How I came to be . . .

I guess I should mention how this blog came to fruition.

Last Christmas an old college roommate of mine sent her yearly family update and mentioned that she had started a blog. So throughout this year I have been a casual reader, keeping up with her growing family. Then one day in my googling, I happened to stumble across another personal blog of a person I know nothing about. BUT I loved the way she wrote. It wasn't your casual day-to-day type entries. They were funny and witty and well-written. After several months of lurking on her site, I desired to become a better writer.

I've kept a journal, but I don't write consistently and my writing is very haphazard, jumping from one thought to another without any real cohesion. I don't plan my words or sentences when I journal write. My entire objective is to get my thoughts on paper without worrying if I'm using the best word or sentence structure, without worrying if I'm being too redundant. Confession: I'm a lazy writer. Correction: I was a lazy writer.

So I decided a blog would be an experiment for me to see if I could indeed be a better writer. I loved the idea of being able to add pictures. I discovered you can print your blog entries in book format (a definite plus for posterity's sake!). I don't care so much if anyone reads it now. In fact so far no one has read a single entry, but I try to write as though everyone is reading it.

The hardest part of this entire process has been coming up with a blog name. There were several days where I stalemated. I couldn't move beyond the naming game. I started one day just writing down everything that came to me: Joyful Mother of Children, Becoming, Miscellaneous Musings, Ramblings, Simple, Small and Simple, Creating Roots, Remember Remember, Family Is Everything. Nothing stood out to me. Then I remembered listening to a talk by Dr. John L. Lund where he described me perfectly. I am A HUMAN DOER as opposed to a human being. I am a visual person who tends to see everything that is not done (Dr. Lund is also very quick to point out that there is no such thing as DONE. There will always be something to do). So while I am intrinsically a doer, I am working on becoming.

Separated at last

New bunk beds for the boys arrived last week. Both Nate and Erik acted a little forlorn as if they were losing their best friend rather than their bed partner. How could Erik not enjoy his own bed! I've slept with Nate before and was never so glad to kick him out when morning came (snoring, kicking, moving). The morning after I asked Nate how he enjoyed his own bed. He looked at me, sighed, and said rather wistfully, "I don't know." Erik piped up and replied that he and Nate used to wake up in the morning and talk. I quickly assured them they could still do that. I'm sure all this sadness will disappear sometime, but right now I'm feeling a little blue with them.

Advent Stockings

In with new and out with the old. I wanted to try something different this year instead of our usual pull-the-ornament-out-of-the-pocket-and-velcro-it-to-the-felt-tree advent calendar my mom handed down to me. I came across this idea on familyfun.com and decided to try it.

1. I bought 24 different socks, 24 mini clothespins, and some Christmas ribbon.

2. I wanted to hang them in front of the fireplace for aesthetics, but had a difficult time keeping them up because of the weight. Every morning I would find my string of socks dangling. Tyler solved my problem by finding a way to tie the ribbon up.

3. I had to come up with 24 different things for each stocking. I wanted to read a scripture every day, so that was easy. I found a 25 piece Miss Spider puzzle and put a piece of the puzzle in each stocking. And then I just made a list of different activities or things to do each night. I love that Christmas creates that feeling of anticipation and wanted my kids to feel that every day. To have something to look forward to.

At first my kids balked at this idea. Erik even asked me if he could put up the old calendar, but after several days they were heard to say, "Can we do this again next year?!" Waking up to something in their stocking has given them a little bit of Christmas morning every morning and I have loved it.

Ideas I came up with
1. Start the 12 Days of Christmas to a family in our neighborhood

2. Watch Christmas devotional with popcorn

3. Christmas crossword puzzle (placed in the stocking)

4. Gold chocolate coins

5. Write Santa letters

6. Pick out our Christmas tree and visit the zoo for ZooLights

7. Camp out around the Christmas tree

8. Visit Santa

9. Breakfast for dinner with candelight

10. Visit the library and donate box of shoes and coats to charity

11. Ornament for each child to hang on the tree

12. Sudoku puzzle

13. Make snowflakes

14. Christmas music quiz

15. Get out of Sunday dishes (mom and dad will do them)

16. Go to Logan

17. Leary family Christmas party

18. Sing Christmas songs around the piano

19. Decorate gingerbread house

20. Game night

21. Movie night

22. Make cookies

23. Visit Temple Square and see the lights

24. Shop for each other for Christmas Eve present exchange

25. Drive around and look at lights

26. Read Christmas stories

27. Over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house we go

My Happy Place

Yes, this is exactly what I look like when I vacuum. Notice the heels, the nylons, the dress, the ruffly apron, but especially the gleeful smile.

Okay, I may ditch the heels, the nylons, the dress, the apron; however, Tyler will attest that I do vacuum with a smile. Vacuuming takes me to a happy place where neither kids, nor phone, nor doorbell can intrude. I just like to vacuum and proclaim myself an addict.

November Reads

A posting I made on Learyfam.com.

