How I Spend My Time

My sister-in-law Michelle keeps a running tally of laundry loads on her blog.  I thought it might be interesting to keep track of a few of the things that make up a very large part of my daily life (and thus prevent me from spending much time doing the things I really want to do such as reading.) Anyhow, this is how things turned out for the entire month of March.

Loads of laundry:  65

Dishwasher loads:  29

Diaper changes:  91

Sixty-five loads of laundry in 31 days including all of the sorting, folding and putting away that goes along with it!  (No wonder I'm tired.)  I think I saved myself a couple of dish loads by traveling and having a Sunday dinner at my Mom's, because in general the dishwasher has to be run everyday.  I'm not entirely sure if the diaper count is accurate.  That was the hardest thing for me to keep track of because I just didn't remember to mark it down everytime I changed a diaper.  Now I just need to figure out a way to cut back on all that laundry...

Conference Sunday Beignets

Along with being able to stay home and watch church on t.v., one of our favorite parts of conference Sunday is our breakfast of beignets.  For those of you unfamiliar with these tasty little treats, they are french doughnuts.  Little bits of dough fried in oil and covered with powdered sugar.  (There's a reason we only eat these 3 times a year - Christmas being the only other time that we indulge.)  In New Orleans you would find these to be square shaped, but in the Stringham home, they are shaped to fit the occasion.  On Christmas, they are shaped as trees, Santas, stars, reindeer, etc., and at conference time they are shaped as beehives, covered wagons, temples and angels, with some hearts and stars thrown in for fun.  As you can see, the whole family pitches in to help.   We have finally learned to not bother with Saturday night baths and instead give post beignet baths - for obvious reasons.  Despite all of our best efforts, everything and everyone gets covered with flour and/or powdered sugar, but it's fun for everyone, and no one complains about the post breakfast "sugar lips".

The Princess Turns Four

I don't quite know how it happened, but my little Amelia isn't so little anymore.  I can't believe she is four!  She has been talking about her birthday for months (as all little kids do) and has been very specific about having a princess birthday with a princess cake and exactly which princesses should be on it.  Plus, she wanted 2 purple balloons, 2 pink balloons and 1 princess balloon.  Of course, I obliged.  She was very excited to have her Grandmas and Grandpas and Aunts, Uncles and Cousins come and share in the festivities.

I really can't believe how quickly she is growing up.  Considering that I've been changing diapers daily for the past 91/2 years, sometimes I get caught up in the slowness of the days and don't realize how quickly time is flying by.  I am trying to enjoy these days as much as I can with these sweet little girls, because Jonas is already so big, I feel like I missed out on a lot of the enjoyment aspect with him since I was so busy learning how to be a mom.  (This does not mean that I have yet learned how to be a good mom - somewhere along the way, I figured out I would always be learning.  We'll see if I ever achieve.)

Anyway, Happy Birthday Amelia!

The Rest of Easter Weekend

As per our request to the Easter Bunny, he came and filled the Easter baskets and hid the eggs on Saturday morning.  The kids enjoyed hunting for their baskets and eggs and spent the morning playing with the fun things they got.  We spent the afternoon at the dinosaur tracks and then went swimming at the pool with the rest of the city.  We also made a stop in the ghost town of Grafton on our way back from Zion on Friday.   Our kids were remarkably good despite the lack of sleep and constant busyness of the weekend.  We were all very sad to have to return home.  We were really enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, but all good things must come to an end I suppose.

Easter Weekend

For spring break, we took a little trip to St. George.  We spent a day hiking at Zion.  I couldn't believe how pleasant and happy the kids were.  I kept asking Shawn,  "What's going on here?  Who's kids are these?"  Most of our outings result in a great deal of whining and crying by at least one, if not all of the kids at one time or another.  They all did a great job hiking and seemed to have fun.  We hiked the Emerald Pools, and it was beautiful. It gave us hope that we may actually be able to do this a little more regularly - and enjoy it.  (At some point in our hiking past, it was determined that one of our children - I won't mention names here - would never be invited to hike again.  I think we may have overcome that particular obstacle.  Hooray for the Stringham children!  (This doesn't mean that we are yet ready for general public appearances.  This whole weekend may have just been a fluke.  Only time will tell.)

My Accomplishment

I realize there are many of you out there who are real runners and therefore would find my accomplishment something to laugh at, but for those of us who plod along at a 10 minute per mile pace (maybe 9:30 on a good day), going faster is something to be proud of.  Last night Shawn dragged me on a little 3 mile run that I managed to finish in 24 minutes and 52 seconds!  If my calculations are correct then I ran at just under an 8:20 pace!  That's huge for me.  Granted I could barely breathe, and had to stop to walk in the middle just to catch my breath so I could stay upright, but still, quite an accomplishment for me.  It gives me hope that I may still be able to improve.  Maybe by the time I'm 80, I can win an age group title.

The Leprechauns Strike Again

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As with past years, we awoke this morning to the fun of a visit from some friendly leprechauns during the night. Fortunately, they weren't too destructive.  They left green shamrocks and stars spread around  the bedrooms and hanging from the ceilings, and hid chocolate coins all around the house. (I was kind of hoping for some real gold, as I have quite a list of projects that need some funding, but oh well.)

The kids spent the morning searching for the coins while munching on shamrock sugar cookies.

(Cookies for breakfast is not a common occurence here -  and I feel a little bad about sending them off to school on a sugar high, but what's the point of a holiday if it isn't different from the rest of the days?) The leprechauns even left a box of Lucky Charms on the front porch! (because we all know St. Patrick's Day isn't complete without some lucky charms - after all, they're magically delicious!)

So, now I need to go and clean up the mess and all of the St. Patrick's Day decorations and get ready for Easter, so that the Easter Bunny will still remember to stop by in a few days. (As if we 

haven't had enough sugar already!)

An Irish Blessing (courtesy of my Aunt Ginny)

May you be blessed always with

A sunbeam to warm you,

A moonbeam to charm you,

A sheltering angel so nothing will harm you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!