Too Much

I read this article today about Simplifying Childhood. The book that that article is commenting on is titled Simplicity Parenting which "encourages parents to keep fewer toys so children can engage more deeply with the ones they have. Payne describes the four pillars of excess as having too much stuff, too many choices, too much information and too much speed. When children are overwhelmed they lose the precious down time they need to explore, play and release tension. Too many choices erodes happiness, robbing kids of the gift of boredom which encourages creativity and self-directed learning. And most importantly “too much” steals precious time." (All the time I spend cleaning! Or more like the time I spend dreading cleaning)

Melodie just mentioned a film she watched that talked about how of two stores that sold ice cream, the one with less choices was more successful. People feel overwhelmed/stressed by too many choices! Again, the four pillars of excess:

1. Too much stuff
2. Too many choices
3. Too much information
4. Too much speed

This article is right in line with what I need to hear right now (again). I haven't done much more to clean out the basement since Angela and her girls have arrived, but I haven't needed to go down there to that mess to still be drowning in too much stuff on the main floors and up in the bedrooms. The clothes problem here at our house is my current kryptonite. I get it all washed, but it does not get folded. I put the clean clothes in laundry baskets in the kids rooms and my room and there it remains. Well, the boys toss everything out all over the floor as they look for the item they want so the rooms are just a mess of clothing on the floor. I get most of ours folded, but then hit a roadblock or get interrupted before I finish sorting through the kids clothes and socks that make it into our hamper. Maybe we need to have just one winter jumper too.

Too much is totally true. I was thinking back on our simple life in Brazil in 2007. We packed light, and the kids each brought a cape, a stuffed animal, and then we also brought some Knex toys and a mega blocks train. The toys fit in a small bin. The kids went deep with those toys, they "engaged deeply", and now I love those toys cause my kids loved those. The stuffed animals are currently are on a shelf in my bedroom closet cause they capture that simple time and those memories.

When we had to simplify again when we went to Costa Rica and Chile for 9 months, the kids went deep again with their one stuffed animal, even making furnished apartments for their toys out of paper. Joseph didn't take one that time, but the rest of them each had a Webkinz toy they liked. We went through stuffed animals and threw out quite a few two weeks ago. We kept more than I thought we should, so we might need to try again with this new article fresh in mind. We have a lot of Webkinz, but the kids remember their Costa Rica ones and their names: Mel had Kacey the bunny, Ethan had Lucas the Lion, Hyrum had the Gecko Ben, Wesley's dog's name was Matthew, and Abi's cat was Scarlet. Lily's bear was one she stole from the church nursery room in Chile there.

Our visitors, Angela and her girls, have been angels in how much they've been cleaning  this house, which gives me a grateful/guilty feeling... grateful for the help, Lord knows I need it, but guilty/embarrassed that we Wrides can't keep on top of it and I'm going to feel like a loser tomorrow when they clean it all again. Our current goal is not to live like pigs. So yeah, going to try to thin out the thick of all our toys and clothes and stuff around here again.

Playing and Cleaning with Guests

Our guest from Chile have been with other US friends for the past two weeks, but on Tuesday night (after many days of the little girls asking "When is Angela coming back?!?!") they have returned. The kids were excited and they played out in the back yard too late, so late that we got a text from our sweet neighbor saying they were having a hard time falling asleep with the noise from all their fun. Doh! Kids, back inside! I know it's warm outside, but it's not summer yet!

