FHE and Running; Boogers and Babies

Pipalicious gave a great lesson last night for FHE.  She pulled up a bunch of seemingly random images: tree, white pear, building,...then iron rod gave a little more of a hint to connections.  Then she pulled up a painting of what she called "The Plan of Salvation": "Lehi's Dream."  She testified that things may get hard but we can pull through if we stay connected to the Lord's plan.

She shared a few memes too:


and



(loved that one...) and



My kids have such sweet and good testimonies! I love to hear the truths they testify of.  Just last night at the dinner table, the Goob was also sharing about how when we do what is right, we can be strengthened and feel peace.  It was just shared among the random jumble of our table conversation.  Loved it.

Speaking of rambled jumble :D, we have the most fun dinnertime quizzes after dinner each night to determine who is going to pick first what dinner time help they are going to do!  Here are some usual lines and questions:
"Keep your hands below your belly button before you raise them."
"Question number 1, question number 11, question number 614, question number 3..." (in that order)
After someone has challenged Q-dawg's ruling on the answering to one or more questions: "Who is really close to doing all of dinner time clean-up??" (Always answered enthusiastically, typically by the person causing all the feistiness :D.)
"What two people in the family..." (share same name, same letter in first of name, same birth month)
Anyway, it is just a lot of fun and always orchestrated by Daddy.

Binks has a habit of coming into our bed each night (aka lying by me on the floor).  He hates blankies and loves to snuggle with a pink rice bag named "Owie."  One of his sisters lovingly sewed eyes and a cape on it.  Super cute.
Eli: snuggling next to me puts his moist fingers next to my face: boogers (making a yucky face)

Me: are there boogers on your finger? 

Eli: no, I ate the boogers. 

The Goob and Chugger-dude got up at 4:30 this morning to start a new training they came up with. The Goob is thinking about preparing for Broadway and is studying dance and music and wants to strengthen his core.  It is pretty cold outside and they both came back so happy.  It was awesome.  "Where there is life, there is truly hope." 

Chugger-dude was just over enjoying his very smiley baby sister in her bouncer.  Zuli is super cute at this stage! Okay, she has always been super cute but all the smiles are adorable.  She is beginning to try and use her fingers to grab things and the kids love to watch her.  She is finally gaining more weight now that I am using formula to supplement nursing.  I have wondered if part of why she is growing so differently from the other kids is because I am nursing differently per the advice of the lactation expert at the hospital.  Anyway, she is still nursing and I am trying the different way of nursing so maybe we will see even better results :).  She is happy and getting fatter and that is what counts!

Letter To Lek: January in Medina

Letter to Lek:
Liesl is growing so well! It makes me super happy.  And she used to fuss a lot and cry a lot if she wasn't nursing (now that makes sense...she was starving!) and now that we are supplementing breastfeeding with a bottle, she is pretty content and does all kinds of adorable faces.  The kids had a harder time bonding with her since she was always fussing or nursing before when they wanted to hold her.  Now they are starting to warm up to her more.  Well, Piper and Maia have always tried to hold and help her even when she cried...and Tova when she was here, but the other ones are doing more and more with her.  She has the most adorable smiles. Okay, she looks like all the other adorable babies that I have had, but knowing how quickly all you turkeys grew up makes me want to cherish every smile and snuggle :D.  So she is pretty mellow and smiley now that she is on a better diet.  

The evenings are great without media. I am surprised how much that can govern me as well. I was going to pull up this email to share with Dad but it was during dinner...so I haven't shared it with him yet :D.  Good things but so many other things can sneak in too, right?  There is more reading, more sitting down together, more talking...after just two days!  It has increased the quality of our already pretty great family time.  By small and simple means are great things brought to pass, right?

I wrote the long, twisty, psychadelic colored letter a long time ago but maybe it got lost in the mail :S...you would have remembered it since it was kind of crazy. Of course, maybe it just takes some time to get there?

Re-reading through your previous email reminded me of something: I arranged for Lily to meet up with Oma and Opa at the temple while we were there for baptisms and initiatories. (Since Liesl takes a bottle now, she is easier to take care of.)  Then Oma and Opa were going to take her down to the Moores' farm later today.  When we met up at the temple, one of the first things Oma said to Lily is this: "You have one big decision to make today: KFC or Arby's?"  I immediately thought of you, lol :P.  Which one would you pick? I am guessing Arbys...seeing as I don't remember them being in Hungary, right?

Drew is in the process of taking midterms and Regence tests.  He is doing very well in school. It really is true that education is a choice and not something you can force on someone. It is amazing to see all that he has learned when he applies himself in these past couple years! He is also having fun performing in the musical, "The Addams Family."  He doesn't want to do public school again next year so I am trying to get it approved for homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities.  Whew. In my spare time.  

That reminds me, we had a great lesson in Seminary on the Atonement. It is amazing the inspiration that can come when you are teaching by the Spirit!  We compared exploring the depth and breadth of application of the Atonement to spelunking in a huge cave.  The unknown caverns represent areas in our lives that the Atonement can bless that we haven't discovered yet.  And how do we do that? Pray.  Pray that the Atonement can bless that part of our lives.  We looked up the BDictionary meaning of "grace" and one of them is to help us do good things that are otherwise beyond our ability to do.  Like change homeschool laws. Like go visiting teaching.  Like reach out in Christlike nurturing and love to the many people around me. And still be a wife and mother.  (And maybe the dishes might get done? And laundry?)  I truly need something more to make all these things possible!  So I have tried to pray more actively that the Atonement, that "at-one-ment" with the Savior, can be put into effect in my life to increase my ability to do good. It doesn't hurt to try, right?

