A mixed up, crazy, belated Christmas letter

Warning to procrastinators: when you plan on doing something one day before it needs to be done, chances are, you will get sick that day and it just won’t happen!!!!
   
 I figured I would keep with the tradition of sending out my Christmas letter on Christmas Eve like I have been doing for the last few years. (That and this year has been extremely busy, I figured it would be the only time I would have to actually sit down and write it.)  Two weeks before Christmas, my kids started coming down sick, and we all couldn’t just get it at the same time, it has to travel SLOWLY!  I have it now.  Got it right before Christmas and I am still dealing with it.  Today though, I can actually sit up long enough and have a clear enough head to right something coherent, or at least I think it is.  I won’t really know until after I am completely better.  So just bear with me.
    . . . . . Ok, so maybe my head is not thinking.  My kids are all a year older.  Same place, same station, nothing much new.  Oh I got a job. . . . Kind of.  It’s just an hour a day, but I love it.  I play the piano for the intermediate school choir.  It’s been fun.
    Ok really my head is not thinking, so if you want to know what has been happening all year, read my blog, (http://www.joy-in-learning.blogspot.com/) which I haven’t updated for a while because I have no time, or find me on facebook.  There, now I don’t have to think.
    But I do want to wish you all a BELATED Merry Christmas and hope your new Year is filled with great blessings.  Love you all,

Elizabeth Spotten
            
P.S.  I do want to leave you with my testimony.  Every year it grows a little more as I see the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father.  I feel so extremely blessed.  I love my family, the area we live in, all my amazing friends and especially His gospel that has made all this possible.  Merry Christmas everyone. 
 

An Overdue Update

Ok, I have 20 minutes to get this done.  Ya, I realize it's been a long, long, long time since I made a post.  During the summer,  I was babysitting several kids along with my own making it quite crazy at times.  I thought that once school was back in and I had ALL of my children in school, (yes I said all for the first time ever, my baby is now in school), life would slow down a bit; I would be able to spend more time on my music, cleaning . . . and blogging.  That was a happy thought while it lasted.  Things have only gotten more crazy.  Because my youngest is in school, I told the school I could help out in each of the classrooms. Whoops.  MJ's teacher called and asked me to be the music teacher for his class.  (Now that one, I do love.  I guess the school lost their funding for music, so they cut that part out.  Not good - in my opinion.)  All the other teachers also took advantage and I am now volunteering at the school for almost 4 hours a week.  I love being there though, and I love being with my kids. 

Then Ralph's school found out I could play the piano, so they asked me to be the accompanist for the choir there.  That one though, they actually PAY me.  It's only an hour a day, and it cost's 4 dollars in gas just to get there every day, but I totally love it.  I love the choir director.  I feel like I am going to school and learning so much, but I am actually getting paid for it this time.

So between all the volunteering, parent teacher conferences, school meeting, pta, hours of homework every night, and the new job, the only semi calm days I have left are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  And it's canning season.  So those days have been filled with bottling up foods.  (I have had a huge desire to get more foods on our shelves.)  I have been so grateful for neighbors who have given me so much of their produce when my garden once again fell short of what I needed. It just takes TIME!  I even learned how to use my new pressure cooker my mother gave me (thanks mom) and I bottled 70 jars of BEANS, (those things take a lot of time but boy do they taste good), and 60 jars of tomatoes. 

The sad part of it all is, I just don't have much time to spend on the creative side of music.  I haven't written a song for a while, and I am really missing that.  Plus, I really want to get my music on the internet, (like really bad) but that's totally taking a back seat right now while I am on this crazy roller coaster of a ride.

SE is in middle school this year, and her best friend moved away.  She is really struggling, so any prayers in her behalf would really be appreciated.  I wanted to pull her out of school so bad, but when the answer finally came after several weeks of praying, the simplified answer was, not now.  I am so glad the Lord is in charge because man I would mess things up.  But my heart aches for her.  I just have to trust, right/ . . . and I do.  It's the greatest comfort to know, when I can't be there for her at school and hold her, I know that someone else, so much more knowledgeable than me, is watching over her and helping her through this.  The gospel is the greatest thing in my life.  I am so incredibly grateful for a loving, kind, Heavenly Father who knows, hears and answers my prayers.

