Of Good Report

Estelle will turn the big 9 on May 4th. She has only slept through the night in her own bed a few times each year for her entire life until about two months ago. After spending a lot of energy worrying and bribing and consequencing I finally surrendered and figured that she would sleep through the night whenever she was ready. I put a pillow and blanket on my bedroom floor and told her to just lay herself down there. That worked for a couple of years until she decided a year ago that she would get in bed with Emma instead. While that did not bother me at all, Emma was not too fond of that arrangement. After a fair amount of understandable crankiness from Emma, Estelle was informed that she either needed to remain in her own bed or sleep on someone's floor. She has been more partial to Emma's floor lately, but after having slept in a bed all night she would rather do that. A few months before she turned seven I thought I had the sure thing for motivating her. Destry had put i...

My baby has the first birthday of the year. She turned the lucky number 7 on April 3. She could not have been more excited! We celebrated with a rainy BBQ and ice cream pie with family along with games with more ice cream pie with her friends. She recently learned how to ride a two wheeled bike without training wheels and her birthday wish was for a new helmet which Kevin and Christine delivered. She is still easy to please and we had fun parties with her. I am so grateful that she is a part of my life. She has taught me more about expressing love than anyone else. I am the Primary chorister and I have been observing the children lately, especially the younger ones. They are able to express their love freely; they give hugs and smiles to their teachers and anyone else who makes them happy. They sit on their laps and expect to be loved back. The older they get the less easy it is for them to express love. Sarah is not the youngest in Primary any more, but she is sti...

When my now older children were young we had a small alphabet board book. For the letter "R" there was a robot. I honestly cannot say I remember for sure how the "Robot Mom" came into existence, but I know it was inspired by this book and by my children's driving me crazy. From time to time children do that to their parents and from time to time those same parents run out of patience. So in order to diffuse tense situations when mom may not be able to put herself on "time out,"  Robot Mom comes to the rescue. I, the real mom, go into my closet and enter a utopia through a secret passageway; the Robot Mom who looks and smells and acts and has the same authority as the real mom emerges. The only difference is that the Robot Mom talks like a robot. One would think that this would not be too much of a bother to the children; in fact, perhaps it would be somewhat amusing. Well, my children do not always see the entertainment in the Robot Mom. They do usua...

So Taylor gets sick. A lot. For the last several months he has been sick more often than not. When he is not sick he is silly and quirky and funny and we all love it (we probably wouldn't appreciate it as much if we didn't have the days and weeks of silence). When he is sick he quietly withdraws. He doesn't even talk much and when he does he almost whispers and he doesn't even move his lips. We have yet to figure out how his illnesses are attached to his voice and his lips. Perhaps he is working on his ventriloquism skills. Anyway, when he is ill we talk about the real Taylor being "absent." When he is well we all do a happy dance and shout, "Taylor's back." Last night was no exception, but it was especially joyful. Destry and Taylor who were both under the weather. Destry has had shingles for three weeks and Taylor has had his usual for a week. They attempted to go to the General Priesthood meeting. (Spencer went to Panguitch with grandpa for ...

So yesterday I ranted about the expectations for St. Patrick's Day being too high.  And After Estelle had spend hours preparing to catch a leprechaun and lying awake the night before with equal parts excitement and worry about the leprechaun coming she decided when I was putting her and Sarah to bed to announce to the world, ie Sarah, that there were no such things as leprechauns, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy...etc., etc., etc. I have actually been expecting to have a conversation about that with her for months, but she always seems to pull herself back into the believing crowd. I am fine with whatever she chooses, I just want to let Sarah discover for herself without the blatant telling from her sister. I quieted her as quickly as I could and told her that we would talk about it later, meaning when Sarah was asleep and we could slip out of the room unnoticed. She has been questioning since long before last Christmas, but she always tells me she believ...

I love a reason to party as much as the next guy...gal...human being. I love holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Independence and Pioneer Days, even Halloween has grown on me thanks to my children. I enjoy the days off school for Labor and Memorial Days, as well as President's Day and Martin Luther King Day, which we celebrated this year by watching his inspiring "I Have a Dream Speech." It was meaningful and we had a meaningful discussion with our children. I usually celebrate the new year quietly at home. Valentine's Day is sometimes a simple hug and "I love you's" to the people I love. This year we happened to go all out and had a formal candle light dinner with complete table settings for the family and I put notes on everyone's door every morning for the week before Valentine's Day. It was great. Will I do it again, absolutely! Will it be an annual tradition, not likely. If it works into our schedule and is something to look forwa...

We have a dog and today she gets her own post. Lucky dog! I would not consider myself an animal person.  Sure horses are majestic, dolphins are lovable, puppies are cute, tigers are mysterious and who wouldn't want to wrap their arms around a panda bear and get a bear hug (assuming of course that the panda wouldn't rather rip your head off).  I never thought I would own a pet. They require time and money. They get sick, need shots and grooming , they need exercise and to be fed and watered and they poo. That is the number one strike against any pet! If someone would invent a pet that didn't poo I'd have ten of them. Well maybe not because you often can't take them on vacation either and it is inconvenient asking someone to look after your pet while you are gone and paying for them to be boarded is out of the question. Children, as any parent knows, change you.  I had five of them including a baby whose diapers I was still cha...