Chair Choo Choo Train

Today is cleaning day. Today is mopping day. I don't want to, so I'm in here wasting time, putting it off. It's so much more fun to blog than to clean! Thinking about mopping day made me think what a challenge it used to be to get my floor mopped and house cleaned when my kids were little. I used to line the dining room chairs up in the hall (so I could mop under the table) and my kids would do just what these little ones who I stole from google images (Please don't tell anyone I've been stealing kids) are doing. My kids loved mopping day as they would play train for hours. They would climb from chair to chair and "choo choo" and pretend. My goal was to keep them up on those chairs until the floor dried so there wouldn't be little footprints on the floor. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Now I'd love to have some little footprints on my floor . . . Okay, enough reminiscing. Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to work I go!

How to Save the Family

Naaman, the leper, was angry that the prophet didn’t ask him to do something spectacular or fancy to rid himself of his disease. Just wash in the river. That’s all- just wash in the river. Are we like Naaman? We expect the prophet to tell us to do something spectacular or fancy like hike to Missouri or at least to the hills to protect our families from the evils of the world. No, just wash in the river of family home evening, family scripture study, and family prayer. That’s all . . .nothing fancy.

Techno Granny!

I've been waiting for years for this little guy to come into my life! It's a digital voice recorder. For Keynotes, we rehearse independently using demo recordings of songs I get from the publishers. This allows us to only meet once a week, but still get really good and memorize all of our music. But, only about half of what I choose for us to sing for each concert has a demo recording available. So, for years we've had "recording day" after a couple of months rehearsal and tape- literally cassette tape- ourselves singing the other songs. So then we have a cd and a tape with which to rehearse. It's been increasingly difficult for everyone to obtain a tape player as their old ones wear out. I don't know how many times I've said, "They need to invent a way to record onto a CD." Well, they skipped that step and invented this. I just turn this little baby on and it records. Using a USB connection, I plug it into my computer and download, and Wa LA I have Keynotes singing on my computer! Now if that ain't fancy, I don't know what is. Then I just made CD's for all of them with all of our songs on it. It's little, it's inexpensive, and it's pretty easy AND the sound is great. I plan to use it with my voice students, too. You can just call me Techno Granny from now on!

Half Broke Horses

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls My rating: 4 of 5 stars "That explains a lot!" was my thought when I finished this newest book by Jeannette Walls, author of "The Glass Castle." As I read "The Glass Castle," I continually wondered how a mother could be like Rosemary, Jeannette's mother was: selfish, without boundaries, free-spirited- In essence a half- broke horse! This book is the fictionalized biography of Jeannette's grandmother, Lily. Set in the wild west (mostly), it tells the story of living and growing up on a ranch in Arizona. The title suggests the setting, but also very much the spirit of the characters within. Since I have been to most of the towns referred to in the book, it made it even more interesting to me. I do, however, need to make one correction: Lily goes to teach school to polygamist children in a small town on the "Arizona strip." She refers to these children as Mormons. They were not Mormons. They belonged to a church which broke off from the Mormon church many years ago. This town and this group still exist. Mormons never lived the way described nor "married off" their thirteen year old daughters to much older men when commanded. Lily may have believed they were Mormons, but they were not. I enjoyed the book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has read "The Glass Castle" and if you haven't read either, read this one first. It will introduce you to Jeannette's parents and give you insight into who they are and why they act the way they do- like Half Broke Horses! View all my reviews

Wisconsin

What a wonderful privilege I had to travel to Wisconsin and meet baby Jacob Kenneth and spend a week with the Mackrorys. It was a crazy, busy week as they were also preparing to move into their beautiful, new home. But it was so fun to be there and be part of it all. I gained tremendous respect for young mothers. I don't think I've worked that hard since I was one! All the cooking, cleaning, dishes, nose and bum wiping, reading, laundry, sweeping, shopping, errand running, bathing, cuddling, rocking, and loving can wear a person out! We did a lot of box packing, too. But I loved every minute of it and treasure the memories made. Thank you, Mackrorys for letting me come and be part of one of the most special weeks of your life!

Time to check out and go home!

Baby Jacob all ready to go home

The Last Supper

It didn't take long for Jacob to find his thumb

Jacob's first bath (he loved it!)

