Visiting the Farm

What happens when a bunch of city-folk drive an hour through the beautiful rolling hills of Virginia,  and head to a farm for the day?    

Well, in this case, they had a {mostly} UDDER-ly great time! 

The kids bounced around,  

played with friends, 

went on a hayride, 

picked fresh apples straight off the tree, 

and in general just enjoyed being together in the fresh country air.

While it was mostly fun, there were a few hiccups with how they ran things that made me a little grumpy.   I even had a little melt-down at the check-out when buying our apples when the worker was rude and condescending to me.   We resolved our misunderstanding in the end and it was okay, but next time I think I will either stick with city-life or visit a much less commercialized part of the country! 

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On another note, here's a cute picture of Ellie with Spencer's girlfriend, Erin, who dropped by the other day and became an honorary judge on our family version of Cutthroat Kitchen.   

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Cami in Acrostic

C-lass of 2015!  She is thrilled to be a senior this year!  

A-CT score of 30!   

M-ath tutoring a 9-year-old little boy 

I- will miss her when she goes to college next year! 

R-olled her ankle during a cross country race last weekend

O-odles less homework than last year

S-tarted making her own shampoo/conditioner/laundry soap from scratch

E-xperimenting with making  new cupcake creations….today it was delicious cookie-filled cupcakes

Holding Down the Fort

A few weeks ago Glen had a business trip to Delhi, India.   

The trip took place  shortly after the school year started and I found that holding down the fort while in the midst of trying to establish new routines,  was challenging to say the least.   

Thanks to a  9-1/2 hour time adjustment to make and then a nasty case of "Delhi Belly" to deal with, he wasn't much more help when he came home.   He was barely functional for two weeks while his body recovered and literally just as he was barely starting to feel better again, it was time for him  to leave on another trip.   

This time to Utah with Adam to help celebrate his upcoming 12th birthday! 

They went to the BYU game where the quarterback broke his leg and BYU had their first loss of the season.   

They went on hikes in the mountains--to Bridal Veil Falls and to the Y. 

They went fishing at Strawberry Reservoir with Uncle Alex and Cousin Nicholas. 

It was a chilly, but very successful fishing voyage!

I daresay, even a dream come true for Glen.  

On Saturday they hung out with Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Tim, and Heather and watched General Conference.   

Then Saturday evening they filled the purpose of their trip by attending the Priesthood session of conference.  

On Sunday they watched conference with Glen's brother's family and took a hike at Sundance between sessions.  

Meanwhile, back on the homefront… 

I am still holding down the fort.

I've done all the early morning shifts, the late-night shifts, and the kid stuff…and I'm tired.    
 Thank goodness for Cami who can drive herself places at least.
This weekend it was just us girls (and a few cute visitors).  Friday night was supposed to be the ward camp-out, but it was cancelled for rain….and I wasn't disappointed by that.   That cancellation made for  a very laid-back weekend as we watched conference together.     

 We wore our sweats, put no make-up on, ate too much junk food, and just enjoyed being together while we listened to the words of a living prophet.    It was a good weekend for spiritual and physical renewal.  

Now I am staying up until the wee hours of the morning, so I can go pick up Glen and Adam from the airport.  Then I will sleep for a couple of hours and wake up in the slightly later wee hours of the morning to get Cami off to seminary.   

I may look a little bleary-eyed for the next couple of days, but at least Glen and I will be bleary-eyed together again!

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Breaking up with Social Media

I think it was 2008 when I joined Facebook for the first time.  For the first few years it was easy for me to keep the time I spent there at a minimum and I really enjoyed the forum it gave me to keep in touch with long lost friends.   Sometime in the last couple of years though, everything has changed.   I think it was the advent of the smartphone that gave people (including me) the opportunity to post what they're doing real-time.   Suddenly my feed was flooded with updates such as, 

"Happy birthday to my BFF, JoJo!"   at Cafe Rio --with BoBo, Mimi, Fifi, and Bambi. 

While I was under no illusion that JoJo was my BFF, I did consider  JoJo, BoBo, Mimi, Fifi, and Bambi to all be my friends too and suddenly I feel disappointed  that I wasn't invited to JoJo's birthday dinner.  

