Photo Dump Summer 2015

There is more than this.  But here is what happened after our trip to Utah. Okay, a little bit of our trip to Utah made it on here.  The rest is on Facebook.  I'm sorry, so sorry, I abandoned you, blog.  You're a  purer form than Facebook.  I'm glad to be back, old friend.

We ate at a good Thai restaurant in Alexandria over the weekend. Sorry for the lazy-eyed husband. And the crazy Ruby. I don't know where she gets her craziness from. Oh wait. I was the same 4-year-old.

Joe conducted his first concert at the AF Memorial on Friday!  It was a stellar beginning with Star Wars.  Oh, I am so proud of him.

For the past 2 weeks, Dottie and her friend Sean have been running a small ice cream delivery business on the base.  I always expect Dottie's projects to be propelled mostly by her, but somehow, I always get involved.  I guess she is only ten. What was I saying in the last post about being awesome at patience? That couldn't have been me.

But she's so cute and grown up/small all at the same time.  Her ice cream is delicious. And her haircut is adorable, right?

So maybe we love to eat out too much. Joe and I won a two-night getaway to the Gaylord, a resort near our house.  The first night, Carolyn, my favorite person, watched 3/4 of our kids.  What a gem. Joe and I had a little romance, but mostly, Lena wanted to nurse all night long. And talk to her reflection in the mirror in the bathroom.

The second night, not wanting a repeat of the first night, I stayed at home with baby, and Joe and the elder kids had a romantic getaway instead.  Yessir.  Then, we took the kids to the hotel pool and ate really good Mexican food, as seen above.

Lena is starting to take steps. Heaven help me.

Mother Weed came for a few days, and we took the kids to the Beach Exhibit at the National Building Museum.  It was really fun, but I question the sanitation of the whole exhibit.  However, we didn't get sick, so they must have done something to all of those white balls.

This is when Lena figured out how to stand. The balls supported her little ankles, and now she's a pro. Note the groovy tie-dyed shirt. Yup, I did that.

I downloaded a makeup app on my phone.  It's a great babysitter.  Also, this picture reminds me a little of Joan Benet Ramsey.

We bought a Caterpillars in a Cup kit and made Painted Lady butterflies! Woohoo!

 Releasing our butterflies with friends!

 Did you know that Batman and Barbie make a great crime fighting team? Sequoia and Ruby did.

 I am so happy I got to see my BFF Amanda on multiple occasions this summer. I can't wait for you to move back to NYC, Mandy!

 Elliot and Dottie were in a Missoula production of Blackbeard the Pirate.  Dottie was a mermaid, Elliot was a parrot.  

 I visited my Dad, sans my mom, for a week in PA.  We went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and went to our favorite park with the cannon to climb.

 Brendaddy!! This was a serendipitous reunion.  Brendan just randomly called me and Amanda and asked if we were in town.  What are the chances? He lives in Michigan, me in DC, and Amanda in Japan.  We all happened to converge on PA at the same time. Miss you, friend! Thanks for making me feel like a 16-year-old again!

 There's this great (but overpriced) place called Farmland near my parents'.  Farm animals galore. Mine and Amanda's kids had a blast.

 Ruby meets her newest cousin, Baby Jane! She's such a doll!

 Cousin Gracey and Ruby play so well together, and make great mischief together.  They like to get into toothpaste and lotion, but that's okay.  We forgive you. We can't wait to see you guys again in a few weeks, Bry and Kelly!

 My kids got drenched in their 4th of July clothes...

 And we visited Mt Vernon on the 4th, you know, to see how our founding father was faring on the day of our nation's independence.

 We read Little House in the Big Woods, so of course, we had to make a log cabin, with the Dempseys.

 And here are a few favorite pics from the trip west.  Lena and Isla at Isla's baptism.  I love this beautiful girl of Becca's.

 Becca reading to our combined kids.  I sure wish we had a commune together. I'm serious.

 Enchanted Forest, in the witch's mouth.

 We celebrated Lena's first birthday with a cake from Dan's grocery store at Grandma Hollstein's. We were so glad to be with her, Grandma and Grandpa Hansen, and Jesse and Mary for Lena's first!

 Fun times at Ziegfried's with Cousin Jory.

 A trip to SLC wouldn't be complete without a visit to the old Hansen homestead.

 Baby Maddy and Lena have similar hair colors! I love the red!

 And the rest of these are random: Dottie's birthday, visit to Great Falls, and other fun times. In other words, I'm getting tired of typing, and my baby is crying. 

Contemplation on the Parable of the Talents

Wow, did I ever fall off the blogging bandwagon.  I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I've blogged.  There are a few reasons: 1) I had a baby and homeschooled without the help of my mom (seriously, that first year was a breeze in large part because of my mom) and 2) I got a smartphone, which has sucked away my internet time.  My poor computer has been crying in a corner, cold and neglected, yearning for some morsel of attention.

