Sunday afternoon shenanigans

Mom, Dad, Mom, Dad, Dad, Dad! I found a lizard! He's my lizard.
I love him.

Matthew: He looks damaged.

Catherine, thrilled: Yeah, his name's Damage! My lizard's name is Damage!

Catherine, after he ran away, sobbing: I want my lizard! My lizard, Damage! I want him!

Wick

I mowed the lawn this morning for the first time this year. The girls played in the sprinklers yesterday for the first time this year. We planted strawberries, tomatoes, squash, green beans and basil in our square foot gardens. (The first box is mine, then Matthew's & we haven't filled the girls' box yet. We also need to finish the drip system before the really hot weather hits.)

We are all working on our farmer tans. The lilacs are done blooming and the lavendar is just starting.

My Valentine's Day Salvia is starting to bloom, too. And look what I found just behind our property:

Meanwhile dishes and laundry pile up inside, because who can be burdened with such tasks when there are fragrant flowers and sunshine outside?

Cranberry-Ginger Chicken

This is really good:

8 small skinned chicken thighs (bone-in, do they even come boneless? I don't know!)
1/2 cup sliced scallions (I used green onions, that's what scallions are right? I can never remember.)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp orange or apricot marmalade (I used apricot preserves)
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (Please use fresh ginger, it is so good. Peel a section of it & then run it over the zester part of your cheese grater until you have 1 tablespoon.)
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Mix ingredients in a slow-cooker. Cover & cook on low 7-9 hours. EAT!

I served it with rice. I also served it to my mother-in-law. How sweet of me right? How thoughtful. Except that my mother-in-law is allergic to oranges. Anaphylactic shock allergic. Closing up of the throat, can't breath, deadly allergic. After dinner, being the sweet woman she is, she complemented my cooking and asked what was in the sauce. "Oh, it's so easy!" I began, "there's orange juice..." Her face froze, then she asked if we had any Benadryl. Oops. Sorry Mom. I wasn't trying to kill you, I promise. She took some Benadryl & lived through the evening. She has even spoken to me since which just shows how big her heart is.

So, make this soon, tonight, you won't regret it. Just don't invite Carla, she won't fall for this recipe again.

"that which is of greatest importance"

There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today, and to live most fully today, we must do that which is of greatest importance. Let us not procrastinate those things which matter most. President Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, April 2008

Tonight Gwen and I had, in her words, a Girls' Night Out. Matthew and I take turns taking our girls out individually for a treat, a movie, or even just a walk. It has been Gwen and my turn for weeks, but I kept putting it off. Every few days she would ask me if our Girls' Night Out was tonight. Tonight, it finally was. She dressed up in a purple T-shirt, purple cotton skirt with lots of ruffles and a maroon curdory jacket with large pink and blue flowers on it. Whatever you're imagining, it was worse. I mean better! We went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream. She chose a vanilla chocolate-dipped cone. I had to get something with a lot more toppings and more calories. She picked out a booth with swivel chairs and we sat across from each other, licking our ice cream, talking and swivelling of course. She is a delight to be around, especially one on one. I am amazed at how much more I get to know each of my daughters when I spend time with them individually. As I listened to her, I glanced at the family eating dinner behind her and watched their teenage daughter. She sat and talked with her mom, then saw some friends come in, talked to her friends, came back to Mom and asked to go with her friends. Mom and Dad said yes, she gave her friends a thumbs up, and I jumped over the table, grabbed my Gwen and hugged her, & I won't stop hugging her until she's eighteen. Actually, I just looked back at my little daughter and listened to her sweet voice telling me about her day, her favorite things, that I have got to try the chocolate-dipped cone next time. I looked at her and listened to her, and felt thankful for this moment. And thankful for the moments I had been finding lately, after hearing this and reading this. You know, my girls don't always need me to spend money on them, or plan activities for them, or entertain them. They just need me to watch them, to sit by them, to listen to them. If I do that, I'm more likely to be there for teaching moments that burst suddenly into our days, like sunlight through the clouds, warming us for a few moments and then gone. If I spend more time being with my girls, I'm more likely to hear the thoughts of their hearts, like the song of a bird that lands in our backyard, whistles his tune and then is gone.

I'm also more likely to wax wordy on my blog late at night. The perils of motherhood!

Gwen said today was the best day of her life. (It made me feel good, but she does say that fairly often, about every 3 days I'd say.) I want to make every day the best of mine.

Look who's 29

Both of us are! (for 2 weeks)

This picture is from 1980. I love it. It is one of those classic family pictures that I've seen hundreds of times. We all have. Any of the siblings could describe it in just a few words & we'd all know the picture s/he was talking about it. Like the one of us in that muddy canal, or the black and white ones by the piano, or lumberjack Dennis. Or the one of Ross with the lettuce on his head, or Daron in our dress-ups and make-up. We usually describe this one as "the one that Maryann looks like she's feeding Emily poisonous berries." She still has better hair than me by the way, and has never tried to poison me.

