Living a Balance Life

I just had one of those "Ahha! I get it!" moments of realization or understanding.  I was reading the most recent post from Inspired to Action - one of my favorite blogs about being a mom.  Her message today just clicked for me. I already knew what she was saying about balance but it struck me differently today.  The post is short and to the point, if you're a mom I hope you'll take a moment and read it too.

The Key To Living a Balanced Life

by Kat from Inspire to Action

Nuggets

Morning conversation:

Evelyn: Mama, do we have nuggets in our body?
Me: Uh, no?  What do you mean?
Evelyn: Well chickens have nuggets.
Me: Haha, heeee, stifle my laugh...  Actually Evelyn, people chop up chickens and shape them into nuggets.

Gotta love those half awake morning conversations.

S is for Spencer

I'm starting something new with my two younger children.  We're going through an at home preschool like program called "Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve" by Laura Coppinger.  Its not full preschool just letters.  I'm excited about this because it has games, activities, recipes, scriptures, and opportunities to serve others.  Yes, I could come up with all this on my own but I know myself.  I'd spend more time searching for the perfect activities on the internet and run out of time to actually do them.  Besides I really don't care if my three and four year old know their letters yet, the point of my doing this is to spend time together.  Its so easy for me to live my life beside my children rather than with them. 

Today was our first day.  I decided we'd focus on the letter S for Spencer.  Oliver didn't have school due to the holiday and joined in the fun.  Really the activities are easy to accomodate for all ages.  Oliver already knew the letter but he had the opportunity to look up scriptures and read.  I picked a scripture from the Book of Mormon rather than the one prepared because I figured Service went pretty well with the letter S!  So we read Mosiah 2:17.

 "  ..."When Ye Are in the Service of Your Fellow Beings Ye Are Only in the Service of Your God".

I posted it on the wall and randomly throughout the day Oliver would come read it out loud.  I didn't expect this response.  It felt nice to hear scripture and to know he was excited about it.

All three had a blast with the activity - sock puppets!

(Try as I might, I can't get these to center on the actually post.  It works on the preview.   Hmm...)

The Next Generation

Last week in primary the children were encouraged to bring scriptures each week.  They don't have to be their own set of scriptures, getting them from the library counts.  So all week long Evelyn kept reminding me she needed scriptures.  Sunday morning all three kids joined her chimes for scriptures.  So I raided my parents morning scripture drawer.  Since there aren't any other of my siblings living here they aren't being used.  I was a little surprised to see them still there actually.  So I pulled out three, one for each of my children.  Its kind of fun that these are the same scriptures I may have been reading out of years ago and now my children are excited to take care of them.  We have them sitting out on the counter where they will be easy to access. 

Its so fluffy I'm goign to die!

We all had a late start, slept in.  Some of us slept as much as an hour extra.  This is rare in our home of early risers.  Alarm clocks are mostly a precaution.  We don't really need them.  So when breakfast was late Oliver asked if he could have a piece of bread.  Sure, why not?  Well I watched Oliver open a new package of bread, reach halfway down the bag to what he figured must be the biggest, fluffiest piece of bread in the bag.  Unfortunately, the bag was so full the piece didn't make it out in one full piece.  So silly but I've giggled to myself about it all day.  He really thought through what he wanted and went for it.  Me I would have just gone with the piece on the end without thinking what I really wanted.

Say cheese!

We finally have a working camera!  Ours has been down for quite some time.  Chris and I held back a little (well more of a chunk) of our Christmas to splurge on a used digital SLR camera.  This is a big deal.  BIG DEAL.  Chris and I met the semester of college that I was taking (or just finished?) a photography class.  Both being artists photography was a fun skill we were on equal playing grounds with, neither was so good we intimidated the other.  So many of our dates we were out taking pictures.  Some of those shots are still my favorites after all these years.

Since we won't be venturing to restaurants much on dates anymore we figured it would be fun to go back to one of our favorite dating past times - photography.  (Oh and boardgames too.  Anyone up for a round of Settlers of Catan? Its kind of addicting!) Its now eleven years since we began taking pictures together and we're excited to not be developing every picture to find out what turned out among the dozens that didn't.

Sad thing is after so many years I feel like I'm going to have to completely relearn how to use a SLR camera.  So I'm going to try to take at least one picture everyday.  I don't plan to share them all but I'm preparing a new blog  just for our pictures.  I'm hoping Chris will join in and submit pictures too. 

Today, no pictures.  I can't remember where Chris downloaded the pictures to on the computer!  I'm off to see if I can find them.

Its so hard to go to sleep

Spencer struggles to fall asleep many nights.  Tonight he came out the five or six times.  Maybe more I just lost count.

There are the regular reasons for leaving his room, bathroom stop, drink, book, drink, bathroom, and so on.  This one was new.

Spencer: Mom!  Oliver is dead!
Me: Spencer, he's ok.  Oliver is asleep.
Spencer: But Mom I can't hear him breathing.

I did my best not to bust up laughing as I imagined him hovering over his sound asleep brother listening.  I also imagine the sound asleep child waking in panic with his brother's face inches from his face.  


I must go.  The little rascal is up again.