Woman of God

I was reading this blog in which Morgan is writing her own personal manifesto which, by the way, I think is a wonderful idea and I will be pondering my own. Anyway, I was struck by a phrase she used and have been thinking about for the whole day. She called herself "a Woman of God". We hear "Daughter of God" often in the church. "Daughter of God" or "Child of God" brings to mind words and phrases such as potential, loved, cherished, protected, self-worth, images of a loving Father.

As I thought about what it means to be a "Woman of God", I think of strength of character, courage, power to do good, leadership, compassion, service. I see a woman who stands strong in her own beliefs, testimony, and commitment. A woman who leads out, who doesn't lean on, or wait for others, whether it be parents, husband, siblings, church leaders, visiting teaching companion, etc. She is a woman of action not just intentions. A woman of vision who sees what can be and works to make it happen. A mother of confidence who teaches with strength, love and compassion.

As I consider these traits, faces of women come to mind. These are women I admire, look up to, and aspire to be like them. Among them are my mother and sisters, nieces, neighbors, friends, ancestors, women from history, those from the past and those making history today.

I am a Daughter of God working to become one of these Women of God. I have the examples, I have the blue prints, help, support, love, and confidence of my Father in Heaven. What I lack is focus and daily determination to live deliberately, to take advantage of individual moments...to always remember my goal, my destination.

Little One on Modesty

I was listening in on a conversation from the backseat between the

two girls. They had the Ariel Barbie and Sunshine asked why her tummy was showing. We have been working to teach our girls about dressing modestly and I have wondered how to handle the competing world views. As I scrambled in my brain to come up with an explanation they could understand and accept, Little One beat me to it with a much better explanation than I was preparing. I was ready to dive into the fact that not everyone has the same standards that we do and the fact that the makers of the doll don't think or believe the same things we do etc etc....

Little One's explanation was perfect. "She is a mermaid and lives in the water. If she wore a long shirt in the water it would get very wet and heavy. When she becomes a girl she covers her tummy."
I need to retrain my brain. Perfect simplicity!

14 Days of Valentines

I started a tradition a few years ago that we really enjoy. From the first day of February until Valentines Day, I give the kids a small treat or gift. I just finished putting them together for tomorrow. I try to have all of them ready in advance so I am not scrambling every day. I still have 2 or 3 that I still need to get but the rest are ready! Even though they are almost the same every year, the kids don’t care and they get so excited. One year I even made a giant heart shaped puzzle with a message on it and gave a puzzle piece each day. The kids really had fun using sticky tack and putting it together on the wall. If I get a chance tomorrow before they get home from school, I may do that again this year. This year I found a cut little mailbox at the Target Dollar Spot that I will put them in and raise the flag. I wish I had one for each child to have their own. I will allow them to open the mailbox as soon as everyone is home from school! Here is a list of the fun treat and gift ideas that I use. I just print out the little message on colored paper and cut them into hearts to tape onto the item.

I love your little tootsies! (tootsie rolls)

You’ve always “mint” the world to me! (Andes or York mints)

You always help me out when I’m in a (Crunch bar)

You are the greatest - Bar None! (granola gar)

You Warm my heart! (hot chocolate mix)

Let it be posted, you’re the best! (Post-it pad & pencil)

“Soda” you know I love you? (small can of soda)

Kisses, just for you! or Smootches, just for you!(Hershey's Kisses)

You’re so cheesy, you cracker me up! (cheese & cracker pack)

I couldn’t bear to live without you! (cinnamon bears)

You are my sweetart! (Sweettarts)

I don’t mean to be “gushy” but, I love you! (Gushers fruit snacks)

You make me smile! (Walmart fruit snack smiles)

No TWIX, I love you! (Twix candy bar)

You're worth more to me than 100 GRAND (100 Grand candy bar)

You're EXTRA special to me (Extra gum)

Don't SNICKER, because I love you. (Snickers candy bar)

HUGS & KISSES, just for you. (Hershey Hugs and Kisses candies)

I love your BUBBLY personality (bubbles)

Just POPPED by to say Be Mine (bubbles)

Valentine you make my heart float (bubbles)

I’m BUBBLING over with love (bubbles)

The other tradition we have, is that Hubby brings home a balloon for each of the kids. The kids sure love balloons and Hubby loves to pick them out! What do you do to make Valentines Day special?

