General Conference

General Conference it always challenging for us.  I'm sure there are kids out there who can play quietly or maybe even watch conference, but those are not kids who live in THIS house, that's for sure.

This year we tried laying out snacks and when they heard a certain word, they could eat the snack that was assigned to that word.  It worked really well for the first session!

This could be an advertisement for our church!!!

There they are, listening to President Nelson!

I love that Craig bothered to take an artsy shot of the snacks!

Anyway, during those first few minutes of conference, we actually heard EVERYTHING.  So we were totally listening when they announced that we would be changing to two hour church, rather than the full three hours that have been happening every week of my entire life.

So that was a big deal!  But of course, they also emphasized how the purpose of this change was so that families could have more time to teach their children the gospel in the home, rather than it happening at church.  So as much as I wanted to do a happy dance, I also felt a tremendous responsibility with the whole change, too.  So it was nice that as I contemplated being a more involved parent, my kids were actually being very good right at that moment, and I felt like it just might be possible.

I guess we'll see!

But hey-- two hour church!  Who would have guessed?

Later on, my kids were behaving more like this:

Ryder has given himself antennae.  And a goatee?

This is how Camille chooses to watch conference.  It looks very awkward for Craig...

During Women's Session of conference, President Nelson challenged the women to take a 10-day break from social media or media that we felt was not a positive influence in our lives.  This was perfect timing because I had spent the last two weeks following the Supreme Court stuff OBSESSIVELY.  I had several different news sources (trying to not just stay in my bubble!) that I would check in on, and then when they didn't have anything new, I would branch out to other places.  Craig would come home and I would have to word vomit all about it for an hour.

I knew what I was doing probably wasn't very healthy (and it's not like I was going to be asked to vote on the final decision) so I'd been telling myself that once it was all over I should take a break from the news for a bit.  Well, now a prophet asked me to do the same!

I went home and told Craig all about it and he got even more gung-ho than I was, and decided our whole family should take a ten-day break from screens.  This seemed a little extreme to me (HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET MY DAILY NAP IF THE KIDS AREN'T WATCHING TV????) but in a spirit of supportiveness, I agreed to do it.

So today is Day 4 of no television and not much internet.  (Obviously some internet is allowed or else I couldn't be blogging about it right now.)  I'm staying away from my news feeds.  The kids are off YouTube.  And it's been interesting.  The first day there was some crying, mostly from Camille.  Maybe a little from me.  But everyone has gotten used to it pretty quickly. 

Last night we got so much rain from the tail end of Hurricane Michael that all after-school activities were canceled.  This meant that Craig got to come home early STAY HOME-- a rare thing!  And best of luck, I'd made a really good dinner, too, so that alone would have been pretty fabulous.  But then we decided to play games as a family, something we haven't done much of.  First it was Twister:

I mostly love Ryder smiling in the background...

...And then laughing uproariously here!

And then later, Camille decided to drape herself over Bentley.  Notice he's giving me the thumbs up-- he wouldn't put up with this from Ryder, that's for sure!

We played a round of Go Fish (which is way more fun with seven people than with two!) and then everyone ate cookies (which I'd made the night before instead of watching tv-- this "media fast" is bad for my waistline!) and then we sent the little kids to bed so we could play Code Names with the big kids.

It was an absolutely wonderful night, I went to bed so happy.

Bentley's Talk

Hi, my name is Bentley Smith and I was asked to give a talk on how I can prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Before I begin I would like to say that I will be turning 12 tomorrow and I was this close to not having to give a talk.  I've heard that they held the primary program a week early just for me.  Thanks.

Now then, there are many ways to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Some ways we can do this are by reading the scriptures daily.  I have been reading my scriptures daily for a while now and I just finished Alma.  Every night before I go to bed I read one chapter of my scriptures.  I think reading your scriptures before bed and, if you still go, before going to school is a good idea because then you can be prepared for the day that lies ahead of you.  In Alma it talks about how you need to keep your faith in the Lord.  In Alma 44:4, Moroni said to Zerahemnah, "Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith."  I like this scripture because it reminds us that as long as we stay faithful to the Lord, we will not be destroyed.