Posted on October 29, 2007

TWILIGHT, NEW MOON, ECLIPSE

Okay, so my Primary program is over and we were gone for a couple of days last week and I wanted something easy to read. So I decided to see what all the hype was about Twilight, a book about vampires. I put off reading it for so long merely because of the subject matter. And everyone I talked to said the same thing: "I didn't want to read it. It's about vampires." BUT I read it in three days (500 pages)! The book is definitely a page turner, but also somewhat cheesy (written for teenage girls and lacks a lot of substance) and not really your typical vampire book. It was a fun escape novel although I now have books 2 and 3 to read, equal in length to the first.

*******

Twilight was actually finished by the end of October. I really thought I would have the next two books in the series read within the week. A month later I finally finished Eclipse, the 3rd book (New Moon is the 2nd in the series). So many things came up that kept me from reading (Christmas shopping and wrapping, Thanksgiving, family newsletters, neighbor gifts delivered, Primary). Book two was slower, but still readable. Book three had more conflict. Overall, all three were very readable books, but I can't say I'm so drawn to them that I would read them again. For our book club we read a book titled These Is My Words by Nancy Turner, a book I had read in February and took liberty to add it to our book list. Comparing the Twilight series with These Is My Words, These is much more believable with depth that Twilight doesn't even come close to. Both were page turners for me, however These is a book I'd reread more than once.

Posted on October 29, 2007

LIFE OF PI

I'm also nearing the end of Life of Pi, a book with a lot more substance than Twilight. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but am having a hard time deciding if it is a true story (maybe the end of the book will shed further light; it does say he was shipwrecked on July 2, 1977 and found on February 14, 1978.). A 16-year-old boy from India is shipwrecked on his way to Canada and finds himself in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for company. He describes his survival at sea without getting eaten by the tiger. My favorite quote from the book (so far): "Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it."

*******

Life of Pi -- a very memorable book that still has me scratching my head. I think it's a book that should be read more than once just to catch everything you might have missed the first time around. Book club is at my house in January. I'm contemplating reading this to give myself the chance to read it again.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Today was one of those warm woolen mitten, hot chocolate, sit by the fire kind of afternoons. We all live for the first snow of the season, and it finally came. Not much, but enough to fill the air with feelings of Christmas and cold hands, toes, and noses.

Nemans, Hancogg, and Qua Quaf

You just hate to see your two-year-old get older (unless you're in the throes of the terrible twos, something I've seemed to have missed with all four kids). I love two. I've made my kids promise to never grow up, but they do it anyway.

Ashlyn is two, not quite three, and I've become her sounding board since Nate is no longer around in the morning. It is delightful to get a glance at the world as she sees it through her use of expressions and words. Nemans (pronounce the "e" as in egg and the "a" as in aloud) are M&Ms, hancogg is eggnog, and qua quaf (pronouce the "a" as in awesome) is a wash cloth.

1000 Charts

. . . the vexation of every 2nd grade parent! Kiersten and I suffered through it last year and was very tempted to simply attach Erik's name to her work this year. The concept (or at least I'm assuming this is what the teachers had in mind) is for the child to understand what a thousand things looks like after handling each little particle. Oh the agony. Kiersten's was comprised of every imaginable LITTLE thing possible that has to individually be glued on and finally wrapped in packing tape to ensure that all those little things would in fact stay on (we finally started doubling up after running out of ideas). Erik was all about the stickers with hidden messages. Hallelujah! at least for another year or two.

Thanksgiving Newsletter 2007

Where there is great love, there are always miracles.

—Willa Cather

Happy Thanksgiving from our hearts to yours. A new job, another kid in school, and all of them growing and changing all the time. Here are some highlights from the past year.

• Biggest event: A windstorm that swept through our yard taking down our fence and uprooting a 50-foot shade tree—a birthday Ty will not forget!

• Happiest event: Kiersten turned eight, was baptized, and received the Holy Ghost
• Favorite recipe this year: Fresh corn salsa
• Missy's most recent and favorite discovery: Caesar salad with extra garlic
• Biggest fight: All four kids over a times table placemat; even Ashlyn calls "I get the times table placemat!" Erik loves math and is trying to complete 200 math questions in 5 minutes. Ty taught Kiersten a trick to the 11 times tables. Ask her 11 x 53 and she'll tell you the answer. Nate has also jumped on the times table bandwagon and even beat Erik in answering 9 x 2 one day.
• Game of the year: Stratego. Daily Stratego matches have taken over our home.
• Most quoted expressions: "You missed me!" and "Do the Ashie do." Ashlyn is quick to run and hug whomever happens to walk through the door, even if they only went to get the mail. She also asserts her 2-year-old independence by saying, "Ashie do," and the others mimick by saying, "Do the Ashie do."
• #1 pastime: READING! Kiersten again has probably outread all of us. She participated in the Book Battle (a Jeopardy-like contest on books they've read, complete with buzzers). Erik will read when it's required and is studying for his Book Battle, Nate can read simple books, Missy's favorite find is These Is My Words by Nancy Turner (I also thoroughly enjoyed Jane Eyre, a book I had never read), Ty's been captivated by a book titled A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Ash just likes to be read to.
• Award for most callings held in a year (thankfully not simultaneously): That would go to Missy who started out teaching in Relief Society, was called as the visiting teaching coordinator, and several months later moved back into a Primary presidency after a 2-year hiatus.
• Funniest joke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it did." Ashlyn's the jokester who came up with that one.
• Newest words from Ash: Honeybird for hummingbird and chin grass for Dad's goatee (may have started as "chin scratch").
• Home improvement of the year: Walkways (thanks to Uncle Bob and his fantastic crew!).
  

