Are you a Sparky Parent?

My sister's living in London right now with her four little kids. We've loved "visiting" a lot of great places in England and France vicariously through her blog (and some day we WILL make it over there to visit all my favorite places from the years I spent in the London area growing up). We've loved seeing the castles, the museums, the green green green that covers even the tree trunks (and our cute little nieces and nephews and cousins growing up so big). But one of my favorite things I've seen on Saydi's blog lately is this "spark-o-meter" they stumbled across.

I asked my kids if I was "stodgy" or "sparky." They very honestly told me it depends on the day. I think I've been a lot more sparky this summer with our adventure camp stuff and they totally agreed with that. I think I'm going to ask my kids weekly how I'm doing on the "sparky to stodgy" spectrum and hopefully that'll bring out some more of that fun mom I always meant to be. One thing I'm really working on is saying "yes" as much as I can to our kids. It makes everyone so happy when I say yes and I've realized I say "no" when I really don't have to much too often...

Update on the Loosli Learning Adventures Camp

I have to say I'm quite pleased with our Learning Adventures Camp this year. We've been going for a couple weeks now and the kids are really getting into the summer routine nicely.

Here's our summer camp binder. Inside, there's a chart where the kids check off their "must-do's" for each day (they're supposed to do six things a day - reading, writing, working on a goal, physical activity, household jobs and doing one "extra" activity they can choose from a list of learning/growing activities). There's also a list of everything the things they can choose from to accomplish each of those six things. 

It did take a few days to get everyone into the routine, but since they helped form the program, they were pretty bought-in and they seem to really like this whole "camp" routine. They can do their "must-do's" in the order they choose but they have to do them right after breakfast and their "must-do's" need to be done before they can do anything else for the day (well, sometimes we switch things around because we've got a field trip or a special activity in the morning and the kids do their must-do's in the afternoon...)

A week or so ago, we went on a trip to St George for a week (to enjoy a Power of Moms planning weekend with April and her family, see old friends, and get our house ready for the renters - yeah! we finally found some great renters!). I was really happy to see that all the "must-do's" were pretty darn portable. The kids each brought a book and the composition book where they're doing all their summer writing. I brought the binder. We did lots of swimming and biking and tennis on our trip which helped the kids towards some of their summer goals so it was easy for them to accomplish their goal-work point each day as well as their physical activity point each day.

Most days, the kids just get up and get going on their must-do's without me reminding them much which is heavenly. And I'm getting Power of Moms work done while they get useful stuff of their own done. Plus  we're also having SO much fun with our "weekly adventures" (explained below).

We've promised the kids a trip to Lagoon (an amusement park near us) when they reach a collective total of 440 points (they can each get 30 a week so if they get a perfect score, in one week, the 5 kids can get 150 points. In three weeks they can earn 450 but there's some wiggle room there by setting the goal at 440 so a few points can be missed here and there). I'm loving seeing the kids encourage each other along so that they can reach their much-anticipated goal together.

Here's Liza helping Oliver with his writing. Eliza's the best at her must-do's, I've got to say. She's so into this.

Here's a page from Silas's summer writing book. We have all these writing prompts kids can choose from or they can just write about what they've been doing or write a descriptive paragraph about a family member or a place. I love having them just pour out their thoughts on paper, no worries about spelling or punctuation. We'll worry about that stuff later. This summer I just want them to learn to enjoy capturing their thoughts on paper.

The kids are all becoming such good readers (and it hasn't been an easy road for some of them). And I love how reading is so nice and portable. We did a lot of our reading by the pool when we were in St George. I love reading with my kids and having mini read-a-thons. I want them to see me reading as well as see me telling them to read.

For their "extra" point one day, Eliza and the twins put together a great rendition of a favorite song - Eliza on vocals, Oliver playing the "cymbals" (a metal chair) and Silas playing the "drums" a trash can. Love how creative they get...

The house is staying quite clean (and the kids are really liking the new system of everyone doing 2 5-minute cleaning tasks each day from my long list of bite-sized tasks instead of doing big jobs on Saturdays). I'm not sure if they always look THIS happy about cleaning. But this new method involves a lot of quick wins instead of long drawn-out 1/2 done jobs and lots of complaining.