On the upbeat side, everyone else is doing great in school.  MJ especially LOVES his teacher this year.  Teachers really do make a HUGE difference.

Oops, it's been past my 20 minutes.  I've gotta run to the school now . . . so until next time, and I have no idea when that will be, see ya.  

Another Odd Gift

MJ's family baptism picture

    I know.  I am supposed to keep this blog updated.  But it is the summer time, and I also babysit (one time with 14 kids at a time - if you include my own).  Need I say more.  Finding time is a hard thing to do.  There are not enough hours in a day, and if there were, I still would not have the energy to do all that needs to be done.
    Whenever my son MJ asks for something for a birthday, Christmas, or something else, it is always something odd; not a typical present that a child his age would ask for.  One year, it was an extension cord.  We had to take it away after he blew out my electric piano though.  Another year he wanted sprinkler pipes.  They have come in handy several times.  One year it was tools; REAL tools, specifically a pipe wrench.  He had seen his dad get two of his stuck pipes apart with one and he wanted it BAD.  This year for his birthday, he told me, (a few days before), that he wanted a pine tree.  I thought that one fit the odd things list.  I had already gotten him a few gifts (sometimes it’s not so great to be prepared) and when I went to the store, they were quite a bit more than I wanted to spend, so I told him he would have to start saving for one.  He was not a happy camper.  Then a few days later, I was going through his school papers and I came across one he had written about a pine tree.  I realized this was not just a one time wish.

 

(It reads . . . " If I found a magic wand, I would make one pine tree appear in my back yard.  First I would climb the pine tree.  Next I would make a tree house.  Finally I would have a giant pine tree in my back yard.  That is what I would do if I found a magic wand.")

    Thankfully my amazing parents helped make the beginning part of his dream real. They were coming up for his baptism (which turned out so amazing, but that’s another story) and stopped by the same nursery we had gone to.  They even picked out the same tree he had wanted when we went.  Wow!  When they brought it in, MJ was sooooo excited.  The next day he woke up and said, “Mom, I have dreamed about having a pine tree before, but then when I wake up, I don’t have one.  This time I DO!” 
    Before Grandpa could leave to go home, MJ talked him into helping him plant it in the back yard.  They found a good spot, and with the help of his cousins, who also came for his baptism, they planted the pine tree. 

It's in!!!

The finished product!

It has been over a month since we planted it and he sits and measures it to see how fast it is growing.  He loves it and I hope it continues to grow just like his amazing testimony.

Soccer Moments

 I must take a moment and let everyone know, yes, I did survive.


Before the soccer season ever started, I was seriously doubting whether I wanted to go through the whole “soccer mom” thing again this year.  But all my kids insisted they really wanted to play; so I broke down and signed them up, (except for my youngest.  I can only take so much at a time).  Soon thereafter, the city called and wanted ME to be the soccer coach for BJ and MJ’s team.  (They were both on the same team.)  After several days, I finally gave in, (because I just haven’t figured out how to say that short little word “no” yet.  It seems so simple and yet it is sooooo hard to actually say.) And what’s even more crazy, the city doesn't even give a discount for soccer coach kids!!!

I now had 4 kids in soccer, one practice and two games each week, each kid.  It took up every day, Tuesday through Saturday.  I must admit, it was quite the experience.  It’s one thing to try and get your kids to all the practices and games, and a whole other to be the coach along with it.  The second practice into it, I was playing with the kids when I hit a patch of grass, my foot twisted to the side, and I heard a loud POP.  I knew it was bad.  But I had to be tough for those kids, right?  The next day, my ankle was very swollen.  It must have been quite the sight for the parents to see their child’s coach limping all over the field the first game.  It took several weeks for that to heal.  I still have problems with my ankle but I can use it now.  I hope the adage “Once sprained always sprained” is not true.



There were moments I couldn’t wait for the season to be over, and there were moments I didn’t want it to end.  I got to know my soccer kids on a much more personal level.  Some of them, actually all of them, found a way into my heart and I truly cared about them.

