It needs to be documented

Some of my family came to Texas to visit me this spring. (Cool new changes on blogger btw....trying to get adjusted here.) I am the Girls Camp director and Young Women Secretary in my ward. I wanted my sister to share her message with our YW as part of a camp kick-off activity and it went so well. She stayed for a week and we took advantage! We went shopping, we went to the beach, we ate some authentic Texan food, and talked and talked and talked. To see Amy's post about her trip go here. But I'm warning you it isn't pretty. 
Amy you need to come back! And bring your family with you next time!
       

About a week after my sister left, my parents and younger siblings came for their spring break. My sister flew here, but my parents and siblings DROVE. I was so impressed with their stamina. After driving for two long days (only one if you don't stop for the night...our preferred method) they arrived at 2:30 in the morning on Sunday. It was Easter Sunday and they came to sacrament meeting despite getting in so late. That particular meeting was special not only because it was Easter but because our ward has a tradition of doing an Easter program, similar to the Christmas programs done in other wards in our church. My husband is our ward choir director and he put together such a beautiful program. He arranged "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" for piano and flute as well as conducted our choir singing some beautiful songs about the resurrection. Do you go to ward choir? You should. It is the bomb. Plus every ward choir needs more singers--every single one--I guarantee it.

So here are some pics our time together. This is at a park in Brenham where the Blue Bell Factory is located. We did the factory tour which was fun...despite having to wait like an hour and a half. There were six elders there too...boy did they stick out!!!

This is my little sister (I know she looks older than me. She is 16). I love her a lot and somehow after every trip I take to Utah she seems to be the one I start missing first.

Here we are. The coolest of all the Salisbury children. Isn't my brother so good looking? :) He is 10.

The picture below is important for two reasons. One to show off our Blue Bell factory hats, and two to show off my little sister's gladiator sandals. Ooooh la la. But seriously I could never pull those off.

We rode the Bolivar ferry from Galveston and fed the birds Cheetos from the back of the boat. Pretty good picture despite my crummy camera.

We played on the beach where we learned that Parker (my little bro.) is quite a daredevil...whereas my parents have old-parent syndrome and were screaming his name from the sand to GET BACK HERE! I wish I had a picture of how far out my brother got, but I do have this picture of my little David having the time of his life.

Who is that? Hubba hubba.

We went to the Woodlands Waterway for some fun. My brother is an awesome uncle :).

We also went to NASA, The Holocaust Museum of Houston, the Galleria, and ate at some fantastic restaurants. More than half of the things we did were free. We fit my whole family in our home (and it was perfectly comfortable). If any friends or family are looking for a fun vacation, come see us! Mom, Dad, Rachel, Parker, and Amy, please come back soon!!!!!

Hay!

Yesterday the boys and I went outside and watched the hay get baled in our "backyard". It was a lovely day and quite picturesque--not to mention pretty stinkin cool to watch.





This is the first Texas spring that I have been absolutely in love with. Oh that all days were such perfect temperatures! I know it won't last long so I'm really trying to soak it up.

On Optimism

I am an optimistic person. But I realized that my posts on motherhood have taken a pessimistic spin lately. I love being a mom. I love staying at home with my children. That being said, I have hard days sometimes. I could post things on my blog that make me seem better than I am but I find it refreshing and renewing to reveal my life to others in a very honest way. Especially because I know how much it means to me to know that other moms have hard days too. So thank you for all of your sweet and encouraging comments on my previous post. I think there are loads of people that face things in their lives that are so much more difficult that I could even imagine. So I shouldn't complain about the harder aspects of my day-to-day life. But a few things that have been difficult for me is that I don't live near my parents and siblings. Some days I would give ANYTHING to have that outlet. Brian's job is demanding and it frequently keeps him busy on the weekends. But he will have the summer off. I'm realizing as I speak to other women that so many husbands have jobs that occupy way more of their time than what we as wives and mothers want. So I'm definitely not alone there. And Brian and I have figured out how to work the system. For example, I am going to the Houston Rockets game with him and his choir on Friday night. And Brian has talked to his boss about lightening the load a bit and that has helped.

So on to optimism:

David walks around the house and says "happy, happy, happy, happy" over and over. It makes me happy :).

We talk to our kids about the temple a lot. The other day we took David and Nathan to the Houston temple grounds. David loved it so much that he did NOT want to leave and ran up to the door and tried to go in before we could catch him. As we drove away from it he held out his arms to the temple and cried. It made me realize how you really can teach little children about things and they really do "get it".

