Mother's Day Weekend 2014

I just wrote a big nice post with lots of photos all about Mother's Day. Then it disappeared. I was trying to move one picture and suddenly, everything was gone. Darn. Darn. Darn.

Here's the second try - which'll be pretty basic!

We had the privilege of having Jared's mom with us for the weekend. She came down for Eliza's big annual dance concert on Saturday and we invited her to stay through Mother's Day so we could celebrate with her. It was great to be able to celebrate in person! She was able to join us for a fun stake Activity Days mother-daughter activity on Friday evening, the dance concert on Saturday, exploring the beautiful "Women and Everyday Charity" art exhibit at the Church History Museum, some good shopping at City Creek and at Ikea, a wonderful Mother's Day breakfast and dinner prepared by Jared and the kids, church including some great Mother's Day talks and cute primary kids singing, an impressive guitar concert and lovely violin concert courtesy of Ashton and Eliza, and a great visit with Jared's brother Joel and family who joined us for dessert.

Here's our weekend in photos:

Mother-Daughter Activity on Friday night:

We had a GREAT group of girls from our ward come to the event - and ALL their mothers were able to make it (two of them left before we took this photo). So great to meet several moms I've never met before. I love these sweet girls!

They did these cute mother-daugher photos:

Eliza with her dear friend Rachel:

Satruday's big dance concert:

Here's Eliza with her dear dance friends, heading in to put thier costumes on:

 

My parents were able to join us for the concert and for lunch afterwards:

Portia (Jared's mom) and I came down on Mother's Day morning to find wonderful flowers and beautiful decorations imagined and created completely by the kids. Plus Jared made some excellent egg burritos with assistance from many little chefs.

Then my sweet mom was able to join us after church: (photo courtesy of Silas - he's working on holding the camera still...)


We enjoyed a beautiful dinner that Jared and the kids prepared:

The twins set the table and insisted on the best china and the gold chargers along with an old rumpled tablecloth and tumblers to drink out of - I thought it was nice symbolism for the way motherhood mixes together the beautiful and precious with the necessary mundane...

After dinner, Eliza and Ashton did beautiful violin and guitar concerts as a special Mother's Day gift for me and my mom and Portia:

Dessert with Jared's brother Joel and family: (the twins made me my favorite dessert - rhubarb crisp. yum.)

Such a wonderful weekend! 

I am so blessed to have such a stellar and stalwart mother-in-law and such a wonderful mother.

Happy Mother's Day to us all!

Koni's Tortilla Soup

We served this delicious soup at our Board Meeting after last Saturday's Power of Moms Retreat. It was a big hit so I thought I'd share.

1 lb. boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts (they can be frozen or thawed - works either way - just cooks a little faster if they're thawed)

2 cans corn (or 1-2 cups frozen corn)

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed or diced (can use bottled minced garlic)

4 cups chicken broth

1 can petite-diced tomatoes

2 cans black beans (drained)

1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilis (or substitute one cup of salsa if you like)

1 t Lawry’s seasoned salt

2 t ground cumin

1 t chili powder

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/8 t ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients above in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Shred chicken towards the end of the cooking time (use two forks and it should just fall apart). Discard bay leaf.

Serve with cheese, lime wedges, diced avacado, tortilla chips, chopped green onions, and sour cream as topping options.

Serves 8-10
(Adapted from a recipe found in from Nov. 98 Southern Living)

A New Definition of a Manly Man

 I just stumbled across this photo.

(original found here)

And it really made me think

I'm raising four boys. When I thought about having children, somehow I thought I'd have mostly girls. It wasn't that I didn't like boys. I loved my 5 little brothers so much and thought they were wonderful and hilarious. But was a girly girl growing up. I had tons of dolls and loved wearing dresses. I wasn't into sports. So I guess I sort of thought that my inclinations might equate to me doing a better job raising girls than boys.

I was actually sort of shocked when the ultrasound tech told us that Ashton was boy. I hadn't had any strong feelings about having a girl, but I guess that I'd sort of assumed and hoped I'd have a girl first since I was the oldest in my family and I helped a ton with my younger siblings and it just seemed good and normal to have a girl as your oldest child.

But Ashton was SO much fun. And I was so glad to find out child #2 would be a boy so these two boys would have each other. I have to admit I was elated to find out child #3 would be a girl. I didn't think I could face life with no daughters at all. Then I sort of assumed that at least one of our twins would be a girl. It came as a bit of a surprise when they showed us two boys on the ultrasound.

Now, of course, I wouldn't have it any other way. Four boys and one girl is the perfect family for us. I love the special exclusive relationship I get to have with my one daughter and I love the adventure and rough-and-tumble of my wonderful boys. Plus, as I grew up, I came to embrace more of the things I would have deemed more "boyish" when I was growing up (like hiking and running) while losing interest in lots of "girly" things (I really don't care for shopping, for flowery or "cute" things, for doing my hair - or Eliza's - poor girl, ...).

I'm so grateful for my dear daughter (I wrote a bit more about that back here), but today I want to write about my sons. I love love love being a mother of sons. And while I thoroughly embrace their adventurous spirits and support most of the daring feats, building projects, and nerf-gun wars they enjoy so much and that make them what many would call "all boy," I also strive to nurture their creativity, their compassion, their love for art and culture, the numberous hugs and kisses the twins give me every day (Isaac's pretty affectionate too - Ashton, not so much),  their love for and understanding of babies and small children, and many other qualities that some people might consider more stereotypically feminine.