There were many games we played in the rain.  One of the worst was, of coarse, picture day.  It began to rain just after the game started . . . and then came the lightning.  When lightning struck within a mile, they finally cancelled the game and we all went running off the field.  But the photographers still wanted to take pictures!!!!  (I had figured they had left already.)  Half my team was gone before I realized this, and those that were left were soaked to the bone.  I had only 5 of the 11 players there, (2 were my own kids) my hair was a total mess . . . but they still took that picture.  (I will not show that one to you.)  One of the mothers on the team offered to take everyone’s pictures after one of the games to make up for it.  I was so grateful for her.   Those are the ones I am willing to show.  (She did a much better job anyway.)




Several weeks into the season, one of the girls informed me that “something was happening to her mom.”  But she didn’t know what it was.  After talking to her dad, he told me her mom had overdosed on drugs.  My heart went out to her.  Wow, what kids have to grow up with today.  They have to be so strong.  I pray for her.  I still think about her a lot. 





 My team never won a game.  I always tried to keep things positive and upbeat for them.  Half way through one of the games, one of the girls said, “we’re losing really bad, aren’t we.” 
I replied, “Are you having fun?”
“Yes.” 
“Then you’re not losing.”
The very last game, we scored the first goal and we kept the other team at bay for nearly half the game.  Right at the end, they got so tired and the other team scored 4 goals in 7 minutes.  At the end I was congratulating the kids for winning half the time.  One of the boys said “But you said it doesn’t matter if you win or loose, it only matters if you have fun.”  Wow, how I came to love those kids. 

 

The last day of soccer, I turned in my ball bag and the city presented me with a plaque for their appreciation.  It was the picture the photographers took on that dreaded picture day.  Wow, what a thank you gift.  (Do you think it would be bad if I burned that one?)

"Like"

So the other day, I began to realize that I was like, using the word “like” all the time.  It stunned me actually because when I was younger, I used to think those girls who used that word all the time were weird or stuck up.  I seriously was like wondering where in the world I had like picked up that bad habit.  And what made me even more frustrated was, now that I am realizing it, it is sooooo hard to change it.  Like what in the world do you use instead of the word like.

Soon after, I realized my son RD also was using the word like, sometimes two or three times in each sentence.  Wow, I really needed to change for HIM.  I was being a bad example.

So in my efforts of trying to rid myself of this bad habit, I was talking to one of my friends when I realized she uses that same word ALL THE TIME too.  Ok, so maybe I picked up that bad habit from her, or maybe her from me, who knows.  (Which came first, the chicken or the egg?) 

Then I was in the grocery store and I overheard another group talking and heard the word “like” all the time.  I was stunned.  This word is like everywhere.

Just today, I went to the school to help the kids practice for the opera (I am the piano player) and holy cow (That’s another word I should probably get rid of) all of the kids were using that word at least once per sentence.   I finally realized it, this whole town has been infected with a totally useless word . . . and I . . . have just followed the crowd.

A Few of my Favorite Things

Do you have a few things that you just love (. . . people not included cause that list could get way too long.) I wanted to list a few of mine. Usually they are things I have come up with to solve a problem . . . like for instance, my Clean and Not Clean sign on my dishwasher. When we ran out of clean dishes in the cupboards, everyone turned to the dishwasher hoping it was clean. Needless to say, many times, they were not, even when we had thought they were. Finally when I got tired of trying to remember if I had actually filled up the dishwasher enough to justify starting that thing or not, I came up with these signs.

I am sure many of you have already done this, but for those that have not yet, it works great, . . . unless you forget to change the sign. I made these on the computer, printed and laminated them, then I stuck a magnet on the back of the sign. I keep them in a convenient place and as soon as I turn on the dishwasher, I put the clean sign on. When I clean out the dishwasher, I trade it for the not clean sign. It has saved us many times and eliminates a lot of frustrating moments when we realized the dish we are eating off of was not really clean yet. AHHH!

