Life according to Angela – Page 79

Books!

Some books we read and what it did for our family

I learned from my mother to make time to read to children. My favorite memories of my mother are when she read to us, and my picture of motherhood wasn’t complete without reading books aloud. I haven’t been good about early bedtimes, perfect nutrition, and many other things, but I have been good about reading aloud.

There are some books on our shelf that I could probably say from memory: The Muppet Babies Book of Shapes; The Pokey Little Puppy; The Cat in the Hat; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. So few Caldecott and Newberry Award winners were among our favorites from early childhood! The Three Little Pigs, The Little Golden Book of Sounds, The Egg Book, and other simple stories were enough to keep our little people happy. Library trips would bring lavishly illustrated and poetically versed books to our home, but these weren’t the favorites of the very young. It was just Hop on Pop and The Three Little Kittens for us.

Reading calmed my children, gave us time to snuggle, and became part of the bedtime routine. One day in Texas I discovered that I could read to the children and think about other things at the same time. This time of mental escape when the kids were quiet and happy was a blessing. Although my mind sometimes wandered during the early years of Dr. Seuss books, I kept reading because my mother had done the same for me and I loved her for it.

Treasure Island, Johnny Tremain, The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are some of the books that I introduced to the kids at a young age. I noticed that my children have returned to these books on their own to enjoy them again. It doesn’t matter how old the children are, if it’s a good book, they’ll sit around and listen to me read it.

Some of my instinct to gather my children close around me is helped by good literature. I have grown closer to my children by giving 20 or 30 minutes at a time to read aloud. I’ve traveled through the stories with them and watched their wonder and laughter. As they grow older, I see that reading aloud is a good catalyst for conversation with kids who don’t feel like talking.

I hope each child carries a memory of me reading books aloud. I hope that when they think of me, they see me with a book not too far from reach. My personal reading has helped me in my parenting to be more informed, centered, and entertained. I’ve filled the house with books, ready for discovery and rediscovery. Having a house full of well-read books is one way that this quiet mother says, “I love you.”

When I asked the kids in 2015 which books they loved best from early childhood, this is the list they came up with:

A Bargain for Frances

Another Monster at the End of this Book

Are You My Mother?

Black Beauty

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Chrysanthemum

Corduroy

Dinosaur Days

Fire, Fire!

Firetruck

Goodnight Moon

Guess How Much I Love You

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

I Can Dress Myself

Jessica

Little Golden Books (any of them)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Muppet Babies Be Nice

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Richard Scarry’s Busy Workers

Royal Diaries Series: Queen Elizabeth

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch

Tell Me Again about the Night I Was Born

The Dot

The Hobbit

The Little Red Hen

The Lord of the Rings series

The Pea

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

The Raft

The Ugly Duckling

The Very Quiet Cricket

Tiki Tiki Tembo

The Austin Backyard

The Austin Backyard, 1998-2005

The jingle of the swings’ chains was a natural accompaniment to outdoor play in our Austin yard. Backs arching, toes reaching above the fence, eyes trained to catch glimpses of the field beyond the fence, Paige and Daniel soared. Days in Austin felt heavy with moist air and heat. Clouds, creating a blank white, arching cover on the skies, were a blessing because they shielded us from the sun.

When Paige began school, the poem, “The Swing” by Robert Lewis Stevenson was her first memorization project. She recited it on the swing with natural soaring expressions as her toes reached for the clouds.

There was a bucket swing for babies, with two holes for chubby legs. Baby Timothy’s feet, socks dangling from his toes as he kicked in his swing, are a detail from memory that I can only associate with him.

Parents of the neighbor children joined us to visit while their children played, our conversations sometimes interrupted by requests for an “underdog” where a parent would run beneath the child, lifting the child on the swing high above the head. For those moments when our children were in the swings, they were happy and their needs were simple.

In summer, the three crape myrtle tress along the back fence erupted into vivid pink blossoms; this vibrant color gleaned from such poor, shallow soil and heat was a miracle of Texas ingenuity.

Late afternoons and early evenings were best for backyard play because our west-facing house created full shade at this time of day. The heat wasn’t the only challenge in Texas. There were also fire ants. The swings kept young feet safe from the fire ants lurking in the dirt. These ants, with their mob-like dynamics of swarm-and-sting were the perpetual enemy. Turning on the hose was the fastest, surest way to remove fire ants when they bit and stung little feet and legs. Daniel’s reactions to ant bites were the most severe, and sometimes he would have pussy blisters between his toes. Sometimes the kids put on their long rubber boots to avoid ant bites as they played.

