Winter Olympics

Jackson and I went to Vancouver today for an appointment and then stopped in Portland to do a little shopping on the way home.  I really enjoyed the time with Jackson, and apparently the younger kids really enjoyed the unsupervised time at home.  While Jackson and I were away, our stairs were transformed into a luge track.  Here is what we came home to…

Of course Jackson and I had to try it out too.  James, the kids insisted that I post this video for you. 

Corn

At 7:30am this morning Yuhua and I headed to a breakfast at the High School where he was honored as student of the month.  His biology teacher/cross country coach had lots of nice things to say about him and his work ethic.  Apparently, all of the kids in Yuhua's biology class were given seeds to plant corn at the beginning of the semester.  Each student grew their corn in an individual pot and after 3 months all the corn has died except for one pot.   Yuhua’s corn is still thriving.  Mr. Downs said that last week someone uprooted Yuhua’s corn plant, and when Yuhua came to class he noticed this and carefully replanted the corn.  When Mr. Downs mentioned that the corn was starting to outgrow its pot, Yuhua came in the next day with a bigger pot and soil to transplant the corn.  I was grinning during this story because this is sooooo Yuhua.  I was also grinning because I remembered the morning that Yuhua took the bigger pot and soil to school, how he asked me if we had a big pot and soil he could take to school, how I wondered why on earth he needed to cart a big dirty pot and soil to school at the last minute, how I never asked him why, how he never told me, and how lucky I was to be sitting there finally understanding what was going on in his head. I was so proud of him.  I made a mental note to myself not to squash my children’s ambitions when I am impatient and clueless about what is going on in their heads.  Usually what is going on in there is great stuff.  It’s just really hard to tell sometimes. 

Dads Are Great

James was able to come home for a visit last weekend and boy were we happy to see him.  Our water tasted bad and Jackson’s “third family car” was making noises.  James noticed many other items that needed attending to and also noticed that the children needed love and attention.  Thankfully he whipped things back into shape around here, spent Saturday morning helping Jackson make his car “Hughes worthy”, and spent some quality time with the rest of the kids.    I was so thankful for his reassuring smile as I waited to speak at conference and for his listening ear as I had lots to share with him.  James, why didn’t we take a single picture?  Next time…

Because I Love You

On Saturday night, I spoke at Stake Conference.   I’m posting this excerpt from my talk because it happened last week, and it's one of those moments I want to remember.  Don’t worry, I told the story about the cops right before I told this story --just to keep things real  ; )

Last Sunday, my bishop taught a 5^th Sunday lesson on parenting.  He said at the beginning of the class that if we remembered nothing else from the class that we should remember to do all things in love.  During the lesson I reflected on an experience with one of my children (John) the day before where I had confiscated some Halloween candy and given a lecture about responsibility.  I had not done that with much love. 

When I was tucking this child in bed Sunday night after the lesson, I told him I was sorry for the way in which I’d handled the candy issue the day before.  I asked if he knew why I’d taken away the candy, and he said, ”because you didn’t want my teeth to rot out?”  I told him yes, but there was a bigger reason too.   He said, “because you don’t want to have to pay for new ones?”  I said yes, but there is an even bigger reason.  He looked at me like he had no idea where I was going with this, and then I said, “because I love you!”  He grinned and then he gave me some candy that he was hiding to eat after I’d tucked him in.  (My bishop is so wise – at last the secret to effective parenting…  It’s actually the secret to a lot of things.)

"Our Mom Has Been Pulled Over by the Cops" and Grumpy Teenager

As Savannah and I were driving home from Young Women in Excellence on Wednesday night, I made a rolling stop at the stop sign by our house… which resulted in my being pulled over in front of our house…which resulted in my children watching the whole trauma from our front windows… which resulted in this video, courtesy of Yuhua …which made me laugh because it is so classic.  Parental Guidance is suggested.

Chicken Pot Pie

Savannah and I stayed up late last night making this recipe.  The estimated prep time was 30 minutes, but it took us 3 hours.  We had big plans for these pot pies – one for a friend, one for us, and the rest to take to the coast for our Lughesworth Thanksgiving weekend.  Would we recommend Ina Garten’s chicken pot pie recipe?  No -- At least not if we are the cooks.  The result was chicken pot soup and a very messy kitchen.  Thankfully the soup is tasty.

Halloween Loot

Since Halloween is on Sunday this year, we’ve begun our festivities early.  Last night was our ward Halloween party.  We missed the first part of the party because Yuhua and John had Chinese class, but we made it in time for the most important part – trick or treating through the hallways.  Everyone came home with a lot of loot and a sugar high.  I encouraged the kids to hide the candy from me.  John had asked me before the party why I had been eating the Halloween candy we were supposed to be giving away.  Well, I said, “Because I paid for it?”  Not a good excuse, I know, but I was just going to eat one miniature Whopper package, and that led to a few more, and then to a minature Hershey bar, and eventually the Kit Kats.  It was a slippery slope.  I obviously bought the Halloween candy too early this year.  The good thing is that I’m now sick of it and hope it disappears as quickly as possible.     

Our Halloween box has already moved to Idaho, but the kids managed to come up with some fun costumes.  Yuhua opted not to wear the disco wig that I was sure would be a big hit.  Instead he went as himself and still came home with a pile of candy. 

Hillbilly and Cowgirl

Football Player

Starfleet Officer

A small sampling of the loot.