Hello Everyone!
I haven’t written a post since before Christmas, and I don’t want the happenings of the last few months to totally fade from my fuzzy memory. So here goes, for your sake if you want to read, but mostly for our sake, as a record of our family.
It has been an interesting several months for me since I last wrote. After breathing a guilty sigh of relief that Hugh was not called to serve in the newly reorganized bishopric at the end of last year, I had convinced myself that our collective plate was full enough, and that it was not our season to serve in a large leadership role in the Church. Needless to say, I was shocked when, during what I had anticipated to be primarily a social visit with the bishop, I was called to serve as the new Relief Society President. Looking back at my interest the couple months prior in improving my people skills and overcoming my fears, I felt as though I had been perched on the edge of a diving board, looking out over the water for a long time wavering between, “You know, I really should learn how to swim…” and “But I’m really scared. I don’t know if I can do it…” when suddenly Heavenly Father pushed me off the edge and into the water. Those two weeks after I was called were very difficult emotionally and spiritually as I felt like I was drowning. I felt completely inadequate. My feelings of humiliation (I’m not good enough) turned to humility (I’m not good enough, but that’s okay. If I do what He has asked me to do, He will make me enough.) I hope I can remember that and apply it to my roles as wife, mom, sister, daughter, friend. As luck would have it, our family had been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting the same day that I was sustained in my new calling, and it was after that initiation I began to feel like I had broken the surface of the water again, and though sometimes waves of uncertainty wash over me, there is hope that I can learn to swim. People in the ward have been so kind and accepting of me, and beyond that, they are good people who understand what it means to be Christian - to teach and support and serve one another. I have continued to immerse myself in thought-provoking talks and books as I did in that two week period when I was struggling to make sense of the situation and prepare my talk, and I realize how important it is to continually surround ourselves with good influences that buoy us up and keep our thoughts always on the things that really matter.
Our lives are busy, but good. Hugh is working hard at collecting information and preparing tax returns before the great and dreadful April 15th deadline. He never complains about the long hours of work and travel, the sometimes stressful kid interactions and never-ending housework at home, or the time I put into my church and school responsibilities. He has enjoyed watching the relatively successful BYU football and basketball teams in action this year both at numerous home games (with his BYU sports buddies Julia, Michael, and Alyssa or Natalie or Matthew,) as well as on TV and the internet. He studies hard for the adult Sunday School class he teaches every other week.
Steven, on the other hand, is not studying so hard! Unfortunately, he does not see the importance of grades; he argues that they are not a good measure of intelligence. This may be true to a certain extent, but they can be a good indicator of discipline, and that is where he is currently lacking! I am grateful that he is overall a really good kid, and I’m trying to help him understand that a little pain and hard work now could prevent a lot of heartache later! Steven has enjoyed playing soccer for the high school team. He arranged his class schedule so that he participates in a Sports Conditioning class last period every day in addition to the daily practices after school. He doesn’t enjoy the pressure of playing in the more competitive Varsity games, and instead has asked to play more time in the JV games. Steven enjoys driving when he gets the opportunity, even though I have become more critical as I realize the time of my greatest influence over his driving is growing short.
Daniel has been leisurely working to learn Adobe Flash Animating software since he bought an Actionscript manual at about Christmastime. A friend of ours in the neighborhood recently approached Daniel with a possible job of animating medical diagrams for a new business he is starting. Whether or not it ends up being lucrative, I hope it will help Daniel discover something he enjoys and does well. He is begging once again to get a pet dog, and maybe because he has been so sweet and willing to help take care of Katelyn, I have pretty much committed to at least giving it a chance this summer. I hope I won’t regret it!
Julia is looking forward to 8th grade next year, and plans to learn to play the guitar in addition to piano and violin. She is very musically gifted, so I know she could do well if she practices. She has enjoyed participating in a couple of regular activities which her cousin, Jamie, organized. Once a week, they (with a couple other girls) go to the local nursing home to play songs for the residents and then to play games with them. The girls also have a scripture reading club, for which they meet every other Friday to talk about the Book of Mormon assignments they have read over the previous two weeks and then have dessert and play games together. It has been really nice for her. Julia had braces put on January 3rd, and so far hasn’t suffered too much discomfort.
