Why can't we all just get along?

Today my girls seemed to be at each other all day long. She won't play with me . . . she touched me . . . she said this . . . she's being mean to me . . . it's her turn to do that job . . . I wanted to sit in the special chair . . . . I am trying to figure out how to teach my children to love and serve one another, and to keep from being the referee in every little squabble. It made me wonder how God feels about how His children get along with each other, and how He has managed to watch us all fight with each other over centuries and centuries, in little ways and in big huge ways. It started early in the history of the world, with Cain and Abel. Human beings just don't get along with each other very well. I guess God doesn't referee our fights very often. Most often he lets the battle just run it's course. Maybe He weighs in on the side of the good, if there is one, in some cases when He needs to. So what does this mean for me as a mother with my 6 warring nations battling over borders and commerce, and words? My job is to teach by being an example of love and service (which is not always easy, since I, unlike God, am not perfect, and am subject to the same human temptations and frustrations that my children express) and to pray for the best, I suppose. It's interesting to think about how our microcosm of parenting relates to the whole big picture of humankind. My deep thoughts for this way too late hour.

A week in the life

We were actually at home this whole week. Well, at home is a relative term. We didn't travel by plane or car outside of Boise, anyway. Lexi, Emma, and Sierra had a YMCA sports camp every day from 9-1. They got to go swimming and rock climbing played all sorts of fun games, and they could walk down to the school for it, which was even nicer for me. Anya had Sleeping Beauty ballet camp in the mornings, which she loved. She goes to a studio right here in our neighborhood, which is so convenient. I thought I would get tons done with everyone gone in the morning, but of course Paisley is plenty time consuming herself. We had violin lessons, and group violin and a meeting about next year's Suzuki institute, and I went to lunch with a friend. I did get through a stack of paperwork, so I feel good about that for a week. Paisley has been a bit more fussy lately, with 4 top teeth on their way through. She drools constantly and chews on everything. She also really figured out how to army crawl this week. If she sees something she wants, she can get to it pretty quickly. It won't be long before she's on all fours. She can sit for a minute or two without any help, but still tips pretty easily. I started her on rice cereal, which she seems to like. I talked to a couple of my sisters and they told me about different projects they are working on and it really made me want to do some sort of crafty project. I always enjoy working on something that gives a sense of accomplishment and completion. Housework doesn't qualify, because that is never ending. I do need to start thinking about a dress for Sierra's baptism. Maybe I'll actually start on that sooner than the week before.

Bedtime Battles

You know what, I HATE bedtime! Not my own of course, I'm always happy to go to bed, but my children's. This is one of my greatest challenges as a mother, and it always has been. It's when I'm most prone to morph into the wicked witch. Summer time is even worse because it stays light so late here, and because we don't have any real routine or reason to be up early in the morning, so it's even harder to convince the kids they really do need to go to bed. From the time I say, "It's time to start getting ready for bed" the girls start finding ways to stall--we forgot to feed the pets, I need a drink, I'm starving, I didn't practice the piano, I just want to finish this movie, etc, etc. We try to have family prayer and scripture time, but mostly I feel like I'm just reading outloud to myself. I get frustrated because I know they need their sleep or they will be extra grumpy the next day, and they are not always cooperative with doing what needs to be done to get in their beds at a reasonable hour. But I can't keep them moving along and make sure everyone's teeth get brushed and dirty clothes get picked up at the same time I am trying to read to Anya and nurse Paisley so that she settles down for the night, and also get scripture time and prayers all in there. I have got to figure out some way to change the routine so that my kids don't go t bed every night thinking I am the meanest mother on the planet.

Victoria

Ryan, Sierra, Paisley and I just returned from a conference in Victoria, British Columbia. I had never been to Canada before except for a brief sojourn across the border a couple of years ago when we were in Northern Idaho and went to a little town just across the border and had ice cream and left. Since we were crossing the border by sea and not by plane, we just needed to have ID and birth certificates. We are trying to give each of the girls a chance to travel with Mom and/or Dad alone, to have a little one-on-one time and decided that it was Sierra's turn to go with us. The day before we left I was getting Sierra's birth certificate from my safe birth certificate storage place and found every other child's EXCEPT Sierra's. I prayed, I searched, I looked in the same spot at least 12 times, and the other places I possibly thought it could be another 3 times each, and prayed some more. I could not find it anywhere. I thought the school had one on file and found someone in the office, luckily for summer break, and we found that there was not one there for her either. We took her social security card with us and decided to just give it a go. Our prayers were answered, not by finding her certificate, but by getting back and forth across the border with no problems at all. We flew to Seattle then took the Vicortia Clipper across to Victoria (about 2 1/2 hours by boat). My sister, Shari, met us in Seattle and went with us. It was so fun to have her along, since we really haven't had much of a chance to spend time with her in a long while, other than brief visits when the whole gang in together. (Her blog, Songsty's Place-see link at right, has her perspective of the trip and some great pictures.) While there we strolled through the Empress Hotel right on the waterfront (where the conference was held), ate some delicious food (seafood, gelatos, french pasteries), visited the Victoria Bug Zoo (Sierra held an 8 inch African millipede), saw Miniature World, petted goates at Beacon Hill Children's Petting Zoo, toured Butchart Gardens, took a horse drawn carriage ride, dined at Hatley Castle, played in the hotel pool, and walked through lots of fun touristy shops. We stayed at the Marriott just behind the Empress. The highlight for me was Butchart Gardens. It was so beautiful. I would love to have at least a portion of our yard looking a bit like that. Of course I don't have a $20 million annual budget and a full time staff of 600, but we'll see what we can do. Sierra seemed to have a fun time and Paisley was great (other than the time she pooped all down her pant leg.) She was carried around in the Baby Bjorn by Ryan a good part of the time, and everywhere we went people asked her name or how old she was or otherwise oohed and aahed. Babies are the best networking tool there is and we'll have to credit her college savings account for commissions for the new accounts her Daddy picks up as a result of her cute smiles at the meeting. I think they modeled the Energizer Bunny after Sierra - she really does keep going and going and going. Our flight home was delayed by about an hour and a half due to a mechanical issue, and we didn't get in until near midnight, and still Sierra was going strong. Besides being a neat place, Ryan got a few hours of CME and maybe picked up a new client or two, so it was good for all of us.

Alaska

We returned on the 4th of July from a week Alaska. . . It's an amazing place. If you know the view of the Tetons from Jenny Lake, or standing at Redfish and looking up at the Sawtooths. Imagine that for hundreds and hundreds of miles around. We got pretty close to a couple of glaciers and lots of icebergs. We had porpoises running along with our boat. We saw sea lions and seals and sea otters and whales breaching and playing and a little black bear on shore. There are waterfalls and eagles soaring everywhere you look. The fishing wasn't as great as it could have been but we still came home with plenty of fish, mostly halibut, and Sierra's pole landed a good sized King Salmon. We also caught quite a bit of rockfish, of which there are many varieties. All of the girls had a great time fishing. Christa pulled up a 75 lb halibut herself. (The boat captain helped her actually get it into the boat with the gaffing hook, but she reeled it in without help.) There was one morning that was a bit choppy and some of us felt a little queezy, but otherwise there was no real sea-sickness. Put it on your list of things to do before you die.