One Wish

Today is my birthday.
I have one wish . . .

Over the past 38 years and over the next fifty,
I will forget all of your birthdays.
I'm just bad at stuff like this.

I hit about 3/5 for Col, and Dallin usually reminds me about Sariah, De's was three days ago and I forgot, and I still don't really know when Niki's is, and I almost always miss all nine of the Chicks except maybe a handful of times I've hit Melissa and Tam, I remember once taking Lisa out about 8 years ago for hers, I used to be pretty good with Christine for about 3 years, Diana I think I mentioned it once at church, Christina I think twice, Amanda I used to be great in high school but now I don't always remember to call, as for Jess Annie and Shan...forget it, Karen I think we did something once back when we homeschooled five years ago, as for my stake activities team Al, Barb, and Julianne ya not so good, Rana yours is so close to mine and I still forget, my sweet friends I visit teach. . .only if my partner remembers, as for all my cousins and extended family. . .uhhhh not so good, as for my in laws. . .I'm terrible, my daughter was born on my grandma's birthday who I adore and I still forget, as for my sisters and parents. . . I'm pretty good, not perfect though, as for my kids well....they remind me so much it would be impossible to forget!

Please know, that although I completely forget to send you a card,
buy you a gift, pick up the phone and wish you a Happy Birthday,
that I cherish you deeply and I am so glad that many years ago you were born.
Please continue to love me even when I let your sacred day come and go
without even as much as a "Happy Birthday" from me.
And if I forgot to put your name down on my "I forget your birthday" list up above,
please forgive me, I still think you're awesome!

That is my wish.
I hope it comes true.
Love you all!

Em's Epiphany

she made the waffles

she set the table
she picked the flowers for the centerpiece
she cut the butter
she waited on the couch watching out the window for dad to come home


A Little Lesson:
she announces while filling the glasses with water
mom, I get it
it feels so much better to do for others, then to get for yourself

Traveling

First Logan
then Hunter
then Jessica,
brought over the line
across the border
to Emily.
As for the rest of them. . .
it's only a matter of time.

A Little Lesson:
My sister Jenn and I have spent many years passing viruses
from my kids to her kids and her kids to my kids.
One of us comes up or goes down to play and we bring a
few extra items along with us in the form of
microscopic mayhem!
We usually chalk it up like this . . .
"at least the cousins got a chance to play."

Transformations

Before we had multiple kids and a dog, our backyard was beautiful.

The grass was green and there were just a few toys scattered amongst the foliage.

Several Lucy digs, snow storms, house renovations, swing sets,
biking obstacle courses, and soccer drills later, our yard was
looking like it needed a serious make over.

After general conference I asked Craig if he would
convert 1/2 of our yard into a garden plot.
He said yes . . .


Garden boxes were measured, a fence was erected, dirt was brought in and . . .


voila . . .


a garden was born.

Thanks sweetheart.

A Little Lesson:

It's time for these little guys to join the real world and experience
real rain
real wind
real sun
real weeds
and then they will grow
deep roots
strong stems
and bear fruit.
This all sounds very familiar. . .
p l a n o f s a l v a t i o n.

Twenty Minutes

This is the worst part of owning a business.

I love to compose, teach, lecture, speak, travel, share, learn, mingle
and all the other wonderful parts of what I do for my little hobby on the side.

It's when people order materials from the website (the nerve) that
means I have to bubblewrap, package, tape, measure, weigh, and yes, go to the post office!
YUCK!

Most of my items on my website are downloadable.
But there are always a few teachers who just want the real thing.

A Little Lesson:
I usually put it off for a few days.
When I finally sit down and do it, it only takes about 20 minutes.
I find this is the case with most things I am not wanting to do.
Hundreds of minutes of head stress, putting off and procrastinating.
Twenty minutes out of my day.
If I could really remember this particular lesson it would be really nice.

The Jungle

Last week I spoke in Seattle at a Youth Conference on the topic
t e m p t a t i o n.

I arrived with a couple of 24 foot snakes my mom whipped up from me.
It went something like this . . .

