Happy Birthday, William!

Today, you are four years old. Wow. You’ve grown up so fast. I remember when you were born. It was during our family reunion. Everyone was at Grampa George and Gramma Karen’s house; Poppop, Grampa Rulon, Nanny, all your aunts and uncles and cousins. We were all so excited when you were finally born. But especially your mom and dad. They had waited so long for you to come.

I remember coming to the hospital to see you. You had so much hair. I held your tiny swaddled body in my arms and nuzzled your neck. You smelled sweet, like vanilla. (Turns out, hospital pacifiers smell like vanilla.)

Then I watched you grow up. I loved it when you were about six months old, you would make the cutest bashful face. You would grin and cock your head to one side. It made me laugh so hard. You got a tricycle for your first birthday and your little feet couldn’t reach the pedals.

You loved trains (still do) and had an amazing train locating radar. You learned sign language with your mom, and you were really good at it. You’re so smart. I was amazed when I came over to visit you once and your dad had taught you how to use the computer. You picked it up so quickly (you take after your dad, that for sure) and could so it all by yourself. You are a great big brother. You’re so full of love and wonder. Happiness just emits from you like sunshine on a summer’s day.

I’m so glad I know you, little man. And I love you.

Love,

Aunt Amy

The Life of a Shirt

A single article of clothing has quite the adventurous life in my house. Let’s take one of Grace’s shirts, for example. How about her Hello Kitty shirt? 

Hello Kitty is sleeping peacefully in Grace’s dresser, second drawer from the top. The night before, she was carefully folded and gently placed inside the drawer alongside other shirts of similar color. (Grace’s mom likes to organize clothes by color. It gives her a sense of control and order amidst the everyday chaos.) Sounds of Grace’s mom singing “I Lived in Heaven” and “Braham’s Lullaby” soothing her to sleep. (The same two songs every night.)

Suddenly Hello Kitty is awakened by a loud cry of, “NO! THAT ONE BUGS ME!” It’s Grace. Sometimes she says, “The tag is itchy,” or “It doesn’t look good,” or “Why can’t I just wear pajamas?!” Then Hello Kitty sees a bright light. And a small hand reaches into her drawer and begins to shuffle everything around. Now Hello Kitty is next to the brown monkey shirt who she thinks is obnoxious. Finally, Hello Kitty is snatched out of the drawer and stretched over a little blonde head that smells like “Cowabunga Coconut.” After a bit of a struggle, Hello Kitty is finally situated properly around Grace’s small torso.

For the next hour or so, Hello Kitty is steadily abused, poor thing. Yanked by Jacob. Splashed with milk and Honey Bunches of Oats. Used as a tissue to wipe Grace’s nose. Then without warning, she is yanked off and tossed on the ground in the hallway with various other items of clothing. Then comes the waiting.

First Hello Kitty waits for Grace’s mom to see her and holler, “Grace! You left your shirt on the floor again! Please come pick it up!” Grace picks her up, carries her to another room and drops her on the floor again. With more dirty cloths and a wet towel. Throughout the rest of the day Hello Kitty is ignored, neglected, stepped on, and occasionally tossed here and there. She spends the night on the floor.

The next morning, after being stepped on a few more times, Grace’s mom finally comes in the room and picks up a damp Hello Kitty off the floor. (Spending the night squished up against a wet towel has its consequences.) She carries her out the door and drops her in the blue side of the laundry basket. She waits there for another hour or so. Finally she’s tossed into the washing machine with the rest of the darks. After a rigorous bath and a nauseating spin cycle, Hello Kitty waits in the cold, dark washing machine. She and the other clothes around her start to smell after a couple hours. Finally, she is tossed into the dryer. She gets heat stroke and multiple concussions from her experience there.

It takes another couple of hours for Grace’s mom to come take her out of the dryer. She’s carried into the master bedroom and dumped on the bed. She waits there patiently all day long only to be pushed on the floor in a heap of clean clothes, towels, and sheets. The next morning Hello kitty is scooped up and tossed back on the bed. Later she is sorted out and set aside with Grace’s other clothes. Unfortunately, she still gets shoved off the bed again that night. It’s the same story the next day. On the bed in the morning. Off the bed at night. At last, after two more rounds Hello Kitty is folded and placed in Grace’s dresser, second drawer from the top.

The end.

The Washing Machine

Today I did laundry. Lots of it. Loads of it. Literally.

As a general rule, I hate to do laundry. It’s tedious, time consuming, and it never stops. I’m the type of person who likes to get the job done. Completely done. With laundry, you’re never done. Even when you think you’re done, you’re not. Other reasons I dislike laundry: I can never get stains out. I frequently bleach things by accident. It’s hard to find a detergent that has a smell I can stand. And when I do find one I like, Wal-Mart stops carrying it so I have to pick another one. Then of course there are things like what happened yesterday when Jacob drank half a cup of detergent.

Here’s another thing that I particularly dislike. Tags that say: 

Hand Wash Only.

That got me thinking about how much I actually appreciate my washing machine. I’m so glad that there are only a few Hand-Wash-Only clothes in my house. If I had to wash everything by hand, laundry would be a full-time job. 8 hours a day. 5 days a week. Exhausting!

