Thursday

We were on time to preschool for the first time in 2012.  But I was late for visiting teaching.  I'm not punctual, and I'm ashamed of it.  So far 2012 looks like my least punctual year yet, though I hope to improve.

I took my girls back home for snacks and some last minute before-school prep.  I drove, rather quickly, to Mei Li's school to avoid another tardy slip.  We were on time, barely.

When I arrived at Stephen's classroom to pick him up, he was in the middle of singing "five little monkeys swinging in the tree."  His back was slightly turned to me so he couldn't see me.  I could see his right cheek that exposed a dimple every now and again, particularly when the alligator "snapped that monkey right out of that tree."  I waited there, holding Mi Na, loving every second of his happy performance.  It struck me then how very little he still is.  How could I possibly be frustrated at his occasional disobedience when he still loves to sing such songs?

When the song ended, his teacher told him that I was there.  He turned and gave me a big, dimply smile.  He ran to me and hugged me.

The rest of the afternoon went smoothly.  We ate lunch, I put Mi Na down for her nap, Stephen and I did a reading lesson together, and he watched a show while I cleaned the house and listened to Cutting for Stone.

The last couple of days, Stephen has wanted to wear his Christmas fuzzy pajamas in the afternoon, which is so funny and a little inconvenient because it means that he has to change into his normal clothes before we pick up Mei Li from the bus stop.  So when it was time to go, he changed into his street clothes, put on his shoes, motorcycle gloves, motorcycle helmet, and "spaceman" jacket, which reminds him of a motorcycle jacket.  It was quite the process.  We walked/rode to the bus stop.  The moms at the bus stop think Stephen is cute.

Mei Li got off the bus and, as usual, said that school was great.  Mei Li and Stephen rode their bikes to the library, while I pushed Mi Na in the stroller behind them.  I checked out a lot of readers for Mei and a few others that the kids randomly chose and piled on top of my stroller.  The journey home was much colder and more exhausting than the journey to the library.  The kids almost gave up one block from our house, which is always the risk when riding instead of driving.  Thankfully, they listened when I told them they'd be warmer sooner if they would ride faster.

The kids went inside the house while I put the stroller back into our car.  I told Mei Li to help Mi Na get her hat and jacket off.  I was so pleased when I heard Mei Li say, "Stephen, you get her hat and I'll get her jacket."  I looked, and sure enough, they were working as a little team.  I love my little team.

I made spaghetti for dinner, and some bacon.  My kids like bacon A LOT.  Mei Li and Stephen exchanged jokes during dinner, which reminds me of my favorite new trick of Mi Na's.  She can tell a knock-knock joke, thanks to her older siblings.  

Mi Na: Knock knock!

Me: Who's there?

Mi Na: Boo!

Me: Boo who?

And that's as far as she gets.  But she expects laughing and applause every time, and you better believe that we all enthusiastically give it to her.

I put Stephen and Mi Na to bed, and then read with Mei Li from her readers.  After a couple of readers, we practiced sight words.  She hates practicing sight words, but tonight I gave her the incentive of one Little Women chapter for each time she reviewed a list.  Tonight she earned three chapters.  We read about the girls first becoming friends with Laurie.  Then I sobbed through the chapter where Mr. Laurence gives his thanks to Beth for his slippers in the form of a piano.  Mei Li told me not to cry, but I just can't help it during that part!  Then we read about Amy's shame with the pickled limes.  Poor girl.

I found a very condensed picture-book version of Little Women at a thrift store several months ago and I brought it home to read to Mei.  After that, of course, she was eager to know all about the March girls.  When I started reading the real version to her this week, she said, "Mom, I'm making the pictures in my head," which of course everyone does, but I imagine hers are particularly colorful.  

Anyway, I put her to bed just before Steve arrived, which meant that she did not go to bed for a little while longer.  It's tax season, so I don't really mind if Mei stays up until 10 PM to spend a little time with her dad.  

I need to go spend some time with Steve now.  It was a wonderful day and I wanted to remember it in detail.  Good night.

Books

I have been gulping down books as fast as I can, but through my ears.   I love holding books and turning their pages, but I can't do laundry while holding a book.  But when I listen to a book, it seems like I can do laundry twice as fast, and then go on to clean my whole house.  It was really great to have a book to listen to at night when Steve was out of town.  This might just be the solution to enjoying tax season.

While training for the half marathon, I listened to In Defense of Food and The Hunger Games.  While running the actual half marathon, I listened to Catching Fire.  When that was finished, I went onto Mockingjay, obviously.  I am so excited to see the movies.  I never got into the Twilight movies, but I think if there was a midnight showing of The Hunger Games, I might actually go.

