Legacies

I am fascinated by aspects of Mormon culture and traditions recently as I’m figuring out how to frame my thoughts on the gospel and how I live and share it with my family, as a teacher in church, and to my friends. It is interesting to see how culture and traditions shape how we as Mormons understand, teach, and try to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My Mormon heritage doesn’t go back generations like it does for some. As a kid, I longed for Mormon pioneer heritage and the stories of ancestors sacrificing all for the gospel and trekking West to follow the prophet of God. Ryan is blessed with that heritage and I find it fascinating, wanting to learn more about them. But I've always been intensely proud of Grandma Honey, and then my mom and my dad for choosing this faith to live and raise our family in.

Bob & Lorry, Engagement

My Grandma Honey (maternal grandmother) who recently passed away this summer was the first to join the church in my family. She joined as a young mother in the midst of the same season of life I am in. I'm sure she was very busy, in fact there's a story in her conversion to the gospel about how she felt directed by the Holy Ghost to do something about her growing faith while on her knees cleaning gum off the floor. She felt like there might be something in religion that would help her raise her family. I feel so blessed by that choice! As a result, my mother was raised by in the church and was influenced by many good church leaders. (This doesn't downplay in any way the strong role my Grandpa Bob played in supporting and leading his family too.) As for my Dad, my mom and a few other young Mormon girls caught my dad's eye as a young man, and while in college he investigated religions and joined the LDS church. This is amazing to me, nothing short of a miracle I feel.

Us Bares in 1994

Home is/was in the Tri-Cities of eastern Washington where there is a large LDS community. My dad's family are wonderful people and are not members of the church. My mom's family is scattered between Washington and California and while all are not LDS, they too are great people whom I love. In Kennewick, about 10% of my high school was LDS and we even had release-time seminary rather than early morning seminary. (This is still rare outside of the Utah-Idaho LDS corridor I believe.) It was great to live in this pocket of the Mormon diaspora (I love that term and idea)! I'm still grateful for it and the fact that my kids also are getting the chance to grow up in it.

This past summer while home, I was so surprised to see how much my family’s ward boundaries have shrunk to accommodate growing membership in my home community. With ward (congregation) size usually in the 200-300 range, the boundaries of my ward when I was young now comprises at least four if not more wards! This is so awesome to see! I loved seeing the flow of people entering the 11 years young temple there, taking advantage of that opportunity to serve and align themselves with the Divine. There were and are so many fabulous people there, righteous and strong men AND women! I am so grateful for their good influence on me growing up! Good people are magnets for other good people. I hope to be a Mormon magnet, in all that's fabulous about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And here we all are this summer, just shy of two weeks before Grandma Honey passed away. I come from a strong heritage of such good people! All of these people have been influenced by Grandma Honey's choice to seek God and have Him in her life. I have parents and youth teachers who did their best to live and teach the gospel to me and I am forever grateful for that foundation. However, I did and still do feel some of the tensions within LDS doctrine, culture, organization and such which I am still making sense of. 

I am often limited in my understanding and use of words to express what I really mean. For some reason, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the word “command.” It’s in the scriptures a lot, commandments and all, and as my dictionary confirmed, the word often denotes a power structure, authority, and domination. But when I read that word in the scriptures, I don’t think of the Lord trying to wield power over me. My Heavenly Father has a plan of happiness, a plan of Salvation for me. I believe synonyms for “command” are truly, more accurately His way -- to invite, to instruct, to direct, to persuade.

In my early morning scripture study lately (going on 3+ weeks diligently! YAHOO!), I have loved being reminded of the basic principles of the gospel – faith, humility, guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, forgiveness and repentance. I am reminded of a Heavenly Father and Savior that love me, and all of us. In my desire to share the peace and perspective this knowledge gives me within my family and circle of friends, I often feel like I don’t have the vocabulary I need to express all these thoughts, let alone the brain-mouth capacity to vocalize it.

It makes me sad when friends and family members feel like the church isn’t a good fit for them, that they don’t fit the cookie-cutter ideal and therefore don’t feel welcome within the LDS community or beliefs. The church, like the gospel of Jesus Christ, should feel inclusive where everyone, no matter where they are on the path, feels welcomed and not judged. There’s a two-way street of responsibility and accountability.

As a mother and when I teach my bright Primary class of 10-11 year old girls each week, I want to be sure I stick to the basic, life-changing principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am finding that sometimes Mormon culture has gone beyond the mark to prescribe more than is needed. These prescriptions are sometimes perpetuated by us not individually examining the gospel principles of agency, learning and teaching doctrine. Our intentions are good, but perhaps a bit complacent and lazy in our effort to go to the source. I am often guilty of this but determined to do better.