While we were in St George, the kids accomplished their physical points with lots of swimming (along with lots of dear friends). We've done some good hikes in Ogden and in St George. Several days, the twins have done their "physical" point by going with me on my 3-mile runs (they ride their scooters and I have to keep up a pretty good clip!) and the big kids have gone running with their dad or have gone on bike rides. One rainy day, they ran up and down the stairs a bunch of times to loud music. I really want my kids to grow up thinking exercise is a wonderful, fun part of every day.

the wildflowers in the mountains 5 minutes from our house are so pretty right now

we hiked to this beautiful waterfall

In addition to their "must-do's" each day, we've got a weekly schedule of fun adventures that give a little shape to our brainstormed "bucket list" of activities we all want to do this summer. We've got "Make-it-Monday" where we do creative building and art projects, "Take-a-Trip Tuesday" where we go on field trips, "Wet Wednesday" where we do sprinklers or swimming or that sort of thing, "Thinking Thursday" where we learn about something new that we've been wondering about via YouTube or Wikipedia or a field trip, then we do "Friend Friday" where we get together with friends (and sometimes we have friends join us for other adventures...).

Here we are at Great Harvest learning all about how bread is made. The huge machines were fascinating and the big hunk of hot bread they gave us at the end wasn't half bad. Free.

Below - Here we are at the Sweets Factory in SLC with some good friends. Again, super interesting machines and tasty samples (the kids said they'd take the candy over the bread but I'd for sure take that bread over the candy...). You've heard "excited as a kid in a candy store"? Well, I found out that "excited as a kid in a candy FACTORY" is a whole new level of super excitement. Again - free. (For a great list factory tours in the USA, click HERE.)

The hair nets made us all look beautiful, huh?

We headed to the new City Creek Mall for one Take-A-Trip Tuesday and had a great time exploring downtown SLC. Free, fun, easy.

One very rainy Tuesday, we did our "take-a-trip Tuesday" we "traveled" to Thailand and to France. My friend had a great blog post all about her recent trip to Thailand and that combined with the Thai food we've been making so much lately (see recipe in my last post) made for a fun afternoon of finding answers to our questions about Thailand (and swimming with elephants is now on my kids' lifetime bucket list...). Then we "went" to France by reading my mom's post about her recent time in Paris with my dad and sister Saydi and family (they're living in London) and asking and finding answers to the questions that arose. We learned all about the way Notre Dame was built and explored the Pompidou Center's modern art and had a french crepes for dinner. Plus my brother send me a link to the trailer for the new movie of Les Miserables and that prompted me to tell the kids the whole classic story of the book to the kids as a bedtime story (a very long one that had to be broken up into two parts - they LOVED the story and I loved remembering it as I told it - what lessons about justice and mercy and goodness and second chances...).

I love teaching my kids and being with them. Sure, there are times they're excited about showing me something when I'm busy with something else and it's frustrating for both parties - and there are times I'd really like to have a little more quiet and personal space. Yes, there are surly, less-than-excited moments from a certain pre-teen (but actually, things are a lot better there lately...). Yep, there are times when plans don't turn out right and everyone's disappointed (but flexible plans sure minimize a lot of that). And sure, there are squabbles (today Silas came to me crying that Oliver had attacked him and jumped on his back. Oliver responded, "well, Silas attacked my FEELINGS and that's just as bad!"). But all in all, I'm loving this summer so much.

So anyway, there's my report so far. We are having a really really great summer. Sure there are squabbles and hard moments. But really, things are turning out quite beautifully so far.

After putting all this "summer camp program" together for my own family, I figured I might as well "gussy it up" a bit more and offer it to the whole Power of Moms community (and YOU, my blog readers, of course). If you want all the materials you need to get your own Learning Adventures Camp set up, check out the info HERE.

Easy, Delicious Thai Curry

Lately, Thai curry has been a huge family favorite. I make some version pretty much every week (and the kids would like it more than once a week...). Sound fancy and complicated? Well, it's actually super easy and takes about a 1/2 hour. Here's the only stuff you might need to go out and buy (and you just need something similar - exact brands don't matter a bit). Everything else, you've probably got around your house.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of uncooked white rice (whatever kind you've got)
• 2 tsp canola oil or olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic (I buy the pre-minced bottled stuff but you can use fresh or substitute 1/2 tsp of granulated garlic if you like)
• 1-3 tsp curry paste (Start with 1 tsp if you're worried it might be too spicy and haven't tried a particular brand before and add more if you want more of a kick.There's red, green and yellow curry paste. They're all good, all a bit different. You can get curry paste at many grocery stores -Thai Kitchen is a common brand in the Asian section of most grocery stores- but every Asian grocery store has several varieties - generally all good.)
• 1 14-oz can coconut milk (lite or regular, any brand)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (from can or make with bouillon)
• Vegetables (chopped carrots, frozen peas, chopped bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, chopped cabbage or bok choi, sweet potatoes chopped very small, regular potatoes chopped very small, whatever veggies you've got on hand work great - nice with at least 2-3 kinds of veggies. The version in the photo above has sliced baby carrots, peas, green peppers, and chopped cabbage in it. My family's favorite version has sweet potatoes, peas, cabbage and red peppers. The more veggies the better! )
• Chicken or shrimp (1-2 cups of frozen pre-cooked tail-off shrimp or 1-2 chicken breasts sliced in small bits works great. I usually use a can of cubed chicken breasts and crumble the chunks in at the end - so very quick and easy and tastes great)
• Fresh basil or cilantro (chopped) if you happen to have some on hand (find without)

