Verily I say… the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

(D&C 59:16, 18)

(building a rolly-polly house)

“Hey Logan, today is going to be a ‘Jonah day’ for you. You know why? ‘Cause I’m going to play with you all day long and be nice to you and make you breakfast and get you your me-me if you get sad.”

“I love you, Jonah…”

(spring hike at Charleston Falls)

This guy had a birthday on March 23rd. He’s six. Get that? SIX. My round faced, blue eyed boy has graduated from being a little kid to a just plain kid. I know it’s cliche, but I have to say it– they grow up so fast!! Was it really six years ago that my whole world got turned upside down by a rolly polly bundle of chubbiness that screamed and had to be held every second and ate like there was no tomorrow? Was it really six years ago that I learned that, no, I was not the world’s greatest parent because I had a bag full of tricks to get my one little child to behave and go to bed and say very cute things to strangers when I wanted her to– because NONE of those tricks worked anymore. No siree. Jonah came to humble me. He came out insisting that he get his way. He is strong willed and completely committed to the way things should be. He’s taught me that routine and structure are so helpful– like a skeleton to build a life on– that when we put first things first and work hard to make things go right at the get-go (instead of trying to fix problems when they arise) that there is peace, there’s fun, and we can live more in the moment.

I remember the Sunday right after he was born. Barry, Brenna, and my mom all went to church while I stayed home with my hungry little baby. He screamed for quite awhile and I snuggled and rocked him and looked into his familiar face. I knew he was mine and had been mine before. I sensed the peace and security of the place he had so recently come from– the familiarity of his Heavenly Father, the intense and perfect love he had been so accustomed to there in His presence, and now he was here with me. More than anything I felt keenly my responsibility to make him feel as safe and comfortable and loved here with me, in our home, as his spirit had felt not long before in the presence of God. And I looked at his helpless little arms flailing, looked in his gray, searching eyes, and I sensed the power of his spirit, and I sensed how shocking it must be to figure out this new little body. And then I thought of the Savior, the Creator of the world, of the universe, of worlds without end– that he, in his infinite power and glory, was born in a little body with blurry eyes and flailing arms. I cannot adequately describe all those feelings as my mind was opened to the wonder of a baby, of an eternal spirit in a new body, of my part in this whole miraculous thing. I can’t describe it, but I’ll never forget it– that experience of rocking my new sweet Jonah and knowing that more than anything else I needed to love– to be love, to be the embodiment of love for this little boy so he could remember where he came from and who he was meant to be. That was the gift of Jonah.

I just love him beyond description. I love all my children, but I love Jonah with a hard fought, hard won love– a love of growth and learning. He is strong and tender, and that is just how I feel about him. And love to grab his little face in my hands and look in his eyes and tell him, “I am so thankful to be your mama.”

(He had a ‘Mad Scientist’ birthday party. Here’s some pictures of the foaming monster experiments from his party.)

Over and out.

I have a friend who grew up in a huge family– 12 kids I think. or 15? Anyway, her mom made yogurt and they would eat it by the gallon. We got talking about the fine points of dairy culturing, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

It was surprisingly simple. I filled a sterilized quart jar with almost hot (110-115 degrees Fahrenheit) tap water to within 2 inches of the top. I poured about 1 cup of that water into my blender, added 1 cup of non-instant powdered milk (which I need to rotate through my food storage anyway) and 1/4 cup plain yogurt (that’s the starter). After that was all blended nicely I poured it back into my jar of water, put the lid on then put my jar in a little picnic cooler filled with 115 degree water to incubate. 5 hours later it was done!!

We mixed in thawed frozen berries as we ate it and downed the jar in one day. We’ve even polished off the second batch. Plain yogurt from the store is usually too sour for me, but this is so mild and tasty. I don’t think we’ll ever be buying yogurt in mass quantities from the store again.

It was also a good experiment with bacteria. A “science experience” as Logan would say.

There’s been some awesome photo projects finding beauty in everyday life out in blog land. Today I’m summing up our school week with these photos and joining in with the mamas at six one way.

Here’s some more lovely finds of art in the ordinary.

Soule Mama is posting a photo a day for 30 days. (This is my very, very favorite. I just can’t get over all the emotions it floods me with.)

the noticing project

3191

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Try looking at the gray skies with new eyes. There is beauty all around…

Helmets of buckets, foil, aluminum pie tins, plastic baby food containers, plumbing tubing and other shiny stuff. Oh, and lots of hot glue (the kids didn’t do that part, of course).