While I have no doubt that everyone went on these kind of small group birthday outings without me long before the Facebook and Instagram apps on the smartphone were invented, the difference is that now all the people who weren't invited get to know all about it too.   Combine that kind of post with a few too many outings that involved my kids' friends that I didn't know about either, posts about exotic trips that friends are going on,  and I began to realize that Facebook and Instagram were making me feel that my  life is not up to par.      

And it's not just me!    

Research shows that regular users of social media are generally less happy and satisfied with their lives.     It's too easy to compare my weeknight dinner on paper plates  with other people's fancy dinner party pictures.   It's definitely been affecting me lately, which is why I left Facebook a few months ago and why I deleted my Instagram account today.  I needed a clean break and a fresh start.    

So, I recognize that social media isn't all bad and I do miss the day-to-day connection with some people, it simply wasn't worth the headache for me anymore.   Here are a few of the things I struggled with the most.  

I Hate--knowing too much about people's lives.   Not that they're necessarily sharing too much information, although some do, but that for most old friends and even long lost cousins the information in a Christmas card is all the connection I need.  Social media provides an information overload that finds me studying and caring far too much about the day-to-day happenings of other people's lives, most of whom I will probably never see again.

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I Hate--seeing what events I was not invited to.  I'm normally not very sensitive or very social, but when you see seven of your friends posting about the same super-fun party that you were decidedly not invited to, it's hard not to care at least a little.   Throw in a few kids' parties, a couple of fun looking girls' nights out, and friends that get together on a regular basis without you and it makes me care far more than I should.   Ignorance is definitely bliss when it comes to this kind of stuff.

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I Hate--Seeing everyone else's best framed side, which makes the mundane of my life seem abnormal.   Yeah, I have gray hair, age-spots, a bunch of weight to lose, and a house that's not perfect and while logically I know that I'm not the only one who struggles with those things, based on what I see on social media it often feels like I am.  

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I Hate--that I had developed this false notion that people actually care about me and the tidbits of my life.  I don't mean this in a feel-sorry-for-me kind of way, but truly who really cares about what my kids wore on the first day of school?   I care.   My mom cares.  Maybe even my Aunt Valerie cares.    But what about Lulu Smith and the other 600+ of my friends whose feeds it will dot?     If I post it on my blog, someone has to make the effort to come read the post and look at the pictures, but on Instagram and Facebook it gets thrown into everyone's faces, making people feel like they need to give me a thumbs-up or some kind of pat on the back ….you know so I will return the favor and go like their update next time.   It all feels insincere and I don't want/need it anymore.

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I'm sorry for yet another rant and I hope you'll forgive me for it.  It is my hope that by breaking up with Instagram today, that it  will help me stop obsessing about the things I'm not doing and start helping me to focus on how I can be a better real-life friend.     

PS  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.  I'm glad you're here!   :)   

  

That Moment!

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity."                                                                                       ~Neal A Maxwell 

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Here are some of the moments that are filling our days lately….


...that head-held-high-I'm-so-educated moment when someone asks who your congressman is and you actually know the right answer.

…then a second later, that "DOH"  moment when the same person asks what you think of their opponent in the upcoming election and you have no clue who they are talking about.

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….that awkward moment when you realize you just spilled your life story to a friendly telemarketer.

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….that heartstopping moment when the phone rings in the middle of the night.

….then that oh-brother-it's-just-Glen's-company's-security-system moment….again and you realize your heart is beating way too fast to fall back asleep anytime soon.

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….that satisfied moment when you in all sincerity tell someone that you'd be happy to help them with a certain thing.

…then that embarrassing-they-think-I'm-lying moment when that person actually tries to take you up on your offer to help and you are legitimately not available at every single date/time she mentions.

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….that happy moment of surprise when you do something you've been dreading for a long time and you realize it really wasn't that bad.

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….that mama-pride moment when your daughter beats your very respectable ACT score.

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….that awe-inspiring moment of deep gratitude when you realize, without a doubt, the  reason for the prompting  you'd received earlier. 

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….that blushing, head-hanging moment when you realize you've been grumpy to far too many people the last few days.   I'm sincerely sorry if any of you have been the recipient of any of it.

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…that  proud, but resigned moment of recognizing that you've raised a family that loves to cook and rather than fighting it,  that you may as well continue to embrace and encourage that love, as well as the kitchen messes and the 25 extra pounds that seem to go hand-in-hand with that love!

Wordless Wednesday: A Day in Colonial Williamsburg