How Not to Deal with Stress

This last week has been one of those you see on the calendar and just dread its' approach. In my philanthropic spirit, I volunteered to co-chair the spring fundraiser at the elementary school. We are doing a jump-a-thon. Last week was the jumping days and I got to spend a good deal of time at the elementary school. I also had visiting teaching scheduled. And it so happens that a majority of the mystery shopping jobs were available last week. It was also Easter and I had family and church obligations in addition to everything else. I still feel tired and would like a secluded week long vacation where there are no children, computers, cell phones, etc. Bridger is gone for this week and there is still SO much to do. I think I have taken some of my stress out on Cadbury Mini Eggs. I also have over-reacted to otherwise mild situations at home causing my loving family to wonder where their mostly sane mother/wife has gone. Now that I'm pretty sure I hit all the wrong ways to deal with stress, I hope to do better this week and try the right ways. Inhale, (pause) exhale--and continue. But I would be willing to take applications from those willing to lend me their beach house and watch my five children!

Peeps Time

I recently have acquired more peeps. I had to look on my blog for the recipe I had used before. I found one more idea for those peeps that might be fun especially for FHE! http://peepsofmormon.blogspot.com/

April Fools!

When I was little, before my child brain could register it was April 1st, my mom would make us cardboard pancakes for breakfast and stuff our shoes with newspapers. I have yet to be such a Mom. I always get to April 1st and I am too tired to do anything extra. This Friday I woke up with a migraine and I thought it would be yet another boring April Fools' at our house. I took my medicine, and got over my migraine though! I was thrilled. I told the kids because it was April Fools they got to eat dessert for dinner, and dinner for dessert. (I got all of this off the internet). I made meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting for "dessert" and a giant hamburger cake for "dinner." I think the kids were thrilled with it all and I felt accomplished for finally being the type of Mom I was I was everyday! I also took them to see the Weiner-mobile. It was here in Pocatello! I was doing a mystery shop and stumbled upon it. Bridger has had a little Hotwheel car of it since he was a boy. I always get asked, "Is this real?" Now they know! I took my kids back after they got out of school. Here is a photo and some stats:

A hot dog roof, custom ketchup and mustard upholstery, a mustard stripe aisle, a "bun"box, a horn that plays 21 different versions of "I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner."

Spring Break

We had a busy spring break. I enjoy the break from school as much as the kids or more! Bridger took a couple of days off so we could do something as a family and we didn't have to feel so guilty having fun when he still had to work. We took the kids snowmobiling and sledding on Monday with Bridger's Dad. He loves snowmobile and we have had relatively little time to do that with him since we moved here. It is fun for him to be able to share that with his grandkids and try to pass on one of his favorite hobbies. Tuesday, I had a mystery shop in a town bordering Utah, so we decided to drive a little farther and take the kids to Chuck E Cheese. They have been begging to go there for years, literally. We have been before, but the closest ones are in Utah or Boise. Bridger was rather skeptical of going, but I think even he had a good time watching the kids have so much fun. Brynna said it was the "best day ever!" Daven quickly copied her saying that. He also asked if we could go to Chuck E Cheese tomorrow. I thought it might be a little juvenile for Corban but he had a good time, too. Gideon loved following Chuck E. around and wanted to touch his nose. On our way home, we stopped to get ice cream. Brynna told Bridger he was spoiling them. Kjerstin promptly told him that was his job. Wednesday, we went to Lava to see Aunt Pam and go to the dentist. The kids love going to the dentist, probably because it is their Aunt. Thank heaven for small blessings. No cavities helps, too! Thursday their Grandma Critchfield wanted to do some scrapbook pages with the kids. I have resigned myself that if scrapbooks happen, they will happen when the kids are older and I can leave pictures out. She organized this herself and did pictures from their last birthdays. I think the kids had fun and she got to share one of her favorite hobbies, too. Friday they finally got a day to play with their friends and had a great time and I had a day to catch up and stay home :) There are two more months of school and there is one day off (Memorial Day). That certainly won't match up to the this month where we had two Fridays off and one whole week off. We had snow during spring break again. It is great to live in Idaho. I think we have every year we have lived here. It didn't dampen my spirits and I loved the break from the normal pace of life. It is like President Hinckley once quoted, "Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." I enjoyed the ride this week with it's vistas. Now to go back to sidetracks and smoke and bumpy ride!