Our side of the mountain

We went hiking Saturday, up the hill/mountain behind our house. We (the parental unit) thought we'd just walk up a little way, walk around, look at the wildflowers and meander back down to our backyard. The chillin's had a different idea. My big girls kept climbing and my little girl kept following. Until we got here:and enjoyed this view:

And at the risk of sounding totally cheesy, it just filled my heart with love and made me want to sing Sound of Music songs. I love the outdoors. I love the desert. I love mountains and rocks and sagebrush. Watching my girls climb and hike and explore, I thought of another little hike we went on a few years ago. We were with my sister and her family. I think it was before I had any little ones of my own; I might have been expecting Bethany. We hiked up a little hill behind their apartment complex with my nephew. He toddled along the trail, noticing every rock, every lizard, every weed, amazed at the changing view and how small his backyard looked from our vantage point. I remember thinking how neat it would be to live at the edge of a neighborhood in a small town with a hill behind our house. Be careful what you wish for!

Maury and her new little ball of fur came with us too. If you look up cute in the dictionary, you will find: Welsh Corgi Puppy, esp. Austen. More pictures of Austen are here. I know that now you probably want to go out and get yourself your very own Welsh Corgi. The girls have been begging for one since their aunt went home. I know better though. They may be cute, and well-behaved, friendly, playful, good with children and smart, (that sounds like the list I made in high school of what kind of man I wanted to marry) but they shed. And shed. A lot. (My husband doesn't shed by the way.) So for now, I'll just get my Corgi fix from my in-laws. There are 5 Corgis in our family, so it's not hard.

How could I resist?

I know I just posted pics of my thing 3, but I couldn't live with the guilt of knowing you had not laughed at this particular face today, not when I have the power to share it with you.

This is why I don't even bother to wash my windows more than about once a year.

Of course, this was right after my annual window washing.

Maybe I should wash my windows more often...

And to satisfy the what-kind-of-mother-are-you-posting-more-pictures-of-one-kid-than-the-others beast, here are a few more shots from Hillside Drive this typical Friday morning:

7:30 A.M. Breakfast and practice

8:30 A.M. After walking Beth to the bus stop

Generally Speaking

We braved the 5 hour drive to my parents house this past weekend to visit and watch General Conference together. I love General Conference, but Priesthood Meeting is downright depressing if I can't spend it with my mom & sisters. We totally missed Maryann, but it was so good to see Ma & Christina. We went to my cute cousin Tiffany's bridal shower and my girls got to play with their second cousins (is that right? my cousins' daughters?). It made me feel old to learn that Tiffany, who I thought was still about 13 years old, is 24. Also, my parents commented to me on this trip that I'm no longer the mom of little babies. Excuse me while I go have a mid-life crisis.

I'm back.

General Conference was uplifting and inspiring and energizing and comforting. I watched every session. That's proof right there that I am not the mom of babies anymore. I have lots of thoughts and goals floating around in my head right now that I want to write down and remember; most of them will have to wait until the May Ensign when I can reread the talks. I loved Elder Ballard's talk to young mothers. It was really special to hear an apostle of the Lord speak to us on a subject that is often spoken of by Primary and Relief Society leaders and other women. I felt honored and humbled by his talk. And empowered. Empowered to do what I'm doing right now, (OK, maybe not right this second, because right now I'm typing in the computer room and my girls are doing who knows what) which is Mothering my little ones. They are young for such a short time. I felt almost relieved to hear him urge mothers to put their children first. That's what I want to do, but sometimes it feels like I should be doing more, working more, learning more. After his talk, I feel like giving the world a big fat raspberry, pffffffffft! (Maybe that's not the reaction he would want...) I am going to be home as much as possible while my girls are home - there will be plenty of time for work, for classes, etc. when they are in school. I told my boss last week that I need to work days starting this fall, fingers crossed for that.

On another note, lest my blog give the wrong impression of motherhood, that it is all cleaning and wiping and cooking and folding and picking up, I have to tell you that there are some serious perks. Exhibit A:When is the last time you made one of these little babies? I highly recommend it. We put together about 8 of these cute little iron-together-bead-thingies last week and hung them in my dining room window. With 3 little girls in the house, I can get away with that. Visitors may think, oh, what a good mom, putting her refined decorating sense aside and displaying her daughters' artwork. They don't know it was my idea to hang them up, that I made half of them myself, that I love them. All the sleepless nights, messes and stress are more worthwhile when you can get away with tackiness like this!