My Movie Shelf

I had this space in my computer room where the cement wall comes out a lot farther than the wood wall (because this floor is half underground). It created a shelf, but then the rest of the wall was just wasted space. I hate wasted space. (I blame my dad for that. Those stair ways that don’t utilize the space underneath them really bug me too.) Our movies were stacked on this “shelf” but it just wasn’t enough space. They were stacked on top of each other and constantly falling over. They looked like a very disorganized mess, and was an eyesore for me. Several Christmas’ ago, I told my husband the only thing I wanted was for him to build shelves on the “shelf”. He spent several days / several hours a day making this movie shelf for me. I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. It doesn’t “take up” any space except an unusable area and it looks great. The movies are in alphabetical order, or some other logical order, (they are so organized . . . until the kids get into them). But nonetheless, it is much easier to keep it organized. Again I LOVE IT!

A Plant Watering Thingy

A couple of years ago, MJ wanted sprinkler pipes for Christmas. I know, crazy hu. He had watched his dad make our sprinkler system and has loved pipes ever since. So I bought several pipes, cut them in exact lengths so he could build a little skeleton play house, then used an old couch cover and sewed it into the shape of the house. When he built the house with the sprinkler pipes, we would throw the old couch cover over it for the outside. The kids loved if for a long time; but he didn’t want to just use his pipes for that, . . . he had much bigger plans. Needless to say, we don’t have all the pieces for the house anymore, but he has found countless uses for those pipes, (Like burying them in the sand box with an L pipe on both ends, sticking the hose on one side and then when he turns on the hose, water shoots out the other side . . . and wallah, he has his own geyser) and now I too have found them very useful. I planted a few tomato plants early this year so that I can get an earlier harvest. I have a great window right above my sink that I keep them in, but every year I have had to deal with the fact that I either have to pull up a chair, and climb into the window to water those plants, or when I was lazy, I would just take my spray nozzle on my kitchen sink and spray them down (usually having more water hit the window and surrounding area then actually getting to the plants.) The other day I came up with this idea, and I asked MJ if I could use one of his pipes with an L link attached to one end. I cover the L end with my hand to keep the water from going through, fill up the pipe with water and it easily reaches my plants; no mess, no climbing into the window, no problems. And the amount of water that fills the pipe is amazingly the perfect amount I need to water each plant. I have only had it for a week now but I must say I LOVE IT!!! And when I need to move the plants, I use the”L” end of my pipe to grab the plants and pull them to where I can reach them. It’s totally awesome!!!

My Counter and a huge cup Problem

(This is not something I made myself but I still love it.) My counter next to the fridge that has a water dispenser (what did we ever do before they put the water in the fridge? My kids didn’t even know that you could get drinking water from the kitchen sink. They voodoo it like I used to think of getting water from the bathroom sink. Ok back to my previous thought), used to look like this.

Every day, I would have at least half of my dishwasher full of cups. I was getting very frustrated with this. We tried assigning one color of cup to each person in the family, but no one would stick to it. We tried putting names on the cups, but again, for whatever reason, that didn’t work either. (Maybe it was too much effort to actually read the names on the bottom.) Finally one day, I found these “cool” cups at Walmart AND all my kids were with me. (Yes I did survive the trip.) I told them to each pick out one cup. I even picked one out for the girl I babysit. This time it worked. Now my counter looks like this.

Not perfect, but Oh so much better. Those cups were well worth the $0.88 I paid for each of them. I am absolutely positive it has saved me much more than that in dishwasher detergent and especially in my own sanity.

A Valentines Idea

Valentines is one of those days I don’t particularly look forward to because of all the cards you have to prepare for your children to take to school, plus I don’t like all the candy anyway, and if I give my kids candy to give away too, I am just being a hypocrite. So I came up with these bookmarks this year. (MJ told me though that he thought everyone would just throw the bookmarks out. Probably, but maybe someone would keep one.) They are cute, inexpensive and fun for the kids. It’s a change from the normal candy card and a bit fun. I wouldn’t say I totally LOVE them, but I figured maybe someone else could use the idea too, so I included it.


Ok, now after writing this very long blog, I must admit that I am sooooo grateful for and LOVE . . . spell checker.

