Curiosity

I was recently exposed to a new children's author, Oliver Jeffers. The boys and I have really enjoyed reading his books together. I enjoy his stories and art. I came across an interview he did and found this quote interesting:

Telling Stories and Asking Questions by Oliver Jeffers, published on 11/9/2013 HuffingtonPost
"I'm a curious person. I grew up that way. An important lesson my dad taught me was that the surest sign of intelligence in an individual, is curiosity, and that 'why' is the most important word in the English language."

Before we were married, I used to think that I was a smart girl, because I did well in school. (On the flip side, Brett didn't make straight A's--you can guess what I thought about his intelligence.) The longer I am married to Brett the more I am impressed with him, and the more I realize how very wrong I was. I regularly reflect on my husband's intelligence and his ability to do anything he set his mind to (except maybe sing...).

I think it all goes back to curiosity. I see how my husband is wired to wonder how things work. Then he figures it out and applies his knowledge. His hobbies are quite varied and self-taught.

It thrills me to see a little of this same curiosity in my son, Ryan. His hands are always busy, and he asks a lot of "why" questions, which I often deflect to my husband. Unfortunately, his schoolwork also resembles his dad's. I am afraid it will require great patience on my part dealing with his approach to school and homework. I hope that I can keep in mind the great things his father has done and look forward to what Ryan has to offer.

(Don't worry, Todd. You and I are both smart in our own ways, even if we don't have that natural curiosity.)

For Brett From Home (5/30/12)

I never put up the hummingbird feeder. In fact, I never refilled any of the feeders. I think I didn't want to get their hopes up only to disappoint them when I leave. (Good excuse, no?) I think it's cool that the wrens nested in our garage twice this year. I think there were three babies this time. They left the nest last Thursday, and on Friday there was still one left in the garage. It looked like Momma wren was still coming in and feeding the bird, but the baby couldn't figure its way out. I figured I would let them work it out on their own, but when the baby still hadn't left the garage on Saturday I finally opened the back door a crack. It didn't take long before the baby was outside. I heard the birds chirping around the yard for the rest of the weekend, but I haven't seen them since. I have seen a Rufous-Sided Towhee hopping around the back yard a few times. I think the coloring on those birds is quite striking, so I have been excited to see it so often. It's been a few years. [Apparently the bird formerly known as the rufous-sided towhee is now the Eastern Towhee. Thank you, Wikipedia.]

I am looking forward to seeing my family soon. As always I panicked before purchasing the plane ticket. It is so expensive to travel. Even though I knew that there was no way around it--it was going to cost what it was going to cost--I wished that you were here that night to encourage me to go ahead and press "Purchase Ticket." It was after 10:00pm and there was no one that I could call to calm me. Even if you were home you would probably have been asleep; I would have woken you up to ask you if I should go ahead and purchase the tickets; and you would have been a little annoyed with me. I always freak out with big expenses. But, I really feel like it is worth the expense to spend this time with my family, to meet my brother's bride and see him get married, and to see you as well.

I started going through the book about New England that I picked up from the used book store. As I looked through it, I decided that I am going to encourage my boys to do a little extra study to go along with our excursions. I started compiling a reading list for them including some books by local authors as well as the history behind some of the places we will be visiting. I plan on doing this for both Utah and New England. Todd's teacher just told him today that she expects her students to read 33 hours over the summer. That averages to about 3 hours a week. We are hoping that he has the same teacher for next year, and I would love for him to be able to report back that he continued to read. I also think it will be good for Ryan to have a reading goal this summer.

I have big plans to keep Todd busy learning this summer. I think I already told you that his teacher wants to work with him via e-mail and online to get ahead on the fourth grade math and hopefully finish the book this summer. And I would like to pick up where we left off on some piano lessons. Lofty goals we have.

I am looking forward to having a girls night out (just dinner at this point) with Jen, Donna, and Anne, for my birthday Friday night. I drove by Coach-N-Four earlier this month. It made me miss you and the birthday dinner you might have treated me to. Actually, I really enjoyed my birthday dinner at the Boathouse last year. That was a lovely evening.

