Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Sunday

Sunday we had an amazing breakfast prepared by Atza and Dave.  Spanish Omelet.  Wow.  It was SO SO good.  I am still craving it!  Then church, family pictures, the baptism & the after baptism dinner.  It was a tight schedule.  Add to that the fact that our poor photographer got rear ended on I-5 just 2 hours before our scheduled photo shoot!   Miraculously it all came together.  Only the party van was late for the baptism because they forgot James at home, and then took a wrong turn.  (Don't worry, we waited for them).  There were over 100 people there!  It was a full house!

Sarah loving her day!

 Having fun with Family pictures!

Derek and Sarah.  So happy!

Grammy and Grandpa Norton flew back from Boise that morning so they could be there for the baptism.  

Norton/Barretts.  We are so blessed to have so much family around!

Sarah with Auntie Maren (who also flew back that morning to be there for the baptism).

Uncle Clarkie!

Sister McEachern has been Sarah's primary teacher for a few years.

Sarah's other Grandparents.  

Sarah drew this picture for her baptism cover.  I wish I had scanned the full original for the blog.  It had Jesus' baptism written at the top (J backward) and a surfer on the wave just to the right of John the Baptist.  It was epic.  

Grandma had this picture drawn by Roccio (a 2nd cousin) for Sarah.  Isn't it fun!
It looks like Sarah so much!

It's over!  Feet up!

Zonking out!  (Dave's friends Anna and Ben joined us for several things this weekend).  

Sarah's Baptism Weekend: Thursday & Friday

Sarah's Baptism Weekend was spectacular!  I prepared and prepared and prepared, and for the most part, things went off without a hitch.  But I was exhausted!  It is tough to steer a ship of 20 people.  But spending time with my family was totally worth the effort.  I hung copies of the schedule all over the house.  If we were going to accomplish everything we planned, we had to stay on schedule.  And for the most part we did.

Rachel and Devin were the first to arrive.  This cute young man is so much fun.  I spent the weekend alternately missing this stage in my kids' lives and being SO GLAD that I am done with it!  Devin didn't get much sleep, so neither did Rachel or Brad.  I don't miss that!

Sister Selfie!

Devin got to walk to school to pick up the kids!

We have developed this strategy to help keep the cup wasting to a minimum.  Everyone has a cup with his/her name on it that they are supposed to use all weekend.  This worked more or less.  Drea wins the prize for using her cup the most and never losing it!

Ben was fascinated with the baby chair.  He wanted to eat in the chair.  

Devin slept in Ben's room.  We were worried that someone might forget he was napping and walk in and wake him.  (I was worried about myself forgetting!)  So Libby made these amazing signs.  Can you tell that her teachers (last year and this year) feel that spelling tests are a waste of time?  (Urgh!)

James (the 3 year old) doesn't read, however, and he managed to wake Devin once by barging in to play with Ben's toys.   

The Randall Party van (or Captain Soren's Party Van) arrived on Thursday night.  On Friday afternoon we took Sarah to the Alderwood Mall to (finally) get her American Girl Doll.  I am way to cheap to buy anything but the doll there.  But the dolls really do have better hair than the knock offs.  Clothes and everything else comes from somewhere cheaper!  Sarah picked Josephina.  Somehow I didn't get a picture of that.  But I did take some of the amazing American History Legos displayed throughout the mall.  We visited all of them so that the girls could get the prize from the Lego store (a super lame poster).  

Then the kids went swimming at the hotel with Bryn, Brian, Grandpa & Derek.  My mom and I worked on prep for the next couple of days.  

AHHHH!  A hot tub!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

 Sarah has already had lots of birthday festivities, and she'll have a whole 2nd round next weekend.  But I thought I'd post what has already happened so it doesn't get too overwhelming!

Sarah is a sweet wonderful 8 year-old.  She loves school, reading, playing with toys (by herself and also with siblings when she gives that a try).  She is determined (although in a different way than Libby).  But, she is not all sunshine and roses.  When she gets frustrated, it can be pretty intense.  And, her first response when frustrated is usually, "I don't want to talk about it."  Sometimes reading calms her down, sometimes I can get her to talk about it.  But she returns to her happy self once the problem is resolved.  She is a lark (early riser), a saver (put 1/2 of her birthday money in savings without being asked to save any of it), a singer and pianist.  She is a dancer, a great daughter and granddaughter.  She has so much love in her little heart!