5 year old Interior Designer

Several weeks ago, I decided my youngest child needed her room gutted out. You know, when it gets too messy, they just can’t seem to clean it any more. So I spent several hours in there cleaning out every bit of it. We went through all her cloths in her dresser, all her toys in her room, her books and closet. We sorted all her things into special boxes for easy organization. We moved things around so it would look like she had more room. When it was done, it looked like a whole new room. We even put a mattress up on her bunk bed, (before it just had “skelleton” boards because we had taken off the mattress to use it on the boys bed. So now she has two beds to sleep on. She was so excited. For several days, she even kept it clean. Wow. But then, one day, I went into her room and found a TOTAL mess. She had decided to take everything out of her closet so that she could make it into a play place, complete with a bed on the floor of the closet. (I guess TWO beds are just not enough!!!) I couldn’t even walk through it. She had moved EVERYTHING in her room around, even her dresser. Oh except she couldn’t move her bed . . . thankfully. I just can’t figure out how she moved her dresser. It’s as big as she is. She even took all the organized boxes and rearranged it all. I left for a little bit, cooled down, then went back in and did a quick sweep of her room, put it all back, had a long “talk” with her and hoped that would be the end of it. Not so. The very next day, she did it again. So I figured she must not like the way I had arranged her room, so this time, I had her tell me where she wanted all her furniture; we put it there, and I hoped that would be the end of it. Not so. The very next day, again she moved it around. I was at wits end. But I had gotten wise to her tricks. Instead of finding it after she had done the deed, I would catch her in the act, lessening the clean up afterwards. I sat down and tried to talk through this with her (probably in a very upset way) and hoped I had convinced her this time not to do this again. I went a whole day without a problem. But alas, it did not last. It got worse. Instead of moving her room around, she decided to rearrange MY living room. She moved the couches, the play pen (that I use when babysitting) EVERYTHING (except the entertainment center, it was just too heavy), around. It actually didn’t look half bad except we no longer could watch TV from the couches very well. To make a long story short, this has gone on now for several weeks, but has slowly been simmering down a bit. She goes several days now without rearranging things instead of a few hours. Then we went to her Grandpas house. Thankfully she can’t get out of my sight very much, but nonetheless, she tried to rearrange his living room. She’s five years old for heaven sakes. She is stronger then most of her older brothers! I can’t believe she can even move these things around. But thankfully this time I caught her right away, and made sure it was impressed upon her mind that she could NOT do that to grandpas house!!! We shall see if that actually works.

I know this is a phase, and hopefully we will get through this without too much harm. I have learned how to handle this a little better now without totally blowing my top. I just tell her she has five minutes to put it back the way it was OR ELSE!!!! One time she did try to trick me though by switching the big couch and the small couch around. Like I wouldn’t notice. Ok, I am now done venting. I will probably get up, go in the living room, and find it rearranged because I left her alone for 30 minutes. OOPS!

Touch of Love

Almost a year ago, I was feeling kind of down, ok really down. I was having a hard time feeling my Father-in-heaven’s love. I was having a hard time with me. You know all those answers we usually tell others to help them get through a hard time? Well I kept telling myself all those things and yet, I didn’t feel it and it really didn’t help me much. One morning I got up and felt even more down then I had been. In my morning prayer, I prayed that somehow I could know and feel Gods love today. Then got up and went through my busy day trying to check off those things on my “to do” list. I ran into town, helped out at the school, and some other activities. Finally, I got home and was pulling into my garage when something caught my eye on the porch. I stopped, ran over and found a pot of beautiful red tulips. There was no note, nothing to let me know who had left them. But I did get an overwhelming feeling, a feeling of pure love. My prayer was answered in a big way and has warmed my heart many times thinking about it. Almost a week later, I found out my visiting teacher had just out of the blue stopped by. You know, if she had felt a prompting to stop by at that moment and then not found me home, she probably felt like she must have been wrong on the prompting, but oh how real that prompting would have been. God works in mysterious ways. I have since planted those tulips in my flower bed and look forward to having them bloom again this year, or at least I hope they will.