So, it feels like they cleaned the whole house again. It's so nice to have help, wow. Angela helps with the daily stuff - picking up toys, sweeping, vacuuming. Her daughters picked up the girls' room. The boys' rooms didn't get helped this time (they might be beyond help....) Yesterday I spent most of the day doing a big day project that I hadn't planned on: it was time to clean out the fridge again. We got a refurbished fridge delivered on the day Abi was baptized over a year ago. 3 months after that was when it first began to make the noise, our 90 day warranty covered it being repaired that first time, but a few months later it did it again. Warranty now gone, so I've tried to do my best to fix it. It comes from ice building up around the fan and then the fan hitting the ice. So it still makes the noise every couple of months. When it does I usually just go hit the power switch off and leave it off overnight. I use the breaker box cause I don't want to roll it out and unplug it, cause that's a pain. So defrosting it that way helps and it usually works after one night off. So, it started making it again last night but I didn't turn it off cause it wasn't that bad, but this morning it was full on LOUD, so off the power goes, time to defrost the fan! It's some kind of design flaw since there are lots of people out there experiencing the same irritating noise. Ironically, I had just noticed and eve mentioned to Melodie how nice it was that the the noise hasn't been here for a while. I googled it more this time and did find these troubleshooting instructions here on their customer support page.  I have now properly leveled the fridge, and I know the ice was all gone off the fridge cause I left it off all day (moved all the food to the garage fridges and freezers - I guess it's good I haven't sold our 2nd extra on the classifieds yet), so we'll see how it works. It's a pain, but a good way to make me clean out the fridge every few months.

Tonight they've been dancing to 80s music and some Chilean hits in the front room. It's fun, they are all laughing and having fun and making memories.

The kids have shoved pillows up their shirts and are body slamming each other. Hyrum is "The Red Apple" Wesley is "Purple Plum", Lily was "Cotton Candy"... then Gabriella brought down Owen with a blanket shoved in his pajamas, we named him "Blue Berry Boy".

Sophi, not to miss out on the fun, ran upstairs to plump up her clothes, Her name is "Cherry" - just to keep with the whole food theme.

Body slammin' in the front room to entertain their Chilean audience.

We're going to try to do something short and fun this weekend with them and have plans to take them to Las Vegas for a quick trip spring break in 10 days. :)

Heading Out

Last night as I packed bins, Corey told me his plan of attack - Let's clear out of here as soon as we can, then we'll go hang out at Felipe's house for lunch, and then go to a churrascuria with all the kids and get a nice big dinner meal before the airport. 

We came pretty close to executing his plan. We did it all except go out to eat. (That sounded pretty painful to me anyway - taking all the kids out to a restaurant? I don't know that we've ever done that!) So, I packed and cleaned and a wonderful friend from church came and helped cook eggs for the kids and then cleaned the dishes for me so we could pack those. She was a life saver. Then I sent her off with a hug and a kiss on the cheek with her car loaded with pillows and sheets and cooking pans and plates and other stuff. Corey had guys from his work come and they took away all the crates. He thought it was poetic justice, that the crate furniture is going to return to become crates again.

We joked how the crates have been in denial - "I'm not a crate! I'm a couch!" You can't change what you are - and you make a lousy couch, we're gonna help you become a crate again. We think they might feel a little snobby around all the regular crates that don't have a coat of paint. 

As the bins and boxes got packed up, Corey put them on the front porch. Eventually we had enough done that we could head out. But we had to wait for the moving van with crates to leave first, since our cars were stuck inside the gate.

But good news - Nathy's car was parked on the outside! She offered to take them over to Felipe and Angela's house. Sounds good - then we can finish the final touches without kids trying to help.

She had 7 Wrides and 2 of her kids in the car, plus her driving. Before Hyrum got in, he looked at me and said there was no room. Nathy assured us "There is room!" He asked me "Is this okay?" (with Lily on his lap)

Nathy said "Not in the US, but here it is ok"

So off they went - 3 Zancas + 7 Wrides. I left shortly after them. My car was loaded with bins and one Natalie and her baby.

At Felipe's house the kids watched movies for several hours. Mel played with their baby boy as Natalie put a pink bow on him. Mel had fun holding the baby, she's excited for our baby to come. I wonder how much pink and girly stuff his 4 little older sisters will subject him to?

The kids watched movies and had plenty to eat - Angela is an angel and made us hamburgers, fries, and we brought a cake that Renata brought us for Wesley's birthday. So that was lunch... (do you like the chocolate on Sophi's face?)

(And her poor crossed eyes, I hope I can change to get an appointment sooner than the one I have for October...) And then they watched a few more movies while I took a quick hour power nap, Corey took Zeb to the airport cause his flight left 3 hours before ours. Zeb will be back in Utah tomorrow around noon. We don't get in until 8:20. But he has two layovers, and we didn't want that. We'd rather do 10 hours in Orlando than have to take another flight. So after taking Zeb to the airport, Corey came back for the rest of us. We ate some pizza and loaded into our Fiats for the last time. And it was off to the airport - to be continued tomorrow!

