My Cup Runneth Over

This month, I have been trying to notice my blessings, big and small. I have lots of friends on Facebook who post every day something that makes them feel thankful. In the past, I found it a bit . . . forced—and too public for my taste. But this year, I decided to join in, knowing that focusing on the positive could only help my situation. I haven’t posted something every day because I can’t commit (ha ha), and sometimes I think of something for which I am grateful that I just don’t feel like sharing. But today, I had more on my mind than I could possibly share on Facebook.

As I sat at lunch with Phaedra and Curtis this afternoon, my heart was full. I looked from one child to the other, noticing their beautiful eyes and faces, and feeling so in love with them I could scarcely contain myself. They happily munched on mac & cheese and begged sunflower seeds and croutons off me from my salad. At that moment, I felt so full of the light of Christ. I don’t know any other way to explain it. I love those moments. I am so grateful for those moments.

Those are the moments when I don’t think about the boxes I still have to unpack, the unruly pile of shoes by our back door that are begging me to find a place to put them, the pile of dishes in the kitchen, or even the miles upon miles upon miles between us and the rest of our family. All I can think about is how blessed I am to be right there in that moment. I’m amazed by my children—how they grow and learn and love, and I am honored to be able to witness it and be a part of it. I feel the love of a hardworking husband who comes home after work and helps with dinner, pays attention to his family, and helps put kids to bed. He is concerned for our welfare, and he leads this family righteously.

For most of the day since that moment, I have been mindful of other blessings throughout the day and in my life in general.

I am grateful for my kids and how they remind me to stop and enjoy things like piles of leaves in the yard. I love how they beg me when we get home from school to spend some time raking leaves. I love how Curtis thinks he’s so important and helpful when he comes along and puts his rake in the center of our pile and pulls the leaves in the opposite direction. He hasn’t quite figured out how to get the leaves to go where we are trying to take them, but he really wants to work.

I’m so in love with those faces!

I’ve felt thankful on many occasions that our new ward is so welcoming and friendly. I’m so glad the sisters are so kind.

I’m glad we’ve been here for a month, and it has gone by quickly.

I’m glad we were able to find a place that has a good school for Eleanor.

I’m am so grateful that the snow from Monday has melted! Watching that snow fall down and start sticking on the ground made me the worst kind of homesick I’ve been since we got here. It’s going to take me time and lots more warm clothing before I will be able to embrace winters here. I think I’m going to have to buy lots of thermals to wear under my clothes. And warm hats!

I’m grateful for the love of my family and for the connections I’m still able to have with them and my faraway friends.

But mostly, I’m grateful for moments like the one I had at lunch when I can stop and realize the great bounty that I have.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween.

Even though we went to a community Halloween party 2 weeks ago and a church party last week (both of which gave the kids candy), Eleanor started begging early this week to go trick-or-treating. She said we NEVER let her go trick-or-treating. That was partially true. We usually just did the church trunk-or-treat and called it good. One year, we did go to a few neighbor’s houses, but mostly to stop by and show off the kids on our way to trunk-or-treat. Grant would be out of town for his doctorate class this year, so it would just be me and the kids in our neighborhood where I’ve only met a few people. I told her I’d think about it.

But on Wednesday, it started raining cats and dogs and wasn’t showing signs of stopping. There was a pause early in the day on Thursday that had me wondering, but by the afternoon, it was pouring again. I sat down with the kids to talk about our evening. I told them I was going to take them trick-or-treating, but it was just raining too hard. So as an alternative, we were going to have a movie night. They could dress up in their costumes if they wanted to, and they could help me give candy to trick-or-treaters. I would give them candy, and we could have waffles for dinner (they love when we have breakfast for dinner because I don’t like breakfast for dinner—so it’s rare).

They were happy with that as an alternative, so they ran off to put on their costumes. I couldn’t find Curtis’s costume, so I went out to the car to see if we left it there after the church party. When I was outside, I realized the rain was letting up, barely even sprinkling, and it wasn’t that cold. I thought about taking the kids, but I really didn’t trust that it would stay raining that softly. And I really didn’t want us all getting wet. Once I was back inside and all the kids had their costumes on, we had some trick-or-treaters come to the door. After they left, I looked outside and realized it wasn’t raining anymore at all. I looked at the sky and could even see some hints of the setting sun behind the clouds.

Of all the holidays to have a miracle!