I love that I have been able to talk and hang out with Jen more. I really enjoy having her live close. Jen took me and the boys out for a Mother's Day (Eve) movie. ["Chimpanzee" was a great choice for our diverse group--young, oldish, male, female.] It meant so much to hear Jen tell me that I was one of her favorite mothers. It literally brought tears to my ears to feel her sincerity when she said that.(Especially after a tough week when I felt like my new neighbors maybe didn't respect my parenting much. What do they know, anyway?)

I feel like my brain has been a little fried lately. I have not done nearly as well keeping up with my updates as I would like. But I think about you all the time. I get excited to share your story with people who ask about you. I really am so proud of you and what you are accomplishing. Sometimes I probably gush too much, but I can't help it. You are very cool, and I have enjoyed following you on this adventure.

For Brett, From Becca (5/4/12)

This week has flown by for me. We continue our day-to-day routine. This week has been busy with field day activities for the boys. Todd was able to participate on two different days: once for third grade and once for fourth grade. Both boys participated individually in the hurdles. Todd got first place in the Third Grade boys race and Ryan got second place in the First Grade boys race. All of the classes were very competitive when it came to the Tug-of-War. That is my favorite event to watch. The three-legged race has always been favorite event to participate in, and I was pleased that both of the boys let me race with them during the parent participation portion of field day. I would even say that we did a pretty great job (except when Todd paused to say to hi to his spectator brother and friends when we were turning back around).

Ryan begged me to check him out of school after field day today. Many parents check their kids out. About half his class was gone. But I had things that I wanted to do at home. And I honestly think those low-work days when half the class is gone are some of the best. Ryan came home off the bus so cheerful and happy. He clearly had fun this afternoon. It made me feel good to hear him say, "Thanks for not checking me out from school." They celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some snacks and got to watch a movie. I am sure he wouldn't have had so much fun at home.

I enjoyed meeting with Todd's teacher about completing the Fourth Grade math book this summer. It may mean more work for me keeping up with his assignments and tests and encouraging him to continue to make progress. But what else will I be doing? I am also going to try to keep the boys reading this summer. They usually do a good job, but being away from home we will have to make a point to plan reading time into our activities. Vacations are great, but I don't want them to regress too much. And it would be great if they could advance even a little.

I finally had to turn on the air conditioner this week. I held off for as long as I could. There are some times of day when it's not so bad, but it's getting humid also. Today was especially humid. The sun wasn't so strong during Ryan's field day, but it was so humid that I still felt like I was melting.

We had a bit of a downpour last night. I had already been thinking it was time to check the gutters again, and last night confirmed it. Actually, last night I realized that I should have checked the gutters last week. I will work on cleaning them out this weekend. It will be a new experience for me.
Besides being here to clean out gutters and do all the rest of the outdoor maintenance, I also miss being able to call on you to be my bug killer. I had to kill a cockroach last week in the bathroom. I'm sure it would have been very funny to any onlookers. Although, if there were anyone around watching (and laughing) I am sure I would have enlisted their help.

The sago palm is starting to look kind of freaky in an almost obscene way. I'll post a picture later. I'm sorry if you are disappointed about it splitting.

Yesterday the boys and I finally reached our goal of reading scriptures 20 days in a row (110 days this year). We almost didn't make it a couple of times, but we were determined to succeed. We've only reached 20 days in a row once before. We reached our 10 days in a row goal twice before, and I rewarded the boys with a Dairy Queen trip. This time I told the boys they had to reach 20 days before they could earn their DQ trip. If we make it to 25 days in a row they will earn a movie night. On our way for ice cream yesterday I remembered the new frozen yogurt store, Top This. The boys were excited about trying it. It was not as "heavy" as DQ and the boys got to pick out their own toppings. It totally hit the spot.

