Friendship

My kind of Craft Project and Chore Chart
I am NOT crafty.
That is not a confession,
like the kind you have to hide in a closet,
but a declaration of this is part of who I am.
More power to those of you who are crafty and take joy in it.
I would rather buy your stuff than attempt it myself.
Because I am a shopper.
Shopping is a talent I like to spend my time working at.
I’ts also something that I have learned how to curb.

You see, God made everyone different.
It’s o.k. that I am not crafty.
It’s o.k. that I don’t want to spend my time
trying to be like most of the other moms I know.
It’s o.k. that I would rather spend my time
reading and writing and bargain shopping.
It’s o.k. that I don’t care if my girls hair is perfection.
And that I don’t even like those horrible
crazy HUGE bows on the modern babies’ heads.
It’s o.k. that my house is simple.
That I don’t need a showroom
for my friends.
It’s o.k. It’s o.k. It’s o.k.

I recently came across a friend’s cool craft project.
It involves a T-shirt and a can of spray paint.
It’s my kind of project.
I am going to try it.
But, I will probably never post a picture of it.
Because that’s just not who I am.
I would rather blog about my
thoughts, opinions, ideas, and funny stories.

Go over and check out how to do it at Jennifer’s blog.
She’s most definitely a crafty.
In fact her mom tried to teach me how to sew once.
It was a disaster.
The only way my ugly skirt got done
was because my sister took pity on my
and finished it after she got done with hers.
We were 14 and 16,
and she was and still is a million times craftier.

And to add to that
Here is an example of the simplicity I prefer.
It’s our chore chart.

I will show you how to make your own
if you are craft challenged.
Like me.

This system made it through the whole summer,
and is still in full swing
into the first week of school.
I’m very proud.
Not of its gorgeous display,
or the effective system,
but I am proud of the fact
that I pulled out
the electrical tape,
crayons,
scissors,
paper,
contact paper,
and magnets,
and my kids made it for me.

The kids were crossing their weekly jobs out
with a dry erase marker
as they get them done.
Now, we just know when they’ve got them done.
The sooner the better.

Each of the girls were assigned a row.
Oldest to youngest.
And there is even a spot for Caroline.
Because we are putting her to work
as soon as possible.
Trust me,
the older girls
can’t wait to pawn stuff off on her.

And they each have three columns.
One for everyday jobs.
And a column of weekly jobs.
Because Excel spreadsheets,
I can reinvent.
We rotate the dailies on a weekly basis.
And they get to choose their own weeklies.
First come, first serve.
They love the grab.
And the competition.
We’ve initiated the concept
in family scripture study too.
Scripture chase:
Old Testament.
Go.
Proverbs 3:5-6
They are memorizing the
scripture songs
so they can get faster.
Watch out seminary kids.
The Gold Girls are in the house.

The last column is completely unrelated.
They are not rewarded any longer for chores.
They are expected to comply.
They don’t get allowance.
But, they do get warm fuzzies
for good behavior.
Kind of like
dad gets warm fuzzies from mama
for bringing home the bacon.

The black circles are worth 1 warm fuzzy.
The yellow are worth 2 and a treat at the store.
The red are worth 3 and a rented Redbox.
The blues are the biggest hit.
They are worth 10 and a date with mom, dad, or a friend.
The green are worth 20 or $5.
They haven’t learned to save up yet.
They like instant gratification.
In the form of candy and movies.
Lucky for dad.

The term warm fuzzy was coined
by my first grade teacher.
And you will hear me use it as a threat often.
“Go take two warm fuzzies for hitting your sister.”
But hopefully, more often than threatening,
you will hear me rewarding:
“Everyone gets three warm fuzzies
for being so helpful today.”

It’s on the fridge,
like every other important thing in my life.

And did I mention?
That it’s been working
at my house
for three months!!!

Kids doing chores = one very happy uncrafty mom.

One last sidenote:
At church the other day,
a teacher was explaining to me that
in his training he has learned
that you don’t want to divide and conquer your kids.
For example,
“Look at Bella, she is such a good cleaner.”

I am trying to figure out a way that I can
make this system
more of a Harry Potter style.
Where
everyone
gains
and
loses
together.
I am thinking that may
unify the girls
a little bit more.
Go Griffendor Gold Girls.

SteeleStrong
I stole this photo from Rachel’s blog.
I am sure she won’t mind.
This is her at the hospital, surrounded by her volleyball team.
Rachel rocks on the volleyball court.
is a cool article about her team’s love for her
from
usavolleyball.org.

