A Day in the Life

At the end of January during my monthly lunch with them, my friends and I decided to take a picture everyday for a month to document our lives.  The pictures could be very random -- just one thing to show what I did that day.  I thought it would be an easy project, but after the first week I began to realize how much my life is the same day in and day out.  But I perservered and took pictures almost every day.  So here it is,  a day in my life...

February 1, 2011

Brandon practicing the piano

February 2, 2011

Me, doing what I do, waiting to pick up the kids.

 February 3, 2011

Time to grocery shop.



 February 4, 2011

A patio set at Sam's Club that I liked -- except it cost $1,000



 February 5, 2011

My uncle's car that I sold on KSL.com



 February 6, 2011

Earthquake Cake



 February 7, 2011

The wind tipped over the ceramic snowman on my porch and it broke.



 February 9, 2011

Gotta stay regular.



 February 10, 2011

The computers weren't working at school so the kids watched a movie.



 February 10, 2011

John's colonoscopy prep.



 February 11, 2011

The car wash

 February 12, 2011

Valentine Roses



 February 14, 2011

I polished my toenails for the first time since September because the temperatures were in the 60s.

February 16, 2011

A banged up and bandaged up Jenn



 February 17, 2011

The snowfall after the 60 degree day.

 February 18, 2011

My SEM kids were Secret Service Agents for an assembly

 February 19, 2011

We took Brandon to The Roof for his birthday and he was wearing two different shoes.



 February 20, 2011

The family February birthdays -- Anita, Brandon, Susanne, Ruth and Sam.

 February 21, 2011

Sammy's wedding dress.



 February 24, 2001

Brandon and his friends making the infamous "bullets" for history class.

 February 26, 2001

The military honors at my uncle's funeral.



It's been a very long shortest month of the year and I'm tired.

Team Sports

Many parents spend many hours watching their children compete in some type of team sport.  That has not been my experience, as Brandon does not enjoy sports that much.  But today I had the opportunity to watch him compete in a team sport, and it was every bit as intense as your common soccer or football game.

Brandon is a member of the National Academic League (NAL) team, which is a group of exceptionally bright teenagers at his school who compete against other exceptionally bright teenagers  from a different school, on various academic subjects, from math to current events. They even have team uniforms.  Today our team wore jeans and a dark blue hoodie with a Central Davis NAL logo on it.  The opposing team wore sweater vests and dress pants.  

The competition resembles a group Jeopardy game; each team has a buzzer and 30 seconds to answer very difficult "junior high" questions.  After collaborating with their team members, the "captain" would push their buzzer to answer the question.  If they got it wrong, the other team would have the time remaining of that 30 seconds to try and answer.  The questions were fired off rapidly and I felt like a character in a Charlie Brown cartoon listening to the teacher talk: "wa wa wa wa wa...."  Many of the questions were 3 parts, and required 3 answers, all of which had to be correct to get the points.  I've always considered myself an intelligent and educated person, but I tell you, I didn't even understand the questions sometimes.

Brandon and some of his teammates were given a topic with very specific criteria that had to be answered and sent to another room for 30 minutes to prepare.  They then had to come back and present their argument, including scientific facts, to the moderator in 3-5 minutes with no notes.  They are judged on fact, presentation, and how well they knew their materials.   I was very impressed.  Brandon's team got 16 out of 20 points; the other team received 9 points.

At the end of the 4th quarter, Brandon's team won 38 - 27.  They celebrated just like any other team that wins a competition.  They even gave the other team a cheer.  I was bursting with pride and realized that this was my first "team sport" moment.  Afterward, Brandon said he was nervous and it was really intense.  They took it VERY seriously.

It wasn't your typical team sport, but it was just as intense and important to these kids as soccer or basketball is to athletes.  I was grinning to myself as I watched these sometimes socially awkward kids finding their niche.  I can't wait for the next game. 

And no, I'm not an "armchair quarterback".  Brandon knows way more than I do.

Time Passages

I remember when I was a child and it seemed like the summer took forever.  But now it seems like I blink my eyes and another month is history.  The school year passed incredibly quickly last year and a three month summer seemed like an eternity.  And here we are with only three weeks left before another school year starts.  Here are some of the highlights of this whirlwind summer:

Girl's Camp:

Staycation:

I'd say I used my time very well this summer.

