The View From Here: thoughts on a sunday

On Tuesday when it started snowing we didn't waste any time getting dressed. We ran right out to catch a few snowflakes on our tongues before it stopped. That little bit you see there on the dirt is about all that survived.

You know, it's hard to get back to blogging after the holidays. SO much to catch up on and so many things I haven't written about.

I've been thinking a lot about writing, actually. Sometimes when I'm feeling something- like really feeling something- I almost feel like I'm suffocating until I write it down and let it out. I have a whole other blog for that. But I've just been thinking about how grateful I am for that outlet in my life. That writing makes me feel better. That writing is something I love to do.

I'm happy Christmas is over. I'm really happy the week between Christmas and New Years is over. I'm ready to get to January. Lets just do this already. Back to normal, whatever that is. For me, it's constantly changing.

Lets talk about Layla for a second. I love that little child like you can't believe, but guess what? She's bugging me. She is going a bit crazy with her sleeping schedule. I blame myself. But some days she'll nap the way she usually does/is supposed to, and then other days (a lot of other days) she is totally unpredictable and weird with her naps. Then there's night time. Some nights she sleeps through the night, and some nights she gets up twice. I never know what I'm going to get. Some days she will only fall asleep in her swing and other days she goes down just fine in her bed. Layla! Make up your mind! What to do. . .what to do. . .?

She's really cute though. I like her.

Just about the cutest thing that I discovered this week was how Ellery tells secrets. McKay whispered in my ear (that he wanted a piece of candy) and Ellery immediately jumped to my other ear and started whispering nonsense. She thinks a secret is just making noise in someone's ear. I love this. She can tell me a secret any day.

Today in church someone bore their testimony about looking back on the year 2010 and recognizing all the blessings that came from it. This touched me. I feel like 2010 was a pretty yucky year for me, but can't deny that some of the most amazing blessings came from all that yuckiness. I would not have experienced such powerful personal and spiritual growth without the challenges of 2010. They were worth it. I recognize that Heavenly Father gives us trials and hardships for many reasons, but perhaps most of all to give us the opportunity to grow. It's sometimes hard to view trials this way, but for me, knowing that makes them easier to bare. And none of us are spared from challenges in this life. That's kind of what it's all about. It's not a very good test if it's easy.

The other night Ellery came into our room at like three in the morning. Okay, so I guess it was the other morning. Anyway, we told her she would get a big time out the next day if she didn't go back to bed. She climbed up on the bed and I continued to remind her about the time out. She hates time out. A lot. So she laid there for a few seconds, then silently got up and left the room. Brian and I mumbled something to each other about how impressed we were that our time out tactic had worked and went back to sleep. About a minute later we heard her stomping back down the hall. She burst into our room and yelled, "Mom and dad- you guys are nuts!" and then stomped back out and back to bed.

Layla doesn't like tummy time. I feel like I missed the boat on that for her. I missed that boat with my other kids too. I'm not a good tummy time mom. From experience, at least I know she will survive.

Our kids are finally back to themselves. They had a serious naughty streak earlier this week and I was about to move to a hotel and leave them here to fend for themselves. They would feed off each other and just could not stop being naughty.

For example, on the way to tithing settlement they were out of control and would not stop making annoying noises no matter what we said. Then, in the bishop's office, Ellery hit me twice. . .like calculated, premeditated, exaggerated hits. I wanted to laugh and get mad at her at the same time. I could do neither. I just kept smiling and acted like nothing was wrong.

McKay gave a talk in primary today. He memorized the first sentence. That's pretty much all we could do. After he said the first line, which was "The eighth Article of Faith says," he started ad-libbing a bit, "the scriptures are. . ." and that's when I quickly began whispering the rest of his talk in his ear. Reminds me of when he was a little sunbeam and tried to wave Brian off from helping him with his talk like, "No dad, I got this." He's not shy in front of a microphone, that's for sure.

Brian and I have been having a holiday Rocky fest. You should probably know that Rocky is like scripture in the Matthews house. Not really, but kind of. The boys and even the girls were raised on those movies and they're quoted or talked about quite often. Um, pretty sure some of the music from the movies could make several of the Matthews' men cry. Don't tell them I told you. Anyway, we're on number five, but Brian tells me that five is stupid and we won't watch it. It's outlawed around here, I guess. So just one more to go. So far, my favorite has been two and I think Rocky looks the most handsome in four. Just sayin'.

Layla is sure a smiley girl but we hardly get any giggles from her. I do love when she sings to me in the morning though. I think she's imitating the word "hi" which is what we say to her a lot in a sing-song voice. But she'll say it over and over again. It's pretty much very precious.

Um, I really don't know how to fit all the kids new Christmas stuff into their room. Their room is a mess. There is stuff everywhere, and we usually don't keep "stuff" out in their room. Bugging me big time.

I took the Christmas decorations down on Wednesday. Doing it by myself with three little "helpers" means it took me literally ALL day. Part of taking down Christmas means throwing away the gingerbread houses. I gave the kids five minutes to eat as much off their houses as they wanted. Gross, but they thought it was very exciting. They didn't even last five minutes before they were done.

I haven't talked much about Brian. We've enjoyed having the last two Fridays together, which made for two four-day weekends in a row. He's still chugging along everyday, working without getting paid, basically.

We didn't have any plans for New Years day and it was too cold to go anywhere outside with a baby, so I said, "Why don't we just stay in and hang out here. You can watch some football." I forgot that "some football" means football all day. I thought he may have melted into the couch, but don't worry, he didn't.