Confessions of an OCD mother.....

Our seven year old daughter LOVES her stuff. Displayed everywhere. Little chotsky trinkets of all shapes and sizes. The eraser she found on the floor of the school. The peanut can of green air-soft BB's picked up from the nearby park (these are special you know!). The rocks that were collected from the pathways in the old neighborhood - each with it's own name (likewise, just as important). Paper flowers that someone in school made in art. Dry-erase markers from the dry-erase board that we no longer have. 47 stuffed animals.
Not to mention the 3 soccer trophies, a coloring book, some random Littlest Pet Shops, the empty paper cup from her dad's work on Saturday, and a few of her latest drawings, along with a few assorted pens and pencils.

So.....where in tarnation do you suppose we put all this stuff? If you guessed mostly on the nightstand next to her bed, and the rest strategically placed on the windowsill, bed, and floor -
then you guessed absolutely right!

Here's my problem. I'd like her room to look something like, oh, let's say - a Pottery barn catalog picture.
She loves her room with all it's fabulous displays of every wonderful treasure a seven year can find. And most often - her idea of a perfectly tidy, clean, organized room looks something like this


A few days ago, I knew we'd be having company over that night. So while Emma was at school I took the liberty of tidying up her room a little bit. Now - I DON'T USUALLY DO THIS . (But there ARE somedays I just can't help it people). Let me tell you what I did do. Moved the two outfits she had laid out on her chair (for the next two days, of course) back to the closet - nicely folded - where they belong (surely she could remember which two outfits she had already chosen with out having them laid out, right?). Straightened up the nightstand, threw away a few pieces of garbage from the nightstand, put the stuffed animals in the hot pink Ikea stuffed animal holder hanging from the ceiling, and arranged the pillows on her bed in a somewhat normal way. It looked something like this :



When she arrived home from school that day, instead of sounds of praise and thanks for completing one of her daily chores for her, thus making her load a little lighter that day (which, truly I didn't expect......I just didn't expect the reaction I got either)......There were TEARS, people. Loads of them. Then even a comment or two about how I seem to "ruin everything". Why would you put my stuffed animals there? I don't like my pillows like that. ...and I hate the brown bamboo thing you always put on my nightstand!
Wow. Harsh.
More tears. Then door shuts quietly, and I can hear one-person conversation going on, as well as things being shuffled back to the way they were. Before.
The door opens.
"THAT'S how I like it mom".
And she is happy now.
And that's how the room will stay apparently.

I will not kid you and say the temptation isn't there to go in and move things around to a more clutter-less look (Husband refers to it as the 'museum' look). And maybe I will from time to time. As long as I change it back BEFORE she returns from school.


3 Thankful fors:
1. Relief Society - just a good place to be on a Sunday afternoon.
2. Swedish Fish. Who wouldn't be thankful for those?
3. Free tickets to the Jazz game Saturday night.

SIXTH Challenge....

Thought this was a fun (if not a bit random) challenge (Thanks Laura!).....so here's the rules, and the comment on the fairly random picture that's posted.

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer

2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.

3. Go to the sixth picture.

4. Put the picture on your blog and description of it.

5. Invite six friends to join the challenge.

This is the bag piper at my Grandpa Cookie's funeral. He must have been freezing, in the middle of December wearing just his kilt!


Now I tag.....Amy, Mechelle, Lara, Maren, Holly, Heather, Stephanie, Sherry, Emily, and Kristen (okay - I KNOW that is TEN....I CAN count you know....) Just thought it would be fun to see what everyone's got in their 6th folder :) ! (unless you've already done it, that is :)

Monday Monday....

From the get-go, the signs of a struggle were evident. Waking up thinking "Best day ever!" (for those of you who went to Womens conference!), I'm going to eat FABULOUSLY healthy today, I'll even have time to exercise BEFORE I volunteer in 6th graders class this morning. To-do list is quite long, but it's a do-able long list - I think it can ALL be accomplished. Hooray.
Then, said 6th grader says "It's my day to bring treats to Student Council meeting, which is in....1 hour". Hmph. Making peanut butter fingers at 7:00 in the morning is not my favorite thing, apparently. How can you NOT taste them? And the frosting? Eating fabulously healthy goal is already blown by 7:45 am. Not good.
Couldn't exercise before volunteering because of making student council treats. However, son left for early morning meeting happy, and with treats - worth it. Mom, went to school happy to volunteer in 6th grade, knowing she was doing at least something good, and could exercise right after. No such luck. Power goes off while volunteering. And stays off for many hours.
Mom realizes she uses electricity for pretty much just about everything. No vacuuming, no blow drying hair, no microwaving 2 year olds lunch, no laundry, no piano practicing - it's electric too, no computer, no email, no blogging, no treadmill, no phone, no checking KSL.com for the latest news updates.
Let's run errands, she thinks. Roads are WAY to slick and slush packed. Husband advises against this idea. What's a mom to do?
After the initial inner panic that sets in, I have to admit......it felt kind of NICE and kind of QUIET. Really quiet. Especially after 2 year old laid down for a nap. How else to describe it? Kind of like a pondering sort of quiet. I wish I would have written "ponder" on my to-do list. Then maybe I would have taken more advantage of the disconnected-from-everything quiet time I had, instead of fretting over the many things on my list that will be staying on my list until tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'm writing 'ponder' on my to-do list, just in case the power goes out.

