Inspiration

Does what we look at really matter? Do the images our children see affect who they are? I think so.

A few years ago, when my oldest started middle school, I felt like she was growing up fast. In a good way, but it was still scary for Mom. I wanted to be there and remind her of who she is and the potential she has for good. But I couldn't be there all the time. I decided some inspiration was needed.

Together, we started collecting little encouraging sayings, and handouts and even kind notes from her friends into a wall collage above her bed. She was totally on board with the project. I don't know what the measurable effect is for encouragement. But I do know it makes a powerful visual statement when her friends come over and see her walls. It's a lot of little reminders of what being an awesome teenager looks like...and she is awesome.

To leave the world a bit better

Oh give me patience when wee hands
Tug at me with their small demands.
And give me gentle and smiling eyes.
Keep my lips from hasty replies.

And let not weariness, confusion or noise
Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys.
So when, in years to come my house is still
No bitter memories its rooms may fill.
(unknown)

What is success?

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by

a healthy child, a garden patch

or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed

easier because you have lived;

This is to have succeeded.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage

Sometimes, courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, "I'll try again tomorrow" - Mary Anne Radmacher

A few weeks after my 4^th child was born he caught pneumonia and was barely breathing. I called the doctor and was instructed to quickly rush him to the emergency room. It was faster to drive than to wait for an ambulance. I bundled my baby up and took him out into the cold, dark winter night. I was half-way across town before it dawned on me that I had never actually been to the pediatric hospital and didn't know quite where it was. I got off on the wrong exit and was winding through bad neighborhoods. I kept looking back to make sure my baby was still breathing, looking ahead hoping to see the hospital, and looking inside myself for the answer to the dangerous mess I was in. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I couldn't give up.

This experience inspired me. It serves as a metaphor for motherhood itself. I know where I want to lead my family, but sometimes I'm not exactly sure how to get there. No one can tell me every step in raising children. I look to my past experiences, I look ahead following the examples of other mothers, and I look inside myself. Sometimes, I'm a bit lost, but I'm inspired to not give up.

Mosh pit?  or Happy family?

Music Practice
Charts, schedules, payments, rewards?  What are the best ways to get consistent practice?  I'm going to try a new way this week.  Sitting down next to them and watching their practice.  Maybe this extra attention will help the "spring fever" that is afflicting our musical rehearsals.

What I learned from the tent

Last summer, I took the kids to the pool. We had a loong summer afternoon together and I came home and wanted to take a shower by myself. I figured my best chance to get a moment of peace was to set up the tent so they would have something to occupy them. The tent proved harder to set up than I thought. My husband came home from work a few hours later and I was still in my swimsuit, in the front yard, with tent mess all over. Five children were very busy “helping” me. I could tell by the smile on his face that he thought this was amusing. He asked me if it seemed a bit trashy to set up a tent in the FRONT yard in my swimsuit. It was then that I realized that I had become THAT mother. The one that doesn't care what other people think. Not because I have no social graces, but because I care so much more about what the five adorable children think.

Fam

The hardest job in the world is also the best job in the world. Thank you, Mom.

How I want to live

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly [styled], with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a [mini-van] that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.” - M. Hinckley