Llegaron

Angela and her girls are here!

And we found each other at the airport through our husbands communicating between Brazil and Chile, funny. And what a pleasure to have them, but not just because they've spent the whole day cleaning up my wreck of a home. We cleaned and then we rearranged things and they are settled in now and I got a space heater for the basement and this will be fun! Owen even seems to have lost some of his shyness and has smiled at them and looked them in the eyes a few times. I'm running around a bit and things are busy, so I'll try to catch up here when I can. Parent Teacher Conferences this week and then on Thursday I fly to San Diego and meet up with Corey there on his way back from Brazil. We're going to be there through Sunday. Fun times, and busy, I feel like I'm kinda running around like a chicken with it's head cut off

Walkabout

We were one of the host houses for the neighborhood walkabout today. 

It's a fun summer tradition that our neighborhood has been doing for over 5 years. We hosted it in 2018, too, before Joseph left on his mission. I thought we went a bit overboard that time, although the kids in the neighborhood loved the open buffet of desserts. I did all the food prep for today and it turned out alright - still had plenty but I tried to keep the kids' 3rd and 4th helpings under control. We did root beer floats and orange fanta freezes, and also had a healthier option of berries with whipped cream and granola. Gabriel and Angela and their daughters came over for dinner today - 

and kept the kids entertained - 

and then when it was time to get ready for hosting the neighborhood, they helped us get everything set up. I think it went alright. It felt like a busy day though, not much of a day of rest, but that's ok. Sometimes we can worship God through a day of service. A few more pic - months ago I bought some of the Disney princess lego story books for myself to keep when I'm a grandpa, and I recently caved in and let Daniel build them and then let the kids play with them. I tried to say they couldn't mix them up and they also had to keep them in my closet, so that none of the pieces would get lost, but today that all got messed up cause Wes started building space ships and stuff - 

Boys are happy and having fun playing together - 

But my princess castles have been turned into space ships. 

They also took them downstairs to show off their handy work, and I hope that pieces aren't missing. I'll try to get Lily to fix and build them for me again, and then maybe I can hide them away. Although it was cute to see them playing together. I like it when the big siblings play down to their little brother's level.

Cerro San Cristobal

Another month has gone by. Last night the kids were telling me how Costa Rica went by slowly, but Chile is going by super fast. I had to correct them, that it was just the first month that went by slowly in Costa Rica, then once we got into the routine of our adventure it started to zip by, and since Chile is just a continuation of the adventure, time is still booking. I admit though, February seemed to go particularly fast. That's a good thing, cause we're all excited to go back home.

Corey was on the local Utah news this morning on KSL. Go Start Up Chile!

Last Saturday we went with our friends Angela and Gabriel and their daughters to the Cerro San Cristobal.



It is pretty awesome - a the top there is a statue of the Virgin Mary donated by France in the 1920s - called la Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción. You can ask Mary for a blessing or leave her a thank you note, and you can see the entire huge city of Santiago - amazing how big this city is, it just goes on and on... some good pictures on this website.

The kids were curious about what all the candles were for...



Just happened to run into the Mission President and his wife from the Vina Del Mar Mission. Pretty cool, love missionaries. On our way down the stairs Abi wasn't satisfied with just walking - being an adorable little girl she had to jump down the stairs. She was checking out her new exercise shoes - (thanks Mom!)



For fun with kids in Santiago, I would like to highly endorse the Parque Infantil at the Cerro San Cristobal park - too bad my camera was broken. We did get a few videos, but we're definitely going to go back when I have a camera so I can document it a little more, cause this park was seriously sooooo cool, I wished I was a kid again and that all my siblings were here with me to play - we would have had so much fun! My kids were in heaven, Wesley said "This is a dream come true!" then he expounded - "This park can be Indiana Jones, Ben 10, Star Wars, hot wheels... it can be all the games!" They ran around lost in their imagination for the next two hours.



Luckily for us the bathroom was locked and we had to finally call it quits so Abi could use the bathroom, otherwise we never would have been able to get them to leave.

When we go again I'll get some footage or pictures of the stone castles and wood bridges - totally out of an Indiana Jones movie set.

