For your entertainment

 

Michael found our engagement pictures on a CD  last night. They made me laugh. Check out Michael’s smile and his awesome glasses.  I look about 15 years old in these pictures, which I suppose isn’t that far off from the truth. Michael is wearing his church shirt because at the time we were engaged he had about 7 shirts which consisted of faded polo shirts that were too big, a BYU computer science shirt and his white button up church shirt.

Another great thing about our engagement pictures? They were taken at a rest stop in Malad Idaho. Michael and I were not a very demanding couple. Didn’t we look happy?

Nine years later, I have lost the bangs, and Michael has some new glasses. And I think we still look pretty happy.

Talents

I would love to have a beautiful voice. But I don’t. I have a small range and I have a very hard time singing a part if it isn’t the melody. I would not be able to sing a C if someone asked me to. I might be able to if they played the note first for me. No one has ever suggested that I join the choir.

Last night I went to a relief society activity that had a program about the women in the life of Jesus. There were some beautiful musical numbers. I think music has the ability to touch peoples hearts faster than any other medium. I know jealousy is not a good think but I have always been envious of people with beautiful voices.

I don’t really have any performable talents. I don’t sing or play a musical instrument well. I can’t dance or act or tell funny jokes. I am not a great artist. I can think of things to write about but it rarely comes out how I would like. My philosophy with photography is to take a bunch of pictures and hope one turns out nice. I don’t excel at any sports. I know that not everyone has obvious talents but sometimes I think it would be nice to have one. I think it would be nice to be able to perform a beautiful piece of music, or take credit for a beautiful piece of art.

Having an obvious talents makes it easier to define people. That’s Sally, she is a great cook and has a beautiful voice. Joe writes amazing poetry and is great at soccer. It is harder to say who you are when you don’t have something like that. I am Katie-Beth and I am ok at a lot of things but not really excellent at anything.

I am a happy person. And I know that I am good at a lot of things. But sometimes it takes a lot of effort, to remind myself that the less visible talents are just as important and valuable even if they are not as recognizable.  I am really good at budgeting. I can read aloud well and read very fast. I can look at a picture of something crafty and figure out how to make it. I can take care of four kids and help them become good people. I am good at research and know how to look up things on microfilm. I can wrap a baby up in a blanket nice and snug so they look like a little baby burrito. I can pick up things with my toes. I am a good friend. I can make yummy food for a family of picky eaters. I can brush things off easily and rarely get mad.

These are good talents to have. I can use them to help other people and they make my life more enjoyable. If I take the time to think about it I would have to say that these talents are probably more useful and bring me more joy than a more obvious talent like having a beautiful voice or being able to do a back flip would.  Knowing this it is still hard not to be a little jealous when I see peoples other peoples talents.

I may not be able to sing but I play battleship amazingly well.

This picture doesn’t really have to do with the post but I like how it turned out.

Clutter

I feel like my house is getting to that point where I either need to get rid of a bunch of stuff or go crazy. It seems like every room has an excess of stuff it, especially the kids rooms. And thinking about adding more stuff to our house through all the birthdays and Christmas we have coming up makes me feel like undertaking a serious purge of unnecessary things.

Figuring out what is unnecessary is the tricky part though. Which unfinished projects have a realistic chance of being finished? How many pie pans do you keep around when you only make pie a few times a year but when you do it is usually 3 for 4 at once? How many tubs of kid clothes do you keep when you still have kids growing in to them but you are running out room store any more? Which books do you get rid of when you can’t fit anymore on your shelf?

I know compared to a lot of houses I have been in my house really isn’t very cluttery, but for some reason the clutter I do have has really been bugging me.

Another challenge to clutter is finding the time to get rid of it. If you try to de-clutter a kids room while the kid is around suddenly all the things they never play with become their favorite toy. And for ever closet that is cleaned out there is a mess that has to be cleaned up and a few bags of stuff that need to me gotten rid of.

But I don’t think there are many things I enjoy more that looking at a freshly decluttered room or closet. So I am going to try and go through my house in the next few weeks and get rid of a bunch of stuff. Wish me luck!

Grandpa Thompson

Michael’s grandfather passed away this week and it has been making me think about how our lives affect those around us.