Her birthday fun started with a trip to the temple and the Distribution Center last Saturday to get her new scriptures with Grammy and Grandpa.  They took pictures at the temple.  Sarah got "Sarah L. Norton" engraved on her scriptures.  She also choose a super cute scripture bag.  This is such a fun tradition!

They might have worn Grandpa out a bit!

Sarah chose pancakes for her birthday breakfast.  I was happy because 8 is a pretty easy number to make and flip :)

The set up for her BFG (based on the BFG by Roald Dahl, which her class read last year in school) party.  

Close up.  We have BFG madlibs (which the girls loved), empty dream jars, a vase full of "dreams" (glow in the dark bouncy balls), small plates and cups and silverware since they are supposed to feel giant.  I served mini triscuits, baby goldfish, baby carrots, mini cucumbers (snozcumbers), pigs in a blanket, and to drink, of course...

Frobsgottle (sprite with pop rocks).  Thank goodness there wasn't any fiery whizzpopping!

We also made "dream jar" cookies.  Sarah's 8 candle in her cookie.

Kids catching their "dreams" in butterfly nets like the BFG.

Sarah's dream jar.  (Complete with a dream she wrote down inside).

We made these cute owl rice krispie treats for her class.  "It's Sarah's Birthday!  What a hoot!"  Dad showed great love by going to JoAnn's to get one last thing of eyes when we ran out.

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

 Sarah has already had lots of birthday festivities, and she'll have a whole 2nd round next weekend.  But I thought I'd post what has already happened so it doesn't get too overwhelming!

Sarah is a sweet wonderful 8 year-old.  She loves school, reading, playing with toys (by herself and also with siblings when she gives that a try).  She is determined (although in a different way than Libby).  But, she is not all sunshine and roses.  When she gets frustrated, it can be pretty intense.  And, her first response when frustrated is usually, "I don't want to talk about it."  Sometimes reading calms her down, sometimes I can get her to talk about it.  But she returns to her happy self once the problem is resolved.  She is a lark (early riser), a saver (put 1/2 of her birthday money in savings without being asked to save any of it), a singer and pianist.  She is a dancer, a great daughter and granddaughter.  She has so much love in her little heart!

Her birthday fun started with a trip to the temple and the Distribution Center last Saturday to get her new scriptures with Grammy and Grandpa.  They took pictures at the temple.  Sarah got "Sarah L. Norton" engraved on her scriptures.  She also choose a super cute scripture bag.  This is such a fun tradition!

They might have worn Grandpa out a bit!

Sarah chose pancakes for her birthday breakfast.  I was happy because 8 is a pretty easy number to make and flip :)

The set up for her BFG (based on the BFG by Roald Dahl, which her class read last year in school) party.  

Close up.  We have BFG madlibs (which the girls loved), empty dream jars, a vase full of "dreams" (glow in the dark bouncy balls), small plates and cups and silverware since they are supposed to feel giant.  I served mini triscuits, baby goldfish, baby carrots, mini cucumbers (snozcumbers), pigs in a blanket, and to drink, of course...

Frobsgottle (sprite with pop rocks).  Thank goodness there wasn't any fiery whizzpopping!

We also made "dream jar" cookies.  Sarah's 8 candle in her cookie.

Kids catching their "dreams" in butterfly nets like the BFG.

Sarah's dream jar.  (Complete with a dream she wrote down inside).

We made these cute owl rice krispie treats for her class.  "It's Sarah's Birthday!  What a hoot!"  Dad showed great love by going to JoAnn's to get one last thing of eyes when we ran out.

Kid Quotes & Conference Crafts

Ben has been full of great quotes lately.  I wish I wrote them all down instantly.  But here are some highlights.

This quote is from his time with Grammy yesterday:
Ben, whines about wanting to go first in a game.
Grammy:  "Ben, why are you whining, do you always get to go first at home?"
Ben: "Well Grammy, you know how 2 year olds whine so they can get their way?  That's what I do when I want to go first and usually it works and they let me go first."
(He tipped his hand here!  Now I know not to let that whining thing work!)

Walking home from school the other day.
Ben: "Mom, I get a warm feeling inside when I think about preschool.  I remember all the fun we had, and the playtime, and I feel all warm."
Me:  "That's called nostalgia.  When we look back on something or some time in our life that we loved."
Ben: "No Mom.  It's called the Holy Ghost.  And I also feel it when I think about my friend Noah."

