That's What Makes You Beautiful and The Daffodil Principle

We had our Relief Society birthday dinner this past week.  It was so nice, I always look forward to the inspiring messages, cute decorations (it is the Relief Society, after all), delicious food (can you say Sister Baird's lemon bars?!), and being with the sweet sisters.  I love the women of the Relief Society and am so grateful I get to be associated with them! 

We got a group of women together to perform our own version of "That's What Makes You Beautiful".  Watch out, here comes the next big girl band!  :)  Lol!  We had almost too much fun coming up with the lyrics, practicing and practicing the dance moves, and we even recorded it beforehand with professional equipment so we could be heard.  We joked we should've made a behind the scenes and a making of the performance video.  Anyways, here it is!  "What Makes You Beautiful" (Relief Society Edition)...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZUfEwvjo3s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The theme of the dinner was a daffodil theme, and this story was shared.  We got a copy of it along with a bulb.  It was such a good reminder to enjoy the journey now and that great things take a lot of work a little at a time.  It's a little long, but you will benefit by reading it!  :)

 

The Daffodil Principle
~~ Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards ~~

---

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday, "I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly and said, "We drive in this all the time, Mother."Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears, and then I'm heading for home!" I assured her.

"I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car." "How far will we have to drive?" "Just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."

After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!" "We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of the daffodils."

"Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read, "Daffodil Garden." We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns -- great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

There were five acres of flowers. "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster:

"Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" 50,000 bulbs. One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain. Began in 1958.

There it was...."The Daffodil Principle." For me, that moment was a life-changing experience.

I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun -- one bulb at a time -- to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time -- often just one baby-step at a time --and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world!

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!

"My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask....

"How can I put this to use today?"

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire.
The truth is there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with... and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting...
Until your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall
Until you die
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one's watching.
If you want to brighten someone's day, pass this on to someone special....

Irish fun, Ryerse style

We always love holidays around here (if you haven't been able to gather that already) and St. Patrick's Day is no exception.  Especially because we have Irish blood on both sides of the family, we try to incorporate that a bit.  I didn't take tons of pictures of our festivities, but I did take a few.

 

We had a playgroup based around the theme of St. Patrick's Day.  We did a gold coin hunt, made a green craft, ate green snacks, played sticker tag, and had a gold find.  Cal and Lucy had fun with their little friends at that!  Especially playing the games outside. 

 

At home, made green and rainbow discovery tubes that were really fun, the kids loved them, even though they were more for Lucy's age.  And we did some green shamrock collages, and hunts for gold/gold counting in the backyard. 

The kids (well, mostly Emma, Cal just wanted to run around the afternoon we did these) made a leprechaun trap the day before St. Patty's Day.  We have done this every year since Emma was three, and each year it just gets better!  Emma was planning for a while about how she would make it this year and hopefully catch one of those sneaky leprechauns!

 

Our neighbor Ayanna came over also and made a trap out of egg cartons, because she wanted to catch 24 of them!  It was so cute watching them paint and select their materials.  They made ladders and chutes and lured them with rainbows and colorful feathers. 

Emma made a trail of fake gold coins and had signs pointing the way up to the trap in bedroom by her bed, so she could hear it, she said.   The sign on the trap said (spelling adapted): "We are not trying to hurt your we are trying to help you.  Climb in the tunnel and bring your friends.  I will give you my pot of gold.  Love, Emma.  Trust me."  Dave and I laughed over this so hard!  So cute!  We especially loved the "Trust me!" part. 

On St. Patrick's Day, the kids were so excited to discover something, but they weren't quite sure what!  Emma wouldn't touch it!  She could see something at the bottom of the tunnel, and asked me to come get it.  What did we find at the bottom?  A pair of authentic (authentic meaning Mom made the night before out of felt) leprechaun shoes! The kids were delighted!  They were so close and caught a leprechaun, but it got away and his shoes fell off as he was trying to climb out of the tube. They also didn't mind the gold candy left behind either! 