From the beginning, I've been very conscious of the fact that I'm not just raising boys. I'm raising husbands and fathers and strong men who'll impact the world around them through their kindness, their nurturing natures, their appreciation for beauty, their capacity for empathy and understanding, their skills with young children, as well as their individual talents in various areas of school and career. When we clean out their rooms, we talk about what special things they might want to save to show their children one day. They take pictures of things they're excited to show those future children. Ashton and Isaac are excellent babysitters (as is their sister) and they love helping tend little kids at every activity we attend, giving parents a break while having a great time with the little friends who adore them. They've been taught to cook and clean alongside their sister. And they see how great their dad is with little kids and how he always pitches in on housework and cleaning. Jared and I have made a conscious effort to raise boys who are well-rounded and who will hopefully be well-prepared to be great dads and husbands one day.

I like to think that most parents in the world around us are similarly working to raise up a generation of men who will be the best dads the world has ever seen while also being great husbands and great providers for their families. But why is it that still, when we see a photo like the one at the beginning of this post, it catches our eye because it's rare? Why don't we have more boys who are babysitting? Why is it a rare thing to find men teaching preschool or elementary school? I know the pay isn't great in professions that involve working with young children and that's a deterrent for men who need to support a family and I know there are concerns about boys or men babysitting or working with young children due to very sad (and very rare but often very public) cases of molestation. Still, I'd love to see us work out some of the real issues involved and move towards a society where boys and men's nurturing capabilities are more appreciated and there are more opportunities for them to enhance and share their skills.

Yes, boys will be boys. And I hope that some day that phrase will bring to mind that boys will be nurturing boys, boys will be caring boys, boys will be helpful boys, boys will be gentle and kind alongside being rough-and-tumble. I hope that we can more fully embrace a new vision of a "manly man" that includes a well-developed and beautiful nurturing side.

Here are some images of great manly men (and all-boy boys) in my life with little kids and babies, nurturing, teaching and loving:

General Conference - and a surprise appearance in the Ensign

Last month, we had the priviledge to attend a session of General Conference in person. It was just wonderful to be there as a family and to feel the beautiful spirit that comes when you're in massive auditorium full of 20,000 other people who love the Lord and are excited to hear from church leaders. It was beautiful to see the excitement of our children about the whole thing as General Conference was really brought to life for them.

 

  
After the session, we checked out the amazing flowers at Temple Square.

As we took pictures of the flowers and took in their beauty, Ashton asked if we could get together for a photo. Shocked at this first-ever group-photo request from Ashton, I said sure and gathered people together. Then Ashton pointed at a guy with a camera who'd asked him if he'd get his family together for a photo and we all smiled for the picture. We didn't think much of it at the time - just went back to admiring flowers.

Then a friend told me I should check out page 37 in the conference Ensign:





The kids were so excited!

Park City Retreat 2014

Last Saturday we had our SEVENTH Retreat at my parents' lovely home in Park City, UT. (This was our 34th Retreat overall - I can hardly believe we've gotten to such high number of motherhood gatherings! You can check out links to reports on all of them here if you feel like it.)

I love our annual Park City Retreat. I love the comfort of being in my parents' house and presenting alongside them. I love the big open great room where we get to meet - the room is so full of light from the big windows and that combined with the light radiating from so many beautiful and smart and devoted mothers makes for a LOT of light. I love that so many of our Power of Moms Board members are always there to help since we do our annual Board meeting the same weekend as this Retreat (their help is so welcome and their supportive presence is wonderful). I love that SO many fabulous moms always sign up and that I get to learn so much from them while they learn from each other and from the presenters.

Here's what my mom wrote about the Retreat:
On Saturday we had the most amazing Power of Moms retreat with 90 moms. Saren and April have become such pros at putting on these events and have a wonderful way of capturing the audience with wisdom and humor. Nineteen of the 40 or so Power of Moms Board members were here and pitching in to help with all their might. The caterer fell through at the last minute so Saren and Koni, a loyal board member who is on staff bought all the food and everyone jumped in to help prepare a delicious lunch and a plethora of snacks for all those women who were not only open and attentive to what was being said, but so helpful to each other as they broke up into small groups to talk about their individual needs and soak in ideas for their own lives. 

And here are some photos - I only had my phone with me as a camera and I was presenting and dealing with logistics a lot but I'm glad I can share at least some sense of what the day was like through the photos I got.

When everyone arrived, we did some "speed friendshipping" (sort of like "speed dating" where people spend 5 minutes asking each other some fun motherhood-related questions and then switch and talk to someone else until everyone's met a few new people and we start the day as friends)

We managed to fit all 90 participants quite nicely in my parents' great room for our large-group sessions that centered on basic principles, self-assessment and brainstorming for how we can take better care of ourselves mentally, emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually as well as basic principles and ideas for how we can set up stronger systems in our home that will help our children behave better and help make our family life more fun and more smooth while we teach our children what they need to know.

My mom did a beautiful keynote speech about the magic and messes and miracles of motherhood:

We did some personal reflection and self-assessment:

We spent a good chunk of the day meeting in small groups, really learning from each other:

My dad talked about prioritizing serendipity in our lives while simplifying our planning and feeling more success through choosing just three "choose to do's" each day (one thing for ourselves, one thing for our families, one thing for our work - be that the house, paid employment, or volunteer/community/church work) that will go ahead of our "have to do's" and help us put first things first.

It was a beautiful day and we got to hold our lunch discussions outside. So nice.

There was plenty of laughter mixed with a fair amount of tears and comforting and solution-brainstorming. Motherhood involves all that - every day.

 And after we said goodbye to our wonderful Retreat attendees, our Board members stayed for a Board dinner and meeting where we had a really great time reporting back on what everyone is working on and talking about exciting plans for the upcoming year. I'm so so so so so grateful for these wonderful ladies (and the 20 other members of the Board who couldn't join us in person since they live all over the place) who selflessly donate their time and talents to the cause of Power of Moms:

What a day! And what a priviledge it is for me be part of all this.