It is easy to see how some people’s lives affect and influence those around them. A great teacher can positively influence the lives of hundreds of children. Inspire them to believe in themselves and do more with their lives than they thought they could. The choices made by the leaders of our country have an affect that spreads to millions of people. People like Martin Luther King and William Tyndale did amazing things with their lives and truly made the world a better place.

But most people won’t have the opportunity to be a president, lead a civil rights movement or teach hundreds of children. The sphere of people that we have an impact may seem much smaller. It may seem like what we do does not matter as much as a more “important” persons actions might. This idea is wrong.

The grandpa Thompson that I knew was a quiet person. He was always there at family gatherings. He didn’t say much unprompted, but if you sat down beside him he was happy to talk. Grandpa didn’t have good vision but he won card games amazingly often. He liked to hold his new great-grandchildren for a few minutes and admire them. Grandpa and Grandma Thompson raised five children in a two bedroom home. The same home he lived in until he passed away. Grandpa worked at Hill Air force base for 37 years. He was a good father and husband and a good person. I never heard him say an unkind thing about another person.

You might think that a quiet person who lived within the same ten mile radius his whole life might not have had a big impact on the world. It would be easy to assume that his sphere of influence was somewhat limited. But I don’t think this is true. I can see Grandpa’s reserved personality in Michael. Michael would much rather sit back and observe a conversation than have to think of something to contribute to it. I can see Grandpa’s smile in my brother-in-law who also shares his name.

Grandpa and Grandma Thompson raised five good children who have grown up to raise families of there own. He had 20 grandchildren and 24 grandchildren. I’m sure they all have a little bit of Grandpa Thompson in them. He taught his children to love and serve others, values which they passed on to there children. Those children and grandchildren have gone on to be positive influences for countless other people. Like a pebble thrown in a pond.

I don’t think it is possible to measure the impact that a single person has had on the world. But I do know that Grandpa Thompson left a positive one. When those he has left behind think of him it will be with love and desire to leave this world better than we found it. Who could want have any other impact on the world than that?

Four generations: Ray Thompson, Michael Thompson, Ron Thompson and Stephen Thompson (the baby)

Snickerdoodles and backsplashes

Some of my favorite posts to read on other peoples blogs are the ones where they just talk about what they are doing lately. So I figured I would give a post like that a try.

Monday night was FHE. Parker was assigned the lesson and when I asked him what he wanted to do a lesson about he said trains. So in an effort to keep his attention for more that 25 seconds I had him help me do a lesson about determination featuring the little engine that could. I think it might have held his attention for at least 3 minutes. For a treat we had snickerdoodles made from store bought dough which the kids really liked. It reminded how yummy homemade snickerdoodles are so I will probably be making some in the next week. I also think I will be making my aunts famous oatmeal cake because it also sounds really tasty and its not the kids favorite so I can eat most of it myself.

Tuesday during the day one of my friends volunteered to watch my kids while I did my grocery shopping. So I got to go grocery shopping, in the day, without any kids. It was awesome. Tuesday evening we drove up Provo canyon to take some pictures with pretty leaves as a backdrop. The trees that turn red were out but the ones that turn yellow were mostly still green. I think it might be worth another visit in a week or so.

Tuesday I also started reading Unlikely Heroes: Ordinary Men and Women Whose Courage Won the Revolution. It is a compilation of small stories and has been pretty good so far.

Wednesday turned into laundry day which usually goes something like this. I try to keep rotating through the machines during the day but don’t ever have time to fold it when it comes out of the dryer. So baskets of clean laundry pile up until after the kids go to bed. Then Michael turns on a episode of MacGyver (MacGyver is great laundry folding TV,) spreads a few big blankets out on the living room floor, folds our laundry and sorts the kids laundry into piles based on what drawer in will end up in (shirts, pants and pjs/underwear.) We gave up actually folding the kids clothes once they started dressing themselves because once they dig through a drawer to get what they want, folding becomes pointless. Usually the last load is coming out of the dryer while the rest of the laundry is being folded. I put the piles of clothes in to laundry baskets for each kid for them to put away the next morning.

Michael thought we needed a treat to eat while folding laundry so I made peach milkshakes which we ate out of the cool parfait glasses my grandma gave me this summer. I don’t think there is a treat that is more reminiscent of my childhood than peach milkshakes.  Chop up some frozen peaches, add milk, sugar and vanilla, blend. One of my favorite things in the world.