We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday less than a week ago. He likes to spend time emailing his friend, Maddie (Madelyn) and playing games on the computer. He knows how I feel about him wasting his time and brain on mindless entertainment, so when he sneaks computer time, it is often with Boggle or some other “brainy” game. I have been trying to get him interested in reading something other than Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Charlie Bone, and Percy Jackson. I finally succeeded in persuading him to read the Hunger Games trilogy, which he did, but he hasn’t picked up anything else since. He also likes to “shoot hoops” with Matthew in the mini basketball hoop in the basement. Matthew is quite impressed with Michael’s prowess and can’t wait until he’s big enough to play actual basketball. Michael and Daniel are participating in community soccer right now (the girls wanted to, but I somewhat unsuccessfully defended my refusal by explaining that I can’t get them all to their simultaneous games and practices by myself when their dad has to work long hours)
Alyssa excels at school, but she says that she hates math. As we approach the end of her final year of music classes (Let’s Play Music) she insists that she hates piano and will not take lessons. I think she sees these two areas where her older siblings have shined, and she doesn’t want to compete with them. She is very graceful and agile, so we are going to start her in a tumbling class next week Hopefully this will channel her energies into something that will help her feel accomplished in something that is uniquely her own. She spends a lot of time experimenting with fixing her hair in different ways, and does an amazing job, but I hope she knows that how she looks is much less important than how she acts.
Natalie loves math and does well at reading and music, too. Her attitude is improving, but she is still a little Jekyll/Hyde. I have observed Natalie’s growing awareness of girl-boy tension, as there is a flirtatious little boy in her class who teases the girls about who he is going to kiss at school the next day. (Just to reassure you, he has gotten in trouble for threatening and following through with this a couple of times…) Thanks to my mom who comes to watch the three little kids, I have been able to help in Natalie’s class every Friday since mid-January. When it works out with our schedules, I have also tried to take Natalie or Alyssa, and then Julia or Daniel out to lunch after helping in Natalie’s class. (Steven and Michael treasure their social time at lunch, so I have to work in my “dates” with them at other times.)
We now include Matthew in the rotation of who will say the family prayer at night, and it is cute to hear his deepest concerns voiced – “please bless the toys not to break” or “please bless the mean people to be nice”. He and Emily are generally so good to Katelyn, and vice-versa. Matthew told me, “I’m in love with Sweet Katelyn!” Both he and Emily go to Katelyn for a hug of comfort when they are hurt or sad, and she is generally obliging and sometimes even looks for them expectantly when she hears them cry. Matthew was having some behavioral problems at preschool until we instituted a report card with incentives (incentives being Hot Wheels cars) program, and he is now a model student. He likes to play card games, his current favorites being “Hong Kong Phooey” (so named by Hugh) and The Memory Game (at which he does amazingly well.)
Emily also loves playing card games and watching TV whenever I’m too busy to make sure she is doing something else. She attended her Primary class at church the first two weeks of the year and now refuses, even though when she comes to the adult class with us we don’t let her look at books or eat snacks or do anything but sit there and listen. She subsists mainly on hot chocolate (which is not as bad as it sounds because I make it with milk) and would have it with meals as well as several times in between if we let her. She is a funny little person, or “character” as she has come to call herself. Following Matthew’s example, she often points things out that she would like for her birthday, which is still over three months from now. She and Matthew generally get along so well, in concert in their pretend play and in their conspiring to quietly sneak time to watch TV or play on the computer or raid their siblings’ bedrooms while the kids are at school.
Katelyn , nearly eighteen months old now and not really a baby anymore, remains much adored as the baby of the family. She is stone-faced and shy around just about everyone outside our immediate family (even poor Grandma Dosdall, who takes care of her weekly!) It makes me so happy to watch her siblings take care of her and to see how she loves them in return. Katelyn is a resourceful troublemaker, always finding ways to get into things she shouldn’t. I found that she had pulled out the bottom drawer of a dresser in order to climb inside it to reach something on top of the dresser. She is developing the will and opinions of a two year old (so hopefully she will get through the “Terrible Two’s” sooner?) She babbles in a language of her own that almost sounds like a real language, and is slowly picking up words we can understand.
I’m just tying off the loose ends of the silent auction I co-chaired for the kids’ school early this month, and looking forward to getting to some of the other things I have had to put off in the meantime. Everything is good – we’re looking forward to spring and summer and doing more fun things together.