Family Finances

This is how not to take care of home financial matters. Do not attempt to do online banking with children on your lap. Especially don't try to pay the credit card bill with a kindergartner sitting behind you on your chair, two other little guys alternately climbing into your lap and back down the other side, while trying to answer a boy who is asking what he can eat, and getting a teenager to turn off his video game.

If you insist on doing all this at the same time (because it is the day the bill is due, of course), you may end up inadvertently transferring money FROM your credit card into your regular checking account, instead of the other way around. And then, not only would the credit card not be paid, you might also get a late fee. And that's in addition to the big fee for the "cash advance" you just gave yourself from the credit card.

This might look like an exciting circus act, like spinning a dozen plates while balancing upside down underwater with hungry sharks, but do not be fooled. It is not fun. Do not try this at home.

Don't ask me how I know.

When I'm 70

I was cleaning up my room yesterday.  That may not seem like a big deal, but it has been a mess ever since we moved.  There are just too many things that don't really have a home, so they end up in our bedroom.  Or things that need to be kept out of the way of small children.  They end up in our room.  Papers and bills and papers that need to be kept would usually go in an office, but we haven't had one.  The file cabinet is in the storage garage.  In our room.  My favorite books?  In our room since I don't have any bookshelves.  Christmas presents waiting to be wrapped?  Leftover Halloween candy? Things that need to be returned?  Electrical cords?  Family pictures that haven't been hung?  All in our room.  It's been a disaster.

I decided that if I kept waiting for... what am I waiting for to be able to clean my room?  A personal organizer, a free week, or a bunch of money maybe.  I can tackle a big job in small chunks - I've done it before.  So I decided to do three little chunks: clear off the dresser, clear off the cedar chest, and hang a few pictures.  I need to feel like I sleep in a little sanctuary rather than in a storage unit.

Nope, no before and after pictures.  I think all of the pictures are before pictures, and I don't think I will ever get to the after stage.  But if you want to picture two feet of boxes and clothes piled on the cedar chest and the whole dresser covered several items deep, you'll get the idea.  It took a while.  Of course, it was much more involved than I thought it would be.  It always is.

Angel came to watch as I was finishing the cedar chest.  I put a few things in to store (a few baby girl outfits that I wore which had been hanging out in my mother's cedar chest, a baby quilt I got 21 years ago, a pair of little boy pants I made when my first started kindergarten, and some lovely pillow cases my grandmother had embroidered) and pulled out a small white tablecloth.  I spread the tablecloth over the worn fabric on the lid of my cedar chest.  Angel sighed.  "It is so pretty!  I think we should have a picnic here!"

When I reminded her that we only eat in the kitchen (she is not the tidiest of eaters), she paused for a moment before blurting out, "When I am 70 I will eat here, because you can eat anywhere you want when you are 70!"  Hmmm.  My dad is 70.  He eats in his bedroom or the living room sometimes.

 Maybe I'd better be making plans for where I will eat when I am 70, too.

Mission Monday

These boys are so far away from us.  I had a reality check to that last week when I was researching the hurricane (they call them cyclones in the Indian Ocean) that went through Madagascar.  Whatever happens there is so far away from me, and from my ability to do anything about it.  As a mother, it's hard to stand by and watch instead of be actively involved.  It's all part of growing up, isn't it?  I love getting their letters, and for a small moment, feeling like they are back.


From South Africa:

People do love the gospel and they just need somebody there to tell them that they are missed, and then all the sudden, they start coming back to church and everybody is like 'We missed you. Where have you been? What can we do for you?' It is truly humbling to see the members rally around the less active and invite them back to church.

One of my Spiritual Highlights for week comes from when we were meeting with a new investigator that Brother N., the first counselor in our branch presidency, referred us to. The lesson that we had with him about the restoration and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God was really amazing. He is one of those that has definitely been prepared to hear the message of the Gospel and it is amazing to work with him!

I love the Gospel. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

From Madagascar:

This week I have definitely been seeing the blessings of families and individuals firmly rooted in the church. Since lots of the members here are way new, we have to be the doctrine checkers a lot. It is very apparent, however, who is really trying to root themselves in the scriptures and the teachings of latter day prophets. Those who study consistently and make that study a valuable use of time have a much greater knowledge of the gospel and they are more confident in the way that they live that. I guess what I'm trying to say is count your blessings. Having a long history in the church is a very great blessing and I feel very blessed to have that!

In Stitches

What do you do when you have kids with cold ears?  Why, you cover them, of course!  This is what I've been doing over the past couple days while I've been snuggling with my sick kidlets.  And I'm writing out the pattern for you.  You are welcome.  Actually, it's for me because I'll forget how to make them by next week when David decided that he wants a hat, too.

Crochet Winter Hats for Small Fry

I used this diagram I found on Pinterest (but can't find the real source, sorry) to make the top circle.  I will write out the pattern as if you already have a working knowledge of how to double crochet and you know how to do things like start a circle and join with a slip stitch and change colors.  I made the top, flat circle only 5 rounds for my 4 and 6 year olds.  It's a little loose, but I wouldn't want to go smaller or it wouldn't fit for very long.  They grow too fast!

Round 1: 12 DC

Round 2: (2 DC in one stitch)

Round 3: (2 DC in one stitch), 1 DC

Round 4: (2 DC in one stitch). 1 DC, 1 DC

Round 5: (2 DC in one stitch), 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC

Round 6-16: DC straight

That's all.  It's really easy, which is why I could make three of them in two days.

