Old News: Diggy's Baptism

Kirsti turns 8 in one month. We're excited for her baptism on July 7. Along with many local relatives, Nana and Papa and Cousin Katy (age5) are coming all the way from AZ to share in the occasion with us. We're all thrilled. (If anyone else wants to come...you're welcome, too. We'll even feed you treats afterwards.)

Kenny was baptized when he turned 8 over 3 years ago. It was a wonderful day.

And for the record...Douglas H. Smith, one of the most genuine, thoughtful souls I know, also chose to follow in Jesus' footsteps. He was baptized by his father just after his 8th birthday...nearly two years ago...and I never wrote about it. And while I'll never aspire to even all scores throughout my children's lives (I think we would all go crazy!), I will take the time to even this one.

It's a treat to reflect on such a great day...and highlight such a great kid, especially during his birthday month.

Diggy is dedicated. In conjunction with his baptism, Diggy decided to read The Book of Mormon...by himself. That was a big goal for a young boy who struggled through reading during his early elementary years (creativity and climbing are his favorite subjects...see below). But for the past two years, he's read every day. He's almost done. He sets his alarm to wake up at 5:45 for early morning scripture study alongside Kenny and Brent. (I know that sounds too good to be true...but it IS true...so I'm going to brag about it...I have 2 pre-teen boys who choose to wake up super early and start their day in the scriptures!! And the boys started this habit on their own long before we recognized it as a great bonding opportunity with them...so Brent was elected to join them...every day...at 5:45 a.m. (Have I ever bragged about what a great husband I have?! I probably should sometime. ;))

Picture taken at Diggy's baptism. It's hard to believe we didn't have MaryAnn. 

We didn't even know back then how much loveliness she'd bring down from Heaven with her.

To highlight Diggy's genuine thoughtfulness (of which I truly admire)...

About the same time Diggy thought about being baptized, he also thought seriously about becoming vegetarian...to do his part in respecting and preserving life. He used to love hamburgers and chicken...but hasn't had meat in two years.

When an ant or spider finds its way into our domain, the girls scream and Diggy comes running to rescue everyone. He scoops the innocent perpetrator into a paper cup and gently releases it into the wild. (Sometimes I feel guilty for squishing the ones I find.)

One time, I told Diggy to run out front and scare the squirrel away from digging in our garbage (we don't have the big green cans in our neck of the woods). A few minutes later, he came inside with a grin on his face. He said he'd approached the squirrel carefully. When he was close enough, he gently said, "Squirrel, can you please stop eating our garbage?" The squirrel cocked its head towards Diggy, gazed into his eyes for a moment, and then calmly scampered off (without even the slightest rise in its stress hormone level).

Turning 8 marked the beginning of Cub Scouts, too. Diggy loves Cub Scouts...except for fishing. Imagine his horror when asked to bait a live worm onto a hook. He's obedient. So he did it. But he promptly came home, sat in the rocking chair to think for a long time, dug for his wallet, and scheduled a time with Dad to buy some fake worms with his own money. (Sometimes I call him Mr. Preparedness...because he's always planning ahead, preparing to handle sticky situations with confident finesse.) The Cub Scouts have fished several times since. Diggy brings his fake worms. He's never caught a fish. And he's very glad about that.

One time while fishing, a minnow floated on its side at the top of the water. It looked sick...or even dead. And then suddenly it flipped over and swam away. Brent jokingly concluded that Diggy must have prayed for it. "I did," Diggy smiled.

Diggy is a peacemaker. He's full of faith. He likes to run. Nothing he creates is "in-the-box". He climbs everywhere. He has an awesome collection of toy animals. He takes excellent care of his hand-made giraffe, Gerry. He plans his birthday schedule and recommended presents months in advance (coming soon...can't' wait!). He thinks of everything...and everyone. And he's a Mormon. ;)

hand-made Gerry and his hand-made Christmas tree...Dec. 2010

Diggy at age 8...taken Summer 2010

It is an honor to be your mother, Diggy.

Time sure flies. 

Weeds

If we paid someone to spray our weeds…

What else would we do for quality family bonding at 7 am on a Saturday morning?

Weeds give our kids a chance to be kids…giving their parents looks like these (notice the difference between a 2-yr-old and 10-yr-old) and asking repeatedly, “How much LONGER do we have to do this?!”

Which then gives us a chance to be, well, parents…coming up with creative “Attack the Weeds” games and trying to work in deep life-changing conversations.