Walking in the Light

I was watching my little Gideon the other day. The sun was shining through the window and leaving a blotch of sunshine on my carpet. He kept walking back and forth over that spot of carpet wondering ( I am assuming) why it looked different and why it felt warmer. My dog would do that, too. He would take morning naps on the places where the sun shined through the window leaving a warm area on the ground. He would move as the day grew to follow that warm spot. It got me to thinking about the light of the Gospel. Do we like to walk in the light? I also saw some photos on Facebook of one of my younger cousins. He looks like he is not walking in the light that he was brought up in. He looks like another one of my cousins that recently got arrested for drug use. Why do we leave the light? It feels good. It is warm. Even my one year old baby can tell that. I know sometimes we have are required to exercise faith and take a step into the darkness before we find the light again. Do we get lost? Are we afraid of making the step and stay where we are and get lost? Is it our stubborness? It makes me want to be like a little child (my little child) and walk in the light. It makes pray that my little Gideon will always want to walk in the light. It makes me think of the primary song: Teach me to walk in the light of his love, teach me to pray to my Father above, teach me to know of the things that are right. Teach me, teach me, to walk in the light. Do we have to be taught to walk in the light? I think we get it as little children and we somehow forget. Is it like those classes we have taken that we really don't remember anything from because we took it just to get the grade and move on? It is amazing to me how much I learn from my kids even when they don't even know they are teaching me. Right now they are telling me to be done with this, but I hope I remember the lesson I learned and I will walk in the light.

Blue and Gold

This is Corban's cake for the Blue and Gold Banquet. This will be our last for Blue and Gold for 4 years until Daven is in cub scouts. They had to choose their favorite Dr. Seuss book and decorate a cake to match. Corban choose "The Cat in The Hat." This is the cat's hat if you can't tell. I am no cake boss but think that Corban and I did okay. They were 2 other kids who picked the same book and had similar cakes. They served green eggs and ham, and had a fish (One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish) for each boy to take home. Corban is not a pet lover and declined the gift of a fish. Brynna was sure if we did take it, it would die because don't don't have a good history with fish. It was a nice event. Here are some Dr. Seuss quotes:
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." — Dr. Seuss
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." — Dr. Seuss
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not." — Dr. Seuss
"If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too."
"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."
"They say I'm old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!"

Beauty

I went to the temple yesterday. We seemed to have a million things happen trying to keep us from going to the temple. We were later than we thought we would be and decided to do initiatories instead of an endowment session. Some concerns I had were answered in doing initiatory. I think it is that way with our kids, too. We can help them out with their problems by just spending time with them. As we spend more time with the Lord, He somehow answers our concerns in verses of scripture we have read before. We don't see beforehand that these verses have a direct correlation to our situation. Somehow in spending time with the Lord, he is able to help us.

I was also thinking about beauty. I was listening to all the things Heavenly Father blesses us with and none of them are beauty. I know he could bless us with beauty. Is it that he doesn't care? I don't think so. I think it is that we are all beautiful. It is like that with flowers. Take a pussy willow and a rose. Some are maybe less attractive to some than others. But to others they are just as beautiful. I have heard that we are all beautiful but had bought into the philosophy that if all are beautiful then no one is. I think we get too focused in this world with making ourselves more beautiful. We try different haircuts or haircolors. We try different clothes or different ways of doing our makeup. We buy into all these schemes of Satan telling us we are not beautiful. It is not that it is bad. But anything taken to the extreme can be detrimental. I was reading an article in LDS Living. It said that Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie are under their BMI. I thought that was interesting. It gives a new definition of what you think healthy is.



I was also listening and all the blessings we get are so we can serve others. Kind of like the priesthood. You can't bless yourself but you in turn are a blessing to others. We need to remember why we are given this body and what the Lord has asked of us in return.