I listened to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.   I really loved it.  It had just the right balance of lightness and meaningfulness.  Then My Antonia.  The writing and imagery were so achingly beautiful I thought I might cry.  Then I listened to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.   I had already seen the movie on Netflix, but as always, the book is better.  By the end of it, I wished my name was Margaret.  Not really.  Yes, really.


Next, I moved onto Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.   I finished it yesterday.  I have taken to saying "obviously" whenever I can because that's how much Oskar Schell means to me right now.  I don't know what to say about this book.  It was so good and so sad and so heartwarming too.  If you have issues with reading profanity, don't read this one.  I guess the one bad thing about listening to books is that hearing profanity sticks with me longer than if I had seen the word written on a page.  And, as good as the book was, I still don't like profanity.  There is one more downside to listening rather than reading.  Even though Oskar's name was audibly spelled out a couple of times, I still had to google his name in order to spell it correctly because I never saw it written, obviously.

Being in between books feels so sad.  I want to be in the last book, but it's never the same the second time around.  I'm hesitant to start a new one because there's that whole "warming up" phase.   Two from Galilee, Cutting for Stone, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are on my list.  Any other recommendations?

"Welcome, welcome to our house!"

I'm guilty.  I lost the true meaning of Christmas sometime last week.  I am buried in a pile of to-do's and my mouth is stuck in a perpetual, painful grimace.


I called Steve at 5:15, and asked if he was leaving work soon.  He always leaves around 5:15 these days so I'm not sure why I call.  Sure enough, he said he'd wrap up and leave, but I sensed that he had much more he would have liked to finish.  So I told him to stay and just get some work done.  I would get the kids to bed early.


This year, I am doing a Christmas book advent with the kids, an idea I got from my friend, Eliza. Tonight, the book they unwrapped was Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate.


It's the story of stable animals preparing their home to welcome some special guests.  They clear the floor, dust the beams, sweep the earth, and stack the hay.  The spider spins new webs, the goose lines the crib with eider, the hen lays an egg, and the peacock spreads its tail.  We all loved the book so much that I read it to them again, with Stephen repeating after me.


The rhythm of the verse feels very busy and very much like my long to-do list.  It actually gave me quite a lot of comfort, reminding me that all of my busyness is not for nothing. The animals, however, did seem much more cheerful in their service than I do presently.


After Mi Na went to bed, I went to work with Mei Li and Stephen cleaning up the explosion of toys in the basement.  We were only about halfway through when we all just quit cleaning.  It was Stephen's bed time and I was exhausted.  So I put Stephen to bed.


I started addressing Christmas cards, not wanting to finish what we started in the basement.  Mei Li came up to me and told me she had a surprise for me.  She took me to the basement, which was sparkling clean once again.


I felt immediately like a huge burden had been lifted.  I wept and hugged Mei Li.  I couldn't stop thanking my sweet daughter for serving me that way.  Honestly, why would she do that for such a grumpy mother?  I certainly wouldn't have done it.  Clearly, my daughter is a much better human being than I am.


So, I still have a ton of stuff to do, but I have renewed strength.  I do believe that by Christmas day, we will be ready to say, as the stable animals did to Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, "welcome, welcome to our house!"

A Milestone for Mi Na

I didn't read Caps for Sale until I was a mother.  I have lots of favorite books from my childhood, but I have no memory of this one.  If this had been read to me as a little girl, I know I would have asked my mother or father to read it to me nightly.  I love the simple story, the vibrant colors, and beautiful illustrations.  But obviously the best part about this book is "tsz, tsz, tsz."

I can't remember exactly when Mei Li and Stephen started shaking their hands and saying "Tsz, tsz, tsz," all by themselves, but it was probably around the age of one, and it was something I regarded as a milestone.  Tonight, Mi Na reached her "tsz, tsz, tsz" milestone.  It was the cutest (no really, the cutest) thing you ever did see.  She smiled, shook her little dimpled fist, said "tsz, tsz, tsz," and then laughed about it.  I can't wait to read it to her again tomorrow so I can see her shake her dimpled fist again.

OBX: Book Club

image from barnesandnoble.com

We made Annee's dream come true by having a beach week book club.  It was held on Wednesday night and pretty much every adult read or listened to all or part of the book.  We engaged in a stimulating debate and I marveled at how smart everyone was.  It's not intimidating at all. ;)  Hopefully this will become a tradition.

And the book?  It was fascinating.  You should read it or listen to it on double speed like I did.

"She watched the buds on the trees swell and the apple trees burst into blossom."

Monday was a perfect sort of day. It felt like January 2nd with all of its newness and striving. The Monday after General Conference usually feels that way.

I did my workout and showered before the kids got up. The kids came downstairs and said, "Mom, come quick! There's a surprise out of our window! Close your eyes. Okay, now open them!" Our tree outside the kids' bedroom windows had burst into blossom. Some green leaves beat the blossoms, but it was beautiful and it made us all very happy.

