easter thoughts

I don't usually write about spiritual things on the internet, but the Easter spirit seems to have gotten the best of me. I taught our relief society lesson today (Chapter 6, Becoming Perfect Before the Lord), so I've had these thoughts swimming in my mind all week.

When I read through the lesson and realized that it was for Easter Sunday I couldn't help but think the timing was perfect. Is there a better day to discuss the importance of relying on the Lord and accepting his divine help to improve ourselves than Easter? A wise woman pointed out that becoming perfect is about balance. I want to be a good person everyday, but some days life feels too hard. There are so many things I need to work on I don't know how I will ever do it all. I like to think I am a patient mother, sensitive wife and thoughtful friend, but some days I struggle to be even one of those things. I am grateful that through the Atonement of Christ I can become better each day. On this Easter Sunday I am grateful to be reminded to come unto Christ. For the reminder to stop wasting my time worrying about the ways I am not enough and to just come unto Him. Lorenzo Snow said, "Do not expect to become perfect at once. If you do, you will be disappointed. Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.”  I love the optimism in that statement, and it's hard for me to think very much about the Easter story and not feel hopeful.

2013 :: week 12

Sunday afternoon we were all feeling pretty cold. It was a gray day too, which made it seem even colder. Because the weather had been so nice on Thursday and Friday I turned our heat off and had forgotten about it once it turned cold again. We turned the heat back on and expected things to warm up fairly soon. It did not. As the night went on it got colder and we realized our heater was broken. We wore extra clothes to bed and put extra blankets on the kids. Good thing, when we woke up Monday morning it was 54 degrees in our house. We were able to get someone to our house Monday morning who solved the problem in about 5 minutes and our house warmed up pretty quickly.

Apparently our kids aren't the only ones in the family who throw tantrums. This is the scene of my "tantrum" Monday night. I volunteered to make a cake for our Relief Socity birthday party Tuesday and set about to make it after the kids went to bed. I was in a hurry and doubled one ingredient, which turned out to be a costly mistake. I ended up burning out the motor in my hand mixer and had to make a quick trip to Target to get a new one. Then I had to clean up the cement-like mess before I could start the process over again. I think I must have been tired (none of us slept very well the night before due to the chilly temperatures) because when Anthony tried to help me I started going off about hard and unfair my life was. Obvioiusly this in not true, but I really did feel that way in the moment. Luckily my second attempt was successful.

Will and I attempted to grow some wheat grass for Easter this year. We soaked the wheat last Thursday and had been watering the seeds each day since. Sunday we started to notice some sprouts. When we checked on them Tuesday we could see grass! We were both very excited. The grass grows really fast. There is significantly more growth in this picture (taken in the evening) than there was in the morning.

Wednesday we went to Kalediescope with a group of friends, organized by my friend Susan. Because of spring break it was more crowded than other times we had gone, so Lauren was stuck in the stroller. Initially I let her walk about a bit, but she just darted off, and since she is so short it was hard to keep track of her. She was pretty upset with me when I put her in the stroller, but I was able to win her back a bit when we went in the dark room and she got to hold the glow wand. Will had a great time painting and "making art projects."

I've mentioned before that Will likes to help in the kitchen, and how it can be annoying. Lately I have been trying to come up with things he can do that are within his skill level that are actually helpful. I've started letting him help me chop veggies with a plastic knife. He does a pretty good job with peppers and onions. He is usually very careful and I don't dread him demanding to help in the kitchen as much anymore.

Friday night I hosted a baby shower for my friend, Lindsay. Lindsay and her husband moved to Kansas a few months ago and then she got put on bedrest, so we had the shower after her baby was born. Her baby, Hailey is so tiny and beautiful. I forgot how delicate newborns are, although my newborns were never quite as small as Hailey. We did a few crafts and snacked on some good food.