Directions:

• Bring rice and 4 cups of water plus 2 tsp salt to a boil in a sauce pan, then partially cover and turn down to simmer for 20-25 minutes while you do the rest.
• Saute a chopped onion and minced garlic in oil until slightly browned
• Stir in curry paste
• Add hard veggies (carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes) and chicken (if you're using raw chicken). Saute until veggies get a bit soft and chicken isn't pink anymore
• Add a can of coconut milk and bring to a boil
• Turn down to simmer and add quick veggies (frozen peas, cabbage, pre-cooked veggies if you've got some) plus chicken broth. Keep simmering until it's slightly thickened (5-10 minutes)
• Stir in about a tsp of salt (start with 1/2 tsp and see if it needs more) 
• Cook until veggies are pretty soft
• Serve over rice (garnish with some fresh ground pepper and a little fresh basil or cilantro if you've got some)

Serves 4. (I usually double this for my family and it's GONE!)

Magical Eclipse of the Sun

Last week, we had a great time watching the eclipse. Ashton researched the exact time and how to best view it and he had us all out front looking through CDs so we could see the eclipse w/o hurting our eyes (I was doubtful when Ashton told me the idea but it works GREAT!). I guess we looked pretty odd looking through CD's. We soon had quite a crowd of people out there with us, looking through our pile of CD's at the eclipse together. It turned into a fun little neighborhood party.

The shadows on the house at the peak of the eclipse were really interesting and the light seemed oddly dim.



And our own shadows got fuzzy around the edges (this is me and Isaac - and a tree).

I love love love when God puts on a show for us. His shows are the best. I love lightning and thunder. I love bright bright stars. I love it when the moon is yellow and huge and low in the sky. I love the bursting of buds in the spring. I love awe-inspiring peaks. And I love savoring all this with my kids who are so prone to awe and excitement...

The beauty of having one daughter

So I was pretty sad when I realized that I was only going to have one daughter and that Eliza would be sister-less. I mean my sisters mean SO much to me! (Read a whole post about my sisters HERE if you want.). But I'm super grateful I did get one sweet, wonderful little girl who's so very much fun and who shares so many of the things I love. We read books together, we love watching and participating in music and dance and art, we love being "tough girls" and running and biking and hiking with the boys, we appreciate tea parties and fancy stuff but we're good at roughing it as well. And you know what? I'm loving that I have just one daughter. There are so many things it would be tricky or expensive to do with a 2 or more daughters that are easy to do with just one. Plus I think Eliza and I are building a unique and special bond thanks to Liza's "one and only" status.

Lately, Eliza and I have had a lot of great and beautiful opportunities to really enjoy stuff together.

A few weeks ago, my parents treated Eliza and I to the symphony. It brought back beautiful memories to sit in beautiful Symphony Hall in Salt Lake City and enjoy gorgeous music. My mom used to take me to the symphony as a special treat once in a while when I was growing up (she was so great about sharing her passion for music with all of us in a variety of ways). As is his custom, my dad looked around for better seats during the first half and found a better seat for himself and Eliza for the second half ("There are always great seats up front that are empty - pitty to waste them"). As soon as Liza and Dad took off for their new seats, a nice lady came along and offered me and mom some seats smack dab in the middle of the 5th row (her friends hadn't shown up) so Mom and I had the chance to see every move of every member of the orchestra and had a great view of Eliza and Dad. I loved watching my dad and my daughter enjoy some special time together as much as I enjoyed watching the orchestra. Dad is so good at explaining things and making things extra exciting.  

 

Another thing Eliza and I share is a love for dance. Eliza has LOVED the Virginia Tanner dance program that meets in the Eccles Art Center 3 doors down from our house. It's brought back beautiful memories to see Eliza's creativity and beautiful movements unfurl thanks to her dance lessons. I love how Virginia Tanner focuses on the joy of movement rather than the perfection of specific steps done specific ways. 