The large cement patio was always littered with sidewalk chalk, balls, and child-propelled vehicles. There was a plastic play house with a half door and windows with shutters. The patio was like a stage, elevated enough that we could see it from the field behind the house and the street, Bratton Lane beyond the field. Coming home from errands on Bratton Lane I could look to the patio and see our children playing outside.

As the children grew, we decided to add a trampoline to the yard. The swing set was dismantled when we moved to Arizona, in hopes that it would be rebuilt someday, but it wasn’t. There wasn’t enough space in our new yard. I called this one of the casualties of our move.

The trampoline remained a part of our yard in Arizona, but it became a casualty of our move to Utah. During the move, we unpacked the swings and placed them on the garage shelf, like a memorial. The hope that they will be used again dims each year. You will also find our trampoline poles in a pile in the backyard, the once happy trappings of childhood play, now just a haphazard monument to those earlier days.

Our yards in Arizona and Utah were beautiful and unique, but playing in Austin on the swings against the pink canvas of blossoming trees was a wonderful beginning.

Wasatch County field trip

Mark and I continued our quest to see new Utah counties by visiting Wasatch County. We went to Midway and Heber. It was a lot colder there than in Salt Lake and we drove past a small ice castle at the Homestead that was pretty. The Midway ice castle display wasn’t open when we were there. The Heber Railroad is closed most of January so we added that to our list of things we want to do another day.

Mark liked the Jordanelle Reservoir in its frozen beauty. We visited the Homestead Caldera and would have gone swimming except I can’t find my suit. So we just touched the warm water and said we will come back another day.

Richard finished his scuba training at the caldera just a few months ago and can’t wait to go back. In contrast, I can’t swim but have made a resolution to change that this year. Lucky me, life vests are required in the caldera.

Wasatch County is a beautiful place. Mark liked the old fashioned houses and all of the animal statuary in yards. I liked the tiny houses, too, and the ice skating rink in Midway called to me. How I love to skate.

Going on journeys to new places is one of my favorite things to do in “home” school.

Daniel, lately

Daniel got asked to the Sweethearts dance this weekend. Now comes the hard part: How to answer “Yes” to the dance in a creative, thoughtful way.

We attended Daniel’s rescheduled Christmas choir concert at the high school on a bleak midwinter evening in early January. I am always impressed by the choirs at Jordan High. The bell choir and Christmas songs were a welcome treat after two stark school days after a long winter break.

I appreciate Daniel’s chauffeur skills in the afternoons for his brothers. I like watching YouTube videos of Victor Borge with him, and I enjoy seeing his friends show up at the house for a movie night or study session. He is a good friend.

What I learned as I taught

I taught the Boy Scout Merit Badge class about Animal Science this week. Most of the Scouts were no longer teenagers. They were Scouts with disabilities and it was a stretch for me to prepare for a group with such diverse needs. The things that worked best were storytelling (my lizard story and my sheep story) and using pictures I projected on a huge screen. I invited a young girl in my neighborhood to come along with me to teach a portion of the lesson about chickens and they LOVED hearing her speak.

These are a few things that I observed that night.

1. Smiling is contagious.

2. The Scoutmaster of many years was leaving them and a new Scoutmaster was being assigned. When the announcement was read, many Scouts came out of their seats to hug the man who was leaving. The Scoutmaster could hardly speak because he was so sad to go. I found myself wishing I was less inhibited about showing appreciation for people.

3. The young men who serve each week as “buddies” for these Scouts are the ones learning the most powerful lessons, not the Scouts to whom they are assigned. I hope my sons get a chance to serve in this way someday.

4. One Scout walked in carrying a DVD about the Church. With an enormous smile, he came up to individuals, one by one, to show them his treasure. “Look!” he would say, with such enthusiasm, that each of us felt excitement for his movie, too. If that’s not the essence of what we ought to be doing with our associates in sharing the gospel, I don’t know.

5. Rarely have I felt such connection to people so quickly as I did in that room.

6. I observed the leaders who come each week and saw a calmness in their countenances. I think this must come because they were in a place the Savior would choose to be and doing the things the Savior would be doing if he were here.

7. Little Avery, a fifth grader, showed more poise under pressure than I see in most adults. We can ask children to do hard things.