Merry March to you all! May this month be busy and productive and may time continue to march on so we can return triumphant from Narnia.

Valentines

Today was Valentine's Day. My #1 Valentine is far away in Brazil, but I shall see him shortly. He did call to wish us all a happy love day. Keeping me company while Corey is gone is my funny Valentine Daniel. He was super cute sucking his thumb two days ago ~

My next Valentine Natalie is a sweet little roommate too. Still sleeping on our floor most every night.

The past few nights she's been sleeping with an old toy that Abi got when we were in Chile 5 years ago. I had it on display on my shelf to remind me of little Abi, now it will remind me of Natalie too. I made Valentine's for the older kids. Some Candy grams - I was inspired by the "Super8" candy bars that Angela gifted us. And this was also an effort to get rid of the chocolate before I ate it all.

Joseph likes Mr. Goodbars. Mel likes KitKats, but they aren't good for candy grams...

Neither are Reeses. So I tried to get creative, but it mostly got lame.

Then I got lazy with Wes and Lily. They didn't seem to mind. I didn't keep track of how many treats each kid got, but since I hid the Valentines on their beds they weren't able to compare to each other.

Abi was excited by the surprise, she loves stuff like this. She used some of her treats from school to make a Valentine for me, cause she is also a major note writer. I've got a whole stack of love notes from my sweet Abi, and now have this one to add to the collection.

General Conference

General Conference was wonderful this weekend, as always.  The talk that I've already listened to three times was President Uchdorft's talk on Saturday morning.  I will try my best to live with no regrets.

We left Sophia downstairs napping during the afternoon session of Conference while the rest of us watched it upstairs.  When I came down to check on her, she was awake and this is the little face greeted me with a cheezy grin over the couch:

Made me laugh, she probably thought the rest of us were slackers and she was the only one paying attention.  And looks like she enjoyed it too!  The rest of us were lazying around our bedroom floor.  I took notes, had a few people dozing off here and there.

We had a nice visit with my side of the family afterward.

Corey, my dad, and Angela had a nice visit,

 

Lily having a tea party and going grocery shopping... with an assault weapon...

The kids had fun playing with cousins, and I got lots of homemaking inspiration from Jerusha's house, it is so festive! Now to get the resources I need to fill my little heart's desire... ah, therein lies the glitch.  I shall remember that I can have anything I want, I just have to get it "one thing at a time."

(...and, on a political sidenote, this SNL skit is pretty funny)

Have a happy Monday!

Solo Conferences

Ah, parent teacher conferences. Usually we divvy up the conferences and Corey does the older kids and I do the elementary and middle school. But Corey is gone, as we are all well aware, so guess where I got to go? Back to High School! Oh boy, I had to gear myself up to leave the house again... I've like had to leave the house every day the past week,which I'm not used to doing. So last night Joseph and Ethan were gone at Voodoo in Corey's car, and Angela had borrowed the van, so I wanted to bail out and say I couldn't go in the busted car, but fortunately (though unfortunately for me and my desire to get out of PTCs at this moment) it's still driveable. So off I went. I left Mel and Hyrum in charge and headed over in car with the busted bumper. Daniel fell asleep on the way, woke him up and strapped him on. Got a full bottle, here we go

Walking past the seal from the great class of '94!

I saw some teachers that I took classes from 22 years ago (AP Art history teacher Woods, Health teacher Hymas) and a friend of mine from the class of' '94 was there for conferences for her kids too and we said hi (Allison Hampshire - she hadn't aged a bit, the only difference was she had shorter hair) So it went well at conferences. Mel is quiet, they both have a few grades they need to try to get up. I felt like I totally had to go to Conferences cause we skipped them in September cause we were busy with Daniel being born, and we didn't catch that Mel was struggling and that term didn't go so great for her. So, even with Corey gone, I did it, go me. Positive mindset: I can do this! I went to Churchill after but the empty parking lot clued me in that there weren't conferences going on tonight. Doh, that meant that today was gonna be busy, and it was. I couldn't do conferences tomorrow cause I'm going to be in San Diego with Corey. Blah this is a lot to manage... my brain is kinda used to managing it but not doing all of it. Here we go

