A simple solution

Being a mother is tough sometimes.  I love my kids, but getting them to pick up after themselves isn't always easy.  In fact, sometimes it just seems nearly impossible - all the sweet gentle reminders, the nagging, and then the punishments.  Sometimes nothing seems to work, it's exhausting really.

I was tired of finding wet towels crumpled up on the floor of my kids bedrooms.  I constantly reminded them, but it never seemed to help, it just kept happening.  Then one day I got smart.  I realized that I was enabling them by keeping a stash of freshly washed and neatly stacked towels under the bathroom sink.  They could grab a fresh towel each time they showered, leave it crumpled on their floor, endure a small lecture and then grab a new fresh towel the next day.

I sat my kids down.  I showed them four towels and explained that these were the only towels they would find in their bathroom.  (The rest are tucked away in the linen closet for guests.)  They each picked their own and I used a sharpie to put their initial on the small tag.

They each chose a spot to hang their towel in the bathroom and then we came up with some rules.
Number one rule is that they can only use their own towel.  If their towel was crumpled up on their bedroom floor, they could not grab someone else's towel.  Instead, they would have to dry off with a hand towel which there are plenty of in the cabinet.  Number two rule is that if they chose to shower in a different bathroom, they would first have to grab their towel. If they forgot, they would have to use a hand towel to dry off.  The girls chose to share a towel rack to hang their towels and I advised them to keep a hand towel hung over their towels so people would not dry their hands on their towels.

Then, I showed them 4 cups with 5 one dollar bills in each cup.  The cups said "Pick it up or lose it".  These would go on their dressers and if I happened to find one of their towels anywhere but hung up in their spots, I could take a dollar from their cup and they would have to go hang up their towel - no excuses!  We started this a month ago and I told them that by Valentine's Day, whatever money was left in their cups they got to keep.

The towels may not be hung straight, but this mom is NOT complaining.  

The girls towels, always with a hand towel over them.

The boys towels.  We had to put a hook lower on the door for Austin.  It's silly, but I gave them a tutorial on how to roll the top of the towel before hanging it on the hook so it wouldn't slide off.  They totally do it!

I can't believe how well this little plan has worked out.  It's been a month and not one child has lost a dollar from their cup.  They all hang their towels with pride and I'm wishing I would have thought of this simple solution years ago.  

Christmas Morning... there's just nothing else quite like it!

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  I love the build up to Christmas morning, I love giving gifts and watching the expressions on my children's faces,  I love the excitement that is in the air, and I love the simple gifts my kids surprise me with, usually something they have made at school or home.  I appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into gift giving.

This Christmas was just as wonderful as every other Christmas we've had.  We came downstairs and immediately dug into our Christmas stockings and discovered what Santa had left.

After a delicious breakfast, we began opening gifts.  Hunter got the shoes he REALLY wanted!

Linsey was especially thrilled with this sweater.  She went and put it on right away.

A new nightstand for Emma.

Austin got his own set of tools complete with a hard hat, safety goggles, and work gloves.

He spent the rest of Christmas morning opening his presents with the back side of his hammer.

They all looked something like this.

Emma got a sing stand which is a lot like a Karaoke machine.  It's a microphone on a stand that she can plug her iPod into and play music, then sing along.  She spent the rest of Christmas morning as the MC announcing who was opening what, excitedly telling us what they got and then she brought her microphone over so everyone could say thank you.

Even though the tags on the gifts say "from Mom and Dad", my kids know that the best gifts (the electronics) are 100% from Dad.

And this last picture is my favorite.

There's just nothing quite like Christmas.

December

I haven't posted for awhile.  Christmas has come and gone, and we've survived the month leading up to is as well as the aftermath.  I'm happy to say that everyone got what they wanted (and more.. thanks to Dad), and we did our share of serving and giving to others.  I love this time of year, I love traditions, I love spreading kindness and teaching my children what Christmas is really all about.  I'll post more pictures from our Christmas later.  

