Remember that month called December

 I know, it is only 4 months away, but let's reminisce:

 For Christmas this past year I asked my Mom to meet me in Arizona. We met at my Grandma and Grandpa Pollards and spent the first week of December with them. I had such a great time! We went shopping like nobody's business, but it was so fun! (That would make a great present again this year Mom...hint hint...)

We went to the Mesa Temple and walked around it was so Beautiful and Yes even a little chilly, but I couldn't get over all the lemon and grapefruit trees. I almost picked a few, but they just weren't ripe yet.

I think it was are first or second, maybe even our third year of marriage when Jon's advice started to really sink in, "if you want to have a fun time on your Birthday, throw your own Birthday Party".  This year I thought my party was a hit. I had so much fun. we had about 4 families, 8 adults and about 15 kids. (I will admit, it was a little caiotic hence why I am standing on the table, and yes that was a basket filled with bells for each kid. I am not sure my hearing has recovered.)

Each family was to pick out 2 people they wanted to go caroling to and then bring something to put in each goodie basket to give the people we caroled to. I wish I had a picture of the gift boxes. They were AWESOME. 

 

We had to practice a couple of songs before we left and then we split up and delivered baskets. The kids and I had so much fun singing and giving the boxes. I think I will for sure do this next year, although maybe just as a party and not my birthday...

 We came back, enjoyed cake and ice cream and then the adults got presents. I love giving presents so I gave them to the gals in the group. I wish I had a picture. I will have to remember for this year.

My Mom does the 12 days of Christmas each year for the girls and one of the days was read a book and enjoy some hot chocolate. to say that Marcella loves hot chocolate is an understatement.

Best picture of the girls in their Christmas Dresses.

We had also put Claire in Gymnastics at the place Cella goes. However, it may look fine and dandy, but she would take off running across the gym and then you would see me running after her. it was a little too much for her to sit and wait her turn, so I basically sat behind her the whole time. I am thinking this year she might be a little better at following directions but we will have to see.

Uncle Greg came and Celebrated Christmas with us this year. We were so glad to have him. Jon and Greg were able to meet Spencer up in Michigan and go to a Lyons game. When they got back we decorated cookies.

We started to let the girls open the presents they give to each other on Christmas Eve. Cella gave Claire a Strawberry Shortcake Book and boy was she happy. She wouldn't put it down forever.

 Little Claire gave Marcella a bunch of American Girl doll shoes. She was sooo excited. 

For the past 3 years Santa has called Marcella on Christmas Eve to make sure she has been a good girl. She can not believe that Santa has called her!

Christmas Morning. The rest are pictures of our Day. I love Christmas. I love spending the day with our family. We had such a great time. Little Claire ended up getting Croup and so we had to stay in and spend New Year's Eve alone, but we had a fun time together. Enjoy the pictures.

Today

I have a million ideas running through my head and I just want to do something creative. I want to recreate something beautiful to hang on my oh so bare wall, or create a beautiful pantry on a "I found everything in my house" kind of budget. I want to sit and sew a Beautiful flowing dress for little Marcella made to look like something from My Fair Lady era...Yet instead I sit.

What is holding me back? No really what is it? Yesterday I was sitting at Gymnastics watching Cella and overhead a gal talking about how life has been so different since they moved here. She said, "it has been such an adjustment from working full-time to being a full-time stay at home mom. That's it I just stay at home, we never go anywhere." 

It made me think oh, I hear you. Why is just staying home so hard? I thought about the few things I missed about working. 1. Talking to adults. People who would inspire me and say the things I needed to hear. 2. Compliments. Oh how nice it was to have someone almost daily say how grateful they were that I was able to help them, or teach them something they didn't know, or help them solve a problem. Working at a Credit Union you get all sorts of people from the wealthiest to those just barely making it and yet they all had something to give. I would get the nicest compliments from those who I least expected to give them. 3. Accomplishment and schedule. It is easy to evaluate how well you are doing at your job. You have reviews and goal setting and meetings on how to improve or how good you are doing etc. You also know exactly what is expected of you and when. 4. I got to handle Lots and Lots and Lots of cash. Do you know how fun it is to count money? Or to hold 10s of thousands of dollars in your hands? oh I miss that.

As I was thinking about the things that I missed about working I also thought about the things I don't miss, and that list started getting long so we will by pass that and go into how can I take the things I loved about working full-time and bring them back into my home? Why can't my Stay at home 24-7 job have those same things that I miss from my old job. So here goes lets take number 1.