Rather than set family rules, give youth set guidelines, and share practices of our church, I want to facilitate a more open discussion about why rules and guidelines are in place so we can align ourselves with principles and not judge others who may not have yet examined them. I want to be able to discern between gospel principles and culture/tradition, advocating for change in a Christ-like manner when opportunities arise and are needed. I hope Ryan and I can continue to openly share our life’s experiences with our family and friends so we can form our ideas together about how to apply principles in how we think, speak, act, dress and present ourselves to the world. I want to persuade and invite, rather than command those I love to live the principles that have helped me be happy and feel fulfilled.

This requires more of me as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I fall short regularly, more than once an hour usually. But there’s so much room to get it right - whether it’s keeping my cool "inviting" my kids to do chores, trying to communicate with Ryan amidst the chaos of our young family and career, choosing friends and entertainment, living aspects of the Word of Wisdom, modesty in all its facets, and so forth. These are daily choices and challenges to my faith that come up in my little bubble of a world.

Last night for Family Home Evening, Ryan and I decided to help Easton pass off a portion of his Cub Scout Duty to God requirements because he needs to finish his Wolf badges in the next month before his birthday. We discussed as a family what our duty to God is. We used Easton’s recent school presentation to help give us some ideas. Each of us picked something to work on for the next week that will show our Heavenly Father that we love and honor Him. I am so grateful for Family Home Evening! I love this forum to discuss things of real importance within our family. I don’t take advantage of it enough, I get lazy real easy come Monday night!

I have sometimes let myself get overwhelmed with all that I feel is required of me as a wife, a mother, a homemaker, and a member of the church. I fight the urge to declare aspects of my martyrdom regularly on FaceBook. But what purpose would that serve? Does it edify others or perhaps keep them wallowing like myself. I’ve decided that in this full season of my life, I can choose to be overwhelmed and mired in it or be proactive, hopeful, and pleased with my efforts to be “enough.” I always loved how my Grandma Honey was so quick to laugh and literally danced through life. She didn't seem to stay mired in the hard things life threw at her. She lost her 11 year old daughter, Judy, to leukemia. I can't think of many things in life that would be harder to endure and move forward after. 

I feel I am honoring my Grandma Honey's legacy of faith by taking the time to dig into the gospel with my morning study and trying hard to live my faith. I also feel I am honoring Mormon's legacy, the prophet who's name is our faith's nickname. He abridged the records of the Nephite people in America before being killed in battle leading armies defending his faith and family. They gave me this gift and it's my turn to make something of it. Starting with changing Jake's diaper! Onward and upward!

Recent Soul Food:

Being A More Christian Christian

The God Who Weeps – How Mormonism Make Sense of Life by Terry and Fiona Givens

Halloween 2012

I've really enjoyed our Halloween traditions this year! McKay had to do a presentation on a holiday that our family celebrates and he picked Halloween. Yeah, presentations in 1st grade! I love it! He did a great job and I liked being reminded that we actually do have traditions with intentions, even for Halloween.

Sometimes traditions feel binding and overwhelming for us moms, but I'm trying to retrain myself. I'm trying to analyze holidays for what I want our family to get out of them: traditions that create memories as a family, time to serve others and share our blessings, and outings to celebrate with our communities. I'm finding that if I approach holidays like this, I don't get as overwhelmed/resentful and can find the joy of holidays.

Pumpkin Carving
In preparation for Halloween, we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening last week. We had Ryan's coworker Helen Garza, a.k.a. Garbonzo, over to enjoy dinner and carving with us. Little did we know, she had NEVER carved a pumpkin before! No time like the present to learn, right? She was such a good sport as we pretty much handed her a pumpkin and a kitty face Morgan wanted and put her to work. 

Your big debut here, Helen!
Working your kitty magic!

Ryan enjoyed his carving tradition where he put the hand mixer's beater on his drill and whips all the pumpkin guts away from the edges for easy scooping out. The kids checked on our carving progress now and then, but were mostly interested in watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie.

Easton had to use all his might to carve part of his and it was hard work - such a thick pumpkin!

I love all the faces they make below! My cute kids!

Serving Others

I love ding-dong-ditching around holidays! I love how it makes me feel good to be thinking of these friends while I prepare it and imagining their joy at being thought of. Who doesn't like a yummy surprise?!