Today I am going to the park because it looks beautiful outside. Either tonight or tomorrow we are going to home depot to buy the tile for my new kitchen backsplash. Once it is completed my kitchen redo will be completed and I will post before and after pictures.

So what have you been doing this week?

Mud Run

Way back in the spring my awesome friend Amanda asked me to sign up to do a mud run with her. For those of you not familiar with mud runs they are basically a regular run (the one we did was a 5k) with a bunch of muddy obstacles thrown in.

I had been looking forward to the mud run all summer long. Mostly because as adults we don’t get many chances to play in mud. The particular mud run that we chose was called Kiss Me Dirty and was an all women mud run. Mud runs tend to attract a different group of people than your typical 5k. It really isn’t about speed at all so get a lot of people who would never want to do a normal 5k running in a mud run.

Shortly after we signed up Amanda said we needed to make some sort of costume. I thought it would be fun to stand out a bit from the crowd but it ended up that there were more people in costume than not.

It is hard to tell from this picture but we had capes on as well as knee high striped socks. We are the ones in the middle with the yellow shirts.

 

Crawling through a mud pit.

In the soap suds at the finish line.

We got pretty muddy but there were people even muddier. Overall it was a very fun run.

Kathryn and Parker were pretty jealous that we got to get completely muddy. Stephen was glad he didn’t have to get muddy. Amanda had a waterproof camera with her we used to to take pictures during the race. But it was a film camera and I don’t know if the pictures are developed yet.

When your hiking your happy

I am going to do a post about the coolest parts of my Glacier National Park trip but first I wanted to post about something a noticed over and over while on out trip last week.

Everyone that I met was happy and helpful. I didn’t meet a single grumpy rude person the entire trip. A maintenance man helped us put air in a low tire. We talked to some very friendly retirees on the shuttle, who found me to return my hiking pole after I left it in the shuttle. A hiker that we passed several times on our long highline trail hike gave us a ride back to our camp so we didn’t have to wait forever for a shuttle. There was the friendly biker gang  that Darcy got a picture with. And met a very friendly hippie who showed me how I could use my hiking pole as a didgeridoo and made sure I knew the dangers of pvc  (apparently it can give you cancer and give men a more feminine voice.)

All of the park rangers campers and hikers we met were fun to talk to and happy to be where they were.  I have wondered about the reason for this. Does being in such a beautiful setting make people happier? Are happy people more likely to go on a vacation to a national park? Or do grumpy people not like to go to beautiful places? Whatever the reason is I thoroughly in enjoyed spending a week around happy people.

Extreme Geocaching

 

“Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.”   http://www.geocaching.com/

My Dad and sister have been really into geocaching for quite a while ago. Darcy recently found her 800th cache and I think my Dad is past 2000 caches. Whenever they are together or away from home they can’t resist finding a few caches. As a result of hanging out with them I have found a decent amount of caches myself.

This summer Michael has been doing a lot of hiking and has gotten into caching as well. He likes to find the caches that require a long hike to get to. This week he found a few up on top of Y mountain.  When we go to a park with the kids he likes to look up a few caches nearby. Last week we went to the playground behind Provo Peaks Elementary to play a find a few caches.

Generally caches are hid in a place you can reach from standing on the ground. This one ended up being about 30 feet up the tree. I climbed trees like a monkey when I was a kid so I decided to try and get the cache.

That’s me, way up in the tree, holding the cache in my hand (it was a micro so it’s hard to see.) It was fun to climb a tree again, and my kids thought I was really cool, but I got sap all over my pants so I ‘m not sure if it was really worth it or not.

On Saturday Darcy came down to visit. We had some errands to do and after our errands we went caching. Michael had found a cache on a little island that you could wade out too. From pictures that people had posted it looked like it got about knee deep. So we decided to try it.

Here we are with the island we are wading to in the background. The water was a bit murky so it was hard to tell how deep it was.

Wading back. Its way more than knee deep. The cache ended up being on the opposite side of the island from where we went ashore. So we had to bush whack through prickly trees to get there. But we found the cache and Michael and Kathryn decided to wade out and get it too.

Kathryn was the only to find the cache and stay dry in the process.