Saturday morning I particiapted in the Diva Dash 5K. I signed up to run this race around Christmas to keep me motivated to exercise this winter. This was, of course, before it snowed this winter. Training for the last month was pretty tough, and I didn't run once in the past week for various reasons. I feel pretty good about it though. I am proud of myself for doing it even though I was exhausted because Lauren woke me up 4 times in the night, it was freezing cold, and my calf had been bothering me. Some accomplishments: I have gotten pretty good at pacing and breathing, which don't seem like very big accomplishments, but for me they are. It was pretty cold (32 degrees at the start) and I thought my hands were going to fall off for the first mile. I accidentally burning my finger with a glue gun Saturday night, and it was strange how similar the pain was to the ache I felt in my hands when they were freezing that morning.

2013 :: week 11

Lauren is very "busy" right now, and because of this we spend a lot of our time at church in the halls now. She is usually good for the first hour, but after that she wants to move. She's taken to screaming half the time we walk into the relief society room (where we have both Sunday School and Relief Society). On this particular Sunday we ended up in the foyer where she carried our animals across the foyer and carefully positioned them on the chairs, one at a time.

Anthony left early Monday morning for DC for the work week, so I was left with a week of evenings to myself. After sharing a delicious meal and FHE with friends I came home, put the kids to bed, and got out some craft supplies. I had fun putting together a few Easter decorations.

I don't know what I have done to deserve them, but I have been given the best visiting teachers in each ward I have lived in since we've been married. Last summer when Lauren was in the hospital my current visiting teachers made us a (delicious) meal. I asked for the recipe, but Maria doesn't have it written down, she just makes it from memory. She said she would come "show me" how to make it, so on Tuesday afternoon Maria came over and she taught me how to prepare her delicious pasta with fresh veggies and homemade red sauce. Mmmm. So good. Then Becky, my other VT stopped by and brought us some of the best brownies I have ever eaten. Perfectly soft, topped with mint frosting and Andy's mints.

"Let me walk," he said. "I'll be good," he said. "I'll hold on to the cart," he said. So much for pre-trip promises. In his defense he actually was very good the rest of the trip. In the cart.

Thursday we got some much needed vitamin D. Going outside with a mobile Lauren is a new experience. Since she didn't start walking until January, this was the first time we spent much time outside with her on the move. She's much more fearless than Will is, so it wasn't very relaxing since I was constantly adjusting her routes, but we didn't care because the weather was gorgeous.

Due to a variety of reasons we didn't do a great job winterizing our yard last fall. So beautiful weather on Friday and TJ finally back home worked out for an afternoon and evening of raking. We filled up the water table to keep the kids entertained, and of course they both got soaked. Lauren only chewed on about 30 rocks, down from 50 the day before, so we are seeing improvement there. Between fishing rocks out of her mouth and taking away several large sticks from Will, we were able to fill 6 bags with leaves. Working hard feels good. I slept so well Friday night.

Saturday night we made all of Will's dreams come true. We ate dinner at the new Hy-Vee. The first time we shopped there Will noticed the large kitchen area and stairs and wanted to check them out.  Will enjoyed watching shoppers below from our table upstairs and I enjoyed not having to cook or clean up a meal. The food was pretty good too.

2013 :: week 10

I introduced Will and Lauren to the magic that is The Children's Video Songbook Sunday before church. My sisters and I grew up watching this on VHS and I knew it was something the kids would enjoy. "Everybody's Gotta Have a Body" is now on Will's most requested list. It's pretty awesome to watch him imitate their choreography. If you've never heard the song before click on the link and start the video at about 12 minutes in.

Nana and Papa gave Will this kid's digital camera for his birthday. He loves taking pictures, but lately he's enjoyed playing the games on it even more.

Typical breakfast scene at the John house. Even though the kids always wake up about 20 minutes before I'd like them to, our breakfasts are usually pretty peaceful. I think I'd even go so far as to say that I like our current breakfast routine. Lately Will has been eating Honey Nut Cherrios (dry) and a slice a bread with some nutella ("chocolate bread"), which he washes down with some milk (1 or 2%). Lauren has a bowl of rice cereal and fruit (typically a banana but occasionally strawberries), and a tall bottle of rice milk. I've been eating Smart One's breakfast wraps and a grapefruit. Anthony usually has cold cereal or a poptart, which he eats before the rest of us are up.