We boo'd five neighbors this year (underlined link is to last year's experience/explanation). Usually I like this to be an anonymous service, but this time I put a Happy Halloween tag with our names on the pumpkin bread loaves because one American neighbor family won't eat stuff from people they don't know. Since I can't always remember some of these neighbors' names, I thought perhaps they were the same and having our names would be nice. The kids were ecstatic the next day when we found a bag of Haribo gummy candies tied to our van door from a thankful neighbor! That's a first! Easton said, "Mom, I'm so glad you put our names on the bread so they knew who to give treats to!" HaHaHa!

Community Activities

The kids are out of school this week for fall break - a tradition in Germany. Most of the kids' best buddies are away on vacation and their church friends who go to school on base don't have it off. We've enjoyed laying low during the day because our evenings were full: the "boo-ing" for Family Home Evening on Monday night, a ward Trunk-or-Treat activity on Tuesday, and traditional Trick-or-Treating on base Wednesday. So each morning this week, the kids have raced to get their chores done so they can have some video game time in the morning. They are loving their school break!

I wish I had taken some pictures before and at the ward Trunk-or-Treat family night. Easton was Batman, McKay was Darth Vadar, Morgan a tiger, and Jake a frog. Hurray for costumes already in the box! The ward activity was a lot of fun with a yummy pot luck soup buffet spread and we invited the Frikken family from school. They are such a great family, we love being with them!

All day Wednesday the kids changed their costume ideas every half hour it seemed. I will seriously have to be on the look out for some more versatile costumes in bigger sizes for next year! I am not as crafty as others yet, but the kids seemed happy with the selection and their choices.

We went to Ryan's office to show off the kids and then Ryan took them to the movie theater where there were some children's activities. I had to run back to the security gate to sign in a friend's family but we all met up to do our trick-or-treating. I'm really grateful for those families who live on base and supply all that candy and decorate their spaces for the event! It's a fun tradition and we are always running into friends the whole time because it is such a small community.

The reality of trying to take a picture with my four kids.
It's "like herding cats!" 

Jake couldn't be bothered to pose for pictures when there was a ball to kick in sight.
He is nuts about playing soccer and tests every item he comes across for kick-ability.
If it rolls, it passes the test - even cups with no handles roll well enough he thinks.

She insisted all afternoon to her big brothers, to the point of screams and tears, that she is a lion not a tiger!
She regularly brings out the ogre in me, but I love her as fiercely as a tiger!
Look at that sweet face!

With all the action of getting out the door for trick-or-treating,
Jake here embodies what I'd rather be doing for the rest of the evening. 

He so badly wanted to be out walking with his siblings but they were too fast and the footings too unsure. Last weekend's big snowfall has been creating mud bogs that are too much for his little legs to conquer.
But look at that smile! We make cute babies, no?

You can barely see our stealthy ninja, McKay.
He was pretty excited to see this picture!

If you're a kid, what's not to love about costumes and candy?!

We headed for Indian food afterward and were happy to find ourselves the lone customers. Good food, fun conversations, fun holiday! The icing on the cake? An episode of Downton Abbey while hearing snippets of what McKay called, The Treat Trading Convention. He made a haul, just like Easter!

Side Note:
I recently read on a blog about wards that celebrate Reformation Day instead of Trunk or Treat! How cool is that?! In northern Germany on October 31, 1517 is the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door which ignited the Reformation and has shaped world history. Having recently listened to a book about the building of the magnificent St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, the costs of which were creatively covered by selling indulgences - I just can't help myself! I told Ryan I might have to do my research and come up with a 20 minute simple multi-media/faceted presentation to pitch for a ward party idea. I'm such a nerd, this is such an exciting idea to me! The one friend I did pitch this too said I would be laughed out the door and I'd have to agree. Our trunk-or-treat pot luck was such a perfect laid back family activity that everyone seemed to enjoy, I'd hate to mess with a good thing. But we're in Europe! It's a German holiday! Most everyone in attendance will have recently visited and heard about these places and people in their travels. Any takers? Anyone??

Side Side Note:
We're so grateful our friends and family seemed to have fared alright through Hurricane Sandy!!! 

Loverly Days

We started our Valentine's on Saturday. Making cards for class and baking sugar cookies, it was a busy, tasty day! We sacrificed cute and classy on the alter of practicing fine motor skills. But why is it that when we do an all out baking day, someone gets the flu hours later? Hmm . . . This time it was Morgan and McKay with Ryan following on Valentine's Day itself. Humbug.

A conversation with Morgan as I got started baking:

Mom, what are you making?

Cookies for us and our Valentines.

Mom, I be your makers helper, awight?