For a few years, while living in Utah,
we felt adopted into an amazing family.
We lived right next to the UVU campus in Grandma’s old house.
That is Grandma Steele’s old house.
LeGrand and I talk about the good memories of that time often.
We loved the people we went to church with,
we loved being close to campus,
and we loved the Steele’s.
We loved the peacocks, the dogs, the annie over games on our roof,
the little cousins who at times just walked in our door,
the occasional loose cow, the family resourcefulness,
the winning Pinewood Derby cars,
the music coming from Frost and Marie’s,
the garden out back, the annual easter egg hunt,
the Halloween pizza,
and just about everything.
One of our favorite things to do
was sneak out into the group of lawn chairs on Sunday nights.
They always spontaneously gathered at
Grandma Lucille’s and Grandpa Q’s who lived next door.
Under the big tree.
It’s like they were wired.
And after living there for a bit,
we did not want to be left out.
We were made to feel like family.
One time LG got a piece of mail that read:
Mr. LeGrand Q. Gold.
On that day, we knew it was official,
we were IN the family.
You see, LG really doesn’t have a middle name,
and there are countless Steele’s who have the middle initial Q,
after their beloved Grandpa.
Well, lately, I’ve been keeping up with Rachel.
You see, she started her own blog.
It’s one way she stays connected to the world,
during her long stays at Primary Children’s.
She was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
As far as we can tell, she is doing great.
We pray for her full recovery.
She is such a sweetie pie.
I remember one time she made Abigail
draw a picture of Abigail and cousin Joseph getting married.
Rachel also has an amazingly positive attitude
that is contagious.
I love reading her blog.
She is fun and funny.
Well, today I stumbled upon a video made for Rachel.
It is beautiful.
I wanted to share it.
Without words,
it screams,
SteeleStrong.
There is nothing better than family.
Unless of course,
your family has close to 100 people.
Then you can handle most anything.
Even adopting a couple of more
young married students,
and their kids,
who are far away from home.
And we hope they are hearing us
all the way in Utah.
“We love you too Rachel.”
We wear UT Vol Orange all the time,
so I guess we have been supporting you all along.

No Brainer

While recently spending time at the local K-Town gem
I had an epiphany.

If God gave us some snapshots of life before we came to Earth.
Any snapshots of what our future would hold.
And He let us a choose a gender.
(I know that’s not how it really worked,
as I am pretty sure our gender was part of our creation.)

I am 100% certain that I chose girl.
I wanted to be a girl.
And if I could only have one or the other,
I wanted daughters.

It was pretty much a no-brainer.
Don’t you think?

Spiritually Minded Women

Some of my friends, doing what we do best: shepherding God’s future warriors.
At church a few weeks ago, our Bishop was addressing a room full of women. He asked if we had noticed a moral decline in the world, specifically when it comes to church attendance. He said that he had noticed that many people nowadays just go to church because it’s the thing to do, but that they don’t go as a way to worship and help them be closer to God throughout the week. Nobody said anything.

I raised my hand and said, “Bishop, I don’t disagree with you, because I think that is precisely the way the world is headed, but I think many of us women are fortunate to have a lot of friends who still do care about their God and not just on Sundays.”
I went on, “I am personally privileged to have a lot of inspiring women as friends.”
I kind of ruined his point, but I wouldn’t change my honesty. I have so many wonderful women in my life. They all inspire me to be a better daughter of God. To be a worshipper of my Savior Jesus Christ. To be a mother who loves with all she’s got. To be a wife who honors her husband. They inspire me to higher grounds.
They inspire me in real life. They inspire me in my cyber life, and they inspire me with His word. Many of them do all three. Nicole is one of those. I was so grateful for her recent flattering words. Her words were strong evidence for my argument to my Bishop. What could be better in this world then us women who rock the cradle, backing each other up? Not much. Unless that backing was with God. Because nothing can penetrate that. Nothing at all.

First Crush

I love my daughters.

I love my relationship with them.
We always have fun! But, I am able to have the most fun with Abigail. I have discovered that the older my kids get, the more ways I can mess with them.

As I blogged about previously, Abigail’s 5th grade year was spent with a lot of teasing because of her first major crush. You can see the side of the face of her beloved smartie pants’ boy Google. It’s only natural that all of her little sisters have also decided that they love this boy. They regularly say his name to get the baby to smile.

