I made my Christmas cards for 2012.   Strange?   Absolutely.  Wonderful?  YES!  I know I could just upload a picture to a template, type in a quantity and be done but for some reason I’m not ready to do that yet.  I still want to make my cards, but the past couple of years have taught me that my fall and winter season is always overcrowded and my cards end up being a source of stress (not until I’m half done with them, that is, when it’s too late to back out and upload a picture).  If I carried one thing forward from the holiday season we just enjoyed, it was  a determination to make sure that this year is better.  So I spent some time in January doing just that.

I’ll have a bit of work to do in the fall when I get them back out but it’s only to add the finishing touch.  All supplies for this, including envelopes and an updated Christmas card list sit in the box.   I made a list of notes to myself about what still needs finishing (add a greeting and a photo) and now I’m done.

There was something really nice about investing now in my emotional well-being down the road.  Something nice about preparing a gift for myself to appreciate in another ten months.  Something about doing it makes me feel more like I’m worth it, and it feels good.

Hopeful Homemaker

I’m really excited about the class.  I’ve taken sewing and quilting classes before but this is the first online class I’ve been involved in.  I think I’ve sewn just one curved seam in my life, so this will be a good thing for me to learn.  Learning new skills is part of my goal for 2012, to feel more joy.  When I’m learning I am happy because I’m growing.  The moment that cinched the deal on paying for the class was when I saw this retro flowers quilt.  I want to make one and so I’m going to learn how to sew curves.

My biggest worry with this class is that I really don’t have time for it.  The lull on our calendar during early winter has disappeared and life is in full swing at our busy home.  I hope I’ll be able to find the time to master this skill and make some great things along the way while still keeping life running smoothly.  That’s why my sister and I signed up together, so we can make sure we get our projects done and keep life balanced as well.  I’m super excited to take the class with her.

For those here visiting from the class, I’m a stay-at-home mom  who would love to actually be able to spend more time at home!  I have eight children ranging from age 14 to 2 and yes, they’re all mine.  (Hence my nervousness about not finding time to master this like I hope to.)  Sewing has become one of my favorite hobbies, something permanent that I can do in a home where everything seems to be undone 2.5 seconds after I finish it.  I love color, texture, pattern and using beautiful fabric seems to fill a creative need in my life.  Honestly, my skills are probably somewhere in the novice circle, but I’m not bothered by it.  I know I’ll get better over time and make a lot of useful things along the way.  I try to spend a few minutes every day or two at my sewing machine, even if it’s just for ten minutes.

I’ve always loved to make things and hope I’ll learn to make some great new things this month.   So welcome, February!

What are you going to do this month?

Jennifer

Here’s what I need help with.  I made three stacks of flannel fabrics I could use for this project, but I’m not sure which one to use.  Like I said, I’ve never met them and have no idea what the mother’s style is.  So I’m asking for opinions.  Would you mind letting me know which stack you prefer?

#1

#2

#3

And also on the sewing table, these squares that I’ve finally started piecing together.  A houndstooth quilt is on my list of quilts to make this year, and it’s finally underway.  I’m going for red and white.

Please leave a comment telling me which bundle you would prefer if you were receiving a baby girl quilt.  Thanks so much, I really do appreciate it.

Jennifer

I confess to being smitten with my little one in her new sweater, hat and gloves.  Yeah, she’s cute.

My four year old was equally cute in her getup.  Shorts.  But she was thrilled with herself because everything was pink, as she put it, “dark pink, hot pink, light pink.”  It was warm enough that I let her run around until she felt cold.

Their big brother was intent on one thing only:  building a snowman by himself.

My little one had a conversation with it.

Generally we had a lot of fun.  It was a truly beautiful afternoon.

Oh, I love that little face!

Since it might turn out to be the only snow we get to play in all winter, I’m glad I let the laundry sit a little longer.  We made a great memory.

HH

My association with the phrase comes from a speech given a year ago by D. Todd Christofferson which influenced me deeply when I first heard it.  I listened to it again and again, then printed it and read it several times.  I have learned a lot about receiving my daily bread from the Lord, a lesson begun by this message.

For your convenience, I share the passage I was referring to below.  If you want to read the entire speech, which I highly recommend, you can find it here.

Elder Christofferson’s words:

“Asking God for our daily bread, rather than our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread, is also a way to focus us on the smaller, more manageable bits of a problem. To deal with something very big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites. Sometimes all we can handle is one day (or even just part of one day) at a time. Let me give you a nonscriptural example.