These pictures were taken on Christmas Eve day at Flaming Geyser Park.

 And here was part of our Christmas Eve.  The Nativity.

Christmas Dinner with Jared's parents.

 A bunch of McInellys!

And here was our one and only snow day!

This is all it takes for a 2 hour delay from school here in Washington... We'll take it!

This is happening...

Today is a hard day for me.  A really hard day.

In 2008, just before the holidays we found out that my mom has Parkinson’s disease.  That was hard to learn because we had known something was very wrong, but we were hoping to find a way to fix things and you see there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease. 

There have been many ups and down these past 5 years.  My mom is the ultimate optimist and rarely complains.  Parkinson’s affects neurons in the brain.  As Parkinson’s disease progresses, the amount of dopamine produced in the brain decreases, leaving a person unable to control movement normally.  We know there are certain activities that my mom can’t do and we try to plan things that don’t involve much walking, traveling is really hard on her but she is still the same fun-loving, kind and thoughtful person that she has always been.  I know it’s hard for her.  She takes pain medicine every few hours and needs help with most everything.  My Dad is a champ.

I wish I lived closer to her.  When we are around her she always seems to rally as best she can. She doesn’t like to miss out on whatever is going on.  She’s usually the last one to bed, up laughing or watching movies, or talking with whoever is still up.  She’s fun like that.  We’ve all adapted over the years, trying to make things easier for her.  When we come for visits, dad helps with the cleaning, we plan simple meals or often come prepared to help with the cooking – but it’s still hard on my mom.  She never complains though.  She loves her family so much, we all know it.

I know a bit about Parkinson’s Disease.  I know what’s down the road but I don’t like to think about it.  I try not to.  It’s hard.  Every once in a while I have a moment where I am reminded and that is always hard.  There were times when I realized she couldn’t pick up my baby, or walking up and down my stairs in the other house was just too difficult for her, or hearing a friend talk about spending the day at a craft show with her mom and thinking about all the times I have done that with my mom – but now, well – it’s different.

This weekend I had plans.  They have changed now.  That’s why today is so hard.  Not necessarily because my weekend plans have changed, but because I’ve had a heavy dose of reality and it’s almost more of a punch to the gut than the initial diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. 

You see, my mom needs help with a lot of things now and that is hard for her.  I love her and would do anything for her.  We had planned that I would leave this morning and come to take her to the temple.  I cleared my weekend and planned to leave right after my kids were off for school so we could do a session before it got busy.  Because I needed to be there before the weekend, I was coming alone.  Usually when I go to visit my parents, it’s with the entire family.  Occasionally I’ll take a trip out there with just the kids, but never is it just me.  It’s always busy getting out the door, but I had thought about how I could stay in bed Saturday morning as long as I wanted, maybe I’d take my parents to lunch or help my mom start her Christmas list.  We could watch movies or just visit, maybe I’d help her with some of her cleaning or whatever else she needed help with.  I wouldn’t have any of my kids to distract me from giving all of my time and energy to her.  It was going to be really nice.

My dad called early this morning.  He caught me just as I was heading out the door for my morning run.  He was glad he caught me and said mom had had a really difficult night.  She hadn’t slept all night and had a horrible headache.  He said she probably just over-did it yesterday trying to get ready for me to come - a little cleaning, some grocery shopping and a few things for us to do together he explained. 

“Please don’t come,” was his simple plea. 

“She needs to rest,” he said.  He sounded tired.

I’m having one of those moments.  I try to be strong and stay positive, but sometimes reality hits and it hits hard.  Her disease is progressing.  I just wanted to come and be with her, just wanted to help her.  Now I feel so incredibly helpless and my heart feels so heavy it is painful.  My dad said it was a really difficult night and I believe him.  My mom always rallies.  This time she just can’t.  That’s what is so hard.

This is real.  This is happening. 

Happy Halloween

Halloween is just so fun!  