The snake kills it preys in three ways. . .
One . . .

It lurks and watches until it finds the right
moment to strike and bites its victims.
Venom slowly paralyzes the prey.
Two . . .

The snake wraps itself around its victim slowly cutting
off it's oxygen supply until it can no longer breathe.
Three . . .

It gobbles up the unassuming creature all in one bite.

A Little Lesson:
How snakes manage to attack their prey is very similar to how we can be paralyzed and even consumed by sin. Addiction, ignoring commandments, poor choices, breaking covenants and all the things we do that move us away from God cut off our spiritual oxygen and leave us weak and powerless. Of course there are snake charmers and night goggles, and anti venom and guns and traps that we can use to make it easier but there is really only one take home message that I drilled into the kids after wrapping them in snakes. . .

S t a y o u t o f t h e j u n g l e!

Bravo!

I let them paint.

A Little Lesson:
You're going to have to clap louder, I can't hear the standing ovation you're giving me.

Easy Decisions

It's that time of year again . . .

A Little Lesson:
I make my own yoghurt, buy Noname ketchup, shop the superstore $30 off coupon,
turn off lights, turn down the heat, reuse water bottles, make bread, buy used on Craig's List, grow a garden, never buy new clothes, and use vinegar to wash windows all to save money. Then I walk into my local garden center with no guilt, no shame, and no anxiety when my bill comes to almost $200 so I can spend the next 4 months caring for these beauties. It's one of those easy decisions in my life.

Run Poco Run!

Clara came running into the house shouting for everyone
to drop what they were doing and come quick!!!

This is Poco the snail trying to run away, after being shown his 20th flower petal mansion.

A Little Lesson:
I think God created funny looking little creatures just for 5 year old girls to find.

Guilt

I made apple puff pastry treats for Family Home Evening.

A Little Lesson:
I'm not sure what brought upon more guilt.
Watching Martha make these on daytime television or eating mine and half of Benjamin's.

Double Feature

Grandma Murley, Shannon and I got tulips, ham and mushroom
omelettes and fresh orange juice for breakfast.

A few hours and a hundred miles later, Grandma Matkin and I got maple
salmon appetizers, barbecued steak and potatoes and tuxedo cake for dinner.

A Little Lesson:
I didn't have to wash one single dish.
Perhaps this post should of been titled . . . Spoiled.

New Car

we got a new car.
not a new car, just new to us.
not this one, but one like it. our is white.
same car, different colour, same motor, different interior, same model fewer features.
more miles, less warranty, more risk, less expensive.
i'm not sure.
maybe newer and less risk or older and less money.
just sign here. on the dotted line.
everything will be fine.

A Little Lesson:
I thought I would write a blog that resembles what it feels
like to spend two days on a used car lot.

Kindergarten Orientation

"Mom, I'm pretty sure I don't want to go to kindergarten,
I'll just stay home with you next year."

After a play dough station, a storytime station, a crown making station, a letters and numbers station, a colouring station, a juice box and snack station, and a little fun time with her new teacher . . .

"Why do I have to wait all summer to start kindergarten?!?"

A Little Lesson:
And so it goes, I just have 115 days before
my carefree life with Clara comes to an end.
I'm not sure how 1975 days slipped by so quickly.
I stopped wearing a watch, but that doesn't seem to be helping.

Girl Talk

It was date night with Emily and she asked if Ikea sold the Olympic mascot stuffies.

I wasn't sure, so we went to check it out.

They don't.

Instead, we went into EVERY living room, dinning room, and kitchen showroom and pretended it was our house. We sat on the couch, we pretended to watch the fake TV and Emily served me pretend gourmet dishes from the plates and accessories from the different cupboards. She had a BLAST! It was like living in a fairy tale.

Then we had an Ikea hot dog and went home.

A Little Lesson:

Unless we are on a date, Emily doesn't spend a whole lot of one on one time with me.

She shares a room with her sister, she's at school all day, and she has three siblings.

She talked all the way there, all the way home, and most of the time we were in the store.