Also, when we went downstairs, we noticed footprints that perfectly matched the shoe size of the leprechauns feet!  Emma was so happy she had the idea to leave the gold coin trail, because it worked!

Here are the mini shoes.  Emma was so excited, she snuck them in her church bag to show some friends that day and also took them to school the next day. 

Later that night, we had a green dinner - green salad, green broccoli, chicken alfredo & garlic bread with lots of parsely, green Italian sodas, and green shamrock cookies for dessert.  The leprechaun also made our milk in the fridge turn green.  Green food is a must for us on this holiday!

Here's an Irish blessing for you:

Wishing you the many wonderful things that an Irish blessing will bring. Happiness, joy, love, and laughter, may your day be content and may you smile happily ever after! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Girl, boy, girl....?

We found out Friday the gender of baby no. 4!  I don't like taking prego shots of myself, not beause I have low self-esteem or anything or think I'm ugly while pregnant, but I just hate taking pictures of myself.  So here's a picture, upon request of me at 18 1/2 weeks, the night before the ultrasound.  

The ultrasound went really well!  It was fun to see all of the little parts, like the fingers and toes and amazing to see the heart and the blood flow and the little bones.  Human life is such a miracle that didn't happen on accident and the way it works together is really a gift from God!  Lucy came along and sat on Dave's lap.  She was kind of confused but really good.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the ultrasound. 

Here's the profile shot.  What a swee face!  Dave and I both thought the nose and mouth and chin looked like Cal!

 

Baby opening mouth.  Looks like the little one is laughing almost!

 

 I like this one of the hand that the tech took.  Our baby is giving us the thumbs up!

 

Here's one of the face, the kids thought it was kind of creepy!

 

And, now, without furter ado, it's a BOY!

Yay!  We were kind of hoping for a boy, since we think Cal needs a brother and we wanted to even things out.  I think Dave was especially excited, so it's fun!

The kids have been discussing whether a boy or a girl for weeks and months now.  Emma's been rooting for a girl, and Cal has maintained the whole time "It's a boy.  I already know it is a boy", and Lucy just goes back and forth and says "boy" or "girl" and really has no idea what's happening.  To break the news to the kids, we decided to put some balloons in a bag, pink for girl or blue for boy, and have Daddy drop them from the loft.  We did this when Emma got home from school.  The were all happy.  Emma said "Cal, you got your wish!"  And Cal said "I knew he was a boy!"

We also had rice krispy treats in blue wrappers for after school snacks that said "It's a boy!" on them. 

We did a few other things to celebrate that night.  We got a blue snake toy, ate snail wrap for dinner, and did puppy puzzle and taught the kids the famous "Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of!" 

We are all very excited to welcome another little guy into our family and even things out!  Now, it's time to play the name game and come up with a name we can all agree on!

Daddy goes to Chicago and spring is coming!

Dave left us last week for a trip to Chicago for the ACHE (American College of Health Care Executives) conference.  It was nice for him to get away for a few days and do something else besides his graduate project!  Look at this night life downtown...

 

Dave had lots of delicious looking food while he was there.  Unfortuntely, the food wouldn't carry well home in his suitcase, so I just got the pictues he took and texted to me and got to salivate over them.  Especially the desserts...like the cheesecakes from the dessert bar he went to.  They had to have some authentic Chicago style pizza whie they were there.

Dave on the coast.  It was very rainy and cold the whole time he was there. So they didn't get out much.  Plus, this year, he volunteered when he wasn't in classes or listening to speaker or wokshops, so he was pretty busy.  He really liked the classes he took and the one-on-one career counseling session he had. His favorite speaker was a psychologist, and he really enjoyed his words. 

Dave roomed with Sam & Kevin, some fellow WSU Cougars in the HPA program and they had  good time together.  When I called at nights, they'd be teasing each other and laughing. 

We picked Daddy up at the airport late one night.  We made signs to put in the car, including this one Emma made to put on the steering wheel.  Dave loved it!  The kids wanted to trick him too, so we taped toilet paper from the inside of the door, so when he went through, he would have to go through the "finish line", as Emma said.  He was so glad to be back to us, and we were thrilled he made it home!  It's always so much happier when Daddy is home!