On Wednesday it was my turn to host our co-op preschool. We read the book Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC, and talked about letters of the alphabet. Specifically lower-case letters. I bought a bunch of dry pinto beans and buried lower-case letter magnets under them, then let the kids take turns finding the letters and matching them to letter flashcards. After they matched all the letters I let them play with beans for a few minutes. Will has played with those same beans for at least an hour each day since. Best $5 I ever spent at Aldi.

On Thursday I attempted an epic shopping trip--HyVee, Aldi, Costco and Target. We only were able to make it the first two stores before the kids had had enough and I realized I left my Costco card at home. My goal is to shop less by really planning our meals, including breakfast, lunch and snacks. We made some baby steps on Thursday, even if we weren't able to get everything done I had hoped.

Friday I had to get out and go for a run. Back in December I signed up to run a 5K this spring to keep me motivated to exercise. I guess the warm winter we had last year tricked me into thinking I would be able to train outside for one this year. Yes, I see the dedicated runners out there even in the adverse conditions, so I shouldn't use the snow as an excuse, but I am not in that class of runners. In fact, I am more of a jogger. Anyway, this is what I was up against. Most of the snow had melted, except for the spots where it had been piled up after it had been pushed out of the road.

I had such high hopes for this weekend. The weather was supposed to warm(er)! The sun was gonig to shine! We were going to get out and do something fun as a family! In the end it was cold and rainy and between Anthony and I being busy for various reasons and the kids being uber grouchy, a quick trip to Price Chopper to see the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile and a walk around South Lake Park was the best family activity I could come up with. Luckily our kids are still pretty easy to please, and had a fun time. Will keeps talking about seeing the big car that looks like a hot dog and they both loved watching the ducks at the park, so I think we were able to salvage the weekend after all. Also worth mentioning, we put the kids to bed at 6:30pm Saturday night. They were both really grumpy, and we figured with the time change we might as well let them get the extra sleep. They both fell asleep almost within minutes and Tony and I got to watch some movies together.

2013 :: week 9

The dinner I made Sunday night was supposed to be a simple tortilla soup. It's pretty simple, you put some veggies, beans and broth in the crockpot for several hours, then blend. I had a little mishap as I was blending and part of the blender lid fell in the blender. I should have been thinking better, but I was running behind schedule and it was Sunday (meaning our dinner options were more limited) so we went ahead and ate it. I fished out most of the chunks before serving it, but we all ate veeeery slowly. The whole experience reminded me of the young women's lessons about how just one bad part ruins the entire thing.

I was wary when I saw that it was supposed to snow again on Monday, so I determined we would get out of the house and enjoy ourselves before we were homebound again. We met our friends and attended a library storytime, then decided to have lunch at McDonald's because we just wanted to be out of the house for as long as possible.

Tuesday was the snow day I had been dreading. It actually wasn't so bad. Tony still had to work (from home) but after work he played piano for awhile. I enjoyed letting him serenade me while I read.

The snow this round was heavy and wet. Lots of branches were down. Several of the big trees in our neighborhood lost limbs. A big, beautiful tree in our neighbor's yard sustained so much damage it had to be cut down.

While Will was at preschool Lauren and I went to the library and played together. Lauren and I don't get a lot of time just the two of us. I really enjoyed following her around as she went from activity station to station. Despite the fact that she tried to escape the children's area multiple times, I think she had fun too.

Friday night we went to a wedding reception for the daughter of some friends from church. Will was mesmerized by the chocolate fountain. This is just one of many, many strawberries he dipped.

My cousin Kristen and her husband Nick got sealed at the Kansas City Temple on Saturday afternoon. My aunt and uncle as well as a few other cousins also came to town, so we spent a lot of time visiting with them. It was so much fun. I loved all the storytelling and catching up.