Spring is here. Every time I go outside I am surrounded by beauty. I love my home. I love my borrowed backyard. The pasture is green and the grass is getting long and ripples in the wind. There is solitude and beauty where we live and I feel so blessed to be where I am. The birds come and sing to us and I get to teach my children about them. I'll take some pictures of what I'm talking about and post them sometime.

Most importantly, I have a peaceful assurance about how I am choosing to live my life. There is nothing I would rather be than a mother. There is nothing I would rather do than nurture my children every day. I can do anything in the strength of the Lord.

Trying to become a better mother

I am in need of advice from moms that have motherhood all figured out (I know most of us don't have it all figured out but this is being typed up with the hope that there might be).

I have two little kids. They are young. They are needy. After clawing my way through the first few months with two kids, I felt like I had things under control. They were both napping at the same time in the afternoon which helped give me time to do things alone. Sometimes I would do dishes. Sometimes I would read blogs. Sometimes I would nap. Sometimes I would shower. Sometimes I would exercise. I lived everyday for nap time. If I could just make it to 1:00 I would be okay. I was feeling so great that I decided to also wake up early to get a jump start on my day without the little ones. This gave me time to read scriptures, or to shower, or to exercise.

So that was the way it used to be. But now my kids wake up earlier and David won't seem to take his naps anymore. So I'm going to up the ante and wake up at 5:00 to fit in my exercising and shower before the kids get up. I will try to be patient with my toddler that refuses to sleep. I will put them to bed at 8:00 and go to bed myself at 9:00. That gives me one hour alone in the evenings and one hour in the morning before Brian goes to work. This is my schedule everyday. I have no holidays or weekends. I can't leave work. I have no time off. And it is taxing! Does anyone realize how much a mother gives? I know I didn't until I became one.

Mother of many, can you please tell me how you did it? I wanted a big family but after experiencing life with these precious little ones, I don't think I'm selfless enough to do what motherhood requires of me. How do you do it? Teach me so I can face my future with energy and hope and the family size that I wanted so long ago.

An Explanation

The post below requires an explanation. So for those of you that want it, here it is.

I was up early, 4:30 I think, with Nathan. When I got him back to sleep it seemed not long before David was up for the day. Nathan and David usually share a room but this time Nate was asleep in his pack and play in my bedroom. I put Barney in for David (can I just say I'm not a fan or Barney...I think its his voice) and I fell asleep on the couch. Pretty soon I heard Nathan crying and in my grogginess I told David to check on him. Sometimes they can entertain each other for a few minutes. David came back and got some toys for him and put them, as well as himself, in the pack and play. I fell back to sleep and woke up to David's face about two inches from mine saying that Nate had a dirty diaper...well is was more like "Mommy, Mommy, Maaaaaahhhhmy, Maaaaaahhhhmy, Nate! Nate! Poo-poo". So I gradually got myself up, deciding it was time I stop neglecting my children. When I went in and saw Nate I could not for the life of me figure out what had happened. Then David said "See! See!" and showed me how he threw Nathan's poopy diaper in the garbage. I realized at that moment that David had tried to change his little brother's diaper. What a helper.

Dear Husband,

Dear Husband of Mine,

I really love you. In fact, I love you so much that I would like to see more of you. I know that you've tried to fix what you can, and that you are home as much as you could possibly be, but we still miss you. I know you are doing great things for you job and your career. I know you are building our future. But while you are out doing this....


I am at home dealing with this...


So you can see how I really could use a little more of this...


Love,

That one lady that lives in your house

My Little Project

My neighbor was getting rid of a few things and brought me in to her garage to see if I wanted anything. I saw a cute old-fashioned play kitchen and hoped maybe it was on the list of giveaways. And it was! I knew I needed to tweak it a bit to make it more boyish. I also wanted to give it a bit of color. But I didn't really want to paint it. So I decided to line the shelves. I used scrapbook paper, contact paper, and a bit of double-sided tape. Super easy. And then I removed the little handles and spray painted them white.

BEFORE

AFTER

David loves it! He is a good daddy and also makes me food everyday.

Nothing like plastic green peas...mmmm. By the way, I got the food for a buck at the Target dollar spot. It was packaged in a cute mesh bag. A perfect fit for his new kitchen!