Six years ago today...

Ethan the wonderful is six years old today. He got a white robot, some inline skates, his favorite curry rice for dinner, and a pineapple cake (yum!). Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Best drawing of Frosty the Snowman ever

Macklin just came to me all manner of proud because he'd drawn "Wocky Nowyann."

On the wall.

You should have seen his little beaming face, he was so proud of this picture.

I made him help me clean it and I gave him paper instead. He asked for "pentuls" to draw on the paper, and I had a hard time finding one. He stood beside me looking around, one arm folded across his middle and the other hand with one finger tapping his lips, saying, "Hmm. Hmm. Hmm" as he "looked" for the pencil.

Even when he's mischievous he's cute as cute can be.


This is pretty typical of his drawings of Frosty the Snowman, which is about the only thing he draws, and which he draws pretty constantly. It doesn't look much like a snowman of course, and while I suspect it should be rotated counter-clockwise he always draws them sideways like this. But the fact that he reproduces over and over again these large circles sprinkled with orderly lines and smaller circles is actually pretty dexterous for a tiny boy.

Drawn February 2008 (age 2 years 3 months).

Climbing the rungs of religion

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22921634:

Last fall, the head of the Mormon church's Relief Society delivered a treatise on motherhood that equated nurturing with keeping a tidy house. Women in poor countries who dress their daughters in clean, ironed dresses, the speaker said, honor a sacred covenant.

Julie B. Beck's exhortation at the church's General Conference that Mormon women strive to be "the best homemakers in the world" did not go unanswered. More than 250 women signed an online rebuttal.

I didn't even know this talk was controversial until my visiting teacher told me a few months ago. I was so comforted by it, so inspired and edified, I had no idea it could even cause offense! I have to admit I am the talk's target audience—a stay at home mother who has borne many children and who is doing my darnedest to raise them in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Perhaps this is why it didn't rub me the wrong way; it felt like pure, unadulterated truth to me, but one's own life usually does I suppose.

Still the article on MSN News today has rubbed me the wrong way.

...few expect major changes along the lines of opening the Mormon priesthood—an office granted only to Mormon men—to women.

Who is it that keeps gnawing on this old bone? Which sister in the church actually wants the priesthood? And why?

It seems evident to me that the "sisters" who bring this point up repeatedly are not active in the church. Why?

They don't understand the priesthood. Seriously. When has the priesthood ever been of benefit to the holder? What priesthood brother has ever gained something by having the priesthood? None. Not a single one. The priesthood is used entirely, entirely, to benefit others. A priesthood holder can't perform his own ordinances or give himself blessings. Every priesthoody thing he does is for the benefit of others.

Where does this get fun? Why is this something to envy and covet? I'm not bashing service, I want you to understand; but I have plenty of opportunities to serve (two funerals and a baby in the ward this week, two cakes and making phone assignments for the dinners) without adding the priesthood on top of that.

As for holding positions of "power" or authority: everyone knows that the proud man, the one who wants to be bishop or stake president or prophet, the one who really wants to run the church "right" (according to his own interpretation), is never the one who is called. Why? Because God issues the callings (bulletin: not the bishop!) and God sees inside their hearts and knows they aren't bishop/stake president/prophet material.

So all you get from holding the priesthood is the opportunity to do as God wills unto others. A blessing, sure, but one that we covet? Is it really any different than what we Relief Society sisters do in our own organization?

If I correctly assume that those who always are vocal about females and priesthood aren't active participants in the church, they wouldn't be eligible for the priesthood and leadership positions in any case. The ordination to exercise the priesthood and to serve the church in official capacities comes from faithful adherence to the tenets of the gospel, not outspoken rebellion.

Now, if only MSNBC would give me a forum so I could put this to rest once and for all! ;D

I imagine there's a party in heaven today.

I bet everyone there is excited Gordon B. Hinckley is back in town.

I cannot express my opinion of him highly enough. In life, he was the very, very best of men. I will miss hearing his voice, and his gentle sense of humor. Through ninety-seven years of unflagging, unselfish service he has earned his peaceful rest.



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Now playing: Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack - The Wardrobe
via FoxyTunes

*pooped*

I've been trying to infuse order into this house, again. Here are some truths:

1. Kids mess a house up.
   
2. More kids mess a house up even more than fewer kids do. And as you all remember clearly, I have more kids.
   
3. In normal circumstances, sending a kid off to school for eight or so hours a day would give a house and a mother eight or so hours' reprieve in the messing.
   
4. I have no such reprieve, obviously; we're all here 24/7, and while some of us are busy with schooling the littlest ones are messing things up like it's a job, like their lives depend on it.

So the main rooms—the living and piano rooms, the bathrooms, the kitchen, my bedroom—are tidy most of the time and cleaned deeply with regularity. There may be a scattering of toys or books or even a play set up, but we're pretty presentable. The kids' bedrooms can get untidy, because they're kids, and because I don't go upstairs (where Em, C, L, and K live) or downstairs (where J, Eth, and M live) often enough to follow up on "Have you cleaned your room?" Sounds lazy? I admit it. But I tell them to clean their rooms twice daily, and I give them specific, do-able jobs like "Now go hang up all the shirts" or "Now fold and put away all the pants" or "All the shoes should be put away" so that they don't just go in and get overwhelmed. And then there's the dump, which began as a sewing and storage room and ended up as a (you guessed it) dump for everything no one wanted to take care of. And given all the things I have to do every day just to keep the living spaces livable and make the meals and school the children, I've watched passively as the dump's floor level rose an inch per month with rejected toys, shoes we can only find one of, towels that now have a hole, projects that didn't get finished, etc.

Every so often I try to reclaim various spaces. Usually bedrooms, because after I've tackled Kyrie's bedroom and the little boys' bedroom I'm tuckered out and don't have energy for more.

Thursday I cleaned Kyrie's bedroom. A place for everything, and it's so cute—a total wonderland for a four-year-old girl. Checkmark.

Then I started on the little boys' room, and got their drawers cleaned out and reorganized, shoes culled and reorganized, and toys all up on shelves but not organized. Half a check. Thought I could finish today.

Yesterday, crazily, I began on the dump. After two solid hours of sorting sorting sorting, I had most of the floor cleared off. And today, after another several hours I have boxes and boxes of sorted clothes for each child, toys have been returned to their rightful places, we have orderly deposits of coats and boots and things that we'll need eventually but no one fits in this year, my fabric is refolded and organized... There's still lots to do, but I've found the ugly green carpet in the sewing room (not a dump anymore!) and I've vacuumed and I'm well on my way.

And I'm exhausted.

So I needed a break from that tedium, and I decided to go and look at J, Eth, and M's room one more time to do a bit more there.

And here's where the disappointment thunders in: it is every bit as bad as it was Thursday when I went down. Almost nothing is left in drawers (why do they pull out all the clothes they're not wearing?!) not a single shoe in the shoe places, wall to wall toys and empty shelves, beds unmade.

What was all the effort for? Why did I even try? Of course I just want to curl into bed and sleep and forget about the little boys' room altogether. If they make it a pig sty and a hazard to walk across, then THEY DESERVE TO LIVE IN IT. Phphfft.

(But then a tiny voice inside me whispers: if I want a clean house despite having seven children, don't I deserve to live in it too?)

So with a deep, fortifying breath and a large gulp of cold water, I'm off to the little boys' room Of Doom to try again. And this time, we're getting rid of things. If there's too much for them to take care of, then some of it GOES. *pushes up sleeves*