Well. Here it is.  I've decided that enough is enough.  Smart phones are not the devil, but they certainly haven't helped my productivity, and they have definitely added to the already distracted nature of being a mother.  It seems every conference talk I read warns in some way of the distraction of our day: "Searching #spaciousbuilding for knowledge will not lead you to truth. It’s not posted there. Only the Savior has “the words of eternal life.”⁸ Everything else is just words" (Kevin W Pearson). Or this one: " Are you careful with your time—avoiding inappropriate technology and social media, including video games, which can dull your spiritual sensitivity?" (M. Russell Ballard).  Or from the Book of Mormon:  "And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security..." (2 Ne. 28:21). 

Anyway, my point is,  in my life, I really feel that I need to spend my time more wisely,becoming more conscientious of how I use this small window of time that I have to prepare to meet God.

Right now, I am in the middle of teaching my Primary kids the Second Coming parables: The Ten Virgins, The Talents, and the Goats and the Sheep.  I love these parables, because they make me really think about if I am ready for the Savior to come again.  Which group of the ten virgins would I fall in with? Am I magnifying my current talents and developing new talents? Am I serving people as much as I can in my life? In other words, am I truly a disciple of Christ? When He appears, will I be like Him, and will I know Him?

This week was the Parable of the Talents.  In preparation for this talk, I reviewed this article by Donald Rasband, of the Seventy. He lays out three principles that can be applied to the parable of the talents: 1) Seek to know what talents you have 2) Use your talents to build the kingdom of God 3) Acknowledge God's hand in your success.  

I don't know about you, but thinking about what your talents are can be somewhat difficult to acknowledge.  It's hard to be that direct and introspective.  But maybe we're not thinking properly about what a talent is.  It doesn't need to be something that the world sees as an ability.  The gifts that we're talking about in this parable are more spiritual gifts, in my mind.

In the parable, the servant with one talent explained to the master that he hid his talent because he was afraid. In D&C 60, the Lord explains,  “But with some I am not well pleased, for … they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man. … Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:2, 13).

This fear factor has made me start thinking, what are some talents that I possess that the Lord would be displeased with me hiding? One talent, or spiritual gift, that I thought of was motherhood.  

How is motherhood a talent? Well, think of this: every woman has the ability to be a mother, either biologically or through adoption or by being a motherly influence in others' lives.  It is an innate gift women are simply given by God.  I think we live in a day and age where women hide the talent of motherhood in a variety of ways, but the root reason is fear, just as the man in the parable.  They fear messing up a child's life, they fear not having the money to take care of the child, they fear losing their identity in the child, they fear destroying their body, they fear not having a supportive man, the list goes on and on.  There are a lot of reasons to be afraid of motherhood.  It is scary.

BUT, the opposite of fear is faith. When we choose fear over faith, we will lose not only our current gifts, but gifts we could have possessed, according to the parable of the talents. So apply this to motherhood. When you decide to embrace the talent of motherhood and use the gift, you gain so much.  You gain so many talents.  You gain the talent of patience. When you are asked for the umpteenth time when we can start the week of ice cream delivery, you gently say, "At the end of the month." You gain the talent of unconditional love.  It is amazing how your heart can expand for each child.  You think you could never love a baby as much as your first baby, but you do again, and again, and again. You gain the talent of multitasking.  I have had moments where I am making dinner with my "helper" Ruby, timing Dottie on a math worksheet, correcting Elliot on the piano, and feeding the baby lunch. That is a talent!! You gain the talent of selflessness. Again, I am less than perfect at this.  But it's really okay when that baby wakes up for the fifth time, just because she wants to nurse and nuzzle your skin. It's okay because you love her more than yourself.  You gain the talent of compassion. When your son is scared silly by lightning in the middle of the night, you just let him pet your hair and say, "I know, I know." You gain the talent of humility. You may think you're pretty smart, graduating cum laude from college, but then you realize you aren't when there are literally no safe places to hide the chocolate from the children.

There are more talents, I am sure, that I am not thinking of, but I think of not only what I would be losing from not developing the talent of motherhood, but of the utter disappointment of my Savior and the truly gnashing of teeth I would experience if I were to say to him, "But I was afraid...". I never want to be in that position. 

So with this comparison, I wonder, what other talents am I not developing? What am I afraid of? How can I tranform that fear into faith? What can I do better to be prepared for the day I meet Him, face to face?

Anyway, sorry no pictures.  I still don't know how to transfer them from my smartphone to the computer.  I guess my smartphone isn't so smart afterall.

Homeschooling adventures, starting an allowance, and visit to Grandma's!