Favorite Christmas Recipes

I have so many recipes that I love during the holidays. I wanted to record and share some of my favorites:

Nothing says Christmas like the smell of gingerbread! I am not a fan of rolling, cutting and decorating cookies, so as much as I like the IDEA of gingerbread boys, it just causes, stress, frustration and a big mess. It's not going to happen. This is my alternative so that I can still get my ginger fix, both taste and smell. I sent these home with cub scouts this year and within 20 min a mom called me for the recipe. Yep, they are that good!

Yummy Ginger Snaps

6 TB margarine

½ c white sugar

½ c brown sugar

2 egg whites

¼ c molasses

2 c flour

½ tsp salt

2 tsp soda

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

Cream sugars and margarine. Beat in egg wites and add molasses. Stir in dry ingredients, mixing well. Spoon by tsp full onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 min @ 375º.

The holidays are not complete, and I am not exaggerating, without homemade Wassail. This will bring visions of old fashioned Christmases on waves of delicious aromas.

Wassail

5 c sugar

4 quarts water

2 TB whole cloves

4 fresh lemons or 2c lemon juice

12 cinnamon sticks

4 quarts orange juice (prepared)

1 gallon apple cider

Boil sugar and water. Add cinnamon sticks and cloves. Boil 10 min, cool and then add juices. Let stand 1 hour. Strain. Serve hot. Keep leftovers refridgerated. WARNING: This recipe makes 3 gallons of wassail!

I could eat a whole pan of Christmas Jell-o Salad all by myself I love it that much. My mother usually makes this at Christmas time, unfortunately, she did not make it this year and I really missed it! Paul is not crazy about it and so if I make it, I would end up eating the whole thing myself!

Christmas Salad

1 sm pkg lime Jell-o

½ lb. marshmallows

½ pt whip cream

2- 3oz pkg cream cheese

½ pt mayo (or a little less)

1 med. can crushed pineapple

1c pineapple juice

1 pkg cherry Jell-o

Dissolve lime Jell-o in 1c boiling water. Add and melt marshmallows. Add 1c pineapple juice. Cool. Mix cream cheese and mayo together, then add to mixture along with whip cream adn pineapple. Set until firm. Make cherry Jell-o according to directions. When cooled, spoon carefully on top of green layer and set. Cut into squares to serve. Pretty and tasty!

Last year, we began our own tradition of decorating graham cracker houses. Although I glue the houses together ahead of time, (We don't need the kind of frustration that comes with trying to build them with real gingerbread and frosting, at least not until the kids are quite a bit older!) we still need some good old Royal frosting to stick the pounds and pounds of candy, and marshmallow santas and snowmen onto and around the houses.

Royal Frosting

3 egg whites (room temperature)

4c powdered sugar

½ tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla

Beat all ingredients at high speed for 5-10 min. Use immediately. Can be stored for short time covered with a damp cloth. Re-beating will not restore texture. Yield 2½ cups.

So many of our holiday memories are tied to yummy traditional tastes and smells. I love anything that brings both into my home and helps to recreate memories for me and my family as well as making new memories.

My Favorite Christmas Message

A few years ago, we received our stake newsletter which had this article on the front page. It is written by a church leader who is one of the most powerful speakers I have heard. I like to read it each Christmas season. I wanted to get it down in more than one place just in case it gets misplaced like so many things do.

Merry Christmas!

A Wise Woman Told Me

The other day, Little One asked me why I put on make-up. I was taken back to a conversation I had with my mother as a young teenager. I asked her a similar question. I wanted to know why she would go to all the trouble of fixing her hair and make-up when she knew she wouldn't even be leaving the house that day. Her answer has stuck with me all these years. She said that in part, she did it for when my dad comes home, but more importantly she did it for herself. She told me that she always felt more ready to tackle her day, and therefore accomplished more. She also felt more confident and better about herself.
I have found this to be true for me too. If I hang out in my pajamas all day I accomplish very little. Now don't get me wrong, this in no way means that I am bright and shiny by 7 am. Today for example, I threw on some clothes and a hat over my "Pippi braids" as Paul calls them so I could drive carpool and then come home to till the garden and shovel MORE dirt. Then later I will be digging up raspberries to transplant for my huge raspberry patch that I have been dreaming of for years. But, at some point today, I will shower and do my hair (if only a pony tail), and put on some make-up because it makes me feel better! Some days it is 5pm before I get to this point but I still do it because getting there eventually is better than not getting there at all!
I am not a spa day kind of girl. I've never had a pedicure or manicure, unless you count that one fake nail I got to match the others when my nail broke 3 days before my wedding. I buy my make-up at Target or the grocery store,wherever I happen to be when I remember. I get my hair cut, etc once every 4 or 5 months. You get the idea. However, I hope to never stop making myself feel ready to tackle my world! Besides, it gives Hubby an unspoken message about the kind of day I've had. If he comes home to a make-upless face, he knows he better be on his game because it's been one of those days. :)