And when are our very observant older children noticed Harry’s lawn across the street and asked, “How does Harry (whose children are grown) get really green grass with NO weeds (something we envy as well)?”

We explained the economics of it all, which because we have very intelligent children, was followed by the question, “Why don’t WE do that??!!”

So, we shared a story with them and told them that we love them oh so much! (Click HERE for the story and look 1/2 way down this article – the part about cows.)

Keep growin’, Weeds. Bring it on!

WHOSE Kids are Those?!

So my kids came bursting into my bedroom this morning at 7:30 a.m. where I was re-resting (since I'd been up much earlier) with Cienna, who had had an unusually restless and rough night (I think because we'd gone to the zoo yesterday and she was having nightmares and leftover anxiety about being so close to a real bear, etc.), and they happily shared with me their encounter with their favorite teacher as she was driving by our house this morning.

Kids: “We saw Mrs. Opitz when she was driving to school this morning!”

Me (yawning): “Oh, that’s nice.”

Kids: “She stopped and said hi to us.”

Me (raising my eyebrows a bit): “Oh, she’s so nice…were you guys outside?”

Kids (with great excitement): “Yes. We were down the street (a couple of houses away) waving to Dad at the corner as he went to work.”

Me: Speechless…because it was then that I put everything together (keeping in mind that I’m well-aware of and wanting to improve the “home-school family” stigma): Kids running down the street at 7:30 a.m (with no shoes, I'm sure, but I didn't ask)….favorite teacher of whom I have great respect…and yes, 2 out of 4 kids still in PJs, including young Allison wearing her bright pink nightgown (apparently hearing the commotion at the front door from her bed and not wanting to miss the spontaneously dramatic send-off for Dad, thus jumping up from her pillow and heading straight outside, bed-head and all).

I suddenly had that sinking feeling that most parents hope to avoid, but that we all know is inevitable and quite humbling and increases in frequency throughout the teenage years (I’ve heard). I know my children’s sincere intentions and try to be quite forgiving of their natural, impulsive decision-making (and of course I promptly and gently reminded them about getting dressed before playing outside…unless there's an emergency...like a good-bye to Dad), but I never feel good about contributing to the discomfort of the average person passing by who may make a quick judgment and spend the rest of the day feeling critical and a bit hardened.

But then I remembered: Mrs. Opitz isn’t an average passer-by.

She’s a favorite teacher not only because she’s good at teaching music, but because she understands the hearts of children and appreciates them for their innocence and zest for life. She looks past weaknesses and awkwardness and just makes people feel safe and loved for who they are. (Diggy made a card for her once and said, “I hope she likes it…(deep-in-thought pause)…I know she’ll like it because nice people like everything.”) She connects with kids (and adults) in a way that inspires them to be better people. She’s the type of teacher that kids remember for years to come…

And for me, she is also a dear friend. When I exchanged thoughts with her later today, she said she sincerely enjoyed witnessing the tender good-bye…and the PJs had made it all the more precious.

I think the world would be a different and happier place if there were more people who noticed and cherished life the way Mrs. Opitz does. We would all breath more sighs of relief (I sure did today!)…and at the same time feel more determined to walk a little taller.

Sorry, no pictures this time…thankfully.

Easter Excitement

So much to catch up on and so much to share...
and so little time (and energy) to devote to the blogging world.

But here's my favorite (and only) family picture on Easter:

As we rushed to find car keys right before church, they were finally discovered in the ignition--the windows had been safely rolled up the night before...(which has great meaning because the van's interior was still recovering from an unpleasant stench left by an all-night rainstorm pounding through the open sunroof a week earlier)...and the battery was fully dead in the morning.


But with a husband who handles stress with a sense of adventure, all five kids piled out of the van in their Easter garb and learned how to jump-start a car.


The excitement in the air reminded me that Easter is a good time to take a family photo.

Colonel Krusteaz

I wish I could remember who gave us these two bowls as wedding gifts so many years ago…I would like to thank them both.

They are both nice bowls intended for use in making pancakes or waffles. One even contains the name brand of pancakes the manufacturer suggests we buy…how convenient.

But we didn’t need two pancake bowls…so one bowl sat unused for the first several years of our marriage. I’m glad we were poor college students back then and not yet in the mode of getting rid of things we didn’t use. We saved the unused bowl, having faith that we’d find a good use for it…someday.

