Creating

I usually forget about General Relief Society Meeting. In fact, most years I remember when I get the Conference Report Ensign and I get to the end and find the wonderful talks from the General Relief Society Presidency. But, this year, I remembered and I planned to go.

Saturday evening, my son and I were working on his book report and my husband asked me if I planned to shower before I went to the meeting. "Of course," I replied. "When?" He asked and informed me that it was ten minutes to six and that the meeting began at six. So, I jumped in the shower and hurried to get ready. I arrived at the chapel late so I missed Sister Beck's talk (I'll have to read it in the Ensign). But I enjoyed the other talks and the beautiful music.

Presiden Uchtdorf's talk (the transcipt is not on lds.org yet but probably will be soon) was especially good and I thought his message of creating was interesting and thought provoking.

Generally, I'm a fairly creative person. But while I am pregnant my ability to create much of anything seems to completely disappear. It's as if all my creative energy is used up to make the baby and there is nothing left over.

For example, even though I currently have an insatiable appetite, I am content to attempt to fill it with tomatoes and cottage cheese, bagels, Ritz crackers, ice cream and candy. My family reminds me that these are not meals, but the idea of thawing meat, sauteeing vegetables, etc is just too much for me. Usually, I enjoy looking through cookbooks and recipe websites and trying new meals. Right now, my family is lucky if they get sandwiches. (During my third trimester, I will desire cookies all the time, so I will bake--but that's months away.)

Oh well, when they complain I'll just remind them that I am very busy creating the new baby. Hopefully, they'll understand and look forward to the cookies.

Soccer Mom

We are not an athletic family. We prefer books over balls. Since I grew up in a family that enjoyed playing various sports, I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but it did.

When our oldest son turned four years old, we asked him if he wanted to play soccer. "No," he said. He'd rather read a book or look at things with his microscope. For the next two years as soccer sign-ups came around, we asked him again and he said "no" each time. So, we were surprised this year when he told us that he would like to play soccer. Delighted that he was willing to expand his interests, we signed him up.

He is seven years old and one of the oldest on his team. We love his team. It is full of friends from our neighborhood. We love his coach. He is enthusiastic, fun and seems to enjoy the kids as much as soccer. And our son really enjoys soccer too (he's not aggressive but tries hard and has scored a goal).

For the first four games of the season, we brought our camping chairs and set them up on the hill over looking the soccer field. We were joined by the other parents (our neighborhood friends) and by the doting grandparents. We cheered and encouraged our kids. We took pictures. And even though no one was "officially" keeping score, our team won each time.

And then, our team played against a team that seemed much bigger (could they really all be seven and under?). They were good and aggressive and they scored goal after goal. Our team's five-year-old soccer playing wonder scored our only goal of the game. I was nervous--especially when my son was put in as goalie. He did a good job and stopped a lot of potential goals, but it was a nail biter.

After the game, the parents assured each other that we wouldn't have to face another team like that. We'd do better next game. The kids were oblivious. They just like to play soccer.

Last night was game six. Our team took the field against another team of big kids. Number 11 from the opposing team took charge of the ball, dribbled it down the field and kicked it right in the goal. Again and again. Our kids tried. They tried hard. But they couldn't get the soccer ball past half field. The other team had great defense too. At the quarter, the teams substituted the players. Number 9 from the opposing team took charge of the ball. He kicked it over the heads of all the other players and right into the goal. Again and again. We lost count. I was stressed out the entire game and could suddenly understand why my high school friend's mom had to take Valium before watching his football games.

Was there some performance enhancing drugs used on this team? Were they in cahoots with the Chinese doctoring birth certificates? We (the parents) were starting to wonder. We (the moms) yelled so loud that my mother-in-law moved away from us.

Thankfully, a couple of our kids--the five-year-old wonder and another one each scored a goal, so it wasn't a complete blow out. The kids could care less. They had a good time and they got treats after the game. The parents comforted ourselves and each other with the familiar lines, "It's most important that they had fun"; "they'll do better next time"; "they're learning about the game and how to play".

But I don't think I can handle too much more of this. He's only seven. It will only get worse as he gets older and the competition gets more fierce (they actually start keeping score). Can we just go back to reading books?

Signs

Do you ever have one of those days where you wish you could just stick a sign to yourself or your kids so that you went out in public, people would just be able to read the sign and hopefully understand?

Today was one of those days. Fortunately, the only people I had to see today, besides my family, were the other kindergarten moms. Here are the signs I would have attached:

To my three-year-old son: "My daddy dressed me today."

To my kindergarten daughter: "I insisted that all shades of pink go together."

To my one-year-old daughter: "I had a bath last night but I rubbed bananas in my hair this morning."

And to myself: "Ten minutes of extra sleep were worth not taking a shower today. Sorry."

Catalog

My favorite catalog arrived in the mail on Saturday (no, not Pottery Barn or Anthropologie). It was the Fisher Price catalog. My children got excited and started to argue about who got to look at it first until I reminded them that it was MY name on the cover.

I smile whenever I see the catalog's cover with a picture of adorable Little People. Can I admit that I love those little things? Last year, I finally bought the Little People Nativity set. I convinced myself (and my husband) that if my kids had their own nativity set, my daughter would stop carting off the Baby Jesus from my more expensive and fragile nativity set. It was really for me, though, and everyone knew it. Did you know that they have Pilgrim Little People and Native American Little People and a table full of tiny, plastic Thanksgiving food? So cute. I am currently trying to convince my husband that my children need them (I know, I'm delusional).

I also love Fisher Price's GeoTrax. My oldest son got the basic GeoTrax train set for Christmas when he was two. He loved it and requested more trains and tracks for his birthday and when he mastered the potty and for the next Christmas. We obliged because those plastic tracks and little plastic trains are sturdy, easy to assemble and so much fun.

My second son asked Santa for the Grand Central Station last Christmas and wants more trains this year. He plays with it frequently. I especially like it now because he can put the train tracks together by himself. We've amassed three crates full of tracks, trains and additional paraphernalia, but it's worth it.

While looking through the catalog, I did have to laugh at the new Baby Zen collection (obviously created for the couple expecting their FIRST baby). No matter how cute/calm/Zen-like that high chair looks when you first put it together, it will still end up with Cheerios in the cracks of the plush cover and be splattered with sweet potatoes (if you actually put a live baby in it).

Baby Hair Bows

Hair bows and flowers are so cute in little girls' hair. Check out Jen's new blog Baby BLVD. She is selling adorable bows, ribbons and flowers are great prices. You'll love them!