Eliza had just three girls in her class this year which was wonderful. At their big dance recital, she and her two friends performed a really beautiful piece and it was wonderful for each of the girls to really shine without a crowd of dancers on stage. I don't know if Eliza would be a great dancer in a traditional dance program. She's impatient with doing things certain ways and she's tall and has grown quickly this year - when her teacher has had her do specific steps or movements, she hasn't really looked as graceful as one might hope. But when you give her general directions and ideas and let Eliza loose on the dance floor, wow, she's quite an amazing little dancer!

She was SO excited about her dance recital and when we found out it was the same date as our date for the Park City Power of Moms Retreat, we had to rearrange things a bit. We put the full-day Retreat on Friday instead of Saturday and did our morning session on Saturday instead of Friday and everything worked out great for our whole family including my parents to be there for the big dance performance at the University of Utah's beautiful Kingsbury Hall. 

This is the only photo I got of Eliza in her costume before she had to scurry on stage.

My pictures of Eliza's dance didn't come out well at all, sadly. But here's the grand finale - beautiful stuff.

I was so proud of my beautiful girl and her beautiful dancing abilities!

Then after the dance performance, Eliza and I and my parents went to see a fabulous performance of the musical, The Secret Garden at the Hale Center Theater. It was truly impressive. Eliza had just finished reading the book - one of my very favorites - so it was perfect timing. Here's Liza with the two stars of the show (sorry so blurry - but it's what I've got...).



Another thing Eliza has been really into lately is making up plays. Here she is with her dear friend Savannah putting on a play about two women who live in a log cabin and make dolls. It was a lovely play. She often gets her little brothers involved as well.

And one last thing I've loved lately with Eliza - she's reading all my favorite books from when I was her age - A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables. When she finishes each book, we go out on a special dinner date and discuss the book - it's our own little mother-daughter book club. At the first meeting of our little book club, I was surprised and impressed to see that not only had Eliza finished the book, she had written down a message to her own future daughter in the front of the book about what she loved about the book and had bunch of great discussion questions written in the back of her book for us to talk about together - "What was your favorite part of the book?" "What was the saddest part of the book to you?" "What didn't you like in the book?" - really good questions like that. I had told her that she would get to lead the discussion and I guess she took it very seriously!

So anyway, I guess I'm realizing once again that sometimes the very things we're sad about - like only having one daughter - can become things we're glad about, things that we realize turned out just right. 

Goodbye School. Hello Loosli Learning Adventure Camp!

The last day of school was on Thursday and I'm pretty darn happy about that. No more rushing the mornings and rushing kids to bed at night. No more school uniforms (got those all packed away for the summer - and I even put away most of the socks - the kids wear sandals and flip flops for the most part all summer and it cuts down so much on laundry and on the dirty random socks that end up all over the house...) No more homework. Precious few deadlines for anything. Just lots of learning adventures and fun ahead of us. Hurray for summer!

 
Every year on the last day or school (or thereabouts) the kids and I go through the piles of stuff they bring home from school combined with precious art projects and school papers from earlier in the year (each kid has a folder in a file box where this stuff goes during the school year - anything oversize gets photographed and thrown away) and choose their favorite things to put into page protectors and put into their binders. We've got 1 or 1.5 inch binders for every two grades and they can keep whatever fits. The older kids are starting to fit 3 grades per binder as they are doing less art projects these days and mostly just want to keep some reports and grade sheets. It gives us all a tremendous sense of accomplishment to get all that school stuff neatly tucked away. And it's fun to go through binders from previous years while we're at it. 

Here are our binders. Sure, I guess I could print out nice binder labels...but for me, if it's complicated or involves a trip to the store, I know it'll keep getting put off and maybe won't ever happen. So I use the binders I've got on hand and the huge package of page protectors I bought ages ago and we just get the job done. And the kids think these binders are wonderful.

Anyway, the past few weeks have been PACKED with end-of-school-year-hoopla (photos and details coming soon) and lots of projects for Power of Moms that I've been trying to cram in so that I could focus on fun and learning with the kids once they got out of school. The article I wrote a couple weeks back on the "Do-it-Yourself Summer Camp" our family does (based on an old blog post) has been read by over 50,000 people now thanks to lots of Pinterest and Facebook shares plus regular Power of Moms traffic. And lots of people asked for more details. So for the sake of solidifying our own summer plans and helping other families create their own family summer camps, one of the projects I've been working on has been gathering and sprucing up all our family summer camp materials and they're all available HERE. See if this is something that could help your family have the summer you'd like. I just introduced everything to my kids and they're so excited to get started!