Girl Hat

I put bubbly puff stitches (3 DC in same stitch, but don't take off the last YO of each, then on the 4th DC, YO, pull through, YO, pull through all 5 stitches on hook) here and there to make it more fun for her.  She's a bubbly kind of kiddo, and was delighted with the added bit of fun.

Round 3: Puff, 1 DC around

Rounds 6, 9, & 12: Puff, DC, DC, DC around

Shell border: slip stitch, chain 1, skip a stitch, 4 DC in next stitch, skip a stitch, slip stitch

I got the cute little flower here, and it works up in just a couple of minutes.  Fast!

Boy Hat

This one was just changing the colors to make it more interesting.  Oh, and a puff ball on top.  The boys love the pom-pom, but I wonder how long it will be before all their threads are picked out!

Round 1-2: Color 1

Round 3-7: Color 2

Round 8: Color 1

Round 9-10: Color 2

Round 11-12: Color 1

Round 13: Color 2

Round 14-16: Color 1

Sick Day

We've had a bit of a bug going around our house the last while.  Oh yeah, I had it too.  Fortunately, it's not a nasty messy kind of cold, just a slow couch kind of cold.

While I was holding my little ones, I wanted to have something to do, so I got out my crochet hook and some yarn.  I wish I knew where my other supplies were, but I had some yarn and two hooks, so away I went.

I started out by making a little hat for the girl.  Her cute hair is not thick enough to keep her little head warm as she walks to school in the morning.  A couple of weeks ago, I let her pick out some yarn and I made her dolly a cap.  Now it was time to make her one to match.  It worked up in an afternoon, but as soon as I had it done, the twins wanted hats, too.  Of course.

So today I worked on hats for them.  I loved sitting on the couch, snuggling my little snifflers.  First one needed a quiet break, and then the other.  It won't be much longer and they won't want to sit on my lap or cuddle with me anymore.  I'll take all I can get.  They helped me hold the yarn, laughing as it tickled through their fingers.  They cut the yarn when I was done with a color, and dutifully tried on the hat several times.  Finally, Georgie closed his eyes and settled into me, pulling the blanket up to his shoulders.  He ran his fingers through his hair, then through mine, and drifted off to sleep.  I listened to his soft breathing turn into cute little snores and reveled in our closeness.  I'm so glad I get to keep him and hold him and cherish him for a while.

I love being a mama.

Me, the Washing Machine

I have some clothes that were not getting clean, so I decided to hand-wash them.  I've been bad-mouthing my mother's washing machine and giving it bad looks.  Maybe good, old-fashioned elbow grease could do the trick where modern water-saving appliances were failing.  In lieu of a washboard, I just swished the clothes, and rubbed the stubborn spots between my knuckles.  I was right.  I was able to scrub them clean.

I also scrubbed all the skin off my knuckles.  My fingers have been hurting like I had bad burns on them for about a week.

Today, I'm grateful for the washing machine.  And maybe I ought to see about finding a washboard or a river.

I Must Have Done Something Good

I'll just start with this picture of what we had for dinner tonight, because it looks kind of fancy.  So many things went wrong with this meal that I have to  remind myself that it turned out alright,  in spite of my best efforts.

Yesterday was a day off school, and we had planned a Musical Monday.  Our musical for the week was The Sound of Music - all three hours of it.  For more fun, I had supplies to make rudimentary marionettes and puppets (from the Lonely Goatherd puppet show scene), and lots of yummy food.  My dad, being German himself, does not mind at all when I start to cook with a German accent!

For lunch we were to have bratwurst and round loaves of fresh, dark bread with cheese and apple beer (a meal my dad often ate during his mission to Germany).  At snack time, we had planned popcorn (because it's a movie, duh), and herbal tea with jam and bread (from "Do-Re-Mi").  Dinner was homemade red cabbage (because it's traditional and so yummy!), lemonade (that the Baroness was drinking on the porch), and schnitzel with noodles and crisp apple strudel (from "My Favorite Things").  And of course, we had to eat on our finest china (like the dinner scene where Maria makes the children cry).

We watched the movie, and it was fun.  Even the boys enjoyed it.  I first saw it when I was little - on Halloween when my folks took us to a movie instead of trick-or-treating.  We even had the album, just like this one.  It felt nice to be just sitting - in between making bread and slicing red cabbage.

As it turns out, I was feeling a little under the weather.  The bread didn't rise quickly enough, and then fell disappointingly.  As I started to make the red cabbage, I noticed that the recipe not only called for 3 hours of steeping, but also sitting overnight..  And then I learned that the breading on the schnitzel required an hour in the fridge before frying.  And I had a fever and a headache.  So we got hamburgers for dinner instead.  Hamburg isn't far from Austria, right?

We tried again the next night, when I was feeling a bit better.  But still, I forgot to make the noodles, and I couldn't find the apples for the strudel (they were hiding in the fridge).  Things never quite work out how I want them to.

As it turns out, David and Eddie helped me make the schnitzel, and it was tasty.  The bread was good, even if it was flat.  And the red cabbage was amazing after a day of sitting - at least I thought so.  The boys weren't fond of it.  Everyone liked the pink lemonade, and it looked downright festive in my mother's crystal goblets.  And I made a boxed German chocolate cake.  Done.

It wasn't the spread I had planned, but it worked out just fine and we all enjoyed it.  That's the important part, isn't it?  "Nothing comes from nothing - nothing ever could." It never would have turned out to be anything more than our usual pasta Monday if I hadn't tried for something different.  I didn't hit my goal, but I must have done something good.