Mommy's MEAN!

Hercules and I playing a few months ago.

That's what Hercules says when I do something he doesn't like. Which usually is telling him "no" or giving him some time "out". Don't I know it should be fine allowing him to recolor the walls with crayon? LOL!

Today it's Mercury. I feel awful. I really know he's sorry. See, he and Orion were doing something in the back of the suburban while I'm driving home from Commonwealth, and he hauled off and PUNCHED his brother in the face. Screams and cries ensued, of course, causing me to take my eyes off the road. Just then a red truck decided to cut in front of me and if I hadn't glanced forwards, we would have been in an accident. Interestingly enough, this driver's kids were not in their seat belts, and more likely than not, she was probably looking at them telling them to get back in their seats (they were in them later on down the road) rather than paying attention to how close she cut in front of me.

I was upset, for more than one reason.

#1 We don't punch our brother. Ever.

#2 We sure don't punch someone who is strapped down and hasn't a prayer of getting away from flying fists.

#3 We were all put in danger because Mom was distracted. (Everyone in my family knows when Mom is driving, she's serious and you don't distract her. I won't answer my cell phone or change out cds when driving because I feel so strongly about a driver's responsiblity.)

#4 Did I mention he punched him in the FACE????? I still haven't gotten a straight answer for why Orion "deserved" that one.

So I told him (amazingly, I didn't yell - not sure how I kept my cool, but I did) when we got home he was going to get one swat and was going to have to take a nap before he could play with his brothers (trying to give the benefit of the doubt and hoping it's just tiredness and frayed nerves...). Well, I did just that. We talked it over to make sure he understood, one swat, into bed, kisses and hugs, and then nap time.

I hear him wailing. I check on him.

"Mommy, I'm really sorry," he cries.

I feel awful. I feel like a mean mommy, & I'd like to let him loose. Yet, I know if I do, the next time will be harder to discipline. So I told him, "I know you are, but I've already told you that you've got to take a nap. I can't go back on my word."

So he's now quiet. It got me thinking of Heavenly Father. Sometimes we think he's mean, or we think the consequence is too hard. I bet there are times He'd like to "save" us too, but all he can do is give us comfort through the Spirit and say, "I know you are, but now you have to go through "X". Without those consequences, we never really LEARN the lesson - we just learn to say the words. We all know those types of people, and they aren't well liked or appreciated. And besides that, we can always trust Heavenly Father to never break his word. Whether we like it or not. That's an example I try to emulate.

Guess maybe in the long run I'm not such a mean mommy after all.

Shooting Stars

image from Hamweather.com's blog

I don't know if you've been paying attention, but we had a meteor shower the past three days entering our atmosphere. Here in Idaho you could see about 30/hr. In Asia they were reporting close to 300/hr! Whoa. (As reported by the radio... so take that for what it's worth). Two nights ago Redbeard took Athena out to see them, and then this morning at 5:30am Venus, Iris, and I went with him again. We were quite a sight with hoodies on under coats, wrapped up in blankets on top of the suburbans hood... but it was quite tolerable, even though Iris kept fidgeting and was the first to climb back into the heated car. Venus counted 15, Iris 7, me 9. It was my first time ever to see a shooting star!

The coolest one we got to see was the one that was super bright and glowed green, streaming "smoke" behind it. I have since learned that is called a "persistent train". Some have been known to last over 10 min. (those incredible fireballs)!! Persistent trains are actually self-luminous, and although it's known that they are molecules being ionized by the passage of the meteor through the atmosphere, no one has been able to figure out how they can last for so long. Ours was about a 15 second lingerer - we loved it!

Last night around 12am some of my friends here in the area saw a huge fireball (I'm so jealous - I was awake in the bedroom and missed it!) - people were reporting it from ID, CA, NV (Las Vegas) and UT, and there were even reports of a sonic boom!!! :O There's a twitter video of a surveillance camera in UT that caught it on film - you can see the light the fire ball makes just before entering the top of the screen quickly, and then disappears. WAY COOL. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT Our local news reported that the director of the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake said that this particular meteor was about the size of an oven and traveled at about 80,000 mph, and confirmed it was likely visible from several Intermountain West states, and did indeed coincide with the Leonid meteor shower.

Reminds me of all the hoopla around Halley's comet back in 1985. Mom took me and my boyfriend (it was just before Redbeard entered my life) out to an observatory in the middle of nowhere to see it. That made a lasting impression on me too - esp. since we won't get another visit from it again until 2061 - talk about your fair weathered friends! Did you go see the comet or watch the sky the past three days? I've always loved simple astronomy. It's when you get into all the math that my eyes glaze over...

When we drove home with the sun beginning to appear on the horizon, Redbeard says, "We've got to come back to this spot sometime and watch the sunrise". We were behind the foothills so the lights from the cities in the valley didn't bother us. It was a great spot - so it looks we're in for another early morning sometime.

Preferably when it's warmer. :D

Athena

Athena had a friend pick her up and take her to seminary, so now all I have to do is make sure we get her by 10:30 am. This is a really nice arrangement - the boy drives right past our house to get there, and why we didn't think of it before I'll never know. But she's happy because she's good friends with him and they get along, so it's another chance to break another tie from the parents.

It's a good thing.

Monday she got excited about her schoolwork in a way I haven't seen her in a long time. She finally figured out that she would be more driven to do those subjects she wasn't crazy about if she studied a subject that she loves that would require the other subject. For instance, she hates Math, but loves Chemistry. As you know, it takes Math to be able to operate in Chemistry... so now we're off planning how to do both at the same time.