Another thing you should do is pray every night.  I have been praying every night starting a while before I started reading my scriptures.  I read my scriptures and then say a prayer.  Praying is important because it is the only way you can communicate with Heavenly Father.  When you pray, you should thank Heavenly Father for everything and then you should ask for what you need.  Praying is a very reverent thing.  When my little sister says prayers, she just says the same thing over and over and over again.  Of course, she says it in different ways every time.  First she says thank you for this day and then she proceeds to say and please bless...  And then she names everyone in my family, sometimes including stuffed animals and our pet bunny.  When you say prayers you should not say the same thing over and over.  Sometimes I have to remind myself not to do this. 

Another way you can prepare for the second coming is by going to church regularly.  I go to church every single week.  Even when we are out of town traveling or something, if it's Sunday, Mom will pull over at a church and we will get out of the car and go to sacrament meeting.  Going to church is important.  When you're a kid you go to primary and learn the basic stuff like how to pray and how to sing some songs, etc, etc.  When you get older, I'm told you learn even more about the church.  I'll take their word for it.  When you go to church you also take the sacrament and when you take the sacrament you are forgiven of your sins.  Sometimes people miss a week and that's okay but when you start making a habit of it, it is not good.  Going to church is a very important part of being prepared for the second coming of Jesus Christ.  If you did not go to church you would not know how to prepare for the second coming of Jesus.  These are some ways to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The reason we do these things isn't just to do them, it's to become better people and be more like our Heavenly Father.

I know these things are true and that Joseph Smith restored the church and Jesus will come again.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Update on My New Job

I've had this babysitting gig for a month now, and it's been going GREAT!

Seriously, I'm so pleased with it all!  I was nervous that this would be a terrible mistake and I'd dread the days that I was doing it (like every time that I was in charge of my kids' preschool co-op!).  But this is completely different.  So here are the many reasons that I am loving babysitting:


-PAYCHECK.  Not gonna lie-- I like getting paid.  And it helps that they're paying me pretty well, too!  Few things make me happier than the little cash register CHA-CHING noise my phone makes when I deposit a check!

Theo wants to eat out on the deck with the girls

-Only 2 days a week.  That's just perfect.  If it was more, I'd feel trapped.  And less would probably feel like a lot of effort feeling like I'm "on call" but not making much.  But two days has been juuuust riiiiiiiight.

Theo enjoys crawling through the fort Ryder built

-Everyone has been very flexible, which is nice.  Danielle only works four days a week and her mom watches the kids the other two days, so we swap things around when one of us has something going on (like a dentist appointment or my Dad coming to visit), and that's worked really well.  It's delightful working with reasonable people!

Two Pretty Princesses!

-I genuinely like both Theo and Quinn.  This is more important than you might think, because (despite being a mother of five) I don't necessarily like all kids.  There have definitely been kids in my children's preschool co-ops that I had trouble dealing with, and that made for a pretty miserable experience for me.  (I am just PRAYING that I managed to mask my feelings of dislike for those kids?  Hopefully?).  But Theo is an absolute sweetheart and Quinn is exactly the kind of head-strong girl that I adore.  So that's been fantastic.



-Danielle and Tim (the parents) do all the hard stuff for me.  They pack the kids' lunches (way better lunches than I've ever made for my kids!).  They do all the picking up and dropping off (including Quinn from preschool).  I just have to be here and keep them happy for a few hours.



-My kids like Theo and Quinn, too.  Camille has done very well sharing Mommy with these new kids, so that's good.  (That's not to say that she and Quinn don't occasionally struggle to get along-- Camille feels she should be in charge since it's her house, and Quinn thinks she should be in charge because she's older.  But overall they do pretty well!)  We had one day where the kids were home from school and I was babysitting and I was pretty nervous for how that would go, but it turned out to be AWESOME!  The kids were so excited to have a baby around that they all clamored to help with Theo!  They took turns feeding him and everything!  And Quinn adores Colton and eagerly follows him everywhere, so she was thrilled to have him home with her all afternoon.  When her Dad came to pick her up, she actually burst into tears because she didn't want to leave.  Success!

Ryder did such a good job feeding Theo!

So naturally Colton wanted a turn, too!