Me and Michael after finding it. You can see from his shirt how deep the water got.

After our adventure Darcy and I were talking about it. She said if someone had said, “I will pay you ten dollars to wade through that slimy water out to the island.” She would have said no way. But for some reason decided on our own to do it because there was a cache on the island wasn’t that big of a deal.

Usually geocaching doesn’t involve wading through a lake or climbing a tree, but it was an exciting departure from the norm.

And just for kicks here is one more picture of Darcy and Michael finding a cache on our way home. I stayed in the car to watch the kids while Darcy and Michael got one more cache. I wonder what people who drove by thought when they saw  to adults, hanging out by a rock on the side of the road, with towels wrapped around there waist.

Why this blog will never be a mommy blog

You know how some moms start writing blogs and they get a bunch of people to start following their blog and after a while they actually make money by writing about how there toddler took off their diaper and smeared you-know-what all over the wall?

I have to come to the conclusion that this will never be my blog.  Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy reading a funny well written mommy blog, sometimes reading about the crazy things other moms have to put up with helps me appreciate my kids more, or not feel as frustrated when they do something crazy.  There are several mom blogs I read just because they are so hilarious, not because I actually know the mom. 

But my blog will never be a successful,  funny mom blog. I just can’t convince myself that people really want to hear all the details of potty training a kid or the embarrassing thing they said to a stranger. I don’t have a desire to write about my failures in motherhood. I like swapping crazy kid stories with my family and friends. But I don’t want to put it out there for the whole blog reading world to read about, comment on and criticize. I like to get other peoples take on things and to share and receive advice, but I want the advice to be from someone’s whose opinion I value and not some stranger in Ohio who knows a sure fire way to potty train a kid in a week.

It’s nice to be able to share my frustrating parenting moments with people who knowledge of me isn’t based only on the stories of my kids shenanigans that are funny enough to gain a following of readers. People who will be able to laugh when I tell them about the ridiculous fit my daughter threw because I wouldn’t carry her towel for her when we left the water park without thinking that I can’t control my kids, because they also see me the other 99% (ok maybe 90%) of the time when my kids are normal well behaved children.

I suppose I shouldn’t care if some random stranger thinks I am a horrible mom because the only time one of my sons gets veggies is when it is mixed into a fruity drink and  I’m sure there is probably somebody out there who would be happy to give me some advice on how I could change that. But the truth is that I do care what people think and I don’t want to hear what a stranger who has never met my kid thinks would be best. I am hard enough on myself when it comes to parenting and I don’t want to leave myself open to any extra advice or criticism by writing about my struggles as a mom where anyone can read them and comment on them.

So I hope my readers are not disappointed by a lack of  posts about motherhood because it is never going to happen on this blog. I hope you are all fine with occasional posts about me and whatever I happen to feel like sharing. If you want to hear about the crazy things my kids have done, or the funniest conversation about poop with a three year old you have ever heard, then next time you see me ask. I love talking with people who know me and care about me and are actually interested in my stories. We can swap stories, share cool tips that have worked for us and laugh about the ridiculous things that happen while trying to raise a kid.

Meanwhile I am glad that there are moms out there who know how to write well and enjoy documenting the ups and downs of parenting. Then I can keep reading my favorite mommy blogs without writing one of my own.

I am curious what other people think about mommy blogs. I am the only person who feels this way? Do you love them, hate them or write one yourself? Let me know what you think.

IVs

Prepare for a sappier than normal post.

I have often thought about how I am glad I was born when I was. I really enjoy modern technology. I am glad that even though my parents live over 500 miles away I can drive to see them in one (long) day. I think microwaves are amazing. I love that I can chat with Michael on my computer while he is at work. Being a parent without disposable diapers, wet wipes and onesies would be much more of a hassle. I'm sure I would have survived living without all these conveniences, but I'm glad I don't have to.

Last week a nasty virus made its way through our family. Everyone was affected somewhat but it hit Parker especially hard. After three days of being very sick Parker ended up in the hospital because he was extremely dehydrated. It took 7 different people at two and half hours and about 10 different pokes to successfully get an IV into him (he was so dehydrated it was very difficult to find a vein.)

