Why I love Clara and an Ode to Kristen

Yes, I am blogging twice in one week, and not only that, but twice in two days. That's to make up for the 2 week lag...
so I am sitting in my library (okay, den with bookshelves, but could I just indulge in a little Jane Austeness?), while all four of my influenza-ridden children are napping (or if they're not, I don't want to know), and I am listening to the rain hit the house, cuddled in a down throw, and blogging. This is the picture that I took of this moment...

I am a pure Oregonian at heart. I love everything about the rain.

So... my last entry was about Clara’s birthday, but there were a few more things that I wanted to say:

Dear Clara, on 3 days after you turned 2, What I want to always remember about you:

1. How you throw both arms tight around my neck when you hug me and I can feel your soft hair on my cheek.

2. Every time we walk down the stairs by the family pictures, you say each of our names as you pass each picture.

3. Your belly laugh.

4.Your spunk and spirit. Diving out of cribs (repeatedly), sitting on my head during sacrament, making a b-line for the park every time the front door opens, to name a few...

5. Your love of books – (especially when I announce it’s naptime, amazing how literary you suddenly become…) I think God knew I needed at least 1 bookworm child.

6. Your grit and determination (what other newly turned 2-year-old will scoot a stool into the pantry then scale up to the top shelf just to get those, ahhh, salted tortilla chips…)

7. At bedtime, after you are in your pajamas and ready to go down, you watch me carefully as I put away your clothes, straighten your crib… and bam! You are out the door, closing it behind you (to ensure that I don’t follow, of course), and at 90mph speed, you are in your brother’s bedroom, in their bed, and under their covers with suppressed squeals of laughter. I know, why can’t you just be one of the boys?

8. Your pure adoration of hats. You take them off store shelves, from lost and founds, off perfect stranger’s heads. I know, it’s my fault, if I would just stop mentioning your lack of hair…

9. How whenever you make a huge disastrous mess (which is just so rare) you always attempt to get a dishcloth and clean it up. You also scold your messes, like shaking your finger at the entire pitcher of orange juice you just spilled, “no! no!” That darn irresponsible orange juice.


1. And how you suck your thumb and hold on to my hair when you are tired, and also melt my heart. My Clara, I adore you. Please don't grow up too fast.

Love, your Mother

Other things I want to remember since the last post I made:

Chad went out of town last week, in spite of my holding on to his ankles and pleading with him to take me (of course I’m exaggerating, I only held on to his knees…). And only because Chad to me is like a drug. (Oh, aren't we are so Twilight?!:))

And I didn’t want to blog while Chad was gone and mention that he wasn’t in town, in case any creepy, up-to-no-good weirdo reads my blog. Actually, now that we’re on the subject, if you’re a creepy, up-to-no-good weirdo, would you please not read my blog?

Anyway, some of the highlights of life as a single mom:

1.Putting all the children in a bathtub together (they did have swimsuits on) so that I could contain them for Family Home Evening (which, by the way, worked rather nicely until Jake chose “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam” for the song…)

2. Nicholas dumping an entire bag of cheerios and craisins on the church pew on Sunday to create a “volcano” (which “erupted” all over the floor), and also Clara basically sat on top of my head for all of sacrament meeting.

3. At the grocery store when I bent over to get something on a bottom shelf and Clara crawled out of the cart and on to my back, and complete strangers had to come to my rescue. By the time I was at the check-out, the manager of Winco actually asked me if I was okay. I’m not kidding, she told me I was looking pale and asked me if I wanted to sit down and if I needed some juice or something. “No!” I responded in my finest hour, “ I just need a cage! For her!” pointing accusingly at Clara as she was again attempting to stand up in the cart seat.

So the only upside to Chad’s absence? Quiet evenings spent with my new labeler.

I am currently attempting to label the entire house. I just used 26 feet of labeling tape on the schoolroom alone. I know I have a problem, but I just don’t know how to quit. Notice in the first picture how there is even a label for the labeler.

Also this week...

going on a trip to Tahiti, buying a used car, putting a small downpayment on a house, purchasing a dining room set from Pottery Barn, having my entire yard relandscaped, a pool put in – are just a few of the things that I could have spent my money on this week, but instead, it all went…

To the Dentist.

Thanks Dr. K! It was fun spending time with you! I didn’t even mind that time that you drilled into cavity #3 and it really needed a Root Canal and a crown and so we had to start all over again! (Thank heaven for nitrus oxide, huh?) Send me a postcard from Tahiti!

Chad and I collectively have 8 brothers – and not even one dentist out of the lot of them. But we do have a rocket scientist in the family, so I guess that’s pretty cool. If I ever need a rocket.

Also, thank you to my mother and mother-in-law who babysat during four days of consecutive dentist appointments. :) Truly helpful.

So I mentioned that the kids have Influenza–

and you will soon find out why this section of my post is called…

Ode to Kristen…

Because not only do my kids have the flu, but as soon as Chad got home from out of town, he resumed rehearsals every night and all day Saturday for “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. On Saturday night I realized that I was still wearing the same clothes I had originally put on Thursday. Also, my clothes dryer broke. I explained to Chad that although the economy is plummeting at an unsurpassed rate, taking me out on a date would save him countless amounts of money in the long run as compared to having to commit me to the looney bin. And, avocado egg rolls from the Cheesecake Factory did truly help.

Mostly…

On Sunday I was thrilled to go to church all by myself, since the rest of the family was home sick. Just a little time to myself, I thought. That is, until the topic was announced - FOOD STORAGE. Now, of course, I have my food storage completely taken care of. I have an entire year of food and water…for 2 adults and 2 children.

So I was once again reminded that if there was to be a major world catastrophe, I will have to be choosing which two children I like the best. Or the obvious, be the martyr, and starve myself, but then who would make sure they actually ate the food? And of course Chad can’t starve because we all know how I fare as a single mom, and I also know that I should have spent money on more food storage instead of going on a romantic retreat to Kuaui in August, (but, I mean, it was Kuaui) and so… you see the kind of anxiety this subject brings me?
And then I got to spend 2 hours in the church nursery. Relaxation at it’s finest.

But, my dear, dear, dear, dear friend Kristen mentioned banana bread at church on Sunday and apparently noticed my salivating. So at 8pm on Sunday she showed up with a loaf of banana bread, some adult female conversation, and left soon after with a load of my laundry to dry, and the material for my St. Patricks Day pillowcases which I had great intentions to sew up for the reading corner, but – well, do I need to remind you of my week or have I whined enough?

She then returned this morning, with my dryed clothes in hand, and adorably sewed up St. Patricks Day pillowcases! She also told me to put another load in the wash because after she had ran to Target she was coming back for another load to dry(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) And also she showed up again with my dryed laundry tonight, and took another load, and also didn’t even mention how I smell.

So, you see why I wanted to write an ode to her. True friends are a gift. Especially to mother’s in the barracks of child rearing. Sometimes I forget how to be a wonderful, thoughtful friend. And I am so thankful that I have those who are around me, who remind me what a difference it makes...

“The great motherhood friendships are the ones in which two women can admit how difficult mothering is quietly to each other, over cups of tea at a table sticky with spilled apple juice and littered with markers without tops.” – Anna Quindlen

Thank you, Kristen!