A snapshot of a pretty typical day

My sister Saydi just wrote this post about a typical day in her life in England and I thought it was great that she captured the basic, the mundane, the fabric of her life at this time, the stuff she'd forget if she didn't record it. My friend Sarah wrote this post a while back about what her typical days look like and I found it so helpful to read about how she uses her time and learn from her example to give myself some slack in some areas and step it up in others.

I realized it's been a long time since I've written about a pretty typical day in my life. So - to record and remember - and to maybe make others feel motivated and comforted at the same time - here's a snapshot of  a day in my life. This is the play-by-play of last Thursday.

7:03am. 

I woke up to our neighbor calling for his cats, "Buddy!" "Buddy!" "Peyton!" "Egypt!" My kids love the 12 or so cats that live next door. Jared not so much. Personally, I like cats but I don't really like that the cats think our patio furniture is their bed and that we can't just go sit out there without getting out the vacuum and making a big production of it. But there are worse things. 

I was tired. I fell back asleep.

7:20am. 

I heard Jared start starting scriptures with the kids and laid in bed until I could talk myself into getting up. Then I blearily stumbled into the bathroom before putting on the clothes I wore yesterday (still perfectly clean so why not?). I only shower on the days I go running or exercise - showers every other day works great for me and it forces me to exercise when I tell myself I can't shower until I do... I brushed my hair and saw it needed to be wetted down to tame some bed-head but decided to do that later (didn't happen - had to pick up the kids from school with my still-messy hair - oh well - I know that if I don't get all the way ready first thing in the morning, it just doesn't happen).

Headed downstairs to spray down and brush the kids hair while Jared led scripture study. Helped dish up the oatmeal Jared made (that's our main breakfast staple around here - can't beat good old quick oats with a bit of brown sugar on top) and remembered we have some left-over sliced strawberries in the fridge from the Retreat - became a hero to the kids when I plopped those puppies on top of their cereal. Gave the big boys some big hugs as they headed out to bike to school (trying to keep up with my post-Retreat resolution to give each child at least 4 hugs a day). Had the twins change out of their old basketball uniforms and into their school uniforms - they'd erroneously thought today was field day when they're supposed to wear clothes that can get wet - it's actually next week. Wiped down the spill on Liza's shorts. Hugged the younger kids goodbye so Jared could drive them to school.

8:05am. 

Got myself some breakfast - my favorite - pumpkin flax seed granola from Costco mixed with plain oatmeal (I think the granola is way too sugary w/o the oatmeal mixed in - plus doing 1/2 oatmeal makes it cheaper per serving by far...), sliced bananas, sliced strawberries (had to save some of what I gave the kids), plain yogurt. Ate while checking my siblings and parents blogs then dove into the 50 or so emails that piled up since I last checked email last night at midnight after saying goodbye to all my Learning Circle friends (I hosted the group last night - great discussion on what our intentions are as moms, as wives, as people - stayed up too late finishing the Power of Moms newsletter that had to go out this morning after my friends left but it the great conversation was was well worth the late night...). Sat here in quiet for hours working away until my rear-end ached and my tummy growled.

Every other day, I start the day with a 3-mile run. Sometimes it feels great. Sometimes it feels pretty bad. But I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when I get my run done. I listen to Pandora on my phone while I run - Plain White T's station quite a bit lately but sometimes symphonic classical music and sometimes random mixes of all the music I've got on my phone. I'm getting tired of music. I need to make some time to put some podcasts on my phone to mix things up. The fresh air and beautiful new leaves and gorgeous blossoms and flowers totally energize me.

It still amazes me the amount of quiet time I get some days now that my kids are in school. Sometimes it gets lonely but I'm so blessed to have this time to get things done on my own w/o feeling torn and being constantly interrupted as I was for the past few years while working on Power of Moms while trying to be a great mom to preschoolers. I miss the social time I used to get with friends at parks and playgroups when I had little kids who needed the time with friends as much as I did. Sure, the conversations were extremely interrupted - but they happened! Now I interact all day with great people but mostly just via email. I do wish I had some friends to go to lunch with sometimes. After so many years of wrangling preschoolers, I looked forward to the day I could enjoy a quiet lunch with friends while my kids were in school from time to time. But my friends mostly still have preschoolers so that makes things tricky plus I've always got so much work to cram in while my kids are at school! I do make a point of getting out for lunch at least once a month with a friend and once in a while I get to go to lunch with Jared. I sit there and enjoy my lunch and a great conversation in peace and marvel at my good fortune.

