Growing up?

I've been trying to decide something lately:

Is the world getting more complicated or am I just growing up?


I am not sure of the answer, although it's most likely both. Let me explain.

Lately, it seems like everyone around me is surrounded with trials. And I'm not taking your every day trials. Some of these trials you can see. But most, you can't.

Some of these trials that my family and friends are facing include:

Health problems
Loss of spouse
Addiction to prescription drugs
Abortion
Loss of job and income
Infertility
Pornography addiction
Communication problems in marriage
Depression and anxiety
Addictions to drugs and alcohol
Bankruptcy
Death of a child
Inadequacy

I could probably go on, but these are honestly trials going on around me. In my own family members and in my own neighborhood.

If you know me very well, you know that I am a spiritual person. I feel that we are here on this crazy, beautiful Earth to show our Creator that we can be good little creations, in spite of our mortal flaws and vices. We all will fall, but we have the chance to get up again. Over and over. Thank Heaven for that!

It just seems to me that these issues, major issues, are more common today than they were 20 years ago. Or maybe it's just that 20 years ago I was about to turn 10 and I had the best childhood a kid could ask for. Sure, we had our hardships growing up. My dad was without work a few times. But I didn't really notice. I honestly had a carefree childhood. I am truly grateful for that.

So many of my friends, and even a couple of my own siblings, did NOT have a carefree childhood. So many have grown up with scars of abuse and mistreatment. So many adults struggle every day with the effects of their actions or the actions of others.

In my own adult life, I have had to deal with some big issues. I have felt the bitter pains of hurt. Hurt that has come from the actions of another. Hurt that has made me feel like dying would be better than feeling that pain. A few years ago, I didn't think that anyone else would understand that.

But since I'm growing up...I realize that I'm not the only one. My family, my friends, and my neighbors have problems. Some are big and some are small. Sometimes we think that someone we know has the "perfect life" or the "perfect marriage."

Sometimes we place judgements on others based on what we see.

But we don't see the grieving of a mother for the child they long for. You can't see the physical need for alcohol someone is struggling to fight back.

You can't see it...but if you're open and loving, you can feel it.

A friend of mine recently shared with me that she had an abortion over 5 years ago. I was shocked, but mostly that she hadn't told me this before. We have talked for hours at a time over the last few years that we've known each other and she is very open. This was obviously not something she shares regularly.

That day I felt part of her pain with her. We cried together as she wondered what she lost. The hurt is still strong for her and she feels it every day.

I recently heard a wise man say, "Life is messy." I'm not sure how much more accurately I could have put it.

But in the midst of all that mess and confusion, there is love and hope. We, God's little creations, can help one another through life's bumps and bruises. Instead of judging, gossiping and avoiding, we can embrace, sympathize and work to understand.

Growing up is hard. Some days, I am not too fond of it. I often miss the lazy, innocent days of my childhood when I never wondered if I would have food or shelter and I was ignorant enough not to know how grateful I should have been. Most days though, I am thankful for the problems I have had and DO have in my life. They are messy but the messiest of trials in my life have resulted in the happiest feelings in my life.

And I think that that is what life is all about.

May ends, summer begins, and stuff

May ended! Yea! Schools out! I am so happy to have my kids home with me. It's been several weeks now and I have only had one time that I felt like sending them away. Haha! We are enjoying going to the park, library, or just being lazy.

Cleod started piano in January and just graduated into the next level of books. He's really enjoying it and I love that!

In this picture, he has a picture book on the piano and is making up a song to go along with the story. It was actually kind of cute too!

I have reconstituted QUIET TIME as well, and the boys are so good. Can you believe that 3 boys can be quiet for 30-60 minutes in the same room while their sister sleeps in the next room? I can. My boys rock. It helps that Cleod and Ryan are good readers and *usually* are good examples for Granty.

Cleod and his teacher on the last day of school.

Ryan and his teacher on the last day of school.
The big boys started baseball. Cleod's doing machine pitch and getting pretty good. Ryan is playing t-ball and is pretty bored. Because of his birthday and being the youngest in his grade, he's with kids that haven't gone to school yet. I don't know if that makes a difference, but I think he would have had more fun with machine pitch. Oh well.

Here's Grant at one of Cleod's games.

I have to pack lots of snacks and water for each game, but it's been fun.

Cora is getting big and cute. And crazy. She runs around making puppy noises. She has been saying "Ry ry" for Ryan for a month or two now. That's a big deal, because she only says a handful of words. Just this past week she's been saying Cleod. It sounds like "Cow" which makes it even more adorable. She calls Silas, "Papa" which is also absolutely adorable.

Cute girl!
Ryan at friend's birthday party.