 As the nurses were trying to get an IV into Parker I thought of my parents at the hospital about 30 years ago, in a much more serious situation, with my sister Darcy. When she was two she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her chance of survival were not incredibly high. I remember the story of one of the first times she was in the hospital and they poked her over 20 times before they were able to get an IV in. I remember my mom saying how helpless she felt and how hard it was to watch them hurt her little girl even though they were trying to make her better. As I sat on the hospital holding Parker on my lap, keeping the barf bag near his mouth while the nurses poked and prodded him, I got a glimpse of what my parents went through with my sister for several years. Despite the odds Darcy made a full recovery and now spends her time editing, geocaching and convincing my children that there is more than one name for what they call pajamas.

After about 24 hours of having an IV pump fluids him Parker was feeling much better. When I had to follow him around the pediatric floor of the hospital with his IV stand I knew he was ready to come home. After a day or two of resting and gradually eating more than crackers and apple juice Parker was back to normal.

But if we had lived a hundred years ago, or in a different part of the world today this story could have ended with Parker dying of the flu instead of spending a day in the hospital, in a private room watching Tarzan over and over, then going home and fully recovering. I know that I am very lucky that my children haven't had any serious health problems. And I am grateful for this. I also know that this might not always be true. I have friends and family who have spent many days at a hospital with their sick children. They are in my thoughts and prayers. And even with the amazing technology we have sometimes we still lose someone we love.

As far as medical technolgy goes I don't think getting an IV of fluids is very tricky. But it saved his life. Yes I am glad I live now when I can watch Netflix from my bluray player and send my dad pictures of my kids from my phone. But I am even more glad to be alive during a time of immunizations, chemotherapy, antibiotics and other lifesaving medical technology. I am glad loosing children in an accident or disease is a rare tragedy and not something that most woman have to deal with. I know this is still not the case throughout the world and I do my best to support the organzations and people who are fighting to change this.

So here is to technology, both medical and otherwise, and all the wonderful things it brings to my life.

Anticipation

 

   Right now I am waiting for the window guy to come and measure some windows so we can can get them replaced. And I am really excited. About windows. But it is more than just a few windows. It will be the last of the major things we want to improve on our house. It is something I have been anticipating for the nearly 6 years we have been in this house.

We moved into the house knowing there were a lot of things we would want to upgrade and we have slowly made our way through the list. Furnace, air conditioner, water heater, roof, doors and windows. They are all projects that were too big to do on our own.

I have been looking forward to finishing these projects since we bought the house. Each time we are able to complete one I get excited about the new improvement. I enjoyed the cool air flowing through the house when we got air conditioning and felt relief when we were able to replace our leaky roof. I felt like throwing a party when we replaced our front door and I was able to stop putting a rag in the gap too keep the cold air out in the winter. Hooray for doors you can’t see light and feel a breeze coming through!

Darcy came over last night to start planning out our, sure to be amazing, trip to Glacier Nation Park in August. It got me all pumped up to go, even though it is still three months away.

Planning our awesome trip and waiting for the window guy (who is getting close to being late) has made me spend sometime thinking about anticipation. Maybe I am just easily excitable but the anticipation of something is a big part of the enjoyment for me. I love looking forward to something, thinking about how much fun it will be and planning it. Sometimes I get so excited I have dreams about whatever it is I am anticipating. Dreams about new windows, amazing sales for kids stuff or hikes right on the side of a huge mountain.

I like to plan things I know I will enjoy way out in advance, then I have even longer to time to think about how awesome it is going to be. So here is my list of the biggest things I am currently anticipating.

1. Danl and Belinda moving to Utah for the summer. They will only be here for a few months, but I am so excited to have them near by. Less than two weeks! And getting to meet their baby girl who is due in September. Kathryn will get a girl cousin!

2. Replacing the last of the windows in our house! Which, according to the window guys I just talked to should be installed by May 25.

3. Kathryn’s dance recital and Stephen’s track meet. It will be a first for both of them and I am excited to see how they do.

4. Family reunion/ Moses Lake summer trip. One of the few bad things about Utah is that it is a long day’s drive away from Washington. I am so excited to hangout with my family.

5. Our awesome trip to Glacier National Park this summer. No kids are coming. It is going to be a blast.

6. The 5k mud run my super awesome friend Amanda and I are doing in August. I think a three mile muddy obstacle course sounds like a blast.