-Someone asked me recently if I was done having babies, and I joked that I wouldn't mind having a baby when all the kids were at school, but I didn't think I could handle having a baby around once they all came home.  Well, this way I get just that: a baby to play with while my kids are at school!  And then as soon as they come home, I give him back to his parents!



-It gives me permission to be lazy.  I know that sounds funny, but it's really true.  I'm pretty driven and most days I have a checklist in my head of all the things I ought to be getting done, and those things often seem more important than sitting and reading a story to my kids or just watching them play or holding them on my lap.  But since I'm getting paid to take care of these kids, then those other things are no longer a priority!  So I give myself permission to sit quietly on the couch and hold Theo when he needs to snuggle.  That's my job!  A trip to the store can wait.

They love him!

*Sidenote: the day that all the kids were out of school, we also wound up with about four extra neighborhood kids all running through the house, too.  This is fine since they all play nicely together (the only extra work is just the sheer number of cups they leave all over the kitchen).  The shocked look on Quinn's Dad's face when he came to pick up his own kids and kept seeing kid after kid zooming past was priceless!

I'm like the Pied Piper or something!  But without the rats or death...  Or kidnapping.

Bentley's Last (and Camille's First!) Primary Program

A couple months ago, the primary president, Juli Rohm, called me to ask some questions.  She didn't understand why Camille was still in nursery even though she turned three back in February, so I was explaining how she would move up to primary when the new year began.  This led to a discussion of Bentley turning 12 and moving out of primary and I asked when the primary program would be, since I wondered if he would be in it this year.  She assured me that they had purposely scheduled it for the day before his birthday JUST for that reason.

And then I was kind of obnoxious.  And I mentioned that, although of course all decisions were totally up to her and she had every right to say No to this idea, it would be pretty awesome for me if ALL of my kids were in this primary program.  Sister Rohm jumped on the idea, "Oh, that would be GREAT!  Let's do that!!!"

So a few weeks ago we had the only primary program I will ever see in which all five of my children took part.

And it was so sweet.  Colton and Camille were right up front and you could just barely see their faces peaking over the stand.  And they smiled so adorably at us and knew all the words to all the songs.  Ryder was in the very back corner, but you could still hear him for every song (I'm pretty sure that's why he was in the back corner, actually-- he got my lungs, I'm afraid!).  Kendra had a big part reading a bunch of scriptures throughout the program and did it all perfectly.  And Bentley was asked to write his own 5-minute talk (which is no small feat!) and he did a wonderful job!  I don't think I helped him with his talk at all, and I thought it was really good-- in fact, I'm going to post it here, for posterity and all that.

Anyway, I was very grateful for our primary president indulging me like that.  Life doesn't hand you very many perfect moments like that, so you really have to bask in them when they do come along!

The following day (!!!) Bentley turned 12, and my Dad flew out so he could be a part of Bentley being ordained a deacon, so it's been a busy and wonderful week!  Bentley is very relieved, though-- since General Conference is this weekend, he gets an extra weeks before he has to pass the sacrament.  He'll do great, though, I'm quite certain!

And by the way, Happy Birthday, Bentley!

It Gets Better (Parent's Edition)

I woke up Saturday morning to the delicious smell of my kids making breakfast!

Bentley has gotten to do some cooking when he goes camping for scouts, and he's decided that breakfast food is both delicious and totally manageable for him, so he'd been asking for a chance to do this.  And with everything being canceled in case Hurricane Florence hit us (which it didn't), this weekend proved to be a perfect opportunity!

I did send Craig downstairs just to be on hand in case they needed any help, but Bentley and Kendra pretty much did it all.  They made French toast, bacon, and omelets (with tomato and cheese)!  It was all delicious and everyone was happy.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Craig hopped up and cleaned the kitchen for me AND started the dishwasher, leaving me with nothing to do but go downstairs to try and exercise it all off!

I was so proud of my hard working kids!

Breakfast feast!

Yay for Saturday breakfast!

Also of note: the pajamas Camille is wearing were given to us from some friends in Manassas (Kim & Dave Stevens) when Bentley was little.  I believe they are the only pajamas that ALL FIVE of our kids have worn-- how random is that?  They've held up remarkably well, though, even if I feel that the camo look sends a very different message here than it did 11 years ago in northern Virginia...