I decided it was our only chance. I asked the kids if they wanted to go, even if it would just be a few houses, and we had to come back if it started to rain again. They were ecstatic! Phaedra was so hyper she could barely get her shoes on. She didn’t want to wear a jacket, and I didn’t even make her. I put Curtis in the stroller, and my little mermaid, Rapunzel, and monster and I were on our way.

We basically just went around the block. The kids had a great time. We got to meet a few of our neighbors. People thought Curtis was adorable. He would sit in the stroller, and if he got worried they wouldn’t notice his bag, he’d start saying, “Trick or treat! Peease!” over and over. So many houses had stairs to get to the door that I just unbuckled him so he could get in and out of the stroller once we reached any stairs. A family who had just given us candy said, “Have fun,” as we were leaving. They all thought it was the cutest thing when Curtis echoed it back to them. His little voice really is adorable, and I love to hear all the words he says. I need to try to get a video of him saying “trick-or-treat” and “Happy Halloween.”

The girls were happy and cooperative. They were singing my praises the whole night through, especially Eleanor. “Thank you, Mommy, SO much for letting us go trick-or-treating!” And by the time I started talking to them about heading back home to eat dinner, they were ready to head back too. I didn’t get any arguments. It never did rain until we were headed home, and even then it barely sprinkled. The most wet we got was when the wind blew the water off the trees.

I let the kids watch some of the movie while I made dinner, and then we ate waffles and sausage patties. It cracks me up when I make a simple, easy dinner like that, and the kids say stuff like, “This is the best dinner I’ve ever tasted!” I tried not to take it as an insult to my more laborious meals at which they turn up their noses. Mostly I just sat back and enjoyed my kids being so happy all at the same time.

It was such a wonderful night. I know we made some good memories together, and that makes me so happy. Plus, all the trick-or-treaters had gone home by the time we got home, so I ended up with a bunch of twizzlers and jolly ranchers leftover that I’ve been trading the kids for all of their chocolate!!

The other good thing about the night was that it eased some of my fears to go out around the neighborhood. Having Grant leave right before Halloween in a new town made me really nervous. I had all sorts of fears playing out in my mind about things that could happen. But when I got out and saw the people who live around me, I felt much more comfortable. I even saw a police car drive by our house once. And all activity pretty much stopped as soon as it got dark. By the time we headed home a little after dark, I realized we were pretty much the only people still out. No hooligans would be staying out trouble-making in our neighborhood.

It might sound silly, but I really think we were blessed to have a good Halloween while Grant was gone. I don’t think it was coincidence that the rain stopped right at the time my kids went and got their costumes on. And I don’t think I was lucky to have kids begging me to trick-or-treat so I could feel more comfortable in my neighborhood. I think I was blessed. I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and is watching out for me, and I really believe the night we had was a wonderful answer to my prayers.

Phaedra’s Narrations

I’ve been trying to help the kids keep in touch with people by letting them write letters. Phaedra mostly writes her name, sometimes a few words (which she has me recite how to spell, letter by letter, and sometimes stopping to show her how to write some of the letters—that gets old fast), and a picture. The pictures might be more fun for me than for the recipient, because each picture is a story that she narrates from the moment her pencil starts drawing.

Last week, she sent a letter to Sam, her cousin. She told me the whole story as she made the drawing, and I hoped I would remember it to write some of it down as an explanation to send along with the letter. When I realized there she was far past the amount of information I was going to be able to remember, I took a video of her telling about it. I wish I had taken a video from the start.

This is the picture she was narrating:

And this is some of what she said about it:

Today, she was writing a letter to Aunt Kathleen. I was smart this time, and from the beginning, I started jotting down what she said as she drew. I hope Aunt Kathleen won’t mind if I share.

This is the picture she was drawing while she was talking:
And here is almost exactly what she said:

Here’s Aunt Kathleen (left). She’s just a little girl, so she’s pulling her hair.
This is me, and I’m a teensy, weensy baby.
And this is a humongo cloud. And it’s raining from it. These lines are the rain. It’s really raining really hard.
And they’re both wearing sweat shirts.
And then, a line inside the cloud and another and another . . .
And then it does a humongo flash, and the baby reaches out her tiny arm to touch it and gets hurt.
Check mark.
Then more rain (pause) fell onto Aunt Kathleen.
And I had people on my shoulders. The fire guy was saying, “Cry baby, cry baby, cry baby, cry baby . . . (etc.)”
And the angel was saying, “Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop . . . (etc.)” (We’ve been watching The Emperor’s New Groove lately, and I think Phae likes the angel/devil that appear on Kronk’s shoulders.)
Aunt Kathleen’s foot went down in a big circle and her foot got dark. Then her other foot.