“A book I read recently, titled Lone Survivor, recounts the tragic story of a four-man team of U.S. Navy SEALs on a covert mission in a remote sector of Afghanistan five and one-half years ago. When they were inadvertently discovered by shepherds—two men and a boy—these specially trained Navy servicemen had a choice either to kill the two or let them go, knowing that if they let them live they would disclose the team’s location and they would be attacked immediately by al Qaeda and Taliban forces. Nevertheless, they let the innocent shepherds go, and in the firefight that followed, only the author, Marcus Luttrell, survived against well over 100 attackers.

“In his book, Luttrell recounts the extreme training and endurance required for one to qualify as a SEAL in the U.S. Navy. In Luttrell’s training group, for example, of the 164 men who began, only 32 managed to complete the course. They endured weeks of near-constant physical exertion, in and out of cold ocean water, swimming, paddling and carrying inflatable boats, running in sand, doing hundreds of push-ups a day, carrying logs through obstacle courses, and so forth. They were in a near-perpetual state of exhaustion.

“I was impressed by something a senior officer said to the group as they began the final and most demanding phase of their training.

“First of all,” he said, “I do not want you to give in to the pressure of the moment. Whenever you’re hurting bad, just hang in there. Finish the day. Then, if you’re still feeling bad, think about it long and hard before you decide to quit. Second, take it one day at a time. One [phase] at a time.

“Don’t let your thoughts run away with you, don’t start planning to bail out because you’re worried about the future and how much you can take. Don’t look ahead to the pain. Just get through the day, and there’s a wonderful career ahead of you.”1

“Generally it is good to try to anticipate what is coming and prepare to deal with it. At times, however, this captain’s counsel is wise: “Take it one day at a time. … Don’t look ahead to the pain. Just get through the day.” To worry about what is or may be coming can be debilitating. It can paralyze us and make us quit.

“In the 1950s my mother survived radical cancer surgery, but difficult as that was, the surgery was followed with dozens of painful radiation treatments in what would now be considered rather primitive medical conditions. She recalls that her mother taught her something during that time that has helped her ever since: “I was so sick and weak, and I said to her one day, ‘Oh, Mother, I can’t stand having 16 more of those treatments.’ She said, ‘Can you go today?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Well, honey, that’s all you have to do today.’ It has helped me many times when I remember to take one day or one thing at a time.”

“The Spirit can guide us when to look ahead and when we should just deal with this one day, with this one moment. If we ask, the Lord will let us know through the Holy Ghost when it may be appropriate for us to apply in our lives the commandment He gave His ancient Apostles: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof” (3 Nephi 13:34; see also Matthew 6:34).”

Close quote.

Aren’t those wonderful words?  While I know my daily experience is nothing like that of a Navy Seal, I can’t help but think that the words of the officer apply so aptly to motherhood, to daily life.  So to all of us who are tired or worried or frustrated, let’s finish the day.  Let’s take it one day at a time when we need to.  Don’t look ahead to the pain, and there’s a wonderful life ahead of all of us.

How can you not have a great day after considering that?

Jennifer

Wow, anybody know where January went?  What a blur!  I know it’s not actually over yet, and to be honest I’m counting on the last two days for the chance to wrap up a couple of things on my January to-do list, but for most purposes it’s basically gone.  I watch it go with mixed feelings.  It’s been quite a month.

Our family has been under a lot of stress this month, stress I haven’t discussed here.  I feel like we’ve weathered it really well, but I’m also aware that we weren’t required to weather it for as long as we might have, which helps a lot.  It was a month of losses and new beginnings, and now I’m facing a February of adjustments.  Adjustments that are inevitable, but which a part of me is not looking forward to me at all.  I’ve learned over the years that rarely do I receive an answer to prayer that doesn’t increase my workload.  I am SO grateful for our answered prayers this month but also confess to feeling daunted by the increased workload, by the continuous need to do more with less.  As I’ve struggled with this feeling I’ve felt a growing determination to find ways to make what feels like a step backwards become, in reality, a step forwards.   Easier said than done, but a worthy goal.