This is from an article I read online:

History of the Washing Machine:

"In the early days, without running water, gas, or electricity even the most simplified hand-laundry used staggering amounts of time and labor. One wash, one boiling and one rinse used about fifty gallons of water—or four hundred pounds—which had to be moved from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds." YIKES!

"Rubbing, wringing, and lifting water-laden clothes and linens, including large articles like sheets, tablecloths, and men’s heavy work clothes, wearied women’s arms and wrists and exposed them to caustic substances." 

"They lugged weighty tubs and baskets full of wet laundry outside, picked up an article, hung it on the line, and returned to take it all down; they ironed by heating several irons on the stove and alternating them as they cooled, never straying far from the hot stove."

Milestone in the History of Washing Machines:

1797		Scrub boards.
1851 1861 1874 1858		First, hand-powered, washing machine with a drum, invented by James King. First clothes wringer added to the washing machine. William Blackstone built his first hand-driven wooden washing machine. The company he founded still produces and sells washing machines to this day, out of their New York headquarters. First rotary washing machine, invented by Hamilton Smith.
Early 1900s 1907 1922 1908 1911 1930s 1947		Metal wash tubs replace wood tubs. Maytag Corporation began manufacturing a wooden-tub washing machine with a flywheel, still manually operated with a rotary handle. Maytag Corporation introduces the agitator system for moving the water around in the drum, rather than dragging the fabrics around in the water. First electric-powered washing machine is invented by Alva J. Fisher. Whirlpool Corporation, then called the Upton Machine Co. is founded in St. Joseph, Michigan and starts producing electric motor-driven wringer washers. John W. Chamberlain of Bendix Aviation Corporation invents a machine that can wash, rinse, and extract water from clothes in a single operation. The first top-loading automatic washing machines are introduced by the forerunner of the Whirlpool Corporation.
1951 1950		The first automatic washing machines are made in Europe. The first computer-controlled automatic washing machines appear. Many technological advances follow. Among hundreds of systems tested, only two washing systems survive until this day: the agitator system and the tumbling system. Wash cycles and products are developed for new fabrics and a greater range of wash conditions.

So I have a new appreciation for my washing machine. It really is incredible. And it's been in the making for 150+ years. I wholeheartedly say "Thank You" to all those wonderful people who made it possible for me to push a button and forget about the wash, rinse, and spin of it all.

Stephanie Nielson

I recently watched a video about a remarkable woman: Stephanie Nielson. After watching the video, I read her blog. I have been inspired.

Here's a snippet from the video. Stephanie: “On August 16, 2008, my husband and I were in an airplane crash. I was in a coma for three months. We both survived…”

Stephanie started a blog in 2005. She says that it’s therapy for her to write what she feels and is going through. And it’s therapy for me to read it.

She says, “To me, beauty and motherhood are one; they’re the same thing.”

Thank you, Stephanie Nielson, for sharing your life with me; a complete stranger.

Warning: Keep Out Of Reach Of Children

Jacob came walking in the kitchen today coughing and gagging I looked down and saw that he was holding the cup of laundry detergent I left on the washing machine. It was half empty. Nice.

(Note to self: Jacob has figured out how to stand on top of the bleach bottle and reach up on the washing machine. Don't leave anything up there. And move the bleach bottle. Even though he'll just find something else to stand on. So remember the don't-leave-anything-on-the-washing-machine part.)

So we gave him some juice and called

He's fine. Thankfully.

Good Music

Music is truly amazing. It is so Powerful. Say something and people Hear it. Sing something and people Feel it. I love music. I made a playlist of some of my new favorite songs. Also, I found a beautiful video on Youtube. And below are some great quotes about music.

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed,

Soothes the mind and gives it rest,

Heals the heart and makes it whole,

Flows from heaven to the soul.”

~Unknown

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent" ~Victor Hugo

"Music is what feelings sound like." ~Unknown

The Plan

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog. Why do I want to write it? What do I want to accomplish from it? Well, I haven’t got it all figured out yet. But here are a few reasons for this blog: I want to keep a kind of journal; I want to be able to remember things I would normally forget; I want to track my progress on reaching goals I set for myself; I want to rediscover who I am. So here I go.

This is a list of some current goals I have been working towards and how I hope to reach them:

1. Fall in love with my husband all over again.

a. Have regular date nights.

b. Brush and floss my teeth twice a day so I want to kiss more.

c. Learn something new about Ricky every day.

2. Be a better mother.

a. Establish better communication between me and the kids. Stop yelling. Start listening.

(Read “How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk.”)

b. Get control of my anger.

c. Schedule quality time with the kids on a regular basis and plan meaningful activities with them.

d. Take more photos of my children to remember these precious moments that fly by so quickly.

3. Make mealtimes healthier and happier.

a. Get my kids to eat vegetables. (Use The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious strategies.)

b. Teach the kids to eat what they are served and when they are served.

c. Eat together as a family at the same times every day.

4. Exercise regularly and get to a healthy weight.

a. Go to the gym Monday-Friday.

b. Eat 3 healthy meals a day. Protein shake for breakfast. Lots of H2O throughout the day.

c. Yoga several times a week.

5. Discover who I am.

a. Write on this blog every day.

b. Establish a daily scripture study routine.

c. Pray always.

d. Write about one thing I am thankful for every day.

e. Discover my talents.