The dance show, Mother's Day, an eclipse and life in the '40's

Well, here they are after this year's dance show. Love this one of them sitting in the theatre seats. 

If you're interested in the inside track on their costumes:  Anna has a sock on the top of her head creating the magnificent fullness in her princess bun. She needed to be fully princess looking for "Someday My Prince Will Come." The sunglasses on Sarah's headband are stitched on so they wouldn't fall off during "California Girls." Elise's crown braid was a Lauren creation. It survived both Elise's "Rapunzel" ballet dance and her "Skater Boy" tap. 

It is not easy to achieve these looks. I will admit only in the private pages of this blog that I checked them all out of school early to make the 5:00 show time. It's always a little sad to me that once we leave the auditorium, the costumes become a part of the dress up box. A symbol of another year's passing.  

Scott was sweet to take this photo of us after church on Mother's Day. The flowers in the pot were part of a myriad of wonderful gifts from the girls--homemade jam, a poem, a treasure box, a bookmark, a notebook. If you look carefully on my wrist is a new bracelet Anna beaded herself at preschool. 

I am grateful to be a mom. Grateful also for my mom. Feeling a wave of sadness thinking of the moms and grandmas that aren't with us anymore. 

Tonight we had an awesome view of the solar eclipse through Grandma's solar glasses. An example of the need to be prepared! Without them, the sun would have seemed nothing but a white light. With the glasses, we were able to watch the moon slowly slide over our view of the sun. It was a lot of fun. The girls mourned a little bit that we weren't in Cedar City for the best view, but we made a memory passing the glasses around the driveway together.


I don't often put pictures of "just me" on the blog. But here I am at my family birthday dinner tonight. Right now, I am days away from being 41. I have a blog post titled, "My last week in the '30's" that I halfway wrote one year ago but couldn't finish. So now that I've had a year of the '40's, I wonder if I'll be able to find words for a different post--maybe "It's not so bad on the other side" or "What I know now that I'm 40" or something. Not sure I can write it.

The thing about 40 is inside you still feel at least 25 and when you remember, "Wait, no. I'm 40" you wonder if you shouldn't know more or have read more or at the least be caught up in the laundry. I have to admit the '20's and '30's went by pretty quickly. Will the next decades do the same? I am always a little intrigued and haunted by the scripture in Jacob that says, "Our lives passed away with us as if it were a dream." I don't think he means he had a dream-life-- they are a "lonesome" wandering people. I think he means something about how quickly time passes by. It's the dream feeling of one day rolling into the next until suddenly you are in your '40's.

I was in charge of the funeral ham for Relief Society last month. Part of me felt too young for such a task and the other part of me was thinking, "Come on. You're 40 years old. You should know how to do things like this by now." My go to, however, was brilliant: call Mom and ask for help. It's a strategy I learned a very long time before I turned 40. 

   

Music Practice

My five year old started violin lessons last summer.  This means I started violin lessons too.  This also means that, on good days and bad days, we both have to practice.  Any  resources we can find to keep music practice fun (especially for the bad days) is  good for both of us.  Here are a few ideas that have worked for us and a few more I am anxious to try...Read it HERE.

Week In Review--with a few perspectives

Old Maid Time

By: Anna

 It was just about time for me to go home from Grandma's when we started playing Old Maid. Mom took the picture. I didn't want to go home. Grandma ended up losing because Grandpa tricked her. Grandpa and I won in the end.
THE END.

These are Sarah's own "Rules of Chivalry." We read Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funk as our last book club book of the year. I loved the book, loved sharing all the books this year with Sarah, and loved the rules she wrote. Sometimes I get so serious I forget the last rule--most of all have fun. This never seems to be a hard one for the girls to remember.

When the girls call, "Come quick! It's a snake!" in the middle of Sunday dinner, you have to come quick and bring your cell phone just in case you can take a picture. Notice how their mouths are open. If this picture had sound, you could hear the continuous shrieks during this episode.

This is me (Elise). I did my country report on China, because of my uncle and aunt that are living there. After raiding my uncle's old room (sorry Kiki) I had pretty cool stuff for my display. I ended up being one of the more popular countries, which was.... not boring. I'm not wearing it in this picture, but for part of my display (sort of) my friend let me wear his panda bear hat. Everyone loved it, 'cause who doesn't love pandas? I honestly don't know. If you do, please tell me. I have an angry mob on hand for any panda haters you may be acquainted with.

