Anna

 

This sweet daughter of mine has really impressed me lately.  I wanted to record some of the things she’s done around home lately that make me so grateful to have her! 

Abby keeps her room pretty tidy, except her walk-in closet is sort of a disaster zone.  Fortunately, it’s not visible until you open the door, but then it’s ugly and she can never find any of the clothes she’s looking for.  To clean it out is tricky because she doesn’t like to be downstairs by herself, and the only time the others are down there is at bedtime and she hasn’t been dying to stay up to do that.  She’s been begging me to help her tackle it, but I just haven’t had time to help her. 

Saturday morning Anna got up and while Abby was at play practice, Anna totally organized it.  Folded and put away every single article of clothing that had been previously heaped into a giant overwhelming mountain.  How nice is that?

Then, later that day, she had to tackle some math that her teacher let her take home cause she hadn’t finished in class.  There was a lot of it.  She’s good at math, but not fast.  She came home after her soccer game and was tired but had to do her math.  I told her she’d probably have to get half done that day and the rest on Sunday.  We try to avoid homework on Sundays, but I didn’t think she had a way around it.  She got some of it done and then ran down to watch my recital.  Then she came home and babysat for Brennan and me.  When we got home she went downstairs and plowed through her math, determined not to do it on Sunday.  She finished around midnight.

The next day was Mother’s Day and 9 o’clock church.  She got up at 7:00 am and with Abby’s help, put a tablecloth on the table, cut some fresh flowers for a centerpiece and then made waffles from scratch while Abby made orange julius.  That waffle recipe isn’t simple, you have to separate the eggs and beat the egg whites (none of which she’d done before).   Then she still managed to get ready and get to church on time (sort of, we were a little late but got there before the Sacrament). 

What a sweet, sweet girl.  I’m often hard on Anna because she’s the oldest and because she happens to have a hard time getting places on time which happens to be a big issue for me.   We’ll keep working on the things we don’t have down yet, but in the meantime I’m going appreciate the fact that I have an almost 14 year old who is kind, considerate, fun, tries so hard to do the right thing, and still likes us.  We love Anna!

My Kids to the Rescue

The kids found a baby bird down on the ground a few weeks ago.  Our house came alive with dramatic efforts and lots of hustling and bustling.   Nate came running in saying, “Mom, can we keep it?  It’s my dream to save an animal and then have it for a pet!”  So cute.  I called our State Wildlife Division and googled how to care for a baby bird - they told us what to do.  At first the kids couldn’t find the nest and we thought the baby had been abandoned.  The wildlife division woman told me that if we could find the nest the Mom would still take care of it. 

 

In the meantime, the kids set up a nest in a shoebox and put a lamp over it for warmth.  We put a wet paper towel over it to help it re-hydrate.  Nate found some worms for it and it finally perked up a bit, it had been pretty lifeless.  We have a giant birdcage in the attic that used to by my brother’s parrot’s.  The kids begged me to bring it down so we could keep the bird.  I explained to them that we really needed to find the mother, that that was it’s best chance of surviving.  Anna climbed the tree above where they found it and found it!  There was another baby in it and they gently passed the baby bird up the tree where Anna carefully placed it back in it’s nest.  It was very exciting!  The kids were sad not to have been able to keep it, but they were so happy to have saved it!  It made me happy too from one mama to another, we gotta look out for each others’ babies.   It was so neat to have my kids all focused together on an important cause.  

My Recital

I got to participate in a voice recital.  I’ve been taking lessons for about a year now, and today was my 2nd recital.  It is so nerve-wracking, which is exactly why it’s so good for me.  The best part is that while there are lots of young students performing, there are also lots of other Moms like me trying to carve out a little time to develop just for us.  It’s been such a great outlet for me, and pushed me way outside my comfort zone.  I’m so excited to get to sing a duet with Sarah (my friend and teacher) in a few weeks in church.  I LOVE duets and to get to sing with someone so amazing will be so much fun.  I used to sing duets all the time with my brother, Braden.  I miss that.

Anyway, in great humility I’m posting clips of my two recital pieces.  They’re far from perfect or great, but they represent major progress for me, mostly of being able to stand up in front of people and just get something out of my mouth without collapsing out of pure nerves.  Plus to memorize the songs is a huge thing for me, especially in Italian -- that’s hard.   I wish so badly I would have taped Sarah’s song, she’s so incredible and I’m so blessed to have this opportunity so close and convenient.

 

Anna’s Soccer Pics

We’re in the height of soccer season around here.  With four kids playing on four different teams it gets a little busy, but if the weather is good – I love it!  All of them are really good and are on pretty good teams, so the games are all exciting.   Anna’s playing on a comp team and they have a website.  A couple of the other mom’s are excellent photographers and are so nice to post the great pictures they get on the team website.  Here are some of my favorites:

When you play that hard, you’ve got to have some nourishment.

Aren’t those some great action shots?  I love how you can just see the intensity and determination in her face and her whole body.  We’re so lucky to have such exciting games to watch every week!