And the robot cake. Yum.

Last night I put my 3-year-old-Jonah to bed and in the most dramatic fashion said good night to him forever. No more 3-year-old-Jonah, because today he turned 4!

He’s into robots and legos and transformers and all things buildable, so we’re having a robot party on Saturday. Last night I just needed to make him something and came up with this guy to fit with the whole robot theme.

I’m glad he turned out. Not bad for an hour or so of work on the spur of the moment. Jonah was sure excited about him this morning and Logan is very jealous.

He didn’t have a long list of friends to invite, so with his coaching I drew pictures for his invitations.

I’m still not 100% sure exactly what we will be doing at this robot party besides eating cake and ice cream. I still have tomorrow to figure it out!

We did way too much Trick-or-Treating. We had a “Trunk-or-Treat” in the church parking lot one night. Then they opened up Barry’s office building for parading costumed children. And, of course, we had to go through the neighborhood on the real Halloween night.

Brenna and Jonah did sketches and decided they wanted to be a cat and a mouse.

They made their noses and whiskers.

Trick or Treat!

Dish towel aprons–I just couldn’t resist. My kids needed some art aprons, I needed something to keep dinner off my pants (even though my shirt is usually covered in baby snot), and Martha dish towels were on super clearance at K-mart, so the price was right. Aprons for all! (Well, 3 aprons and a bib.)

Amy has a monthly party at her blog dedicated to aprons

and this month’s assignment was so easy I had to join.

It has been a busy week. Well, it has seemed busy, I guess, but come to think of it, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to do. I just felt busy. I think because I was sick. I had a fever on Wednesday, felt yucky all day yesterday and had to go grocery shopping anyway, didn’t sleep a wink until about 4:00 this morning, and I’m trying to wean Logan–once a day would be good. That’s why I didn’t sleep last night. My teeth hurt, my nose was stuffy (so I had to breath with my mouth open which made the metal/ rubberband contraptions in my mouth that much more uncomfortable), my throat hurt, my ears ached, I had horrible menstrual cramps, AND I hadn’t nursed a baby since nap time early that afternoon and consequently couldn’t lay on either side or move my arms. Blissful? 800 mg of ibuprofen helped once I reached the point of desperation.

Funny things:

We had a “Girl’s Night Out” craft night at church last night–just bring something to do and sit and gab. I got home a little after ten and as I was heaping my load onto the counter I looked in Ellie’s food bowl right there under the counter. It was FULL of rabbit food. Was there a reason for this? I went and nudge Barry to ask about it and he just grunted. I was grinning so hard that I just broke out laughing. Silly, silly.

Barry did the obstacle course with his group yesterday for PT–you know, climbing walls, jumping logs, balance beams and ropes. Well, he was very proud of his monkey bar performance. I guess he was the only one to make it all the way across–and he even did a “skin the cat” to get off at the end. Now, you know who’s been practicing at the playground!

Did you know that if your mom takes the jam out of the fridge and sets it on the counter while waiting for a bagel to pop out of the toaster, but you wanted to get the jam out yourself, the world may come to an end and you must scream “Mom you don’t do very nice fings” and “You make me feel really, really mad.” and “DON’T SAY THE WORD!!” over and over again?

Did you know that the prospect of making your bed all by yourself while the rest of the family goes downstairs can cause your stomach to ache, your legs to shrivel up in pain, your fingers to tingle too much to move, and your back to itch, all while you melt into a heap and wail like the boogey-man is after you?

Did you know that if you’re ten months old your high chair is a torture chamber that causes ear splitting screaming?

Well, I discovered all of these things at once this morning and had three kids screaming hysterically for a good solid 45 minutes while I begged and pleaded for them to just let me eat half a bowl of Cheerios so that I could see straight and maybe even think a little bit.

Barry has decided he wants to go into work earlier so that he can come home earlier, so i get mornings to myself again. And my mom was also here visiting for the past week and a half and has sadly returned to her regular life. And we stayed up late last night and watched the BYU-idaho dance teams perform… anyway, it was a crazy morning I momentarily thought I might not survive.

And, there’s more i have to process. A family in our ward lost most of their worldly possesions in a house fire last night. So, I spent the day on the phone tracking them down, finding what they need, answering phone call after phone call of questions and offers for help…

It feels good to be busy serving and knowing that my efforts are really needed…

Anyway, so much to do… so little time. Imagine not having underwear or shoes, or even a toothbrush.