Basil Update

I bought another one.  I'd used up most the leaves on the two I had and they were just looking sad!  And then I was good and DIDN'T get a milkshake at the Moo-Thru and I ALSO didn't stop at Yoder's (I would have, just to buy their amazing blackberry jam, but by then Camille was asleep so I wasn't going to stop the car unnecessarily).  So by the time I got to Wegman's, I was feeling put upon.  So I bought another basil plant.  Craig said there were worse things I could have splurged on.

Then, because I didn't know what to do with the sad, but barely alive plants I still have, I tried to replant the new one and the old one together in the same pot.

The new one is slowly shriveling up and dying, one stalk at a time.

Craig called me a masochist.

The old tough one is still going strong.


I might need more hobbies...

First Day of School

Craig took pictures of the kids on their first day of school-- thank goodness, because I was running around trying to get dressed before we all headed to the bus stop together.  Thanks, Craig!

I love how Ryder and Colton both wore their Cale t-shirts.  And, this was the best smile we got from Camille-- she was CRAZY!  Also of note, Bentley actually puts gel in his hair now, he just hadn't done it yet when Craig took this.  FYI.

After everyone else left, Camille got herself dressed

My first task with only one kid was to get the safety inspection done on my car.  It had expired in July, but I just couldn't figure out how to get it done with five kids, so I'd been putting it off, hoping I could manage to NOT get pulled over.  Success!  And it only took an hour to do (the first place I went to said it would take 3 hours, so that was pretty good)!

Hanging out waiting for our car

The next day, Camille was so excited to see her siblings again that she offered to carry Kendra's backpack for her!

Colton came home from school bouncing off the walls with sheer joy.  He is loving every second of kindergarten.  I was worried that the Spanish immersion program would overwhelm him, but he is just thrilled with it all.  On Saturday he woke up and demanded, "How many more days until I get to go back to school again???"

Life is good!

Navel Gazing

Change-- like school starting-- usually forces me to slow down for a bit and reflect on what's happening in my life.  And seeing what other bloggers do to mark occasions like this (I'm referring to Stephanie Nielson and her love of back-to-school feasts).  I love the idea of doing big dramatic gestures, but I'm always too busy to do it (well, mostly Craig is too busy getting his school ready for the first day, and I'm too exhausted from a summer home with all five kids!).

So I don't do anything all that remarkable.  But I do stop and ponder more than usual.  This time, I was thinking about the mother I am, compared to the mother I thought I would be.  This is a scary thing to reflect on, because the two do not line up very well and it's easy to get disappointed.  I thought I would be a really fun mom who was constantly explaining things to my kids and helping them be excited to learn about nature or something.  I thought I'd do arts and crafts with them.  I thought I'd read to them all the time.

And that's not exactly how I roll.  But as I try to cut myself a little slack, I'm hoping that's not a bad thing...

So for example, I thought I'd be playing outside with my kids all the time.  But I didn't take into account the fact that I don't really like being outside that much.  I love the IDEA of the great outdoors.  And I like reading about nature.  But sitting in the grass watching ants and spiders coming at me just freaks me out.  Add to that my spring allergies and the relentless summer humidity, and there just aren't that many days when I want to be outside.  So, no, I'm not some fun hippy outdoorsy nature mom.  In fact, I'm more what Jim Gaffigan described as "indoorsy."  Oh, well.

I've also discovered that I hate doing arts and crafts with kids!  It's always SO MUCH prep work and SO MUCH mess for so very little payoff.  I've pretty much relegated that to the schools.  Oh, well.  I'm lame.  So sue me.

I read to my kids at bedtime every night, but not a whole lot more than that.  And I don't feel too bad about that one.  They're all learning to LOVE reading and I think that's a thousand times more important than me reading to them.  So I'm okay with it.  (And besides, even with the limited reading I do, do you have ANY IDEA how many times I've read Goodnight Moon to these kids???)

So, yes, I'm not quite where I thought I would be on those things, and occasionally I'll find myself stressing about that and feeling bad about myself.

