Brit Lit Chick Flick: Little Dorrit

I was so excited to watch this after a dry spell of five or six months without any British drama. How ever did I survive? Little Dorrit was really well made with a great screenplay (Andrew Davies, of course) and great acting. It's not my favorite Dicken's story, but I still loved every minute of it. Amy even watched a bit of it with me, and is better at keeping track of the characters' names than I am! I love the way they have done this series (and Bleak House) with most of the shows being just a half an hour. That way you can just watch a little every day if things are busy, or if you're like me and you can't stay awake if you sit still for longer than 20 minutes.
Here's the preview:

Mother's Day Musings

PART I-GAIN AND PAIN

I have such an awesome family that made my Mother's Day special. They made me a delicious breakfast (eggs, hash browns, toast, bacon, grape juice). I guess it was ready just as I got in the shower. Bad timing on my part. Then I was very surprised to have gotten a laptop (picture cropped so as not to include me with wet hair and no makeup):


Things I'm most looking forward to with the laptop:

• Access to recipes. All of my recipes are saved on the computer. When I find a new recipe to try, I scan it in as well. So now I can have to laptop with me in the kitchen instead of going back and forth.
• Not having to wait until the kids are done with something on the computer.
• Doing exercise videos anytime, anywhere without having to kick anyone off the TV.
• Be able to read and take notes on the couch which is more comfortable than the computer chair.
• Maybe taking it to the library and hanging out there with my laptop. Sounds strange, but it's one of those housewife fantasies of mine.
• Maybe watching Netflix instant play movies in bed at night. There's a few Brit Lit Flicks in my instant play queue that have been on there for eons.
• Taking it on trips.

I'm sure there are many others. It's not something that I seriously asked for, but I am super excited to have gotten it. THANK YOU, DAN! I promise to not to drip ice-cream on it.

All in all, it was a good day, except for that nagging pain and fatigue I'm always complaining about was really bad that weekend. Sometimes my body just goes kaput. But everyone helped with the cleaning up and stuff. THANK YOU, SLAVES CHILDREN.

PART II-MOTHER'S DAY GUILT

It seems to be pretty common for moms to use Mother's Day to reflect on all of the ways they are NOT living up to their ideals of perfect motherhood. It's in our nature, isn't it? My failure list could go on and on. Even tonight we make tuna sandwiches for dinner because I was feeling like a failure because I have never fed three of my kids tuna sandwiches before, and I was sure this would have some negative repercussions on their future well-being as adults. I mean, are they really going to be okay if the only sandwich they will eat is PB&J?!
So really, things sometimes are much worse than tuna. Just ask Kaylynn about the cheese incident. Hopefully Child Protective Services has some sort of statute of limitations--it's been some time since I've used cheese as a weapon. More recently, Kaylynn can tell you how I asked her if there was something wrong with her brain, or if she was on drugs. There are just times (every other day) when common sense parenting goes right out the window. I just hope that if I take her to In-n-Out enough times, it will all be alright somehow.
Not to single Kaylynn out--I mess up with my other kids all the time too. Hopefully through all of my crankiness something of those cutesy Mother's Day Primary songs shine through.
I started out trying to focus on the positive, but alas, I have strayed. I wanted to write about just one success--we all have at least one, right? Our morning routine charts have been successful for many years now. As an idea person, I come up with all kinds of cool ideas but I lack the self-discipline to follow through with much. But this is something that we have stuck to, probably because it makes my life easier. Here's a picture of Amy's morning chart at the end of a month of filling it in:



These used to be printed out and then laminated and used over and over, but it got to be a pain wiping them off, so now I just print a new paper each month on cardstock with four weekly charts on it. I put every single thing they do on it, and tailor it to each one. For instance, Jeremy cannot for the life of him remember to put his sorely needed deodorant on each morning, so that's on his chart. (I still sometimes wonder if the application process isn't going so well.) When we started this probably seven or eight years ago, the kids would get a reward at the end of the week, but they don't even think about this anymore.
If you look closely, you'll notice my kids aren't required to make their beds. (Gasp!) All I ask is that they put their blankets back on their beds that they carry out in the living room EVERY MORNING. Bed making is low on my priority list. Three out of four kids' beds are up in the air and I can't see them anyways. So another failure on my part that will somehow mess up their adult lives (or make their spouse/roommate go nuts.) I do make my own bed most mornings, but mostly so I can throw junk on top of it throughout the day.

If you've read this far, oh five many readers of mine, please tell me one of your successes as a mother or what you're good at or a great parenting tip. Don't beat yourself up--that's what your kids are for.

April Pics

We're pretty well into May, but better late than never, right?

This is what happens when you wait too long to rotate the clothes in you emergency packs:



It takes talent to mow the lawn and stick out your tongue at the same time. There are about five pictures like this. I would stick out my tongue too if someone were taking pictures of my mowing the lawn:



"Bye-bye old lemon tree. We've loved you, but now we've got a younger one in a better place." The kids had fun taking this down:



Impromptu family picture on Easter:



The cousin line-up at Grandma's house on Easter. Kaylynn is the oldest, but not the tallest anymore:



Easter egg decorating the day AFTER Easter. We just can't get it together over here! But we try out best:



Amy's Family Home Evening--this is a repeat. We can count on her to do this one putting the healthy food in the happy face and the junk food in the sad face with yucky teeth. Too bad we usually don't put these principles into practice:



For Anna's birthday, she and her friend Eliza went to Build-a-Bear. They both got the same frog, and Anna named hers Eliza, and Eliza named hers Anna:



Here's an example of one of our fabulous wrapping jobs. Amy's gift to Anna is wrapped in a blanket and put in a laundry basket. She also had a gift in a Victoria's Secret bag. We really go all out:



Here's Anna's birthday dessert. Because the day was crazy, she had a hybrid birthday dinner of In-n-Out, corn, watermelon, and sparkling cider. Kaylynn helped out by making the pound cake and slicing the strawberries. THANK YOU, KAYLYNN!! I don't know what I would do without you!