Letters from Home – Page 169 – A blog by Angela Ross

I love you; Zarahemla, and an anniversary

Dear Reader,

First, have I told you lately how amazing you are? Well, you’re amazing, and the best little online community. You are family, our friends from living in different states, and recently, you are friends in our Utah neighborhood.

I love you, Texas! (Not the fire ants. You hurt my babies.) I love you, Arizona! (Not the heat. You nearly killed me.) I love you, Utah! (Not the inversion) I love you, friends in many other places!

Since I’m an introvert and won’t make a phone call, please know that I think of you as I write. This blog is mostly a love letter to family and friends. My older kids read the blog faithfully, and this makes me feel like I can still be their teacher and their friend when I have fallen asleep before anyone’s bedtime (last night…and often) or other times when I’ve created other motherhood epic fail moments.

Next, let’s talk about the book of Mosiah in The Book of Mormon. Don’t worry, it’s just a little sermon.

Most classes I have attended about Mosiah include a big diagram of groups of people from different origins, some splintering off for a time, but everyone coming together in the land of Zarahemla. The details make me tired, so I normally skim Mosiah 25 when all the groups come together.

But last week I didn’t skim and I finally learned a lesson from Mosiah 25. You have all of these groups, and they’ve been through a lot, and everyone has something to share. They gather and take time to listen to one another’s stories. As they listen, they begin to see patterns of the Lord’s hand in their lives. I focused on the emotions they felt as they try to blend their cultural backgrounds and understand experiences. They feel awe, joy, pain, joy and pain. Amazingly, this sharing (and allowing themselves to feel for others) becomes a catalyst for developing concern not just for one another, but for their enemies.

So in real life, I’m a member of a community and a church, and I visit neighbors and I try to be friendly in my own way. I grow in my capacity to love people who are different as I listen.

I haven’t been much of a listener to my “virtual” community. My biggest request from readers is that I should allow comments. Perhaps we have missed some opportunities to grow in friendship because I’ve done all of the sharing.

I’m celebrating the fifth anniversary of this blog on Sunday. It’s growing up and I’m going to allow comments this year. Your opinions and experiences range over a full spectrum; you’re delightful people; I enjoy hearing from you. If you don’t feel like sharing, that’s okay, too. There will be no guilting for comments and I’ll be nice if you disagree with me, but take a few hours to consider whether to be harsh. If that isn’t long enough, take a year to consider. I’m very sensitive.

Happy fifth anniversary, little blog. I’ve written nearly 950 posts. Some of you have read every word. Thank you. The posts are saturated with ideas and whims, family activities and memories, and it’s grown beyond my original vision for it. I’ve grown a bit, too. And let’s not forget how many inches the kids have grown since we began writing about our lives.

Happy fifth anniversary-of-being-brave-and-sharing-thoughts-online to me!

Happy General Conference weekend with love,

Angela

Time Management for Creative Types

Is it Friday yet? I am feeling the drain from the week already. I need a day of creativity, a nap, and some time outside to refuel.

Just after I wrote that post about managing time and housework, a friend posted a link to a blog post which showed graphics by RJ Andrews of some research done by Mason Curry about how great thinkers managed their time. It was fascinating.

Here are a few graphics by RJ Andrews from that post, and the link to the original post is here: From Mozart to Dickens: How history’s greatest thinkers managed their time. The graphics show the day divided into 24 hours, with 6 a.m. in the “3 o’clock” position and 6 p.m. in the “9 o’clock” position.

There are many more examples on the website. Walks, naps, meditation, and some time to socialize seem to be important elements to a creative life. Balance seems to be one of the things that I am always working to achieve with my time. Of course it take effort for me to carve out time for exercise, but oddly enough, I have to force myself to sit for 30 minutes or so when it’s lunchtime and rest a bit. Why is rest and creativity difficult to justify?

Kitchen Day

To really keep a home clean, I need a schedule of jobs to follow. I know there are fancy systems and motivational email lists to which people subscribe that can help, but I like my simple list of daily jobs and weekly jobs.

Here are a few of my daily cleaning guidelines. If I do these things, I don’t feel like things are out of control.