I couldn’t keep up anymore after that. She just kept on babbling. I asked her if she wanted to tell me some of the story in a video, but I think she’s much more aware of the camera in this one:

In unrelated news, the highlight of Grant and my day today was that we found a store that is Safeway under a different name. And it’s the only place in town that we have found so far that had 2lb bricks of medium cheddar cheese. Everywhere else, you have to buy it in 1lb bricks, and they cost an arm and a leg. Most places we’ve seen have had 2lbs of cheese for 8-9 dollars! This place, Dominick's (Safeway), had the 2lb bricks for $5. Hallelujah, we found cheap cheese!!! It’s also the first place where we’ve found Asiago cheese (not shredded, but hey, we’ll take what we can get). Guess who’s having omelets for breakfast tomorrow morning.

We’re still stumped for English muffins, which are pretty much a breakfast staple for us. All the places we’ve looked have them in little packs of 6 muffins for almost $3, and there’s no way I’m paying that price for a pack that will be gone after one morning.

My Curtis

New Place, New Name

We’re here.

It was one VERY long road trip to get here. The kids did really well on the trip, much better than Grant and I expected them to do. I had a full arsenal of kids’ entertainment, and I gave them something new whenever it looked like they were getting cranky. Grandma was a huge help, and it didn’t hurt that she and Grandpa gave us a DVD player for the car with 2 screens and headphones.

We’ve been here for a little over a week. Grandma helped with a bunch of the unpacking before she left on Wednesday. I actually had to look at my calendar to check if that was just this past Wednesday, or if it was over a week ago. It seems so long since she left. I think watching her go out that door was harder for me than it was for the kids. Of course, they don’t really understand it the way I do. Curtis keeps spotting her around town, and I have to tell him, “No. That’s not Grandma.”

You may have noticed I changed the name of the blog. When we moved out of our first house (the seafoam green one) to live in South Salem, people told me I would have to change the name of my blog. I didn’t think it was necessary because I had named the blog “Livin’ in the Seafoam” for two different reasons:

1. Well, duh, we lived in a VERY seafoam green house.
2. I wanted the title to reflect where we were (have something to do with Oregon). And even though we didn’t live right on the coast, I felt like we were right on the shore in comparison to my Utah family and where I grew up.

So I kept the name because I felt like it still fit.

Now I don’t think it really fits.

As far as I can tell, there’s no sea foam along the edges of Lake Michigan, and we’re very far away from any coast.

So, again, I wanted something to reflect where we are, but I also didn’t want to have to go changing up the blog name every time we get a different residence. (I’m an optimist. I don’t think we’ll be here forever.)

If you haven’t caught the vibe, moving out here has been hard for me. If it hadn’t been an undeniable answer to prayer, we wouldn’t be here right now. But for some reason, the Lord saw it best to uproot this family, drag us across the country, away from friends and family, and plop us down here in the Midwest.

I’m trying to have faith.

I know that without faith and a good attitude, I will not survive this. I am outside my comfort zone on so many levels, it’s not even funny. So I have to surround myself with reminders. Reminders to be happy. Reminders that I am not alone. Reminders that I can do this. (Notice the shirts we’re wearing in the picture? They say, “I Illinois.” I made them to help us all get in the right mind frame; I even made one for Grandma.)

I want this blog to also be a reminder to me. I’m sure I’ll whine and complain sometimes, but I also want to focus on the positive as much as I can. So I called it “This is Home,” because I know there will be times that I’ll be tempted to be “homesick.” But this is my home now. I have to make it my home and treat it like my home, not just some strange place where I don’t know anyone filled with fast, angry traffic and streets I don’t know. My family is here. If I don’t thrive, how can they? My family is my home; my home is here.

It’s a whole new chapter in our lives. I’m still really nervous about it, but I feel like we can make it work. I know that even besides having my family, I am never alone. I have felt so much support from my loving Heavenly Father. He is there when I am at my weakest. And even though the friends and family I know are far away, I feel their love and support. I have loved being able to still see what’s going on with people through facebook and phone calls. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of loving service from people as we packed and prepared to move (and even from people here when we arrived!). My heart is full thinking of all the hard work that was done to help us. I don’t know how to begin to express the gratitude I feel for all who helped us out.

I’ll try to be better about blogging. Nag me if I’m not. You’d be amazed at how it motivates me to know when someone actually reads this blog and cares whether or not I post something. (Hi Studio Grandpa )

Oh, and if the blog name happens to put that Switchfoot song into your head, well, then at least we’ll have the same song in our heads.