Thanks!

Wait, I have a blog? That's amazing, I almost forgot about it after all this time and the craziness of the past 3 months with moving, school getting out, traveling and everything else. But, I'm going to try to start posting again, starting with this. It's a thank you card for my parents for keeping my kids for a month.

MeMe

Saw this over at the Good Neighbor, repost if you want, but the rule is you can only answer each question with one word........

1. Where is your cell phone? upstairs
2. Your significant other? sleeping
3. Your hair? up
4. Your mother? artist
5. Your father? example
6. Your favorite thing? love
7. Your dream last night? unmentionable
8. Your favorite drink? cranberry
9. Your dream/goal? happy
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your church? Mormon
12. Your fear? intolerance
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? outside
14. Where were you last night? couch
15. What you’re not? rested
16. Muffins? cupcakes
17. One of your wish list items? la cruset
18. Where you grew up? Idaho
19. The last thing you did? unpack
20. What are you wearing? towel
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pets? abandoned
23. Your computer? blessing
24. Your life? mine
25. Your mood? swings
26. Missing someone? always
27. Your car? 2nd home
28. Something you’re not wearing? socks
29. Favorite store? Fancy Tiger
30. Your summer? short
31. Like(love) someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? blue
33. Last time you laughed? evening
34. Last time you cried? evening
35. Who will repost this?bored

Something to do

Here is a list of 60 things to do if your kids get whiny about having nothing to do. I posted it last year. If I had more energy this year,I would have reread it and added things to it. There's still lots of good ideas though, so have fun!

1. Mosaic pavers for the garden
2. Tiddly Winks with buttons
3. Marbles
4. Play in the pool
5. Make paper dresses
6. Make hot pads
7. Do latch hook
8. Make a bracelet
9. Cats Cradle
10. Tea party picnic
11. Make an iceberg
12. Balloon volleyball
13. Bean bag toss
14. Clothes pin race
15. finger puppet play
16. marble bowling
17. Write a secret message
18. Wash doll clothes
19. Write a letter
20. lacing cards
21. leaf rubbing
22. Do a puzzle
23. Art in the dark
24. Etching coloring
25. Knock Knock card
26. Make pom poms
27. jump rope.
28. Paper Airplanes
29. Simon Says
30. Red light Green light
31. coin toss in a muffin tin
32. Fashion plates
33. Chalk coloring
34. Make a treasure map
35. Brick Garden
36. Paper hats
37. Read a book
38. Paper doll chain
39. get a tadpole.
40. Make cookies
41. Fabric flowers
42. Go to Barnes and Noble to look at books and play checkers
43. paint rocks
44. make play dough
45. Play with play dough
46. knit something
47. Work on a Brownie Patch
48. Build a sandcastle
49. Press flowers
50. Make dresses out of pressed flowers
51. Bean bag tic tac toe
52. Hopscotch
53. Make bagels
54. Take a hike
55. Make nature bracelets by wrapping packing tape around your wrist like a bracelet with the sticky side out and sticking things to it while on your walk
56. Embroider something
57. Play t-ball
58. Sit outside and look at stars while eating microwaved smores
59. Go antiquing
60. take a nap ;)
I hope this gives you ideas if you need them!

What a Whirl

Oh my goodness, we are so busy this week, and actually have been for the past few weeks. We decided that spending close to 400 a month is a bit too much. We need to move somewhere more centralized to everything that we do. We put our house up to rent and found a very cute little old lady and her friend to rent it out to. At the same time we found this great house that was bank owned and put a bid on it. We won the bid and are going to close on it either Friday or Monday. Hopefully on Friday, so we can move over the weekend. Then we have 2 weeks to fix things up. We need to get all new appliances, take care of the radon problem, plumb for gas in the kitchen, paint everything, clean the carpets and unpack. I can't wait! The yard is huge. The house is a lot bigger. It backs up to an elementary school. I'm super excited to get in and paint. I'm really excited, because I will also get my own studio space. That's going to be a huge change from the back of my closet right now. I'm still trying to devise a plan to get a chandelier in there. Every studio needs a chandelier. Trying to make this happen and figuring it all out and all the stress that comes along with all that has consumed me for the last few weeks. I will be so glad when it's actually happening.

Beep bo beep bop

That is the sound a robot makes. Today I was a good Mom and B and I quilled a robot. Then we went for a walk and came home and played Shrek video pinball. I'll have to repost the list sometime of 72 things to do in the summer when you hear "I'm Bored!"

Mothers

My Mom
Below is a lot to read. It's a talk by our General Relief Society President of our church from a couple of conferences ago. It's a lot to read, but it is something that influences me in day to day life. It explains the joy and passion I have for being a Mother and for wanting to be an amazing Mother. I am so eternally grateful to be a Mom. To have little children whose spirits I have been charged with. I am grateful for my Mom and Grandmother. For my Husbands Mother, for the Mothers of my friends and my friends who are Mothers. Happy Mothers Day to all of you whose lives are affected by a great Mother!


