A Clean House

I am a pretty clean and organized person. I always have been. My mom used to LOVE leaving me home by myself for any length of time because she knew when she got back the house would be set straight. I get up in the morning and get to my "picking up" routine, and it's kind of hard to me to relax at night if the living room (where I am trying to relax) is covered in toys and empty cups and shoes that children have tossed here and there. So I take 5 minutes and pick up like a mad woman so that then I can sit in that room without each little thing nagging me to put it away. And I'll have to admit - I'm pretty darn fast. Maybe it's just part of me, maybe it's my years and years of cleaning houses for earn money (through high school and college), maybe it's the fact that I know me: I know I like it a certain way and since I don't want to spend half my life cleaning (who does?) I just get right down to business. But even still, when you have 4 children 8 years old and under and a husband it's one of those never-ending things in life. The house ALWAYS needs something. I don't want to be one of those crazy, nagging mothers/wives who constantly need the house to look perfect - I mean, come on, we do live in it, so I have my routines: deep cleaning Monday morning, quick once-over other mornings and then a family pick-up time in the evening (short and fast) plus other little things here and there. It's still a pretty special day when you can say "the whole house is clean." I mean, is it really....ever? Well my friends, I think today is my day. My whole house is clean: vacuumed, swept, bathrooms scrubbed, floors mopped, dusted, picked up, windows washed, etc, etc. We are renting and getting ready to renew our lease, so the property management company just wanted to take a quick look at the inside (completely understandable). We've only lived in a house long enough to have this happen one other time. Both times I knew I was totally over-cleaning: these people were certainly not going to look at the top shelf of my daughters' closet, but still - I made sure the clothes were folded nicely up there. And I was right - a person can get a good idea if you are taking care of the property with about two glances around. And that's mostly what she did. Glanced here and there. Said it looked good and headed out. Kind of a little disappointing. But I'll sit and revel in my clean house - which won't look so clean by this evening, let's just be honest. Maybe I'll send the kids outside to play for the day......Hmmm...and then I can revel while I fold laundry (WAIT - I guess that means I still have something to clean - one of those other never-ending tasks of family life). Oh well - I was close.

Independence Day

We had a pretty simple 4th of July this year. Sean left early that morning for Scout Camp, so he wasn't with us for the festivities. We had our traditional barbeque with homemade ice cream on Sunday as a family. On the actual holiday the girls painted our toenails in patriotic style, the kids swam in the jacuzzi and then we went to the home of a family in the ward. We had a tasty barbeque, the kids jumped on the trampoline and in the jumper castle. They also played on a slip and slide and had a blast running around with all the other kids. We didn't want to leave early to go to Albuquerque to see the fireworks, so instead we just headed home and put a couple of mattresses out on the deck and slept under the stars. We saw a few shooting stars and satellites, so that was our sky action for the day (it was the first time in LOTS of years that we didn't see fireworks, but it was a great day anyway).

The Big Day

Caelan was baptized on June 18, 2011. It was a wonderful day. Grandpa and Grandma Dick came in to town. Great Grammy Dick also came as well as Tom and Carolyn and Rachel. We also had Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen with Kyra, Preston and Jesse. The program started at 11:00 AM. Grandpa Dick gave the talk on baptism. Kyra gave the talk on the Holy Ghost (and related it to the story of Pinocchio - very cute). Ben and Megan sang, "I am a Child of God." It was short and sweet and perfect. Sean both baptized Caelan and confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint and gave her a blessing in which she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Both Grandpas stood in as well as Bro. Crozier (from the bishopric), Bro. Pearce (our home teacher) and Bro. Gardiner (the ward mission leader). My heart was full the whole day: to look at this growing daughter of mine and see that she is old enough to make her own decisions and be accountable for them. And I felt so grateful that she is able to make these covenants (and that she knows what she is covenanting to do) and have the companionship of the Holy Ghost to guide her throughout her life. It was wonderful. We had a fun, family barbeque at the house afterwards.