• Favorite summer activity: Our garden. It's been three years since we planted a garden and we were all so excited to see things start to grow again. Many mornings I would find all of the kids out in the garden first thing searching for peas or raspberries or beans or whatever happened to be growing at the time.
• Some firsts for Nate: Learned to ride a bike, tie his shoes, and started kindergarten.
• Nate's #1 disappointment with kindergarten: No homework. He begs me every day to find some for him. Sometimes he'll open his little black spiral notebook and start copying words into it.
• Favorite aspect of Ty's job: No more traveling (or at least very little).
• Best seamstress: Kiersten. She sewed her own skirt and proudly wears it to church.

• Community involvement: Erik started a chess club that became a basketball club as the weather warmed up this past spring. Missy volunteers as webmaster and treasurer for the Stansbury Park Community Association and maintains a website for the Stansbury Soccer Club. Ty still does finance lectures at BYU.
• Funnest vacation: San Francisco sans kids. Ty and I went for 5 days in June to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Loved Alcatraz and Muir Woods.
• Cutest story about friendship: Nate's best friend, Noah, brought over an old wallet that had a dollar bill hidden in it. Noah really wanted to share with Nate, and after much thinking they decided to cut it in half. Each one came away with half with no real way to spend it.
• Ty's rediscovered hobby: Fishing, especially night fishing. We've had a few trout fries for breakfast recently.
• Supercalifragilistic expialidocious: A favorite song of Kiersten and Nate. Kiersten and Erik have both become very proficient at the piano (despite having their mom as the teacher) and even play simple duets together.

Check out our website at http://tyler.learyfam.com for pictures and the latest happenings.

Wish this coming year:

May your year be filled with many miracles as you experience the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ in your life.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

TY, MISSY, KIERSTEN, ERIK, NATE, and ASHLYN

Fresh Corn Salsa
2 c. fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears) OR frozen kernels, thawed
½ tomato, seeded and chopped
¼– c. purple onion, chopped
¼ c. red bell pepper, chopped
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
½ t. salt
t. pepper
½ t. crushed garlic
2 T. lime juice
sugar

Combine corn, tomato, onion, bell pepper, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper. Add salt and pepper. Add lime juice, garlic, and sugar until it fits your taste. Serve with tortilla chips.

Tornadoes & Fences

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a Saturday in late November. And with that, fixing our fence couldn't be put off any longer.

Background
On Tuesday, September 4, we were just finishing Ty's birthday dinner of crab legs when the wind quickly picked up. I was concerned for our garbage can (still full and on the curb thanks to a garbage man deciding to take the day off for Labor Day), and as I was pulling it into the garage, I noticed the atmosphere was not only extremely windy, but also very dark and full of flying debris. Meanwhile, Ty had been in the backyard refusing to relinquish his hold on his locust tree, hoping it wouldn't uproot while watching one of our 50-foot willow trees collapse toward him (didn't hit him or anything else). Several sections of fencing were also blown over. One section landed on our new Goldenrain tree we had planted several days earlier. When the fence was lifted off, it sprang right back . . . the young really are resilient. As for our weak, shallow-rooted, willow trees: after counting their tree rings, they are only 6 or 7 years old! Just proves you have to grow deep roots to survive the tornadoes of life. We call it a tornado, but the weather people claim it was only straight-line winds. When we see trampolines lifted over 6-foot fences and trees toppled, it's our tornado despite what any weatherman has to say.

Well that was several months ago. Neither of us knew anything about fences or how they were put together. Thank heavens for a brother in law who lives two blocks away. Jason helped Ty put the new posts in, and today was the day to put the fence back together (without Jason's help. We're always so pleased with ourselves when we can accomplish anything remotely home improvement related without Jason's assistance). It's almost complete. Just need to finish the gate. Here's a pat on the back for Ty for figuring out the fence and living through our tornado.

Christmas wrapping

Yes, it is the 14th of November and I've finished wrapping 2/3 of Christmas. Now don't ooh and aah just yet. The situation is this year we are spending Christmas away and Santa will not find us all snuggled in our beds at home. So the enormity of trying to haul Christmas for 4 little people who still believe and not have them suspect a thing has been weighing on me. We could rent a trailer, but how do you explain the extra baggage we'll be towing. We could do Christmas before we leave or after we come back, but then what is Christmas without the anticipation of Christmas morning and opening gifts. Mom Claus is the answer. She's coming up for a wedding shower and I will simply hand over my load to her. So that necessitates all the early wrapping. But what a relief! Christmas done before Thanksgiving. I can hardly believe it myself. Somehow I suspect Santa may stash a rooftop carrier in his bag for the long haul home.