A friend was talking to me about how important it is to catch our children at the crossroads: waking up, going off to school, coming home from school, dinner and bedtime. She said how important it is to be excited and cute with them at these times. I agreed and have been making a conscious effort to not try and rush my boys out the door or into bed and enjoy them more. It's been a good thing, but then I started thinking about my husband.

As I came home from a three-day girl's trip I was so excited to see my sweetheart and my boys and love and kiss them, but my husband was exhausted, the kids were asleep and I felt a bit of letdown. It made me wonder how often my honey comes in the door from work and instead of hugging and kissing I slam him with my hard day and I whine and complain.

Now girls I'm not saying there isn't a place to share how hard our day was, but it really hit me hard that I didn't want to come home to an unhappy family, so how fair was it that he quite often comes home to a frustrated wife. I'm trying to do better - I give him at least five minutes of smiles and a nice kiss before I launch into my complaints!

Just something to think about. Next time your sweetie walks in the door - an hour later as usual - hug and kiss him and maybe wait until he takes his tie off before asking if he's heard of the amazing new technology, a little thing I like to call a cell phone.

I went to BYU Women's Conference last weekend. It was tremendous. I got excited about loving everyone and being the Mom of the year. I suppose I'm being a bit idealistic, but I really am going to do better. Here's my plan. Instead of praying each night for patience, then being frustrated when it doesn't happen, I have to pray in each situation.
For example, in the morning I pray to be nice to my son until he goes to school. When that works I say thank you for the help. Then I pray before he gets out of school and do good until dinner, etc. etc. What do you think? At least I have a game plan. That's better than I was doing before.
Really, the speakers at Women's Conference were amazing. I went to Dean Hughes and John Bytheway and bawled and laughed. It was great. Something Dean Hughes said hit me hard, "We're all on the same team," he said. "We're not in competition with each other, we're in competition with the devil."
It's funny, because I am not a competitive person, but still it's not always easy to hope the best for everyone and speak positively about everyone, but that's what I should be doing. Building others up and not wasting my time gossiping (even though it's fun sometimes!).
Anyway, I could type for hours about all the great speakers. One lady (can't remember her name) said she tried to remember that whatever she was going through was just minutes in the eternal perspective. It helps to look at it that way when things are hard.
I love you all and hope I don't offend any of you with what I type on here. I was a bit judgmental about the t.v. issue last time. Maybe you should say back to me - turn off your flipping computer, then. It's pretty much the same thing, isn't it? So, I'm back on my strict rules - no computer unless the kids are asleep, at school or playing with their cute daddy. These kiddos are too fun and too important to not enjoy. One of the speakers kept saying, "You've got to cherish the good times because the bad are coming." That sounds negative, but I don't think of it that way. We're all going to have hard times, but we need to be cherishing and storing up the good memories.
I'll stop rambling so you can go play with your little ones. Have a great day!

I'm a real flake with this blog. The fitmomma blog is so much easier because I know I have to post a workout everyday. I usually only post to this one when I really have something important to say. Which obviously is not very often! Yes, the brains have turned to mush and the only thing I do is smile at my baby and say, "You are so cute."

Okay. So I'm trying to think of something awe-inspiring to share with all of you. Uh-huh. I don't have that much time to think, so today I'm going to talk about The Princess Bride. When was the last time you watched that movie? It's a classic. My honey and middle son are on vacation in Moab, so my eight-year old, the baby and I went to Salt Lake to play at Gateway last night. We got home late and because I'm a cool mom (I don't know how to say no when I'm tired!) We decided to watch Princess Bride. I remembered why I loved Wesley as a teenager and my son loved all the fighting. He had to close his eyes for the Pit of Despair, I kind of forgot about the torture scenes.

The reason I'm telling you this is it reminded me how much fun a movie can be. I rarely watch television. I know I'm a psycho and most people spend their lives connected to the green glow, but I can't stand it. If I have extra time I play with my boys. If my boys are asleep, I write or read. But once in a while we watch a movie and I laugh and cry and fall in love and I think there might be something good out of Hollywood.

So my point is, all things are good in moderation. I don't think television, computers and Nintendos are evil, but when people squander their free time on them I think it's pretty sad. As I exercised yesterday morning the radio was on and all the morning show was about was who got voted off American Idol the night before. Come on, people. There's got to be something better to do than live your life vicariously through the television. Go on a walk, play a card game, read a book, visit a friend, talk to your family without something blaring in the background.

Now I'm preaching and you might be wishing I hadn't posted today. I'm a bit opinionated about the tv obviously. You don't have to listen to anything I say, but please, if you have children, don't let their childhood slip away while you watch American Idol. That's pretty sad in anybody's book.

I'm almost sick from my chocolate binge and I still don't have the Easter surprises ready. I think something needs to be done about holidays. A standard for parents if you will. How many of you have heard that Santa Claus isn't fair because the neighbor kids got twenty presents and your kids got two? The other night we had a sleepover and my son's friend lost a tooth. I had to call his parents on vacation and see what their tooth fairy did for lost teeth. Luckily it was what we did, so our boys didn't get confused.

So here's my suggestions. Maybe we could do a poll, take the median and institute it as law.

Christmas - Santa brings two presents and fills the stocking. If you want to give more than that, you must clearly label the gifts from Mom and Dad.
Easter - The bunny brings treats, a book and some small prizes like bubbles or sidewalk chalk. (Don't ask about the baseball mitts, balls and teeball stand my boys are getting tomorrow, If Dad does the shopping the rules are obliterated.)
The Tooth Fairy - One dollar per tooth (Unless you forget and then the tooth fairy has to make serious restitution. I know about this, it's happened twice.)

I'm too tired at the moment to think of other holidays were goofy, fake things come into our homes and leave prizes for our children, but if you've got any suggestions for ways to standardize these kind of events I would surely appreciate them.

Have a Happy Easter and please don't forget the real reason we celebrate this holiday.

I've been reading a really good book by Virginia Pearce, I believe it is. It's an experiment about treating people with an open heart instead of a closed one. At first I was a bit skeptical, but I've really tried it and it's been good, especially with my kids. I've tried to answer them with a nicer voice when they ask something, or really listen when they're talking to me, or smile and laugh with them whenever I can. Amazingly enough, my eight-year old hasn't been so moody.

Sometimes I get really bored playing with my kids, but if I think about opening my heart and realize someday soon they won't ask me to play (sooner if I tell them no too much). I really want to be part of their lives and I want them to like being around me.

I heard a really great talk over the weekend. An elder in our church, Jeffrey R. Holland, spoke about speaking with the tongue of an angel. It's so very hard, but such an amazing difference in our house when I speak softly and kindly instead of yelling and being impatient like I often do.

I shouldn't make myself out to be a bad mom. I really enjoy my kiddos and we are happy, but I'm sure you'll all understand when you're late for school once again and you ask them to hurry ten times, on the eleventh time you raise your voice. I'm not sure how I'm going to get them to school on time, but I'm sure me raising my voice doesn't make them move any faster, it just gets them to school thinking they have an ornery mom.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for talking nicer and opening your heart to your children. I'd love to post some ideas that could help us all.