....And the sun was happy.

Even though the cruise we went on in January was only about 3 weeks ago, it sure seems like it was a whole lifetime ago. Funny how time does that to you!

So as not to bore you with TOO much of travel details, I'll try to keep this short-ish. The sun was sunny, the sky was blue, the water was bluer......and we were happy.
Snorkeling was awesome - it was Jason's first time, and he was as giddy as a 4 year old boy at Christmas time! The puffer fish were GINORMOUS!

We swam with and held Sting Rays - they were a little too friendly for my taste (kind of gave me the heebie-jeebie's, actually), - yes - that's me holding a slimy squid for them to eat. Blech.
There was zip-lining through the rain forest (one of our two most favorite excursions!), jumping off cliffs into the ocean (well...Jason did that. I opted to be a non-participator on that one), boogie boarding, banana trees, midnight meals at the cafe with great friends, only one night of dramamine (hooray!), and an adventure with sea turtles.
Jason's absolute dying wish on this cruise was to see a for-real-live sea turtle. No such luck at the first 4 ports. So on the last day, we hopped into a taxi and Jason explained how we really just wanted to see a sea turtle. For 10$ each, he would take us to a good place, he said. Trusting in the taxi driver (his name was Ishmael....how can you NOT trust someone named Ishmael?), off we went. He dropped us off at Monkey Beach, and gave instructions to swim straight out about 100 yards. Sure enough! There were some sea turtles......GREAT BIG HUGE sea turtles! I felt like Nemo's dad. Jason took some amazing pictures of them - and he was happy.

There was quite a lot of poverty on the islands, which also has made me more and more grateful for the many, many things we are blessed with here. Contrary to the 'I need this, and I need that' mentality that I, more often that I'd like to admit, display, I DO have the things that I need, and I have alot of things that I want, too. We definitely do not lack for anything here.
We are ever grateful for willing parents who watched the kids, and Sprinkler Supply, from which the cruise came.
The break from the smoggy ick and cold was a welcome and fabulous patch of heaven!

Laughter IS good medicine!

So, I truly WISH I had a picture for this one....but, I didn't think to grab the camera fast enough darnet.
As of late a some member(s) of our family have been having a bit of a hard time laughing at ourselves - and tend to get frustrated and angry quite quickly. Tears usually flow quite freely and easily over situations that tears should not flow quite so freely and easily over. Someone recently told me they had it from a good source that the cycles of PMS can actually start as young as 4 years old. And I'm a believer.

As a family we discussed a conference talk from Elder Wirthlin, about learning to laugh at ourselves and lifes' situations. Not too long after that, our home teacher was inspired to share with us that same message. Very inspired. And just a few weeks ago the same talk was the subject of family night given to our kids by an inspired Grandma while we were away on vacation. Again, very inspired.

And yet some days I am left wondering if any of it seeps in?

So, it's Friday night.....we're eating dinner. There are two friends over eating dinner with us as well (usually we try to be on good behavior when this happens). Daughter has been sitting at the island, then walks over to dad- who is sitting at the table, holds out her hand and asks for some cottage cheese please.
Said Dad looks at her outstretched hand, (and just for fun) scooped out the largest scoop of cottage cheese he possibly could (she looked hungry)....and put it......right in her hand. Silence. Then tears....and wailing.....and gnashing of teeth. (mind you - the rest of us were rolling by this point).

Here's the miracle..... Two or three minutes later it finally happened. She laughed!

She's getting it! Hooray!!


Here's my thankful 3 for today:
1. Plants - especially fake ones that look great, yet need minimal care.
2. Great soccer game tonight - Tyler made 2 of his teams goals!
3. Getting together with BOTH sides of the family this weekend.