Not Quite Twelve on the Twelfth

12 photos on the 12th—April

The 12th of April was busy, productive and fun. I went to my last kindergarten program as a parent! Hopefully I'll have many more as a grandma and great-grandma someday. :) Rob was working from home, so we went out to lunch (Zupas, Ainsley's choice). It snowed, and I finally got our taxes filed. Book group was great—we did something different, and picked a theme, rather than a specific book. The theme was whole food, plant-based nutrition, and we had a potluck in addition to our discussion. It was a record turnout and a fabulous evening.

Twelve Photos on 3.12.12

My "theme" this month is color.

• I love the way the girl's rooms turned out—that's another post to come, but here's a sneak peek.
• I'm also so excited to see a few flowers and green leaves sprouting up and can't wait for Spring!
• I stocked up on lots of colorful fruits and veggies at Target, and will be making yummy Spring Rolls this week.
• Ainsley spent most of the morning coloring—right now she's into Bratz Girls' coloring pages (I can't stand them, but I guess it's better than watching TV all morning).
• I painted the girls' fingernails green for St. Patrick's Day.
• Rob very grudgingly agreed to let me take a photo of him wearing the new shirt I picked up at Costco—I love the color!
• Robbie had a water polo game tonight. Water polo is seriously fun to watch, even though it makes me tired just watching. :) They won.
• Finally, I found Joey reading in his room, instead of putting on his pj's. No collage of photos representing this day would be complete without piles of dirty clothes. Just keeping it real.

Twelve Photos on 2.12.12

This month I decided to go with the obvious theme for my twelve photos on the 12th. I tortured my family for individual shots, and even let Ellie take one of me.

The photo of Joey practicing was in a teasing attempt to make him smile, even though he was, as usual, not happy to be playing the piano. I ended up generalizing what I love as "music" but I also love the fact that Rob is willing to enforce practicing most days, and that my kids are developing a useful talent. Also, I listened to a fabulous talk this week that uses piano lessons as an analogy for grace. It's a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox, and if you haven't already, you should really listen to it or read it right now.

I had a friend take a photo of our gospel doctrine class. This probably belongs in the love-hate category. I love the gospel, and am learning so much as I prepare to teach from the Book of Mormon. What I HATE is being in the spotlight for even one minute.

Our dinners are pretty simple on the Sundays I teach. This week we had bagels with cream cheese and sauteed onions and peppers. Easy, but seriously delicious.

I've found a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that I love. (Thank you Pinterest). One of the secrets is that the dough is prepared in advance and frozen, so the bottoms gets nice and crispy, but the inside is moist and chewy. The bonus is that you can make one pan at a time and have fresh-baked cookies more than once. Here's the link.

I love our Valentine tradition of giving books. And I love that I had everything purchased and wrapped in advance this year!

Finally, I love Downton Abbey. It's become a total soap opera in season two, but one with great cinematography, acting and costumes. :) We got rid of our DVR a while ago, so I've been watching religiously on Sunday evenings. It's been about 15 years since I last cared about a TV show enough to watch it when it aired (back then it was Seinfeld on Thursday nights). Fun.

Inspiration for the layout here. No, I'm not that creative.

Overcoming Overwhelming.

A couple of years ago I decided to take a daily photo, and have managed to post 313 daily photo entries since then. But it just isn't fitting into my life right now, so I was excited when I saw this post about a project that seems a little more doable right now. The idea is to take (or narrow down to) twelve photos every month on the 12th, ending, of course, on 12-12-12.

I immediately loved the idea, and spent some time considering what 12 photos I wanted to take this month. Twelve things for which I'm grateful? That was nixed by Rob, who didn't want to have his photo taken. Twelve resolutions? Even I'm not that crazy. Twelve favorite things? I might do that one in a future month. For this month I decided to do a photo essay about my life right now. If you read my belated November entry, and noticed the still-missing-but-soon-to-come December report, you might (correctly) assume that I've been overwhelmed. I am working on overcoming that—here's how:

I'm a "half-empty" girl by nature, but I've learned that happiness really is a choice, and a result of positive, "half-full" thinking. So for each negative, dark thought, I try to find at least a silver lining.

Overwhelming is the cold, gray deadness of winter. Today was an exception, actually, with beautiful blue skies. Still, I don't even start feeling warm unless it's at least 72 degrees, and going outside in the inversion is pretty much the equivalent of smoking a pack, so I have a hard time wanting to go out and enjoy the much needed sunshine. Rob tells me he recently read an article stating that there is no scientific evidence for seasonal depression. Hmm, sounds like a man saying there is no such thing as PMS to me. :) My personal experience tells me that light, warmth and color all have a major impact on my sense of well-being.

