Weekly Review

Surprising stuff: Magic Beans! I went out to pull out the bean plants and chuck them over the fence and lo and behold!!! More beans! Did anyone know about this? Have I been pulling my bean plants too early all this time? I am so excited! Twice the the beans for my bellah! I say 'my' because I am the only one willing to partake of the beans. That's ok..they don't know what they're missing.

Mangos! Turns out I am over the moon for mangoes. Who knew? I bought one last week and it was like manna from heav-un. Oh baby. I had only had one mango before this and it was served to me by one David Cullen, a trucker living in Phelan, California. All I remember was that the peal and the core were not easily removed from the fruit with your fingers. It was a total mess. If you don't remove the peal from the fruit (with a knife) you are forced to dig it out with your teeth. I don't need to tell you how unattractive this can be. Shiver. So armed with this memory, I took a knife to my mango and I will never be the same! Oh sweet Martha! Mangolicious.

Progress: My Mathew has gone 5 ...count them....5 whole days without inflicting pain on anyone. Hooray! Way to go buddy! Only 23 more to go and you are in Kung Fu Panda heaven.


Parenting "Duh": It occurred to me this week that I've been treating all my children as if they were the same age. Somewhere along the way I forgot that Megan is only 3. I forgot that at that age they need a little more silliness, racing, tickling, and pretending. Ethan is at an age where he likes to "discuss" and reason things out. I've been expecting Megan to fall in line the way Ethan and Mathew do. Maybe because when Laney was born I really needed cooperation and tried to minimize the work by raising my expectations for the kids in general. I see now that Megan wasn't able to be her age and was acting out because of it. So this week I've tried to change my approach with her. Amazing! She's a new kid. She is laughing and hugging and talking to me. She is returning to the happy girl I had before. Lesson learned: I'm the problem.

Remembering me: I also remembered how much I love to cut wood. Love it! Doesn't it smell amazing! I've been working on cutting nativity sets for our ward's "Project Day" (Super Saturday in disguise) and I am truly enjoying just sitting out in the garage cutting away. There is nothing like a nicely sanded piece of unpainted wood. I think I'm going to start making puzzles again. hmmm...