Me and my big boys before I took them to our town's community theater production on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was so fun!

After the play, Ryan said, "Can I be in a play like that?" (There was a good-sized children's chorus in the play.) Me: "Actually, yes, you can!"

This last semester, Ryan has been in a little song and dance group. He really enjoyed it and I thought that maybe we'd do it again, but we had free tuition this semester and I didn't know if we could afford putting him in again. Every time I would pick him up though, he would be SO happy. Then we went to the concert. He was actually really good! There were a few other boys and most of them got distracted or looked bored but he was trying so hard and had some good moves. In fact, after one spin thing, Silas whispered to me, "Did you see that?" It was so cute.

Anyway, the group is going to be practicing in the fall to be in the community theater's next production, Annie, in January. I am really excited. I've even wondered about auditioning. I probably won't, but I am going to be involved with it for sure.

So we're going to enjoy the crazy baseball schedule in June, be super lazy in July, start August with a much anticipated family reunion and gear up for fall. (Not only do we have school and dance and normal life, and holidays, but all the kids' birthdays are from August to December! Need some serious lazy time before that comes.)

Why...

I have been neglecting my family blog lately. This is why.

1. I have 4 kids under 7.

2. Two of those 4 kids are in school, but 1 is in Kindergarten so I am taking kids to school all day it seems.

3. I have been blogging regularly on my food storage blog, Simple Self-Reliance.

4. I have also started getting more and more involved in family history. I am starting a family history blog called My Ancestors...All Part of Me.

I have tons of pictures of the kids to put up, but maybe I will just try to keep up from now on instead of trying to catch up.

My first real quilting experience

My mother-in-law, Joleen, is visiting from Washington state this weekend. Yea! She happened to bring some fabric with her, so in the last TWO days we have each made a bag (I made a bag for Cleod to carry his piano books in) one table runner and almost a topper for a quilt that will someday be Cora's.

Joleen taught me this fun and random way of quilting. You sew strips, end to end. Here is the long strip for a table runner to go on my piano. (The fabric is left over from some pillows my mom made me.)

Then, you bring the bottom up and sew the sides together. In the case of the runner, we divided the strip into 3 pieces and sewed them together.
Front and back of runner before final sewing.
Finished runner for piano. Love it! I'm so happy with it!

As Joleen ironed and cut, I sewed. Here I am sewing strips together for the quilt. You can see the pile of fabric strips on the floor. It seemed like FOREVER, but it came together quite nicely.

Pile of sewn strips.
Joleen had another pack of the same fabric that was cut in triangles, so we decided to use those for a border.
After a quick trip to the fabric store and several hours of sewing, here is the quilt progress after Day 2.

Now that I know what I'm doing (sort of), I am going to take a break. I have a good idea of how to finish the front, but I need to pick a backing and then get it quilted. It won't be really soon, but I am so excited to have a nice, old-fashioned-looking quilt for Cora to enjoy someday that was made by her mom and her Grandma Aitchison.

Aitchison update

So, I am copying this idea from my cute cousin Meredith. Just wanted to document some of the things that are going on with each of us right now.

Silas- Going on his 6th year at the bank. Good stable job, although he wishes for his dream job. Doesn't everyone? My job, then, is to continue to make him feel good about himself in general so he doesn't get too discouraged. :)

He is the Financial Clerk in our ward at church, which means he helps pay bills and count the donations. It's a good calling for him and he loves working with the Bishopric. He is trying to play racquetball once or twice a week. He loves it and it makes him feel lots better.

Speaking of how he's feeling...it has almost been a year since we found out his has Psoriatic Arthritis. He's been on HUMIRA, an arthritis med, for 9 months now and off the prednisone for about 5 months, I think. He has lost the extra weight that the prednisone caused him to gain, which makes him very happy. The new meds are a BLESSING that's for sure. They are also expensive ($1700 a month), but we have found several foundations who help patients with their prescriptions, so we're doing fine.

Me- I just started a new blog which I think about all the time. I have been trying to get some more family history done, but it's not happening very fast. I have been trying to INDEX though, which is fun and rewarding. I love staying home with the kids, but we are ready for some warmer weather. We need outside time! I have been teaching Relief Society once a month now for 4 years or so. I love it. I hope to do it for years more!

Cleod- Just turned 7 in November but I swear he is getting so grown up. A year ago, even 6 months ago, he was my hardest kids. Not anymore. He still drives me crazy every once in a while, but he is nice and helpful. He has been reading the Book of Mormon on his own and has had some good experiences with prayer and the Holy Ghost. It's so rewarding as a parent to see your child feeling these things and having good experiences. Love it! He reads a ton still, even without being reminded, loves playing the computer or Silas's phone (a little too much) and has a new, annoying habit of messing with his teeth and tongue while he talks. Oh and he just started piano lessons and LOVES it.

