confessions of a soccer mom

This is a picture of Grant who doesn't play soccer but would like to. He was posing in someones shin guards and shoes. I'm pretty sure the shin guards are much more comfortable when worn backwards.

You know those obnoxious parents that totally get into their 5-year old's soccer game? They do crazy things like yell, "Get on D Tony" or "That's your ball Suzy." So does Tony know what D means? It used to disgust me when hearing these things. I don't know what happened, but one day I turned into one of those parents. It was the day when Katie, for the first time, became aggressive and actually ran up the entire field almost scoring a goal. I was out of my seat yelling and was so into it that I almost ran onto the field and scored the goal myself. I quickly realized that I was making a great fool of myself and tried to remain seated for the rest of the game. I wasn't able to sit still. I was clenching my fists and gritting my teeth any time some great play was made. Since then during every game I find myself yelling "run up to the ball" or "go, go, go." I'm a completely different person during soccer games. I'm not typically the noisiest person but suddenly I'm a very competitive, loud watcher. I've discovered that the only way to stifle this behavior is to talk to another mom and not watch the game. That causes a problem when Jordan says, "mom did you see me score that goal." "No," I say. "I can't watch and be reasonable at the same time." No, just kidding, I haven't actually been able to NOT watch a game but I am totally distracted while talking to another parent. The only thing I have going for me is the kids love for me to yell stuff at them as long as I keep it nice and encouraging.

FORTIFY

We were reading the scriptures tonight and talking about how in times of war, armies worked hard to fortify cities. "The prophet tells us we need to fortify our homes. Does that mean we should build a big wall around our house?" I asked. Here were the responses:

Jordan: "No, its not a wall, its the spirit and it starts in the middle of our home and makes a big shield that you can't see."

Alex: "Yeah, its like a force field." I could see his wheels spinning and was sure he was remembering the Star Wars computer game he was playing earlier today.

Katie: "Yeah, I don't think that's what its talking about."

I could see the kids minds were very likely running in the wrong direction and added, "so when we are nice to each other the fortification works really well and when we are mean and fight the force field totally does not work." I wish I could have taken a picture of Alex's face. He was staring off into space, no doubt thinking of how our family applied to Star Wars. I love listening to their ideas.

Miracle

Last year when we lived in Massachusetts after I had a sudden desire to move closer to home Carl told me, "The only way we are going to move is if someone offers me a job." I thought that was silly and that he might actually have to make the effort and look for a job back West. Three days later Carl was offered a job, not where we would have looked for a job but it definitely was an offer out of the blue. I was so excited and thought it was our ticket closer to home. We thought then that we could choose to stay or choose to move and it wouldn't really matter. After all, Carl had a great job in Massachusetts, where he was loved and where there was lots of opportunity for growth in the company. The company was actually growing when we moved. So here's the miracle. We moved to another great company out West and after nearly a year we found out that the company in Massachusetts closed its doors letting everyone go except for like three people to finish up the current project. Its interesting how things turn out. Looking back at how quickly everything worked out, I can't help but think its all a miracle. We have definitely been watched over. Things aren't exactly perfect. We still own a home in MA that we will most likely lose a lot of money on but things are so much better than they would have been had we stayed and Carl lost his job.

Innovations in clothes organizing

Since its getting cold, we decided it was about time to swap out the summer clothes with the winter clothes. A few weeks ago I heard about this NEW way to organize drawers. So we tried it. I'm so happy how it turned out. You can actually see all the options at a glance and fit more clothes in each drawer too. VERTICAL ORGANIZATION is always the best way to go, they say. I guess I never thought that it could work with clothes too.

I B'lieve I Can Fly

So this is not a picture of SAM, its actually Katie. She was the only one we had a picture of on kite day.

There's nothing like flying kites with the cousins on a lightly windy day. Not exactly enough wind to pick up the kites, so we had to resort to running down hills to put the kites in flight. The highlight of the afternoon was when 6 year old Sam got his kite in the air and with his hand (holding the string) held high and eyes looking skyward he sang with emotion, "I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch the sky-y-y." It was hilarious. He clearly didn't see me laughing or I'm pretty sure he would have been embarrassed to tears.

This is Sam, wearing a size 2T costume at age 5. What a silly guy!

Fasting and don't save your chocolate

Once a month is fast Sunday at church. We go without food and water for a couple of meals and pray for a specific purpose. Today the purpose was Jordan's idea-getting along with each other better. So today after we ended out fast with a prayer, we got ready for dinner. Katie asked what she could do to help. Jordan offered me the last of his flavored water even though he wanted the rest. At dinner Alex got cups and water for everyone when he noticed nobody had any. Everyone spoke kindly (except Grant, he's a little slow to catch on). When Jordan asked for more chips and there weren't any left, Katie and Alex both offered him some (their idea not mine)--amazing! This kind of thing is so rare for us. It was a fun and enjoyable dinner. I started telling the kids that fasting works. We also talked about how the house feels different and warm when we are nice to each other and looking for ways to help each other out. Without any prompting the kids started shouting out ways to be nice to each other. Alex is usual the most excited to talk about how to do better. He was coming up with all kinds of ideas like, "I know, when someone is mean to you, don't be mean back." So in the middle of this conversation Alex said all of the sudden, "I'm not going to save chocolate anymore because it melts." I love his 5 year old mind, always going in more than one direction. The moral of the story: fasting works and don't save your chocolate.