Wow, it's been almost a whole month since I last posted! I think the thing that I've been saying the most as I've attempted homeschooling with a small baby is: "I just can't keep up!" It's hard balancing nursing, teaching, and making sure everyone is feeling nurtured.  I have definitely realized that I need to start delegating more responsibility to my older children.  Since we've moved here, these are the things I've attempted to train them to do:

• Dottie gets Lena from her nap, changes her diapers, changes her sheets and her clothes. She pretty much loves to do it all for Lena, with the exception of nursing.  I am careful, though, to make sure she's getting her school work done, as much as she would love to hold baby all day!
• Unloading the dishwasher.  Elliot and Ruby do the silverware and the plastic kid plates.  I got smart this move and put all of their dishes in an easy to reach spot for them. Dottie can unload all of the dishes on her own.
• Doing the dishes. We've only tried this a few times, but Dottie and Elliot make a good partnership. Dottie rinses, Elliot puts the dishes in the dishwasher. 
• Cooking and Baking.  Of course, Ruby and Elliot love to "help," but I've actually had success with Dottie making pizza dough completely on her own.  Wow!
• Vacuuming.  This is the latest.  Dottie vacuumed the entire car on her own after we got back from my parents'. 
• Tidying up.  Of course, ideally, this is something they should all do naturally.  But they don't.  We've gotten better, and Dottie is trying hard to help train Ruby. 
• Taking out the trash.  Dottie has started doing this all on her own.
• Next goal: cleaning the bathrooms!

So I've started an allowance in conjunction with these new jobs.  The allowance isn't just for the jobs, it's for behavior as well.  So, we sat down, made a list of what rules they wanted (i.e. listen to mom the first time) and they signed the rule list.  They start out with $3 at the beginning of the week . Each time they break a rule, they lose 10 cents.  The first week, they lost all of their money.  But over time, they're keeping it:) I also do the money virtually, so they won't blow it or lose it.  They have some toys on Amazon picked out that they are earning towards.  We've been doing this for about 3 weeks now. So far, so good.

Now for the pictures.  Living in DC is awesome. And overwhelming.  But mostly awesome.  Saturday mornings, the National Theater has a free show for kids.  We took the kids to one before General Conference the first Saturday in October. It was Snow White.  It was really cute for a free play!

 

Then, the next weekend, we went to Mt Vernon (again...we got a pass.  Plus, we love it), and rode a cruise ship on the Potomac for free with my friend Jessie and her kids.  Good times.

And here we are, homeschooling in action.  Ruby got a school book to practice cutting, as if she needs to practice...she doesn't really get the concept yet.  So it's turned into me cutting and her gluing.  But at least she feels like she's participating in school.

This was another attempt to involve Ruby in school.  We made an A alligator to help her learn her letters.  The older kids surprisingly also really loved the craft.

 And here's the Baby Mama, Dottie.

 This was pretty adorable.  Ruby lined up Lena with her "Braves" (her name for her two Merida dolls). Which one is the baby?

 I made my friend Jessie a pretty decadent cake for her birthday.  In fact, I'm entering this cake into a baking contest on Monday.  Yum!

 We went to Ihop with our kids for her birthday.

 Then, that same night, we had a fun surprise visit from Bry and Kelly. They went to the temple and we enjoyed time with Gracey at the playground!

 Then a few days later, we made an impromptu visit to Grandma and Grandpa Weed's house in Pennsylvania.  I was pretty thrilled to get to see the fall there and do all of the fun activities of my childhood.  

 I had Dottie do a leaf collection when I was there, inspired by Mrs. Wolfe, my marvelous 3rd grade teacher. Here we are in front of a Burning Bush. So beautiful! We really loved learning so much about leaves, especially from our friend, Bob the Forester.

 My wild Lena and Grandpa at the ward trunk-or-treat.

 We went to the Pumpkin Farm with our great friends, The Burnetts.  So fun!

 We studied The Civil War for a few weeks. While we were at my parents', Steve Hall, a Civil War Reenactor, came and talked to Dottie about the Civil War.  He dressed up and even shot his gun. It was fascinating!

 To continue with the Civil War, we went to Gettysburg.  Here's some Civil War era brass used to rally troups.

 Then, there was a Cyclorama, a giant painting of the battle.  It made the history really come to life!

 And here's the kids with good ol' Abe.

 When we got home, the girls helped me make homemade applesauce from all of the apples we picked from the orchard in Canton with Grandma.

 We made this Pizza Margherita to celebrate Queen Margherita, the first Queen of Italy that we just learned about prior to our Civil War unit.

 And to wrap up October, here's our little Trick-or-Treaters with the Curtis kids! Dottie was Tiana, Elliot was Thor, Ruby was Sofia the First, and Lena was Tinkerbell. We got so much candy.  Too much candy.