The Power of the Pole

After reading Andi's post this morning I'd like to shed some light on this fishing subject.

Early last winter I found myself searching for many things.  During the course of this pathless wandering, I thought that purchasing a fishing and hunting license might help me find some of what I was searching for.  Six months later, I had done no hunting and no fishing.  In searching to satisfy my own desires, I'd found exactly nothing.

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly realized how wonderful the weather was that particular day, and I decided that it was the day to go fishing.  Andi threw all the food she already had on the table into a picnic basket and we all packed into the van and headed to a local park that had a small lake.  I didn't catch a thing, but the boys had fun at the playground and Grant got a small taste of what it's like to try and catch fish with gear built for someone twice his size.  I was unhappy with the results of the evening.  I had failed to show myself and my son that I could catch a fish, and I was displeased to see him get worn out so quickly by trying to use my equipment.  But I had made the effort to GO and TRY, and that changed everything.  What I didn't know was that there were higher powers involved with my fishing interests, and until I showed the willingness to put in some effort I was going to receive no benefit.

Two days later, this message was clearly shown to me.  I was 40 miles from home installing a new movement in a customer's grandfather clock.  I knew I had my fishing gear still in the van from two nights before, and I was considering driving to a nearby public lake after finishing the job.  I am fortunate to work in a situation where I am paid for the work I do, never "on the clock," so if I choose to run an errand or go fishing in the middle of the day that is fine.  This job was a good one that paid me well, so spending some time in the sun with a rod and reel sounded like a good way to spend a couple hours alone.  I shared my plan with my customers as I was fixing their clock, and the man of the house insisted that I not waste my time driving to the public lake.  He told me that I would have better luck right there on his private pond that was well stocked with fish.  I had taken notice of his beautiful pond upon entering his driveway a few weeks earlier, but I never guessed I'd be invited to fish there.  So I accepted the invitation and was blessed with two of the most pleasing hours of my life.  I was rewarded with a little success, and a TON of positive mental energy.

To this point I had not given much thought to the timing of everything, but in the passing weeks much has become clear to me.  I'll elaborate more in the future, as I am taught more, but I will do so on my personal blog, enduringcreation.com, so that I can leave this as a place for Andi to tell her side of our family's adventures without me stealing her thunder.

I'm Trying to Catch Up, Brian's Trying to Catch Fish

Since it took an hour to upload the new picture to our blog (slow internet?), this post will be a lot shorter than I had intended, but I'll be back with more soon.  I'm out of school for the summer which makes me feel like I have all kinds of free time...even though I have yet to see any of it.

The boys are doing great.  They are smart, healthy, and so entertaining.  Grant is almost finished with first grade.  He has been learning Aikido on Saturdays through Parks and Recreation and is enjoying it.  He takes it much more seriously than most of the other children in his class, and he also appears to have some natural abilities (I couldn't possibly be biased, could I?).  Brian got Grant his own fishing pole and has been fishing with him as an opportunity for some father/son bonding time.  I was beginning to wonder if Brian's fishing gear would ever see the light of day again.  Up until a couple weeks ago, he hadn't gone fishing since before we had children.

While Grant is counting down the days until school is done, Christian is counting down the days until he gets to start school.  He and Grant will be in summer school together for four weeks in June; then he will begin kindergarten in August (although Christian will likely go to first grade for math and reading).   Christian is my sweetest boy.  He loves to draw me pictures of hearts and flowers or pictures of me and him together.  I think he is getting bored here at home, though.  I will miss him very much when he starts school, but I am glad he will soon have some new experiences and challenges that I can't give him here at home.

Justin has been changing and growing up so fast lately.  He wants to do everything his older brothers do, and he is interested in everything they are interested in.  He is still like a combination of Grant and Christian in appearance and personality.  It's cute now (how he follows them), but I hope he will be able to find his own identity as he grows.  I can't believe he's about to turn three.  He loves to go swimming, swing, watch bugs, play sword fight with Grant, and eat cookies - among other things.  He is still talking about our trip to the St. Louis Zoo almost two months ago!  He especially loved the hippos.  I'll have to post pictures of the zoo and other happenings later this week.

~Andi

A Little Reminder

Happy New Year!  I can't believe the holidays have come and gone and the fun and cuteness of my kids have been undocumented for so long.  But away with the negative, self-deprecating thoughts...I am trying to have a more positive attitude.  What better time to get a new attitude than the start of a new year?  While it's not exactly a resolution, per se, I do expect that just looking at myself and the people/things around me with a better perspective will lead to greater happiness throughout our entire family.

