what is it all about?

It was raining all night and Charles left the windows open in the Prius since he had been to a bonfire and wanted to air it out.  Is moldy smell better or worse than campfire smell?  There is a guy working on the ceiling in the dining room since there is a big hole in it.  How nice that there are people in the world who can fix things.  His name is Ismael and he is from Turkey.   He is very nice and he has fixed lots of things in our house.  He even fixed the bathroom door that wouldn't close without locking!  I had asked tons of people to fix that.  He is also going to paint the dining room.  We peeled off all of the wallpaper and I want to have it painted pink!  Won't that be cheery?  Everyone gasps when I tell them.  It is a nice color.  What is their problem?  The kids are all home from school today for a reason I know not of.  They're all bopping around.  I can't wait for summer!!!  Soon.

My rant for today:  Matthew told me that in the bishop's office there is a wooden sign with vinyl lettering that says -- "Never make the same mistake ONCE (in big letters) - Boyd K. Packer"  Are you kidding me????  How traumatic for someone who is in  talking to the bishop, but just can't seem to get a handle on their problem! How heartbreaking for someone who is trying their best but keeps falling into temptation!!!  Did Jesus ever tell us to not ever make mistakes???? NO!  He knew that we would.  Geesh!!!  Matthew told me that I should retaliate with a cross-stitch that says, "Though your sins be as scarlet..."  Should I?  Should I?  Do people not know what the gospel is about???  No wonder people get discouraged.  Oh dear, I just had to interrupt my post to rant at the bishop.  What is happening to me?  Hahahahha.

I got a mandolin.  The guitar like instrument, not the vegetable cutter.  It is a really pretty one and I have been practicing my scales.  I am so excited!  I am going to be so amazing!  Or I'm going to lose interest and it will gather dust in the corners.  One of those.

I also started crocheting!  And I am making this amazing king size rainbow afghan!  No starting with potholders or scarves for me, no sir!

I'm starting a brand new series of Bradley classes tonight and I still need to vacuum and clean the bathrooms.  I made a big pot of black bean soup for dinner last night so at least I don't have to worry about dinner. 

Happy Easter!

We went to a friend's house and made these Pisanki eggs.  It was really fun!  But hard to make them look nice.

Then we did our own regular dying at home.

We celebrated Charles' birthday along with Easter dinner.

After church we had a little photo session

Charles was our Easter bunny this year and was as creative as we had hoped!

Charlie boy!

Happy 18th birthday to this guy! Oh, what a cute boy, yes you are!

 

This is what we got Charles Smith for his birthday because he s̶m̶e̶l̶l̶s, ahem, likes to smell good. We are also allowing him to live here until graduation.
 

new gig

Meet my new baby, Abe.  It is really fun to be wrapping a baby again!

And Archie got a new little bike!  We'll just use it inside for a bit.

I just told Archie that I was busy and he said, "No, you're my mom." Solid reply.

Where is the love???

This seems to be a theme with me lately.  I hear lots of stories of people thinking they can constrain others to make different choices through meanness or punishment and it gets me all riled up!  I met up with a friend who told me about another friend who had "come out" to his family that he was gay.  He tried aversion therapy, but it didn't work, so guess what?  They completely disowned him and forbade him from ever coming to any family thing again.  Nice!  I am sure that is what Jesus would do.  Then two days later I read this article about a family in California whose son said that he was gay and since there were already rumors about him being spread they just decided to be upfront about everything with the people at church.  Well, those righteous people decided that they would refuse to take the sacrament from this scared young boy and felt that they should tell the mom that her kids should be taken away from her.  Where is the freaking love?  I started walking around the house, singing loudly (which Matthew loved):

I'm trying to be like Jesus (unless you're gay or doing something else I don't approve of)

I'm following in His ways (unless you've got tattoos or doing something else I don't approve of)

I'm trying to love as He did (unless you're a feminist or doing something else I don't approve of)

In all that I do and say (unless you're being immodest or doing something else I don't approve of )

Those are just some of the topics I've heard people going on about angrily.  I guess my song is kind of catchy, but I don't really think that is the point of church!  I don't think we're there just to fill up time, go to meetings, and learn all of the rules and regulations!  I am almost positive that the main message in the Bible is about LOVE!  So I was so happy to hear Pres. Monson's talk on Sunday in which he said, "Love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our exemplar."  Yes.  That is what I'm talking about!

Garage Sale

This weekend we did the yard sale with the Harveys.  It was super cold and windy on Friday so that day didn't go well at all, but Saturday was better.  We seem to always have the same amount of stuff every year so that is funny.  How can we accumulate an entire garage worth of stuff year after year?  Of course, most  of it is hers, right?  It seems like she and I will go months with barely speaking so I always enjoy the intense weekend of spending hours together.  Her neighborhood is having garage sales in a couple of week so we left everything in the garage to open up again then.  We need to get rid of more stuff!!!

I had to take pictures of it as proof to the people who came on Friday (with things blowing away) that we're not complete slobs.


Lucy has been doing track.  She always likes to go to practices and enjoys trying different events, but the coach this year is being more strict and is going to cut everyone except the top 5 in each event this Friday.  She is really worried that she will be cut and if she isn't cut, she then would be the worst person in that event.  Hmmm.  I just wish they'd let everyone run who wants to.  That is how they used to do it.  They don't all have to go to meets, but who cares if they want to come to practice?  Some kids might never try running again after being cut from a team.  Where is the love?

I have decided to start watching a baby three times a week.  He will be 8 weeks this week.  His parents were in my class and she has to go back to work.  I don't know why I'm doing it exactly, and I hope that it isn't miserable, but it just feels right so I'm going to go for it.  I start this week!

The kids (except for Charles) went with me to a friend's house to make Pysanki eggs -- she is polish, but they are the Ukranian painted eggs.  You use wax and do several layers of colors.  It was fun!  But it was also frustrating because it was hard getting the wax to go where you wanted it to and knowing what colors were going to show up.  I think we'll do better next year! 

Phin did the two on the left, Lucy did the gold with flower in the back, Ibby did the blue polka dot and volcano-esque stripe, and I did the two darker ones.

my girl!

Happy Birthday to my girl! I can't believe I have a daughter who is 20!!! I feel like I'm still in my twenties (well, not when I first get out of bed in the morning). My favorite quote from her letter this week was when I asked her what she was planning on doing for her Birthday: "I'm going to tell my investigators and then invite them to my party at the church. Then when they're there I'm going to be like let's watch my favorite movie. You've probably never heard of it because it just came out today!! (conference)