Day 5

before
after

This project actually took a lot of time since I had to make some pretty big decisions about which sheets to throw out. I put all my sheets in a container (shelf 2 from top) and folded them in a way that I can see each set. I also moved the kids papers, magnets, coloring books etc to a shelf they could see better. Now when they whine, "mom I have nothing to do" I can refer them to the closet. I had to add a few things I didn't want the kids to play with to another closet. Playdough was dried out and all playdough toys were consolidated. You know, the only problem with dejunking is that its quite messy--piles everywhere. So not only do you have to organize a closet you also have to clean an entire room afterward, its worth the peace of mind though.

DAY 4

all day field trip with Jordan (and Grant)
night out with Carl--5 hours--a little unusual but I'll take it
only time to fold the laudry I cleaned on Monday. Maybe tomorrow it will get all the way into drawers.

No time for dejunking today

Declutter Day 3

BEFORE

AFTER

Again, not a huge difference but I found some cookie cutters I've been missing, consolidated some Apple Cider Vinegar--mom I threw some out, I hope you're not mad. I also found out exactly how many bags of chocolate chips I really have. Tang, did I mention I found some of that?

Declutter Day 2

One bookshelf

BEFORE

AFTER

Okay so the before/after contrast isn't really stark but look at the pile of stuff I got rid of and guess what? I found a dvd that's been missing for months and one magnet dart for our dart set--now we have 2 of the 8 we had a few months ago.

it makes me happy

Today while we were eating lunch Grant put his arm around my neck and said,
"I wike (like) you mom."

While going through a big pile of old school papers I happened upon this written piece by Katie:
"Light bounces off of anything you see. When the light bounces off of anything you see it gos (goes) in your eyeball and gos (goes) in your brain."

Jordan laughing his head off (seriously, on the floor, hardly able to breathe) when telling the story of me spanking him 4 years ago. He laughed when I spanked him just about as hard as he laughs when he retells it.

Alex telling me that 7 and 7 and 1 are partners for 15.
Alex: "I already knowed 7 and 7 was 14 and then you just put one more in."
Me: "How did you know 7 plus 7 equals 14."
Alex: "Cause I did it on my calclater (calculator) once."

day 1

project/study area

before

after

its so much easier to do a project in a clean area. Under the table are the following projects:

one quilt to me mended

one quilt to finish quilting

scrapbooking-almost done with 2004 and 2005 is our last year of traditional scrapbook. After that we're going with Shutterfly photo books

make phone book fabric covers for shorter piano students

Christmas pjs

several mending projects

a few dresses and skirts to sew

Decluttering Days

For a week now I've felt happy every time I've opened this closet. It used to be a pretty big mess. I was in the habit of stuffing things at the top, which later fell on my head as I opened the door. So I took about 30 minutes and organized it. I also cleaned out my church bags that were piling up on the closet floor. Its made me so happy I thought I'd decluttering one spot every day and post before and after pictures.

I love decluttering because:

• it clears out my brain (especially when I get rid of useless projects)



• the house it so much cleaner and organized



• I can find what I'm looking for



• I actually spend less $ after I've dejunked



• partially empty spaces make me happy

done

About 1 1/2 years ago my friend Molly (the only early morning exercise friend I've had--those were the days) gave me this mirror. She had been planning to sell it or maybe just give it away on Craig's list but she offered it to me and I stored it for several months then carried it across the country hoping to repaint it and use it at some point.









So here it is, finally done.





I love doing cheap projects that save me money and make my house look better. It makes me feel resourceful.



Though, I'm pretty sure you don't read my blog--thanks Molly.

errand entertainers

Today, while at the store, I tried on some shoes. To get a better view of them I rolled up one leg of my pants (the leg I had tried the shoe on). I decided I didn't need the shoes after all and went on my way. After Grant dumped a whole bag of sunflower seeds on the store floor, we headed to the library. While there Grant hit me hard across the face (after two unsucessful attempts to bite me--he really didn't want to cross the library to the non-fiction section). Then he booked it. He didn't know where he was heading but the chase was on. It was quickly stopped as Grant ran smack dab into a table. He screamed for quite a while and wanted comfort--I wasn't actually feeling real sorry for the guy. Next was a trip to the recycling center followed by a quick stop to the second hand store. We had to park farther away than we wanted and walked across a busy street to get into the store. As we walked up to the door I saw my reflection in the glass and realized I had forgotten to pull my pant leg down after trying on the shoes on our first errand. I'm thinking the entertainment Grant provided to unsuspecting viewers during our errands this morning was only increased by my one pant rolled look.

Just say no...to more

Lately I've been eating too much. Its great while I'm eating but then my stomach feels heavy afterward. So I decided I'm going to say no to more food (like second helping). The idea is to feel comfortable but not full. So I still eat ice cream and chocolate covered raisins but instead of eating a whole bowl of ice cream I give myself a scoop and enjoy that one scoop instead of snarfing up a whole bowl without even enjoying it. Seriously, yesterday I had tacos for dinner (my favorite meal) and since they tasted sooo good I just kept eating them. Did I need 4?-no. I wasn't even hungry when I ate the first one, but because it tasted good I just kept going. If I had just eaten one and felt satisfied I probably would have felt a lot lighter going to bed. I hate that heavy stomach feeling. I have a little points system I use with this. Every time I say no to something I give myself a point. I never give myself a point for feeling hungry. I don't want to feel hungry-satisfied is the key. After 100 points I buy myself a new shirt. So Carl says, "Do you want some ice cream and I say, "Yes I'll have just one scoop." That gives me one point because we both know I could very easily eat a huge bowl.

If anyone happens to try this and it works let me know-so far it hasn't worked for anyone else besides me. Supposedly some people lie to themselves about points.

For more information on this subject see Intuitive Eating.