TIS THE SEASON

I went to another ward last Wednesday for a stake assignment and was talking to the Y.W. president who commented that she couldn't wait until Christmas was over. It was November 19th! Come to find out that her husband had just volunteered their home for his works Christmas party and she was feeling a little overwhelmed. I told her she should probably reword her thoughts to, "I can't wait until my husband's work Christmas party is over", so everyone didn't think the Grinch had already been unleashed. As for me, I am so excited about the season. I am itching to put up decorations and play Christmas music. I have my Netflix queue full of old Christmas movies starting next week.

Every year, I plan to be done with shopping before Thanksgiving, so I can spend December doing meaningful things, but it never happens; it's not that I'm unorganized, though that is also true, but I'm just not very creative with coming up with gift ideas. It's especially hard when I have this anti-technology phobia. There have been some years where Fred talked me into buying something with batteries, but almost always the gift is broken before the next year, which is very frustrating. I like gifts that encourage wise use of time, talent building, unity etc. and something that is affordable, which is a hard mix. It happens sometimes. Last year we bought Mikayla a camera and she spent all kinds of time learning to be creative with photography, but like everything else it broke and we couldn't find the receipt that I had so carefully saved and it was another $140 down the drain, not to mention the very disappointed daughter. Young children are simple. You sew or build things for them, they love it, and it lasts forever. We still have wooden barns, playhouses, dress-ups, easels, stools, puppet theatres etc. from when Jordan and Mikayla were little that are still used continuously. Why can't I think of anything like that for people over 12?

Well, be that what it may, I am looking forward to my traditional date with Fred right after Thanksgiving where we choose a Christmas picture book for our story advent. Sometimes we even find a good Christmas CD. Maybe we'll come into Cookies and Cream for some hot chocolate if we're over that way. I'm hoping to re-make some of my dough nativity and add to it with my children this year. We've already broken out the board games, with the end of daylight savings and the cold weather, and we're preparing for all of the upcoming Christmas concerts. Mikayla and Eden will be singing with Young Artists and Jordan will be singing and dancing with the FX Show Choir. It's definitely getting festive. I LOVE TRADITIONS!

Georgie Porgie Madness

HELP! How do you balance being a personable, sincere leader of 200+ young women and a strict, protective, traditionally minded mother of a 17 year old boy, all at the same time. As a mother, "girls" have been "the enemy" since the last day of 5th grade, when a girl who was moving asked Jordan to close his eyes, then promptly kissed him and fled. They have remained the enemy, for me, through middle school. But now they are no longer faceless names; I know these girls, I'm involved in their lives. I can feel the lack or strength of their testimonies. I can see their frustrations with "16" not meeting expectations. And as a mother it has been an advantage. I have encouraged them, in safe settings, to build up these boys by giving them the opportunity to be men and take the lead. For the most part they try hard, but there are a few who, I think, have decided that "Jordan pursuing" is a full time job. In all fairness they are cute, fun, nice girls and have paid attention to Jordan for quite some time, without him caring ;-)(I can't say the same for me), but recently it's even starting to get to my very laid back, be-kind-to-everyone son. In the last two weeks he has received phone calls, visits, date offers, brownies, homemade chicken noodle soup (he had a cold), personalized music CD's, piano sheet music (so he could learn to play and sing it) and the list goes on. It has started to become a joke here, which is akin to talking behind some one's back and makes me feel two faced, but isn't there a point where enough is enough?

I have very vivid memories of baby chicks on the farm and the terror of having a mother hen come after you when she thought you were a danger. I tend to react much like a mother hen sometimes and I don't want to strike terror into any hearts. How do you kindly convince these Y.W. that disciplined restraint will pay off in the end. I guess I just keep enforcing strict guidelines, recognize that our female trait to nurture is propelling these actions, and grin and bear it. I'm sure my outlook will be tested with Mikayla in a few months when I have to deal with an entirely different problem as the mother of a 16 year old girl. We have put such emphasis on reaching this age that young women in general have built up grand "dillusions" of what it will bring, and self confidence hinges tightly on this one thing during high school. I won't be worrying about the tender feelings of her "suitors"-- boys deal well with straight talk from another mother; (another father is a whole different story) it will be her tender feelings that will be cause for concern. I hope she's been watching and learning. I hope I have.

Family Fun

We finally got everyone settled down for the evening, which seems to be quite a feat in our family. The twins are always a challenge, just trying to get them both in the same place at the same time, but they are nothing compared to the other four, the oldest two of whose energy levels spike at 10:00p.m. and who usually drag Abe and Eden into the fray. As the noise ordinance goes into effect out in the community, the Bloomquist household is booming! Fred, who seems to be the only one who has established a healthy "Word of Wisdom" sleep pattern, usually just gives up after Lily and Sophie are down and tucks himself into bed while I try to wrangle the wild herd. Mission accomplished!

