Traditions Book

So I'm officially done doing normal scrapbooking. I'm moving to the 100% digital way of preserving memories. But I have lots of random scrapbooking supply leftovers. I figured out the perfect thing to do with it all.

I've started a "Nelson Family Traditions" Book. I printed off lots of pictures of things we do regularly (or annually) as a family and I'm slapping glue on the back of them and putting them in collage-type-fashion in a book in designated areas. I've divided the book into sections and leaving room to add to it every year. I'm using up the few stickers that I have, but I'm not doing ANYTHING elaborate. Basically it is just a collage of each tradition. It only took me like 2 hours total to make and the girls already LOVE it. Some of our traditions:

1. Easter (painting eggs, rolling eggs, egg hunts)
2. Christmas (pinatas, seeing the lights)
3. Halloween (pumpkin carving, making sugar cookies, trick-or-treating)
4. Summer (Popsicles outside, swimming)
5. Autumn leave traditions
6. winter snow traditions
7. Rite Aide ice cream tradition
8. Girls waiting outside for daddy to come home on his bike and going for bike rides
9. General Conference scones breakfast
10. Birthday traditions
11. Thanksgiving dinner
12. Independence day BBQ, fireworks, parades
13. Camping (in the back yard and for real)
14. Movie night (with popcorn and lots of bedding on the floor)

The girls love looking at the book and always want to know which tradition we are going to be doing next. I'm looking forward to the book having 18 years+ of collages or our traditions.

Opinion: LDS moms CAN'T do it all

I think we as LDS mothers of young children have a problem of trying to out-do each other. We try to pretend that our lives a beautiful and clean all of the time. We've all done it: when someone is coming over for a play day we clean our house perfectly and pretend like our houses are always in perfect order.

The truth of the matter is, there are only so many hours in a day. If you are choosing to do some things with your time it means you are making cuts elsewhere. You can't exercise for an hour, make 100% homemade food, do 30 minutes of scripture study, write in your journal, spend an hour of 1 on 1 time with each child...etc.

Yes, I can have people over for dinner and have my hair done, my make-up on, my house perfectly clean, and a delicious home-cooked meal, but just think about where I had to make cuts: most likely to my quality time with my children since that is where it doesn't show publicly as much.

This week I was talking to a friend who has a teenager, a special needs daughter, a newly adopted daughter, a toddler, and a newborn. She told me of the troubles of trying to take care of such a huge arrange of psychological needs. I have a deep respect for this friend since she is very well educated and could have done anything with her life. At this point and in this stage however, she tells me that she doesn't bother with her hair or makeup except for on Sundays. The house is a mess most of the time, but she just has higher priorities. That fact that she prioritizes her children over other things shows strongly in her family.

Does that mean that I think we should never do our hair or make-up again? No, but maybe focusing less on how we and our homes appear to others and more on our relationships with our family and children would make us better people.
There will be a time in my life when I can have a clutter-free house. But now is not that time.

Goldilocks and the 2 bears

I can't believe Lydia is 2! I still find myself calling her "baby". When Kiera was 2 I already had Lydia so I didn't consider Kiera a baby at all. But I guess we women like to cling to the idea of having a "baby".
Lydia would NOT cooperate for these pictures without holding these 2 bears. Ok-- fine with me! At least she smiled!

Sunscreen

In high school I would lay out in the sun and take a nap. I never burned and it was so relaxing in the sunshine. I also enjoyed the tan I got. People told me that I would regret it someday. They were right. I do. I now faithfully wear sunscreen everyday (on my face) and sometimes put it one more than once. I also wear big ugly hats. I guess those old people were right. I'm no longer worried about my tan....I'm worried about aging!

Lydia must be worried about aging too because she sure used a lot of it yesterday. On herself, the chair, the carpet, the wall.....