Sighed Mayzie a Lazy Bird

"Sighed Mayzie a lazy bird hatching an egg, 'I'm tired, and I'm bored, and there're kinks in my legs from sitting, just sitting here day after day.'"

I really, really, really HATE the eighth month of pregnancy. People ask me, "How are you doing?", and I answer, "Good", "Great" or "Just Fine." Then people say, "You are just amazing." That is absolutely not true!! Just ask my husband. But when people ask me, "How are you doing?" I am sure they do not want me to say:

I have really bad heart burn all of the time.

I have cramps in my legs that do not go away.

I have to wear a maxie pad at all times lest I sneeze, take too large a step, or just leak from standing up.

I cannot sleep very well because when I lie down my back and my hips hurt.

It is really hard to walk after I do get out of bed. 

I can't roll over in bed without getting out of bed first. 

Getting out of bed is quite the challenge.

I need about a 10 foot diameter to stand up from off the floor. (Of course my kids need me to sit on the floor with them.)

I have hemroids.

I am ALWAYS tired, but  trying to get more rest hurts.

I am often thirsty or hungry but drinking makes me pee my pants and eating gives me heart burn.

If I don't eat and drink, I am dizzy and sick and that is worse than peeing my pants and having heart burn.
I am emotional and ridiculous things make me cry or angry. (My poor, poor husband.)

So over the next 31 or so days when people ask, "How are you doing?" I will continue to say, "good," "great," or "just fine, thank you very much." But really like Mayzie the lazy bird, I am thinking, "...If I can find some one to sit on my nest..."

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas!!! I just love my big family and the joy they bring to me all year round. I couldn't have asked for a better time with a better group of people.

Christmas Present Display

Most years we have put our wrapped presents under the Christmas tree and have let the kids shake them some. This year, we knew that would not work with Joseph toddling around. We have been very pleased with our alternative. Above our fireplace we have this large shelf made for a large screen TV. We actually won't ever put a TV there, eventually I plan to put up a large family picture there. But, this has been a perfectly lovely place to display our wrapped presents. It actually has made our house  pleasantly Christmasy with the stockings hanging above the fire place and the presents and Christmas decor just above those.

Bountiful Kindness

This is our first Christmas in the Bountiful, UT area, and John and I have been very impressed with how kind the people are in the Christmas crowd and just in general. While driving from one shopping center to another and through very busy streets and parking lots, John and I have  noticed that people are always letting other cars into difficult areas to pull through. Tonight our battery died on our van and we had two groups of people very willing to assist us with getting jumper cables and jump starting our van. They did not seem put out or annoyed that we would ask for help. In fact, they seemed very genuine when they said, "We are just glad to be able to help." We are so impressed with the goodness of these people. Everyone is out shopping last minute, the crowds are big and stressful and everyone is tired. We are grateful to be around so many people who are just genuinely kind even when it is hard so to be.

A Quick and Easy Dinner

So tonight we did some final Christmas shopping, and we got home fairly late and hungry. At first we were going to just buy some KFC, but the only promotional would have cost us $20. So I said, I will make this stir fry. It will only take me 20 to 25 minutes. John agreed because neither of us wanted Little Ceasar's pizza and neither of us wanted to spend more than $10. So I made this stir fry and it was quick and delicious. My boys actually ate ALL of their vegetables and Rachel for the first meal in several days didn't begin dinner by saying, "Oh-o, I hate this kind of food." (I am not all that sure what kind of food Rachel does not hate.) Anyway, this was good and fast and easy enough that I wanted to share.

Chicken Cashew Stir Fry

1. Cut up and fry in about a TBS olive oil 1 to 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
2. Add in one bag of frozen stir fry vegetables and cook until they are thawed and warm.
3. Add  1 can of Campell's Golden Mushroom Soup.
4 Stir in 2 TBS soy sauce and 1 tsp garlic powder.
5. Add in 1/2 to 1 cup of cashews. Stir for 1 to 2 more minutes.
6. Serve with rice.

T-shirt Ideas for Joseph

Since Joseph has been walking, he has been destroying. He can pull all the cushions off of the couch, pull a LOT of the books off the shelves and dump out all of the toys in about five minutes. He rips books thoroughly and quickly--pulling off the cover and then ripping out the pages. He pulls dishes out of the cupboards. If we leave anything at all on the table for even a few minutes while he is out and about, he will dump it all onto the floor. He gets into our tooth brushes and make-up, and the toilets and toilet paper if some one forgets and leaves a bathroom door open. He is truly a destroyer!

This morning, John, Ruth, and I were talking about ideas for t-shirts that would be appropriate for Joseph. Ruth came up with:

Destruction

is my 

Construction 

I came up with

I am my own Demolition Team 

and 

John came up with the one I like the best:

ANGEL

of Destruction  

Temple Square

 

I paid my $5 for 20Gbs and now I can post pictures again. A couple of weeks ago, we went to see the lights on Temple Square for family home evening. It is so beautiful and it is free. My favorite part is the nativity set. They have a recording with the scriptures and Thomas S. Monson speaking. It is just the best nativity I have been to, including some live ones. While we were there, a 3-4 year old girl ran up and climbed onto a lamb. That was good for a laugh and we were glad that it was not our 2 or 4 year old daughters escaping, it surely could have been. We were lucky that it has been reasonably warm this year, which made our visit very pleasant.

