Oh, look, another picture collage!

I know. I'm getting carried away with the whole picture collage thing. I just had to do it one more time. There were so many cute pictures I wanted to show you from our extended family home evening at the bowling alley last Monday. Mir and Isaac and Sarah left this past weekend to go to Utah so before they left we wanted to get together with everyone. We're none of us any good, but it was still a lot of fun. The grandkids especially enjoyed it.
Mike insisted that we bring in food from outside, against the rules, so we had to sneak that in in big Sam's bags. Just kidding. I asked Dad to pick up Sonic for us and then we found out it was against the rules, so yeah, we snuck it in. I think it was a little obvious. There were 13 of us. Finally someone came over to tell us that it was against the rules, but by that time we had pretty much finished. When I paid afterwards for 11 people to bowl and rent shoes, I didn't feel one bit guilty for bringing in our own food. Ouch!
By the way, if you double-click on the collage it opens up in a new, larger page so that you can see the pictures better.

Feminism and Motherhood: Can they peacefully co-exist?

Live and let live!
Respect and RELISH differences!
That is my philosophy.

I re-read Julie B. Beck's talk entitled "Mothers Who Know". It made me feel guilty, but I recognize truth when I read it. My darling daughter-in-law, Emme, wrote an excellent post about the topic of motherhood and feminism and how distored the world's view has become on the subject with reference to this talk. Then there were some excellent comments and as I wrote my comment it turned out to be a page and a half long. I realized that I just needed to make a post of my own.

My son, Mike, always says that I am a feminist. I am to some extent, I guess. Maybe I need to look that up and find the true definition. Okay I did and if you want to know more here is the link. I do, apparently qualify as a feminist of the Third Wave. But, this is my version of feminism: I believe that women are equal- to each other and to men. I hate chauvinistic, misogynistic remarks and jokes. I hate when my own daughters use terms for parts of their body that were coined by men who consciously or unconsciously (it doesn't matter which)intended those terms to be demeaning to women. Example: "boobs". A "boob" is a stupid, witless person. Hello?
And all other word substitutes for breasts and buttocks imply that we are simply interchangeable body parts for the use and exploitation of men. If believing that we are more than breasts and vaginas makes me a feminist then I'm a card carrying feminist. And, I feel sorry for women who don't get that!

But, if believing that I have to work outside the home to gain respect because rearing children isn't as worthy and valued an occupation as any work-for-pay job is what defines a feminist-I'm out. I once prayed to Heavenly Father telling him I could do so much more (in church and in the community) if I weren't always pregnant or nursing babies. His reply was, "You could do more, but you couldn't do better." I understood. But not everyone is called to have nine children. I understand that, too. It's an individual decision made between three people: the woman, her husband, and Heavenly Father. If you leave Him out of the decision you could be making the mistake of a lifetime.



But, when you make the decision to have children you should take full responsibility for them and not hand them off to some "care-giver" who, quite frankly, doesn't give a damn. I've worked in a day care. I have been a paid babysitter and I have talked to other women who have and, please, believe me, no one-NO ONE- will love your child or really care for them as you do, or will. It's just a job, and an under-paid job at that. They might not abuse them, and hopefully they will be nice to them, but they WILL NOT love them. And, it takes love to raise a child-24 hour a day, seven days of the week love. And, no one will give them that except you. I once heard a woman say, "I brought them into this world, I figure it's my job to show them around." Pretty simple, don't you think? Julie B. Beck said it in a more refined way: "Mothers who know are always teachers. Since they are not babysitters, they are never off duty."

So, these are just my opinions and feelings. Does that mean I look down on or condemn a working mother? No. I don't know all her circumstances. I can't read her heart. I'm not living her life. That's why I say, "Live and let live." Most people are doing the best they can with what they've got. Everyone is at a different place dealing with things we'll never know about. I like to think the Golden Rule applies to our thoughts as well as our actions. "Think about others the way you would like to have others think about you." I hope everyone is cutting me some slack, so that's what I try to do, too.