Good Intentions

If all my good intentions were dollars, I would be living on an exclusive island sunning myself on a beach, eating mangos and sipping virgin margaritas.  I wake up with so many intentions of things to do to improve myself, help others, and to just make my life easier.  By the time I go to bed at night, those good intentions are sitting in the back of my mind, eating away at me because I didn't do one of them.

I'm still overweight, eating sugar and drinking soda.  I'm still not exercising.  So many thinking-of-you notes that I've been going to write sit blank in my basket waiting for the ink to hit the page.  I didn't get that phone call made.  My fingernails are still unpainted.  I didn't get that book read yet.  My bathroom floor still has hair on it.  There are still dishes in my sink and dust on my ceiling fans. I am still impatient.  And my blog has only three entries since it's inception.

It's not like I'm sitting around eating bon-bons and doing nothing all day.  There's just not enough time or energy to become the wonderful person I want to be.  So here's my latest good intention:  I'm going to be grateful for whatever I get done today and know that I can try again tomorrow.  In the meantime, I intend to figure out a way to turn those intentions into dollars.

Celebrating Mother's Day

I watch the commercials on TV about all the wonderful gifts that you should give your mom for Mother's Day and it makes me uneasy for lots of reasons. 

I remember giving my mom some homemade trinket we made in school as a gift for Mother's Day.  My dad usually got her some type of useful appliance.  She got her geranium at church later that day.  That was it.  When I got older, and we weren't able to have children, I hated Mother's Day.  I didn't want the stupid flower at church that they insisted on giving to everyone and I eventually stopped going to church on Mother's Day.  It was just too painful.

Finally, I was blessed to become a mother.  Now I could go to church and accept my flower because I was a mother.  Only, it didn't really feel any different.  My gift was my baby.  I didn't really want anything else.  I loved being a mother and finally having that blessing in my life.

As my kids got older, that's when the guilt set in.  I would sit in church and listen to talks about the perfect mother, and I was so far away from that.  I would sink in my seat as I listened to a talk from someone who bragged about a mother that never yelled at them or never raised her voice in anger.  She loved to do crafts and kept a perfect house.  If that is a perfect mother, that certainly wasn't me.  Then I would dutifully stand and accept my flower and go home depressed about my short comings.

Being a mother is HARD work.  I make mistakes all the time.  So many things I wish I could do over again.  So many things I wish I could take back.  But it's also a very rewarding and fulfilling thing to me.  If I'm going to take responsibility for their failures, I should accept congratulations for their successes as well.  In spite of it all, my kids are turning out OK so far. 

I don't need an expensive pieces of jewelry, a massage, or a spa treatment to thank me.  I get my thanks from a hug, a word of appreciation, or a sweet conversation (and from doing something without being asked.)  I feel uncomfortable getting gifts for doing something I love to do.  So this Mother's Day, I'm hoping for kids that won't fight, and an enjoyable day with my family.  What better gift could I possibly get?

Ordinary and Routine

I've tried to write a blog several times, but could never get past the formatting.  It's taken several days and some encouragement and inspiration from my friends, but here I go.


Sometimes I get so caught up in the mundane routine of everyday living that I don't recognize the value my mundane, routine life has.  "How interesting is it to write about cooking, cleaning and errands anyway?" I ask myself.  Other people have such interesting and exciting lives, at least from my perspective of the outside looking in.  But then I realize that those ordinary, routine things I do each day mean a lot to my family. 


For example, I take a lot of pleasure in doing Jenn's hair everyday.  She's perfectly capable of doing it herself, but I enjoy the time we spend together chatting about her adventurous life and it gives me great insight into this remarkable little girl who is rapidly becoming a young woman. 


Brandon loves contests and he entered one at school where he had to make a movie in Windows Movie Maker for his CTE class.  He directed me to take pictures of him doing very specific things.  He knew exactly what he wanted.  When I saw the finished product, it was amazing.  He did such a great job.  My only contribution was taking the pictures, but it helped him succeed.  That's not so ordinary after all.


Just doing seemingly routine things like cooking dinner every night for the family is worthwhile.  It gives us the opportunity to eat together and talk about our day.  And it's usually pretty tasty too.


So the lesson for me here is that parts of my life may be ordinary and routine, but it's also necessary and important.  I'm doing more than just routine chores, I'm strengthening my family. And after all, that's not an ordinary thing.