Grandma B.

Yesterday, as I drove through the Target parking lot, I patiently waited for a little white car with 2 very little and very old ladies in it to drive by so I could turn. The car was, of course, going very slowly. As they passed I happened to notice a hand-made afghan very carefully laid out across the top of the back seat, just as it would be on a couch. It made me smile. Don't you just love the little ways of little old people?

It made me remember my grandma on my dad's side. She died while I was in college, so it's been awhile. My grandma made lots of afghans. She always had lots of afghans at her house. I remember there being afghans on her couches, chairs and on the beds. A childhood memory I have is of her afghans in our home that she had made for us. We snuggled up with them as we watched TV, read books and took naps. For most of my growing up years we lived pretty far away from Grandma. I imagine that she loved giving us afghans to wrap our little bodies up in that she had carefully croqueted herself while we were so far away.

I have always looked up to my grandma. She had a hard life, as many did in that generation through the Depression. Grandma's own mother died when she was a child. Then her father married a woman who didn't want to raise her. So Grandma went to live with her grandmother, who was a mean woman. She and my grandpa eloped because Grandma's grandmother disliked men and couldn't see why she would want to marry one. Then she lost her 1st two babies to SIDS.

I always loved visiting Grandma's house. I remember the smell, her beautiful doll collection that I loved to look at, the great climbing tree in the backyard where we could find bats at night, playing Frogger in her basement on the old Atari game system, and of course, the afghans. She lived in a very small town. I loved walking to the store, bank, and post office. Best of all was the little candy booth down the street where we would spend more money than we should have eating more candy than my mom would ever know about (I guess she does now! Sorry, Mom!). I remember Grandma's chili, pecan tarts, and fudge (yummy). I remember taking Grandpa's boat out on the lake one day; and as my dad tried to get the boat into shore he slipped and fell in the lake. My grandma laughed so hard we thought she'd die that very minute! Dad said it was worth the slip and getting wet just to see Grandma laugh like that.

Oh, I miss Grandma. Why is it that we don't have longer to enjoy our grandparents when we're at an age that we can more fully appreciate them? There is just something about childhood summers at Grandma's house that's so perfect. I wish I could remember a little more and a little better.

Disappointments

Once a month Jacob has show-n-tell in Kindergarten! I have diligently written it on my calendar for each month so I won't forget. Well, today I forgot. I often hear moms complain about how by the time child #3 or #4 get busy in lots of activities they start forgetting things, like maybe show-n-tell. I'm only on child #1! How sad is that for me? Poor Jonah has no hope at all!

After I responsibly packed Jacob's fund-raiser packet into his backpack and dropped him off to school on time I was feeling pretty on top of things. Later in the morning I read my calendar and saw the note to myself for show-n-tell. I agonized for the rest of the morning. Will he be the only one without show-n-tell? Will he sit at his desk crying? How disappointed will he be in me for letting him down? I could run something down, but show-in-tell could already be over and I'm still in my pajamas! Is my pride more important?

Then I started thinking that it's okay for kids to have disappointing moments in their lives. It builds character, right? And how grateful I am that something as simple as forgetting show-n-tell is as hard as it gets for my son. He's not hungry, homeless, or scared like so many other children in this world.

As I went to pick up Jacob I braced myself for the worst. I imagined him running out to me sobbing out of embarrassment. Jacob walked out to me and he said he had the worst day ever . . . because he fell down at recess. "What? What about show-n-tell," I asked him! "I'm so sorry I forgot!" "It's okay, Mom. It was no big deal. Lots of kids didn't bring show-n-tell today. Their moms forgot too."

Whew! Crisis averted! If lots of other moms forgot too, maybe I'm in good company! I'm glad Jacob has some skills to deal with a little disappointment in his life.

Tight Security???

So I was just trying to schedule Jacob's 1st Parent/Teacher Conference (SEP) online, and was dumbfounded by the high level of security the school district requires for such simple routine. First, I needed my child's ID # and pin #. Well to get the pin # you need the ID #. I didn't have the ID # so I called the school to get that. Then they email me the pin #. After I waited for the email and FINALLY got that, they wanted my SS#. Well, I don't hand that out and didn't put it on Jacob's registration for school info, so they didn't have that on their records. They can email me a guardianship #, but they didn't have my email on file (which is interesting because they just sent me an email?), or they can mail it to me but that takes 7-10 business days! For real??? I called the school and they gave me a guardianship # and added my email to the system. Well, their guardianship # DIDN'T work! But luckily my email was in the system then, so I requested the email. After waiting for awhile, they emailed me my new guardianship #, but somehow I logged in as Jacob instead of as me. So the site wouldn't let me schedule an SEP! Finally some nice lady at the help desk at the school district helped me and we got it figured out.