And a great "maker's helper" she was! She insists on pouring every ingredient in for me. Then she watched as I began rolling out and cutting the cookies. After my first go, she wanted her own space to make some. She loved playing with a handful of my scraps and it was just too cute! She had paid close attention to my process and I was surprised at how well she did! We pitted two favorite sugar cookie recipes against each other. Ryan has a favorite and I have mine. Both are tasty, mine has lemon extract in the dough and coconut extract in its icing. YUM!!! Ryan's favorite dough uses powdered sugar and almond extract. It's a tough call!

Here's our FHE and getting ready for giving cookies with their class Valentines. The kids were all about the frosting and sprinkles!

Jake turned 6 months old on Valentine's Day! Where does the time go?!!!

On Valentine's Day Morgan, Jake and I went to help with McKay's class. They did creative stations about magnets before decorating our cookies. Morgan loved joining McKay's class and it was very cute to see him lead her around.

That evening, we enjoyed a special red candlelit dinner all together and I'm happy to report it went off better than a sleep-deprived busy mom could ever expect. On the menu: Five cheese pasta, cherry jello, strawberries and fresh whipping cream, and Martinelli's sparkling cider. I forgot the spinach salad in the bewitching hour that surrounds dinner. Grrr. But everyone eagerly ate what was on the table and not one tear was shed over this meal. "It's a Christmas Miracle!" Alright, wrong holiday, but seriously, HURRAY!!! We went around the table spotlighting each person and why we love them. Besides the wonder created by eating by candle light, seeing the kids' big grins from feeling loved by their family members was my favorite part of the day!

A quiet Christmas

We enjoyed a nice quite Christmas here at home all snowed in. Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts although we won't mention some that felt trumped by another's gift idea ;)

My newest, most favorite chocolate confection. This is a horrible picture, but I didn't get another before they were devoured over the past week. So imagine with me . . . an outer dusting of bitter chocolate gives way to a melt-in-your-mouth cool chocolate truffle the likes of which I have never known better! After Ryan brought a sampling of them home from the Tubingen Chocolate Festival, I just had to track down where they might be sold locally! Mission accomplished!

A much needed addition to Ryan's warm weather attire.

Easton's gifts were literary or game oriented like this Sonic action figure.

Morgan is a great mommy to her newest doll that slurps and giggles like a baby should. It was love at first sight! Now if I could just smudge my wardrobe choice out of the picture I'd be pleased as punch.

McKay has been begging for a bow and arrow and was so excited!

He's become a good shot at things on the backs of doors in the apartment.

On Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity with the following cast:

Easton - Narrator, Angels and Star

Morgan - Mary

Daddy - Joseph & donkey

McKay - Shepherds

Mom - Wisemen

All went well until the Shepherd tried to hold baby Jesus. Mary is quite possessive and doting in our version.

One of the highlights of our day was the big Bare video conference via Skype!

How fun to see almost all my siblings and hear about their Christmas - even my brother Matt serving his LDS mission in Brasil!

Alright, now down to business -- our recent trip to Istanbul!

Halloween 2010

Halloween tradition dictates two things happen around our house:

1. Ryan must use his drill with beaters attached to clear the inside of the pumpkins. Boys and their toys!
2. Candy is our friend and all opportunities to obtain it will be taken advantage of.

Let's start with the pumpkins, shall we? Or as Morgan loves to say, "Pun-keens!"

Power tools and Morgan's trying to figure out what this is all about, but it's pretty cool!

At one point, all the boys had their tongues sticking out. You could have cut the collective creative tension with a knife! Very cute to observe! Sorry for the poor quality of pictures, I forgot to charge the camera so these were from the phone.

And the finished product! The kids would not allow each other to pose by "their" pumpkin. Made our job easier! Morgan hollered for the rest of the night about the lit "punkeen!" Man, she's got pipes!

This year we attended our ward's Halloween party. They devoured each candy in the moment it was given and Easton even tried the Spook Alley put on by the youth by himself! He didn't make it through, but was brave enough to give it another try with dad. I was so surprised! I'm the resident pansy now. Our trick-or-treating on base the following evening didn't garner much candy, but the kids sure enjoyed being around their friends!

The boys were content with the same old costumes in our box but Easton didn't quite fit them anymore. Polyester sure can stretch, but it shouldn't have to go to such lengths as his growing body was requiring! Mr. Incredible was a good six inches too short for him this year so luckily he didn't mind the skeleton I found at the last minute.