Where I get a little more hope is when I pay attention to the things I'm GOOD at that I never really guessed I would be.  It turns out, I'm a pretty good cook when I want to be!  When Craig and I got married, I would make the fancy Kraft mac'n'cheese (thick and creamy-- it's to die for!) and a frozen chicken cordon bleu, and I thought that was fine dining!  I have come a LONG way since that!  I'm also super organized at meal planning and grocery shopping and budgeting.  Who knew?  And to top it off, I even keep a fairly clean house, for having five+ kids always running through it.  No one, least of all me, saw that coming!  Now, I don't actually think keeping a spotless house is the most important thing, especially if you've got a lot of kids.  But I've learned that I get very grumpy when my house is messy, so for my own sanity, a clean house is important.  And, as Janine always said, keeping Mom sane is what matters most.

So I think the stuff I'm good at out-weighs the stuff I'm bad at.  And, more importantly, the stuff I'm good at is what makes me happy, where the stuff I'm bad at is because I have no interest in doing it anyway.  No sense in trying to force me into a mold that wasn't ever going to fit, even if I totally thought it would before I had kids!

A New Gig for Me

School started last week, and life feels VERY different with four kids in school and only one at home!  I haven't had just one kid to take care of since Kendra was born over 10 years ago!!!  I was kind of worried that Camille would be really bored with just me for company.  So, naturally, I found a babysitting gig to occupy our time!

Actually, the whole thing just sort of fell into my lap.  We have a community messaging board (although "community" is very loosely defined to be the southern half of Charlottesville, as far as I can tell) and people will frequently post messages about looking for a babysitter/nanny.  I'll usually click on them-- because who can say no to a little extra money?-- and then quickly realize that there's no WAY it would work.  These people usually want someone who can be in their home, helping their kids with homework and all sorts of demands that I certainly do not have the time for.  So I read them, think, Nope!, and move on.

But a few weeks ago, one caught my eye.  This person was looking for someone to watch two kids, ages 4 and almost 1, twice a week, from 8:30-3:00, which is exactly when my kids are in school.  And I thought, I could do that.  And Camille would have a friend to play with!  So I reached out, and it all seems to be working perfectly!

Danielle is the mom and she seemed very nice and very reasonable-- she wanted to make sure my kids were vaccinated and that I didn't have any guns in the house.  Fair enough.  I wanted to make sure she wasn't uncomfortable with my being religious (I assured her I wouldn't be preaching to her kids or anything, but you never know how people will react to stuff like this).  And her two kids are Quinn and Theo.  She brought them over last Monday so I could meet them and see how they did here and they were super cute kids and Quinn and Camille hit it off right away.  Thursday will be my first day actually babysitting, so we'll see how that goes.  But I'm excited-- I think this will be a perfect way to earn a little extra money, but since it's only two days a week, I'll still have plenty of time to get done the things I normally do.

Here's hoping, right?

My Life is Weird

I was cleaning up the kitchen while Bentley poked around in the fridge, when suddenly Camille burst upon us.  She stopped in front of Bentley, put on her most charming smile and asked, "Um, how you doing, Bentley?" and then, while he looked at her in confusion, waved her arms in front of his face and yelled, "Distract!  Distract!"

Bentley was dumbfounded.

I suggested he go check on what his little brothers were doing in his bedroom.

Sure enough, they were looting it, hoping to steal his rubber chicken.  They'd told Camille to go and distract Bentley.

Mission NOT accomplished.

Etymology

Why is it that I still want to use the word "Mapquest" as a verb (as in, "I need to mapquest that park to see how far away it is"), but there's no Google version that seems to fit?  To me, googling something means looking it up on the internet, not viewing where it is on a map.

Is Mapquest even a thing anymore?


All this reminds me of this old SNL video...

Strange Addiction

I've got a problem.  With buying basil plants.

At some point after I began cooking real food, I wandered into a Trader Joe's and they had these LOVELY basil plants for less than what it costs to buy fresh basil leaves at my regular grocery store!  That was a no brainer: I scooped one off the shelf, absolutely delighted with my find.  I used the fresh, fragrant leaves a couple times while cooking, so I felt more than justified with my purchase. 