Overcoming means a daily dose of Vitamin D. I do try to get outside as often as I can, but as it's dark and icy at 6:00 a.m., most of my walks get moved inside a gym on a treadmill. Again, I have only personal experience, not scientific evidence, but D3 seems to help me cope.

Overwhelming is illness, in its many forms. Today Ellie was home from school, after throwing up the night before. She's not one to tough it out, and spent a lot of time crying, sobbing and moaning. This isn't something that makes me (or Rob) very sympathetic, unfortunately, though it did break my heart when she told me that she thought she must have cancer and be dying. I reassured her about that, but couldn't do much about her sadness that she would not be receiving the perfect attendance award she'd hoped for this year.

Overcoming happens when a wonderful friend brings by 7-Up for your sick child so you don't have to leave her, and then stays to visit for an hour and lifts your spirits too. My good friend Jackie Moulton saved the day today, and although she's super modest, I talked her into sharing some of her wonderful poems at book group tonight. It was such a great evening, I came home feeling completely recharged, and so grateful for beautiful writing and amazing friends. I've struggled with multiple health challenges this year, with my back and eyes, and although it stinks, it may actually be worth it just to discover how generous and kind people are.

Overwhelming is being called to teach gospel doctrine. I'm intimidated by the idea of teaching people more experienced and well-read than I, and the sheer volume of available resources to help is more overwhelming than comforting. These are just a few of the books we have; there are enough online resources to keep me reading 40+ hours a week. (Speaking of online resources, I've started keeping my study notes on another blog: http://gospeldoctrinenotes.blogspot.com/). Yes, I shouldn't be complaining about feeling overwhelmed when I make work for myself. I figure I'm preparing anyway, so if it can help anyone else, great. Ideally I'll start posting my thoughts before the lesson, not after. :)

Overcoming is the realization that this is really the only essential reading. Reading the Book of Mormon has been one of the best tools I've discovered for coping with feelings of being overwhelmed. I am grateful to have a calling that motivates me to do this more regularly and with greater intensity.

Overwhelming is what I think when I consider the amount of cleaning and organizing that need to happen around here. I could have taken any number of photos for this—the piles of laundry waiting to be washed, folded and put away, or the messy storage room. The lockers seemed least objectionable, even though Rob had to warn Joey not to put an important assignment in his locker, so it wouldn't be lost in "the vortex of crap." It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Overcoming, for me, means doing a least a few household chores consistently. Starting the day with our bed made always makes me feel better, and Rob too, since he always makes a point of thanking me when I do it. I like clean surfaces, even if I know that a "vortex of crap" is lurking behind closed doors. One other mind trick that helps me when I'm overwhelmed with the mundane repetitiveness of it all, is to focus on the person (or people) I'm serving. Thinking of Ainsley while I fold her tiny, fancy, girly clothes always makes me smile.

Overwhelming: trying to help not just my own two boys, but a group of Webelos, and now 11 year-old boy scouts earn their rank advancements and merit badges. Anyone who read my Ode to Lois Banks will know what kind of standard I'm trying to live up to. It's a pretty big deal. Overwhelming pretty much sums it up.

Overcoming. Here's the thing though. I love this quote by Kahlil Gibran, "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart." I really want to be someone who makes a difference in other people's lives, the way I've seen Lois make a difference in Robbie's life. I don't think this is something that just happens without any effort. I hope I will make the most of this opportunity.

Overwhelming is feeling over-scheduled. My schedule is pretty relaxed compared to others. I know this, but also know myself well enough to know that I need down-time almost as much as I need clean counters. :) I want the kids to have opportunities to develop talents and discipline, so we're involved in piano, scouting, sports, ballet, sewing lessons, etc. I want to be involved in their education, and so I volunteer in their classrooms and help in the PTA. Yet I hate feeling like I don't have time to read, which restores me.

Overcoming: Although I love every opportunity to sit down and turn actual pages, when there just isn't time, I listen to audiobooks. There are many books that I actually prefer the audio version. The Harry Potter series, narrated by Jim Dale, is amazing; and The Help and Ender's Game were both better listening than reading. Today I finished a spy novel that Rob recommended, The Kill Artist, by Daniel Silva. Not very high-brow, just some suspense. Sometimes that's exactly what I need in my upward-spiral efforts. I almost never watch TV, but have just discovered the BBC's Downton Abbey, so I can add that to my guilty-pleasure escapism.

Whew. That's a long, semi-confessional post. One written mostly for my kids, since I hope it's a lesson they'll learn much earlier than I did. Anyone have any good ideas for next's month's twelve photos?