Two months ago, Lily and Sophie started noticing that they didn't have an official F.H.E. assignment on Monday nights, like everyone else did, so we put our heads together to see if we could come up with 2 more assignments that we could rotate through the family. We came up with "Hero Award" and "Challenge". Whoever has the latter assignment challenges the rest of the family to do something for the week that will improve us . We just got through experiencing one of the nightly rituals that has been created from that. On Sophie's week she challenged all of us to keep our rooms clean and made a big smiley face that passes from room to room. If you discover it in your room, you can't pass it on until your room is clean. If you get caught with it in your room at family scripture time then the family gets to choose a silly song for you to sing. If you have it two nights in a row you have to sing and dance. Jordan and Abrahm just finished singing and dancing "Once There was a Snowman/Once There was a Baby". There were very good sports and we all had a good laugh watching Jordan curl up on the floor like a baby. Some of us have sung, "I'm A Little Teapot" and "Popcorn Popping", but our favorite by far is "Skida marink A Dink A Dink". Every once in a while, Jordan will have a friend over when F.H.E. starts and it's always fun to see their reactions to the crazy side of the Bloomquist family. We have such fun!

It is once again that short season for finding a good book and curling up with it. Abrahm is finished with soccer, and Jordan is done with cross country and we have a reprieve until Track in the spring when Jordan, Mikaya and Eden will all be gone. It is November and so it is time to read the Hiding Place again. This year I think I will read it aloud to my children, and then I will try to find a good Dickens book that I haven't read, unless anyone has any great suggestions for me in good adult or juvenile literature.

We continue to be blessed in so many ways. We went out to the church orchard on Saturday because it had been announced that they would be selling apples for $8 a bushel. We had enough money in our budget for a bushel and a half. When we got there they were completely sold out. They didn't open until 9:00, but by 7a.m. they had people lined up in their cars clear out to the main road. We didn't get out there until noon. The man apologized and said all that he had left were a few bins they were going to feed to the horses, but we could have as many of those as we wanted free of charge. They were nice apples, just small, and we filled 3 orange crates that he said would last through the winter if we kept them in the garage. I thought of Becky and her "the earth is full..." scripture. Jordan is going to make us apple pie for his F.H.E. dessert tomorrow night.

I am looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with some of the family. I loved what Logan said on the Cousin Connection blog about Thanksgiving making him think of long tables and pickles. Those are farm memories. It will be fun to be celebrating there again this year.


Abe and a team mate watching from the soccer sidelines.


Abe pondering deep thoughts on the soccer field. Sometimes those deep thoughts were interspersed with dandelion picking, or winding himself up in the goal net.




Abe in action.

Faith In The Future

I've had one of those endless colds this week and haven't accomplished much of tangible worth. Me and my house are a wreck, but I have hugged my children more and done a lot of pondering.

Fred came home on Monday with all of the benefits paperwork to fill out for Stevens-Henager, and we quickly realized that they were lacking. Because we have never really been in the professional job market before, we were only looking at the salary when we considered this new opportunity and had never really thought insurance could make that significant of a difference. We became concerned and spent the entire day crunching numbers and came to the horrifying conclusion that with the raise Fred received from the hospital only 3 days before and the semi-annual bonus that came with it, and the difference we would be paying in health insurance, Fred would actually be bringing in significantly less, not minimally more as we had previously thought.

We had enjoyed such good, peaceful affirmation to move forward with this decision and now we were feeling much confusion. We were starting to doubt our answers to prayer and then began wondering if the confusion we were feeling was the real answer to prayer and we had just wanted our previous feelings to be right. We still felt like the opportunity was enormous, but Fred couldn't see how he could shoulder the additional responsibility load and be worrying about our financial obligations even more than before. From conversations that Fred had with the director, we knew that Stevens-Henagar couldn't offer him more, but in these few short weeks Fred had gained such a respect for the staff that he felt he needed to call and express his concerns and see if they could help get some concrete information on advancement time lines and potential for the future. They did, but more than that they expressed their confidence in his abilities and in his character and when he came out of that room I saw a more humbled man, once again at peace with a decision that we had already made, and just looking at his face I instantly felt peace again as well.

Sometimes I let immediate worldy concerns overshadow my faith in the future. I know these first few months are going to be difficult for us. I think Fred will be pushed to stretch capacities he doesn't even know he has and we may feel like we are once again on a student budget, two things which are never fun to pair together, but because we had great dreams to go on a family vacation to New York we do have some money saved up to see us through. And though that vacation may have to wait longer than we wanted, I know the sacrifices we made to save will still be a blessing to us. It will be a good lesson for our family in frugality, a thing which we haven't been as good at as I know we can be. I always enjoy a good challenge, especially when I can see a light at the end of the tunnel :-). It's the pitch dark tunnels I'm terrified of.

I know Heavenly Father cares about our smallest concerns and he is holding our hands. Sometimes I forget to be humble and think that I am too mature to hold hands with a parent, but my "independant" plans are always embarrasingly juvenile and motivate me to cling once more to someone who knows me better than I know myself.

"I've Learned"

INSPIRING THOUGHTS -- AUTHOR UNKNOWN

I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today,
life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they
handle four things:
a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
I've learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents,
you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.
I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a life.
I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt
on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you.
But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others,
your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart,
I usually make the right decision.
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
I've learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone.
People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug,
or just a friendly pat on the back.
I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.