Are You Listening?

This question is a popular one in our family. I find myself asking it to my kids several times a day when I ask them to do something and I'm ignored. Sometimes I say it once softly then louder and louder as if I'm doing a hearing test or something. Sometimes I try different voices - does a manly voice make it more effective? An old Lady voice? A ghostly voice? It's hard to say what works the best. It depends on the day and circumstance I think. Sometimes I wonder if my kids really do have hearing problems, but testing has shown otherwise.

So the conclusion I finally came to was that they're kids. Kids sometimes don't listen.

Then one day not too long ago I was busy doing something while Jesse Bear was chattering in the background and I heard a little voice say, "Mom, are you listening?" It startled me and my mind jumped back from whatever I was thinking back into reality and I realized that no, I wasn't listening. Later I thought back to all of the many times that I haven't really listened to them. When I try to do too many things at once or spread myself too thin. Sometimes I may actually be listening but doing something else and to them, that's still not listening.

So I guess my conclusion was wrong. Listening is something that we all need to work on. Listening with our bodies as well as our ears. As good as we may think we are at it, there's always room for improvement.

Comings and Goings

We've had a few thorns in our life the last few months. Maybe I'll mention a few since I usually just talk about the joys. It's always good to realize that most people go through challenges, they come just like the good comes. I find that I'm not a very open person and I don't like to share my challenges with the world for some reason. But sometimes I think it helps getting them out there. It makes them seem a little more manageable seeing them listed for all to see.

1) Asthma - we first noticed this during the kickball season back in June. C was playing one day and had a really hard time breathing. I had to take him into the urgent care center and they gave him a breathing treatment. It helped him a lot and the next day we took him to the doctor and they diagnosed an inhaler. Throughout the summer we used it a few times, but this fall during soccer season we've been using it a lot. The asthma (usually just like a cough and really labored breathing) has gotten worse. We're looking at our options now trying to decide what to do.

2) Broken Arm - J broke his arm 4 weeks ago and has been wearing a cast. The good news is he got it off today. Or that may or may not be good news depending on if he continues the same level of reckless playing that he has in the past. I'm hoping that we'll keep it off.

3) Other health challenges - we've had quite a bit of sickness including the stomach flu for C, J and my sister who is living with us right now. J also had a fever for a few days which left him with the grumpies for a week. It's been kind of a medical nightmare around here with more health challenges than I care to list here.

4) New Schedule - It's been 4 weeks and the school schedule is going in full-swing. I'm amazed at how much of your day is absorbed by the comings and goings of taking a kindergartner to and from school. Being on a schedule of course means my flexibility has dropped considerably. This is not easy for me and I find that most days I am amazed at how little I actually accomplished. Of course we plow on. I know this is how life will be for quite a few years and I need to get used to it. And I need to learn to focus on the things that I am doing instead of the piles of things that never get done.

Well that's enough of that. Hopefully that helps you get a sense of just a few of the challenges that we are facing right now. After reading through this list again I am guiltily realizing that I'm leaving out several of the most challenging of trials but I guess that's okay. My trials are mine for a reason. I think one of the reasons is because there are things that I need to learn from them that I couldn't learn any other way. Sometimes our trials are also our blessings. That's how some of mine are. I'm so glad that the Lord knows what we need better than we know ourselves. If I got to pick my trials I certainly wouldn't pick the ones I have, but I don't know that I want any of yours either.

Week of Firsts

It's been a week of firsts for us - a little over a week I guess. Here's the updates...

First Broken Arm!
Jesse Bear broke his arm a couple of weeks ago. He fell off a table on the cement patio and landed on it. Poor guy! But he's doing well as you can see, he doesn't let it stop him from doing everything he wants to!


First Soccer Game of the Season!
CG started soccer last week and has had a couple of great games!

First Day of School!
Curious George started kindergarten this week. He loves it! I wish I could have captured the look on his face the first day of school - so confident, so proud, so excited! He had a great day and unfortunately he got sick that night and missed the next two days of school. But he went back on Friday and had a great day!