7. The really big, beautiful king sized quilt my awesome mother-in-law is making for me. It will be big enough to hang over the side of my king size bed. I picked out the pattern and colors (cream, light yellow and a really deep red.) She is going to hand quilt it and submit it in the Utah State Fair in August. I know it will turn out amazing.

8. Darcy making her trifle some time soon. I have been close to eating some twice in the past month but it hasn’t happened yet.

9. My kids being big enough to go on a family bike ride (not walking while the kids ride on their scooters and tricycles) on the Provo River Trail. This is a ways off, but it will be so cool.

I am getting excited just thinking about all the exciting things I have to be excited about!

So what are you anticipating now?

Running and my dad

The only thing I know about my moms labor with me is that she got mad at my Dad because he was watching the summer Olympics at the hospital while she was having contractions. He was probably watching track. Most of my pajamas as a toddler were my dad’s running T-Shirts that he got from various races.  Dad now thinks of training for marathons as a hobby, some people build a new model air plane every few months, my dad runs a marathon every few months.

Whenever I got new shoes as a kid I was sure that they would help me run faster. In third grade we were timed running a mile. I ran it 7 minutes and 47 seconds. Which is pretty decent for an 8 year old. Of course my dad was excited that one of his five kids might like running too. Soon I was on the Baron Park Striders track team. From the very beginning of my running career I gravitated towards long distances. When I was 9 I talked the officials at the Hersey track meet into let me run in the mile even though you technically had to be 10 years old to qualify.

I did track all through middle school and added cross country in high school. I was never one of the fastest runners but I enjoyed myself and always did my best. Dad would take me to the track and time me running splits and talk racing strategy with me. He always picked a few meets each season and left work early so he could come cheer me on. That meant a lot to me.

As I got older and busier it became harder and harder to fit running into my day. Soon after Stephen was born I decided wanted to start running again. Dad said he would come to Utah and run a marathon with me if I wanted. So I began to train. The thing about training for a marathon when you have a little baby at home who doesn’t believe in sleeping for longer than 3 hours at a time is that you are exhausted at the beginning of your run as well as at the end. I somehow managed to run a marathon when Stephen was 8 months old. I hadn’t done nearly enough training but I finished, with my dad at my side.

Two kids later I was feeling flabbier than I ever had before and knew I wanted to get back in shape. After a few weeks of running I decided to run another marathon. I called Dad and he said he was in. So I began to train again. Saturday afternoons I would call dad and see how far he had ran that week and compare our training routines. I trained right this time and felt much more prepared for the race.

The middle of June came around and I was ready. We were running in the Utah Valley Marathon and it had a beautiful course that started way up Provo Canyon and ended about half a mile from my house. We got on the bus to take us to the start at about 4:30 a.m.

And then it started raining, and raining for about the first 13 miles of the race. And not a light trickily rain it was a pouring until your toes are squishing in the water in your shoes rain. My dad told me that out of the nearly 20 marathons he had run that one had the worst conditions. We finished though, and I was in better shape than I had been in years.

I had every intention of continuing to run after the marathon. It didn’t happen though. I blame it on baby number four who I was actually 6 weeks pregnant with when I ran the marathon. I was soon to tired to do anymore than keep up with 3 kids and running got dropped from my schedule.

William (baby number four) has easily taken the award for most needy baby. It seems like his goal for the first year of life was to prevent me from accomplishing anything other than taking care of him. It you want proof of this look at the dishes in my sink. Gratefully he is starting to grow out of this and I don’t feel completely exhausted at the end of every day. Enough so that I have began to exercise again.

I started out with exercise videos in my living room and since the weather outside has been better I have been walking, which can be quite the work out when you are trying to walk fast while pushing three kids in a stroller. Now that it is not dark when Michael gets home from work I might actually have some time to go out running.  And I am excited. I love the tingly exhausted feeling my muscles you get after a good run.

Running plays a different role in my life now than it did when I was a teenager but it is still important to me. It’s not about racing in a track meet or getting a personal best time anymore. It’s about getting out of the house, taking a break and doing something for me. And my Dad has been there with me no matter what my running goal has been.

My parents are visiting next week. I think I will ask my dad if he wants to go for a run.