8. I still love teaching science.

Calm down.

This is what I need to do to calm down. It involves several things.

Keep my relationship with my Heavenly Father as my first priority.
Breathe more deeply more often.
Allow for differences in approaching a problem.
Don’t interpret positives as negatives. Instead of wishing more could be done, see every small act as a positive.

Christmas 2015

1-DSC_0039 — Nativity kids at my parents’ place in Spring Lake on Christmas Eve

1-DSC_0021 — The smallest shepherd with his sheep. This is my nephew and this is my favorite picture from Christmas. Richard got a new camera. so we have no photographs of him because he was the photographer.

1-DSC_0036 — No worries, this angel is pretty cool. This is the last photo of the younger boys because they received video games for Christmas and we didn’t see much of them after that.

1-DSC_0045 — Paige was with us again and Daniel was the piano man providing background music.

1-choir — Richard and Daniel participated in the ward choir. Photo from Janine Clarke

1-DSC_0052 — View from the front porch on Christmas morning

1-DSC_0051 — We had no place to go, so it was great.

1-DSC_0055 — Sitting in this chair, bundled up and cozy, I watched the entire Roosevelt documentary series over two weeks. 14 hours, people. Richard and Paige joined me for the last 10 hours. I often bundle up like this in the house.

Paige's paint doodles — Paige’s paint doodles

1-DSC_0073 — For the upstairs tree we used mostly red and white ornaments and it was one of the prettiest trees we’ve ever had.

2-DSC_0053 — Richard was eventually able to dig us out.

Let’s learn something from the “selfie” generation

Soon after my call to be a Relief Society president, I felt the need to compile a photo directory for the women in my congregation. Many sisters don’t know one another. I didn’t know many of them! We began taking photos in August during activities. I asked Tiffany, who is fearless and has a nice camera, to lead out. I had no idea what a challenge this project would be. In the end, Tiffany, my presidency (Charlene, Cindy, and Kristy), and I had to really extend ourselves to make this happen.

Most women in my congregation, bless their hearts, love every one, are not of the selfie generation. Every photo in this directory, minus a small handful and those I stole from Facebook, seemed to invoke real pain in the person being photographed.

“Can you wait until I lose 20 pounds?” asked more than one sister.

“Let’s just not do this. No, I don’t take photographs.”

“No, please don’t take my picture. And no, I don’t have any photos of myself in my phone that I can send you.”

“I hate that photo of myself.”

“You will NOT use that photo of me. I’m sending you a different one.”

“<silence>” when I begged via email, text, and in person.

To confess, I didn’t love looking at my photo in the directory either. But with each text or email I received with a photo attached I felt celebration well up within me. As I compiled the document on my computer, I had a powerful experience. These women are beautiful! They are each so unique and talented. How I admire each of them. Looking at their pictures all together I felt swept away by how much strength I saw.

Yesterday when we handed out the directories at church, all I heard was how the sisters hated their individual photographs. As disappointing as this is, I still feel a surge of power and love when I look into their faces in the directory. I think they will, too, once the shock of seeing their individual photographs goes away.

What can we learn from the “selfie” generation? We can learn to not take ourselves so seriously. When we smile for a photograph, we are sharing light. You can see it, can’t you?

Christmas cheer

I don’t have much to say about last week, which included a death in the family, a basement flood, a canceled vacation to visit family, a funeral, and blizzards to drive through, except that we are still smiling. The role of the Savior in our lives has everything to do with it.

I shopped for religious, non-photo Christmas cards in many places this year. Most were too expensive for my budget. I read recently that we should reevaluate how we use our family pictures as Christmas cards. Sometimes a person in mourning doesn’t want to see a smiling, complete family in a Christmas card. And if we are celebrating Christmas, where is the Savior in such a card? I have decided that the Savior is in our smiles. He is in the growth that we have accomplished during the year. He is in the beauty of the surroundings, and the source of joy in our lives. Truly, we smile because of Him.

Merry Christmas, dear readers. Smile, give cheer, and rejoice. The Savior lives.

Grandpa

I was blessed to have 41 years of time with my Grandpa Stewart. I will miss my grandpa’s deep blue eyes, funny stories, requests for violin music, boots, and the way he always talked about his wife JoAnn. On the night that he died, I lay in bed awake, remembering his voice speaking her name, again and again over the years. Oh, how he loved her! That’s my favorite part of who he was…and is.