Whenever Dave travels somewhere, he brings hme a surprise for the kids.  They always know this now and highly anticipate wht he'll bring them.  This tim, he brought the girls light-up shamrock necklaces and Cal a light-up shamrock bow tie. They loved them and Cal refuses to take his off, even when he sleeps!

We had a pretty busy week here, I tried to keep it that way, so the kids wouldn't be sobbing and saying "I want Daddy!" like they usually do, especially at nights.  Success!  They said a few times they mised him but we didn't have any cry fests. 

We went to the Reptile Man show for Family Night at Emma's school.  It was pretty cool!  He brought all kinds of neat turtles, snakes, lizards, and even  Lucy the alligator.  After the show, he let some of the animals roam around and the kids could go pet them.  The kids loved it and couldn't stop talking about it!  They even got their picture with the alligator!

We've been going outside a lot, as it's been sunny and pretty nice, even broke 60 degrees a few days!  The kids think its summer and always rip off their jackets outside and ask to wear shorts and flip flops.  Silly!  It's not summer yet!  But that sunshine feels so nice!  We have looked at cloud shapes, played frisbee golf, did jump rope,dodge ball, and just ran around.

Lucy the dirt eater.

Cal the tree climber.

 

Emma the day dreamer.

We've been using our wierd holiday calendar lately, so that gives us something to do most days.  This day was national math and also cereal day.  So we played a math game together and made fruit loop necklaces.  Lucy ate hers off the string quickly!  Cal made a pattern of his two favorite colors - blue & green, and Emma made a more complicated pattern with all of the colors. 

Hehe, I love Em's face on this one.  We were singing and dancing to the Aquabats, I was trying to video her singing and movements, and this is when she realized she was being recorded!

Emma also had school pictures recently with her class.  She wanted to wear this cute floral skirt, flower scarf and hair flower Grandma Di made for her.  So cute!  She was also happy she got to stand on the top row!

We've also been continuing on with swimming lessons.  Cal passed off the introductory level and was moved to the next, Emma is repeating her class again so she can gain more confidence.  When we were getting ready the other day, Cal pulled out Daddy's huge swimsuit and put it on, running all over the house.  Haha!  He's always good for a laugh, that's for sure!  He decided to wear his swimsuit after all, because I told him what might happen if he swam in that...

The kids made a fort with the next door neighbors on the porch the other day.  It was raining, so they made it to keep them dry.  They were having so much fun and even let Cal & Lucy join in the fun (they usually do a great job including them too).

We played in the mud one day and marked up our faces.  Cal said "I'm Grandma Sue's mascot!" and "I like being Grandma Sue's mascot!"  Where he got that, no idea!

So not too many hair raising experieces with Dad being away.  Seems like things are a little more stressful when Daddy's gone, but we survived!  Unfortunately, we still don't get to see him a ton, since he's working so hard and so much on his graduate project.  Only a few more weeks until that baby will be history, and I can't wait for that!

Check out this hair raising experience...woa!  That's what Lucy's hair looked like one night after we took the pony tails out.  Crazy!

Also, I had to share this.  Lucy has started saying this lately, when she is trying to do something, or get something that is stuck: "Come on baby, you can do this!"  It is so cute and fun the way she says it.  I love it!

I am what I am, I meant what I meant...

Every year at the beginning of March, we really like to play so we have a Suess Day!  This year, we made Suessimon Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I put characters on toothpicks in them.  The kids liked picking out which character they wanted.  Emma also wore her Lorax shirt for the occasion. 

Then we did a Dr. Suess themed preschool over at our house.  The kids loved making little crafts, reading Dr. Suess books, fishing and learning about magnets (think 1 Fish, 2 Fish), singing songs and doing activities that went along with the Dr. Suess books.  I am impressed how all of the kids sat for so long and giggled in delight at the sometimes long Dr. Suess books.  I was planning on just reading portions, but they loved it so much I kept going and they asked for more.  Dr. Suess has really done so much for literacy and that's why we always honor him on this day. 