Now for a more funny twist. In December, this same visiting teacher dropped by another pot of flowers. They didn’t look like any I knew or recognized, but she told me they were called “Paper Whites”. At the time, there were no flowers on the plant, just little buds coming out of these “huge blades of grass” (at least that is what it looked like to me.) I love flowers, especially potted ones that will live for a long time. I gratefully took it in and placed it in the center of my counter. Several days went by and the buds got bigger. Soon they bloomed into beautiful white flowers. I noticed an odd smell , but figured something must be rotting . . . or growing . . . or something. So I did all my dishes, washed out my sinks, got rid of all rags and cleaned out where the garbage is. When my husband came home, he immediately noticed the smell and asked me what it was. I had no idea. He went through the house and narrowed it down to the flowers. Flowers are supposed to smell good, right? Oh these ones did NOT. In fact they smelled awful. After one smell, I did not want to smell it again. Understandably, he wanted them out of the house. But it was winter and I couldn’t just let them out in the cold to DIE. They were still beautiful despite the smell. So I placed them up in the bay window, behind the curtain where he wouldn’t see them. But the next day, he could still smell them. After several days of hide and seek, I finally decided to put them out in the garage. Surely these flowers do not smell as bad as the garage and that is where they have remained for the last several months. The only problem with them being in the garage is, the sun only reaches that spot once a day for maybe a ½ hour or so, it gets to near freezing temperatures in there, and I don’t remember to water them very often. Despite all that, they have flourished, (even on one to two waterings a month.) The other day, I was out in the garage getting dog food when I realized I hadn’t watered them for a LONG time. As I watered them, (trying not to get too close to actually smell them,) I noticed just how BIG it has gotten. I am amazed. No other potted flower plant has ever done so good in my care. (Maybe no attention is better than too much attention, go figure.) I can’t wait for it to warm up enough to be able to plant it out in my flower bed. I want the beauty to shine, (but still not have to smell them.)

Exercise Blunder

Yesterday I turned on the news a few minutes early (because if I don’t I forget to even turn it on, which happens way more often then not) and there was this show on with some new exercise moves. They claimed that 15 minutes a day would get you a full days work out and get you back in shape. My exercise routine is at least 30 minutes, so if I could cut off 15 minutes and still get a full work out, hey I’m in. (Who knows, it could give me a moment to write a blog.) They showed the exercises and I tried them. . . then fell dead after just 5 minutes. My little elliptical just doesn’t do that kind of a work out for me. My legs felt like Jello and I honestly could NOT do any more no matter how hard I pushed myself.

Today, my legs are on strike. My kids keep asking me why I am walking that way. I tell them I’m lucky to even be walking, cause my legs don’t even want to do that. I am wobbling around like a little duckling saying, “ouch, ouch, ouch.” (I had no idea I was so out of shape, especially since I do exercise at least 3 times a week!!!) So much for wanting to save 15 minutes a day. Maybe someday, I can work up to that whole whoppin' 15 minutes.

Winter Fun

(These first two photos were from the last several years . . . not this year!)
Normally at this time of year, we can walk out our front door and walk right out onto the snow that is as high as our three step porch, or even higher, like in this first picture. Not this year. I almost feel like I am in Arizona, except just a bit more cold. We get snow and the only difference is, it takes a few days to melt instead of a few hours. That and they NEVER cancel school, even when the buses can't make it down your road. They just tell you to meet them out on the main road.

We were supposed to get quite the snow storm the other day. It started just before we went to bed. I totally expected to wake up to a foot of snow. Not so. I did however, wake up to snow plows going by our house every 10 minutes though; but when I checked outside, it was RAINING!!! It had melted every bit of snow that tried to stick. Why the snow plows kept coming through for the next few hours also baffled me. Several days later though, we got a good dusting and my little MJ was so excited. He wanted to borrow dad's “snow plow” (snow shovel) and make something. Several hours later, he came in so excited, he had built a snow castle. He even had carefully carved the walls using the “snow plow” to make it perfectly straight. I figured the snow might stick around this time so I waited until the next morning to take a picture. (That and I am a great procrastinator) That was not a very good idea. Although you can see in the pictures what it might have been, it just wasn’t nearly so stunning. Nonetheless, he loved it.