Ryan- This 5 year old is an emotional roller coaster ride! He was the happiest toddler ever and still can be SO happy but he also gets SO sad. Something will make him sad and he's sad for 20 or 30 minutes. For an adult, that's not long, but for a 5 year old, it's forever. Hopefully it doesn't last long. Ryan is loving Kindergarten and I love his teacher. She's adorable. He's starting to really figure out reading. He can pretty much read a verse of scripture with little or no help. He is also getting to be quite an artist. He got a sketch pad for Christmas and it's pretty fun to see what he draws. A few weeks ago he started a little song and dance group that a lady in town runs. She was offering free tuition so we are going to see if he likes it and maybe do it again in the fall. So far he loves it and it's right up his alley with music, dance and a little drama.

Grant- Our cute toddler is turning into quite the little stinker. He takes his precious time to respond to his parents, which drives them CRAZY. Good thing he's cute. He just started Sunbeams at church and that seems to be going...ok. His teacher told me that she has to be strict with him because he's pushing the boundaries. I was like, "Um, that sounds about right." I was a little embarrassed but he's just barely 3, so it's normal. He is a champ at the whole potty thing. He is small for his age, which I love. The only bad thing about it is that he always wants to sit in Ryan's booster when Ryan's at school, but he is too short. He is a really good eater and loves to help Mom whenever she's in the kitchen.

Cora- Our little, 13 month old princess! She is going to be so spoiled! We love everything about her. She is so good and entertains herself so well. She loves her brothers and is rowdy just like they are. She loves her blankie and goes to sleep like a champ. She's a little small for her age, but she eats as much or more than her brothers. She hates getting her hair done. She mastered the stairs a few months ago and it sometimes takes me a while to find her. She's usually playing in her room or following Grant around. She started walking about a week after her birthday but she doesn't stop walking now. She is very friendly and it seems like she almost expects attention from people at the grocery store. She isn't talking much, and refuses to say "Da da" although she used to all the time. She is so smart though.

So, I started a new blog today...

Check it out...

Simple Self-Reliance

"The Flood"

Back in May, we had a flood in our house. We had a meeting to attend, so we had a babysitter over with the boys. There was a poopy shirt soaking in the sink in the boys' bathroom that I had forgotten about and Cleod turned the water on and left it. I don't know what was going through his head...

Anyway, we came home to our friends (the babysitter's parents) cleaning up water from the bathroom, into the hallway and worst of all, into the kitchen BELOW! Silas and I spent several hours that night shop-vaccing the upstairs carpet, but the more water we got up, the more there seemed to be! It was crazy. It flooded into the hallway, the laundry room, the boy's closet and our closet, which are each adjacent to the bathroom. So we decided to go to bed and call the insurance company in the morning.

The next morning our insurance called a company to come and check everything out. They decided that the vinyl in the bathroom and laundry room was damaged and the padding in the hallway and the two closets had to be ripped out. They put tons of fans around to dry the subfloor. (Two in the bathroom, three in the hallway, one in our closet, two in the boy's room, two in the kitchen and two dehumidifiers.) Those were the longest three days of my life. They were noisy and the house felt dirty with them blowing.

Anyway, we got everything dry. Then we had an insurance assessor come out. Silas had talked about doing tile in the boys' bathroom and I didn't want to but the assessor kind of talked me into it. My nice Dad helped, really did it all, and we ended up getting some of our deductible back. Sweet.

After the tile, we had new padding put in where they had taken it out, had the carpet restretched and had some vinyl put in the laundry room. At this point I wasn't really happy the seams in the doorways were really obvious. I called the carpet guy and he told me that there was probably nothing that they could do but he would call the insurance company. WELL, the insurance company approved NEW CARPET. I was so excited! We had to pay for Cora's room, but the insurance covered everything else. In fact, we had carpet in our bathroom (dumb) and I asked the carpet guy about that. He put in vinyl without us having to pay anything. That is probably my favorite part. Oh, the money part might be my favorite actually. Although we weren't planning on renovating, we ended up spending LESS than our deductible and getting new flooring in our entire upstairs and the stairs!
Here is a bunch of stuff piled in the bathroom on the day that the carpet was put in. That was my LEAST favorite part: hauling everything downstairs (except what fit in the bathroom) and hauling it back up. Oh and I ripped out all the carpet myself too, so save money on the carpet for Cora's room.
A view of part of our room and the new vinyl in our bathroom.
Boys sleeping on the new carpet that first night. It is pretty soft.

Moral of the story: Don't leave soaking clothes in the sink...and have good insurance, especially if you have boys!