After school, we took the Readers Oath, read tons of Dr. Suess books, including 4 new ones from the library we've never read, played the thimble game Suess style, made Thing 1 and Thing 2 crafts.  On the menu for dinner: green eggs and ham casserole, Grinch Spinach salad, butter battle bread, and pink ink.  And for dessert,. the kids made Cat in the Hat kabobs out of half an oreo, half a marshmallow, and cut up bananas and strawberries.  Finally, we finished off the night watching a few Suess videos on YouTube, and then we made some Oobleck out of cornstarch and water.  The kids love, loved that!  It was fun to play with and was pretty darn messy, but worth it!

My favorite Dr. Suess book is Horton Hatches a Who.  I love Horton's determiniation even when times got rough.  "I am what I am, I meant what I meant, an elephants faithful 100 percent!"  And in the end, it all paid off and Horton was happy 100 percent.  I've always loved Horton and his message and hope I can be true like he was until the end, so I too can be happy 100 percent. 

Wrapping up Winter...

And, that's a wrap!  Winter's getting close to over, which makes us all anxious for warmer weather.  Here's a look at what the Ryerse's have been up to these past few months.

We all got somekind of sickness during this cold and flu season at least once.  It was sad to see the kids so sick, but then that much better when they were feeling better!  Like to see Lucy smile and play again after being better, so great!

Em lost another tooth and has 3 more wiggly ones.  She kinda freaks out when they get wiggly and she will wobble them but is afraid for them to fall out. 

We started back up with preschool in January.  I've taught 4 times since then.  Are these kids not so cute?  We have so much fun and do a little learning, too!

 

The kids went to a fun birthday for their friend, Lily.  She is so cute and the party was a Puppy theme, which was just as cute!  The kids had a great time!

 

We got a gym membership to the YMCA, which has been awesome!  We've been working out in the gym, going swimming, and attending classes.  And the kids like to go to the Child Watch there.  When we can't make it, we exercise at home.  Cal loves to work out with Mom!



 I finally conned the kids into watching Cool Runnings, one of my faves.  Since, they've been having fun pretending they are bobsledders. 

Lucy is quite the mischief maker now and definately has a mind and a will of her own!  She is also saying such funny things.  Like "Look, it's Mommy!" when she saw this physiology book.  Compare that to when we pulled out Sleeping Beauty and she insisted that Daddy was the Prince.  :)

Lucy loves her sheet, and has been getting into my underwear drawer lately, and loves getting my slips or other under clothing to put on around her, over her head, through any limb she can.  Silly girl!

Lucy has been getting into everything lately - the vaseline, makeup, electrical sockets, dumping water out and mixing foods and drinks on the table, getting all of the toys out and not putting them away.  It's been fun, NOT!  :)  But it's all a part of learning and growing up I guess. 
                                  

Emma's been working hard at home and school.  She's such a great girl and is so good at her school work, practicing, and helping around the house (once she finally stops complaining that she's the only one who has to do chores and practice)...

Emma was even Star of the Week at school, which was pretty cool for her!

We've been doing lots of activities to try to keep the kids from going stir crazy!  One day, we had Popcorn & Puzzles Day.  We did tons of puzzles, made our own puzzle using photos the kids picked from the computer, printing them out on heavy paper and cutting them out into puzzles.   We also made some popcorn, talked about the science of popcorn a little bit, and did the popcorn dance.  One day, we did our own Zoo.  We had some friends, the Whitings, over that day, and we made tickets, set up the animal exhibits, took care of the animals, took each other on tours, fed the animals, etc.  The kiddos loved that!  We've done lots of other fun things to keep these busy ones busy.  One day, we did potato prints.  Lucy decided to eat the paint...

We've been enjoying the snow while we can, and have had a lot of it, especially in January!  We had a snowman day and went outside to make snowmen and we made our family.  Then we came inside and sang the snowman song, had snowman bagels for lunch, and hot chocolate and snuggled up to read some good books and play inside. 