I have an Obsession with Anne of Green Gables and no not just the first book but with ALL 8 of them. I think that some of my friends know and would say yes those are her favorites and yes she always jokes about being obsessed, but I don't think they realize just how obsessed I really am. Not to the point of crazy/stalker/nothing else occupies my mind kind of obsessed, but yea... I think most problems in life can be compared to and solved in the books.

 One thing I love about the Anne books is that it is back in the day of horse and buggy. 90-95% of Women were stay at home moms and as far as the books go they lived happy productive lives. 
So what has changed? The key? Visiting. I am not just talking about what we do now, the email, the text or heaven forbid the phone call that we make and says something like, "Hey so I was thinking we should get together sometime. I think I might have time next week, maybe Thursday and (oh ya I guess we should do something) so how about we pack up some lunches and have a picnic, or go to the mall, or hey do you want to go to the movies?" While all of this is great and fun, it leaves me lacking for the day of visiting. You never knew who was going to show up at your door, so you did your work faithfully and with an air of satisfaction and accomplishment.  They interacted! They had adult conversation, they made it apart of their life. When did we become so busy that we stopped making time for this? Yet it is the one thing I want more than anything. Does everything in life have to be planned? What is wrong with just being together and working together? Do you feel like you will be imposing? What stops you from doing it? Can you think about how fast you could get things done if there were two of you helping, encouraging, working together?


That is one reason I long to be back in Anne's time. I long to have someone just come over. As soon as the weather warms up and I have means of trasportation daily either by car, bike or walking you better watch out I may just come visit you when you least expect it. Until then please come I would love company while I make dinner, you may even walk away with dinner for you. Plus you would be my inspiration to do something creative.

Kanien

Oh what do you do in the Winter time when all the world (should be) white?

Do you swing on the swings?

 

 Or mow your back lawn?

Or draw with Chalk til the sun goes down? Is that what you do? So do we!

LAN Party

Marcella off to play Minecraft with Alex Salazar. 

Daughters of God

One of the fun things about being in Stake YW's is I get the chance to teach twice a year. Yes get to. In theory I LOVE teaching the young women. In reality, my stomach turns to knots, my mouth goes dry because my eyes are taking up all the water in my body and those 6 girls I taught on Sunday scare me to death. However yesterday I was able to teach on one of my favorite topics: Knowing you are a Daughter of God. There is something that happens to you when you come to understand that we are truly Sons and Daughters of God. You act a little better and think differently about yourself and others. I thought I would share the videos I played for the girls. Hope you enjoy! Happy Monday!

Best Friends

 One of the saddest things about making friends, is that life happens and they have to move away. We are not quite sure when this little friend is going to move, but I can tell you it is going to be one sad day. (Most likely more than just one sad day!)

On a happier note, Marcella lost some teeth! Her big tooth started coming through and none of her teeth were loose. The dentist said it would be best to take all three! So Thursday afternoon Marcella lost 3 teeth. She no longer can say her S's and she has a bit of a lisp, which makes me chuckle a little every time I hear it, but she loves it.

"Mom, when the dentist pulls my teeth out do I HAVE to give them to the tooth fairy?"
"Well no, but why don't you want to give them to her?"
"I just really want to keep my teeth. Can I please keep them?"
"Sure, I guess so."

Not sure if the tooth fairy will ever visit this girl, but for some reason she carries her teeth in a box in her pocket and she thinks they are the coolest thing ever. Love you Cella Bella!

Lizzy!

This beautiful, amazing, funny, smart, loveable sister of ours just got her mission call. Any guesses? Ours were all wrong. In Feb. she is heading to Lusaka, Zambia. Here is a map so you won't have to look up where in the world it is.

 I don't know about you, but when I think of Africa I picture things like:

 This, or these

 

 and I don't think Lizzy will get to do much of this:

 

 However I believe she will see a bunch of this:

This is a Lusaka market, and some tidbits of info about the country. Presently three out of four Zambians live in poverty and more than half of them are extremely poor and unable to meet their minimum nutritional needs. For poor rural people, ensuring food security is a constant preoccupation. Many of the poorest people live in households headed by women and households in which one or more members are chronically ill, generally with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.

On a more positive note the Zambia mission was opened in July of 2011! Zambia has some of the lower percentages of Latter-day Saints in continental Africa one member per 5,620 in Zambia . You will have your work cut out for you Lizzy!  As much as I just keep tearing up, I am so excited for you. I have such a HUGE array of emotions happening all at once. I am scared to death and very excited for you! I know you will be in good hands. I mean look at these Mission Presidents (This is them right?)

