A Young and Overwhelmed Manager

Sarah has a hard time being the oldest at times. Or maybe I should say, she has a hard time having little sisters. Yes, it is true, sometimes they are annoying. Who ever heard of annoying little sisters? (The key is to have them 15 years apart. My sister and I get along just fine and always have! (O: Good thinking mom!)

She gets stuck helping them clean their messes quite a bit. Which isn't fair, but I get stuck cleaning messes I don't make all the time too. Life's not fair. We all work together. Anyway, I asked her to be the overseer and example to clean hers and Natalie's room while I made dinner. She did a good job until the two younger girls started getting silly. I could hear squeals and screams from their room and then, stomping down the stairs. Sarah entered the kitchen exclaiming, "I can't work with these people!" I laughed out loud and agreed that they sounded difficult to manage. I let her off the hook and gave her a ticket for being a good sport and trying - and for making me laugh. (o:

A Hindu Experience

I am not particularly fond of this picture of myself, but I am modeling my new Hindu look. (o: After General Conference on Sunday, we went to BillyBob's* friends' home. He invited us to celebrate the Festival of 9 Nights. (I hope I remember all the details right - if not, I apologize, this was all new to me.) It was fun to talk with Satish and his wife for a while - I haven't seen them since they were first married when Angela was a baby. They are both from south India and had a traditional arranged marriage back at home. I love learning about other cultures, so it was fascinating to join them for this holiday they celebrate. . .

Here's a little synopsis I found on Google that explains better than I could, what the festival is. "Navratri is a festival of Hindus celebrated with devotion, love and fervour all over India. It is also called as Navratras. The mood of Navratri is very colourful & unique. It incorporates veneration along with commemoration by means of song and dance. Navratri basically means "Nine Nights" ("Nav" meaning nine and "Ratri" meaning nights). These nights are devoted to the reverence of Goddess Durga (Maa Durga) who exists in many forms and is the manifestation of the absolute energy that pervades the Universe. During these days and nights prayers are offered to Mother Goddess. For the devout these days are the sacrosanct for it is during these days when Goddess Durga takes a stock of her devotees and grants all blessings, removes ills and evils and ensures unproblematic life for her devotees."

One of the traditions during the festival, is to display small dolls and figurines that each family has collected over the years. The dolls are of different gods/goddesses and even set up scenes. Satish had a small set up that represented a village with crops, people, etc. Apparently, each family is supposed to add to their collection every year. It was neat to see the special room set aside for decorating with all of the figurines. Satish even made a staircase to put in the room to display each set of dolls. After we spend some time in the doll room, we got to enjoy some fabulous south Indian cuisine: samosas, which I've had before and love, and several other dishes that were totally new. I was so shocked and proud of Sarah and Natalie for trying several of the foods and even both having favorites! Yeah. That was a big step, especially for Sarah. At the end, I was offered a small dish that contained a red powder (a spice, but the name has left me) to put on my forehead. Satish said the women are always offered this when they enter a home during Navratri. (They travel from house to house to see each others doll displays.) The girls thought it was funny, but luckily didn't say so until we got to the car. They were so good and I think found it very interesting too. They especially liked the part when Satish gave them gifts to take home.

One of the things I didn't realize before was how much Hindus treasure life in every form - thus the vegetarianism. They make these beautiful "pictures"/designs using rice flour of different colors on the ground. The purpose is to feed and sustain even the ants. And I learned that these festivals and celebrations (apparently, Hindus have a LOT of them) are meant to strengthen communities and keep them interacting with one another. Even the tradition of buying a doll or dolls to add every year is to give those who make them continuing business. It is a very community driven religion, which I think is great. Something Mormons have in common. (o: I had a fun time and Satish was so nice, and I think excited, to share so much about his religion. We had a great time and when he sends me a picture he took of the girls with his display, I'll post it. I didn't bring my camera in at the last minute, just in case it was offensive to photograph their decorations.

My Great Helper

Sarah is such a sweetheart. She loves learning new things and feeling like she is a big helper. And boy, is she a great helper. That's not to say that we don't experience some resistance and whining when it comes to helping out, but when it is something new and requires more responsibility - Sarah is always excited. I made some chore cards to explain what is expected for some of the more involved chores. One that I trained Sarah on recently was cleaning the half bathroom all by herself. She cleans the sink and toilet, scrubs inside the toilet, cleans the mirror, checks the soap and TP, takes out the rug and towels to the laundry room and mops the floor. I bought some more "natural" cleaning products so I wouldn't have to worry about all the chemicals I usually use - like 409. The other day she did the job all by herself without any supervision, it was AWESOME! I was so proud of her. A couple funny things . . . look at her cute sign she made and hung up. I got a kick out of it when she brought me down to inspect her work. The other funny thing . . . notice how many paper towels are in the garbage can above. Looks like we need to go over a few "greener" methods of cleaning to save a few trees! But what a great kid - she is such a cutie.

More Girls' Night Pics

Here are a few pictures I got with my good camera before the gymnastics show we went to a couple weeks ago. You can read my post from earlier to find out why I had to resort to using my cell phone camera during the show. What cute girls! The last picture is of Natalie's "sign" she made during the show to hold up for the gymnasts to see. (o: I'm sure they would have been very flattered if they could have seen the 4x6" size paper. (o:

Angela's Field Trips

This is our third time having the girls do Smart Cookies preschool. For the three year olds, the kids have one day of preschool (I had my turn this week) and a field trip that goes with the lesson topic for the week. Above: Costco was an awesome field trip. Look at the cool badges Kelly, our Costco tour guide, made for each of the kids! They got a tour of the bakery and then got to decorate yummy Costco cookies. Two thumbs way up - we already are big fans of Costco, but that put them over the top for us! (o:
This is a funny shot of the girls looked for clothing patterns at Kohls. Angela found some underwear with polka dots!
Angela still talks about and recognizes different clothing patterns since this preschool lesson and field trip. She especially loves stripes and polka dots. Aren't these cute fashionistas?
Today we went to Jackson Bottom Wetlands to see if we could find any bugs or spiders. That was my topic for this week. Most of the bugs were smart and stayed warm somewhere. We decided to do the same and had fun playing inside with the interactive exhibits.