Along with replying to lots of emails and moving some projects along that way, I updated our Power of Moms trainer manual (something I've been trying to get to for ages), uploaded tons of beautiful photos I got from our Retreat photographer (will have to post some soon), wrote a blog post about Mother's Day, put up a new Deliberate Mothering Video on our website ("lunch lessons" - great idea), polished the product page for our new Virtual Retreat after finally finding a photo of a mom at a computer that was pretty decent to use to illustrate what this program involves (when I searched stock photography for photos of moms at computers I was amazed at how much cleavage and skanty clothing I saw - really, who wears provocative clothing as they sit at their computer at home???). I carefully read over and signed the lease on our St George house (yeah! we finally got renters that seem great), and did some research whether or not it's OK to cut through tree roots to install sprinkler pipes and how much dirt we need to fill up the planter boxes we just put in in the backyard (Jared was working away on the back yard and needed someone with clean hands to do a little internet research...I learned that 1 cubic yard of dirt weighs about 2000 pounds and that we probably need 2 cubic yards - wow - dirt is heavy...).

1:35pm. 

When my rear-end was aching and my tummy was rumbling, I paused to grab some trail mix (my very favorite is a mix I make myself using stuff from bulk foods - it's raw pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, semi-sweet chocolate chips and craisins - try it - but watch out, you might get addicted) and got back to work. Some days I get so busy trying to cram several days' work into the hours the kids are at school, I don't even have lunch. I mean to take a proper lunch break and maybe even go for a walk or run an errand or two to break up the day (and many days, I go for a run after my initial morning email-check which is really nice) but I generally stay pretty glued to this poor old computer (several keys have the letters rubbed right off and Ashton was pointing out the other day that my computer is seeming like a dinasaur. But it works!).

2:23pm. 

Started getting hungry again and needed to go to the bathroom but wanted to just finish a couple of things including editing the email that will go out to all our Bloom subscribers on Sunday. It was all about how moms need to take better care of their personal basic human needs. Pretty ironic that I was putting off going to the bathroom and eating to finish editing that content! I stopped and took care of myself for a few minutes then felt much better and quickly finished a few more things.

3:07pm. 

Took off to get the kids at school. They get out at 3 but pick-up is a zoo if you get there much earlier than 3:15. I end up getting there at 3:20 most days. I was feeling bad that I was usually late until Eliza told me that she loves it when I'm in charge of pickup because she has more time to talk with her friends and the twins chimed in and said they like me to come a little later too. I guess that's one less thing to feel guilty about! I made sure to "light up my eyes" when walked into the school to get the kids gave them big hugs and ask them what they did for someone else that day and what they learned that day on the way home from school.

3:25pm.

Dropped off neighbor kids we carpool with, got my kids started on homework (luckily there's not much at the end of the school year - I'm so ready to be done with school!).  Made some guacamole to bring to a BBQ with Silas (just avacado, cilantro, chopped sweet onions and tomatoes plus lots of lime and salt and pepper - the whole family rejoices when I make the time to make fresh guacamole) and Silas really wanted to learn to slice the tomatoes so I had to watch and help very closely (Silas is SO into cooking with me lately. Eliza wanted to tell me all about her field trip to a pioneer museum but I had to put her off a bit to focus on the knife and tomatoes. Ashton needed help with his final math project (well, he didn't think he needed help but he did and he was being rude to me so we had to stop and have a talk about respect and I had to email his teacher about a part of the project he insisted was right but made no sense to me  - he NEEDS an A on this project - it's been a rough term in math...).

4:20pm.

During the math and field trip and guacamole stuff, my friend showed up with her little girls who my big kids had agreed to babysit so we paused everything to focus on these cute little kids for a while and get the little one calmed down (she was having some serious separation anxiety). Isaac did a great job with the baby and Eliza took the other little girl upstairs for dolls and crafts and Silas and I finished the guacamole while Ashton was marginally nicer about the ongoing suggestions I was giving him on his math project.

6:00pm.

Time to hurry and get to the church BBQ. We enjoyed a little time with friends from church and Silas was pleased to see how much everyone loved "his" guacamole. Then we'd promised to also go to this event at the new community center where they let us hold our Children for Children Concert - there's this great group that's received all these big grants to fix up big pieces of our neighborhood.