I was at the grocery store at 6:30 am on Friday for a random 8 oz. water bottle for a kindergarten project (?!?) and as I walked out of the store into the darkness it scared me that I felt so overwhelmed by a day that I had barely begun.  I took a deep breath in the cold morning air and a thought popped into my mind.  “Believe in yourself.  Your Heavenly Father believes in you.  He believes you can handle this day.”  So I did.  I changed my thinking and made it through the day – a particularly crazy day.  Later that night when I was driving my eleven year-old son to a campout 15 minutes late I started worrying about what they would think of our tardy arrival, feeling like I was falling short again.  But I caught myself, reviewed all the things I had been dealing with in the 6 hours prior to the campout that no one knew about, and said to myself “It doesn’t matter what what they may think.  They don’t know what the day has been like or how difficult it was to add this to the list.  If they knew you’d get rock star bonus points.  Let it go.”  And I did.

Another lesson came yesterday afternoon as I was driving my son home from another grueling conditioning practice for the high school lacrosse team.  He was talking about how many of the guys were throwing up and how hard it was and how the coaches were telling them not to question but just to do it and get through it.  It reminded me of some good advice I heard from D. Todd Christofferson:  “don’t look ahead to the pain.”  We talked about how it applied to his practice, but later when I caught myself worrying about everything I needed to do that night, and how things were falling apart around the house because I’d been gone so much, and how it wasn’t going to get any better in the next week because I’d be gone as much then too, worrying about some financial questions that are outside of my control, worrying about the length of my husband’s new commute to and from work, worrying, worrying, worrying, I suddenly realized that I was “looking ahead to the pain.”  The realization brought me up short and I really worked to put on the brakes.  The worries are still sneaking around, but I’m holding the door shut with my two lessons:  Believe in yourself.  Don’t look ahead to the pain.

Enough of that.  Now for the review.  Things stand pretty much where they did last week, with my strong areas still improving and with the things I haven’t really worked on yet still waiting.  That’s ok on a crazy week, right?   My weekly list continues to be my weakest point.  The daily list and monthly list have been pretty well handled.  In fact, as I look at my specific January list I realize I’ve never crossed so many things off a monthly to-do list before.  I’ve been productive, albeit in ten minute segments, but it’s good for me to see that ten minutes adds up.  I’m trying to enjoy the process.  I also realize that I used more wisdom in making the list in the first place.  Good for me.  Another thing I’m liking is having my lists for the entire year already waiting in my notebook, so when I remember something I can just add it to the right month, like a birthday party I want to give, and so forth.  I hope that at the end of the year I will have accomplished the things I care most about.  As for the weekly list, I’m giving myself the rest of today to brainstorm a plan for catching these items before it’s Saturday night again.

Some specifics.  I do my scripture study and reading immediately after getting everyone to school.  It’s the best, most important part of my day.  I am noticing that I could use a little more time for prayer without the little ones running around me.  I’m going to work on that.

I finished reading The Happiness Project this week.  I really enjoyed it and have a short list of things to remember and use as part of my plan to seek and find joy in 2012.  I’m glad I read it in January even though it wasn’t my original plan.  I’m also glad I’ve paused the 7 Habits while I work on some habits as a mother before I give myself more to do.  I’m taking notes in that book, as well.  I now have two more books to read in the next couple of days before they’re due at the library.  We’ll see if I make it, especially with a dirty house.  This makes two books finished in January, one from each of my lists, which puts me right on track for the year.

I feel ok about my efforts around the house.   I’m trying to take a step back and re-evaluate how I want things to run, to look and how to feel about it.   I need to redefine how the state of my house relates to my feelings about myself.  I’m trying to simplify what we’re doing, and I realize that’s a process.

In small pieces I’ve worked on some projects this week.  Really small pieces of time, really small progress, but it’s still better than not starting because I don’t have a lot of time.  I’m getting better at using ten and fifteen minute blocks.

I did a better job of meal planning and efficient grocery shopping this week and had a smile on my face when I left the store with as much as I did for as little as I spent.  That feels good.

I tried to find joy in small moments with my children.  Joy in the snowman my son made, joy in tickling them, joy in watching the little girls choose new coloring books at the dollar store, joy in taking my oldest son to get his favorite french fries after an intense few hours of appointments together, joy in driving them places and having those few minutes with them in the car, joy in wrapping my daughter’s ankles for futsal, joy in seeing my daughter waiting on the sidewalk to be picked up after school, joy in watching them do what they’re told, patience when they don’t, and a smile in my heart when they’re being irrational.  And oh, how my heart has filled with joy at the monstrous hugs from my youngest son (the other night he was giving me another big hug when he asked his older brother “Why don’t you give Mom big hugs too?  SO cute) and the darling comments from my two little girls.   My two year old cleared the table after dinner one night – all by herself – and I felt both joy and awe and urgency as I watched.  But I let her do it and she BEAMED.

