A story Kate wrote for School (yes, it is fiction)

My Kitchen Knife Experience!

My name is Kate. I have straight brown hair, hazel eyes, and I'll never forget the time I stabbed a man with a kitchen knife.

My older sister Ruth and I were babysitting our 6 younger siblings, Johnny, Adam, Rachel, Anya, Joseph, and baby Joshua.

Anyway we were watching a movie upstairs with the kids when we heard a crash down stairs.

Ruth paused the movie while I went down stairs into the kitchen to investigate.

There in the kitchen the window was broken, and standing on the shattered pieces of glass was a man! And not just any man, but a scary one!

He was in jeans 5 sizes too big, and a black shirt. He looked in his middle ages, with long black hair pulled into a pony tail, with a goatee. And he smiled at me an evil plotting smile!

Now since I'm so small for my age, he must have thought I was 6 because he said "Come here little girl, I have something for you."

I was so panicked I couldn't move! I frantically looked around the room, looking for something, something to save the day!

Then my eyes rested on the kitchen knives. Slowly a plan crept into my head.

Slowly I walked toward the man. Then swiftly I grabbed a kitchen knife, and stabbed the man in the chest!!!!!

The man's mouth dropped open as he fell to the ground. Quickly I dialed 911, and told them a robber is in the house and to come quick!

Then I rolled the main over. He was alive, but needed medical attention! I called mom and told Ruth.

My parents wouldn't let me on the News. So not many people know. But I'll tell you .....

Don't trust me with a kitchen knife. 

The End!

A Personal Struggle

 

I have been struggling with my feelings lately. I am 23weeks pregnant with my eighth child. When this baby is born, we will have 4 girls and 4 boys. I think that is perfect and I am done. I have the big family that I wanted, and now I want to be done. I want to get to that point where, I only have one or 2 little children at home and no more on the way. I want to be able to lose weight and strengthen my body and know that that will not be ruined by yet another pregnancy. But there is a quiet voice in the back of my head that is telling me I may regret it if I stop my family now. My body, minus my bladder, is very healthy. I know that I could physically handle another pregnancy. I just don't want to.

In many ways, I have been hoping for God to tell me, "You are done. This is enough." I have not had those feelings. I have asked to have them, but hey have not come. I think that if we stop now, God will still be pleased with what we have done in bearing children and multiplying and replenishing the earth, but I also think God would be happy to send us another child or two. 

When thinking about this topic, I really struggle. I think about John's youngest sister, Rebecca. She is the ninth child in their family and just a light and a joy to everyone. I love and adore, Becca. She is 22 or 23 or something, a good little mother and wife with her own two little children. When she shows up at family events they are so much better. Becca is just friendly and caring and fun. John's mom's health was not good when she conceived Rebecca, but she had her in faith knowing that there was one more girl to come to their family. I really doubt John's family would be as fun and as nice as it is without Becca. Then I think, do I risk missing one more bit of joy and sunshine in my life because I want to be done having kids and to have a healthy fit body, or do I suffer being tired and emotional through one more pregnancy while facing the same questions yet again. 

I honestly, do not know which path John and I will choose. I want to be done. I want to not be pregnant again. But I also don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering if I missed out on a lovely child because I refused to be pregnant one more time. Of course, being pregnant now, I am a lot more emotional. Maybe everything will be clearer in a year from now, and I will know for sure what to do. But for now, I find myself struggling with these feelings most days.

So Excited!!!

October is almost here and that means PUMPKIN TIME!!! I cannot wait to start baking. I am collecting pumpkin recipes and I am excited to get started and have a lot of yummy pumpkin meals. We will have pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, cream cheese pumpkin muffins, dinner in a pumpkin, mashed pumpkin. I may try pumpkin stew, pumpkin mousse and pumpkin milk shakes. Yes, I am excited!

A Decision

I have had friends and acquaintances and family members that have taken a year to potty train their child. I have often wondered, "What are they doing wrong?" and "Why is this kid not getting this? The poor mom." You see, Ruth was potty trained at 23 months after one month of training. Kate was potty trained at 24 months after 4 months of potty training, where she really only had trouble with pee. Johnny was potty trained at 28 months after four months of potty training with results just like Kate. Adam was potty trained at 30 months after one month of potty training. Rachel was potty trained at 23 months after one month of potty training. She later peed her pants again for a month, but she never pooped her pants. I thought potty training was hard, but not impossible. I did not understand how a kid could be so resistant.

Now, Anya is almost 33 months and has absolutely refused to potty train. She will poop her pants, poop the floor, put on a diaper to poop, but she absolutely will not poop in the toilet. She will only pee int he toilet if I take her or tell her to go. She will not do this herself, and she is a lot older than all of her siblings were. I have realized that Anya is a "take a year to potty train child". I did not know that I had it so easy with my other 5 kids. (It is funny how when you make a judgement about some one else's parenting it comes back to you at some point. I have to stop doing that! or stop having more kids to find out!)