(On a more typical day, I'd be working with one of the kids to make dinner and generally not starting dinner as early as I should have so while we're supposed to eat at 6, it's often 6:30 or even 7. With it getting dark so late, it's hard to think about dinner as early as I should. I go through spurts where I'm really good about planning dinners a week in advance and doing lots of crock pot soups and meals so we're ready for dinner in a more timely manner. I really like cooking - and like doing it one-on-one with my kids as much as possible. But some weeks I don't plan well and we end up with some pretty basic stuff. For nights when I haven't planned ahead, I've usually got some pasta and red sauce on hand - or part of a big batch of pinto beans I've cooked and mixed with spices and tomatoes and put away in the fridge or freezer that can be served over rice or in burritos.)

6:45pm.

We left the kids at the BBQ with friends for a while and hurried over to the community center event where we got a chance to chat with some great people. Then we picked the kids up at the BBQ and went back to the community center to enjoy this great documentary about urban farming in Detroit called Urban Roots. The kids were thrilled at the candy and popcorn and tasty snacks they had for the movie. We learned a lot about how much gardens can do for communities and how working hard and seeing things grow has transformed many people's lives - the movie totally kicked us into gear to get our own garden planted this Saturday - something we've had to put off for too many weekends.

8:30pm or so.

Past bedtime (we go for 8:00 for the younger kids, 8:30 for older kids, then 1/2 hour of reading time each - but lately with it staying light late, we've been later). We snuck out of the movie to get kids home and to bed (they watched really well for almost an hour but were getting a bit restless anyway). Walked the one block to our house with 4 kids and enjoyed a gorgeous evening with roses out all over the place - Jared took Ashton to the store for the poster board I thought we had for sure but apparently I was wrong and he needed it to finish the math project. Sent kids to the shower but realized the shower curtains were in the washing machine (they're fabric ones). Put up wet shower curtains and got kids in showers. Went from shower to shower to encourage some hurrying by telling them they could have a "Puggy and Chu-Chu story" if they were done quickly (the twins and Liza are way into these stories I make up with their help about the live versions of their stuffed pug and chiuauia dogs). Helped everyone straighten their rooms and set out their clothes for the next day.

9:00pm or so

All kids in bed except Ashton. But it seems some of them forgot the steps of brushing teeth and going to the bathroom so we rectified that. Even though it was late and they didn't entirely hold up their side of the bargain, we still did a Puggy and Chu-Chu story. I can't resist their cute faces and bright eyes so intent on the crazy stories I come up with. This time Puggy and Chu-Chu won a drawing for free cruise tickets to China (they had to go to China so they could meet up with another stuffed-animal-turned-real friend, Pandy the panda). The kids' eyes were wide as they heard about the worries about whether or not the cruise line would allow dogs to come but thanks to their blind friend who could go with them and they could be his seeing eye dogs, the cruise line said the dogs could go. Big sigh of relief there. They went to the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City and most importantly - the Panda Preserve where they met baby Pandy who was very sick and who they were able to help nurse back to health...Tomorrow we're going to look up about seeing eye dogs and the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City and pandas on YouTube right after school. We're all excited.

After lots of hugs and Oliver telling me I'm the best mom in the whole world several times and Silas singing me his "mom, I love you so so much, I will never stop loving you" song a couple times and then both of them needing a couple more hugs (they really are the sweetest most loving boys ever and I'm so blessed to be their mom but I have to close things down gently but firmly after a while) and then Eliza needing help finding school clothes to set out for the next day and Isaac remembering last-minute that he needed to fill out his reading log, everyone was finally completely tucked into bed.

9:40pm.

Helped Ashton with the final details on his math project and sent him off to bed - happily on a happy note. Then finished some emails and a couple things on my mind while Jared finished up some stuff he needs to have ready for this trip he's taking next week to oversee the installation of this invention he's been working on for many months with some friends - fingers crossed that all will go well and this will grow into something wonderful.

10:30pm.

Went upstairs to watch a recorded episode of Modern Family with Jared. That's our one show we watch together pretty regularly and we laugh pretty hard. I need all the laughs I can get. Jared watches lots of basketball and I'm trying to get better at watching sports but my mind wanders. Often, I sit by him during a game and do computer work. It's nice to be together even if we're not really doing the same thing. Jared is great about supporting my rare but serious little TV obsessions. Lately it's Downton Abbey. Jared rolls his eyes at my near-constant interest in British costume dramas - but deep down, I think he really appreciates this stuff...

11:10pm.

We actually went to bed pretty much on time. We said our prayers together and fell into bed. It had been a long few days with a lot of late nights. About once a week we do manage to get to bed close to 11pm but often it's midnight or later as we take advantage of the quiet hours to get stuff done or get sucked into Downton Abbey...

And there you have it. A day in my life.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was all the more wonderful for me this year as I came home from the Retreat with fresh ideas and perspective and renewed love for my family.