Conversation with Johnny and Adam

I took Johnny and Adam out to lunch on Saturday because they both had free kid meals as reading awards from school and because they wanted to, "Go on a date with Mom." On the way to the restaurant I had a very funny conversation with them.

Adam said that he had found out what he wants to do for a job. He said that there is a job that you just play video games and decided how they are to be rated. I told Adam that while that sounds really fun and easy that he would not want to have that job. I explained that he would have to be watching all kinds of bad things like too much blood and killing and a lot of bad, immodest women and that would be bad for him and hurt him. Adam agreed immediately and said, "I will just be a Ninja then."

Johnny then replied, "Adam, Ninja is not a real job. If you want to get a job that has real killing you should join the army."

I said, "I don't think you need a real job with real killing. War is not fun or like the movies."

Adam said, "I just want to be a Ninja. Being a Ninja will be my job."

Then Johnny said. "You can't do that Adam. Ninja is not a job. I have found the perfect job for me. I am going to be a librarian so all I have to do is read all day."

I replied, "Johnny, librarians do not get paid very much. You wouldn't even be able to make enough money to pay for your own apartment. There is no way you could support a family on a librarian's salary. Besides, librarians don't read all day, they stack books back onto shelves all day."

Johnny, a little disappointed said, "Well, okay, I won't do that. Maybe I could be a professor. Is that a good job?"

"Yes, I said. That is a good job."

Then Johnny said, "I know money is important, but, I could never be what Kate wants to be and preform surgeries on brains."

"That is okay," I replied, "Being a doctor is not for everyone and blood makes you feel sick. There are a lot of good jobs. Maybe you could work on computers like Dad and Jeremy, or maybe you could be a business owner or something. There are a lot of good jobs."

Then Adam said, "Being a Ninja is a good job!"

Need to Purchase More Space

I tried to write a post about our trip to see the lights at Temple square, but when I went to put in pictures, I got a message saying I have used up my free 1GB space and will need to purchase more space. I guess I will do that later.

Christmas Budget

Every year, how to budget Christmas is a question for many people. How do you get your children gifts they want that are not too expensive or extravagant is difficult. I though I would share a few of my thoughts on this matter. We have tried a few things over the years, with each year being a little different.

First, I think that from birth Christmas should be focused more on the  giving than the getting. Most years , we choose a family that is struggling and do something for them for Christmas. If we just give money, we talk to the kids about poor people who do not have much money and will not be able to have much of a Christmas. We ask them if they would be willing to have smaller gifts to help children who will get no gifts. The answer is always a resounding YES.  Some of the other  things we do is we have them get gifts for each other. We have to keep this small, but we have each child think about what their siblings might like getting. We also make cookies and let the kids take them to neighbors and such. We find that all of these things help our children in understanding that they do not need big things and lots of gifts to have a happy Christmas.

Second, focus most of our Christmas celebration on the birth of the Savior. Most nights during December, we read scriptural accounts of Jesus's birth. We sing Christmas carols most nights too and make sure we get plenty of religious songs in our singing. We also have the kids act out the nativity each year. This year, we even gave the first child to memorize Luke 2:4-20 movie theater tickets to Narnia. (Kate won that challenge) So she will have a date with Dad. I also make sure that some of our crafts include religious things, like making angels for tree ornaments. Making service a part of the Christmas celebration also helps our children to focus on the Savior and the needs of other people. We still of course sing songs about snow and Santa Claus. We hang up our stockings and count down to Christmas. We make paper trees, stockings, and santas. But we try to include as much of the Savior into all of this as possible.

Third, we just do small Christmas's. Santa Claus has only ever given our children one gift and stocking items. Then John and I only get the children 2 additional smaller gifts. The most we spend on a single item is usually around $20 to $30. The kids just know this. If it is a big present, it is for more than one child. Rachel and Anya are getting a large shared gift from Santa this year. Anything else we give them will be less than $10. The kids know that if they want a large gift, they have to wait for their birthdays. For birthdays, we let the kids choose between a birthday party or an expensive present. Since parties tend to be at least $100, our kids can choose a large gift instead. We find one birthday in any month a lot easier to budget than expensive gifts for 7 children all in one month.

Finally, we talk to the kids about our budget. For example, yesterday, Kate said, "it is pay day, why do we not have good snacks?" We told her she could either have Christmas presents or expensive snack food in December, but that we didn't have money for both. For the older kids, we will explain that we have this much money per person, so don't list anything more expensive than that. They will try, but they have never been disappointed.

We have tried a few different things like shopping sales all year round, getting used items, only giving small cheap items,  skipping grocery shopping etc, and I haven't felt like one thing has necessarily worked better than the other. What keeps us from going into to debt for Christmas is just plain old not being to extragavant and being generous to those in need.