The kids shooting rockets in the back yard

Jared and the kids made us fortune cookies

Bedtime story

This is one of my favorite pictures:

I love this one, too:

We asked Nathan to build us a temple with his blocks (trying to keep him busy while we packed) I think he made a marvelous temple:

Those stickers remind me of one of the sweetest memories of the week: For FHE, Jared gave each of the kids a page of those stickers and told them to put stickers on the things they wanted to move to the new house. He then asked them what they could take with them when we move to our new house in heaven someday. He then put stickers on all of us and said we can only take our families and that's all that's really important. It was such a sweet lesson and I felt the spirit so strong. Little Nathan sat right in the chair by me the whole time. I especially loved hearing those little ones sing "I Lived in Heaven" with all their might. They had sung it at FHE just one week before while still anticipating Jacob's arrival.

Welcome to earth, Baby Jacob! We are so glad to have you here!

Hinton Sibling Reunion, 2010

I took the shuttle home from the airport, went home and repacked for the Hinton Sibling Reunion in Pine Valley. The rest of the family was at Tuachan's "Crazy For You." Ken picked me up after the show and we headed for the Dixie cabin in Pine Valley. We had a great time with all eight Hinton siblings and their spouses. Mark and Lorene were in charge this year. We had lots of fun game show competitions including:

Fear Factor

Wizard

Minute to Win It

Kathy was amazing at getting the oreo from her forehead to her mouth with no hands!

and Singing Bee. We watched a movie, visited, reminisced, attended the temple, and ate great food. I came down with a cold and had to leave early, so felt bad to miss the end. As Jim and Leslie have their papers in to serve a mission, we'll see what next year brings. Thank you everyone for a great time.

Jacob Kenneth is Here!

Jacob Kenneth Mackrory made his appearance last evening, Tuesday, October 5 at 9:53pm. He was a whopping 9 lbs. 8 oz. and 21'' long. It was just a two hour labor (easy for me to say "just") and Mom and baby are doing well. He is grandchild # 5 for us: three boys and two girls. He tips the scales, so to speak, in the Hinton family. Always the girls have outnumbered the boys until Caleb's birth in January, when he evened the tally. Now, the boys outnumber the girls. That is a big switch to our original family of three daughters. We love him already! I leave early in the morning to fly to Wisconsin to meet this precious, little boy and help the family. They are moving into their new home next week, so this is a time of great transition for the Mackrory family. We thank Heavenly Father for Jacob's safe arrival!

Do You Love Me as Much as My Mommy Does?

This is the question my sweet granddaughter Brielle asked me one evening when I was putting her to bed when we were tending her last summer. She was crying, missing her mommy. There were only two times when she got sad during the week we had her, and this was one of them. Ahh. How would you answer that question?

I did what most moms and grandmas do in those situations, I prayed mightily that I would say just the right thing, and said, “No one loves you as much as your mommy does. Except Heavenly Father. And He loves you way more than your mommy. But no one loves you as much as your mom and dad. But Grandmas and Grandpas are the very next. We love you second most.” I then ran and got the phone and we called Mommy. “Brielle is feeling a little bit sad.” Within minutes, Mommy had said just the right things and Brielle was across the room playing happily, comforted in her Mommy’s love.

2010 is a red-letter year for me. As of this year, all of my daughters are mothers themselves, and now they all understand just how much I love them. Before you are a mommy yourself, you just don’t get it. I love to talk to my daughters and read their blogs and feel and see that mother love coming from them. It gives me a tiny glimpse of what Heavenly Father must feel as he lets us be parents.

September

We had a busy and fun September. September is always one of my favorite months as it seems it's a time of new beginnings and renewal for me. Here are some of the highlights of the month:

1) Labor Day barbecue with Don, Ada, Melanie, Tiffani, Rick and Samuel (forgot to take pictures)

2) Restarted voice lessons after summer break

3) Restarted Keynote rehearsals after summer break

4) Ken went on two Saturday day hikes

Melanie and Ken

Steve and Melanie

5) Bottled peaches and made peach jam

6) Attended seminar in Vegas (Ken did, I tagged along)

I went to the Vegas temple while Ken was in classes.

7) Choir sang twice in church

8) Still don't have Choir Christmas program or Keynote Christmas program written though my "to do" list nags me to do it every day.

9) Cleaned out under bathroom sink after months of nagging from my "to do" list

10) Attended temple (several times), book club, high priest social, Tabernacle program, wedding reception, and watched BYU win once and lose 3 times (4 if you count Oct. 1st)

11) Gave away lots and lots of peaches to family and neighbors and still have one shelf full in the fridge.

12) Talked, emailed, and skyped with kids

13) 14 trips to the gym- well, the pool- for me

14) too many to count walks and bike rides for Ken

We're looking forward to a great October when we will welcome a new grandson and I'm sure I'll get those programs written!