I already had conferences with Abi and Lily scheduled for tonight, so first this evening was heading over to the elementary for them at 4:45 and 5. Then to the book fair cause I promised them we'd do it today since I missed books and bagels yesterday morning (that whole "can't do it cause I'm flying solo" thing again...) so after the book fair we headed home to check the status of Owen and Daniel, who I'd left with Mel (Hyrum, Eth, and Joseph gone at band). Owen was ready for a change of scenery so I took him with me for the rest of the evening. Stoller in the back. First to Albion. Wesley wanted me to see like 5 of his teachers. Wasn't too bad, lines were okay, was there for like 45 minutes. Then over to Churchill to finish off the evening. Stroller out of the van, kid out of the van, hoof it up the hill from the parking lot. It was 6:40. There weren't a lot of people there. I walked around, long line for a teacher to see for Ethan, which was the first name I recognized, so I went to say hi to Mr. Arnell since there was no line. I didn't have any concerns with Hyrum in his class, but wanted to introduce myself and tell him that my kids absolutely love having him as a teacher. Mr. Arnell is the teacher I heard all the kids say really positive things about. He also comes from a family of 10 kids so we talked about that for a bit and visited. I like Mr. Arnell and am grateful there are great teachers like that. He was one of the deciding factors to Wes deciding to go to Churchill. Hyrum and Ethan and Mel were all like "You have to go to Churchill or you'll never have Arnell!" Then after that the line for Eth's teacher was down to one so I jumped over. That was also the time that I realized almost all the teachers were leaving. Oh, this ends at 7? Doh. That was a quick visit, then over to Ethan's one request: Peterson. Someone was still there talking his ear off so I waited for a few minutes then talked to him. We were the last ones in the room. Then we were done. I guess that will have to do, I did my best. Now it's time to get home and pack and get ready for tomorrow. Hope I don't lose these notes and papers in my absence before I can go over them with the kids. 

School House Rock

Yesterday was a crazy busy day. First I had a Visting Teaching meeting here 10 - 11:30, then we had to end that cause Hyrum had an Orthodontist appt at 11:45. Those are usually fairly quick but we didn't leave until 1:30 cause they accidentally broke a bracket off as they put in the new wire. And... since we had to wait longer for them to fix that, and since they weren't busy, I decided to get myself a consultation. I never had braces but do have a little area of my teeth that bugs me and a few other small things I wouldn't mind having fixed. So now I know what that would require if we ever have the money to do that (I'd like Invisalign, which is pricier, so we gotta wait a bit for that, we're still recovering from paying for the Fiesta to get fixed...) SO, after that was done we rushed home cause Abi had her School House Rock play at 2, and cause I had to take Mel to the bus at 2 for her flute lesson downtown by the U. I went home, grabbed Angela and her girls to go with Hyrum, dropped them off at the school, came back for Mel, and was just going to drop her off and then head to the performance, but she missed the bus and was now going to be late if she waited for the next bus, so I took her to the U. I decided I could go to her play today (which I did). As I came back from taking Mel, Hyrum called that the play was done, so straight to the school to pick them up, then home to shove some food in my mouth, wait for Ethan to come back from his party, take him to his lesson with Ray, home from that at 7, take Wes to a concert at Brighton, home for a bite of food, then off to pick up Wes at Brighton and pick up Mel to Special Needs Mutual and yay, I was finally home at 9 pm and felt like I'd run myself ragged. I was spent!

So this morning I was able to go do my parent duty and watch Abi's school performance of School House Rock. I usually struggle a bit in my attitude when it comes to school plays and performances, (sorry children). (But your Dad does too.... he just couldn't bring himself to sit through the whole Halloween concert at Churchill this year. Sometimes you can only watch the exact same show for 3 years in a row before ya start going insane,) But we hadn't been to School House Rock since 2013, so we were ready to do it again. Luckily the older kids were already out of school for spring break, so it was nice that I didn't have to bring all my toddlers with me. I took Daniel, Corey came and joined us and saw Abi's debut singing "Three is a Magic Number" and then he had to leave. But I got a video of the other songs she was in (on top of the box for Conjunction Junction here holding a gree train car with the word AND on it)

Abi did a good job. I'd upload the videos but I can't get on youtube anymore. Another thing Corey messed up in his tampering with the router. I'll request he try to fix that so I can upload and embed videos again. I'm also hoping Corey has some better pictures on his phone that I can post - will update later!