There was no interruptions.

She told me everything she was thinking about, and a little more.

It worked out perfectly.

She was desperate to share and I was desperate to listen.

Away at Camp

Jordan left for camp this morning. Three whole days. I am weak with stuff like this. Does it have to be for so long? As we were driving to the school with all Jordan's camping paraphernalia, Emily asked "Mom, with Jordan gone and everything can I have his room?" Emily is not feeling the sadness as deeply as I am.

A Little Lesson:
I remember that dark September morning I woke up before my sleeping family and sat on the living room couch and cried. It was Jordan's first day of preschool. Three whole hours. Did it have to be so long? What if he had to go to the bathroom and couldn't get his top button undone, or done back up! What if the "Big One" (earthquake) came? What if another child said something unkind? I still wonder all of those things, but thankfully he knows how to do up his pants on his own now. I think the emotion and feeling of missing someone begins at birth when we are separated from our existence in heaven. We spend our lives missing the God that created us and so we long for something. We know there is something missing. It is us. We are missing. We are no longer in His presence and so deep inside our souls we desire to return to Him. I believe that is why mankind is always searching for something. We are not actually lost, just temporarily away at camp. When camp is over, the reunion will be glorious.

Eating Crepes

A little thing happened the other day...

I got a phone call from Linda, the friend that I wrote that children's opera for a few months ago, and she announced CBC heard about the little opera and decided they wanted to come and record it! It went something like this. The lead of the little opera, Emma, was eating crepes with her mom in a restaurant when they overheard the "opera conversations" of the people next to them. Her mom boldly asked who they were, and it turned out they were sitting next to John McMaster, Canada's leading tenor superstar. He is famous worldwide. After a little small talk about his opera and Emma's little opera it turned out John, the international opera star, knew Linda, the opera-singing elementary school teacher and had worked with her at the Vancouver Opera and wanted to come and see what all the excitement was about, and he decided to invite the CBC radio along with him. They will air the show, which will predominantly be about John the superstar, on June 20th, nationally on the show Saturday afternoon at the Opera from 1pm -4pm. I am not sure how much of the children's opera they will play but hey, what a story eh?

First, John came and watched the opera, while CBC recorded it . . .

Then, John sang for the kids. It was incredible.
Do you like how I call him John, as if we've become great friends, well, we practically are.

Another newspaper called the Burnaby News Leader
also picked up the story you can watch
HERE

A Little Lesson:
I think the moral of the story is . . .we should all go out for crepes more often!

Unanimous!

Remember this?

Which turned into this . . .

After a few more tweaks became this . . .

To compete with others of its kind like this . . .

Where it was judged and awarded the

honour of going on to the REGIONALS!!!

Where it joined some pretty stellar tablemates like this. . .

Owned by young winners from around the city like this. . .

Where awards were given out to the students like these. . .

the first nations award

the vancouver police award
the transportation award
the environmental award
the arts and culture award
the immigration award etc.

None of which I heard because of this . . .

(Benjamin falling in love with the 60's Hippy Display in the Vancouver Museum a few
feet away from where Jordan and the rest of the audience were gathered.)

After hearing a roar of applause from the audience,
I peeked my head back into the room and saw this . . .

Which meant this young man . . .

Is going here . . .

Parliament Hill Ottawa

Where he will be an ambassador for BC in the NATIONALS!!!

A Little Lesson:

I tried not to cry. I was overwhelmed with joy as I rushed back into the room to congratulate my son. He was beaming. He was being mobbed by fellow participants and parents, and classmates and judges all congratulating him. I stood and watched this little guy of mine. I tried not to cry. After the crowd dissipated and there were only a few people left in the room, I went up to the head judge and organizer of the event and thanked her for coordinating such a great experience for the kids. She smiled at me and said "It was completely unanimous, every single judge, there was no doubt." Gulp. I was no longer able to hold back the tears, my eyes welled up and I quickly fussed with Benjamin in the stroller so not to look like the blubbering mom. A mother can only take so much!