Bon Apetit: A Good Book I Found

I just finished reading this really cute book, and I loved it. I happened upon it in the new book section of the library. I checked it out because the first two sentences of the on the back made me think I would enjoy the story. But I expected that it would get sleazy and that I would not finish it. On the contrary, it is perfectly clean and some what religious. It is about a girl who goes to Paris to work in a bakery and to attend school to become a pastry chef. It had a small amount of enjoyable romance and I loved the descriptiveness of Paris and of France in general. Apparently it is a middle book in a 3 part series. The third book comes out in the fall of the this year. So I ordered the first book from the library. At the beginning of each chapter there is a quote and I wanted to put in one that just made me laugh and laugh.

Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection IS the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can food be omitted.

I think I will see if the library has a copy of Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. If it has more along those lines, I look forward to a good laugh.

Anyway, I just feel really thankful to find a good new book every now and then because I love to read. And I wanted to recommend it to anyone who is like me and would like to go to Europe but cute, and enjoys a cute, girly story.

Following with Exactness

This morning when I went into the boys bedroom, I noticed Johnny laying in bed with nothing on. I asked Johnny where his clothes went. Johnny said that I did not give him time to put them on last night. I felt rather confused and asked him what he was talking about. He reminded me that when he got out of the bathtub last night I told him that he had to go straight to bed. I laughed a bit and told him that I still meant for him to put his pajamas on. (I wonder if he was cold last night??)

I need to make a history note with this story. There is no school today and tomorrow, so yesterday after school I let the kids watch a movie and play computer games. I asked Johnny to feed the cats three times before he did. I also asked him to take a bath about a half hour after dinner, which he ignored. So when I realized at 9:15 last night that he still had not taken his bath, I told him that he was not going to play computer games for one day. I said he lost that privilege because he ignored everything I told him to do because of computer games. So he took me very seriously when I told him to get straight to bed at 9:45.

Kind of Dancer

While telling Rachel that I would be taking her to the park the next two days I noticed that she was doing a little potty dance.
After listening to my plans, Rachel said to me, "I want to go to the park."
I said, "You need to go potty right now, and we will go to the park tomorrow."
Rachel said, "I need to go to the park right now."
I replied, "You are doing a potty dance, so I know that you need to go potty right now."
Rachel said, "I am not a potty dancer. I am a ballerina dancer."

Tagged: Photo

This is Adam 11 months ago at Swanson's Park about 2 miles from our home in Wichita. We call it the prickily park because most of the trees have very large thorns and there are a lot of prickly bushes around the trees. But it has great walking paths around the River, and a bridge that we like to play pooh sticks at. This was the first of March when we finally had a warm day, so I took the kids to the store, bought a bunch of pre-made picnic items and we spent a couple of hours exploring in the woods around the river and getting stuck in the mud and prickers. It was actually a very nice day. In this picture Adam is holding a pink bunny ring pop that we bought for the picnic dessert, and of course a stick in case any bad guys came by.

Now here are the tag rule I got:
1. Go to your documents/pictures.
2. Go to your 6th file. (For me I thought it meant the sixth folder.)
3. Go to the 6th picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag 6 other friends.

I tag: Becca, Emily M., Rozanne, Amber, Shannon, and Bethany

Ruth and Fear

Ruth and I run at night after dark because that is when I can go. We did a two mile run tonight. Ruth did fairly well. We had to slow down near the end, but she ran the whole way. The first three fences that we ran past with dogs, Ruth got really scared and barked back at the dogs. I thought that was pretty funny. It reminded me of when she was a baby. Ruth was scared of the vacuum and instead of running away from it she would crawl up to it and hit it.

Lego Conversation

Johnny while showing me his two lego ships: Mom, which ship do you think will win the battle?
Me: probably the bigger one. It depends on how many guns.
Johnny: Oh. The bigger ships has lots of guns.

note: the bigger ship had lego Luke Skywalker on it with a lego light saber in hand.

A Murmur and a Chastisement

January has been a rather hard month. We have had at least one child sick almost every day, I have felt more tired than I think I ever have in my entire life because of this pregnancy, and John has been away from home a lot because of work and church stuff. We have also had a hard time trying to help Rachel to be happier and less whiney and needy. It seems like we have been at war with Rachel most of the month. I was feeling rather complainy last night as we put three of our kids to bed with fevers. I thought I would write a blog this morning about how some times are just hard. I thought maybe an appropriate start would be, "Sighed Mayzie a lazy bird hatching an egg..." Then I read this section from the Joseph Smith priesthood/ relief society manual in chapter 24:

As the members of Zion’s Camp marched from Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri, they learned many leadership principles from their association with Joseph Smith. George A. Smith, a member of Zion’s Camp, recalled: “The Prophet Joseph took a full share of the fatigues of the entire journey. In addition to the care of providing for the Camp and presiding over it, he walked most of the time and had a full proportion of blistered, bloody, and sore feet, which was the natural result of walking from 25 to 40 miles a day in a hot season of the year. But during the entire trip he never uttered a murmur or complaint, while most of the men in the Camp complained to him of sore toes, blistered feet, long drives, scanty supply of provisions, poor quality of bread, bad corn dodger [corn bread], frowsy [spoiled] butter, strong honey, maggoty bacon and cheese, etc. Even a dog could not bark at some men without their murmuring at Joseph. If they had to camp with bad water, it would nearly cause rebellion. Yet we were the Camp of Zion, and many of us were prayerless, thoughtless, careless, heedless, foolish, or devilish, and yet we did not know it. Joseph had to bear with us and tutor us like children. There were many, however, in the Camp who never murmured and who were always ready and willing to do as our leader desired.”

I suddenly felt rather like the men that complained, and I knew that I have not been good enough. I have many many blessings. I know that by just choosing, and I tell this to my kids all of the time, that I can be happy and not murmur even when things are very hard. January has been just a little bit hard. I am grateful for the books, and prophets, and scriptures that I have to chastise me when I need it for the good of my life, my soul, and my family. I am sure this passage was in answer to my daily prayer of, "help me to do better, and to be more patient." I would like to be like the men who despite blistery feet, rotten food, and bad water were always ready and willing to do what was required of them.