I made some lentil soup this week. It was so delicious. Ryan loved it too. I will definitely be making it again. Do you think you would eat it? I also made kale chips. They kind of taste like a broccoli, but are light and crispy and almost disintegrate in your mouth. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

Copper ran off on me again this morning even though he got a nice golf course run last night. This is the first time he has run off when I let him out for his morning pee before school. He didn't even wait for us to take him to the bus. I was scrambling to get the boys ready for school and I was trying to get myself ready to attend field day. I couldn't start looking for him until after I got the boys on the bus. I drove around the usual streets with no luck. I asked Mark if he could keep an eye out for Copper while I was at field day, but I decided to stop by the house again. I was just in time to receive a phone call from a woman on Kildare who found him. I don't know what he was doing over there or what prompted him to leave this morning.

I picked up a German book from Goodwill about two weeks ago. I've been flipping through it from time to time. I would love to be able to teach myself enough German to be able to get by on my next trip (2013??).

I'm happy to hear that you seem to be doing a little better on the trail. I really don't want you to give up. I think it you can just get through Virginia it will be a little easier. I'm so proud of you!

Thrice

Some months back, Todd discovered the word "thrice". I explained what it meant, and we enjoyed talking about it--"once, twice, thrice." It really is a handy word, and Todd now puts it to use quite often.

For example, this morning we were talking about a book Todd got for Christmas. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Todd told me that it was a pretty easy book to read, and he had already read it at least twice or thrice.

His use of this word made me both excited for him that he has been able to make it an active part of his vocabulary and sad for him when he eventually discovers that nobody uses the word "thrice" anymore. And why don't we? What a shame that we reject perfectly good words such as "thrice" lest we sound snooty.

[It makes me curious. Do you ever use the word "thrice"? What words do you wish were more often used in the modern English language? And why do you think they have fallen out of favor?]

The Novelist

I love this new stage that Todd has entered. I refer to the writing stage. These misspelled, hard-to-read notes are so full of personality. Todd wrote his first "story" on a quiet Sunday afternoon, about three weeks ago. Three pages is pretty good for his first effort at writing stories. It was such a nice surprise. I love that writing this story kept Todd entertained for over an hour. I love that Todd illustrated his work. I loved seeing how proud Todd was of his accomplishment. And I love the punchline at the end. It had me laughing. It still makes me laugh every time I read it.
I hope you, too, can feel the love as you read his story.

[The orange highlighter marks are from Kellie. Todd asked her to check his mistakes, but I stopped her before she got too far.] I'll write the translation under each picture.

Once upon a time I went to school and made a lot of art. I made pictures, a lot of things. And I kept all the art. I love my art. I love my art so much. I want to keep all the art. I like all of the art. I will keep all of the art. I like all of the art. I like the art so, so bad. I want to make more. Some of them will be books.

I went on the bus, and my art was in the back. I was so happy because my stop was the first stop. I had a lot of art. We stopped. I went off the bus.

When I got home I looked at my art. My art was so cool. Mom hugged me. My art was so cool. It was very cool. Mom loved it so so much and loved the art so much that Mom forgot to make dinner. The end.

The funny thing is, I broke out laughing after reading the last sentence. Todd laughed with me for a minute, then turned serious. "But Mom, that's really happened before, hasn't it?" More laughter on my part.
[In my defense, I may have lost track of time and had to throw together a quick dinner before. But I've never "forgotten" dinner. It's still interesting to see things for a child's point of view.]

Before writing stories Todd would often make lists--mostly lists of things to do or activities for the day. Now Todd has moved on to writing notices. The following notice was placed by a plastic container which held a baby frog the boys brought back from Oma's house. We were getting ready to leave the house for a little while and Todd left this message.

[On the back side of the paper it read, "Dad, Mom, Todd, Ryan"]

Please do not take our pet. You can look at the pet. It is a frog.
I don't know why this is so funny to me, but it is.

Update on the pet frog: The boys tried feeding the frog a little spider and a "red-bellied bug". The next morning I was able to convince the boys that the baby frog was probably better off living outside on its own than in the little container in our house. They agreed and released the frog. But they can't wait to get a bigger frog that they are able to keep.

