Rodent slayer

(This picture was actually taken over a month ago, its grown)

My garden has been only mildly successful this year. Lots of foliage, limited produce. One of the primary reasons- rodents. Namely Rabbits and squirrels. It is the beginning of August now, well past time for the first ripe tomatoes to be ready and yet until this past week I haven't gotten a single one. You ask why, I shall tell you. Those little gray varmints stole every single one. I know I should be getting ripe tomatoes, I've had green ones for quite some time, and I've also had rows of empty stems where I know tomatoes once resided.


(Just look at those red beady little eyes, I don't think its the camera)


Well my loving husband took up the clarion call to destroy some of the peskiest pests and borrowed a squirrel trap from my father. He has trapped and drown four squirrels up to date in the true pioneer spirit, and I have in fact enjoyed my first handful of sweet cherry tomatoes. The kind you can't get at the store for any price. The tiny tangy garden candy that only comes once a year and was being viciously absconded from my little plot. Do I feel bad about the squirrels? Not at all. It feels much like squishing an ant that is in the kitchen eating my food. Am I glad Zach volunteered for the job so I wouldn't have to drown the small rabble rousers? Absolutely. Thanks knight in shining armor. It at least feels like righteous vengance if nothing else.

GR8FL 4-8

Imagine reading the Title as a license plate "Grateful for eight". In about 10 years, that is what I hope my license plate will say. Many people, even LDS (Mormon) people, look at me like I have two heads when I tell them I want eight kids. The next question is usually "really!?" Yes really. Sometimes I skirt around the question and just say, "We want to have a big family" when they ask me if this one will be my last one, or if I'll keep trying for a girl. We'll yes, we'll keep trying, but if it were a girl we wouldn't be done either. We won't be done if number four is a girl.
Barring serious health complications for me or one of my children, or other misfortune, I'm just getting warmed up with this third pregnancy. And no, I'm not one of those ladies that likes to be pregnant.

Besides getting to feel the baby move, I don't much care for it at all. I won't go into all the side effects of living 9 months with a parasite inside you, but usually only illnesses come with side effects. They are inumerated in plenty of other places and many of you may have had personal experience in this area. And no, I haven't always pictured myself with lots of kids. I don't really like babysitting and I'm not a "baby person." Other people's babies don't like me. Mine are great, cute and wonderful, and yours are great--right on your lap. (This may change at some point in the future, but for right now my lap is full.)

Zach is a little bit of a different story. He grew up in a big family and loved/loves it. Heck, I love marrying into a big family. From what I can gather, lots of his brothers and sisters are "baby people." It also doesn't hurt that he doesn't have to do any of the parasite carrying. This in mind, here is why we both want to have a big family, as expressed by Elder Dallin H. Oaks in General Conference, October 1993:

"President Kimball said, 'It is an act of extreme selfishness for a married couple to refuse to have children when they are able to do so' (Ensign, May 1979, p. 6). When married couples postpone childbearing until after they have satisfied their material goals, the mere passage of time assures that they seriously reduce their potential to participate in furthering our Heavenly Father’s plan for all of his spirit children. Faithful Latter-day Saints cannot afford to look upon children as an interference with what the world calls “self-fulfillment.” Our covenants with God and the ultimate purpose of life are tied up in those little ones who reach for our time, our love, and our sacrifices.

How many children should a couple have? All they can care for! Of course, to care for children means more than simply giving them life. Children must be loved, nurtured, taught, fed, clothed, housed, and well started in their capacities to be good parents themselves. Exercising faith in God’s promises to bless them when they are keeping his commandments, many LDS parents have large families. Others seek but are not blessed with children or with the number of children they desire. In a matter as intimate as this, we should not judge one another" (Ensign, November 1993, p. 72).

(Another good source for why we believe in families)

I feel too often when I talk to other couples, LDS or otherwise, it is in terms of how many children do they want to have and not really in terms of what the Lord wants. I say eight, but I hope by that time it rolls around, I'll be open to the idea of having another one if that is what the Lord wanted for our family. I know that great families come in all sizes from 1- 100 for all different reasons so I'm not trying to judge small families. Mine is a great example. My mom is a convert and we were from a second marriage. Two was all she could have by that time in her life. I understand there are health, financial, and emotioal reasons not to have kids. I get that.