I confess the costume part of this holiday gives me grief. It brings out the wanna-be crafty person in me who realizes this isn't her thing and really doesn't care. I love to see what my inventive friends come up with. I think my favorite was one of Brooks' high school friends who knitted a Princess Leah buns hat for her one year old! It was so adorable!

But Morgan made for a pretty happy kitty as she carried her little gray kitty everywhere she went!

And the three musketeers . . . again posing by their respective pumpkins without any staging. Love them!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We have no set traditions for this Hallmark holiday, often letting the run of the week determine how much we put into it. We like it that way but I am trying to put a little more effort into it for the boys, especially since they're at fun ages to get it going. They've really enjoyed giving Valentines out in the evenings and it sure was fun! Besides, the world can do with more of us telling each other more often how much we love one another! I think this tradition's going to be a keeper!

This is my first year doing Valentines with the boys for school. We were only able to finish Easton's kindergarten class and then, as fate would have it, school was cancelled due to snow and ice. Now I have to re-bake the sugar cookies for their party pushed to Tuesday. As for kid Valentines, I've never really liked the store bought ones and know I'll succumb to them soon enough, but thought we'd try our hand at making some ourselves. I gathered pictures last week of ones I thought he might enjoy making and he'd settled on a cute simple bear hug Valentine. But as we went to sit down and make them earlier in the week [I was so proud of myself for starting early], Easton only wanted to make the conversation heart ones like those on our windows. Oh well, there's always next year! Easton even brainstormed with me about the messages. It was good handwriting practice for him as we chatted about spaces between words and trying to get each word to fit on one line. Watching him pick just the right message for each classmate was really adorable!

McKay almost sabotaged the effort until I remembered he's a pro with a glue stick. He glued almost all of them and did such a great job. I love watching them work together!!!

We finished these Thursday evening. Earlier that day at school, the kids both celebrated Fasching, or Carnivale. Easton came home with a great pirate mustache and McKay refused to take his costume off for anything until Friday afternoon. At the kindergarten, McKay's class had quite the decor! They'd had the kids helping all week to make the decorations of origami, blowing and filling up balloons with confetti they'd punched, spreading machine shredded paper everywhere, streamers and special lights . . . it was something! And what a mess in the end! OIY! However, I loved seeing the kids pushing the many kid-sized brooms right along with the teachers and parents.

Valentine's Day has been great so far! Ryan gave me some photo software I'd had my eye on and a laugh-out-loud card which he seems to specialize in now and again! I personalized a cute little poem and will bake him cookies this evening. For breakfast, we enjoyed his request for oatmeal the way he likes it with pecans, almond extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and some brown sugar. We'll have Ryan's favorite lasagna this evening which he slaved over this morning and I've been salivating over all day!!!

I've been dying to see how Easton's interaction with Brynna played out today. Easton has been talking about giving Brynna the "I Y U" Valentine from our window since we made them a week ago. We never got around to making his entire Primary class Valentines this weekend so I didn't bring it up this morning before church. But Easton didn't forget! Just before getting coats on, he went over to the window and took the Valentine off the window and told me he wanted to give it to Brynna today. I put it in my bag for him, asking when he thought he'd give it to her. He didn't know yet.

We got to church and sat two rows in front of Brynna's family. I asked if he wanted to give it to her before the meeting began and he looked at me with a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look. I shrugged it off and said it was in the bag whenever he decided he wanted it. I was secretly glad because even though her mom and I have giggled over Easton's crush, Brynna is unaware and I kinda like it that way. They're just so little and I'll hold on to that as long as possible. But at the same time, I love that Easton wanted to give her something special and I want to encourage that behavior in a healthy way. What's a parent to do?! I was a little freaked out that he insisted on the "I Y U" Valentine because she's the youngest in a big family with all teenage siblings. I didn't want them to weird her out or tease her which may come back to Easton. I'm totally over-thinking this, right?

After Sacrament meeting, I asked Easton if he wanted to take the Valentine with him and he said no. I left it at that and we headed to class. After church he told me that he felt nervous and shy because he had pink stars in his eyes when he saw her. Really, he did! I told him I understood completely, can't we all?! I even told him random silly things used to come out of my mouth around Ryan when we'd first met and were getting to know each other because I'd felt that way. What a funny conversation to have with my 6 year old!

Easton did absolutely love the actual conversation heart candie boxes his teacher gave out. I haven't been out shopping a lot lately with the kids so he hadn't seen them in the stores and thought it was funny that the candy said some of the same things our Valentines did -- since he believed ours were the original! Ha!

Love is in the air!