Ben: "Mom, Aunt Maren rode her bike to Europe.  Can we do that too?  To see Noah?"

My favorite Libby moment from the last couple of weeks was the "forchine" or fortune napkins she made for dinner one night.  (And she reused them a 2nd night).

She was super delighted with herself.  And her spelling is so fun.  

We also had a really good time watching conference.  I got them "conference crafts" this time around.  They sat there and crafted and listened.  It worked out better than I could have expected.  Libby kept saying, "Wow, that was a good talk!" or "I really liked that one!"  It felt so good to have Libby explaining what she liked about the talks.  She really felt the Spirit during conference.

Sarah and Ben picked playdough kits that were an ice cream shop.  So, I "ate" loads of ice cream during conference.  All of Ben's had cherries on tap that I had to "spit" out the "pits."  

Libby  made jewelry.  She got out my random left over beads and necklace stuff from a few years back.  She had a blast.  

Ben also made me a Sundae in this toy chair that reminds me of a toilet.  Delicious.

 

Creating Great Mornings

A few weeks back I polled my FB friends to see what they do in the mornings to help things go smoothly.  I felt relief to see that many other parents were struggling with the same problem.  My favorite was a dad who wrote, "yelling, fruitless yelling."  That was how I was feeling.  Other people mentioned some ideas that all sort of came together for me.  Add to that that I just finished reading Gretchen Rubin's Happier at Home, making me feel like I could experiment, and we started "scheduling" the mornings.
I created this blank schedule document and printed it.  For the summer I tried doing something similar, but I wrote up the schedule and tried to make the whole week one one sheet and then use it for the whole summer.  But too much changes around here on a day to day basis.  And, because I wrote it, there wasn't much buy in.  Having the girls write in their own schedule has been AMAZING!  It was really informative to start at 8:40am (our "GO TIME" as Libby calls it), and work backward.  The girls realized that if they wanted to fit in piano, breakfast, a treadmill walk (they do about a mile while watching a show on the ipad), snack prep, showering (some days), running club (T/TH for Libby), getting dressed and making beds, they needed to get up at 7:00 am.  We had a couple of days of working out the kinks, but it is running pretty smoothly after 2+ weeks.  I'll mention just a few miracles.

Miracle #1.  Libby sets an alarm each night and gets up at 7 am.  On her own.  No prodding or begging or multiple trips to her bedroom to drag her out of bed.  (Trust me, this is HUGE!  During the summer she slept to 8 at the EARLIEST. And it took forever to drag her out of bed.)

Miracle #2:  They have made their beds EVERY DAY (even Ben is making his bed because his sisters are doing it).

Miracle #3:  They have gotten their own breakfast. Almost zero help from me.

Miracle #4:  They are practicing their piano and getting their piano homework done.

Miracle #5:  They pack their own snack for school.

Miracle #6:  We are finally doing the mommy/daughter strength workout 2x a week that I have been thinking I should start for months. (This was also motivated by one of the modules in my new Weight Management Certification and by Libby not making it into Level 3 gymnastics.)

Miracle #7:  If a kid seems to be dawdling, instead of yelling, I say, "What's next on your schedule?"  They (almost always) snap right back into "get ready" mode.

Miracle #8:  I feel calm in the mornings.  If I'm being honest with myself, I realize that before we were scheduling, I was feeling anxious all morning.  I would frantically move from one thing to another, hollering at one kid or another, unsure EVERY DAY if we would get everything done before they left.  Now, I know that if they do everything on their schedules, they will get in a workout, piano, snack prep, teeth brushing, etc.  I don't have to be watching and stressing.  And, when Mom is calm, everyone is better off.  Especially MOM!

Miracle #9 is an added bonus:  My girls need practice writing.  And, every night they write a whole bunch of words on their schedules.  Sneakily killing two birds with one stone.

Miracle #10:  They don't fight over the treadmill or the piano in the mornings because they each have time scheduled in.  (Ben struggles with this a little still since he can't tell time and gets impatient.)

Miracle #11:  Most mornings they have some playtime or kindle time scheduled in at the end.  And they actually get it!  So they decide what the carrot will be at the end of their schedule and they work with that in mind.

