We Survived Stake Conference!!

Yay!! I was so excited. This is the first time in a long time that I said "no" to singing in the choir. I really missed being able to do that but the plus was that Paul and the kids went. Paul normally doesn't want to handle the kids by himself ... I mean, face it, he would get NOTHING from the talks so, in the past, he just read my notes. So today all four of us were able to go and sit together and everything. Unfortunately, I was unable to take notes b/c I spent a lot of time reading books, playing with magnets, coloring or playing with silly puddy. I did hear a lot of the talks though and they were awesome!! I was so proud of how well the kids did too. They made it through the entire 2 hrs with a few potty breaks and one quick short walk around the church during the intermediate hymn to give them a chance to get the wiggles out. YAY for my kids!!! :)

Room by Emma Donaghue

I didn't think that I would like this book. It's not my style... it's too real. I mean, it's about a woman who was kidnapped for 7 years and has a child while being held prisoner in an 11'x11' room. Does that sound like something I'd like to read? To make it worse, it's told from the point of view of her 5 yo son. Honestly, there were moments when I just wanted to pick up my 5 year old and hold him and cry over him. However, this was an excellent book. A story of a mother and son who manage to pull together to make it through adjusting to life in the outside world despite their sudden jump to fame and having to deal with people and sunlight. Poor Jack had never seen anything except the inside of that room. I LOVED this story!! :)Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a 5 year old to go and cuddle. :)

Arwen

We've been debating if we need to find Arwen (our dog) a new home or not. I haven't been giving her the attention she needs and with everything I do, that just seemed like too much so lately the poor thing has just been ignored in the backyard. Well, she started digging out. Drats!! Bad habit started but it was our own fault. Because we ignored her she was bored and had to entertain herself another way. So.... we sent an e-mail to Molly's Militia. They are the ppl we adopted her from. When they found her at the pound she had just given birth to a bunch of puppies and the pound euthanized them all!! Isn't that horrible?

Anyways! When the woman over at Molly's Militia e-mailed me back she sent a picture of Arwen when they had her. We adopted her in April 2008. Here's the picture of her then.

And here she is now. Look at how much she has aged. Poor thing is turning all white at the muzzle. I saw it but it was so gradual that it never occured to me or how much it had changed.

Crazy, isn't it? We're trying to get her inside more and I'm taking her on two walks a day. We even bought a gentle leader for her to go on walks better with us. It's amazing the improvement we've seen from just one day. The leader came with a DVD on training too so we're working on training her on a few commands. We have already taught her sit but the gentle leader provides and easier way so we're training her with the gentle leader. We're now working STAY. hehe! Wish me luck! Here's a pic of her and the kids with the gentle leader on.

It looks bad but it's really not. It is very loose around the muzzle. She can still eat, drink, pant, bark...etc. with the gentle leader on. It just helps to guide her nose. There's another piece that goes behind to the base of her skull. It doesn't choke like a traditional collar and she doesn't pull like she does with a harness. In less than 24 hrs I can now walk her while pushing the stroller and there is no jerking or anything. She stays next to me. It's amazing!!! I LOVE it!! I'm not trying to make this sound like an ad or anything for the gentle leader but it really is amazing!! :)
Here's another pic of it from the side. :)

In this pic you can see where the lease connects, right there by my hand. Anyways.... I just wanted to show how much she's aged. When we got her (4/08) they estimated she was about 2 and we've had her for almost 3 years so that would put her around 5 but I'm thinking she's a bit older with the amount of white around her face. Poor girl! I do wonder how old she really is. Oh well.... she is certainly not arthritic or anything. She is as energetic as ever!! :)

Book Review -- Cinderella Ate My Daughter

The title to this book caught my attention while I was walking through a Books-A-Million. I came back home and looked it up on my Nook and found out I could by the e-book for less than half the price so I got it. It’s a very interesting read written like a blog post with its funny anecdotes thrown in randomly. I love blogs so I didn’t mind it even though others may. This book is about the princess phenomenon that seems to have taken over all little girls and how this affects them in life. This, ‘give-me-now attitude’ and ‘need for attention’ and ‘desire to be beautiful’ and that ‘if you’re not the center of attention and always beautiful then you won’t get your man’ view that seems to be taking over the pre-tween, tween and teen girls. Very interesting!