Conversations From the Back Seat

We decided with sick kiddos, cold nights, and plenty to do around here, that we would forgo our planned camping trip in favor of a stay-cation.

On the way home today, these were some of the things heard from the back seat. Keep in mind that these are overlapping conversations. No one actually takes turns talking.

Sunshine: "Watch out Mom, the brave squirrel is coming!"
Mom: "What will the brave squirrel do? Why do I have to 'watch out'?"
Sunshine: "He will kill us" (I attribute this to having older brothers??!!)
Mom: "Why would he do that?"
Sunshine: "Ummm"

Then Little One pipes up: "Mom, my top lip is spicy."

Uncontrolled laughter from Hubby.

In the meantime, from the back seat, #1 chanting: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, qugzuang..... (he is fascinated by long words)

Sunshine: "It's okay Mom, the nice squirrel is coming."

Mom: "Oh good, what is the nice squirrel going to do?"
Sunshine: "He's going to kill us."
Mom: "That's not very nice."

This does not include the "Oww", "Ooch", and "Ahh"s coming from the back seat in a never ending game of how many subtle (and not so subtle) ways can I torture my brother, which resulted in our "hands up" consequence which we find very effective! If they work their way through "keep your hands to yourself" warnings, we then say, "hands up!" Which means they must hold their hands up above their heads until they are told they can lower them, or we reach our destination.

Hubby just informed me of some riddles I missed while dozing (I tend to do that in the car) on the way up the mountain.  #1 was telling riddles to which Freckles would answer something to do with farting. Every. Single. One. (That's fluffing for some of you, we used to try... some days I still do) For example,
#1: "...so, how did he get the handcuffs off?" 
Freckles: "uhh, he farted?"
This was then accompanied by raucous laughter. I'm glad I wasn't coherent for that part. But hey, they are 8 and 10 year old boys, and no matter what their mother says, anything to do with bodily functions is hilarious. I just hope with coaching and some maturity, they will eventually grow out of this genre of humor... Or maybe not.

Teachers and Student

Last night Hubby and I stayed up late to finish my homework assignment that I forgot was due yesterday. I signed up for Freckles' "star of the week" week at back to school night, the first week of school. Unfortunately, I forgot to write it on the calendar. My little boy tried to tell me when he got home from school but I was busy cleaning up my 8th potty training incident of the day. He tried to remind me as I frantically tried to throw dinner together because the aforementioned incident set me back a precious 20 minutes. He tried to tell us as we sang a primary song to which we couldn't remember the words as we fought the frustration of having 10 minutes before bedtime to pull off Family Home Evening. When we finally got to the family business portion of Family Night, he took his time to inform us that he was supposed to have a "cool" poster with tons of pictures and a treat. He should have had it yesterday but "that's okay, I can take it tomorrow". I was a humbled mother. He was forgiving, flexible, understanding, and positive. If that wasn't enough, he was trusting and showed confidence that I would mother up* to the task and not let him down. This was his chance to shine in front of his classmates and enjoy the spotlight. He had confidence that even though I had not lived up to my responsibilities, I would make everything right.

*Mother up: derived from the saying "man up" but referring to the expectations and responsibilities a mother must live up to. Though I've never been a man or been expected to "man up" I believe to "mother up" is more difficult with more lasting consequences. Think about it.

This morning, when Freckles saw the Rice Krispie treats Hubby had made and the poster I made complete with stars I luckily happened to have on hand and poor quality photos printed on my printer at 10:30 pm, he exclaimed “This is so cool, thanks Mom!” My heart leaped with gratitude for my pack rat tendencies which vomit supplies at urgent moments.