Hyrum ended up going to the farm with Lily.  And they both forgot their shoes. Funny.  The Spirit told me three times to check and make sure that they had their things. Finally, I pulled ot the side and gave a very quick surface glance to what was in the truck and didn't rummage underneath, assuming the kids had replaced the boots with what they had put on top.  Nope!  Just call me Martin Harris.

Speaking of that time period, this last time we drove up to the temple, Lily had the song "I can only Imagine" playing; you know, that one where it goes:

I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk, by your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When you face is before me
I can only imagine
I can only imagine

Surrounded by You glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine

I can only imagine when that day comes
When I find myself standing in the Son
I can only imagine when all I would do is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine
I can only imagine...

...and so on.

Well, I was imagining and then we drove past the Sacred Grove, where Jesus actually appeared.  Where Joseph Smith actually saw Him.  A huge wave of reverence and emotion swept over me as I considered that on that place of earth, the Savior did actually appear.  It was incredible.  Sometimes it is easy to take things for granted. I was grateful for the reminder of the sacredness of that location.

The little boys are adorable. Yesterday they were rolling around in blankets on top of each other and giggling wildly. I went to the library with Elijah, Maia and Piper (and Liesl) and they were so happy there!  Liesl got hungry so we had to go earlier than we wanted to, but it is so wonderful to see my children so happy. They are so cute. Piper is still her bubbly helpful self. I asked her if she ever just pasted on that feeling and was really hurting or struggling inside.  She thought about it and then said she hadn't felt dark inside for a long time. I was glad to check.

Hava is a little bundle of emotion still. I think she suffers from lack of self-esteem, a lack of feeling wanted and loved, poor dear.  She is so sweet and tries so hard...and I can be so hard and critical :S.  She is a darling and I had fun snuggling with her the other night.  The DeMilles recommend brainstorming a page for each of our children once a week.  For Hava, mine stayed blank and I realize now it is because this week I need to be responsive to what she wants to do.  It is easy for me to get distracted from what is most important, sigh.  Love that girl.

Papaya is super cute.  She still is a bundle of energy and loves, loves, loves her baby sister.  She changes her diaper many times a day so I will find little rolled up dirty diapers all around the house :D.  Yesterday when I had Liesl with me at the temple until 1:30 pm, I could tell that Maia's need to hold and snuggle with her was on overload.  Once she captured Liesl from Dad, I didn't see them both for a while as Maia took her upstairs...and probably changed her diaper!

Dad got a little sick this week and seems to be doing better.  We had a smashing great game of basketball on Monday and I will miss having Hyrum the ball-stealer and Lily the shooter there to play with later today.  Maybe Dad and I will just go work out. Drew wants to be a singer/dancer among his many other future professions, so I think he will work on a dance or parkour.  Right now he is bullying his way through Trig/Pre-calculus and Psychology at GCC. He did take time out to play "Power Grid" with Piper, Dad and I last night. It was amusing to watch he and Dad do the little power struggle over who was going to wash the pot so we could eat kettle corn.  Dad is a champion kettle-corn maker now and treats us to it many a night.  You will love it!!

We haven't heard back on Lily yet but Drew is definitely going to summer camp at Loll.  The fact that Lily hasn't heard is a good sign because Sara Housholder says they first tell the people who definitely aren't going to camp first as they winnow down the list.

I am enjoying my online discussion for Mentoring in the Classics, discovering chatting on the phone with old friends as a replacement for visits, and preparing for our four upcoming book discussions: "Escape from Warsaw," "Elantris," "Wonder" (now a movie), and "The Von Trapp Family Singers."  Not everyone is doing every book discussion, but I am! One a week starting next week.  I am done with the first and will soon move on to the next :D.  I feel like the turtle when compared with the fast readers around me, but it is working for me!

Well, better run so I am going to let you go...

Love,

Anyuci

My Good Gift

Today I am heart-broken.
I am dropping off my eldest to school. To college. I don't want to.
These feelings have been comfortably hiding behind the franticness of planning our trip here in Utah: lining things up, rescheduling when necessary, seeing so many people we love and have missed.
But the reality hits me as I sit on the side of my sister's bed here at 5 am and listen to my little girl take a shower and prepare for the first day of her new life.
Tears course down my cheeks as I realize what that means. She is facing the glorious and sometimes cruel world on her own. She is taking care of herself completely.  She is saying goodbye.
I have easily become used to her happy influence in our home, the way she optimistically approaches everything, her example of faith in all of us...even in her relationship with her sometimes prickly, Hulk-like Binks. And her mischievous pranks made me laugh!
She wanted us to stay and hang out with her today at college while she moved in. The first time she mentioned it I detected a little panic in her face. And I am so happy she did.
She will be great. She is resilient and amazing, a shining spirit that will bless those she meets. She has humor, integrity, purity and an easy joy that is contagious. Her love of and faith in God will be there with her.
I will just miss her hugs.
Thank goodness for Skype and the phone so we can keep in touch! I will look forward even more, now, to our trip to Argentina with her in the Spring to tour her mission.
I love my girl.

There is so much more I wanted to do with her but I am happy for what we did do:
-sing together
-celebrate a beautiful and rich Christmas season
- play games
- share thoughts and testimony
- do our family routines together
She served me so often with by finding laundry, putting little ones to sleep, running to the store or errands, or cleaning the kitchen.
I am so grateful to her for that.
Moreso, I am grateful for her example of loving her siblings, of loving learning, of loving the Gospel and her God. She is truly the "good gift" that her name means.
Goodbye, my Avot, my sweet Tova