Yesterday

Yesterday was quite possibly one of the worst days I have had as a parent. The day started out good. I was planning on having some of my friends and their children over for a play date. I was excited! They came we played, ate and talked. The kids had gone outside to play in the back and I really wasn’t too worried about them. They only thing that they could really get into was the water, but Travis had just put caps on all of the bibs so that the kids wouldn’t play with them, or so I thought. I guess he had tried to put them on, but they didn’t fit. So, I went back to check on them and the entire stair well was full of water. They had turned the hose bib on and left the water running and it seeped down and started to full the well up from the bottom. Of course they didn’t think to turn the water off, or come and get me and tell me what was happening, they instead decided it would be fun to play in it. When I found them I was actually surprisingly calm and simply told them to go to their room. I told the mother of their friends that were here and she proceeded to take the kids home.

I went up to the boys’ room to check on them again and their window was open and all of their books, dresser drawers full of clean clothes, blankets pillows, sheets and toys, pretty much anything in their room that was not to heavy for them to lift was thrown out the window. Now let me just say, that their window is right above the stairwell that was now filled with water. Everything was sopping wet. All the books were ruined. I couldn’t stop crying about this. I love books! I love my children to have books to read and learn from. I am so disappointed in my boys. Don't get me wrong. I love them deeply, which is part of the reason for my disappointment. I am at a complete loss at what to do. Every time I went out to try and clean things up, all I could do was cry. We have tried, and tried to teach them the rules, to teach them obedience and responsibility for their things. Our FHE lesson on Monday was on obedience and it’s importance.

We have now taken everything out of their room except their mattresses and one blanket each. They will have to earn the rest of their stuff back. We cannot trust them with it. Their window is shut up so that they cannot open it. Travis found a way to cap the hose bibs. They are grounded for the rest of the week. And they must help me wash all the clothes that they threw out the window. I don’t know if any of this will teach them however. I feel so lost and unsure of what to do.

Good Start

So last night I made some cookies. I know that is a great thing to start eating healthier with huh? But, I really had to know what these cookies would taste like so that when I am getting a sugar craving I know that I will have something I can turn to so that I don't totally loose it. Anyway, they turned out really good. I just took my chocolate chip cookie recipe and halved the sugar in it. Then I replaced the flour with whole wheat flour and the chocolate chips with raisins and almonds. They really taste good. The boys even like them and I feel lots better about letting them have some since they are healthier.
This morning I got up and made a green smoothie for breakfast. We are hoping to have these everyday. I just put water Kale, spinach, and collard greens into my blender and liquefied it. Then I added bananas, apples and some frozen mixed berries. I was worried about what the family would think. Travis was very supportive of it. He was excited to try it and loved it. Jonah and Simon initially turned their noses up to it because it is green, but they tried it and liked it, and even asked for more. I really liked it also. Luke was the only one that would not drink it, but he is really sick today so hopefully that is why. I will keep trying with him. I defiantly think we could have these every day. The benefits are so great! In just that one glass of smoothie we got all of our fruit and vegetable servings for the day, lots of fiber and healthy carbs for energy. And Kale is really good to help clean out toxins in your body. This is the first step that we have decided to take. Hopefully it will continue to go well.

It's Time!

So my little family has been slowly under going some small changes over the last few weeks in our diet and the way we look at health. Travis has quit drinking pop. I have stopped drinking milk and we all have started trying to drink more water. There have been other small changes, but not major ones. Now the reason for this, is because of a Zoneologist that we have started seeing lately that has helped us to realize the things that these products are doing to our bodies. I will get more into what zoneology is another time, but we have been very excited with what we have learned so far! By the way, Thanks Kirsten for the referral! Anyway, we have recently (within the last few days) decided that it is time to make even bigger changes in our health. The reasons? On Sunday I found out that my cousins husband, that is around my age and has two small children, has cancer. Not only does he have cancer, but he has three forms of it, two of which are very aggressive forms. It breaks my heart. Then, to top it off, yesterday I found out that my grandpa has prostate cancer, and something is wrong with his heart, they are not quite sure yet. We are not sure on the prognosis, as my grandpa will not tell anybody yet because he does not want us to worry. But it has really hit home with me this week with everything going on, and what I have learned about my body, how precious life is. How short it really is. How wonderful our bodies are and that I should be taking better care of this gift that I have. That I should be teaching my kids from a young age how important it is to eat healthy. So I am going to be working on this. I am going to be trying new things and we will hope that it all goes well!