Since Todd has shown a greater interest in writing I had him make a list of things he liked about his teacher and his first year of school on a card for his teacher. The class put together a nice group gift, which we contributed to, but I also wanted a little something extra from us. This is what I came up with.

Here, Mrs. B looks at the scrapbook one of the moms put together as part of the group gift.

Mrs. B put on a little closing ceremony for her class. She gave each child a special award ribbon, as well as a certificate predicting what they might be when they grow up.
Todd's ribbon award was for Best Boy Reader. However, I was surprised by her career prediction, "Novelist". Although I just got done singing Todd's praises as a writer, I recognize that a certain amount of creativity is required for successful writing. Perhaps that will come with age. Mrs. B said that Todd has a love for words. He tries very hard to use words appropriately-to use just the right word for something. And she said that he had a large vocabulary. Way to go, Todd!

After his teacher gave each child their ribbon and certificate, she also gave them a bright pink lipstick kiss on their cheek. Most of the kids thought this funny, but Todd was a little embarrassed. He was okay with receiving his kiss along with the rest of the class, but he wouldn't let me take a photo of it and tried to wipe it off right away.

It's hard to believe that the year is over already. Todd had a great time this year, and Ryan and I enjoyed being able to participate in so many activities with his class this year, especially when it involved yummy treats like ice cream sundaes.

It was nice being able to get to know the other kids in the class. I liked hearing the kids greeting me as "Todd's Mom" or "Todd and Ryan's Mom." I'm looking forward to meeting Todd's first grade teacher and the kids in his class.

But I think I will enjoy the time I have with my two boys this summer first.

J is for Jellybean

This week was my second chance to teach preschool. As I mentioned earlier, I am part of a preschool co-op with five other moms from church. Our kids range in age from a little over two-and-a-half years to four years old (Ryan is the oldest and the only four-year-old). Each Monday we take turns teaching the six children from 8:45am to 11:00am. Which means that for five weeks in a row I have two hours to myself, which I have to chosen to spend volunteering in the library at Todd's elementary school. [Today one child was sick, leaving me with only five to teach.]

This week went more smoothly than my first week. I just knew what to expect a little more. I also planned on things for them to do during the transition times. My first time around I moved the kids as a group from activity to activity. That was a little troublesome because some of them finished more quickly than others. It was also difficult when I needed to help out in the bathroom washing hands, etc. By having activities for them to work on between activities, they were more productive and were not running around getting a little crazy.

I understand the need for flexibility, especially if the kids are having a hard time focusing on an activity and you need to deviate from your schedule to keep everyone happy. However, I was able to follow the outline pretty well without it feeling too forced. The schedule helps me to budget my time and I was able to accomplish most everything I wanted.


[Click on the photo for a larger version if you have trouble reading the text.]


The activities in the parentheses are the suggest activities for each time slot.
8:45-9:00am Circle Time (Free Talk, Game, and the Pledge)
I welcomed everyone and had the kids sit on their carpet squares in a semi-circle. We did the Pledge.
We looked at our calendar and the kids took turns adding numbered leaves to the calendar since the last preschool day (good practice counting). We briefly reviewed what month this was and the days of the week.
We looked at our circle weather chart. The kids were a little bothered and had a hard time agreeing where the pointers should be. In the end, we agreed that there should be three points rather than two. The weather was sunny, windy, and cold.

9:00-9:15am Intro to Lesson (Letter and Word of the Day)
I spent a little more time on the this section. We started by putting together part of a floor puzzle. The puzzle was an Alphabet Train. I put down the engine piece then gave the kids the letter puzzle pieces to build our train until we reached today's letter, "J". Then we said the names of the letter all together, after which we sang the entire alphabet song.

I read a Sesame Street poem called, "The Jolly Juggler", then gave each child a scarf for them to "juggle" with. None of us was very good (I demonstrated juggling with two scarves-not that impressive to anyone older than three or four), but we all had fun trying.