They are both so smart and funny that it’s just natural that everyone kind of puts them together. They are smart enough to not take it too serious and funny enough to mess with.
At the end of the year awards ceremony Google was an Awards Hog.
Abigail got a bunch also, but not as many as Google. She wouldn’t want to make him look bad. As they walked up a bunch of times to get their different awards, they each displayed the same quick and determined gate. They were each trying to be humble while they were so pleased with themselves.
I just love these kids.
Here is Abigail’s glance over her shoulder on the one trip that she ended up standing next to Google.
The look says something like, “Mom, you better NOT embarrass me!”
Hope she doesn’t mind me sharing the awesome photo on my blog.
Oh, and kudos and many thanks to my masterful photographer friend Keith Poveda who captured the kodak moment. If you want his number give me a holler.

What girls discuss

LG was amazing to notice that two of my friends and I were all recently wearing red shoes at a wedding reception. It’s so unlike him to notice anything like that. I felt so “hip” as my friends always look perfectly in style and modern, and I don’t usually care too much about fashion.

I was so excited to be lumped in the same coolness status by my attentive husband, even if the moment only lasted as long as it took to snap a photo. How cool is it that even if I can’t be a size two like the two of them, my feet can look just as good. My feet may have even outdone them in this one instance if I had any kind of pedicure this summer, but hey, a girl can’t have everything.

(look, that is cute Caroline’s foot in my lap)

And just to keep an accurate record, here are the things that I have been discussing with the girls, and NOT blogging about:
canning food, (if I found the time to do it, anyone can)
kids’ recreation, (throw them out on a tennis court with a racket and some balls cause it’s free)
the love a girl has for her sisters, (& how hard it is to be far away from them when crisis occurs)
using whole foods, (who knew you could feed a family solely with rice, beans, and potato pearls?)
literature, (I want to go back to school, so I can sound smarter on this subject)
how to make money on youtube, (be lucky)
sewing, (it can be a little tricky)
most husbands can’t grocery shop (but some can and do every month),
werewolves vs. vampires, (I love me a werewolf)
cooking from scratch, (it’s not fun to do all of the time)
art, (it’s awesome and even more awesome if you can create it yourself)
living within our means, (what do you do when your means is nothing?)
the crappiness of feeling crappy while pregnant, (no, I am not announcing anything)
no husband knows his wife’s social security number by heart, (what’s up with that – they can tell you what team won the SuperBowl, The World Series, and the NBA Finals every year since before they were born)
the deliciousness we call chocolate, (ooo..what do you do if you have to choose between the ice- cream kind or the cheesecake kind?)
being educated and poor in today’s economy, (another stifling and confusing concept)
couponing, (as a direct result of that last one)
microwaves in school cafeterias, (why doesn’t every school have one?)
and last but not least,
the black hole we all call facebooking. (why does it have to be so time consuming?)
I think I have almost pulled myself out, so I hope to get back to blogging something more interesting. Until then, I will be thanking God for all my friends who wear red shoes, and even you boring ones who don’t.
As I have been paying closer attention to real life (and not my cyber one) and the blessings I receive, I have noticed that a lot of what I need comes from the hands of my gal pals….Thanks to all of you for being so awesome and supportive.
Have you had any interesting discussion topics with the girls lately?

facebook

My brother Adam has been guilting me about it for over a year.

I had been a member about four years ago, but it was back in prehistoric times and wasn’t that exciting when it only included a couple of moms from church. (no offense to you moms)

So, I got a rare e-mail from a high school friend Shelly. She just had her first baby.

I wanted to comment on cute little Carlos. No, I NEEDED to comment. He is adorable and this mom HAD to tell that mom.

The next thing I know, I am SUCKED in. I mean, like I have been at my computer for two days straight. It’s a really good thing that I have a newborn to blame for my inproductivity! (Sorry honey…no dinner again…she’s just been so fussy all day)
Besides getting a sweet message from my first kiss, (If you are reading, you made my hubby cringe with your sweetness) (And LG, you know, I only have eyes for you!) I found another awesome find today.

It’s a blog by two friends from High School. I loved this post by Chelsea about the Current Top 10 kids books. You all know how I love to read. And Where The Wild Things is my favorite of all time.

And on a sidenote. It’s amazing how after almost 20 years, you can still share so much in common with classmates. Does this sentence from their “about” page not just sound like I could have written it:
“They love being a mom but have no problem admitting it’s hard.”