Make the bed as soon as I get up. Remind the kids to do the same.
Clean up the kitchen after each meal. Kids put dishes directly in the dishwasher after meals.
Keep the formal living room clean. This is the only room that most people see when they come to the door.
Take out the kitchen trash each night. It’s icky to wake up to a house that smells like a dump. Amen.

These are just guidelines. If there are dishes in the sink as I run out the door to do something, I don’t beat myself up. If all I do before I run out the door in the morning is make my bed, wow, what a difference that makes when I come home. Simple habits can be powerful helps to us.

To maintain our home, I follow a weekly schedule. I try to involve the kids. If I miss deep cleaning a room one week, it’s no big deal. Next week will come around soon enough. This is just a framework.

Monday: laundry, mudroom
Tuesday: living areas (dust, vacuum, clean glass) and bathrooms (deep clean, mop)
Wednesday: kitchen deep cleaning (mop, clean crevices and appliances)
Thursday: shopping (I actually shop two days a week, but this is often the big Costco day.)
Friday: bedrooms and sheets (The kids clean, dust, and vacuum their bedrooms. I change and wash the sheets.)
Saturday: craft room, garage, incidentals

I do laundry on other days, too, and we’ll clean bathrooms, vacuum, and clean other areas multiple times a week. However, having this framework, I can be sure that things aren’t neglected for long.

I LOVE a clean, uncluttered house, but it’s not the most important thing. I err on the side of clutter in certain corners of the house because I like to read more than I need a clear desk; I like to write more than I need a vacuumed car. I LOVE working with my family on the house. Industrious kids are an ideal for me.

Life is about choices, but a simple framework can help make a clean home possible along with all of the other things that we do. Of course, this phase of life that I am in allows for this kind of framework. When I have been sick for weeks and weeks at a time, and when the kids were young, my cleaning guidelines were a lot different! When I was home schooling, thorough cleaning only happened on Saturdays. However, simple cleaning habits have been helpful to me in whatever phase of life I am in.

Hearing people’s routines is fascinating to me. Do you have a secret to a clean home? Do you make your bed every day? If so, do you agree that it makes a huge difference? What jobs do you enlist your kids to help with around the house? Yes, I am allowing comments today. I am truly curious to learn how people manage their lives.

Art Exhibition

We visited Paige’s art project last night. It has been traveling for a month or two, but
now it’s back in town. It’s on display at a mall featuring high school level artists from several school districts.

I think it must be kind of hard to send off your art for the crowds to see. I think Paige is courageous and so talented.

We took some time to study the exhibit. As we finished viewing, Paige, Timothy, and I saw Richard slipping into a candy store with the other boys. We joined them and watched Mark and Timothy explore the store like a couple of pinballs ricocheting from bin to bin. They’ve never been on the other side of the candy store window at the mall.

It was a fun family night.

Juggling thoughts

Image from Dolly-Chic.Tumbler.com

You came back to our blog. How nice of you. I just wish I had something to say, but my thoughts are still marinating. I am thinking about so many things. I am thinking about creating unity. I am thinking about all of the adventures we had in March and the lessons I have learned. I am feeling deep gratitude for friendship. I am rejoicing in the light coming over the mountains and the snow melting off my weary daffodils today. I am trying to decide if I enjoyed the movie, Saving Mr. Banks. We’re going to see Paige’s art displayed at an exhibit tonight for family home evening.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll keep writing.

Year 6

The tradition continues…

Here we are in our annual photo before the ~~Young~~ Women General Meeting.

We took about 60 photos. I chose the above photo, but the following photo was in the running:

I won’t share all of the photos from over the years, but this was our first photo when Paige was 12.

An Interview with Timothy

Timothy, can you tell us what you have accomplished this week?

My goal was to not do any media for a week. Media is computers and t.v.

On a scale of one to ten, what was the difficulty of this goal?

This was probably like a 3.

What were some of the things that you did to pass the time?

I got to read a lot more than I usually do. And I also went outside to ride the rip stick. I also did Legos every day. I usually don’t do that.

Do you think these were better uses for your time?