What was wonderful was she was coming up with ideas and writing them down, and I just ask questions and she'd come up with more stuff... it was the beginnings of a new phase for her. And I saw my role change with it. Now instead of being in the role of responding to an educational desire, I find myself being an encourager and a sounding board. I may interject ideas or "you need to cover this too" - but we are experiencing the first taste of self-directed scholar. It's the neatest thing! Like I said, it's just the beginnings, so we'll probably have days of flip flopping before we get really into it, but we'll get there.

Everything has it's season and each season has it's time. What's neat is that I still get to do all the crazy fun stuff I love to do with the little ones. Play dough, nature journals, etc. It's kinda weird to be in that stage I watched other moms be in 10 yrs ago with their teens and still had little ones around their feet. And saying, "We're done" when it comes to having children. Those moments seemed to be eons away... and today, it's here. How'd I get here anyway?

Life is crazy....

Tales from the Pew

Just a little note. Due to spammers I've decided to start moderating my comments again. It's kind of a pain, but I'd rather do that than have someone trying to peddle their garbage on my blog. That REALLY irritates me, esp. since it's nothing relevant to what I write about in the first place! So there spammers... you can't win with me!

Now for the Tales....

Oh. My. Gosh. Sometimes writing them just doesn't give the experience justice! This week was.... wow. I think Hercules set a new world record for how many times you can make your parents say, "SHHHH!" in a sacrament mtg! We won't even go into the shaking shoulders and stifled giggles he created all around him too. I just can't do it justice, but here's my meager attempt:

Right off the bat he had this little toy truck he took the tires off of and jabbered all the way to the sacrament prayer about these silly tires, esp. when Athena turned them inside out and he couldn't get them righted! Well, the jabbering went on all the way through the prayer in spite of my attempts to quiet him. Apollo joined in and the two of them were a force to be reckoned with. Now, they weren't being loud and disruptive, just, I don't know, jabbering. Anyway, they can't decide which piece of bread they want (of course Hercules tries to take TWO pieces and throws himself backwards into my lap when he's given ONE) and then Apollo picks up a cup of water, then decides he wants another one and tries to put it back down on the tray while Hercules is pointing VERY CLOSELY to each one saying, "No, no, no, NO, no, no..." Finally the sacrament is over on our pew and Redbeard pipes in, "This is where if I were an Irish Catholic I'd say (in his best imitation of Irish brogue), 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph...'" (No offense to any Irish Catholics out there - it just made me laugh because it reminded me of that scene in While You Were Sleeping where they're all in Mass and some of the same kind of dialogue is going on).

Now what happened was since Hercules had taken SO LONG to choose his cup, Athena rushed the tray on it's way down the pew. So Hercules is left with a sacrament cup in his hand. He chews on it a second and then realizes that he has no where to put it. "HEY! Where do I put this?" he asks us. We tell him to keep it. So then he goes somewhere weird in his mind where he makes a whoooooooing noise with it, getting closer and closer to Athena's face. Suddenly you see him connect in his brain what he's going to do next, and he surprises her by saying "SPLAT" as he smashes the cup into her nose. Then he does the same thing to me in the eye saying, "Mommy, I got a ghost in your eye."

Okaaaaay.

Finally the cup is relinquished to Apollo who then starts making an evil laugh with it just to annoy Hercules. Funny thing is, I don't know what happened to the cup after that.

And on and on it went - just crazy stuff after another. And yes, I listened to the service - it was on gratitude. I am grateful for four monkeys to give me such GREAT material. :)

My Favorite Scripture

A lady I know has a special needs child that wants to collect people's favorite scriptures (and WHY the scripture is a favorite) to send to his sister who is on a mission. I wrote him about mine, and thought I might share it with all of you. :) If you want to send me YOUR favorite scripture, and why, I can send it on to her - they're having a tough time collecting these for some reason, and I know it would mean a lot to her son. Honestly, I don't think it matters what religion you are - if you have a biblical passage that speaks to you, I think that would be perfectly fine. ;)

Here is mine - it IS LDS in content:

Dear J,

It is so hard to choose a favorite scripture. So many times I have gone to the scriptures with despair, only to have them bring me hope, enlightenment, and guidance that I needed at that time. Each one holds a special place in my memory and heart, to choose ONE is almost impossible. I will probably respond to this, and then find myself wishing I had chosen another!

Still, since I must choose only ONE, I choose D&C 88:119-120:

119 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house,
even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning,
a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

120 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings
may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name
of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.

I chose this one because of the continuous influence it continues to have on my life. Whenever things are not going so well, or I feel a little less "saintly", I find my mind mulling over this scripture, always finding at least one "house" I might have been neglecting. A little care and nourishment for that "house" always makes it better.

Another reason why I love this scripture is because when I think of "A House of God", not only do I think of the temple that we need a recommend to visit, nor do I only think of my home that as a mother I am instructed to make like a temple, but I am also reminded that wherever I go, there also is a temple of God. My body is a temple - it houses my spirit. And if I remember this, it is hard to think, "I am fat," or "I am too short"... my body is a beautiful creation - I should hold it in high regard. Not only this, but as I do not defile it but strive hard to keep covenants and commandments wherever I go, there also is Christ in my countenance, or as verse 120 puts it, my incomings and outgoings and salutations are in the name of the Lord, for it is He that I represent at ALL TIMES. Keeping these two verses in mind helps remind me of who I am, and what force for good I can be.

I wish you well with your project - I hope it is all that you want and more.

With love,

Sister Texasblu

Have a wonderful Friday evening.... I'm off to watch a movie with my darling man who is sick tonight. Tomorrow I will share about his Grandma that was laid to rest today.