Being tall doesn’t make you good at basketball

I enjoy running. I am a decent volleyball player. I am not a basketball player. Growing up I would occasionally play a game of HORSE with my brothers or dad. I played in PE when we had to. I like watching basketball if it is a team that I care about, but since we don’t have TV that doesn’t happen very much.

Despite my lack of basketball skills I joined our wards women’s basketball team. It gives me a chance to get out and socialize and we have a fun team. When I joined the team the other women assumed that I would be a good player. I think it is because at 5’ 10’’ I am the tallest lady on the team. It didn’t take long for everyone on my team to realize that height does not equal basketball skill. Fortunately they didn’t really care if I was any good and were all just playing to have a good time.

It’s a good thing everyone on our team has that attitude because the only game we won was the one where the other team had to forfeit because they didn’t have enough players. Officially they forfeited the game but we scrimmaged against them just for fun. They still won even though they were playing with only four people and we had a full team with a few extras to sub in.

When I first started playing with the the ward I was pretty clueless about the finer points of the game. Basically I knew you tried to get baskets and you can’t double dribble. But the details like, not staying three seconds in the key, what a jump ball is and the various ways you could foul someone were a mystery. Often players from the opposing team would give me pointers. I think they figured they didn’t have to worry much when they were twenty points ahead. I have learned most of the rules out but I still don’t always know what is going on.

The hardest thing for me in basketball is being aggressive. I am just not really a in your face kind of person. Cross-country and track aren’t really the most aggressive sports. I must have made some progress in being aggressive though because I actually got a foul called on me in our last game. I’m not sure what I did.

Last night was our stake tournament. Since we were seeded last we played the teamed that had the best record. Which meant we didn’t really have a chance. It was a fun game though. The final score was 18-48. And amazingly enough 8 of those 18 points were scored by me. Maybe being tall does have some benefits.

Bread and computers

I have been thinking about some things that were a treats or luxury to my parents generation that are taken for granted now, like baby wipes and computers.  There are so many things now that make my life easier and help me save time; microwaves, Easy Mac, email, onsies, Wikepedia, Wal Mart, disposable diapers, cell phones, vacuums, Google Maps, Magic Erasers, really the list could go on and on. Yet even with all these helpful, time savings devices I am still always busy and barely able to keep up with things.

I have also been thinking about things that my parents had that my generation and my children’s generation would consider treats now. Homemade bread topped with home made blackberry jam. Being able to let kids wander around the neighborhood with out worrying about them. No lines to go through security at an airport. Chicken soup with homemade noodles. Being able to put a significant amount of gas in your car with the change found in your pocket. Receiving a hand written letter in your mailbox. These are things that some of my generation and eve more of my children’s generation have never experienced.

The tricky thing about all the wonderful time savings inventions and technology is if they are not used wisely they can suck up our time and make life less enjoyable. Smucker’s will never taste as good as home made blackberry-peach jam made from berries you picked yourself. It is much faster to research and write a paper on a computer, but countless hours can be wasted on the internet. Watching Diego won’t ever be as fun as building a blanket fort or playing hide and go seek in the dark. It is all about balance. There has to be a way to use technology to make life easier without being consumed by it.

To help find this balance I started making my own bread last month. It is the perfect balance of technology and simplicity. I use my fancy new Bosch to knead the bread in just a few minutes, instead of having to crank a bread bucket for what seemed like forever as a kid. But I use my great grandpa’s recipe that has only 6 ingredients in it. My family has been using this recipe for over 100 years. I shape the loaves myself and about once a week my kids get to smell the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the house. They eat peanut sandwiches on slightly uneven slices of bread, and every once in a while we can have scones for dinner.

My great grandpa Wight who used this whole wheat recipe his whole life.

Hopefully my kids will learn that the best food isn’t bought in stores, and the best memories aren’t made from playing a computer game. I know it will take some work but I want my house to be more unplugged, for me and my kids. I want to take advantage of technology and use it to enrich my life and simplify it. So here is to more puppet shows and less Netflix re-runs. More red light green light and less video games. More books and less flash games.

How do you balance technology in your life?

