It's always fun to have leftover macaroni for breakfast in Mom and Dad's closet, especially if you get to share it with your baby sister.

One day I made six loaves of whole wheat bread. When Heidi woke up from a nap she pointed the way she wanted to go and took me straight to the bread, where she picked up an entire loaf.

It made me feel like a good mom.

final product

I tried the dress on Heidi this morning and compared the eyelet and the ribbon and the ribbon was the obvious choice. So the dress is finished.

sewing fun

I had a fun time doing some sewing today. You would think I would have more time to do things since I'm not taking classes right now, but for some reason the days end and I feel like I didn't get to read or sew or even fold the clothes. Anyway, I've been itching to sew something for several days and things have just kept conspiring against me so that I didn't have time. Naptimes didn't overlap much and then by bedtime I was tired. Today the kids went down for naps and I was determined to sew something that I've been working on in my head for a while.

This is going to be a little jumper for Heidi's birthday when I am done with it. I still need to figure out what I am going to do for straps. There are a lot of options. I could make some wide straps using the same fabric I used for the jumper, I could use some more eyelet (shown on the left of the picture), or I could use some of the green ribbon on the right. So I am interested in people's opinions. Which of those options do you like the best, or do you have a different idea? The pattern on the fabric is little yellow rosebuds. This is some of the fabric my Grandma sent home with me. I also have some similar fabric that is pink with pink rosebuds. Grandma really likes these rosebud patterns. This was a fun and interesting project because I basically drafted it by myself. Instead of using a pattern I just cut out two rectangles, with the dimensions based on a jumper that already fits Heidi well. For the top part I used elastic thread to do several rows of shirring. I tried this a month or so ago on knit fabric and it was incredibly frustrating, but this time I had learned a few things and I was also using cotton instead of knit, so it went quite smoothly. For the bottom I attached some eyelet ruffling. I had to put a lot of thought into how I would do that so it would look nice.

The fabric was from my Grandma, and the eyelet was from my mom, so the only cost for me was a spool of elastic thread and my time.

Oh, and while I'm talking about sewing, I have another question about sewing in general. I don't have a serger, so generally I need to finish my edges with a zigzag stitch. It seems like when I was learning to sew I was always told to press the seams open and then zigzag each side, but when I do that on my old sewing machine the fabric keeps getting distorted. So is it evil to just do the regular seam, zigzag the two edges to each other, and then press it all to one side? I tried this on the jumper and it seemed to work fine, but I'm just curious if it will hold up over time if I do it that way.

Goodreads Review: David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A. Prince
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought this book was really interesting and gave some good insights into the changes the LDS church was going through while David O. McKay was the prophet. If you read it you need to recognize that prophets are human and that they make mistakes, which is why I feel a little hesitant to recommend it to just anybody. The authors were trying to make this an objective book and present the facts, not rave about how wonderful David O. McKay was. I think when you read this book you have to recognize that the church is not stagnant and it has to change to accommodate growth and current events, and you also have to recognize that we are still figuring out how God wants the church to be led. We had to figure out how we would deal with politics, building, finances, organization, etc., and at the time of President McKay our position in some of those areas wasn't established yet, which led to some misunderstandings and conflicts. But in the end I was left feeling very impressed with him and what was accomplished while he was the prophet.

I was impressed at the insights he had in implementing the building program. It was very important to him because he recognized that it was difficult for the church to grow when outside of the United States the members didn't have decent places to meet, which meant they didn't leave a very good impression. (Try inviting your friends to come to Sacrament Meeting in the back room of a bar.) The church grew much more rapidly after nice meetinghouses and temples started being built throughout the world. One of the effects of this was that instead of telling members to come to Zion, they were encouraged to stay where they were and build Zion there, which meant that people with good testimonies stayed put and built up the church throughout the world, so that the church became an international church instead of just a Utah church.

There is a very interesting chapter about the issue of black people receiving the priesthood. It discusses many of the misconceptions around that issue--i.e. they were less faithful/fence-sitters in the war in Heaven, they are cursed because they are descendants of Cain/Ham, etc. (none of which are true). Like I said before, you have to realize that prophets are human and are not perfect. A lot of the apostles at the time had grown up with some views that were racist and because of that they didn't think that black people should have the priesthood. It was interesting to note that Spencer W. Kimball was silent on this issue--and years later he was the prophet who was able to announce that all men would receive the priesthood. People didn't seem to have a very good impression of the civil rights movement here in the West, which is partly understandable since there weren't a lot of black people there. Some of the apostles at the time seem to have associated that civil rights movement with the spread of Communism (especially Ezra Taft Benson). Anyway, I learned a lot of interesting things about the perspective the leaders of the church had at the time on civil rights and black people receiving the priesthood. I get the impression that as time went President McKay learned a lot about the issue and by the time he died was hoping that soon the blacks would be able to receive the priesthood.