I'm sure nobody else has made this as hard as I have (it's not like I'm computer illiterate), but is it just me or does this seem WAY too intense to schedule a lame conference! Seriously, I think this is tighter security than my bank account! Should I be worried about that?

Working Out

I'm trying to get into the exercise groove yet again. I'm searching for an alternative to my usual running since its dark in the mornings now. A lady in my neighborhood has been approached by 3 different men during her early morning walks WITH a partner. This is good news for the health clubs since several women I know in my neighborhood have joined gyms out of fear of perverted weirdos.

So I have borrowed a few of these videos from my very gracious friend. All I have to say is, "Wow!" I am SO sore! It's definitely a workout.

To add to my fun during the intense workouts are my kids' comments as they watch me attempt the exercises:

"Mom, you're doing it wrong. You're supposed to be doing push-up's on your tippy toes, not on your knees!"

"Mommy, why are you shaking so hard?" (As I desperately try to keep up with the killer ab routine.)

"Mom, why are you sweating so much?"

"I can do that, that looks easy!" (I'm dying in the meantime!)

Where's the "Good job, Mom!" "You're doing great!" "Keep up the good work!" "Lookin' good, Mom!"

Oh well! I guess kids are known for their brutal honesty! Maybe my husband will walk by and lie to me about how well I'm doing instead!

Sleep . . . or lack thereof!!!

Do you ever feel like there's a conspiracy plot out there to disturb your sleep as much as possible as a mother? First, there are the annoyingly chirpy little birds that have taken up residency in the awning directly outside my bedroom window (sorry to be so out of touch with nature, but really, aren't there a million other places to build a nest?)! Then there's the neighbor's dog that only barks continuously for an hour at a time in the middle of the night, but never during the day (and if I can hear him barking, WHY CAN'T MY NEIGHBOR?)! And lastly, of course, are my own children. Anyone with children doesn't need any further elaboration on that one! It's not like I have a newborn baby or anything. Maybe I should look into that Chinese medicine stuff to see if my life, home, and whatever else is out of harmony or balance with the natural world.

Well, I'm off to TRY to take a nap, probably just in time for 1 of my kids to need a fruit snacks wrapper opened or for the neighbor kid to come over and pound down my door!:)

Butterfly Farm

Welcome to our science experiment. Beware . . . you will learn more than you ever wanted to about Monarch caterpillars and butterflies. As I mentioned earlier, Jacob received a butterfly farm from his grandparents for his birthday. Since then we have been hunting for milkweed leaves daily, cleaning out very poopy jars, and watching this process! I have to say that as much fun as the kids had watching our caterpillars Brandon and I enjoyed it even more! You would have thought that they were our own newborn children with as many pictures as we took (but they kind of were since we nurtured them through their short childhood)! We ordered the caterpillars off of the internet, and due to shipping brutality (we think) we had about a 60% mortality rate with the caterpillars. It's a good think we ordered a lot! We ended up with 5 great chrysalises! Here are lots of pictures and even some cool videos we caught of the process!

Here is a tiny caterpillar on his 1st day in our home. (We didn't know when he hatched out of his egg, so we don't really know how old he is at this big.)

Here's a caterpillar just 1 week later at almost 2 inches long! They eat constantly, poop tons, and therefore grow very quickly!

After they get almost 2 inches long they spend about 1/2 a day crawling around on the lid of the jar spinning lots of silk so they can attach themselves to the lid. Then they hang in a "J" for another 1/2 a day.

Here's a video of the amazing process of turning into a chrysalis. They molt 1 last time. His skin splits open from the back of his head, his face literally peels right off and he's green underneath! This only takes about 5 minutes, so it's hard to catch! I waited an hour and a half to catch this pathetic video! Argh! (Sorry for the blurry video! Brandon gave me a lesson on focusing after this!)

A fully formed chrysalis!!!

After about 10 days the chrysalis turns clear but looks black. You can see the butterfly right inside. It's clear like this for about 8 hours or so.

After my focusing lesson I caught this video of a butterfly hatching from it's chrysalis!!!

A newborn butterfly with crinkly wings! They'll fill out as he flaps them.

Look at its tongue! It's the curly string coming out of its mouth! Cool!

This girl butterfly loved my nephew, Lincoln. She wouldn't fly away, but just crawled around on him for a good hour. He was very patient. You can tell she's a girl because of the 2 black dots in the center of her bottom wings.

A boy butterfly - see no dots! This truly was an amazing process and one we'll definitely do again! What a beautiful world we live in. Heavenly Father truly created some very beautiful creatures!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

This is one reason I love my sweet husband. He's willing to do big projects for me to beautify our home! And he's good at it too! He truly is everything I could have ever hoped for and more! Thanks for everything, Brandon! I love you!