Given my difficult Anya, I have made a decision. I do not want to fight with her for a year about going to the bathroom. I do not want to clean up poop messes for a year. (I have a really hard time not yelling when I am cleaning up poop that has been smeared into the carpet.) So, I am quitting for a year. Next July, I will potty train both Anya and Joseph at the same time. (I really have no reason to believe that Joseph will not be more like his other 5 siblings.) That means I will have 3 kids in diapers. I have never had that before! But I have never had a "take a year to potty train child".

Johnny's Birthday

Our camera refused to turn on at all, so no 9 year old birthday pictures of our little Johnny. Johnny turned 9 yesterday!!! He is and has always been such a good boy. He is a lot like his Dad in many ways. They love a lot of the same things: math, computer games, classical music and soccer.I am glad to have a boy that gets along so perfectly with his Father.

We had a nice little family party for Johnny. John did a good job of picking out a variety of not just computer game presents (he got one). Johnny asked for his usual Cream of Broccoli soup in a bread bowl. He also went against Robertson family tradition and asked for a vanilla cake. (He doesn't like chocolate the way the rest of us do.) After putting all of the little kids and a very sick Ruth to bed, John, Johnny, Kate and I enjoyed playing Johnny's new board game "Run for you life, candy man". It was a lot of fun.

Johnny is a great kid. He has always been so easy going and fun to teach. He just loves to learn new things so much, it is just fun to teach him. I look forward to another year of fun learning time with my good little Johnny.

Kittens and Kitten Troubles

In June, we got a little white calico kitten and named her Winter. We returned her after two days because she wasn't eating or drinking, or using the litter box. In July, we got a black calico fluffy kitten and named her Calli. She was a pretty decent little cat, even though she scratched the kids a bit too much. But, the beginning of this month, she went outside and never came back. So then we decided we better get 2 girl kittens (We want a girl cat to have babies.) We found two in one litter and picked them up about a week and a half ago. The grey one is Twix and the black was Velvet, until Sunday when we realized that the black one is definitely not a girl. He is now Shadow. We didn't want another boy cat, but we are attached. Shadow will stay and not have babies. Twix and Shadow actually have been the best kittens yet. Twix doesn't use her claws on the kids at all. They both prefer to be inside around the kids as opposed to in the garage alone. They are playful and cuddly and the kids of course adore them. We won't let them out alone until they have collars and hopefully they will both stay with us. But now, we have a bigger vet expense as we will want shadow spayed young so he does not become the father of Twix's kittens. Boy is getting used to having other cats around. He seems to tolerate these two fairly well, which is good because we still love Boy. We just wanted to have kittens born around the kids again.

More on Motherhood

Not too long after writing my post on Motherhood, I ran into this article. It basically states that after several studies of happiness in parenting, it can be easily concluded that parenting makes people unhappy, it ruins relationships, and that working at a job is reportedly more pleasurable. Near the opening of the article it states, "As a rule, most studies show that mothers are less happy than fathers, that single parents are less happy still, that babies and toddlers are the hardest, and that each successive child produces diminishing returns. But some of the studies are grimmer than others. Robin Simon, a sociologist at Wake Forest University, says parents are more depressed than nonparents no matter what their circumstances—whether they’re single or married, whether they have one child or four."

I do not know a single parent that would say, "Why did I have little Lucy, she has made me so unhappy?"or that after having another child when they thought they were done, would say, "I did not want this child. He is such a bother. Our family would be so much better off without him." In fact, I find that quite the contrary is true. When a family is blessed with any child, whether it is the first or the 5th, whether they planned for the baby or not, they often say things like, "I can't imagine life without this child."   Sure everyone with children recognizes that children are always a lot of work and sometimes very stressful. But, the people that I know that are the most unhappy are not the married people with children.

The problem that I see is that it is popular and often humorous to complain about the work, and the messes of child rearing. You often hear how hard being a parent is. How being a parent keeps you from doing more pleasurable things. Such pleasurable things sited were days at work in an office, watching TV, and eating. (Personally, I get more pleasure reading or talking to my children than I do from watching a movie.) I think that as a society we have been trained to focus on the negative aspects of rearing children. So when asked, we tend to think of and report the negative aspects.

If something is hard does that mean it is not worthwhile and does not promote general happiness and well-being? Getting a college degree is hard, but I think it definitely promotes well-being and happiness. Owning a home is hard, but it is pleasurable to work hard and take care of a home and see the fruits of those efforts in the nice place one lives in.  I now will say that the same is true of being a mother and a father. It is hard work, but the fruits of those labors bring about a lot of happiness.

I find that the people who are constantly seeking for personal pleasure and for things to make them happy are never happy. That is because there is no true happiness in serving yourself. True happiness comes from serving other people and working hard to do so. I think as a parent it is VERY important to look for what is positive in the daily tasks of raising children. The fruits of our efforts are there, but we are trained only to see what is difficult. In a world that is telling us that parenthood is too hard and that true pleasure lies in going to work, watching TV, and eating out with other adults, we need to be careful. It is seductive to think, "my life would be better if I could spend more time just for me, and that my children are the reason I cannot." I love the counsel of a wise prophet of god who when speaking to mothers said, "Find joy in the journey now!" (Thomas S. Monson) Let us follow that counsel and find what true happiness is!