Free agency (the ability to choose right and wrong) was really important to President McKay, and because of that I thought he had some really good insights into why Communism is a bad idea. He felt that taking away free agency was a crime and prevents people from making spiritual progress, and from all the things I have studied about Communism, that is exactly what tends to happen under Communist rule.


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our school

I think I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel that represents my college years. It looks like I should be able to finish in three more semesters and one summer session. This has been a really challenging phase in my life, and I will be happy to be done . . . although I do suspect that a masters degree might be in my future (it would be a good idea if I were to need to work), but not for a while. I feel very blessed that it's looking like I will be able to graduate. When we decided to start having children I wasn't sure if it would work out. As it is, I have had to make some sacrifices for the sake of my family. When the department has a weekend field trip to study geology in the field, I can't really participate. There are some classes that I can't take because of my family responsibilities. I can't do the summer projects out in the field. I've given up scholarships that required me to go to school full-time because I didn't want to put my kids in day care. It's kind of hard to think about the opportunities to learn that I have given up, but I am still grateful that things have worked out this way. I think it has been a blessing to have my schoolwork during my early years of being a mother because it has helped me to have an identity besides being a homemaker and it has helped me to keep my mind working and growing (although sometimes I suspect I've lost it).

I'm taking a break this summer. I'm at the point where the classes I need to take are only offered during Fall and Spring, except for my field course, which I can't take until next summer. It's been nice to not have to deal with the pressure of all the deadlines and assignments, although for some reason at the end of the day I still feel like I didn't get to accomplish nearly all I wanted to do.

Ryan has a lot more time now to work on his research since I'm not in classes and he doesn't have to teach and grade (he has some grant money that covers his stipend during the summers). It seems like it's slow going, but since he has more time right now he does seem to be making a little more progress.

Heidi and Kevin and the things they do

Heidi is walking more and more, but is making the transition slowly. It seems like Kevin was converted pretty quickly, but she's easing into it.

5/25: Correction. It looks like Heidi's decided walking is the way to go. And not only is she walking, but she can also squat and stand back up (many times in a row) and stand up in the middle of the floor without using something else to help. And she is so proud.

6/9: It's true. Heidi is pretty much converted to walking. And she's trying to figure out how to run.

Her favorite game in the kitchen is pulling things out of cupboards and drawers. She likes to pull out all the ziploc bags and strew them all over the floor, and then she goes for the recycling under the sink. Next is the garbage can.

She figured out how to climb onto Kevin's bed. He has a bunk bed, so she can just use the ladder to get herself high enough to climb onto the bottom bed. I'm really hoping she figures out how to crawl backwards to climb down from things soon, because it's hard to be constantly making sure she's not going to fall off of something.

She learned how to fold her arms today (5/21). I was pretty impressed. I guess we gave her a lot of praise, because Kevin got jealous of the attention and started hitting her arms down whenever she folded them. But when we asked him if he could do a somersault ("mamasalt") he forgot about his jealousy.

She's becoming very attached to this little security blanket with a duck on it that my Aunt Sue sent her. She's always clinging to it whenever I get her up from her bed. She loves it so much that if she stands up and accidentally drops it over the side of the pack n play, she's completely devastated. It's one of those things that I couldn't understand why anyone would get, but now I do understand. Heidi just loves to have a small soft thing to hug when she needs to self-soothe.

She points at everything and says, "Dat."

Climbing onto the stool to peep over the counter.

Looking in the mirror.

Did I mention she's really good at climbing?

Clutching her duck. (She can say "duck" too.)

Here is a video of Heidi walking and waggling her tongue, which is a trick I taught her a few weeks ago.


Here is some more tongue waggling.


And here is Heidi walking.


Kevin loves cinnamon toast these days. Most days he has a couple of slices. He also likes his sandwiches cut into four triangles--which, by the way, is a good way to cut the sandwich for a kid who doesn't eat the crusts, because it's easier to access the inside bread.

He has added "Pigs," "Geese," "Frogs" and "Spiders" to his group of imaginary friends. Sometimes he uses them as an excuse to break rules--for example, the pigs ran out in the road, so he has to get them and bring them back. The pigs are the imaginary friends he interacts with the most right now. Occasionally he feels the need to get food or drinks for both himself and his pigs. He has also asked me a few times to hold his pigs and take them somewhere.

If he doesn't want us to do something he has started saying "No! No thanks!" There was one night when we were sleeping at my grandparents' house when he came out of the room and said, "No thank you dark" (i.e. he was scared because it was so dark in the room). He will also tell us, "Leave it!"

The point of this picture is to show how much Kevin loves stickers. He will just sit there with a sheet of stickers and put them on his shirt for minutes on end. And anytime something keeps Kevin occupied for minutes on end I'm impressed.

Kevin always wants to get a copy of the Daily Tar Heel (the school newspaper) when we pass the stands. He can do it by himself.

Kevin is really in his element when he is outside. He just loves to walk around and explore things. He likes to collect sticks, hit trees with them, and hold big pieces of grass. He also likes to watch bees and ants, but if they get too close he gets scared.

I think this is a look of pure joy.