Future plans for being the coolest mom EVER!

Levi is right at the cusp of being able to play games and put together puzzles. It's been really fun working on those with him over the past month or so. Doing those things with him really makes me look forward to working on more complex puzzles and more interesting games as he, Cecil, and my future children get older.

I have visions of us being gathered around a card table working on a puzzle.

I see us playing Skip-bo, Phase 10, Uno, and Go Fish over and over again.

I'll teach them to love playing strategy games like Dominion, Settlers of Catan, and others.

We'll even get some sightseeing in--I think it would be really cool to line up a really nice weather day with a no test day in school, sign them out and go on a hike, have a picnic, or visit a museum. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Positive thoughts on a messy home

The other day as I finally started washing my dirty pots and pans, I thought about how nice it would be if I were better at staying on top of the dishes; it would be so nice if there were one or two--or fewer--dishes in the sink at a time.

Then I thought, "But wait--what am I doing with my time instead?"

Here are some things that I'm doing with my time instead of folding the laundry, washing the dishes, or cleaning the clutter off of the floor:

-take care of my children
-play with my children
-relax and recharge my emotional stamina for my day-to-day responsibilities
-spend time with my husband
-read for pleasure
-read for instruction
-socialize
-family history research
-make food for my family
-practice the piano for my church calling
-write about my experiences and thoughts on my blog

It's a pretty good list, and I'm sure there are more things on there that I didn't think of. I'm not certain how much less time I'd have to spend on those things if I kept my house company-ready at all times, but I know it would be significantly less, especially with the lovable chaotic force of a three-year-old in my home. Also, isn't it more efficient to get everything done at once?

Don't get me wrong--if the house is too bad, then it has an effect on me. Because of that, I'm kind of a minimalist when it comes to having "things." That way, there aren't as many things in my house to mess it up and there aren't as many things to clean up when that time comes.

Anyway, I think it's overall better to have a little bit of clutter, clothes in the dryer for days at a time, and partially unpacked boxes sitting around than to feel guilty about doing things that enrich your life.

So this weekend--don't clean your house! Go have an adventure instead. Give yourself one more hour of me- or family-time and take care of the cleaning later.

Summer boredom?

I don't ever remember being bored for an extended amount of time during my summer breaks from school, but I've heard it referenced as a common problem for parents and children, especially as I've been reading parenting books. I do remember my younger siblings being bored during their school breaks, however, at least at the beginning.

What was the difference between them and me? I don't think I was inherently less prone to boredom, I assure you! I think it was homeschool that did it for me.

I was homeschooled from 1st through 5th grades, so I spent a lot of time at home. I was used to being at home without very much structured time, and spent most of my free time either playing with my sisters or reading books. I was very rarely bored.

Even though we didn't have friends over very much, my siblings were always around and they were my favorite people to play with, anyway. I don't remember any instances where I wanted to play and I couldn't find someone else who was willing to do something with me, even though I'm guessing that sometimes I had to find something to do on my own. I did read a lot.

My theory is that my younger siblings--who were not homeschooled for most of elementary school--were bored because they were used to structured time and were not used to figuring out what to do with their own time. As the days went by after school let out, however, they gradually adjusted to the new schedule and entertained themselves just fine.

"And thus we see" that kids don't need structured time during the summer to avoid boredom. They need good playmates and they need skills that will allow them to entertain themselves when they can't find someone else to play with. 

The End!

Mountain Beauty

Austin and I went hiking on Saturday for a date. It was gorgeous, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I have been hankering after a good hike for ages.

I was surprised that I wasn't more out of breath, but after the initial "Whew! Austin, can we slow down?" I was fine. The trees are changing color, and they were breathtaking. I took a picture at what felt like every turn (but there were a lot more turns than I took pictures, so be glad I didn't actually take a picture at every turn!)

I love the rugged beauty shown in the above picture

Austin said he was making a face, but it's hard to tell. I love the yellow tree and the moss on the rock behind it.

I took this picture because there were some people ahead of us on the trail and Austin and I were waiting for them to pass. It helped that the tree was pretty, too.

I thought these trees were really interesting because their bark looks like a birch tree's, but these are evergreens. I'd never seen anything like it before.

Glorious!

This is the point on the trail where we decided to turn around. I wanted to keep going, but Austin had been bored and hungry for the last 10 minutes or so, so we decided to turn back.

I thought this outcropping of rock was especially neat.

Dry riverbed

Like I said, beauty.

Going down again

You can see Provo Lake there between the trees

I thought the way these trees were growing was really original of them, lol!

If you want to see bigger versions of the picture, just click on the one you want to see in greater detail, and it will give you an almost full-screen view of the lovely scenery.

Muggins with Grandma Kathleen

Grandma Kathleen is one of the sweetest women I've met. She is very soft spoken, but a great disciplinarian. You know, one of those where the soft, serious voice is scarier than yelling.

