Genes and Jeans

I was trying to convince the kids to eat their freshly-picked garden tomatoes at lunch yesterday but to no avail.  Our discussion went from lycopene to cancer and then Melody (our family disease-a-phobe) asked how people got cancer.  We then talked about risk factors and genes. 

 

"You mean people have cancer in their genes?"  Melody asked.  "Does OUR family have cancer in OUR genes?" 

 

Five-year-old Roman, listening quietly to this conversation, suddenly had an astonished look on his face.  With bulging eyes and then relief he looked down at the jersey shorts he was wearing and then announced, "WHAT?  Our family has CANCER in our jeans????  I am NEVER wearing JEANS again!!!" 

 

And then everyone ate their tomatoes. 

Food For Thought

Brigham Young:
We had to pay our own schoolteachers, raise our own bread and earn

our own clothing, or go without; there was no other choice.

We did it then, and we are able to do the same to-day.

I want to enlist the sympathies of the ladies among the

Latter-day Saints, to see what we can do for ourselves with
regard to schooling our children.

Do not say you cannot school them, for you can...

I understand that the other night there was a school meeting in one
of the wards of this city, and a part there--a poor miserable
apostate--said, "We want a free school, and we want

to have the name of establishing the first free school in Utah."

To call a person a poor miserable apostate may seem

like a harsh word; but what shall we call a man
who talks about free schools and who would

have all the people taxed to support them, and yet would take

his rifle and threaten to shoot the man who had the

collection of the ordinary light taxes levied in this
Territory--taxes which are lighter than any levied in any

other portion of the country?

*(Journal of Discourses 16:19-20)*

MATH RUINS LIVES

We were sitting at the dinner table last night and I was talking to Leah about her upcoming math program for the new homeschool year.  She got a concerned look on her face and said, "When I went to the movies with Aunt Deanna there was a commercial about math.  It said that math ruins lives.  Maybe I should stop doing it."

 

I was really confused for a few seconds and trying to imagine the actuality of an anti-math commercial in the movies.  Surely not, I thought.  Then I tried to rewind my brain and think of the last movie experience I had and the infomercials that played before it came on and it hit me.  "Oh!  No no no, Leah Beah.  That commercial was about METH.  Meth is a drug that ruins lives.  They weren't talking about MATH."

 

"Oooooohhhhh."  She slowly replied.  Then she looked a little disappointed and added,  "Well, that's too bad.  Does that mean we still have to learn it?"

 

Enjoy The Drive

My favorite part of the day is the magical hour that comes right after lunchtime when all of my kids are nestled around me as I read from a book. I simply relish their anticipation and the wonder in their big blue eyes as a story unfolds and we all fall in love with the characters. Right now we are reading "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery and I simply adore that girl, Anne-spelled-with-an-"E". She is so full of life. Eager to learn. Ready to love. And she taught us all an important lesson this week:

"Do you know," said Anne confidentially, "I've made up my

mind to enjoy this drive. It's been my experience

that you can nearly always enjoy
things if you make up your mind

firmly that you will. Of course, you must
make it up firmly...."

As soon as I came across that passage I got a thrill. It's so easy to dwell on our challenges and set backs. Or even on the daily drivel that gets us down. But if we make up our mind firmly we can "enjoy this drive" and eagerly anticipate all the beauty and joy that will come because of it

. My, how I love that make-believe 11-year-old orphan girl, Anne!

Remembering What I Have

"People who pray for miracles usually don't get miracles....But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayers answered." (Rabbi Harold Kushner in When Bad Things Happen to Good People)

My most recent miracle-in-the-works may have been delayed for a season, but I have indeed been reminded of what I have left and--if you ask me--I think they're pretty miraculous, too!

Girls Only!

The boys went away for the night to a Father/Son Campout with our church and this is the one night a year I set aside my firm "NO SLEEPOVERS" policy and allow the girls to invite friends and cousins over for a slumber party.

We had our famous fruit pizza

And the girls all enjoyed pedicures.

Later we watched "Anne of Green Gables" until the girls fell asleep.

In the morning Hali and Mykaela made cinnamon crescent rolls for us!

I love being a mother to four wonderful daughters

and we look forward to our Annual Sleepover every year!

Mama Nut's Gone Crazy!

We meandered out of town last weekend to attend the temple and take the kids to the Aquarium.  It was so nice to spend some happy time together.  Unfortunately we don't have a working camera right now (one is broke, one has a dead battery and a missing charger) so I don't have pictures to share but take my word for it:  We had a great time!

 

On the way home we stopped at a gas station because Teagan had to go potty.  (Yay for potty-trained two-year-olds!)  Naturally, since Teagan had to go, so did Leah.  And Melody. And Roman.  Not Hali, though.  She will get a bladder infection before she dares to use a public restroom.  But I digress.

 

I usher all the kids into the gas station and assign Hali to stand watch outside the men's restroom and command Roman to scream if any odd behavior goes on while he's in there.  Yes, I am a paranoid mother.

 

The three girls and I shuffle into the restroom.  Teagan does her business and then I get busy de-germing hands and quickly scoot the kids outside back towards the car, wondering why everyone is giving me strange looks.  I am assuming it's because I am herding a flock of children through the gas station and I've been asked a million times if I've been asked once, always with the same answer:

 

"YES!  They are ALL mine!"

 

Anyways, I am getting a little perturbed at Teagan because she is moving so slowly but we finally approach the car and I am puzzled at the scowl on Jimmy's face when he sees us approach.  It is strangely similar to the customers' in the store and I am tempted to remind him that they are ALL his as well when he pops out of the van, pointing quite disturbedly and half-whispering, half-growling that,

"Teagan's undies are down around her ankles!"

 

Oh.  So THAT'S why she was walking so slowly and THAT'S why all those people were giving me those 'looks'. 

 

Huh.  Oh, well.  I'm from the Funny Farm.  What do you expect?