And then my heart softened again with humility. As the kids all ran off to school, I flashed back to yesterday afternoon, when I ranted at my other child who had forgotten to turn in the homework that he had finally completed a week late. This was after countless (not so patient) reminders, and being grounded for 3 days. I mentally replayed the last strand of my patience slipping through my fingertips. As I reflected on all of the positive attributes Freckles had displayed with all of his 8 years of earthly experience, I found myself in awe of the spirit of Christ evident in my little boy. I was ashamed. As a mother I should be the example. I should be the one showing Christ-like love, mercy, patience, forgiveness. How can my child’s feeling of self worth and knowledge of his mother’s love, trust, and confidence compare with missing math worksheets? I am reminded of a better way to motivate. Unfortunately, in the frustration, exasperation, and anger of a moment I forget what I know.

The longer I have been a mother, the more I realize I have to learn and apply. There is so much my children can teach me. I hope I can be a good student in the short time I have them as teachers.

Snickerdoodles and playdoh

A couple of weeks ago at a gathering, I was asked for the following two recipes. They are some of our favorites. So here they are:

Hubby's Favorite Snickerdoodles
½ c butter
½ c shortening
1½ c sugar
2 eggs
2¼ c flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1½ Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400º. Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add eggs. Blend in dry ingredients except 2 T sugar and 1T cinnamon. Roll dough into balls. Roll balls in mixture of 2 T sugar and cinnamon. Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 8-10 min. They are done when they crack on top but are not browned. If overcooked they will not be soft. However, placing them in an air tight container with a slice of bread can sometimes restore moisture and softness.
#1 loves to make these! Kids love to roll them into balls and roll them in the cinnamon and sugar.

My favorite Soft playdoh
1 c flour
1 c water
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ c salt
food coloring

Mix all ingredients and cook over med-low heat. Cool. Knead. Store in a sealed container or bag. Kids love to help add and mix ingredients before cooking. This stuff lasts an amazingly long time in the refrigerator. I recommend making a batch for each child so they can choose their own color and have plenty to play with.

My kids love to help me make both of these recipes. In fact, I think we will be making playdoh tomorrow afternoon! We love to do bubbles in the summer too. Be sure to check out our recipe for those here.

Mother's Day

For me Mother's day is a love/hate relationship. I love that my sweet hubby works hard to make me breakfast in bed, my kids make cards and pick dandelions and other wildflowers and smother me in "I love you"s and kisses and hugs. Hubby is also a master at picking just the right card to make me cry and manages to find the perfect gift for me. Some years it's jewelry, some times it's a carpet cleaner or miter saw (hint, hint), but whatever he gets it's always just perfect. I know without a doubt I am loved. Who wouldn't want to celebrate that?
I guess the hate part comes in when I reflect on my idea of the kind of mother I wanted to become. The Norman Rockwell picture of warm chocolate chip cookies in a tidy house. The listening, sympathetic ear and hugging arms readily available at all times. Fun educational crafts and projects always waiting in the wings, ready at a moments notice. Infinite patience and good advice for every heart break. Knowing just what to do in any given situation. Enabling them to participate and experience every sport, every instrument, educational opportunity while still managing to find balance to play and have a carefree childhood. To have an unending source of energy, and never be "too tired". Somewhere deep inside, past all logic, my guilt says I am less of a mother than I could be, not the mother I should be, not the mother my kids need to help them reach their full potential. As Hubby and I discussed this, he told me to think of it this way... I am the perfect grandma in training. I think being a grandparent would be great! Have them when you want them and when your patience or energy runs out, or they have a dirty diaper, send them home.

I think the most amazing thing about motherhood is when you realize why the Savior asked us to be like little children. By design, they are forgiving and offer unconditional love. A child looks for reasons to smile and laugh. They choose to be happy. When I ask my girls if they are happy they always say yes. When asked why the answers are always, in my mind, small and simple things like "It's sunshiney outside" or "I'm drawing a picture" or "Cause I'm with my mom". It is only as we reach adulthood that we put on the blinders of drudgery, focusing on the "have to"s and losing sight of the "get to"s. Inately, children don't feel guilt but as a mother, sometimes I let it consume my life.

Oh, to be more childlike. To want to dance even when there isn't any music. To laugh because I can't hold it in any longer. To blow dandelion seeds without the guilt of unfinished chores. To find shapes in the clouds. To not only forgive but forget so completely. To love without judgement or expectations. And to play, to really play.