She fits the description for the ideal grandmother: she has a stock of sugary cereals just for her grandchildren, a candy bowl, treats after every meal, AND lots of games and kids books. She was always up for playing games with us, even when other adults might find our games childish and tedious.

My favorite game to play with Grandma is a card game called Muggins. I think it's a pretty old game, because they don't sell the cards anymore. I just did an internet search for it, and there were no results for the particular card game I'm thinking of. However, we played the game with cards from the game Flinch:

Picture taken from here

The gameplay is very similar to the game described in this Wikipedia article, except that you say "muggins!" instead of "flinch!" when a player fails to play a playable card. Also not mentioned in the article is that the person who yells "muggins!" gives their top card to the person who failed to notice the playable move. Thus, if you are good at spotting muggins opportunities, then you can get rid of your cards more quickly. There are evidently several versions of Flinch, but we only played one version of Muggins, where we would deal out all of the cards evenly between the players.

Another difference is that playing cards in the middle took precedence over playing cards on other player's discard piles. This made for a fun twist to the game, as well as more muggins-calling, since most players were more intent on giving cards to other players (giving the first player a greater advantage over the second player if no one notices that they should have played in the middle instead).

Grandma had no mercy when it came to calling Muggins on her young grandchildren, but that was part of the fun of it all. We would play Muggins over and over again just to get the chance to muggins Grandma, who was nearly perfect in her muggins playing. If we did catch Grandma and call muggins on her, we would brag about it at the dinner table that night. We also had fund piling our cards on each other's discard piles, pretending that we were doing them a great favor in giving them so many cards. So many fun, happy memories!

PS: if you are interested in trying the game out for yourself, it can be played using regular face cards. Austin and I did so with two decks of cards. Muggins is more fun if you have more than two players, though.

Water Skiing with Granddad Jerry

After writing my post about quilting with Grandma Izzy, I thought it would be nice to make a post about something I did with each of my grandparents. The big thing that we grandkids did with Granddad Jerry--besides listening to fun stories from his childhood--was learning how to, and then actually water skiing with him.

Granddad was very patient teaching us. We'd start out standing on land, holding on to the handle while he taught us how to hold the handle and stand correctly so we wouldn't fall over once we were skiing. Then we'd go out to the boat, and once we got to deep enough water, we would put on the skis and slide into the water. It was fun trying to get a perfect score (smile, wave, no splash).

The beginners would learn how to ski on the barefoot boom. It was easier because you didn't have the extra factor of the rope going slack (and therefore losing your balance) and you could also hear Granddad coaching you, since it was right next to the boat.

Me learning to ski on just one ski. It's a lot harder than two!

Eventually, we'd get a short length of rope tied to the boom to ease us in to skiing behind the boat with the full length of rope.

I started skiing when I was about 8 years old, I think. It took me a long time to finally get the courage to cross the wake--the small wave created by the movement of the boat--but once I did, there was no stopping me. You do get a nice thrill when you cross the wake, especially if you do it fast enough! }:)

The older kids learned how to do tricks--skiing with the handle between your knees (no hands!), turning around 360 degrees, lifting up one ski for the "skier salute", just to name a few. I did a couple of them, but the skier salute was the only one that I felt safe enough doing to do more than once or twice.

One of my favorite things to do was to "double up". We would set up another rope and two people would ski behind the boat at the same time. I think you can see why I enjoyed this so much:

Hannah spraying Seth

When we were done skiing, we'd head back to my grandparent's house. Granddad taught us that we should always thank the person driving the boat. We did every time that we remembered, and would use his special nickname that we had for him--Mr. Nice Guy. One person would remember to say "Thanks Mr. Nice Guy, for driving the boat!" and then there'd be a chorus of "Thanks, Mr. Nice Guy!" as we all tried to make Granddad feel appreciated so he'd take us out again.

Thank you, Mr. Nice Guy, for all the fun times!

Quilting with Grandma Izzy

I have really wonderful grandparents, on both sides of my family. My mother's parents left a legacy in the (small) town I grew up in--many people I met knew of my grandparents and admired them.

I lived just a short walk down the road from my maternal grandparents, so my siblings and I would go over to their house often to visit, to be babysat, or to help in their garden. I even took piano lessons at their house!

One of my favorite things to do at Grandma Izzy's house was work on the quilt she was currently working on. I was the youngest of all my sisters coordinated enough to do the stitch work on the quilts (no, they were not tied quilts!), and while we quilted, Grandma would tell stories. Boy, could Grandma tell stories! Unfortunately, I don't remember them, but I do remember how much I enjoyed spending time with her and my sisters. Eventually, we made one quilt for each sister except for me--I think people were running out of steam by the time they got to me, and I don't remember telling anyone how much I wanted a quilt.

Quilting with Grandma was something I looked forward to and enjoyed doing with my sisters. I could feel her love for all of us, and I loved the family bond that came from it.