Mikele R. and Arlene C. Padovich

Mikele Roman Padovich, 61, and Arlene Louise Crist Padovich, four children, Zambia Lusaka Mission; Saugus 2nd Ward, Santa Clarita California Stake. He serves as a high councilor and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, bishop, counselor in a bishopric, ward mission leader, gospel doctrine teacher and missionary in the Northern States Mission. Executive, Warner Bros. Studio. Born in Burbank, Calif., to Joseph and Melba Mary Chadburn Padovich.
Sister Padovich serves as a seminary teacher and is a former stake Primary president, stake Young Women board member, Relief Society board member, Relief Society president, Primary president, and Young Women board member. Born in Gary, Ind., to Earl Clyde and Emma Alice Woolston Crist.


We love you Lizzy and am so excited for you! Marcella has been pouring over her atlas for the past couple hours talking non stop about where you are going. We can't wait to see the work of the Lord move along. Thank you for being such a great example. We sure LOVE you Lizzy!

Happy Halloween

 Of course there is Pumpkin carving. Can you tell who wanted to touch the guts and who couldn't stand it?

Claire called Marcella's pumpkin scary and was fascinated and afraid of it at the same time. It was pretty funny. 

This year we had a Halloween dinner. Marcella posted our menu here:

Mouse Brains

(stuffed mushrooms)

 Eye ball soup

 Claire was little Red riding hood this year and Marcella was a cow girl

Here is our gang of trick or treaters.  We had a lot of fun walking the neighborhood and getting candy.

A little late

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month. As much as I thought about writing about it, the month just flew by! Today Jon shared this video that I knew in an instant I wanted to share with anyone who may happen to look at this little blog. So Grab a couple tissues and enjoy.

Focus

A word that I have been constantly thinking and contemplating about lately is: Focus. Such an interesting word. A word that by itself doesn't mean too much, but when paired with something it can make all the difference. Which brings me to my life lately and the time old question, what am I focusing on? Well Lately it has been, Am I the Mother I really want to be?

A couple weeks ago I had a really bad day and I realized I needed to figure something out or I was going to snap. What it came down to was what am I focusing on? It started with my typical list. Well, I have been too worried about keeping the house clean and not keeping the feeling in our home a place you want to be. I am focusing on the things that "need" to get done rather than the people doing the tasks.  On and on my mental list went until really it came to a head when this inspired question popped into my head. "Do you even like being a Mother?" 

I love the old saying fake it until you make it, because I feel like it is so true. I have tried it in so many things and it really works so why not with Motherhood?  I started putting it to the test. What would I be doing if I absolutely loved everything about being a Mother? I would be constantly reading about Motherhood. I would be finding out different ways to improve and become the Mother I want to be.  I would be discussing it with other moms and putting into practice the things I learned. So in my search I found this wesite

 

 

It was the answer to many prayers. Don't you just love the title? Deliberate Mothers. Am I a Deliberate Mother? Go check it out. If this was ever a place where you could find answers to questions or if you just need to be uplifted to keep on going, this is the place to go. 

 

One article I read talked about getting in the picture and challenged Mothers to get in the pictures with your kids and to document the everyday.   I felt like if I was going to be working on becoming a deliberate mother than this must be my homework. Here is my first assignment.

 

 

It only took a few tries to get it right, but it was well worth it. There is something about looking at a memory, you can still feel how you felt. I love that decorating sugar cookies became all about being present and focused on the moment. 

In this journey I have embarked on to become better I have decided that documenting our moments and life is my mental facet I will be working on.   (seriously listen to this podcast taking care of the WHOLE Mom. It has helped me to become more focused) Plus it will make my mom super happy that I will be posting more! Love you mom. 

 

When I was in college there came a point when I asked myself what I really wanted to be when I "grew up" and what major would help me get there. Well I knew I wanted to be a mother so I immersed myself in the Family and Consumer sciences and learned so much. It is time to immerse myself once again in real life mothering.  I feel the amazing thing about being in a church that focuses so much on families is we have the opportunity to surround ourselves with amazing examples of motherhood. Yet do we take advantage of the help and support we could get and give?  I would love if anyone out there would like to discuss motherhood or join a learning circle with me. I love you all! 

 

 

Just because this makes me smile