The Pleasing Judgement Bar

Yes, I'm taking a picture while I'm driving... "Don't get another ticket, Tiff!"

Yesterday on my way to pay my ticket, I was please that only felt like pulling my hair out and screaming once as I couldn't figure out which direction I was going and couldn't get on the main road. Then I decided to relax and say a calm prayer instead of scream, and shortly thereafter I was on my way. Phew!

The drive to Curacavi wasn't bad at all - got to their little town okay, turned in to what seemed like their city hall - saw a sign that said "Municipalidad" so hoped I was in the right place... I asked the guy at information for where to go, he showed me the cashier where I could pay the fine, I said I'd like to appeal though, so then he started rambling instructions to me and I was just stared at him blankly, he explained again, still didn't have a clue as to where he was telling me to go, and then an angel of a man said he was going that way and I could follow him. Thank you kind sir! He saved me and also stopped my emotions from causing me to cry as I stared at the information guy. I could feel the tears about to surface.


So I followed his public works truck over to the judge's office - went in, and stood in line for a few minutes, gave the lady at the window my ticket, she found their copy of my citation, put them together, then said to wait till they call my name. Waited for about 20 minutes, then was called into a room with 3 other guys there to face the judge. I went in, the Judge looked like a good guy, I was saying a prayer for him to please waive the entire fine. I told him what I was there for - didn't have my lights on, didn't know it was a rule, just got here in Chile, etc. Last night we had gone over to Angela's house, she worked at the Church office with Corey when he was here as a missionary, we enjoyed dinner and visiting and went to a park, and before we left she and Corey went to her computer and typed up an appeal letter for me. I gave that paper to the judge, he read it over, he sneezed, I said "Salud", he said thank you, then he said "Ok, wait outside and they will return you your license." "Gracias" I said and I left the room. Waited for another 15 minutes, got called to the window, signed something that I didn't know what it was, got my license back, asked "ya?" and she said "ya." so I was all done! No fine to pay!! Thank you dear Lord! So the ticket learning experience cost me a little bit of worrying over the past month, 3 hours of time yesterday, $6 in the $3 toll each way to get to Curacavi, and that was it. I was home by 11 and made breakfast for everyone - they all slept in and Corey turned on a movie for them when they woke up, so no one had eaten, and they didn't even know I was gone. :)

Now I can relax now that I'm clear with the law. Glad that's over!

Thanksgiving Point

We have a membership to Thanksgiving Point that I haven't taken advantage of since October when we took Angela to see the gardens.  It expires next month, and with the new baby soon to be here, I don't see myself using it much during the last trimester or during the first year, so I don't think we'll renew it yet.  Luckily we've got it now and so we'll be going either this weekend or next to the Tulip Festival.  Love the gardens.  The kids like the play areas and the farm, so I'm trying to take advantage of it this last month.  It's a great deal though, with our brood I only have to go two times to make the year long membership a bargain for us, sweet!  I took Hyrum and the girls there for a field trip, they had a good time.

Lily was afraid of all the dinosaur bones and was reluctant to go anywhere or do anything, so we spent most of the time in the sand pit digging for fossils and a little while at the water table / land erosion area.
Didn't get pictures of the water table place cause I was holding Sophia up to it the whole time.  Fun stuff.

Sucker Sharing Sisters

Sophia loved the suckers that Angela sent us. 

The other kids... not so much. And since they didn't want their suckers, they bequeathed them to Sophi.

Sophi was very kind and shared her sucker licks with her little sister. 

"I get a lick, you get a lick."  Then jump jump on the trampoline.

Natalie seemed like a little hummingbird, who would get her little lick of sugar then go hurry and burn it off.

...then open her mouth for more.

Lick-lick - Jump. 

Lick-lick, slobber, jump

It seemed most of the time that Natalie was just minding her own business, and then her sister would come shove the big ball of sucker in her mouth. Seemed to barely fit in, she had to open wide!

But she didn't mind.