It was so fun to have my mom and dad come up from Salt Lake and spend the afternoon with us. My kids were so excited to give their gifts to Grammie and to me.

The kids picked flowers for me, the twins made cute frames
and Liza set the table beautifully.

I loved the sweet cards my kids made for me and all their hugs and the numerous times they said "you're the best mom in the world." I was very pleasantly surprised when Jared made a truly scrumptious meal for me and my mom while I took a much-needed nap (Retreats wear me out but they're so worth it!).

I think my favorite part of the day was the one-on-one time I spent with each child. It's my little tradition on Mother's Day to go on a short walk with each kid and tell them what I love about being their mom. It was beautiful to see their eyes shine as I focused entirely on the positive. And it was great for me to really think through the many wonderful and unique things I love about mothering each of them. Plus it was a gorgeous spring day with flowers and blossoms bursting out everywhere. Love that.

Here's another favorite from the Mother's Day photoshoot that Jared did for me (This is something I ask for every year - I find I don't end up with many photos of myself with my kids since I'm usually the one behind the camera!)

I'm SO grateful I get to be the mom of these wonderful children. And I'm SO grateful for my own dear mom and grandmother and my amazing mother-in-law and all the women who've been such huge blessings in my life.

Retreat Report (mostly from my mom)

Our Retreat in Park City this past weekend really was powerful and magical. It's amazing the feeling you get when 85 wonderful moms gather together and spend a day or two helping each other become even better. Ah, the wisdom and joy and POWER in that room!

I'll have more photos when our photographer (and star performer) Macy Robison gets me the photos. But here's a snippet of what we experienced this past weekend through my mom's eyes and the photos people have been kind enough to send me so far. I've cut and pasted what my mom wrote about the Retreat on her "World of Good" blog at the Deseret News so you can hear a report of a Retreat from someone other than me. What my mom didn't say here is that she was our amazing keynote speaker and that she and my dad are masterful presenters who added so much to the event. Plus their lovely home was an absolutely perfect setting. They are so gracious to let us host events at their house.

My mom's report:
We are sometimes mystified by the power of the Internet. Sometimes it seems no one is out there and then suddenly we learn what it means when someone says, “it went viral”! As those of you who follow Deseret News Blogs know, our oldest daughter Saren and her dynamite mother friends power up the Motherhood Matters blog. This sprang out of an organization that can be found at powerofmoms.com. It is a web site for deliberate mothers. Saren and her co-founder April Perry have created this website that enriches, comforts and inspires moms to be better, do better and get over it when they don’t!

After Saren and April have worked tirelessly for about five years to make their website fly, suddenly one of April’s articles “went viral”. It apparently touched a nerve amongst mothers because it generated ONE MILLION HITS! If you want to take a look, click here. What a great gift to these amazing women for Mother’s Day!


As of last weekend, Saren and April have completed 16 weekend retreats involving job training for mothers all over the United States. In March they did two retreats in Australia! Their readership covers the globe and they are thrilled to be part of this movement to train mothers not only for their hardest and best job, but also for their lifelong most-important career.

Last weekend Richard and I hosted a Power of Moms Mother’s Day Retreat. I must say that the power of deliberate mothers was bursting at the seams of our home in Park City. On Friday we talked about specific ways moms can take care of themselves as well as some family systems that helps a home run more smoothly. On Saturday April gave instructions for keeping your mind (and stuff) organized with a system she has created called Mind Organization for Moms.


One of the best things about these retreats is being able to break up into small groups so that moms can help each other with specific problems and needs at home. Every mother brought her own gifts and powers. Comments, questions and suggestions from those present always makes us realize that they could do their own retreat….many of whom are! It was a gorgeous day so some of the groups were able to meet outside.


We were all moved by Macy Robison who is a extraordinary talent with a gorgeous voice and a special talent for touching and lifting up mother’s hearts. She has produced her own delightful CD called Children Will Listen which you can access here.

Snacks and a lovely lunch were served to keep our brain power at maximum and pamper ourselves a bit for Mother's Day.



After a thought-provoking day of mother training, about a dozen brilliant women who serve on the Power of Moms Board stayed on and were able to put their heads together during an evening dinner/meeting where they brainstormed about how to help the website run better and reach more mothers. These great moms all work several hours a week to help run the website and they are each amazing, wonderful women.



Since there is basically no instruction manual for mothers to enable them to be the best they can be, The Power of Moms is looking to create something that will power up those who are working in the most important job in the world. They’d love to have a million members! To be one of those excellent moms go to powerofmoms.com and click on "join us".