 

We had tons of fun sledding in what we call the sand dunes behind our house.  It was a blast!  The kids discovered their snowpants worked better than sleds, and so they just slid down on their bums.  It was cute!  Emma also made a cool snow cave with her friends in the backyard.  Here she is popping out of it.  

 

Outside it may be cold, but inside it's been toasty!  Sometimes it gets hot in here with our wood stove burning!  Sizzling...some days its been up to 90 in here!  



                                      
                                     
Cute Cal!  He's so tender and has been loving snuggling lately with me.  It's so cute and I will take his snuggles while I can. 
                                      

 

Besides snuggling, Cal has been way into gaming lately - games on my phone and on the computer.  He loves Angry Birds and a motorcycle game, PBS Kids, Kidzui and some preschool learning games we have.  He also loves animals and is very sensitive to animals and loves reading about them.  This dog is from a friend of ours, they just got a new weiner dog puppy!  He loved it and was delighted to play with it!

 

Besides preschool, snuggling, playing games, animals, Cal enjoys playdates and going to the library.  Here he is at a ward playdate when we had a big playdate in the gym complete with a huge blow up bouncy toy.   

In February, the kids started swimming lessons.  This was their first time, and they loved it!  Cal was fearless and did really well, passing his class!  He had a hard time staying on the wall sometimes though, because he just wanted to swim on his own.  Emma did really well too, but we're going to put her in the introductory course again because she wanted her teacher to help her every time.  So she needs to gain a little more confidence.  They smiled and loved every minute and can't wait to do more!

 

 

Emma and Cal are like little best friends and it's so cute!  I love seeing what they come up with on their own to do and listening to the little conversations they have.  One day, we were cracking open a coconut.  They loved smashing it to try to open it and talked about the coconut bombs from Swiss Family Robinson.  "I hate coconut bombs!" Cal said.  Emma just laughed. 

Dancing with my stars...they just started dancing together one night, doing all kinds of fancy moves!

As for me, I've been doing pretty well.  I've been feeling really good, and am now 16 1/2 weeks.  And the headaches are going away now, yay! 

 

 

Besides cooking, cleaning, playing with the kids and keeping up with everything, I've been trying hard to catch up on family scrapbooks. I finished Lucy's baby book, finally, and 2010.  Now I'm working on 2011 old school scrappy style, and I've been doing 2012 digitally.  I'm trying to do one page a day and I've been doing pretty well sticking to that and hopefully I'll catch up pretty soon!  ;)  Right....

 

Also been working on some fun sewing projects and started making the girls' Easter dresses.  It's early this year, you know!  I like sewing, when my sewing machine isn't being wierd, it's been having some problems lately and it's getting frustrating.  

I've also been into the wreath making thing lately.  I made three wreaths.  One for Christmas I never got to in December made out of starlight mints, a felt ruffle heart wreath for Valentine's Day, and a scrap fabric wreath for our bedroom that matches the quilt on our bed.  Love me some late night or nap time crafting, it's pretty therapuetic and quiet time for me. 

And Dave has been busy working on his graduate project almost 24/7.  This is where you'll likely find him if you come over to our house.  Or at the school at the library.  His topic has been changed several times and he's worked on several projects, so it's been very stressful for him because his committee says they love something, he does it and they then decide they want to change directions after he's devoted tons of time.  For a while, he didn't sleep much, hardly ate anything, and was having panic attacks because he was getting so stressed.  But he's doing a great job and pushing through with a happy attitude and is getting so close!  He's comparing magnet hospitals vs. regular hospitals and their rankings and ratings.  He had a lot of data to compile, math to do, statistics, and then interpreting the data and researching the topic.  I'm so proud of him, less than 2 months left of this, which is crazy!  He also has been applying for jobs a little, he was devoting lots of time to that in January but now is side tracked getting this project done on time.  So soon he will hit the job hunt hard again.  He got one job offer, but it wasn't really wanted to do, so we'll keep on looking!