Easton's flame for the little girl at church is still burning strong. At dinner tonight I was trying to ask the boys what they learned in their Primary classes today. As Easton started, he began telling me who was there. He started with Joe, the teacher's son whom he loves to be silly with and play chase after church. And then he loftily sighed, "And Brynna." Oh man, he's over the moon for her!

I asked if he sits by her and he said he tries to but that sometimes other people have sat by her already. Today he got to sit between Joe and Brynna, it was a good day. He said he sits and looks at her a lot but doesn't get to talk to her because only the teacher can talk in class. It was real cute as he tried to think of a word to describe how he feels around her and settled on word "love" with a dreamy look in his eye. I said, "Lovey-dovey, eh?" "Yeah," he replied. Get him talking about Brynna and he's a chatter!

When asked what he likes about Brynna, he mentions her pretty dresses and long, pretty hair. He says he still gets hearts in his eyes when he looks at her [like in cartoons] and that we need to live her until he is big so he can marry her.

I told him we could make Valentines for everyone in his Primary class and he ran over to our window and selected the "I YU" one saying it was the one he would give to Brynna. Man, this is so cute and I love that he's pretty shy around her, love struck really, but will chat to us nonstop! So sweet!!!

As the boys started handing out their family Valentines before bed, Morgan got in on the action. Easton put one on her shirt and she lit up. She lovingly patted it and just beamed with joy! I'm really enjoying this week of Valentine giving. It's very cute to see the boys enjoying it so much. What a great thing to be reminded each day to tell each person how much I love them!

Delightful!

Yesterday. Easton had to have a tooth pulled. He had to be restrained by me and two assistants just to be sedated. Talk about torture for all parties involved! But beautiful, delightful things resulted:

Morgan sat on Easton's bed as he awoke, giving him gentle love pats on the bottom while sucking on her blanket or eating teddy grahams. She also delighted a German man who was woozily waking up from his procedure. He liked hearing her "singing" and obstacle course training -- crawling under and climbing up everything in our sequestered, shared room. My favorite was when as he was jabbering on to my blank smile. Finally, I sheepishly offered, "English?" Then he slurred, "Ennn-gll-isshh . . . [thinking too hard for someone sedated] . . . [still thinking] . . . (sing song) Good night!" And he passed out with a smile on his face.

Once pain meds were retrieved for possible later use, McKay was picked up from kindergarten, lunch was eaten and so forth - it was that glorious time of day! By 2pm all my babies were sleeping, each having been snuggled to sleep by one happy exhausted momma. I find the easiest way to put my bigger babies to sleep is to fall asleep literally inches away nose to nose and they follow my lead minutes later! It was a divide and conquer sort of day and it actually worked! This is so amazing to me and I know it will pass all too soon. I can't remember the last time Easton took a nap, but he asked to be snuggled like McKay so I happily complied!

Because the phone rang minutes after E had dozed off, I got to sneak in a movie for myself! I'd borrowed the classic musical "King and I" from the library last week and finally sat down to watch it. I've never seen the whole thing and however quaint it may sound, it truly was "Delightful!"

Easton's teacher Ms. Senna called to check in and see how he was. She's been gone for two weeks visiting family in the States for her dad's 70th birthday and to care for her mom suffering from brain cancer while major treatment changes were begun. Easton's sadness and love for his teacher and her family was so sweet as he asked for me to say a prayer with him.

Morgan likes to oversee my dinner making operations from her perch on a step stool. Once she sees me doing quality control taste tests, she demands to do her part. Last night was mom's dilled ham and rice and by the time we sat to eat, Morgan and I were both pretty well filled.

Since I'm really enjoying the Old Testament studying in prep for teaching my Primary class, I pulled out the Old Testament children's reader for bedtime storytime. The boys really loved it and it had me wondering why I hadn't done it before. It answers so many of their questions about how the world began and kept their interest longer than usual. I love their questions, assumptions, and our little discussions! In fact, Easton begged to keep reading it after I left at chapter 5. Hearing Easton pronounce Enoch and other names made my day!

While Ryan watched a guy movie after the kids were in bed, I opted to do some lesson prep, armed with a muffin cup of chocolate and teddy grahams. I haven't dabbled much with all the tools MS Word has added in the past ten years. Good grief! I'm getting old. I laid out my lesson and made a flow chart, seriously stretching whatever graphic design skills I used to think I had. But I was proud of my effort to try something new and to have some good ol' pondering time.

This morning I didn't have to wake up and get everyone out the door. Now THAT is delightful! It's one of those parent-teacher conference days that our teacher isn't doing because of her trip. McKay came to our room announcing, "I need to go to kindergarten and get the gold plates!" Sorry, kiddo - we're having a day at home!