First Peaches!
We tasted the first peaches of the season and they were delicious! We even got about 10 off our own tree! Mmmh!

First Missing Tooth!
Curious George gets to be a jack-o-lantern mouth for Halloween this year! He lost his first tooth today! So fun!

Summer Fun

It's been a week of injuries for Jesse Bear. Bumps, bruises, burns, scratches & bug bites...it must be summer! Here's his "snuvv" that we put to cover his burn that he got on his finger. The word "snuvv" comes from the Dr. Seuss book "The Lorax" - remember the once-ler? and his snuvv? His Secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove? Yep! Now Jesse Bear has one too!

We got our first batch of green beans from the garden! Mmmh!


On Saturday we celebrated pioneer day by hiking 8.5 miles (round trip) on a mountain near our home. It was beautiful! And believe me, we all felt like the pioneers after that hike! It took us 8 hours! (we averaged about 1 mile/hour) :) Here are some of the views along the way:

I liked the message on this tree!

And here's the beautiful lake that climaxed our hike! :) Ha ha! The saddle that you can see just above this lake in the picture was a mile further, but we had to head home. So close...and yet so far!


Curious George hiked for all the hike except about a half mile where his Dad did this:


Jesse Bear hiked for a couple of miles also. Finally after the 25th fall, he agreed to be carried the rest of the way. :)

Armor: Part 2

Well, we sure have gotten a lot of use out of this armor that we made on Sunday. Yesterday our family home evening lesson was all about warriors that were righteous in the Book of Mormon. We talked about Captain Moroni and Helaman and the righteous things they fought for. But today...today just topped it off - it's been a while since I've laughed so hard.

Jesse Bear took a bath and afterward Brandon had to leave for a meeting so we quickly read scriptures and said prayers before he left (which meant Jesse Bear was left in his towel for a few extra minutes). If you've ever had a two-year-old boy you know that they love to be unclothed. And they love to run around while you try to catch them while they are unclothed. So after Brandon left Jesse Bear dropped the towel and started running around like a mad man. He of course wanted me to chase him, but he was too quick for me. Finally I just sat down next to his clothes and started counting (an old trick that usually doesn't work but sometimes we resort to anyway). Jesse Bear was in his room and when he came out he was fully clad from head to sword in his cardboard armor of righteous over his completely naked body. Curious George and I busted out laughing. He runs out in his armor and proceeds to do a warrior dance for us (looking very similar to what I picture the Lamanites looking like). This went on for about 5 minutes with all of us laughing hysterically (my sister was there too). Then all of a sudden I hear it! I scream and drop everything and rush the unclothed warrior into the bathroom before he pees all over the floor. An inevitable ending to a perfectly hysterical moment. :)

Armor of Righteousness

Curious George saw this image in the friend this month and wanted to make some cardboard armor just like it yesterday. I told him that we could as long as the weapons and armor were used for righteousness. :) We spent the morning making breastplates of righteousness, swords of truth and shields of faith for the boys. They loved it. Their Dad fought imaginary foes with them all afternoon.
Curious George also saw another image from the friend with the title of liberty that he wanted to make. We didn't get to that one, but next week we'll make it so the boys can act out of the story of the title of liberty. :)

Baby Falcons

These baby falcons hung out near our house all day yesterday. We saw three of them. Aren't they beautiful? We waited all day for their parents to come get them, but never saw them. One of our neighbors took them home and gave them some food and water to keep them alive. She was going to turn them into a wildlife place if she could find where to do it. They were extremely docile birds. They just kind of sat there. One of them took a shower in the neighbor's sprinkler for most of the day. The other one was going back and forth over the road. I didn't think it would make it through the day, but it did. They weren't scare of us at all. Just kind of sat there. They looked really funny when they ran. They spread there wings out (they have a huge wing span that seem way out of proportion to their bodies) and kinda hopped along. They were really cute.