One quote says, “Princesses avoid female bonding. Their goals are to be saved by a prince, get married, and be taken care of for the rest of their lives. Their value derives largely from their appearance. They are rabid materialists… And yet… parents cannot resist them.”

One point that it brought up was really interesting. It discussed how boys are often complimented on their intelligence. For example, “You are so smart!” But girls are often complimented on their beauty, “You are so pretty.” “You are beautiful.” What are we implying to our children? This really hit home b/c as I observed my own actions I realized that this was true with my own actions. I have fixed this however. J

“… Something, somewhere has shifted [in adolescence]. The innocence that pink signaled during the Princess years, which seemed so benign, even protective, has receded, leaving behind narcissism and materialism, as the hallmarks of feminine identity… It also discourages the possibility of cross-sex friendship. Could you share your Pink Glam Magic 8 Ball with a pal who happened to be a boy? My sources say no.”

“Gender [roles] really is all a bunch of socially constructed hooey.”

In it was a section that showed the difference in girls priorities in the last 100 years. Below are two New Year’s resolutions from two teenage girls. The first was in the turn of the nineteenth century:

“‘Resolved: to think before speaking. To work seriously. To be self-restrained in conversations and actions. Not to let my thoughts wander. To be dignified. Interest myself more in others.’

And the contemporary girl:

‘I will try to make myself better in any way I possibly can… I will lose weight, get new lenses, already got new haircut, good makeup, new clothes and accessories.’”

Basically, what I learned from this book is… well, a lot. If I’m uncomfortable with something then I’m not going to allow it in my home. This book covered the affects of internet use in girls today, Miley Cyrus and other big name girls that end up being our daughters’ idols and the real examples they set for our girls. Something I found interesting was that a lot of these girls had no imagination. That is something that I want to make sure that my kids have, is an imagination. I found some fun toys called Papo Figurines. There are princesses in them but there are TONS of others. They aren’t too expensive and they require children to use their imaginations. This was recommended in the book. I really like the idea of getting them for my kids.

Anyways, if you have a daughter then I TOTALLY recommend reading this book. It was tons of fun and gave me a good view of how the media plays on my daughter growing up too fast and becoming self-centered. Empathy has decreased in today’s world. I want my children to have empathy, an imagination, and want to better themselves from the inside out. Hopefully I will be able to help guide them in the right ways so they can be their best! J

A Rainy Morning in the Life of a Stay at Home Mom

So, I'll be honest. When opportunity first presented itself for me to be a SAHM, I was a bit skeptical. I though it would be so boring! I figured I'd sit around at home, bored, watching movies all day. Now, I think of that and just have to laugh. Little did I know. When I worked full time, I was always busy but I was busy in a different way. I wasn't really exhausted by the end of it like I am now. I was just busy. Now, I am busy all the time, my brain is constantly turning with ways to help one of the kids with something, how to make that easier or what we're going to do the next day. Today, it was a bit rainy so the kids couldn't go outside but I thought I'd give you a taste of some of the stuff that SAHMs do. :)
First, we all got up, (I showered), and we got dressed and ate breakfast. We decided that today was a cookie day so we started the day off by making cookies. While they were baking we decided to wash dishes.

Then, time to eat some cookies!!

I think Ronni did pretty well at stacking dishes for a 3 yo.

Of course, this meant.... PLAY TIME!!

Then, home preschool. To see pictures of this check here. I may not have today's up yet. I am going to try to catch up today.
After that, I had to get some laundry folded and strip the beds. While I was folding and rotating laundry, here's what the kids were doing. :)

They cooked,

Ronni played dress up,

Collin built his marble run,

and then they helped me make the bed. Don't you love the pillows? LOL! They had fun! Baker, the cat, tried to help to. He likes being under the sheets while we make the bed. hehe!

They had some music time.... I had Cranberries playing loudly in the kitchen to try to block out some of the sounds. haha! Be grateful you weren't here for that one. :)

And, of course, we mustn't forget the time spent in the time out corner. Obviously, she wasn't too happy to be there. hehe! :)

Now, it's lunch time. I just made lunch, we're eating and watching Word World. Soon it will be nap time for Ronni and I have two meetings via the phone with my Lit professor and my Mentor (I do school online). So, nap will be me working on geometry and my lit paper. ;) After nap, we'll go to the library, cook dinner and then daddy will be home. Hooray! So now, you, too, see that SAHMs don't get to just sit on their bums all day. LOL!