At the same time I feel very strongly that Zach and I have been handed the "five talents" so to speak that it mentions in the Bible. If the "talents" are viewed as life advantages some big ones we've enjoyed would be:

Living in America and the freedoms that come with that
Being born with and raised in the Gospel
Good health and energy
Quality educations, for Zach and I
Getting married young
No present debt
Future financial comfort (hopefully)
No problems so far with having children

With great blessings comes great responsibilities. Those little spirits couldn't ask for more in my oppinion so who am I to say " nope we're happy with just our two boys " ? I'll step off my soap box now, but please, don't act so surprised if you hear someone say they want to have 8 kids. Just congratulate them and say good luck. I fully expect that Zach and the Lord will help me quite a bit in raising this next generation. My "hats off" to Rich and Kelly Hutchins who are the biggest family we're very close with- 10 kids.



Make some noise boys, maybe the plate will read GR8FL 4-9!

The Family Figure

David Hyrum's little tum tum
Gabe-arino's little belly
My not-so-little protrusion (it looks cuter on the boys, I know)

During my 2 week vacation to Massachusetts I "popped" as they say. (Started to look pregnant instead of like I was JUST gaining weight) It seems to happen earlier and earlier with each pregnancy. I believe it was due in no small part to my indulgence in other people's cookingl, but for the next 4 months at least, I can blame it on the baby. As of right now, Zach is the only one in our family with a relatively flat midsection.

*This will probably be the last picture I post of my stomach since in a few more months I'll look more like a lollipop than an actual person. No one wants that that sort of thing documented and shared all over the internet.

Boys in Bow ties

These are my boys. If you will notice they are looking quite dashing in the bow ties I made for father's day. My father in law, Dad Hutchins aka Pop Pop, is being a good sport and wearing his too, howbeit he is usually a necktie sort of chap. As some of you may know, I'm having another boy come this November so the next set of bow ties I make will have to include one more little elastic one . Aren't they all handsome?

The Pearl of Great Price

I read a book last week that was apparently a big seller called The Shack. It is considered religious fiction and the premise is one man's experience with God. I would never recommend anyone actually read this book because of all the false doctrine presented in it, but I did glean one gem out of it, so to speak- a pearl.

In the New Testament Jesus tells a parable of the Pearl of Great price. (Matthew 13:45-46)

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly
pearls: Who, When he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all
that he had, and bought it."

I had always thought the pearl was of such great price because of what the merchant was willing to give for it, i.e. he sold all that he had to buy this precious stone. Indicating that we should be able give all that we have in order to have the gospel in our lives. I never considered it before from the perspective of the oyster.




"Pearls, The only precious stone made by pain, suffering, and- finally- death."

Yes, we should be willing to give all that we posses in order to more fully follow Christ, but let us not remember that our sacrifice can never compare to the sacrifice He made to give us that pearl.

Facelift

So I've been feeling ambitious. My mom had a bunch of old (30+ years) Asian looking furniture that she got second hand when we were little. I told Zach that when mom sales the house and we move we are only taking this furniture if we can redo it. "Deal" On to step #2, get it done this summer while Zach is home and I'm not yet large with child.

After knocking off all the Asian wood trim, sanding, priming, spackling, two coats of paint and new holes/hardware later its finally finished. With the help of a self-made home improvement expert (Angie Davis) some wonderful babysitters, and Supportive Sam (Zach) the project is done. Of course instead of the 2 days you think the clothes are going to be all over the floor turned into a week, but hey, whats done is done right? Yeah! I have new furniture.

Just in time too, Zach leaves for Jerusalem tomorrow for 8 days. I have much more sympathy for all those wives who have ever sent their husbands off to war or off on a mission to stay home and hold down the fort. I don't know who had it worse, the husbands or the wives.

Kindness Quilt

So a few weeks ago we checked out a book from the library for Gabe called the Kindness Quilt. Its a sweet story about a class that is assigned to draw pictures of something that they did that was kind or that someone did for them. "Kindness is..." One little girl makes a type of colleague of multiple acts which she calls her kindness quilt. The teacher is inspired to put all the pictures up on to the small bulletin board, then it grows to the big bulletin board then it spills over onto the entire hallway as kindness spreads throughout the school. I don't know if it is the pregnancy hormones or my general sappiness (perhaps a little of both) but stuff like this makes me tear up all the time.

At any rate, this was the kindness quilt our family started for family home evening. Don't worry if you can't really see the pictures, they are pretty bad, but here are the descriptions: Kindness is...

Gabe sharing a toy with his friend Nathan
Grandma teaching someone to play the organ
A friend returning a book for Zach to Chapel Hill so he doesn't have to make the trip
Doing work for the dead at the temple
Visiting great grandma in the nursing home
A friend babysitting the boys
Making a card for Aunt Becky who was in the hospital

Here's our kindness quilt- how would you finish that sentence?