I took this picture of Lauren and Elises' Books of Mormon they made in Young Women's. They had a challenge to read them by April 23rd and underline every reference to Jesus Christ that they found along the way. Those that completed the challenge showed up at their President's house that night for a special dinner. They worked pretty steady on the goal, but it was a short time period and they had to scramble a bit at the end. Elise read all day in school on the 23rd to finish in time. When I asked her how she did it without getting in trouble, she replied, "I did it with stealth." I don't know if I have ever used that word in a sentence before. Lauren also read constantly on the 23rd and a long time after finishing just before the 6:30 dinner deadline. I have a Book of Mormon that my bishop gave to me the day I was baptized. It an old faded copy with the angel Moroni on the cover and has my bishop's testimony written in blue ink inside. It is the first Book of Mormon I ever read and is dear to me. I hope that these copies of the Book of Mormon, with their highlights of the Savior inside and the memories associated with this challenge are always dear to the girls.

Poetic Justice

This week we had some happy celebrations.
Lauren received her award of merit from the State Reflections contest for her movie on Diversity. She felt a little under-dressed in jeans at the ceremony when lots of girls had formal dresses on. We told her that she looked like a hip film director. That's what director's do--just make their own rules. Here is a link to her Diversity Means movie. She and a group of boys took home awards. Not a lot of female film makers out there. That's kind of cool too.
Here is Sarah performing Pachabel's Cannon at the 4th grade talent show. What was once painfully impossible is now a piece of cake. Though it is hard to detect in this photo, somewhere inside of her she is probably also thinking about her next soccer game. So far this season they are undefeated. Sarah plays goalie for half of each game. We now have a big blue sport umbrella to guard us from rain or too much sun at her games. We are so set.

Elise won 2nd place for middle grades in the Utah State Poetry Society contest. Since April IS National Poetry Month, the award presentation was an awesome way to spend a Saturday. There were professional poetry readers there who read each winning poem with such passion. During the reading, the poet would stand in front and either smile, stare with intensity or look away a little embarrassed. The audience was enraptured and would make gentle ahh's and applaud in the right places. I nearly cried every time. Here is Elise's:

Pockets

Life is made of moments.

Moments that pass, all too fast.

we need to hold on,

Hold on to our moments.

Because bridges burn,

and ages turn, all too fast.

Hold on to your moments,

Put them in your pockets

and never let them go.

Keep the bad, because they hold Lessons.

Treasure the good, because they hold

Joy.

Remember the silly, because they hold

Smiles.

Don't forget the extraordinary, because they hold Wonder.

Hold on to your moments,

Stuff them in your pockets,

and hope they

don't have

Holes.

Well here is Anna eating tomatoes with lemon pepper. It is her favorite lunch. She didn't have any awards or big performances, just lots of violin practicing and play dates. She finally memorized "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and at one point told me she needed a "break of friends."

She also looked in the mirror while I was doing her hair this week and proclaimed, "Well, life's a mystery." There's must be a poem brewing in her soul somewhere with a thought like that. Maybe I can ask the Utah Poetry Society to add a preschool division.

Mother's Day Gift Ideas for ME

I have a hard time buying things for myself. In the rush of motherhood, I pass by things all of the time I would like, but decide I don’t necessarilyneed.

But Mothers Day wish lists can be vital if you don’t want to end up with a blow up foot bath or fruit dehydrator (if you’ve seen that episode of The Middle you know what I’m talking about.) To make things easier on myself and my family, I am being assertive. Here are some Mothers Day gift ideas I don’t need (but really want) for Mothers Day . . . UTAH MAMA.

Family Home Evening links

We (heart) this song from the end of a Veggies Tales spoof of "It's a Wonderful Life": Meant to Be

We (heart) this awesome video from 1977: Powers of Ten

We (heart) President Uchtdorf's talk from 2011 October Conference: You Matter to Him

Family Home Evening was pretty technology heavy tonight, but we used these three links for our lesson. Lauren is a whiz at hooking up the laptop to our theatre room TV, so the visual aides were really big. The main thought for the lesson was--yes we are nothing compared to this massive universe, yet we are everything to our Heavenly Father.

"Powers of Ten" does an awesome job reminding us of how tiny we are. "Meant to Be" affirms that there is a plan for us. President Uchtdorf's talk says everything perfectly. I hope if there are any challenges or heart breaks in our near future, that this message will take hold in their hearts. They listened (mainly.) Anna kept trying to do Lauren's hair and asking repeatedly about dessert. At the end, everyone wrote in their journals about how they feel knowing they are a child of God. Anna was the first to finish. Elise's ice cream had melted by the time she finished. Apparently, there was a lot to say.