To continue with the J-theme, I said another little poem as seen on the No Time For Flashcards blog. I changed the colors around, based on what I had available (i.e. no purple), and added a verse so that each child could take home a jellybean.

6 little jelly beans,

that I want to try, [or "that we want to try"]

I'll eat the yellow one,

now there are five!

I did the poem once, and the kids loved it when I gobbled the jellybeans. They asked for an encore. The second time around I substituted their name as I handed them the jellybean and they pretended to gobble it up. Very cute.
Now that we had introduced the letter of the day, it was time to introduce our lesson: shapes and sizes. I focused mostly on shapes. We quickly reviewed our simple shapes. I handed each child a shaped block which they identified and put into a simple shape sorter.

Our next activity was to build a house with shapes (inspiration from here and here). I had cut shapes of different colors which I had taped to the back of my dry-erase board. On the front of the board I had drawn a house, tree, and sun, tracing the shapes I had already cut. I did not let the kids see the front of the board until we were ready to match the colored paper shapes to the picture on the board. First, I picked a paper shape and started singing a song (also seen on No Time for Flashcards). I never got past the second line of the song before the kids had enthusiastically called out the name of the shape. Then I handed the shape to a child. After we had identified all the shapes and each child was holding a paper shape, I turned the board over and they took turns matching their shape to the picture. [I was so bummed that I forgot to sing the Herman the Worm song. I thought it was really cute.]

9:15-9:40am Art (Project or coloring sheets)

Because I spent more time on the lesson portion, I probably only spent 15 minutes on art. We made shape pizzas. I had prepared all the pieces for the kids and just let them identify the shapes and glue them on themselves with Q-tips and glue in a cup. This is what we used to assemble our pizzas.

pizza dough - cream circle

pizza sauce - wavy red circle

pepperoni - jaggedy brown circle

ham - pink squares

green peppers - green rectangles

onions - white squares

pineapple - yellow triangles

cheese - orange rectangles [I messed up with this one. I was thinking: a) We already have a yellow topping; besides, I like cheddar on my pizza. b) covering the pizza with tiny pieces of cheese is going to be a pain; why don't I just make long, thin rectangles? The result was that my cheese ended up looking like carrot sticks! I should have done some smaller yellow rectangles or just let them color their own cheese on before gluing on the toppings. Live and learn.]

I was so impressed that that two of the younger students (in the left photo) were able to do their pizzas completely independently. Even my two older students, my son included (in the right photo), needed a little assistance with the gluing. I was very pleased with the end result of this activity, and the kids seemed to enjoy making pizzas. [Ryan even asked me today when he'd be able to eat his pizza. Ha, ha, ha.]

As the kids took turns washing their gluey-sticky hands, those who were finished played with the alphabet magnets (thank goodness for transition activities in the circle time area!).

9:40-10:00am Story Time
Before beginning story time I took out my Oreo Matchin' Middles game. I let the kids take turns pulling out a cookie, opening it, and naming the shape.

Some books I read for story time included The Biggest Snowball of All, My "j" Book, I'm the Biggest in the Ocean (a big hit), Big and Bird's Big and Little Book (I kept this book from my childhood--it is one that I loved and the kids loved it, too). We also looked at a couple of poems and shapes pictures from some of my Wild Animal Baby magazines.

10:00-10:15am Snack
After story time I started to tell the kids that we were going back into the kitchen for writing. They wasted no time in correcting me. They are evidently familiar enough with our preschool schedule, though it varies a little from teacher to teacher, to know that snack time comes after story time and before writing!

In addition to drinking juice (which starts with the letter "J"), these are the shapes we ate:

circle - peanut butter sandwiches cut out with a small biscuit cutter

circle - pepperoni

rectangle - Club cracker

oval - raisins

triangle - cheddar cheese (I sliced and cut)

square - Alpha Bits cookies (bonus - reinforce letter recognition!)

