Resolutions

I just heard on the Today show that you need to share your resolutions. So I am going to share them with the world right here. I have two resolutions:

1.  To eat healthy. (If I lose weight because of this goal that is even better.) I already exercise everyday so I don't feel I need to make a goal to exercise.

2.  Write three things that make me happy each day in a journal.

When I look at them like this, it doesn't seem to difficult. I hope I can keep them up. Joe said that he will help me with my resolution to be healthy.  I will keep you posted on how I do.

Christmas!

I love Christmas! I love spending time with my family. I love giving presents and getting presents. :) But I also worry. I worry that I am not giving gifts that will make people happy. I worry that I am not doing enough. I worry that I will forget a tradition that is so important to my children even though they are all grown up.
 Usually about two days before Christmas I start second guessing some of the presents I have purchased. I try to be organized so that I do not have to go out shopping those last couple of days before Christmas but then I start the second guessing. I need to learn to let it be and remember that the best part of Christmas is spending time with family. This is the last year for at least two years that I will have all my children here for Christmas. I need to sit back and enjoy our time together.

Merry Christmas!

Greeting Your Child

Everyday I walk my students outside at the end of the day. They wait by me until their parent, older sibling, grandparent, etc. come to pick them up. I have made a few observations as I have watched this ritual for over 28 years. Something I have noticed lately is a little disconcerting. A lot of parents are talking on their phones when their students come out of school. They do not seem to acknowledge their child at all. It does not matter if they are waiting in a car or they walked to the school to pick their child up. They just grab their child's hand and take off. I do not see the parent even smile or say hi to their child because they are so busy talking on the phone. I know that I don't see what happens after they leave the school ground but it makes me a little sad that a parent does not say anything to their child after they have been away from them for seven hours. This is not every parent but it is enough that myself and other teachers have noticed this phenomenon a lot. I didn't have a cell phone when my children were young so I might have done the same thing.  As a mother I found that if I talked to my child immediately after school or an event, they were more likely to give me more details about their day. This is just my observation and I hope that I do not come off as being judgmental but I hope it will give parents something to think about at the end of the school day.

My "Baby" Graduated

Joe and I said this a lot this year, "This is the last time we will________________(go to parent teacher conferences, go into West Jordan High School, watch our boys play football, etc.) Today we said this is our last time to see one of our children graduate from high school. It is bittersweet to have your youngest graduate and move on. In August we will officially become empty nesters when Ryan moves up to Logan to go to school. We have plans for our "spare time" but our house is also going to be very quiet without our children and their friends.
 Ryan has had a great bunch of friends throughout high school. It was fun to take pictures of them and see the camaraderie they share. They will be going their seperate ways after the summer. I will miss having them come to our house to play ping pong, etc.

Isaac's family crocheted and made candy leis for all of his friends. What a fun tradition.

Memorial Day

When I was little, we would go to either Minersville (my dad's hometown) or Wellsville (my mom's hometown) for Memorial Day. We would cut flowers from the yard and wrap them in wet newspaper to take to the cemetery. There would always be irises, snowballs, and peonies. My mom would take canning jars and cover them with foil so that they would look better. At the cemetery we would put flowers on lots of graves. We had to put flowers on the graves of great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.
They were small towns so everybody would be at the cemetery. We had to stand around and wait for our parents and grandparents to talk. As a child it felt like they knew everybody at the cemetery. We would be there for hours. We were not allowed to run around in the cemetery because that would be disrespectful. We had to just stand around and wait for our parents. It was kind of boring. But I learned to honor my ancestors and remember them on Memorial Day.
It is still a tradition for me to honor those people I love on Memorial Day. Instead of getting flowers from my yard, I buy chrysanthemums from a store. Instead of going to one cemetery, I now go to four cemeteries. It is a little different to visit big cemeteries than the small town cemeteries I visited as a child.  When I went to my sister Lisa's grave site yesterday, I ran into my other sister there at the same time. We spent a lot of time visiting while her daughter and granddaughter had to stand around and wait for us. I guess life has come full circle.

A first graders perception of moms.

My first graders are writing a book for their moms for Mother's Day. Today they were supposed to write about what their moms like to do. I gave them a few examples. They had a hard time knowing what their moms like to do so I told them to think about some of the things that they see their moms do a lot. Here are some samples of how first graders perceive their moms' favorite things to do:

Sit on the couch.
Look at facebook.
Do indexing on the computer.
Sleep
Cling (That is how you spell clean in first grade.)
Take care of me.
Play on the computer.
Play with me.
Go to work.

It made me think about what my kids would think I like to do. What about you?

Pinterest Success

I made these http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/12/wingers-sticky-fingers-copycat-recipe.html for dinner dinner. There were well liked and tasted just like Winter's Sticky Fingers. They were also pretty easy to make.