And once we had children, it didn’t take very many vomiting episodes (especially the night-time ones) to realize that we needed the perfect bowl…a big bowl because throw-up tends to spray all over…but a short bowl that can fit under our bed for quick and easy access in the middle of the night…plus a plastic, non-breakable, lightweight bowl for ease in transportation…and one with a pouring spout, so transfer to the toilet is smooth and effortless.

Which bowl would you use??

For us, Colonel Krusteaz (doesn’t the name sound fitting?) has served our family’s vomiting needs for 9 years and has thus been nick-named The Throw-up Bowl. (Occasionally, we have to bring in a back-up bowl (but NOT the other pancake bowl, because once throw-up has been in it, we simply can’t use it for anything else) to help out when multiple children have the stomach flu at the same time…but surprisingly, The Throw-up Bowl handles most jobs alone. It does have to work long hours, because for example, we’ve had the stomach flu pass through twice in the last 2 months…that’s about 250 hours of on-call time (the boys and I narrowly escaped this most recent episode).)

While our children may not have fond memories of this beloved bowl, Brent and I will always treasure it as a fellow front-line trooper in the defense against virus and bacteria invaders. Colonel Krusteaz has aided us in winning many battles (and when he’s MIA, it’s NOT a pretty sight!). 

Brad Pitt once told Oprah about how parenting has changed him…(and I’m paraphrasing): I’m now a man of steel. I used to cringe whenever I saw or smelled pee-pee or poo-poo or snot or throw-up. But after having (and taking care-of) children, I can handle anything!

I agree with this statement. Nurturing my children (with natural bodily functions and all) has made me stronger, too. 

Kudos to all the parents out there who are also busy fighting battles day and night. The sacrifice is never in vain.

I’ll Never Need to go Skydiving

Brent went skydiving after turning the responsible adult age of 18, and his grandmother went skydiving when she turned 75…and I must say my preference in staying close to, if not on, the ground is a disappointment to the Smith gene pool.

BUT…I do feel comfortable with my contribution to the family tree, and I’m relieved that I’ll never have to go skydiving to maintain my confidence level. Instead of jumping from a plane, I bravely took 5 children (an infant who gets hungry frequently and often needs head-to-toe diaper changes, a toddler who is prone to random wandering and typical tantrums, and 3 older ones who did an excellent job of trying to be mature (that was their end of the deal) but are still likely to bicker about who’s first and tattle about who’s touching who at least a few times…) to the Chicago Field Museum ALL BY MYSELF!

I psyched myself up for the event when the kids showed a renewed obsession with dinosaurs last week, AND the Museum offers Target-FREE second Mondays for all exhibits (this excursion took place last Mon.). With a small window of opportunity, I had to think fast and ignore any rational thinking. So, the kids and I packed lunches and forged ahead. I did have second thoughts as the plane ascended, I mean as I fought unfamiliar downtown Chicago traffic with a van full of kids for over an hour (Brent says I would've gotten there quicker if I would've used all the lanes on I-90, but I stuck with the right one).

The jump was successful…the sights were breathtaking and the oohhs and aahhs were priceless, and though our feet were sore when we landed, we had a fabulous time! We did have to opt out of heading next door to the Shedd Aquarium to take advantage of their free Monday event, which would’ve maximized our parking/gas cost. But we were happy to go home. (Thankfully, memories of my dad dragging my brothers and I down “one more street” on Halloween to maximize the night of free candy was still fresh enough in my mind to help me make a wise decision with my own children).

The patience required by all parties involved (including museum employees and other museum guests) for such an endeavor is monumental, but the memories were well-worth the physical and mental exhaustion. And of course...once you've experienced being on top of the world, you can always say you've done it...even if you don't plan on doing again anytime soon.

Meeting SUE was the primary goal...and she looked great!

She's the largest, most complete T-rex skeleton ever discovered.

The kids were also quite fascinated with the Egyptian display...especially the real mummies.

We entered a "shrinking machine" and experienced underground life with enormous, moving bugs.

Allison's favorite part was pushing any and all of the red buttons in the entire museum.

Special Thanks Go To:

The double stroller.

My parents who gave us the double stroller this last Christmas.

The kind lady who helped my carry the double stroller up about 100 stairs to enter the museum.

The information specialist and security guard who showed me an alternative exit on the ground floor.

My wonderful children!!

And of course, my husband, for promising to jump with me next time.