After my morning chores listening to "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," we made Valentines to hang on the windows. Each evening when Ryan gets home, we'll give them to each other. McKay liked tracing a few cookie cutter hearts. Both boys liked cutting one heart out, but grudgingly did a page worth. McKay did most of the pasting, Easton apparently doesn't like to. Who doesn't like using a new glue stick?! Easton did get into writing the little notes and how he wrote them makes me smile! I'm resisting the urge to properly round the corners of kid cut jobs!

Perhaps we'll be baking something fun later. Maybe folding the heaps of laundry in my room. Maybe even washing some other growing heaps too. Maybe. I'm just determined to enjoy the day with them home and have it be a little productive. So far, today too has been delightful!

- - - - - - - -

P.S. And it was! Here's samplings of those Valentines!

An Incredible Boy all day long . . . and here's his handiwork!

Be Mine and Hug me . . .

And my favorite - U R Cute and Hot Stuff as only a youngin' could write it!

Dinner and a Movie

Today is a snow day, as in it snowed all day long! School wasn't cancelled unfortunately, but we are getting some good accumulation. Ryan came home early from work so I was able to take just the boys out into the wintry weather for some sledding. What fun to act and feel like a kid again! I've done a lot of that this week playing with my little ones, a conscious decision to enjoy them more.

When we came in from our fun, Ryan went for a nap while I caught up on other stuff. Then the boys started rumbling for some dinner. Grrrr. We'd gotten a dinner invite from another family but cancelled because of the snow so I wasn't prepared or in the mood to be creative.

The boys had just put on their new Snow White movie and it reminded me of when I was a little girl at 711 S. Irving. On select Sunday evenings, my parents would gather us in the basement for a dinner of popcorn, orange juice, carrot sticks and whatever Disney movie was playing on TV. (This was many, many years before cable or the Disney channel ever existed in my world.)

We'd pile onto a big red and black plaid bean bag, munch on popcorn and watch our shows! I remember Dad piling onto the bean bag with us kids when we were real little. I think mom probably opted for something more comfortable. The evening usually began with Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" and I remember Dad enthusiastically getting us into the show, a true classic! I still love that theme song!

Then we'd be ready and totally excited for whatever Walt Disney was ready to show us. He'd introduce each show until later I remember Michael Eisner took over that part. I remember watching classic Mickey Mouse and other shorts as well as the featured movies like Snow White, Mary Poppins, Fox and the Hound, Peter Pan, Bednobs and Broomsticks, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the Apple Dumpling Gang. It always felt like such a treat to watch TV on the Sabbath!

Tonight as I popped our dinner on the stove, a rare occurrence here, but oh so yummy!, I told my boys of that fun memory. They were a bit incredulous but were pretty darn happy to have popcorn and OJ while watching their show for dinner! Watching my boys laughing at those seven dwarves' antics was one of those surreal parent moments where you feel everything has come full circle in a fabulous way! Ryan had overheard us earlier and said, "Hey, you never told me that before!" So here it is for the family memory book!

EDIT: Debate on whether those shows aired on Saturdays or Sundays? I could have sworn they aired Sunday evening and a quick search said Disney aired on Sundays first, then Saturdays for awhile and then again on Sundays. Wild Kingdom was on Sundays as far as my quick search could find. ??? I also had the wrong address from my childhood - 1125 North Irving Place, but there was a 7-11 store down the road a little ways! Perhaps I was merging to faves into one? They did have my favorite kid candy there for quite some time, loved them Sixlets. That's the trouble with memories, ya need witnesses to corroborate!

Holiday Favorites

An effort to document some of our holiday happenings . . .

Easton turned 6! True to the Bare within me, we didn't get to have his ice cream cake on his birthday - just a couple days late although it was made on his birthday! More on this in another post soon hopefully!

Christmas

To help our kids get and share the Christmas spirit, I baked like a mad woman one day to pull together cookie plates for a FHE. We sure enjoyed singing and chatting with our friends!!! We may have to add more night of this next year it was sooo fun! With all us Americans and a British family so far from home, it just felt that much better to be out spreading Christmas cheer!

I gathered some new ward friends for a Christmas Eve party to enjoy food, chatting, a small-kid-friendly nativity play, and a fun game. What's Christmas without a gathering?! The fun Palmers hosted the whole crowd and the kids loved Staci's classic toys! Hurray for a yummy wassail recipe!