We went visiting teaching around 10. The kids played outside in the sunshine.

We came home for naps. Mei Li and I spent most of nap time outside in high-70-degree weather. Stephen joined us when he woke up. We played with toys.

Around 6PM, we went on a walk to the library. There was a warm heavenly breeze. Stephen and Mi Na sat in the stroller and Mei Li walked. Mei Li admired each blossoming tree and we each quoted springtime lines from The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. She picked me a bouquet of weeds.

On the way home, Stephen walked and Mei Li sat in the stroller. Stephen pretended to be a basketball player as he walked. It was on this walk that he picked me a flowering weed and said, "Mom, you're so pretty."

When we got home from our walk and Steve was waiting for us. I made Italian grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and we had Family Home Evening and ice cream for a treat.

Steve and I put the kids to bed, cleaned up, and went to bed early. What a good day.

Z Weekend!

Friday was awesome. Stephen was my dream boy all day long. In the evening, we went on a mommy-son date. Lucky me.

I took him to the mall, in the date car, for dinner and a peppermint shake from Chick-fil-a. We followed dinner with a carousel ride. He chose the black horse. I sat on the horse next to his. He noticed how when I was up, he was down, and when he was up, I was down.

When we left the mall, it was very windy and cold. I scooped him up and held him tight to keep him warm. He put his head on my shoulder and I loved it. My baby guy.

Saturday was awesome too. I took the Mei and Stephen to run an errand while Mi Na napped and Steve did some work from home.

Next, we went on a chilly walk to the library so I could pick up the books I requested.


I think it's funny that we took two strollers to accommodate all three of them. Steve checked the score of the BYU game on his phone while we walked (JIMMERRRRRR!!!!)

(On a side note: Kelly L, do you remember giving me this GAP scarf for Christmas '98? Was that also the Christmas that Kelly H got me the BYU mug?)

I'm making a goal to not binge-read The Hunger Games. I haven't started it yet. I have started Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, which I saw on a couple of my friends good reads list. I read the first seven pages and then jumped up and seriously started cleaning my house, probably not the right way, as I'm sure I will soon learn. I'm easily inspired.

This post is getting long. I need to devote an entire post to Sunday and its beautiful, glorious weather.

P.S.

We discovered these out in front on Saturday. Spring is coming!

Here's a good one.

A couple of months ago, Ie Mei told me about a wonderful devotional talk given at BYU-Idaho. Kenneth Southwick addressed the topic of discipleship and how it is measured. He suggested this:

"the great measure of our discipleship is how we view others."

"Let me say it this precisely, our judgments about, our conclusions concerning, and our actions toward others all grow out of how we view them. If this is the case, then the question becomes, 'do we see others as a spirit son or daughter of God, as a person, as a human being, as a soul of infinite worth?' Or do we see them as something less? Or do we fail to see them at all?"

This book addresses this topic as well. I have read and love this book. I find that I can go to any page of the book randomly and learn or re-learn something about myself that I can improve.

That's all. Have a lovely day.

Who Loves the Little Lamb?

Speaking of little lambs, my favorite library book from our current stash is Who Loves the Little Lamb? by Lezlie Evans.



I met her at a Relief Society meeting last month. She taught a workshop on child literacy and I was completely inspired. She is lovely. This book is lovely. My children love it and I have loved reading it to them.

This and That

Mei Li doesn't start preschool until next week so we haven't had any place we needed to be. I've been relishing it. We've instead just been walking to the park or the library whenever we can.

Our favorite library book in our current batch is A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry.



It's a Caldecott winner for obvious reasons. Those illustrations are so sweet.

We purchased The Lower Lights album. We all love it. Mei Li loves to sing along and does so with a slight twang. My favorites are "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me" and "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy." Good job, Scott and Sarah!



Our kitchen looks different these days. My sister-in-law, Sarah, helped me come up with ideas and she found the fabric for the window pelmet boxes. My sister-in-law, Christine, came by and to help me make the pelmet boxes, but ended up making them while I helped. Thank you both.

General Conference weekend was lovely. It was relaxing and uplifting. Steve made sailboats for the kids out of empty Costco milk cartons, straws, hot glue, paper and tape. Brilliant. He then made a little castle out of a cardboard box for Mei Li at her request/demand.


Mi Na is cute and still holding onto her blue eyes.

Steve and I started watching the TV series, Lost. We are going to need to set some limits for ourselves because going to bed at midnight can't become a habit.

Grandma Z. came to town on Tuesday night. She took the kids to the library and a fall festival on Wednesday. Today she took them to Target, McDonald's, and the park. It's been a nice break and a good opportunity to go to some stores where I wouldn't normally take all three kids.

More family is coming to town for Mi Na's baby blessing. It will be a fun weekend. My mom and I are going to make a feast!