For example, in the past I spent too much time thinking about how I do everything around the house and Brian does very little.  But that's not exactly true...here are some of the many reasons why I love my husband lately:
~On cold nights he gets into bed first and warms up my side so I can get into a nice, warm bed.
~He installed a new garbage disposal.
~He cleaned out the really gross drain in the bottom of the dishwasher.
~He tells me how beautiful I am, and he always makes me feel that way even though it has been a struggle my whole life to accept my appearance.
~He likes to cook, and he's good at it.
~He loves our boys with a tremendous father's love.
~He is quick to forgive me when my words are harsh.
~I watched in wonder as he dismantled an electric heater that no longer heated - that I was just going to throw away.  He took out the motor/fan and hooked it up the way he needed it to use in his forge.
~He got me a food processor for Christmas, gave it to me early enough (Grant gave away the surprise anyway) to use for making a carrot cake for Christmas dinner, and he still surprised me on Christmas morning with a gift - my newly repaired laptop!  Yay!  Now I can blog - at least when I'm not doing everything else around here (grin).

~Andi

Exactly

I seem to be writing a lot about Christian lately.  I hope that doesn't make Grant and Justin jealous, but I get to spend extra one-on-one time with Christian each afternoon while Grant is in school and the other children are sleeping...and he constantly amazes me.  Christian is so fascinated with numbers and math right now.  Here is one of our conversations from earlier today:
CHRISTIAN: What is 181 divided by 66?
ME:  That's a tough one to do in my head, but the answer would be close to 3.
CHRISTIAN:  I don't mean what it's close to.  I need to know exactly.
ME:  Then we will need a piece of paper and pencil or a calculator to figure it out exactly.
ME (with the calculator):  181 divided by 66 equals 2.742  with a repeating 4 and 2.
CHRISTIAN (laughing):  You were way off!
No, I never did ask him why he needed to know the exact answer to 181 divided by 66.  There was probably not a reason - at least not one that I would understand.
Now you know what I go through every afternoon!
~Andi

Crescendo

Christian has given himself a new nickname, and I think it's so clever that I just had to share...the artist formerly known as Christian is henceforth to be called Crescendo (not sure of the spelling just yet - it might be more like "Christian-doe").  He keeps me laughing.  They all do.

~Andi
  

Back to School

Sometimes it doesn't take much to make me feel like an inadequate mother.  Grant's first day of school was Thursday.  I made sure he was well rested, well fed, well dressed, well supplied with pencils, crayons, kleenex, hand sanitizer, etc.  We arrived at the school with plenty of time to spare...only to find that all the other mothers were taking pictures of their children on their first day of the new school year, but did I have a camera with me?  No - on this one I failed.  I don't have pictures of his first day of kindergarten from last year either.  Maybe I will do better with Christian and Justin.  There are some benefits to being a second or third child.

Christian wants to be in school so badly.  He was completely convinced that he was going to get to go to school as soon as he turned five, when he finally learned and understood this week that it was going to be an entire year before he could start school, he was very disappointed.  I told him we would have school time at home each day that Grant was in school.  He liked that idea.  I haven't pushed formal learning times with Christian because he is so scary smart already.  But with "school" each day he will feel like he is helping me practice to become a teacher.

Speaking of teaching, I start classes again tomorrow.  I've so enjoyed my month-long break, and I'm not looking forward to having class every night (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...might as well be every night anyway).  Oh well.  There's no denying it is what I am supposed to be doing, and my children are not neglected in the process.  Brian is a huge help with the children when I am in school.  We are getting through it together.
Happy New School Year!

Maybe the Dishes Will Clean Themselves

I have dishes to do, but I want and need to write some things about what's going on around here.  I don't know what's wrong with me...why can't I get more done in a day?  I am busy all day long, rarely taking any time for myself, but still the house is messy and I haven't posted anything to our blog since my birthday nearly 3 months ago!

Lots of things have happened since my birthday: Justin turned 2, I started my summer classes, Grant finished kindergarten and started summer school, we had a big party for J's birthday and Brian's college graduation, I had the worst class of my entire college career (sorry, no details here...I do not wish to dwell on it...I made my "A" despite the worst instructor ever), Grant finished summer school, we went from too few kids in my daycare to too many, Brian started Enduring Creation (check out his blog for details on that - enduringcreation.blogspot.com), Grant and Christian had their first formal swimming lessons, they attempted a week's stay at Grandma and Grandpa's (they stayed a day before getting homesick), and the highlight of my summer -  I got to spend a day with my Mom and go to the Nauvoo Temple with her to do some of the work for my great grandmother.  How I needed that!

How's that for a quick update?  Maybe I can still get those dishes or something else done tonight. 
~Andi