Travis' birthday

Travis' birthday was a few days ago and we had so much fun! We dropped the kids off at Travis' brothers house and we went 4 wheeling for a few hours, just the two of us. It was so nice and relaxing. After that we went to dinner with some friends. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was so yummy! Travis had steak, which they cooked perfect, and shrimp. It came with mashed potatoes and they make them chunky, just how Travis likes them. I had a Cobb salad, which was also really good. And of course we each had some cheesecake as well. Travis tried the Adams peanut butter and I had the Dutch apple. SO good! The company was great! We laughed and really enjoyed ourselves. After dinner we went and saw Iron Man which Travis has been wanting to see for a long time. Travis really liked it. I thought it was pretty good but a little disturbing at times. I have become pretty sensitive to violence lately. Anyway, It was a great day!

The piano #2

So yesterday was Jonah's second piano lesson. Last week didn't go well however, so this week was really his first piano lesson. It went really well! He was able to sit and do many of the things that were asked of him and he actually enjoyed it. He did really well with rhythm and he was picking out the beat. He was also able to find all the "c"'s. I was so proud of him! Simon didn't do as well however, but we have some things that we are going to work with him on and see if he can get to the point that he is more ready. He is the one that really wants to play, so hopefully he will start to do better.

A little comic relief

As I was changing the clothes from the washer to the dryer just now I found 5 rocks, a small toy car, and some metal thing shaped like a horse shoe in the bottom of the washing machine. I couldn't help but laugh. The things little boys put in their pockets! I guess that is what I get for not checking Jonah's pockets before I wash his pants.

Why?

There is a towel in my refrigerator.

WARNING

Just a warning to you all, I am here today solely to complain in hopes to make myself feel better. I thought today was going to be a great day, busy but great. I woke up at 8:00. Can you believe it? I got to sleep until 8! My kids were all still asleep, the house was quite so I decided to relax and do something for myself. I actually got to watch TV for a half an hour uninterrupted! Seems great so far right? Well it was, and then the kids started to wake up. Jonah woke up and told me that he peed his pants. I told him to go take a bath and proceeded to go get Luke from his crib only to be assaulted by the most horrible smell that I remember smelling in a long time. Luke had thrown up sometime in the middle of the night and it was everywhere. All over in his hair, all over his blankets and crib, on the floor. On top of that he was poopy and it was very near to leaking all over as well. I made Jonah get out of the tub so that I could clean up Luke. I then cleaned up his room, which was worse then cleaning Luke up.
As I am sitting here rocking him and typing with one hand, I can only hope that he feels better and will not throw up again. I have errands to run today and piano lessons to take the boys to and Travis and I are supposed to go to the temple tonight and I am not sure if I am going to be able to do any of this. The worst part of it is that I now have a ton of laundry to do between the two of them. I HATE laundry. Now I think I will go give him another bath as I can still smell it on him.

Jonah's Prayer

Jonah said the cutest prayer yesterday. I just had to write it down. He said thank you for all the usual things, his toys his house etc. Then he asked to bless dad to come home safe and then he said "please bless Joseph Smith that he could not die, because I really like him, because we have the same name. Well, not really the same name, but kind of the same because we both start with a "J" and then an "o" . So we are kind of the same, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. "

It was so sweet and innocent. It was such a good example to me of the way that I should talk to Heavenly Father. Just like I would talk to some one else.

Today he thanked he Heavenly Father for the toys that Santa gave him for Christmas and asked that he could get more toys by earning money. He is so cute!

Working weekend

Well, we didn't do a whole lot of fun things this weekend, but we got a lot done and that made it wonderful! We got our new dishwasher installed. I LOVE it! I never knew that a dishwasher could actually clean dishes this good! I actually enjoy doing dishes now. We will see how long that lasts. I got my clothes folded, just in time to start doing more laundry. We got some mudding done in the basement and some yard work done. And we finally got our garden planted! I am so excited to be getting some of our to do list crossed off. It defiantly makes life less stressful.

We have set a date to be done with our basement. Hopefully that will encourage us to work on it more and harder. It is so hard to work on it at night after Travis gets home from work. We are both worn out and just don't want to do it, but it needs to get done. So our deadline is By August 16th. We want to have it done as much as our budget will allow by then so that we can not have to worry about it when school starts. We want to make one of the little rooms down there a "school" room where I can keep all of the school supplies and have a little table for the boys to draw on and such. We should be able to have it all painted and finished other then maybe carpet. We really hope to have that, but we will see. Also, later we will be adding finishing touches like a new built in entertainment center and a built in desk unit and bookshelves. They will have to come later however. Maybe with next years tax return. Anyway, life feels a little more under control now and that is nice.