Austin wore his Incredible Hulk costume all month long.  He actually scared people too, even his dad nearly lost it when he walked out of the bathroom to find Austin quietly waiting for him on Halloween morning.  Yikes!

 Emma was a witch.

These two are like peas in a pod.  Natalie was the most adorable zebra.

 They met up with their friend Eliza who had an extra creative Junie B. Jones costume.  I loved it!

 Linsey and her friends.  She was a creepy doll.

Hunter invited a few friends from his new school to come over and trick or treat with him.  First his buddy Wyatt showed up and they had plans to meet up with another friend named Max, then some cute girls came and knocked on the door.  Hunter has become very social, but has been anti-girls for as long as I can remember so this took me a little by surprise.  Should I be worried?  They were darling and one lives just around the corner. 

They left before I could get a picture, but at the end of the evening I was able to snap a quick shot of these three.

We have some super cool neighbors down the street who REALLY get into decorating for Halloween every year.  They had this ET themed set-up complete with a bicycle in the sky and a childlike figure that actually pedaled the bike.  It was quite amazing, plus they gave out full-sized candy bars.  Hunter got two because he danced.  

Austin and I had fun planning a Halloween party with some of his little friends.  We invited them over earlier in the day to play games, make a few crafts, and decorate cookies.  It was so much fun!

 And last, but not least...  Austin's preschool class had their own costume party!

And that's why we love Halloween!

...plus there's the candy (SOOO much candy)

18 with 22 years of experience!

Turning 40 really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me.  Probably because I'm not the one turning 40... not even close (sorry Jared).  He isn't thrilled with the whole "over the hill" thing, but I'm handling it much better than I did when he turned 30.  That felt so grown up when I was only 26.  I felt like Jared turning 30 meant he had to suddenly worry about his cholesterol and high blood pressure, I even convinced him to go and get a physical just to make sure he was healthy.  A few years later when I turned 30... I realized it was no big deal.  30 felt just the same as 29.  It's just a number, but being that this year was the big 4-0 that number means that we had an even bigger excuse to celebrate!

I invited some of our friends over for a 40th birthday bash Friday night.  We ate yummy food and played some fun games.  We told stories and laughed til our cheeks hurt.

We played a whole variety of "minute to win it" games; this one was probably my favorite to watch.  Jared and Jon had to pick up all of these bags using only their mouth.  Here they are stretching.

Ready, set, GO!

I love how DJ is laughing so hard.  It was pretty hilarious.

Here are a few of the other games ...

cereal box puzzle

knock over cups with air from a blown up balloon

empty a box of tissues with only one hand, one tissue at a time

stack 7 cakes on your head

We were quite loud cheering and laughing.  You can see my kids peeking down from the stairs behind Barb. They never came all the way down.  First we saw Austin's little face, and then a mirror, pretty soon there they all were.  

moving a cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands

balance 6 dice on a spoon held in your mouth

unravel two spools of crepe paper with your arms

empty two boxes of tic tacs with your teeth

Proof that he cheated.
In his defense, both of us hit a point where they got jammed.

We had a great time laughing and finished off the night by sharing stories about Jared.  Everyone shared a favorite memory or first impression of Jared.  There were lots of fun stories and also several references to Mr. Incredible.  That will never get old.  

Sunday night we invited Jared's family over for dinner.

They are always so much fun to visit with.

Because we had had so much fun with the games on Friday, we decided to try some of them with our family.  It was still a lot of fun, but very different.

The adults didn't do this every time we had a mess with tissues or toilet paper.

Look at the pure joy on these kids faces.  I Love it!

The adults certainly didn't go after the spilled tic tacs.

Since Jared did such a great job on this game at his party, we had him do it again with his brother Mat.  It was just as funny.  Mat went after that bag with all he had, even fell and then resorted to using his dad's cane.

Jared is a wonderful husband, my best friend, and the greatest dad our children could possibly have.    We are all so lucky to have him in our lives.

Happy Birthday Jared!

We love you!