? It was right before this:

And now I present to you “Mostly Blurry Pictures of My Family”:

yesterdays high and low lights

Lowest light:

Yep, Naked Baby (who is that way because she’s decided to potty train herself against my wishes she wait until it’s warm) scaled the pantry. Again. Got stuck. Again. Still didn’t learn.

Loiwsh light:

Jacob’s baseball game. A loss (which I truly couldn’t care about, but he did a bit) in the FREEZING FREEZING spring wind. When the wind calmed down the last part of the game it went from very painfully cold to uncomfortably chilly. What a pleasure. Thankfully I was saved midway through the game by Melanie who dressed appropriately AND brought enough gloves to share a pair. She’s a gem.

HIGHLIGHT:

St. Peter’s Pack meeting. We have to differentiate when talking about Cubs by talking about the Catholic St. Peter’s group and the Mormon group. Even though Nathan and I are den leaders at the Mormon group (and not bad ones, at that), the St. Peter’s group wins for awesome.

They do a pack meeting each month and last night was a Space Derby.

Josh being all in charge of the flag ceremony, which he loves.

Emerson wanting to salute even though she’s not uniformed up.

Getting involved with this group is one of the best things we’ve done for Joshua.

It’s such an awesome program that Jacob is now dual enrolled so he can play along each week, too.

Josh’s Angry Bird plane. It came in 3rd place. Out of four.

Apparently I didn’t get a good picture of Jacob’s. We’ll rectify that tonight. It was a Batman plane. It looked great but came in fourth place. It was our first space derby and I think we’ve learned some tricks for next time.