Mothers Who Know
Julie B. Beck Relief Society General President
There is eternal influence and power in motherhood.
In the Book of Mormon we read about 2,000 exemplary young men who were exceedingly valiant, courageous, and strong. "Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him" (Alma 53:21). These faithful young men paid tribute to their mothers. They said, "Our mothers knew it" (Alma 56:48). I would suspect that the mothers of Captain Moroni, Mosiah, Mormon, and other great leaders also knew.
The responsibility mothers have today has never required more vigilance. More than at any time in the history of the world, we need mothers who know. Children are being born into a world where they "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).1 However, mothers need not fear. When mothers know who they are and who God is and have made covenants with Him, they will have great power and influence for good on their children.
Mothers Who Know Bear Children
Mothers who know desire to bear children. Whereas in many cultures in the world children are "becoming less valued,"2 in the culture of the gospel we still believe in having children. Prophets, seers, and revelators who were sustained at this conference have declared that "God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force."3 President Ezra Taft Benson taught that young couples should not postpone having children and that "in the eternal perspective, children—not possessions, not position, not prestige—are our greatest jewels."4
Faithful daughters of God desire children. In the scriptures we read of Eve (see Moses 4:26), Sarah (see Genesis 17:16), Rebekah (see Genesis 24:60), and Mary (see 1 Nephi 11:13–20), who were foreordained to be mothers before children were born to them. Some women are not given the responsibility of bearing children in mortality, but just as Hannah of the Old Testament prayed fervently for her child (see 1 Samuel 1:11), the value women place on motherhood in this life and the attributes of motherhood they attain here will rise with them in the Resurrection (see D&C 130:18). Women who desire and work toward that blessing in this life are promised they will receive it for all eternity, and eternity is much, much longer than mortality. There is eternal influence and power in motherhood.
Mothers Who Know Honor Sacred Ordinances and Covenants
Mothers who know honor sacred ordinances and covenants. I have visited sacrament meetings in some of the poorest places on the earth where mothers have dressed with great care in their Sunday best despite walking for miles on dusty streets and using worn-out public transportation. They bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts. These mothers know they are going to sacrament meeting, where covenants are renewed. These mothers have made and honor temple covenants. They know that if they are not pointing their children to the temple, they are not pointing them toward desired eternal goals. These mothers have influence and power.
Mothers Who Know Are Nurturers
Mothers who know are nurturers. This is their special assignment and role under the plan of happiness.5 To nurture means to cultivate, care for, and make grow. Therefore, mothers who know create a climate for spiritual and temporal growth in their homes. Another word for nurturing is homemaking. Homemaking includes cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world. Working beside children in homemaking tasks creates opportunities to teach and model qualities children should emulate. Nurturing mothers are knowledgeable, but all the education women attain will avail them nothing if they do not have the skill to make a home that creates a climate for spiritual growth. Growth happens best in a "house of order," and women should pattern their homes after the Lord's house (see D&C 109). Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women.
Mothers Who Know Are Leaders
Mothers who know are leaders. In equal partnership with their husbands, they lead a great and eternal organization. These mothers plan for the future of their organization. They plan for missions, temple marriages, and education. They plan for prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Mothers who know build children into future leaders and are the primary examples of what leaders look like. They do not abandon their plan by succumbing to social pressure and worldly models of parenting. These wise mothers who know are selective about their own activities and involvement to conserve their limited strength in order to maximize their influence where it matters most.
Mothers Who Know Are Teachers
Mothers who know are always teachers. Since they are not babysitters, they are never off duty. A well-taught friend told me that he did not learn anything at church that he had not already learned at home. His parents used family scripture study, prayer, family home evening, mealtimes, and other gatherings to teach. Think of the power of our future missionary force if mothers considered their homes as a pre–missionary training center. Then the doctrines of the gospel taught in the MTC would be a review and not a revelation. That is influence; that is power.
Mothers Who Know Do Less
Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord's kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power.
Mothers Who Know Stand Strong and Immovable
Who will prepare this righteous generation of sons and daughters? Latter-day Saint women will do this—women who know and love the Lord and bear testimony of Him, women who are strong and immovable and who do not give up during difficult and discouraging times. We are led by an inspired prophet of God who has called upon the women of the Church to "stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord."6 He has asked us to "begin in [our] own homes"7 to teach children the ways of truth.
Latter-day Saint women should be the very best in the world at upholding, nurturing, and protecting families. I have every confidence that our women will do this and will come to be known as mothers who "knew" (Alma 56:48). In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Mantra for Mom

For my Mom for Mothers Day, using the Day of the Dead Sublime Stitching pattern.