Let’s be honest, though.  Pausing to enjoy a lot of moments has a price tag.  I get less done.  But I am happier.  It’s a great investment.

I emailed an acquaintance this week and asked for recommendations with a gardening question.  Her response was so warm and positive, making me glad I’d found the courage to ask for advice.  Certain seed catalogs will soon be arriving at my house and I’m excited for them to come.  I know I’m behind the schedule of “serious” gardeners but it’s great progress for me.  So I’ve started on my gardening goals for the year.  Yay!

So, as I wrap up January I’ve got some “goals housekeeping” to do.  I need to build the weekly tasks into my life more solidly.  I need to work more on the specific JOY goals I set.  I also need to spend some time in the record keeping area.  This was an area I’d reserved largely for Sunday but our Sundays haven’t been anything like what I planned.  All these things need some attention so I can tweak things accordingly as we welcome February.  I need to stay mentally tough and positive even when I’m busy and don’t have time to really nourish my heart, which means I need to develop some quick, on-the-fly strategies I can remember on the run.  But in all, it’s been a great month and I have every reason to expect the next month to be even better.

I read a great quote this week that impressed me.  It reads, “Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing.”  -William Butler Yeats

I think that’s why I feel good.  I’m growing.  I’m nowhere near where I’d like to be.  In fact, I’m just beginning.  But because I’ve been more specific in my goals for 2012 and am evaluating myself daily, weekly and monthly, I can see that I’m growing.  And so I feel happy, and happiness feels good.

Have a great week!

Jennifer

I’m working on being a better friend this year, and remembering birthdays is one of the way I intend to do it.  I also plan to make handmade birthday gifts this year for several reasons:  it allows me to be creative, it encourages to use my supplies and allows me to personalize gifts.  A box of handmade notecards was my first gift this year.

These notecards were made for an amazing friend, one who uses the art of the handwritten note liberally to bless the lives of others.  I wanted to make something she could use anytime she wanted to send a note in the mail.  I ended up going with ultra simple designs, letting them speak for themselves.

I was pleased with how the bicycle card turned out.  The stripes, the scallop edge and the image of a bike are all simple but happy.

I also made some little gift tags that can be used anytime, complete with baker’s twine and a little chevron bag to keep them in.

I bought a box for the notecards to fit in and personalized it on the front.

Then I tied the sets of cards with green and white twine and placed them in the box.  I like how it turned out and I hope that she likes them, too.  She is one of the best people I know.

A simple, but I hope a useful, birthday gift.  I finished the project with a birthday card and some ribbon.

What have you made lately?

Hopeful Homemaker

What a great idea, to punch holes in your cards and put them on rings, then add a cover.  If you view the original post you’ll find downloadable covers that are super cute.  Since one of my goals this year is to do something creative every day, making my own was a great idea.

I used leftover paper from my Christmas cards last year, which adds a reminder of the card I sent out in 2011.   I tried my hand at some paper rosettes, which were REALLY fun.  I’ll be making more of those.

I am thrilled to know what to do with Christmas cards every January from now on.  We can get these books out from year to year and see how people have grown.  I’m glad that I can take these little pieces of my friends’ lives and preserve them in a way that encourages us to look at them in the future.

So, even though today marks one month since Christmas, I hope you’ll find it helpful enough to file away in your mind for 11 more months.   {This was a project on my January to-do list.  I’ve had the cards on rings for weeks, but hadn’t sat down to just make the cover.  Hooray for a finished project!}

I was thinking that this would also be a fun way to corral all those valentines that come home from school and then float around the house for weeks.  You could use just one ring and let each of your kids have a little Valentine flip book of their own!  Wouldn’t that be cute?

I hope your day is great.

Hopeful Homemaker

Meet my first quilt of 2012!  I was so grateful to finish it in time for last weekend’s baby shower.  It’s now in the hands of an amazing mother-to-be.   Full of  color and pattern, I hope it is used often.

I did something I’ve never tried before for the back.  I used two different brown solids and made wide stripes.  I quilted it on my machine along both sides of the seams on the quilt top.

