Category: One Step

Ok, fellow moms out there:  have you ever marveled at the way most of the year’s decisions need to be made in April and May?  It’s the time you make all your decisions about the next school year,  registering children for school and extra-curricular activities that will begin in August.  It’s the time for tryouts for sports teams that will pick up in the fall.  It’s also when you commit your summer:  vacations, sports camps, Scout camps, swimming lessons.  And while you’re trying to manage these down-the-road decisions, you’ve got to juggle a new permission slip almost daily for some unusual end of year activity at the school, come up with a million random items needed for experiments, parties, field days and so forth.  I won’t even mention all of the end of year book reports and presentations.  And of course, while this is going on you’re trying to keep pace with the soccer practices, soccer games, soccer tournaments, piano recitals, band concerts and everything else going on in the evenings.

So pretty much your family (and sometimes your brain) feels like this:




Please understand I’m not complaining, only marveling at the magnitude of it all.  I actually feel pretty good.  I know that I’ll forget a few things but remind myself that I’m miraculously remembering thousands of things.  I have this quiet determination to stay the course, finish the school years calmly and assume that things will work out.

I got a lot of things done this week.  The only problem is that none of the things I got done were on my list of things I needed to do.  I remind myself that this is the time of year when everything becomes urgent and you just do your best to fit it all in.

Everyone is exhausted and overbooked right now.  It’s May.

This week’s report:  74 steps.  Not bad.  I’ll take it.

Highlights:

1.  I finished two books and started two more.  This is what happens when I let myself  start reading.  You can do a lot of reading during minutes spent waiting in the car for this or that to end.

2.  I had a great conversation tonight with a man I taught on my mission 15 years ago.  It’s such a blessing to cross paths with remarkable people.

3.  We spent as much time as possible playing outside, enjoying the nice weather.

4.  Kids activities.  Boy oh boy, have we had a lot of those going on!  On Thursday I let 12 children make their own mini-pizzas.  My kitchen was trashed, but we had a lot of fun and made a great memory.

5.  I had a positive experience tonight with my oldest daughter when she was discouraged about something.  I feel really good about it.

6.  My sister and her husband surprised us by coming down tonight to stay with us.  Hooray!

7.  I’m almost done formulating a plan which I hope will help my children be motivated to work toward personal goals during the summer.  I’m REALLY excited about it.  It’s pretty ambitious, but I think a lot of good will come of it.

8.  We’re trying not to be so busy that we don’t appreciate moments like this.


Life is good.  We have two more weeks of school to go.  In those two weeks we’re also expecting out of town company and we’re leaving on a mini-trip the last day of school.  I have A LOT to take care of!  I have some deadlines that I REALLY want to meet.  We’ll see how it turns out.

I hope your  week is sunny and full of great things!

Hopeful Homemaker

I started this blog a year ago.  Tonight’s post is #301.  It’s funny how I’ve taken to blogging in the past year.  I didn’t anticipate how much I would enjoy it or what a healthy outlet it would be for me.   I also didn’t realize how much it would help me keep commitments I make to myself.  All in all, it’s been a good experience.

This week’s report:  64 steps.  It was a good week.  In spite of the insanity of May’s schedule I felt happy and calm, which means it was a good week for the rest of the family too.

Just for fun, here is the result of our attempt at a picture of  me with the kids today after church.  Gotta love it.


A few highlights from the week:

1.  The only medical issue we dealt with this week was the unexpected extraction of two abscessed teeth in one of our boys.  I’m happy to report that he now takes us seriously when we ask him to brush his teeth!

2.  It was a fun week with seven soccer games.  We enjoyed good weather and had a lot of fun.

3.  I am enjoying snatching minutes here and there to read.  Why I let that habit lapse is beyond me.

4.  I had a great visit with an old friend who was in town.  (Thanks, Andrea!)

5.  I enjoyed a good conversation with a friend about parenting.  I was inspired to say certain things that I’d never considered before and which taught me a lot.  It felt good.

6.  This week I felt happy to be a mother, undaunted by the laundry and toys that seem to cover my entire house, and motivated to learn.  I’m so excited for school to get out.  Three more weeks!

Have a great week!

Hopeful Homemaker

It’s Sunday night.  The children are in bed, the baby is asleep and the only sounds I hear are the clicking of the keys on my computer.  I love the sound of a quiet house.  I love the way I can slow down and ponder when there is quiet in my world.

It’s hard to believe that May is already here.  April came and went in a blur and I stand poised at the beginning of this month, half hoping that it will also fly by and half hoping that I will be able to make it count, set some things in motion for summer and accomplish a lot.

My report for this week:  55 steps.  I’m happy with that.  I was taught some good lessons this week through both positive and negative experiences and I really want to implement them.

This week also saw the end of another month, so my summary for April is a total of 251 steps.  On April 29th I passed the 1,000 step mark.  Kind of neat!  It feels good to know that I’ve recorded more than 1,000 positive, albeit small, things I’ve done so far this year.

About a year ago a friend offered us some little peach tree starts.  They were free and we want to grow peaches so as a family we dug them up and transplanted them to our yard.  Our children enjoyed watering them throughout the summer.  They are between 2-3 feet tall and we wondered if they would survive the winter.  Imagine how happy we were to discover these little leaves on all of them.


I am trying to remember that growth is slow but steady if we work at it, and that my efforts will eventually yield the results I am seeking just as we expect these little trees to grow and bring forth fruit someday.  It is so comforting to have reminders.  I’m learning a lot from my trees.

I’m also learning a lot from life’s bumps and bruises.  I am grateful for those moments of illumination when I am able to see clearly and perceive how I need to improve.  I’ve had A LOT of opportunities to face my faults this week but I’m encouraged by the ideas I have for positive change.  The words I keep thinking of are:  deliberate, intentional, purposeful.  In all the little things I’m doing, I want to be guided by a stronger sense of vision that cuts through the mundane frustrations and tasks of everyday and helps me be undaunted by the work at hand.

This week’s highlights:

1.  I was able to track down a UPS package that was sent to one of our old addresses,  which was a relief to my sister-in-law and means a fun new project for me to tackle this month.  I’m a bit nervous about it but will do my best.

2.  At 7:30 pm this evening I told my parents that we hadn’t needed to use any first aid skills all week.  Hooray!  Before bedtime we had a cut lip and a swollen eye, but all is well and I had to laugh.

3.  My husband and I had a great planning/brainstorming/goal setting session this afternoon.  It feels good to have a plan for the coming months and to be on the same page.

4.  I started a new book.

5.  I stayed up way too late on Friday night and the quilting is now 2/3 of the way done on my Wild Thing quilt.  It’s slow going but I am SO excited about finishing.

6.  We saw the fulfillment of a promise in a Father’s blessing in the life of our four year old this week.  He saw the baby put a lego in her mouth and got help before she choked on it.

7.  Today I learned that having the power out during Sacrament meeting does NOT help the youngest children to be quiet in Church.  With no power and no microphone I heard nothing from the foyer today, but am told that the meeting was a really neat one, in part BECAUSE there was no power.  It certainly created a memory for the older children and reminded me of a memory from my mission.

8.  Thanks to the comment of my neighbor in Sunday School, I learned a new meaning to the phrase “charity never faileth.”  I’ve got a lot to ponder and I feel grateful for the new ideas I get to explore as a result of someone else’s insight.

Life is good.  Full of challenges, but good.
I hope you have a great week!

Jennifer