Thanks to my daughter-in-law, Emme, for her post “Slightly Controversial” and to my daughters-in-law, Miriam and Courtney, for their comments. That was a very thought provoking post, Emme.

And, to my own wonderful mother, “You go, girl.” That was a great comment! And, thanks, for being there for me and my brothers. It sure went fast, didn’t it?

Engine, engine number nine

This post is all about our ninth child. Our adorable caboose (to continue the train metaphor). She is as the song says "a strange mixture of a woman and a child". She is only ten, but sometimes acts much older.

She enjoys dressing up, doing make-overs, and playing with the boys in the neighborhood, especially our next door neighbor (and best friend since she was three), Reed, whom she used to call "Weed".


She has turtles and catches tadpoles and bugs for them, wants a rabbit again badly, but Mom doesn't, and loves our dogs, Jack and Pearl. She loves having a cell phone, handed down from our short-time foreign exchange student. She will happily make me a gourmet salad at the drop of a hat (or plea from me)and enjoys using her play baking oven. She has loved pink, pink, pink all her life, but is beginning to like green and torquoise,too. She likes to climb trees and goes everywhere barefooted. But, she loves to cuddle with Mommy and DaDa still, and that's my favorite part.






Being the youngest has some perks, but also some challenges. Before she was born her oldest brother, 24 years her senior, told me, "You know, she will never really know me." It turns out that he is her favorite and closest sibling.

She loves being an aunt to her three nephews and one neice. And they love her! They come in our door shouting her name.


I wish she could stay this age forever. But, she will grow up and I just hope she can be one of our easier teenagers. We are, after all, getting older. The other day she asked me how old I would be when she graduated from high school. "Sixty-two", I tell her. "Why?", I ask.

"I just wondered if you would be still be alive to do that thing where you made fun of Hayley (the Senior Salute) for me."

"Yes, I'll still be alive when you graduate from high school and when you graduate from college. I'll still be alive when you get married and when you have children. Remember, my mother is almost 87, thirty years older than me, and she's still alive. I'll probably live a long time, too. I may not be alive when your children get married, but I'll watch from heaven, okay?" "Okay."

I just hope I don't look like this at her graduation.

My third son's first son's birthday

I know it's a complicated title, but I decided that if I titled this "My Granchildren" you would just run away. No one likes to hear someone else brag about their granchildren. Really, though, how can I help it?

Today was number two grandson's third birthday. Yesterday all the family living in our town came over to celebrate. I made spaghetti with meat sauce, his aunt made a great salad and his mom made homemade parmesan breadsticks which were fantastic. The girls made themselves sick eating so many of them. Here's the excited birthday boy. He's the blur in the front.










And here he is with his Dad. Genes will tell.













We had a lovely dinner together:















I just had to post this picture because of what daughter number three with the long blonde hair is asking at this moment. Can you guess? Yes, she's asking, "Is this going to be on your blog?" Well, it is now!

Birthday boy's sister and especially his cousins had fun.












Here's the whole gang:











We're missing our fifth son and his wife, sadly. They are too far away to join us-a thirteen hour drive away. And, even further away, 29 hours away, is our soon to be daughter-in-law. We can't wait until she's a part of the fun, too! Only twelve more days!


One last, but very important picture. The birthday cake was made and decorated by his Dad and he didn't even use a mold, in fact he was kind of bummed to find out that you could buy those. But, his effort is pretty amazing.

Some questions

These are random questions associated with having a houseful of children.

How much hot water do teenagers use?
Answer: All there is. Don't be last to take a shower.

How much food will teenagers eat?
Answer: All you buy, sometimes before you have a chance to make a meal of it.

What is eleven times anything?
Answer: Enormous, as in "Eleven hamburgers, fries and drinks, please."

What is eleven divided by anything?
Answer: Miniscule, as in pieces of pie.

How much food and household cleaners, etc, can you fit on a flatbed at Sam's?
Answer: You wouldn't believe it. Take a look at this:




I was cleaning out the pictures on my phone and came across this. It was too good not to share.

What are your questions?