I bound the quilt in a bright red alphabet print.  I like the way it carries the cheery center of the quilt top out to the edges and ties it all together.  The red also looks great against that chocolate brown.

This quilt was a lot of fun to piece together.  I’m pleased with how it turned out.

My two oldest boys are wrestling with their Dad, who “ties them up like shoelaces” every time they attack.  I admit that it’s fun, and I know that it’s healthy but I can only handle so much because it makes me cringe and wonder what will break before we’re done, especially with bodies this size flying around the room.  But they’re laughing.  They’re bonding.  They’re making a memory.

My youngest is sitting next to me on the chair, doing my hair, which really means she’s pulling my hair.  Three of the girls sit at the table calmly and quietly, giving themselves a little lesson in who knows what.  The seven year old just ran into the room and turned off the light mid-match.  Suddenly our five year old son is bouncing happily on the couch, waiting to dive on top of the next pile.

This is my life.  Crazy, noisy, children sitting on the table, laughing, crying, yelling, smiling.  Now seven of the children have combined to attack their Dad and somehow he’s like an octopus with an arm shooting out in time to catch anyone about to get away.  And in the middle of it all he finds a moment to reach out and tickle my feet with a happy smile on his face.  Then he rolls over, lets them all climb on his back, and does a pushup just to show that he can.  He makes their lives so much more fun than I do.  I’m so grateful for him.  At last even our two year old wants in on the action, and he pauses to let her “pin” him.

Our four year old yells, “Dad! Remember the pygmy stuff?” [referring to a wrestling match from Friday with just the little ones]  She runs to the other room and returns with a roll of wrapping paper, her sword of choice.  She bounces a little and looks up with an enormous smile on her face, ready to take him on.

Soon someone will get hurt.  Dad will be done and we’ll read scriptures, pray, and put them to bed.  But for these brief moments we’re all in a jumble, four year-olds and fourteen year-olds in a tangle of screaming bodies.  Vaguely I wonder what someone would think if they stood on our porch right now.  We wouldn’t hear them knock or ring, but I’m sure they’d walk away wondering what kind of crazy people live here.

So, naturally, I’m typing.  Because it helps me stay calm while they howl.  Because all of this craziness is part of being a family – an important part – and THEY. LOVE. IT.

Suddenly the craziness ends, as quickly as it began.  Everyone collapses on the couch to catch their breath.  My oldest daughter helps the baby hide under the nearby desk, behind the chair and the last activity of the night is for Dad to find her.  He looks happily in all the silliest places, in big brother’s shirt, in big sister’s backpack, in big sister’s lunch box.  Then he pulls out the chair she’s hiding behind, turns his back on her, and looks under the chair, all the while yelling “Puddles!  I can’t find her!”  He gets on his knees and grabs the camera bag right next to her to see if she’s in it.  He looks on top of the desk.  And she sits there, calmly, still as a statue, watching him look all around her while the other seven pile up behind him squealing with laughter and delight at the ridiculous nature of the search, the knowledge that we all know where she is, the fun of pretending that we don’t.  All of it happens inches from my elbow and I pause to look at them.  All of them, oldest to youngest, faces plastered with happiness and wonder and LIFE, laughing together.  And I think, THIS is why we had 8 kids.  THIS is what life is all about.  I cannot, I cannot forget THIS.  I sat there, absorbing the joyful faces around me, trying to fix in my memory this moment so I can return to it when the laundry pile seems bigger than I am, or when the homework battles rage, or when I’m just plain tired.

Life with 8 kids is a lot of things.  It’s legos all over the floor, more laundry stacked up than I care to admit, toilets always needing cleaning.  It’s two dishwashers running every night, a pile of toothbrushes and toothpaste smeared all over my counter, books everywhere you look.  It’s a fifteen passenger van, a grocery bill that amazes me, a life fuller than any calendar has room for.  It’s a mother who forgets a lot, but remembers a hundred things for every one thing she forgets, a mother who goes to bed exhausted at the end of the day thinking “I’ll try again tomorrow.”  It’s worries and hopes and fears multiplied.  It’s a father who carries the weight of our needs on his back, giving up time and hobbies to provide financially by day then come home and provide emotionally by night.  It’s planning and teamwork and tears and toil.  But 8 kids is mostly about love.  All those pluses and minuses somehow add up to more love, more laughter, more joy than you can imagine.

And by some incredible twist of fate, it’s my life.  My life with 8 kids.  And I love it.