Easter Photo Shoot

Credit for anything other than the regular "pose and shoot" photos go to Elise. Thanks Lise for sharing your cool camera and photographer's eye!

Lots of perspectives on Spring Break

Good Friends by Sarah

When we were in St.George for Spring Break so were the Mills so we invited them to play. We played in the castle room for a while. Then had an amazing time playing Marco Polo in the swimming pool. Then we played that Anna and Emily were very poor and lived out side in the court yard. And Hailey and I were very very rich and lived in the house. Then we became friends and took them to the sand dunes and played there for a while. I will never forget the time the Mills came over in St.George!

The Friends by Anna

Once upon a time there was friends. We were in St. George at the sand dunes. And we loved the sand dunes. We mostly played running down the hills and being dead. Emily is my favorite friend. She always comes anytime she is in St. George and we are in St. George. THE END

My mom and dad by Anna

My mom and dad are the best in the whole world. We are at a hike in St. George. We went to Dixie Rock. When you get there there is whole sign that says "Dixie" and when you stand there you can see the whole city. It is pretty. St.George is fun because there is lots of hikes, a swimming pool and it is part of the desert. The cool thing about the house we stay in there is a castle room and there is a bed with the castle on top and the dungeon at the bottom and I sleep at the top and Sarah sleeps in the dungeon.

City Creek by Anna

I am at City Creek by Blue Lemon. These fountains are filled with water. I am touching them so I can splash it on Lisey. She took the picture. City Creek is just a creek that is very pretty. My dad said he could see some little fishies in it by they are camouflaged so you can't really see it. There are stores all around and one of them is my favorite and it is called the Disney store. When you come in the guy calls you a princess and tells you to walk right into the castle. There is Disney stuff all around. Even there is the Muppets. You should go to City Creek sometime. If you have little kids, you should bring them to the Disney store.

Science Fair by Elise

We came back early from St. George so I could go to the state science fair. I only got one judge before lunch, which meant I spent the better part of an hour and a half not really reading the book I brought and trying to get my friends to text me. Things got better at lunch. I sat by some girls I had been sitting near during the first judging quarter, their names where Halle and Sara. After lunch we hung around each others projects and Sara kept trying to steal the candy Halle brought. I didn't take long for Sara to start to talk to the other two girls sitting on our row. We ended up playing card games together. We played a game called Double-O Seven and Popcorn (or B.S., but we called it popcorn). I got more judges, and won a bunch of Double-O Seven games (but not too many Popcorn games). Needless to say, after lunch was a lot more fun. Even so, I'm glad I went. It was a good experience.

Bike by Anna

The bike is cool. I am riding it right now. Sarah and Dad are helping me just to learn how to do it. There is so many good things about riding this bike. It has a horn. It's two wheeler. It's pink and purple my favorite color. It's almost like I'm living in heaven.

Flowers and Cousins by Anna

These are my cousins. The boy is Henry and the girl who is not looking at us is Elsa. This girl in the pink shirt is me Anna. By the way we are putting flowers in the bowl. It has water in the bowl so they can have a drink at all times. We are getting the flowers from my grandma's yard. She lives right next door but she died. She wouldn't mind. She loves us. I like spring because the weather is nice, you get to see the pretty flowers and all the beautiful things like pretty blossoms and leaves on the trees.

Indian Writing by Sarah

When you go to St.George there are so many wonderful hikes like the one in this picture. This one is the best because you can see Indian writing. It is so much fun to think of why they put these pictures and what story does it tell. If you had to draw a picture of your self what picture wold it be? So next time you go to St.George you should go on this hike and make up story's about the Indian writing.But most of all HAVE FUN!

This is Lauren singing a solo in the District Choir festival right before the break. We didn't know she had a choir festival until she came downstairs that morning wearing her choir uniform.

She is not taking choir in high school--which is strange for me and Scott because choir was such a huge part of our high school experience. But we are excited for all of the new things she will get to be a part of that Scott and I never did. Everyone tells me that Lauren is my twin.We might look alike, but Lauren is writing her own story. All of them are. This blog is a way to help me not to forget.

Incidentally, I was searching back for an old post I needed and re-read some of my earliest postings from 2008. Posts that I thought were sort of trivial at the time, like one about a just barely walking Anna carrying clothes around the house or a silly joke that Sarah liked to tell, are now cherished. My photo scrapbooks are great, but I am grateful for the words that blogging makes space for. Any record of the past only tells a hint of the story anyway and my memory is very imperfect. I try to keep records but hope that when the D&C talks about "all things being brought to our remembrance" that will also mean all my memories of raising my children. For now, this is the best I can do.