10:15am-10:30am Writing (Letter of the Day and Name)
I had printed out some worksheets for the kids to practice tracing the letter "J" or they could just work on coloring the picture. I had used a fluorescent market to write their name on the top--"ghost writing"--for them to trace. I found writing time an activity where some kids (the younger ones) were definitely done before others.

Below you see Charity saying hello to Copper under the baby gate before she made her way to the circle time for some transition activities. I love this intense look on Mason's face as he colors.

Don't let her baby face fool you. Amber was a pro at identifying her shapes. Charity found a heart.

Ryan and Claire are still hard at work on their coloring/writing pages.

10:30-10:45 Music and Games

Our preschool group is planning on singing at a nursing home in December, so we spent most of our time reviewing some Christmas songs that we will be singing to the residents, especially "Away in a Manger", "Jingle Bells", "Christmas Bells Are Ringing". The kids will also be reviewing a few more at home with their families.

10:45-11:00am Free Play

The moment they have been waiting for. Charity saw these animals last time, and couldn't wait to spend more time playing with them this week.

Whew! I didn't mean for this post to go on forever. I'm excited about being able to put together ideas for these preschool lesson plans. I was intimidated at first, but I am really looking forward to teaching again in January. (Read: you don't have to hear about my minute-by-minute account again until then).

A Note To Todd

I am so proud of Todd for the progress that he has made with his reading. I am amazed at how quickly his reading has improved. The first book that he "read" required a bit of help from me. Now, he can successful read books at his level without much assistance.

This weekend provided me with an opportunity to write a real note to Todd that he would be able to read independently. As I look at it now, it seems awfully harsh for my first handwritten note to my child. The circumstances were this: Brett had been working long days this past week and took the day off on Friday to go fishing. Because he had been working late on Thursday, he was not able to go bed early before the fishing trip. He came home on Friday night after the boys were in bed . . . exhausted.

He made a teasing comment along the lines of, "I have a feeling I'll be yelling at the boys in the morning." Meaning, he knew that the boys would wake up early in the morning and want to come into Mom and Dad's room to talk to us, to play, to tell Dad who was the "early-bird", or for some other reason and Brett would still want to be sleeping. I knew that I also wanted to sleep in longer than the boys, so the idea came to me to write a note. I was trying to write the sentences easy enough for Todd to read. I was so excited about the thought of him reading and understanding the note that I kept on going with my "Do not's".

I taped it to the bedroom door at just the right height and went to bed. The note ended up being unnecessary for Brett. He wasn't able to sleep in past 7:00am. Too many 5:00am mornings for him. 7:00 is sleeping in! Todd still read it, and I think that Brett encouraged him to follow the advice on the note for Mom's benefit (who was trying hard to sleep in until 8:00am, but who gave up and got out of bed at 7:45am--an hour past my usual wake-up time).

I passed Todd in the hallway on my way to the kitchen and he informed me that he only opened the door to put his pajamas into the hamper (legitimate reason). I asked him if he had read and understood the note. He replied that he had and then read the whole thing to me. I was so proud of him.

He was so proud of himself that he peeled the note off of our bedroom door and taped it to his own.

Homework, Cooler Weather, and Competition

Homework
This is the follow up to Todd's sick day post. Todd ended up being out of school for three days. I had hoped that he would be well enough to go to school on Friday, but he was up most of the night (Thursday night) coughing. When he went to school on Monday I sent a note to the teacher explaining his absences and said to feel free to send home any work she wanted me to go over with Todd at home. We spent all of Monday afternoon and early evening finishing his "homework." It was all easy stuff, and Todd was a great sport about it. If anything, it was more one-on-one time than he usually gets with me in the evening. However, I am not looking forward to when homework becomes a daily chore.

Sometimes Todd still doesn't seem like his body has fully recuperated. Not that he has a temperature or a constant cough and runny nose. He just seems to get tired out more easily in the evenings. Tonight he had to be sent to his room for a little quiet time. I can see it, but he doesn't recognize that his body is still a little worn down.