Miracle #12:  They are learning how long it actually takes to get things done.  When Libby realized that she needed to schedule 20 minutes to eat breakfast because she takes so long to eat, she decided to dawdle less and just get the eating done.  That is an incredible advance.  


A couple of downsides:
-I have to remember to have them write their schedules every night.  One night Dad supervised the schedule writing and things didn't go quite as smoothly.  He forgot to have them schedule in their workout until they were part way through, so they went back and made some changes that weren't fully thought out.  In the morning they got a little stressed.  (To help me remember to have them write their schedules, I got them each a clipboard, which I keep hanging around the kitchen.  Before they have fun in the evenings, I try to have them write their schedule for the next day.   But, in case I forget, I have put it into their points at the end of the day.  So if we are at bedtime, I check off their points for the day and am reminded if they haven't scheduled.  (Which lengthens out the bedtime routine, so I try to do it earlier because I am a less kind Mommy when bedtime stretches to 9pm.)
-My perfectionist daughter sometimes gets stressed about being behind schedule.  (i.e., "Mom, I am 2 minutes behind!")  And it bothers Libby a little too.  But I think this is so much better than the alternative life we have been living.  So Much Better.

This last Friday morning ended up pretty rough for Sarah.  She was upset that I was trying to get her to fill out her reading log for the week that she hadn't started (and this wasn't on her schedule).  So, she didn't have any idea what she read or when.  (She is constantly reading, so it is an overwhelming task for her to try to remember longer than one day back.)  She was pouting and fuming all the way to school.  I coached her to try "underreacting" to the problem.  She said, "Mom, this Gretchen Rubin stuff isn't going to work on me."

Ha!  Little does she know that it already is...
I feel like I am teaching my kids a real life skill here (even Derek admitted this!).  And, mornings have become pretty great around here.
(knock on wood)

When I'm less stressed in the morning I can listen to my kids and laugh at things like Ben's request that I homeschool his animals while he was at school.

And Sarah's worry that she shouldn't wear her Stanford hat on the day that Stanford was playing the UW.  Turned out, she needed have worried.  The Huskies are on fire this year!

A New Mantra

I am obsessed with Gretchen Rubin.  Over the summer I listened to her book Better than Before, which is about how we make habits.  I LOVED it.  And I have also been listening to her podcast, Happier.  (I guess Podcasts have "" around them?  Help me out Grammarian friends.)  Anyway, since I now have a lot more time alone, I also just finished listening to her book Happier At Home.  SO SO SO good.  And thought provoking.  The takeaway that has become my new mantra:  Under-react to a problem.
And, I have had a chance to put this to the test!
It is amazing.  My kids are shocked at how cool I am when bad stuff happens.  Seriously.  I just tell myself, under-react.  Is it really that big of a deal?
So here are some of the things I have under-reacted to in the past few days.
Libby broke my favorite cup.  No big deal.  Just threw it away.
We switched to Century Link.  Had a few internet connectivity and TV connectivity problems.  No big deal.
I went to cook dinner on the BBQ.  Out of propane.  No big deal.  Fry those burgers!
The pre-sliced cheese I just bought for aforementioned burgers is moldy?  Get out the slicer.  I'm not quite out of the block of cheddar.  
I drove to a store I wanted to shop at, forgot my purse at home.  Oh well, I'll go back later.
Can't get the pilot light to the stove working in our sunroom (which is not connected to the furnace and is our TV room).  Oh well, watched conference with a blanket and space heater.
I hung up one strand of new lights LED lights from Costco in my living room.  They looked awesome.  Got the other one out to hang.  Didn't work.  No big deal, I'm sure I need to go to Costco on Monday anyway, right?
The kids begged for Ravioli and it turns out they don't like it?  Make them eat a little and toss the rest.  No big deal.
Saturday schedule is store,dance, gymnastics, dance, dance parent meeting, soccer, and catch up on conference that you missed all day?  Cool under pressure.
And I can't even count the number of mini milk spills that happen around here.
It is kind of ridiculous when I look at this list of things that might have had me hollering, cursing under my breath, or getting my blood boiling.
I can't really believe that it is working.  But I just look at the broken cup on the ground and think, "under-react." And I do.  Just let it go.
My kids can't really believe it.  They keep waiting for me to be upset.  And I'm sure I will be.  Over something.  But so far it just feels really good to be chill.
I'm saving my emotional energy for the real stuff?