Yeah, because staring at a screen and stuff will take up time so you can’t do the things you really want to do, like the things I mentioned before.

Would you recommend that others try it? Why?

I would recommend it because it gives you a chance to get outside more and do the things that you really like to do instead of just sitting by the screen all day.

What did you learn about your family’s habits as you tried not to look at screens?

(smiles) I noticed that there is pretty much constantly a screen on and that it’s usually on for a while before that person finally turns it off.

What are you looking forward to viewing now that your week is up?

I don’t know. I’m not too excited to watch stuff now. I wasn’t dying from doing this. It will be a lot easier because I won’t have to dodge all of the screens.

Sacred Gifts

Paige had the day off from school on Monday and we decided to get tickets to the Sacred Gifts exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. We went with my mom and made a day of it. If you have an opportunity to go, you should. These paintings are on loan from several locations, mostly churches, and they are all depictions of the Savior. The altar pieces take some time to study. There are paintings by Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hoffmann, and Frans Schwartz.

I realized that I had never seen real art before. I have visited community and university museums all of my life, but never felt what I did at this exhibit. Part of it was the subject matter and seeing original paintings rather than the washed out prints I have looked at all my life. The paintings were luminous and vibrant in color. I could see the foreground of the paintings were painted differently than the backgrounds. I could see the “spectators” in Bloch’s paintings more clearly. My favorite was the first painting, Frans Schwartz’s Agony in the Garden. It touched me deeply.

One caption near a painting by Heinrich Hofmann told of the inadequacy that Hofmann felt when he began painting the Savior. The painting took him two years to complete, and the writer of the caption emphasized the courage it took for Hofmann to paint, despite his youth, inexperience, and the immense subject matter he was trying to depict.

I think that’s the message that I needed to hear this week. Even though we may feel inadequate, our time and talents given to others can become sacred gifts, and they can be magnified in quality when we give with a pure heart.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Our party was fun on Friday night. Our guests were chosen for us by someone from church, and as hosts, only we knew who was coming. Paige was our pianist while we ate. She made it feel so elegant to be eating at the Ross house. I have learned that a little help in the kitchen makes an evening so much more enjoyable. Daniel cleared our plates and loaded the dishwasher quietly so we could visit. He heard some great stories from some fun people as he worked.

This was my favorite picture of the night. Daniel took all of these photos.

Everyone brought something special. Just look at the colors of that food… and those rolls! I don’t take credit for any of the food. I just warmed things in the oven and microwave. Richard’s smoked chicken was a hit. These were gorgeous, gorgeous plates of food.

We heard so many fun stories and that was the best part. I think we were so lucky to get this mix of people.

The little boys came out in their suits to serve trifle for dessert. I made individual trifle servings in mason jars. These were so pretty. One of the couples in our group is serving a mission and the elder gave Timothy his name tag to wear for a few minutes to see how it felt.

I am thankful for my neighbors and ward members. It was so good to get to know them.

These women are two of my children’s teachers in church. How great is that?

When the evening was over, I fell into bed in my clothes and slept in the next morning. Sleep is sweet when you’ve worked hard for something.

Party tonight

I’m preparing for a dinner party for 12 adults today. I haven’t finished the table yet, but things will get crazy later and I may forget to take another picture. My sister Susan provided the lanterns and Long tablecloth. I have leftover bird nests from a Young Women activity filled with chocolate eggs and get-to-know-you questions for the guests to discuss over dinner.

The kids are helping tonight and will play background piano music, photograph the event, and the little boys will serve dessert in their suits. Mark has permission to change IMMEDIATELY after dessert. Richard is preparing some of our meal in his smoker. (I always want to type that he is smoking chicken, but that sounds like something else.) His smoked chicken is so good.

The theme for the evening is “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and the guests don’t know who is invited. Our church is holding these parties in 7 or 8 members’ homes tonight. Only the hosts know who is coming. It’s a great chance to get to know people.

I finished hanging frames for a gallery wall, but I may not get all the frames filled today. All well.

Our basement flooded last night and our fence is still down in the backyard. Other than that, we’re looking good for company!