And then one day, I noticed that the leaves on my basil plant didn't look so good.  They were turning brown and spotty, like something was eating them.  Before long, the entire plant was dead.  I threw it away and bought another.  And the same thing happened.

By the time I got to my 5rd or 6th basil plant, I googled what was going on.  Google seemed to think some tiny bugs were eating my plant and the way to fix that was to remove all the damaged leaves.  That just left my poor plant looking even sorrier.  And whatever was eating it just went for the rest of the leaves.  It died within days of my "pruning" it.

I thought maybe it was time I gave up on buying these plants since all I ever seemed to do was kill them (sometimes even without getting around to cooking with them!), but then I had one day where my regular grocery store didn't have any basil and Wegman's only had live plants, so I carefully picked out another one, only to have the entire thing practically fall over the second I got it home and removed the plastic wrap that had apparently been holding it up!

Craig came home that day and saw my sad plant and said, "Not another one!" and I had to protest, "THIS TIME IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"

But this little plant has proved much heartier than the others!  Despite the fact that its kind of growing sideways, it didn't just die!  And when we left for a week in April (and again in July) and it didn't get any water or sunlight and basically turned yellow, it revived again when we returned home and I got back to watering it and opened the blinds so it could see the sun again!

So that's been nice.  It's a sad ugly little plant, truth be told, but I've kept it alive for quite some time now and I'm quite pleased with it.  I've only bought one more basil plant since then.  To keep it company, obviously.



I actually have one other plant-- a hanging flower basket on my front porch-- that my mother bought me when she was here in May.  This one was doing fine until a little wren built this messy, mossy nest under its leaves.  Then, every time I'd try to water my plant, the wren would shoot out of the basket, giving me the stink eye on her way out.  So naturally I felt so guilty that I stopped watering the darn thing at all.  After two weeks of neglect, I came back from Florida to a VERY dead-looking plant.  I gave it a healthy watering just in case, AND IT CAME BACK, TOO!  And the wren seems to have moved on, so I can water guilt-free again. 

It's probably too soon to start feeling proud of my green thumb, huh?

Portrait Outtakes

As promised, here are a few of the funnier portraits...

Craig is pointing at something just so we'd look like that.  I actually like the picture, but deep down I know that it's cheesy as all get-out.  (The photographer did NOT tell us to do that--we're actually that dorky all on our own!)

I love Lindsy laughing here, but I'm sure she hates it

Craig is nervously eyeing that wave...  (Too bad, because the sunset behind us was GORGEOUS!)  He was right to be nervous, it totally got his knee wet!

There is so much I love about this picture.  But my favorite is that Bentley looks about ready to be in the next big boy band here.  Zoom in on him.  Go ahead and do it!  Eat your heart out, Justin Bieber!

Awesome jump, Bentley!  (I TOLD you it was hard to get everyone to jump at the same time!)

Pre-jump

Um, who's that guy behind us?

(I recognize that kid back there!)

Leave it to a youngest child to stand RIGHT in FRONT of his own father!

And last, but certainly not least, I give you this:

This was when my hair blew right into my eye.  Classic.  Craig looks adorable, though!

It makes me think of this Lucille Bluth gif:

And, of course, Michael's response, "How can I get you to never make THAT face again?"


Me and Lucille Bluth, soul sisters!

MORE Portraits!!!

You're going to think I do family portraits every other month!  I really don't-- in fact, I used to NEVER do stuff like this at all and I'd feel really guilty for not documenting my family well enough!  But this year...  well, between actually doing them in the fall, and then my family doing them in the spring, and now Craig's family doing them in the summer...  Well, we're apparently on the seasonal track, aren't we?

But I'm going to stop sounding apologetic, because these portraits turned out BEAUTIFULLY.  So yes, I have to share them here.  #Sorrynotsorry

The whole gang!

Houston Smiths

When the photographer told them to turn around from the previous pose, they didn't let go of each other's hands and they got completely tangled up-- it was hilarious and awkward

You have NO idea how hard it is to get people to jump at the same time!

We look kind of... tan, actually!

Brothers!

I'm SO happy with how these turned out!!!  (And there were more that I liked-- I'm going easy on you to limit it to only these!)

Next post: hilarious outtakes!  Stay tuned...