I got such a kick out of Ryan waking up early on Christmas morning to create a dreamy ambiance in the living room - lit up the tree, started the soft Christmas music, and lit candles. Every day he comes home, he lights up the tree and I love that about him!

Watching the kids handle the nativity set while Ryan read the story was real special to me. Baby Jesus definitely got some lovin' from Morgan's slobbery teething lips!

Easton opened DS games and tried to patiently find the elusive DS which Ryan had hid. All morning we captured his search with the camera but I won't post the whole thing! After the tree was emptied, he was so sure it was in his stocking and there were hints of waterworks when it wasn't there! Easton sure was in HEAVEN and Ryan loved orchestrating the run around!!!

(I'm still torn on the DS, but ordered a parenting book to salve my conscience and teach me how to set healthy age appropriate gaming limits. We'll see if it lives up to its good reviews! Easton will forego meals and all else to continue playing video games but he's also intuitively good at them. Striving for a healthy balance.)

McKay's waterworks were for real. New Leapster games paled in comparison to Easton's DS, unfortunately. Good thing Easton was such a good sport sharing and he knows how to work McKay by offering to help him get through rough spots!

Morgan burnt her finger on a candle Christmas morning. More waterworks, poor gal. Guilty parents! I think she likes her new pink bedding. She's been sleeping on the boys' old sheets her whole life so we were overdue! I'm sure she doesn't care, but I get a kick out of them!

I got the printer I really wanted and the Serenity pass which produced only internal waterworks that I kept in check. PHEW! That was close! Thanks Santa!!! I wish I was better at surprising Ryan although his Amazon wish list was such a blessing! Once again I vow to begin our shopping earlier especially now that shipping plays a key role!

McKay loved all the candy in the Christmas stockings. Yes, that's plural for a reason! I could do an entire post on what treats I find in his bed from his early morning kitchen raids! I don't even hear him up anymore!?

That weekend we enjoyed watching the Dicken's Little Dorrit mini-series, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Carol (Richard Scott version's the best but we also did the audio book, great new tradition). The boys sure love all the old and new Christmas movies played on TV during the holidays - especially the old Rudolf, Frosty, and Santa ones but also even Barbie Nutcracker! Shhh, don't tell!

And what about the four-way Skype family call with my brother Matt serving his mission in Brazil?! Fresh out of the MTC in Brazil - that was AWESOME! Two US coasts and two foreign countries. Not bad, not bad at all! Love you, Matt!!!

At Home . . .

Easton using his new reading light to read stories each night to McKay. Oh how I love this!!! And with the rouland shades down during the day making it pitch black in their room, they can play with it during the day too! BONUS!

Having everyone home reinstated my belief in our need for a family responsibility chart! Maid is not spelled m-o-m!

Morgan decided she likes sleeping in! Her own rouland-down-black-out room, a growth spurt, hearty appetite, and new teeth made for even a couple 15 hour stints! But it also means she's unwilling to take any naps during the day.

Many musings over how to manage a large frisky Primary class this year. Help!!!

Happy New Year!

At least 45 minutes spent watching fireworks in cousin's Munich neighborhood! In addition to the big orchestrated shows, anyone in Germany can shoot off whatever they can afford and it's simply WILD and lasts forever! We also had lots of fun playing new and old favorite board games with cousins! Move the cheese ball dip away from me, I have NO self control!

New Year's Day I saw my first 3D movie - Avatar. Pretty cool, but I'm still just as happy at home watching shows in my pjs! Love that pause button and popcorn the way I like it! I'll leave it to the guys to be wow'd by all the new tech stuff.

Inspired once again by my sister-in-law's memory books for each person in her family! Oh she rocks this in such a manageable way that I again resolve to do better . . . once I get my house recovered from the holidays and school starting . . .

One of our favorite lines from that cute movie "Dan in Real Life" is when Steve Carrel's character is yelled at by his daughter for not understanding love as he sends her boyfriend packing. Oh it's tooooo classic! When our sister-in-law took down her Christmas tree Jan 2, Ryan playfully hollered a doctored version of the line at her: "YOU are a murderer of Christmas!" My cute boy loves Christmas trees, yes he does!

Now back to the school routine and soaking up what time I get with my little brew! Today it meant missing preschool for errands, playing in the snow instead of cartoons and naps, "Crabby Patties" for dinner (aka Sloppy Joes, but Easton often descends into a puddle of tears if he doesn't recognize what's being served), and playing with a new used doll house! Inspired by my family watching all our old family movies over the break and making me homesick to hear it, I took a lot of my kids tonight just being themselves. That was time well spent! Fun times, lots of pics and maybe I'll get around to sharing soon!