I am still having him take his breathing treatments twice a day until I am sure that he is back to normal. He has been protesting the medicine the last two days, because he doesn't consider himself sick. I am hoping that this doesn't become a battle this winter when he needs to take his breathing medicine every day to treat his "asthma-like symptoms". A summer with no problems has made him forget that sometimes we use the medicine to assist in treating a cold, but we also use it at times (colder winter weather) to help prevent the coughing fits he is prone to when he is off the medicine. This all still feels new to me as I adjust to caring for someone who needs regular treatment for a (comparatively very minor--thank goodness) chronic health concern.

Cooler Weather
I was so excited this week when I was able to open the sliding glass doors for the first time since Spring. We set up Play-Do on the craft table in the screened porch for Ryan. No more reminding, "Shut the door!" I enjoyed some time finishing my book outside and playing basketball with Ryan. And yesterday we had an absolutely lovely day at the park with our church playgroup friends.



Competition
One reason (among many) why I find it harder to spend much time on the computer these days: as soon as I sit down during the day at the computer one or two little boys will immediately ask, "Can I play on the computer?" They have become quite adept at controlling the mouse and figuring out how to play the activities on their favorite web sites (Thomas and Playhouse Disney). They do a pretty good job taking turns when I use the timer, but I still need to monitor them closely so they don't get glued to the screen. I am looking forward to having a system at home where they will be able to earn the privilege to play on the computer for a set amount of time according to the chores they have completed. Coming soon!

Poetry and Comparisons

I know it's not good to compare ourselves with others, but sometimes I can't help it. I think we're all guilty of it at times. I don't try to compare myself with others to prove my superiority over others or to be judgemental. Nor do I compare myself with others to the detriment of my own self-esteem. In fact, sometimes when I compare myself with others I see ways that I can improve and am encouraged by those I admire--or rather by those whose qualities I admire.

This is true as I read about mothers who do a great job of making a happy home life for their families and who are creative and artistic in the process.

One such mother is Stephanie Nielson, a mother whose blog I started following a few months ago. She was in a plane crash about a month ago, along with her husband, and suffered serious injuries. I miss reading her posts, but have been uplifted and amazed at how many people she influenced for good. Her sister has been helping to take care of Stephanie's children and has been a great example through her blog as well. Both of these women seem to make a point to make good things happen for their children.

We had a nice day at home. All were generally happy. No one had a time out today. The children were fed and bathed. The boys have plenty of toys to play with and plenty of space to play in, and they seemed to enjoy playing to their fullest today. But aside from letting them help me fill up the birdfeeders and bringing the Fisher Price Little People Noah's Ark and school bus down from the attic, what did I do to make it a special day? . . . Nothing. With the exception of our 10-minute scripture time this morning, I didn't even read to them! I wish that I had that knack of taking a few minutes out of my chores-and-to-do-list time to focus on doing something with them. I know that it doesn't take much, and the more I read about what things others are able to do, the more I am encouraged that I should be doing the same.

On the other hand, I watched Nanny 911 for the first time today. My sister-in-law is gone for the night and asked me to come by to take care of Dixie. I thought I would enjoy a few minutes to myself flipping channels and got stuck watching. So, even though I had Brett finish up with the last 10-minutes of the bedtime routine tonight because I was kind of worn out [read: didn't even kiss my kids goodnight(!)], after watching the two families featured on the Nanny 911 show I was feeling like the Best Mom in Town!
Note: I'm not anxious to watch the show again. Yikes! I actually found it kind of depressing and very frustrating at the same time. And, rest assured, I will be stopping by the boys' rooms on my way to bed (as I always do) to give them their goodnight kisses.

Finals results after comparing myself to others: I may not be Stephanie Nielson, but I think I'm doing a pretty good job in the long run.

And speaking of being creative, this almost sounded like poetry (albeit depressing poetry) when it left my lips this afternoon as I hand-picked clumps of hair off the carpet. Be sure to compare this with the poetry of a two-year old rather than that of someone who actually has talent.

Dog hair
Dog hair
Dog hair
I'm so sick of it!