Is it REALLY necessary?

I wish food were just for recreation and not a necessity. I could save so much time if my family did not have to eat three times (sometimes 4-5) a day! Why does life need to revolve around creating menus, grocery shopping, preparing, storing, cooking, eating (this part takes a particularly long time for my girls) and cleaning up the whole mess? By the time you're done with one meal, it's on to the next. I could get so much more done if we could just have food be for recreation. I love to eat, so I would make time for this hobby, but three times a day? What else (besides going to the bathroom!) do we do that many times a day? Geesh! I am jealous of people who actually like to cook - then maybe I wouldn't dread it so much when 4:00 hits each day. Well, I better go figure out what I'm making for dinner...

Who's Frank* Billy Bob* Mr. Magoo*

This is in response to my cousin's question in the comments on my last entry. I'm sure many of you have wondered who all these men in my life are! (o: I mentioned briefly in a past post that the love of my life, my best friend, the man I married - is not a big fan of blogs and his name/picture being out on the internet. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the girls pictures and names being on the internet either, which I understand. So we compromised and I am respecting his request to not use his name or pictures of him. We also agreed it would be good to avoid using our last name or any other info we don't want strangers to know. I wanted to keep our blog open and not have to do the password thing so that friends and family can easily view and follow our blog. Anyway, I am having fun with my mysterious husband and give him various names that suit my mood! We think it's funny, but sorry about any confusion this caused! (o:

Home Improvements

Two weekends ago, Frank* and I painted our room - we love the new color (it was white before) and now can't wait to add some fun stuff to the walls.
Above is a corner of our house that has been driving me crazy for a long time. This is actually what the girls dress ups looked like when they were "cleaned up". Usually they are spread out all over this corner and throughout the room. I absolutely love having little girls and I love that dressing up is such a big part of their existence right now. So I wanted to make it even more fun for them . . .
After a trip to Ross and with the help of Ned*, this is the much improved corner. Now the girls can find their princess shoes and jewelry. Ahhh, I am making order in my house one corner at a time. I have a LOOOONG way to go, but this makes me feel so much better!! The girls enjoy it too and like the mirror and knowing where to find stuff.
Lest you think that my house is always clean and organized, I took this picture on the way out of the girls' room. And this is no where near as messy as it often is. I'll try to take more "real" shots to put in here because a lot of people have the false impression that I am so on top of things. HA! I just get so excited when something IS in order that I have to take a picture of it! (o:

Natalie Natalie Natalie (o:

Look closely at this picture and you will notice that Natalie has a horrible rash all over her face and neck, yet she still looks so darn cute. The story behind the rash goes like this... The week before school started Natalie got an infection which required antibiotics. I was grateful that the infection cleared up before school started so she was ready to go. Unfortunately, her second day of school (the last day that she took her antibiotics - 7 days) she woke up with this rash from head to toe. It was the worst rash any of my girls have ever had. I kept Natalie home from school and made an appt. with Dr. Heichelheim. We had to go through the back entrance of the office just in case it was contagious - that was cool because we got right in! (o: No waiting. I suspected, but wasn't sure if it could be a reaction to Natalie's antibiotics. After all, she'd been taking it for over a whole week with no problems. Dr. H diagnosed it as an allergic reaction. Here's a cool hint she told me. If the palms of their hands have spots too, it is usually an allergic reaction. She said viruses usually spare the palms.

Natalie was excited that Dr. H was going to write her a note so she could go to school. I was proud of her - she had no thoughts of worrying what she looked like - she just wanted to be with her friends. Kindergarteners are so awesome. Natalie didn't care and neither did her friends care that she looked a little funny with all those spots. She got a big welcome at school and was happy not to miss the entire second day of school.

Here are a couple funny things Natalie said this week...

During the men's priesthood session of LDS conferences last Saturday, I took the girls to Craft Warehouse to get some fun "treasure" boxes for the girls to paint. We always do some kind of girls night when daddy has this meeting every six months. While we were at the store I found some prints from a local artist that I just love (Paul A. Lanquist, if you'd like to know... http://www.nwartmall.com/dep/paul_a._lanquist_art?&pp=2 ) Anyway, nearby, Natalie found a big picture of an old castle. She was fascinated with it and said to me, "Mom, I want to live in a castle, but I don't want to live with a prince." A lady next to me burst out laughing and quickly went to her friend, "Did you hear what that little girl just said?" Through giggles. She told her friend and they could not stop laughing. The other one said, "Smart girl!" and said I better write that one down. So I am. (o: It was pretty cute, but the comfort of knowing Natalie wasn't in the mood for boys yet didn't last long...

Yesterday at dinner, I asked the girls about their day at school. Natalie told me about how she learned about the body and started reviewing the amazing things inside our bodies - a heart, bones, and then she stopped quickly and said, "I have to tell you something secret in your ear." She ran around the table to me and whispered, "I have a boyfriend in my class." Oh dear. Not boyfriend stuff yet, PLEASE no!! Later that night Billy Bob* and I got a few more details. His name is Jackson and he is new in Natalie's class. Apparently, Natalie initiated the "relationship". I told her to let him down easy and tell him that they had to be friends until she was 18. (o: She just laughed. We'll see if that works. Sigh... what's a mom to do? Is Natalie going to be our boy crazy girl? What a nut!