Goodreads

I have known about Goodreads for a long time. I like the idea of keeping track of books you have read and getting recommendations based on what you have already read and what your friends like. I have been relunctant because like facebook, and pinterest, it is one more than that become a time sucker. However I have been getting a lot of recommendations from friends of books to read lately and I couldn't remember them all. So I decided to try it and got an account today. After spending about 15 minutes putting books that I have read in and setting my preferences I already have 22 books on my to-read list. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

I love reading and I do a lot of it. I read to gain learn things and just for entertainment. I would rather read a really good book than watch a really good movie. But that doesn't mean that I can't waste time by reading. It is important to be able to put a book down and do things like, cleaning the kitchen and playing pillow plop with kids.

I am hoping that having an actual list of books that I want to read will be a good thing. Theoretically ( it took me a few minutes to decide if I spelled that right, it still looks funny to me) I can spend time reading only books that I really want to instead of just what happens to be in at the library. Or I could spend all my time trying to read all the books on my never ending list and not get other important things done.

Here's hoping that I use my list wisely and that goodreads turns out to be a time saver and not a time sucker.

And if you want you can be my friend on goodreads.

Exciting things in my life lately

1. I successfully made rolls with my new Bosch mixer. They were a big hit.

2. My freezer’s ice machine no longer spits out blue gogurt chunks when you put ice in your cup.

3. I got to watch Stephen win his first grade spelling bee. The winning word was sparkle.

4. I put batteries in the clock in the hutch in my living room that has not been working in several years. It is no longer always 11:30.

5. I made delicious brown cow drinks in my ice cream machine.

6. I think I have settled on colors for the new king size quilt I am going to commission my mother-in-law to make for my bed. I want a quilt that is big enough to hang over the sides of my king size bed.

7. William actual sat on my lap long enough to to fall asleep today. He never does this and I love holding sleeping babies.

8. I am about half way through naming and organizing all the pictures on my computer.

9. I got to touch a really big alive snake at the Monte L. Bean Museum.

10. I discovered the Marketfresh green beans Wal Mart sells in there produce section. They come in a bag and are fresh and taste so good.

11. I made an impressive (at least impressive to a 3 year old) Lightning McQueen birthday cake as well as a chocolate cake with a picture of an apple on it.

12. I have gotten back into the groove of personal scripture study.

13. I got my annual hair cut and realized again that I should probably get haircuts more often.

14. I discovered kettle bells and have began working out regularly.

15. I read Darcy’s most updated version of her book and can’t wait to see how it all ties together.

It has been a good few weeks. What have you done that was cool lately?

Say Lettuce

I don’t have very many good picture of Michael and I. Mom took this one of us while we were visiting for Christmas. I really like it so I thought I would share.

I just realized that I can make pictures bigger after I put them in the post. Cool.

Organization bug

I really like to organize and put things in order. Whenever I go to my mom’s house she has me organize the canned food in her pantry. I am not however, especially good at keeping things organized. So I go through cycles. Organize, slowly build up clutter and get unorganized and then purge and reorganization.

The last few months I was in the build up clutter and get unorganized part of the cycle. I knew something was going to have to be done about it especially after trying to find homes for new Christmas presents.

So when we got home from Moses Lake for Christmas I went on an organization and stuff purging binge. I started with the game cupboard and got rid of a big box full of games and puzzles we never used anymore to make room for a few new games we got for Christmas.

I also cleaned out my bedroom closet, Kathryn’s closet, the dining room closet (which I suppose is a weird place for a closet) and most notably the kitchen. Instead of watching TV or reading after we put the kids to bed I have been cleaning things out (Michael has been helping too.) I have a few areas I want to clean out but I think so far I have been very successful.

Here is one example. It would be much more impressive if I had remembered to take a before picture. You will just have to trust me that it is a vast improvement.

This is the area above my cupboards in my kitchen. It used to be full of stuff; vases, Halloween candy pails, otter pops, big bowls, ice cube trays, etc. I was able to get rid of a enough stuff and move things around enough to get everything off the top of my cupboards except for my biggest stainless steel bowl and a breakfast tray that won’t fit in my cupboards. Having all the empty space up there makes my kitchen look very white. I think I am going to but something decorative up there.

Last night I brought six boxes of stuff, a TV and a computer monitor to our Relief Societies bring and take table. All of it came from reorganizing my house. The best part was that anything nobody wanted got taken to the DI, so I don’t have to have it around anymore.